How exactly do I back stab?

Irish437

Do I need to hide in shadows first? Or simply be behind the enemy. It seems as though my thief rarely if ever gets the back stabbing bonus.

Wisp

It's a backstab when
a) you are behind the enemy,
b) you are invisible (by hiding, spell, potion, whatever),
c) the enemy can't see through invisibility,
d) the enemy is not immune to backstabs and
e) you are using a main-hand weapon usable by single-class thieves without UAI.

Edit: the Assassination HLA voids conditions a, b and c.

elminster

You have to click on the hide in shadow button. Then go behind a target and attack them. Alternatively you can use the spell invisibility or improved invisibility to hide your character and attack to gain backstab damage.

At lower levels you may not hit the enemy however before you come out of being hidden.

the_spyder

I actually get most of my backstabs at low level. But you definitely have to plan them.

Try using your thief as a scout. When you see an enemy grouping, keep your party out of site range while your thief sneaks behind enemy lines and right up behind the guy wearing the robes (always the easiest target at low levels and most of the time the worst opponent). As indicated above, make sure that you are invisible or hiding in shadows. Make sure that you line up so that your thief is directly behind the guy (or gal). When you are ready to attack, have the thief strike first. Chances are, the wizard will go down and thus agro the rest of the group. Be prepared to either (a) have the rest of your party rush in or (b) have your thief high-tail it out of there (usually a combination of both).

Also as indicated above, some enemies are immune to backstab. Some spells like Mirror Image or stone skin will also foil the attack. And forget attacking undead with a backstab. I 'Think' they also have to be humanoid (though I could be wrong on that) so it probably won't work on things like basilisks or wyvern.

Another tactic I use (usually indoors) is to have my thief hide while my fighter opens the door. If something agros on site and charges my fighter, he drops back so that the enemy lines himself up for the thief's backstab. Works great on trolls in D'arsen's keep among other places.

chuukogu

If I get this right... backstabbers have a hard time hitting things because of thac0. One would think that an assassin is a master in backstabbing, not merely decent. My low level assassin is lucky to hit anyone with a dagger. Should have gone with fighter/thief, oh well.

Anyway, regardless of game, backstabbing as an idea is awesome in so many ways.

elminster

chuukogu said:

If I get this right... backstabbers have a hard time hitting things because of thac0. One would think that an assassin is a master in backstabbing, not merely decent. My low level assassin is lucky to hit anyone with a dagger. Should have gone with fighter/thief, oh well.

Anyway, regardless of game, backstabbing as an idea is awesome in so many ways.

You get a -4 thac0 bonus for attacking from stealth. So it still is possible to miss an enemy of course but chances are you are better off attacking initially from stealth regardless of whether or not its a backstab.

the_spyder

The trick with hitting while backstabbing at low levels (or at any level at all) is to strike at something you have a decent chance to hit anyway. That pretty much means wizards. If you are trying to backstab the fighters, you are going to miss quite a lot of the time. Since you only get really one shot (unless you run away and hide in the middle of combat = cheese IMHO), you really need to target the worst AC opponent you can. Sure, your level 1 thief is going to miss more times than he hits, but when he does hit, it will be ever so sweet. And by level 5, you should be hitting wizards pretty regularly.

Plus it is always funny when you strike a wizard dead in one hit and then watch as his contingencies go off, turning his corpse into a stone corpse with multiple images.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.