Some question about thievery and backstab question

Helmino

Heya guys, like the title of the topic says, i have some questions for you all, and i hope to get some answer and discuss some things in this topic (and i ask you all sorry in advance for my bad english xD).
First off i have a question regarding backstabs, and i want to point out that isn't a feature request but only a curiosity.
What i want to do is a complete run of the saga when BG2ee comes out, and thievery is my favourite approaching to the game from all prospective, from role play to combat; actually when i think about end of SoA and ToB, i think that of course thief cannot backstab a lot of enemy, and they rely on traps for the major of combat.
That is fine because is a group orientd game but now i'm playing Pathfinder system since it's release and in that ruleset thief can backstabs (sneak attack :P) a lot more.
That for sure is different rule balance and i don't want to ask about "let the thief backstab all", but i want to know if in the game this can be modded (i have some idea, one is 2 HLA, the first is Find Weakness - thief can backstab all backstabs immune enemy for 1/2 dmg, and the second is Improved Find Weakness, thief can backstab even better the enemy immune to backstabs for 3/4 dmg for example).
Is not a feature request, i simply want to know if this can be modded, maybe @Dee have the answer .
The second question is, if i want to play a thief anyway to the end of tob, to be really useful in combat i have to set up traps right? prolly bounty hunter is the right choice?
Last questions are, in advanced d&d ruleset you can dual class a normal classe/ kit class? (want to know if for rule is legit or no), second one is if with this patch even non human race can dual class, and of course if is advanced rule-legal.
Thanks all in advance, sorry for my bad english again, hope to get some answers, i really appreciate if @Dee can atleast see this post (i really appreciate your post about shadowdancer backstab modding, that for me means you and the staff really care about us even for small things ).

Madhax

I can't comment on whether modding the game to make more enemies susceptible to backstabs would be possible, though my uneducated guess would be that it wouldn't be easy. A lot of this game relies on old code, much of which is "hardcoded", which I've been lead to believe essentially makes it impossible to change. I don't know much about that, though.

Regarding an endgame thief: That's one way to make them effective, yes. But it's far from the only way. A Swashbuckler, for example, would be a solid frontline warrior by the end of the game. An Assassin still has Poison Weapon, which is really good with a fast bow. And with Use Any Item, a thief has all sorts of cool tricks to pull in ToB.

Helmino

Madhax said:

I can't comment on whether modding the game to make more enemies susceptible to backstabs would be possible, though my uneducated guess would be that it wouldn't be easy. A lot of this game relies on old code, much of which is "hardcoded", which I've been lead to believe essentially makes it impossible to change. I don't know much about that, though.

Regarding an endgame thief: That's one way to make them effective, yes. But it's far from the only way. A Swashbuckler, for example, would be a solid frontline warrior by the end of the game. An Assassin still has Poison Weapon, which is really good with a fast bow. And with Use Any Item, a thief has all sorts of cool tricks to pull in ToB.

First of thanks for the answers, can you share some tips for assassins or shadowdancers in later game? Maybe dual at 8 or 13 a warrior could lead them to be more effective? (but i lost a big portin of the game taht can't be backstabbed this way )

Madhax

Unfortunately, I have not played the late game with either kit, so I can't give you specifics for those.

I've beaten the game with a fighter/thief multiclass, and simply used thief abilities when the opponent was backstab-able and fighter abilities when it wasn't. And the character was always great to scout ahead, which allowed me RP justification for pre-buffing and getting perfectly set up for challenging encounters.

Corvino

I'm completely with @Madhax on this. A Fighter/Thief multi is a lot closer to modern implementations of thieves. You can get all the thief utility when you need it, and stab someone in the face when you can't backstab.

Cowled_wizard

The biggest problem endgame thieves have is a very poor thaco and low apr (attacks per round) . As long as you can do something about it (missile weapons can give you really high bonus) and weapons with +apr then its not too bad.

Backstabing in tob has 2 problems: inmunity and thaco. A single class assasin might have such a poor thaco that even with bonus str, +6 weapon , etc, he can still fail the backstab. A fighter - thief on the other hand doesnt have this problem (dual or multi)
I particularly like multi fighter-thief so i can whirlwind and assasinate. Although if you are dual wielding whirlwind isnt as important.
Bounty hunter traps are interesting, but HLA spike trap is so overpowered it can win any combat by itself. I dont recommend it.

Cheese i like: Fighter-thief multi and use shadowkeeper to put assassin kit, very powerfull and absolutly overpowered with katanas and staffs. I use shortsword as main weapon to compensate.

Helmino

Cowled_wizard said:

The biggest problem endgame thieves have is a very poor thaco and low apr (attacks per round) . As long as you can do something about it (missile weapons can give you really high bonus) and weapons with +apr then its not too bad.

Backstabing in tob has 2 problems: inmunity and thaco. A single class assasin might have such a poor thaco that even with bonus str, +6 weapon , etc, he can still fail the backstab. A fighter - thief on the other hand doesnt have this problem (dual or multi)
I particularly like multi fighter-thief so i can whirlwind and assasinate. Although if you are dual wielding whirlwind isnt as important.
Bounty hunter traps are interesting, but HLA spike trap is so overpowered it can win any combat by itself. I dont recommend it.

Cheese i like: Fighter-thief multi and use shadowkeeper to put assassin kit, very powerfull and absolutly overpowered with katanas and staffs. I use shortsword as main weapon to compensate.

Thanks for your answer, so an assassin that can set up some trap can be strong late game too? And poison arrow? it fall off late game?

Helmino

No one guys can offer some/help answer?