A few questions

drickter

Hello, I have a few questions and if someone could help me it would be great:).

1. I rejected garric to join my party, so there is no chance to meet him again, right ?

2. What would you recommend as assasin weapon ? Currently I have +1 to daggers and short swords, but I can't decide to use single weapon or dual-wield, or maybe it's better to use long swords ?

3. Is there any possibility to hide in shadows when I see my enemy ? I need to load game each time I want to assasinate someone because I can't stay in shadows forever.

Eudaemonium

1. No. If you rejected him he is gone forever (but don't worry, its only Garrick, but bear this in mind for future characters.)

2. IN BG1, daggers are good due to the excellent Dagger of Venom, but shortswords and longswords are more damaging. The actual most-powerful weapon for backstabbing is the quarterstaff, strangely, but it looks a bit weird smashing someone's back with a poison-doused log. Daggers are a bit weak in BG2, but by then you will have proficiency points in other weapons. Also, as for fighting style, you can only put 1 pip in a style with a pure rogue kit, so my advice would be single weapon for the extra AC and chance to crit.

Also, bear in mind that poison weapon works with ranged weapons. A shortbow or crossbow pip somewhere wouldn't therefore go amiss.

3. Only the Shadowdancer can hide while observed, for the Assassin you either need to do it beforehand, or run out of sight (say, behind a corner in a dungeon) and stealth there. The boots of speed you get later help immensely with this. Alternatively, you can rely on potions and spells of invisibility, which you'll have plenty of later.

drickter

Thanks for answers. I'll keep asking questions in this thread if I'll have any, so...

Can someone tell how I can hire xan to my team ? I found him at nashkel mines, but no matter what I do he tells me that battle is lost and leaves, I have 7 rep - is it related to that ?

Madhax

If your rep and charisma are sufficiently low, you'll have a bad reaction adjustment and will have difficulty recruiting party members. I think you're able to still use a more charismatic party member to do the initial conversation, but once this has happened, he's gone for good.

AstroBryGuy

Short swords and daggers are excellent for assassins. An assassin's best attack is the backstab. Although daggers and short swords do less base damage than long swords, 1) they are faster (better chance to get your backstab attempt done before the target turns around), 2) you can get a +3 short sword (same average damage as a +2 long sword and +1 better to hit) and the dagger of venom (backstab the mage, get back around the corner and let the poison do its work).

KidCarnival

Garrick isn't a loss. He has Short Sword prof too. Without him, all the good swords are belong to you.

For an assassin, I'd recommend a ranged weapon - darts are especially nasty, but you also can't go wrong with any of the bows. I personally prefer Shortbow, but that's a matter of taste.

For backstabs, there is nothing better than stacking your kit poison with the Dagger of Venom. It makes more sense than a poisoned Quarterstaff.

Would be easier to help if you could tell us the NPCs you currently have, and your alignment. (7 rep and trying to recruit Garrick and Xan sounds like a evil-leaning neutral party?) If you don't have anyone with higher charisma, have your arcane caster learn the level 1 spell Friendship. It will do any evil/low rep party a good service for better shop prices and NPC reactions.

drickter

Thanks again for answers guys . Eventually I managed join xan to my party.
I have 2 things that I need help with:

1) How much should I invest to hide in shadows and to silent walk ? What is the peak in BG1 and BG2 ?
2) I know I'm still in BG1 but... Is assasin good enough in BG2 ? I feel pretty weak in comparison to Dorn who sometimes hits normal hits as my triple backstabs and my character misses so much that it's getting frustrating :P. I have optimal stats for elf assasin
STR 18
DEX 19
CON 17
Thanks in advance!

Elendar

drickter said:

Thanks again for answers guys . Eventually I managed join xan to my party.
I have 2 things that I need help with:

1) How much should I invest to hide in shadows and to silent walk ? What is the peak in BG1 and BG2 ?
2) I know I'm still in BG1 but... Is assasin good enough in BG2 ? I feel pretty weak in comparison to Dorn who sometimes hits normal hits as my triple backstabs and my character misses so much that it's getting frustrating :P. I have optimal stats for elf assasin
STR 18
DEX 19
CON 17
Thanks in advance!

Well, the assassin eventually gets a x7 backstab modifier, so your damage should be pretty high when you're able to backstab. The only real issue with the assassin in BG2 (especially in ToB) is that you start running across monsters that are immune to backstab. But, since you're running with a party, I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as you're having fun with it.

Eudaemonium

Once you get the Strength tome and boost to 19 Str you'll be much better: 19 is a massive boost over 18 (it gives you +3 THAC0 and +7 damage, as opposed to whatever 18 is, like +1, +2 I think.) Dorn is a Fighter-type and already has 19 Str, so he's going to hit like a big sexy truck. Assassins are good, though. they get Poison Weapon, which is very nice, a x7 backstab and once you reach ToB they get Thief HLAs like the godly Spike Trap and Use Any Item, which allow you to use some broken combinations of equipment.

The stealth stats cap at 255 each, but you don't need to get anywhere near that. From what I recall, your chance to stealth is calculated between he two stats, so pumping one really high is equivalent to upping them both moderately. Basically your chance to stealth is your score - whatever penalties you are under (like being outside in the sunshine, which gives you something like -40% chance to stealth). If you get both to 100 you'll probably be more than fine, especially with added little bonuses like the boots of stealth or elvenkind, cloak of elvenkind, shadow armour, etc.

Silverstar

I did over 7K damage backstab with an assassin in SoA. Was using Daystar and got a critical against that douchey male vampire you run across in some of the nightly random encounters though. Still, pretty sweet backstab that one!