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Questions on the Nature of Backstabbery

MoczoMoczo Member Posts: 236
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
So, I was thief-maging with my thief-mage, and tried to backstab someone with the Staff of the Magi. It didn't work, which surprised me to no end. I was under the impression all staves could backstab, but apparently it's only some.

And this made me wonder: Is there, or could someone make, a list of weapons which are suitable for backstabbing? Because I like me some backstabbing, and such a list would be nice for future thieving endeavors.

Comments

  • kryptixkryptix Member Posts: 741
    Any weapon a normal thief can use without UAI can be used to backstab. Staff of the magi is Mage only.
  • TwoWayFinesseTwoWayFinesse Member Posts: 128
    in theory any weapon a thief can use is ok to backstab, but because the Staff of Magi is only usable by Mages, not thieves, it is considered unsuitable for backstab.
    Mind you if it was, it would be the biggest OP item in the game - if not already!
  • EudaemoniumEudaemonium Member Posts: 3,199
    Any weapon that is usable by a single-class thief can be used to backstab, regardless of what type of weapon it is. This is why weapons such as the Staff of the Magi and the Scarlet Ninja-to cannot backstab, even though they belong to weapon classes that are usually able to (they are restricted to mages and monks, respectively).
  • MoczoMoczo Member Posts: 236
    Aaaaaaaaaaaah. Okay, that makes sense. ... ... Can't believe I never picked up on that before.
  • KidCarnivalKidCarnival Member Posts: 3,747
    If you want to backstab with a staff, it needs to be a regular quarterstaff (i.e. Staff of Rynn). I was confused at first too, when I tried to backstab with another mage-only staff (from a mod, but also restricted to mages/sorcerers).
  • EudaemoniumEudaemonium Member Posts: 3,199
    This also works the other way, btw. So if you use an editor like NI or DLTCEP to make a weapon normally usable by single-class thieves then you will be able to backstab with it, no matter what the weapon itself is. I tried this out with the Ravager. It was, well, the instant death effect was nasty. Otherwise it was probably weaker than the Staff of the Ram, to be honest.
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    edited January 2014
    Mage/Thieves can exploit of Mislead to backstab, when your Mislead Image is alive, you'll be completely invisible, and attacking/casting spells/backstabbing won't break the invisibility, this haven't been fixed in the Enhanced Edition and as Mislead has a long duration AND you can cast Improved Invisibility over the Mislead Image and a Spell Immunity: Divination over you, you can't be seen and you have unlimited backstabs. This tactic works pretty well if you are a Fighter/Thief with UAI and you use a scroll of Mislead, since you have higher APR and thus you inflict damage faster, not to mention that when invisible you have a +4 to THAC0.
    The best way to backstab is with the Staff of the Ram+6, and a Mislead active, make your clone run away and get safe and done :)
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