Is playing as an assassin really worth it?

xLegionx

Hi guys, I was just wondering. I'm currently playing an assassin on bg and while the poison effect and extra atk is nice is it really worth it for making a "powerful character" I mean if I want to be like the most powerful party member? Is there any particular way to play as an assassin? Or should I probably just roll something else instead?

Thanks for the advice!

KidCarnival

To me, it's worth it, but thieves don't hold up well in late game when it comes to "most powerful party member". In BG2, backstab immunity is more common, and there are way more undead that can't be poisoned. You could enjoy the assassin as long as you find it fun and then dual to cleric or mage (depending on your stats). Assassin/Mage does much better in BG2, when magic is a bigger deal than in BG1.

Skaffen

Either stick to it or dual to mage in BG2 if you have the int. Poison weapon works through Melfs Minute Meteors, awesome combo. Put points in Traps and Locks and not stealth and use invi instead, then you have max flexibility in BG2 and don't need another thief if you don't want to.

xLegionx

Damn my int is 14. Anyone know where to find tomes of intellect?

Skaffen

There is onky one in the city in one of the mage towers afair.

Musigny

What about playing a Fighter/Thief instead ? A better assassin than the assassin kit itself.
Moreover it can keep improving till the end of the game whereas the mono class thief stops progressing at some point (long before the end of the game - even with a 6 member team).

smeagolheart

Musigny said:

What about playing a Fighter/Thief instead ? A better assassin than the assassin kit itself.
Moreover it can keep improving till the end of the game whereas the mono class thief stops progressing at some point (long before the end of the game - even with a 6 member team).

I'm a big fan of multiclassed fighter thieves. Prefer them to dual classed.

DregothofTyr

Don't worry about being the most powerful party member, I mean how would you even measure that anyway? You're a thief, and being able to bypass traps and locks, along with your backstab and poison means that you have a lot of value that a fighter, who is only good at killing, does not. Assassins are a really cool and flavorful class. Make sure to use your backstab and your poison as much as you can. You don't need to dual into a mage; just have another mage cast improved invisibility or whatever spell you need. Baldur's Gate is a game about a party, not just one person. Are you having fun playing the assassin?

mumumomo

Assassins are great because of poison weapon which is the ultimate mage killer for the whole game.

In BG1, you will be the most powerful character of your party.
However in BG2, you will not be the ultimate killer anymore but will remain very useful (thieving skills, traps, backstab, poison). If you really want to remain very powerful, i would dual to mage or fighter.

Something like assassin 11/fighter x.

Assassin 11 gives you :
- 3 use of poison weapon and 3 poison traps
- x4 backstab
- 190 thieving points : enough to get 100 in find traps and set snare.

You will get to assassin 11 during the course of chateau irenicus
You will get to fighter 12/mage 12 around 1M xp.

Dualing with mage gives you the MMM/poison weapon combo but given your crappy thaco i am not sure it will remain very useful in the late game. It's why i prefer to dual to fighter.

Dualing to fighter gives you :
- grand mastery => +4/+6 to hit/damage thanks to the assassin bonus
- 5 attack/round using 1 speed weapon (2 from dual wield + 1 from fighter 13 + 1 from grand mastery + 1 from speed weapon) -> as much as MMM
- 10 attacks/round using improve haste or whirlwind -> use a bow an poison everything on the screen

You can use rings to get invisibility and do some backstabs

Musigny

smeagolheart said:

Musigny said:

What about playing a Fighter/Thief instead ? A better assassin than the assassin kit itself.
Moreover it can keep improving till the end of the game whereas the mono class thief stops progressing at some point (long before the end of the game - even with a 6 member team).

I'm a big fan of multiclassed fighter thieves. Prefer them to dual classed.

Yeah !
My all-time favourite charname is a fighter/thief elf.

mumumomo

Regarding fighter thieves VS assassin.
I think the two classes cannot be compared easily as their role is quite different.

The assassin unique feature is not the backstab x7, it is poison weapon which is one of the best ability in the game, especially against casters (bypass mirror image, stoneskins and prevents casting).

So, while the F/T is a powerhouse against physical opponents, the assassin is IMO much more useful against mages.

If you really want to compare the FT to a thief kit, it should be to a swashbuckler.
And the result is more or less a tie (FT getting backstab while swashbuckler get huge AC and damage bonus) ans swashbuckler also keep improving for the whole game.