Shadowdancer hide in shadows/hide in plain sight discussion

kamuizin

So i have an issue, how does hide in shadows/hide in plain sight works?

From experience i can say that where i try to hide in shadows change the chance of sucess, at least in BG every time i try to hide in shadows under a shadow spot (of a tree or another object) my chances highly increases.

So how hide in shadows work? Every detail of it would be appreciated.

Also, about hide in plain sight, does it induce an penality on my % of hide in shadows and move silently when i try to do it with enemies that can see me around? How much penality is imputed?





Atm i have an project of a chaotic evil female shadowdancer (13)/cleric going on (with 18 in dex at character creation), it's just level 9 atm (in BG:EE) so i wish to know my limits to use my thief skill distribution perfectly.

For example i have 85% in pick pocket and lock picks with dex 19 atm, and i know i can go for 21 dex with machine of the lum and wish in BG2, which means 95% to both skills, plus +3 temporary bonus point for every time i use DuHM, so i already have 110% guaranteed (which means i wasted 20% points in fact).

I also have 55% hide in shadows and move silently with dex 19 atm, which means i can get +5% with dex 20 (+3%) and 21 (+2%) which gives me 60%. Shadow armor (+15% hide in shadows) and boots of stealth (+15% Hide in Shadows and +20% Move silently) get me an sum of 75% Move Silently and 85% Hide in shadows, gonna be 80%/90% when i get dex to 21 and DuHM will solve any issue to this attribute, BUT:

Does Hide in plain sight have any penality to the attempt? Cos i intent to use level 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 thief points to raise 100% of detect illusions. Should i spend more points in hide in shadows/move silently? That's my main personal issue.

Gotural

Hiding in plain sight doesn't seem to occur any penalties. As far as I know, being in sunlight halves your chance of success and that's it. So with 200% in both Move Silently and Hide in Shadows you have a 99% chance (1% of critical failure) of hiding in plain sight while exposed to direct sunlight.

lunar

If you want to hide in plain sight with more accuracy, put points into hide/ms skills. With your current set up you should do okay in darkened, shadowy areas while attempting to HiPS, however as the poster above said bright light greatly reduces your chances to do so. Therefore, you need more skill points to HiPS more reliably in well lit areas.

Detect illusions is a nice utility skill for pure thieves to have, however you will get true sight as a cleric and thus the need for detect illusions thief skill is debatable. Unless you run scs mod and have enemies that cast si:divination to protect their illusions. In that case detect illusions skill will work while true sight spell won't.

I would reccomend you not to dual at 13, getting a cleric to lvl 14 is ridiculously difficult. They get their first lvl 7 spell at that level so the exp requirement is quite high. Also clerics can not easily hoard xp by writing scrolls like mage duals can do.

Shadowdancer/cleric is a very unique combo, you can do cool stuff like go HiPS, cast Slay Living while hiding and assasinate an enemy instantly. Or beef up with holy might/power/draw upon power etc. for an extremely lethal backsmack with a club or staff.

kamuizin

lunar said:

If you want to hide in plain sight with more accuracy, put points into hide/ms skills. With your current set up you should do okay in darkened, shadowy areas while attempting to HiPS, however as the poster above said bright light greatly reduces your chances to do so. Therefore, you need more skill points to HiPS more reliably in well lit areas.

Detect illusions is a nice utility skill for pure thieves to have, however you will get true sight as a cleric and thus the need for detect illusions thief skill is debatable. Unless you run scs mod and have enemies that cast si:divination to protect their illusions. In that case detect illusions skill will work while true sight spell won't.

I would reccomend you not to dual at 13, getting a cleric to lvl 14 is ridiculously difficult. They get their first lvl 7 spell at that level so the exp requirement is quite high. Also clerics can not easily hoard xp by writing scrolls like mage duals can do.

Shadowdancer/cleric is a very unique combo, you can do cool stuff like go HiPS, cast Slay Living while hiding and assasinate an enemy instantly. Or beef up with holy might/power/draw upon power etc. for an extremely lethal backsmack with a club or staff.

There's no problem, about the dual level as i'm doing everything i can in BG, which means i will probally end BG:EE at level 11 (maybe even 12, who knows?). I will dual early in the game and i will have hexxat anyway.


About the true sight subject, yes, that have been outside my mind, which means i don't need detect illusion at all. Pick locks and detect traps are in the right spot in terms of points.

jemy000

Your stealth success rate is the average of HS and MS. This number is halved in daylight, and cut by 2/3s indoors. I'm not sure if standing in a shadow on the map actually affects those odds, but I think it's unlikely just considering how difficult it would be to code such a rule. Imo you should forget about detect illusions and get stealth to at least 150 to (almost) always succeed indoors.

JuliusBorisov

Standing in a shadow on the map actually affects those odds.

supposedly

bengoshi said:

Standing in a shadow on the map actually affects those odds.

Is it when your feet stand in darkened areas, or when your character is visibly darkened by a shadow?

JuliusBorisov

@supposedly‌

Your chances are not decreased when your character is visibly darkened. I like to play a stealthy character and my usual activity in BG1 is running from one shadow to another on each area so that hiding is more successful.