Skip to content

Assassin as Scout?

2»

Comments

  • IgnatiusIgnatius Member Posts: 624


    No it's not, you can backstab from Invisibility, but not from Sanctuary, though you can Find Traps with Sanctuary on (same for Invisibility) and it can be used to help you escape from melee so that you can Stealth again to backstab.

    Can't backstab out of Sanctuary, really? I never knew. Is that intended? spell descritpion mentions ... causes his opponents to ignore his existence, as if he were invisble.

    Sorry for my misleading answer @Nem.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    edited November 2012
    Nem said:

    Would a cloak or spell of non-detection replace the move silently skill?

    My options seems to be go full thief and spread my skills evenly between traps, hide, and move silently. Go thief/mage and use invisibility instead of hide/move silently (I've been reading that hide becomes better than invisibility in BG2, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do here yet). Or go thief/cleric and come up with some weird way of dealing with my previous issues (find traps and summons instead of search and remove? sanctuary and hide?).

    Decisions!

    The usefulness of the cloak of non-detection will depend on how the mage ai has been improved.

    Well if you still want to remain a dwarf then the only option you have between those three is number 1. But any of those options would all make good thieves for what you are looking for. Given that he gets only 9x15 +40 thieving points (175 I guess?) however probably going to want to have to have a second thief in your party to make up for the assassins lack of thief skills.
  • AHFAHF Member Posts: 1,376
    edited November 2012

    Well, Dwarves gain +15 to find traps at character creation, on top of that Thieves gain +40 at level 1 and then Assassins gain +15 every level after. I believe with the level cap, Thieves can reach level 9 (or 10 maybe?), so with that in mind, your Assassin will have +175 (190 if level 10) points to distribute. Couple that with the shadow armour (+15 hide in shadows) and boots of stealth (+20 move silently and +15 to hide in shadow) and that's 225 points you can achieve in stealth, which is about right to successfully hide the majority of the time. Means your find traps will be paltry though. This is why Assassins come into their own a few levels on when they supersede x5 backstab damage.

    For this you could do:

    Dwarven Assassin (18 Dex After the Tome)

    Find/Remove Traps (+15 racial modifier) (+5 Dex) +80 points: 100 find/remove traps
    Hide in Shadows (+10 Dex) (+15 armor) (+15 boots) +60 points: 100 hide in shadows
    Move Silently (+10 Dex) (+20 boots) +50 points: 80 move silently

    That is very viable. If you do this, I would put the points in hide in shadows to start and get that viable before putting points in your trap skill. You don't need much find traps proficiency to find traps early in the game.

    This does mean someone else will have to pick your locks. (Or you can bash or cast knock).
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    Nem said:

    Would a cloak or spell of non-detection replace the move silently skill?

    No, that's not what it does, it just stops you being magically detected whilst Stealthed (I think)
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    edited November 2012

    Nem said:

    Would a cloak or spell of non-detection replace the move silently skill?

    No, that's not what it does, it just stops you being magically detected whilst Stealthed (I think)
    So long as mages aren't using a detect spell higher than level 3 I believe, I am pretty certain true sight ignores it and I imagine oracle does the same.
  • NemNem Member Posts: 51
    AHF said:

    Well, Dwarves gain +15 to find traps at character creation, on top of that Thieves gain +40 at level 1 and then Assassins gain +15 every level after. I believe with the level cap, Thieves can reach level 9 (or 10 maybe?), so with that in mind, your Assassin will have +175 (190 if level 10) points to distribute. Couple that with the shadow armour (+15 hide in shadows) and boots of stealth (+20 move silently and +15 to hide in shadow) and that's 225 points you can achieve in stealth, which is about right to successfully hide the majority of the time. Means your find traps will be paltry though. This is why Assassins come into their own a few levels on when they supersede x5 backstab damage.

    For this you could do:

    Dwarven Assassin (18 Dex After the Tome)

    Find/Remove Traps (+15 racial modifier) (+5 Dex) +80 points: 100 find/remove traps
    Hide in Shadows (+10 Dex) (+15 armor) (+15 boots) +60 points: 100 hide in shadows
    Move Silently (+10 Dex) (+20 boots) +50 points: 80 move silently

    That is very viable. If you do this, I would put the points in hide in shadows to start and get that viable before putting points in your trap skill. You don't need much find traps proficiency to find traps early in the game.

    This does mean someone else will have to pick your locks. (Or you can bash or cast knock).
    Hmm yes that actually looks pretty solid. I could perhaps even move 20 points from find traps to move silently and rely on potions for the extra 20% when it becomes necessary. I believe 100 is needed for the tower yes?
  • AHFAHF Member Posts: 1,376
    elminster said:

    Nem said:

    Would a cloak or spell of non-detection replace the move silently skill?

    No, that's not what it does, it just stops you being magically detected whilst Stealthed (I think)
    So long as mages aren't using a detect spell higher than level 3 I believe, I am pretty certain true sight ignores it and I imagine oracle does the same.
    The clock actually lets you ignore both of those in BG2. In BG1, it is pretty useless since no one casts these spells.

    The value of the cloak in BG2 is that the spell Non-Detection doesn't protect against true sight, etc. and the cloak doesn't protect against true sight, etc. when it applies to magic (i.e., potion of invisibility, improved invisibility spell, etc.) but it DOES protect against detection for rogues who are wearing it and use their stealth ability.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    AHF said:

    elminster said:

    Nem said:

    Would a cloak or spell of non-detection replace the move silently skill?

    No, that's not what it does, it just stops you being magically detected whilst Stealthed (I think)
    So long as mages aren't using a detect spell higher than level 3 I believe, I am pretty certain true sight ignores it and I imagine oracle does the same.
    The clock actually lets you ignore both of those in BG2. In BG1, it is pretty useless since no one casts these spells.

    The value of the cloak in BG2 is that the spell Non-Detection doesn't protect against true sight, etc. and the cloak doesn't protect against true sight, etc. when it applies to magic (i.e., potion of invisibility, improved invisibility spell, etc.) but it DOES protect against detection for rogues who are wearing it and use their stealth ability.
    Hmm interesting. Thanks for the clarification :)
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    AHF said:

    elminster said:

    Nem said:

    Would a cloak or spell of non-detection replace the move silently skill?

    No, that's not what it does, it just stops you being magically detected whilst Stealthed (I think)
    So long as mages aren't using a detect spell higher than level 3 I believe, I am pretty certain true sight ignores it and I imagine oracle does the same.
    The clock actually lets you ignore both of those in BG2. In BG1, it is pretty useless since no one casts these spells.

    The value of the cloak in BG2 is that the spell Non-Detection doesn't protect against true sight, etc. and the cloak doesn't protect against true sight, etc. when it applies to magic (i.e., potion of invisibility, improved invisibility spell, etc.) but it DOES protect against detection for rogues who are wearing it and use their stealth ability.
    Thanks @AHF - so is there no point in hanging onto the Cloak of Non-Detection in BG1/BGEE (unmodded)?

  • AHFAHF Member Posts: 1,376

    AHF said:

    elminster said:

    Nem said:

    Would a cloak or spell of non-detection replace the move silently skill?

    No, that's not what it does, it just stops you being magically detected whilst Stealthed (I think)
    So long as mages aren't using a detect spell higher than level 3 I believe, I am pretty certain true sight ignores it and I imagine oracle does the same.
    The clock actually lets you ignore both of those in BG2. In BG1, it is pretty useless since no one casts these spells.

    The value of the cloak in BG2 is that the spell Non-Detection doesn't protect against true sight, etc. and the cloak doesn't protect against true sight, etc. when it applies to magic (i.e., potion of invisibility, improved invisibility spell, etc.) but it DOES protect against detection for rogues who are wearing it and use their stealth ability.
    Thanks @AHF - so is there no point in hanging onto the Cloak of Non-Detection in BG1/BGEE (unmodded)?

    @OxfordGuy - Well, it does look cool...

    Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised to see BG:EE with some sort of detection going on in the new content so it may be more useful in BG:EE than in BG1.
Sign In or Register to comment.