Backstabbing?

ShadowKnight

So I really need some solid answers to help me out here guys. I'm new to BG2 well not brand new I know of the game just not pro. So if I were to build any kind of thief what would be my best bet for backstabbing then getting back to being invisible without being compromised. I've watched youtube videos and I've seen ppl do it but they do everything so fast I can see what their doing. So if anyone has any information that can help me or also give me some good tips on what thief classes to try out that would be amazing. Thanks for the help and support guys.

Humanoid_Taifun

Option a) Shadowdancer. If you hit Detect Traps (or change your weapon or do anything else that unchecks Hide in Shadows without actually undoing your stealth) you can wait until Hide in Shadows becomes available again. Then you perform your backstab, pause immediately, and go back into hiding.

Option b) Potions of Invisibility/Rings of Invisibility, Staff of the Magi, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Ring of Gaxx - basically the same as above, except with external assistance

Option c) Mislead (the spell) - Keep your mislead clone out of sight of the enemy so that they won't dispel or kill it.

Edit: Forgot to mention: The Cloak of Nondetection is of course also very helpful, though not a primary contributor to what you want.

Edit2: As an alternative to the Shadowdancer, you can also use Blindness on your Thief. That comes with a serious penalty on his or her THAC0, so it's not an optimal solution. But you can activate Hide in Shadows so long as there are no enemies inside of YOUR field of vision. It's a bug, obviously. Just don't tell anyone that you are exploiting it. You can rationalize it to yourself that a true thief wouldn't follow the spirit of the law if it's not beneficial to them. Loopholes exist to be exploited. You are just doing what a thief should do. Deep down you'll know that it's no justification, and the guilt will eat away at you. Before long your social life will fall apart as the secret will make it impossible for you to connect with other people. But that just means you'll have more time for Baldur's Gate II.

Arachnus

You could try blinding your thief.

But it will probably be hindered by to hit penalty.

Enemy must not be seen by you only and then stealth button can be active.

Skatan

Hahaha,  @Humanoid_Taifun, that was the funniest post I've read in a long time!

@ShadowKnight, if you run behind a wall and break the enemies' line of sight on you, you can re-activate stealth. So to exploit this, try to lure enemies towards good choke points where your thief can enable this strategy, if available close by. Personally I don't use the Blind myself stratagem, I value my social life

lolien

Humanoid_Taifun said:

Edit2: As an alternative to the Shadowdancer, you can also use Blindness on your Thief. That comes with a serious penalty on his or her THAC0, so it's not an optimal solution. But you can activate Hide in Shadows so long as there are no enemies inside of YOUR field of vision. It's a bug, obviously. Just don't tell anyone that you are exploiting it. You can rationalize it to yourself that a true thief wouldn't follow the spirit of the law if it's not beneficial to them. Loopholes exist to be exploited. You are just doing what a thief should do. Deep down you'll know that it's no justification, and the guilt will eat away at you. Before long your social life will fall apart as the secret will make it impossible for you to connect with other people. But that just means you'll have more time for Baldur's Gate II.

Is this true @semiticgod ?

Oswald81

Use those Sandthief's Rings (Lich at the Gate and that thief at Seven Whales) and potions of Invisibility for simpler backstabbing.  You can splay on an Improved Invisibility I believe and achieve the enemy's rear.  But I personally finds that a very cheesy tactic to use when you couple that with Haste and Dispels as well then run in your thief/thieves.

Tresset

@ShadowKnight I just found your other thread caught in the forum's automated spam filter. I have edited the OP of this thread with the text of the thread that was caught, since I assume that is what you actually wanted to say before the spam filter got in your way. I have also verified you so that this sort of thing should not happen again.

semiticgoddess

@lolien: Blindness does allow a thief to hide in plain sight, as long as the blinded thief isn't right next to an enemy (you might have to take a couple steps away first). It does come with the disadvantage that blindness imposes a -4 penalty to THAC0 and AC, and also limits your visual range for other things. A blinded thief won't be able to use ranged weapons, ranged quickslot items, or do any scouting while the blindness is active. Rangers and monks can do the same thing when blinded, though only Stalkers will have a backstab multiplier unless you have a mod that lets other characters backstab.

This is because the stealth check automatically fails if an enemy is within the thief's (or ranger's, or monk's) line of sight. The thing is, this check is based on the character's visual range, and blindness limits one's visual range to the area just around the blinded character. It's the same reason you can hide immediately after running around a corner.

Blindness will also allow thieves and bards to set traps in plain sight--again, assuming that there are no enemies directly next to them, since blinded characters still have a very short visual range. Blindness can also let you save the game and rest the party when enemies are nearby, provided that the enemies are outside the visual range of all party members (and familiars, I assume) and that there are no other factors preventing the player from saving or resting (a Web on-screen will still prevent this, and being blind won't let you save the game if the enemies are still attacking you).

Humanoid_Taifun said:

Option a) Shadowdancer. If you hit Detect Traps (or change your weapon or do anything else that unchecks Hide in Shadows without actually undoing your stealth) you can wait until Hide in Shadows becomes available again. Then you perform your backstab, pause immediately, and go back into hiding.

Yup. @Grum invented that trick. It also works with blindness; a blinded thief can also remain invisible indefinitely. This is because the invisibility effect from stealth lasts about 4 rounds, but the cooldown timer lasts for 6 seconds after you cancel stealth. Casting a spell or re-clicking the stealth button will immediately break invisibility, but clicking the attack icon, the detect traps icon, the thief skills icon, or a spell icon (without actually casting the spell or attacking or whatever) won't immediately break invisibility. Thus, you can just wait 6 seconds for the stealth timer to reset, attempt a backstab, and then immediately attempt to hide in shadows again.

lolien

I was curious about the "losing contact with other people" part, but thanks anyway

gorgonzola

ShadowKnight wrote: »

So if I were to build any kind of thief what would be my best bet for backstabbing then getting back to being invisible without being compromised.

shadowdancers and blinded thieves apart a thief can use backstabbing in a quite efficient and reliable way if he has enough high hide in shadows and move silently.
some tips.
1. you have much more chance to hide if the thief is in a dark spot in the moment he activates the ability, after he can move to other places full of light without being spotted until the next check.
in the dungeons not all the places have the same light, choosing where to activate the ability is crucial.
2. being under haste or with some boots that improve speed is really important both to reach the enemy and backstab before the new check comes and to run away after the backstab.
3. every corner or object that can be used to break the line of sight between you and the enemy is your friend. if you backstab an enemy and run away then as you turn the corner you hide the enemy that is following you will stay right near the place where you did hide. so a low level thief can kill a really strong fighter enemy with a lot of hp just using a corner to get multiple backstabs.