Noob Assassin questions

ccarroll1201

So I have some experience with later versions of dnd, but after playing for a few hours into my first playthrough of IWD, I have a few questions.
I have a Thief/assassin and I'm wondering why she never attacks with her offhand. She uses 2 daggers, has 2 weapon and dagger proficencies and is currently level 4. I have been looking through the combat log after every fight and havent seen one single attack roll for her offhand. Shouldnt all her attacks in a round be with both daggers?
Also not 100% on backstab vs sneak attack. I read some explanations but not sure I understand it completely. It has to do with the v3sneak attack option in the gameplay menu? If you have sneak attack off you backstab if behind an enemy and in stealth? If you turn on sneak attacks you dont have to be stealthed but have to be behind the target and all your attacks get a damage bonus from behind? Is that right?

sarevok57

so first, for attacking with 2 weapons, you have to make sure the off hand weapon is in the shield slot, and with that being said, in any given round, regardless of the amount of attacks per round you have, you only ever get one off hand attack per round, even if your off hand weapon is a speed weapon ( aka gives an extra attack per round ) it will do it with the main hand, this is just an engine limitation, so if you are fighting with 2 weapons, and have 4 attacks per round, 3 will be with the main hand and 1 will be with the off hand

you can also look at her attacks per round in her character sheet, if she is just a standard assassin with no speed weapons using a dagger in each hand, she should have 2 attacks per round, if you are seeing just 1, then that means you do not have a weapon equipped in the shield slot

so IWD has 2 different types of "backstab" damage, you can either go 2nd edition back stab, or 3rd edition sneak attack, if you have sneak attack enabled then backstab multiplier will be disabled, if you dont have sneak attack enabled then your characters will use a backstab multiplier instead

regardless of which option is on, the only way to land a backstab/sneak attack is to be invisible/stealthed ( or improved invisible etc ) and be behind a target, if you aren't under invisibility or stealthed, then a backstab/sneak attack will never land

ccarroll1201

Ok that makes sense. Thanks for the response.
I guess I'm also a bit confused by the combat log. It seems like most of the time in a given round all your characters that miss dont get their roll reported in the log. Then characters who deal damage and hit DO have their rolls reported 100 percent of the time. But then occasionally for some reason you see an attack roll reported for a miss. I wish it showed 100% of all your characters rolls even if they do miss.

sarevok57

you can go to the "feedback" in the options menu and there should be an option to turn on "more combat info" or some such

ineth

ccarroll1201 wrote: »

It seems like most of the time in a given round all your characters that miss dont get their roll reported in the log.

Maybe they are merely cosmetic attacks?

Check "Options > Gameplay > No Cosmetic Attacks".

Its description says:
"Show attack animations only when characters are making real attacks. Otherwise, characters go through attack animations throughout a round to simulate feinting and dodging."