I can promise you that its definitely not a bug. Thieves were always able to backstab with any weapon they could be proficient in.
As far as surprise attacks from behind with a staff well, putting a lot of force into an attack on the back of someone's skull. Just saying.
That said, a single dagger kensai might be interesting........Grand Mastery in daggers.......herm
I guess one might smack a guy on the temple for extra effectiveness. I'm just having a difficult time visualizing sneaky rogue fighting with a quarterstaff.
I swear AD&D just lets Thieves use quarterstaves because they wanted there to be ONE weapon that every class could use. Because I agree, it makes no sense at all. Too big of a weapon for a thief to be using.
I swear AD&D just lets Thieves use quarterstaves because they wanted there to be ONE weapon that every class could use. Because I agree, it makes no sense at all. Too big of a weapon for a thief to be using.
They should have canes, Thieves would be so swag with a cane. Instead of backstab you get swagstab. So much swagability up in here.
@Dragonspear I'm pretty sure Archers can get GM in crossbows, I've played one through awhile ago. Boo seems to survive everything, even being secreted away in some unholy place on Minscs person come BG2. Crossbows on Archers are fantastic, they scaled down the elemental damage on arrows (in BG2) but bolts of lightning stayed the same. In saying that I prefer a bow for most encounters pre Whirlwind.
He doesn't really fit as a archer, character wise, or anything. and you would loose his ability to be in heavy armor and packing steel. (mainly the packing steel part)
I just remembered something! If you make a kensai/thief you can give him the gauntlets of extraordinary specialization for an extra attack per round and +1 THACO and +2 damage. You can also give him the belt of inertial barrier to get a combined 100% immunity to magic when used with Carsomyr. First equip the sword then equip the belt and it should work. With the Shadow Dragon Scale and the Kensai's -2 to AC you will be hard to hit as well. By mid to end of BG2 you'll have an awesome thief that hits like a truck and is nigh invulnerable. Now I remember why I though it was such a good idea.
Carsomyr SETS your magic resist at 50%. You can stack MR with other items, but not with it.
I'm not sure it's a bug or not, but it does balance the game somewhat. Reaching 100% MR just through gear would be pretty silly.
(Although they basically do it with the Cloak of Mirroring. Best item in the game.)
Trust me from experience, there is no reason you'd ever want to use a weapon you can't backstab with on a Kensai/Thief. The Assassination HLA alone is reason enough.
If you want someone who's impossible to kill, give a Cleric of Talos/Thief a shot. You can dual-class out of Cleric at 14 and still have 7th level spells. Storm Shield makes you immune to any elemental damage type, plus you'd have divine spells at your disposal. You'd lose out on weapon specialization, but even then you can give yourself the Thac0 of a fighter and even more damage than they get through steroid spells so this guy would be a better fit for Carsomyr shenanigans.
Carsomyr SETS your magic resist at 50%. You can stack MR with other items, but not with it.
I'm fairly sure that any MR boosting item you put on after Carsomyr adds to MR. I think i ran into the Carsomyr MR problem once when I was playing a barbarian. I gave the Keldorn Carsomyr and the belt. I though I'd make him Solo a Lich for fun with 100% MR. I think what happens is if you put on the belt first and the sword second you get 50% MR but if you do it the other way around you get 100%. Its been a long time since I've played the game so I could be wrong. Also theres no reason a kensai/thief wouldn't be able to back stab. Just switch weapons and youre all set. Most things worth backstabbing are immune anyways.
@guston Aren't both the Inertial Barrier & Mana Bow bonuses to resist magic damage rather than magic resistance?
Also Ring of Gaxx isn't on that list, or the necklaces of MR.
As soon as you switch weapons or reload Carsomyr will set your MR back to 50%. It's not a viable option, or atleast not in my view since you'll always have to stop & deal with it. I'd say it's meant to set the level to 50% rather than add.
@guston Aren't both the Inertial Barrier & Mana Bow bonuses to resist magic damage rather than magic resistance?
Also Ring of Gaxx isn't on that list, or the necklaces of MR.
As soon as you switch weapons or reload Carsomyr will set your MR back to 50%. It's not a viable option, or atleast not in my view since you'll always have to stop & deal with it. I'd say it's meant to set the level to 50% rather than add.
I wasn't aware that resist magic damage and magic resistance were two different things. As for ring of Gaxx and stuff I left that out since AC boosting items can't be worn with most magic armor and I'm not sure what combination of armor/magic items would be best. In any case an additional 15% MR shouldn't be hard to squeeze out.
Ring of Gaxx can be used with magic armor, it's just the Rings/Amulets/Cloaks *of protection* that can't be combined with magic armor.
Items that increase magic damage resistance do just that, decrease the damage taken from spells. It's different from Magic Resistance per se which gives a chance to resist the whole spell and if failed makes you take full damage.
Ring of Gaxx can be used with magic armor, it's just the Rings/Amulets/Cloaks *of protection* that can't be combined with magic armor.
Items that increase magic damage resistance do just that, decrease the damage taken from spells. It's different from Magic Resistance per se which gives a chance to resist the whole spell and if failed makes you take full damage.
So much for that then. Still a 45 or so percent chance to take no magic damage, taking only half damage if the spell hits is still good.
That is right. The belt of inertial dampener works against magic missile, horrid wilting, etc. but not against fireball, lightning bolt, etc. It is a much more narrow category of protection than magic resistance.
Guston got it right here Sandman. Carsomyr merely sets your MR to 50%. If you choose to play an inventory mini-game on every map, you can get your MR up to 100% by just equipping things on top of Carsomyr.
That said Guston, Sandman is right in that it still really doesn't make a great combo. I really want to try the Half-Orc cleric/thief at this point. Or I could do elf I guess. Really don't like gnomes ><
Sort of like how you can equip gear that "sets" your stats to 18 then cast something which increases it, and it'll go over 18 rather than increasing your base.
With a multi-class figher/thief, I think Carsomyr is a nice combo. For example, you could use the staff of the ram for back stabbing and then switch to the Carsomyr for certain opponents (including those immune to backstab). Most of the TOB big bads are backstab immune so by then GWW with Carsomyr is a good option.
With a multi-class figher/thief, I think Carsomyr is a nice combo. For example, you could use the staff of the ram for back stabbing and then switch to the Carsomyr for certain opponents (including those immune to backstab). Most of the TOB big bads are backstab immune so by then GWW with Carsomyr is a good option.
I think the usefulness of the build greatly increases in an evil playthrough. Since
1. You can't use Keldorn. 2. You get huge bonuses to STR, AC, and CON from picking the evil options in hell.
If you're playing a good guy then there is little reason to go through the trouble.
With a multi-class figher/thief, I think Carsomyr is a nice combo. For example, you could use the staff of the ram for back stabbing and then switch to the Carsomyr for certain opponents (including those immune to backstab). Most of the TOB big bads are backstab immune so by then GWW with Carsomyr is a good option.
I think the usefulness of the build greatly increases in an evil playthrough. Since
1. You can't use Keldorn. 2. You get huge bonuses to STR, AC, and CON from picking the evil options in hell.
If you're playing a good guy then there is little reason to go through the trouble.
That is right. I rarely play backstabbing Charname's alongside Paladins, though, so the dilemma doesn't really surface for me. If you have another character than can use Carsomyr, then the incentive to do this build significantly decreases but it works quite well with some sort of F/T blend as the main character if no one else is using it.
Comments
Crossbows on Archers are fantastic, they scaled down the elemental damage on arrows (in BG2) but bolts of lightning stayed the same. In saying that I prefer a bow for most encounters pre Whirlwind.
You can always solo for a bit to gain lvs back.
I'm not sure it's a bug or not, but it does balance the game somewhat. Reaching 100% MR just through gear would be pretty silly.
(Although they basically do it with the Cloak of Mirroring. Best item in the game.)
Trust me from experience, there is no reason you'd ever want to use a weapon you can't backstab with on a Kensai/Thief. The Assassination HLA alone is reason enough.
If you want someone who's impossible to kill, give a Cleric of Talos/Thief a shot. You can dual-class out of Cleric at 14 and still have 7th level spells. Storm Shield makes you immune to any elemental damage type, plus you'd have divine spells at your disposal. You'd lose out on weapon specialization, but even then you can give yourself the Thac0 of a fighter and even more damage than they get through steroid spells so this guy would be a better fit for Carsomyr shenanigans.
Belt of inertial barrier 50%
Mana Bow +4 20%
Selfishness Tear good option 10%
Machine of Lum the Mad 5%
Thats 85% right there. Maybe Armor Of the Faith for the rest? How does the game count a rangers casting lv?
Also Ring of Gaxx isn't on that list, or the necklaces of MR.
As soon as you switch weapons or reload Carsomyr will set your MR back to 50%. It's not a viable option, or atleast not in my view since you'll always have to stop & deal with it. I'd say it's meant to set the level to 50% rather than add.
Items that increase magic damage resistance do just that, decrease the damage taken from spells. It's different from Magic Resistance per se which gives a chance to resist the whole spell and if failed makes you take full damage.
@Guston
Guston got it right here Sandman. Carsomyr merely sets your MR to 50%. If you choose to play an inventory mini-game on every map, you can get your MR up to 100% by just equipping things on top of Carsomyr.
That said Guston, Sandman is right in that it still really doesn't make a great combo. I really want to try the Half-Orc cleric/thief at this point. Or I could do elf I guess. Really don't like gnomes ><
Sort of like how you can equip gear that "sets" your stats to 18 then cast something which increases it, and it'll go over 18 rather than increasing your base.
I wonder if they'll address that.
1. You can't use Keldorn.
2. You get huge bonuses to STR, AC, and CON from picking the evil options in hell.
If you're playing a good guy then there is little reason to go through the trouble.