DPS and Backstab
Infiltrator
Member Posts: 121
So I'm rolling a Fighter 9 (or maybe 12) > Shadowdancer and I'm plopping grandmastery in one weapon group.
I'm pretty much divided between 3 weapon groups - Dual weild Katanas/Long swords or Quarterstaffs.
Quarterstaffs have the best base damage hence the biggest backstab damage (helps with the limited modifier SD gets) but are slow otherwise and lack effects. If I was going to use one the most natural order would be to buy a +3 one and transition to staff of the ram later.
Unless I'm using item upgrade (not sure if its compatible with BG2EE) Katanas are great throut SOA (CF is pretty much the best one hander) but lose out in TOB as Hindos doom isn't that great.
Long swords aren't as great during SOA but have some great options in TOB.
I would be dual-wielding them, and my gut tells me that at max proficiency I would out-dps a staff of the ram with adequate dual katanas/longswords with 3 points in two-weapon fighting.
I'm open to suggestions
I'm pretty much divided between 3 weapon groups - Dual weild Katanas/Long swords or Quarterstaffs.
Quarterstaffs have the best base damage hence the biggest backstab damage (helps with the limited modifier SD gets) but are slow otherwise and lack effects. If I was going to use one the most natural order would be to buy a +3 one and transition to staff of the ram later.
Unless I'm using item upgrade (not sure if its compatible with BG2EE) Katanas are great throut SOA (CF is pretty much the best one hander) but lose out in TOB as Hindos doom isn't that great.
Long swords aren't as great during SOA but have some great options in TOB.
I would be dual-wielding them, and my gut tells me that at max proficiency I would out-dps a staff of the ram with adequate dual katanas/longswords with 3 points in two-weapon fighting.
I'm open to suggestions
0
Comments
Scimitars also look sweet when dual wielded.
Tomfoolery - I don't think scimitars are usable by thieves, I can't check now but if so you can't stab with them.
Gives you a 15% chance to critically hit your backstab.. with a normal x5 multiplier i am regularly doing 150 damage on my backstabs, can probably reach 200 with a little more love and care put into my efforts.
With your limited x3, you can still reach 100 damage on crits..
And to be entirely honest with you, if you're backstabbing for no more than 50-60, you run a great risk of mages surviving the backstab and get their protections up.. which kind of makes the backstab completely pointless.
So if i were you, I'd go GM longsword, at least 1 pip in single weapon and then perhaps 3 pips in dualwield.
Backstab using singlehander, then equip your off-hand weapon.
Fighter:
Level 7, get half an attack.
Level 9, Last level of high hp.
Level 13, get half an attack.
Level 12..?? Between 9 and 13, all that xp is wasted.
I'm mostly concerned that I may lose out on damage later on when enemies become immune to backstabs if I go with staff of the ram.
Yea that was a mistype, I meant to type 13 when you get a full attack.
GM Greatsword, 3-5 pips in Staff, 2 pips in two weapon
Faff about backstabbing with the staff and use vorpal sword for regular combat, later on use Carsomyr when you get UAI (if SD's even get that.. with the new UAI's and all)
And I'm not a guy that prefers to swap weapons all the time (unless its melee / range) I find it annoying, and designate specific weapon groups to each party members.
-Not- having someone use Carsomyr is a massive detriment to any party, imo. It's such fun to see it make short work of.. well.. everything sans a golem now and then.
Only npc's who can use it are Keldorn, Haer'Dalis, Jan and Hexxat.. but massive derailment here.
More back to the initial point though:
If you wanna backstab, but being worried about your "dps" later on, then going for quarterstaff is kind of a bad idea really. Unless you combine it with another Two-hand weapon so you can benefit from your 1 pip in Two-handed weapon style.
Dual wielding sort of requiers you to spend 3 pips in it, for it to be effective where as Two-handed only need one, this saves you two very, very valuable pips.
So unless you're gonna be dual-wielding longswords, which is very straight forward, I'd actually go for Quarterstaff and Two-handed sword.
3 pips in Qstaff. More than 3 is a waste.. 2 extra damage with x4 backstab is just 8 damage.
5 in Two-handed sword
1 in two-handed weapon style.
That's a total of 9 pips and well within the amount you're gonna end up with, giving you the option to expand a little on your weapon repertoire.
Keep in mind that dual-classing at lvl 13 will make you run around as a fighter for almost the entire Pre-Underdark portion of SoA with only a short time as Shadowdancer. And that Pip distribution will be limited to 1 pip per weapon until you become lvl 14 Shadowdancer, unless you wait with clicking Level Up from level 1 all the way through 14.. but then you're kind of running around as either a pure fighter or level 1 shadowdancer for the entire SoA campaign and only get to use backstab in ToB where it is largely useless anyway... Fighter/Thief Half-orc instead? xD GWW -and- backstabs..
You could wait until level 9 to get extra HP, but it's like 8-12 hp total anyway so probably not much of a point.
I guess you plan on using EEKeeper to set the Shadowdancer kit, since that isn't actually possible in the game itself, yeah? If so, I guess you could re-arrange your weapon Pips too while you're at it.
I always felt it's pretty stupid that when Dualing from fighter to another class, that you lose the ability to specialize+ in any kind of weapon until you're 1 level higher in the new class. It just doesn't make sense to me.
That, of course, is simply my opinion and has no relevance to how other people play the game.