Skip to content

Staff of the Magi and backstabbing

kaffekoppenkaffekoppen Member Posts: 377
in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
Forgive me if this is old and well-known cheese.

I know you can't backstab with Staff of the Magi, but suppose you had Staff of the Ram *and* Staff of the Magi equipped.

I just tested with my mage: I can, in combat, repeatedly switch between Staff of the Magi and my other staff between attacks to turn invisible. I wonder if there's any reason this shouldn't give you unlimited backstabbing. Of course, you'd need UAI for that, but it seems well worth it. On top of all that cheese, it's a freaking +5 weapon that dispels magic on hit and has insane daily abilities.

I still kind of think the idea of a halfling F/T with Spectral Brand / CF is much cooler (imagine a halfling arm wrestling a giant... and winning), but I was honestly a bit disappointed to learn that Use Any Item apparently no longer does what it says.

Comments

  • MitchforkMitchfork Member Posts: 390
    Staff of the Magi has a really weird implementation of its invisibility mechanic... I really think it should be like a charge ability on a Wand or such so that you have to at least use your spell/ability/potion for the round to activate it. Feels very awkward to "refresh" your invisibility by dropping the staff and picking it up again.

    UAI changes shouldn't affect any of the scenarios you put in your post though. As far as I'm aware they only prevented it from working on NPC-specific items. Or am I incorrect there?
  • kaffekoppenkaffekoppen Member Posts: 377
    edited December 2013
    You don't have to unequip it and reequip it entirely. Had that been the case, you couldn't do it in combat anyway.

    I tried putting my +3 plain old staff in the first slot and the Staff of the Magi in the next slot. Then I could just switch between them using the weapon quick slots. I'm not sure how they thought Staff of the Magi should work, but that's crazy. As you say, it'd make more sense for it to be an activated ability with a number of daily charges.

    In any case, being able to backstab repeatedly with any weapons is a bit... well, overpowered.

    As for UAI, yes, it's just NPC-specific items, but a big part of the fun for me comes from being able to use *anything*. Jaheira's Harper Pin, Jan Jansen's armor, you name it. They're not even that powerful. If you look at the non-character specific items, there are hardly any that would be restricted to a figher/thief multi, and the ones that are don't really matter (apart from a certain staff). A kensai / thief dual, sure, UAI is pure gold for them.
  • nanonano Member Posts: 1,632
    As soon as you switch away from Staff of the Magi you become visible again. There's no transition time, it happens instantly, at least in my game. So it's only useful for backstabbing in that it lets you run away and stealth properly (only once per round).

    Mislead is what you're looking for if you want to go all out with backstabbing.
  • CherudekCherudek Member Posts: 73
    edited December 2013
    Technically, the invisibility drops when you switch weapons. Still, it makes it very easy to escape and go back to the shadows.

    edit: lol, ninja'd
    Post edited by Cherudek on
  • LarkusLarkus Member Posts: 54
    kaffekoppen said:

    In any case, being able to backstab repeatedly with any weapons is a bit... well, overpowered.

    You are only able to backstab with weapons that a single-classed thief could use. UAI doesn't change anything about that.

  • kaffekoppenkaffekoppen Member Posts: 377
    Yes Larkus, that's what I said in the first post. I meant switch to it to become invisible, switch back to a weapon that can backstab.

    However, I did not test it well enough. I can see now that I tried it again that you do become invisible immediately when switching away and it's not just because I was attacking someone. Thanks for pointing that out!

    It's still a cool trick though to be able to run away and hide so easily. Annoying that you can't use it while dual-wielding though.
Sign In or Register to comment.

2024 Overhaul Games, a division of Beamdog. © 2024 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Baldur's Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, Baldur's Gate, Wizards of the Coast and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries, and are used with permission. Hasbro and its logo are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. and are used with permission. © 1998 BioWare Corp. All Rights Reserved. BioWare, the BioWare Infinity Engine and the BioWare logo are trademarks of Bioware Corp. Black Isle Studios and the Black Isle Studios logo are trademarks of Interplay Entertainment Corp. Atari and the Atari logo are trademarks owned by Atari Interactive, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.