Stealth your way, even useable?
TsunadesSTR
Member Posts: 12
Hello everyone!
Back to Baldurs Gate and small tears of excitement swelled up when i killed my first few rats :'). Will take some time to (re)learn the dephts. so that is why i want you to ask the following:
Well after roaming every house and such so far, im with my own F/T character and Imoen in the mines. In every game i love stealth and backstabbing so it would only be naturally to do so aswell in BG. However when engaging some 4 kobolds every time, it seems to be fucking useless to be around in stealth. when you find a kobold they have already seen you and going stealth is (still) impossible.
The following scenario:
Playing with my own character to scout nearby areas, let Imoen trigger then and then i will backstab 1 kobold with my own character. this mostly 1hit 1 enemy, however now i am visible, thus have to fight. If unlucky 3 kobolds simply kill either one of us or both. or if i survived i simply lost already much health, and i dont like wasting all my potions so early already. Also Imoen is ofcourse a thief and thus not a tank.
so
#1. I have to fucking deal with it that i need more party members or at least a fighter/tank.
#2. spend hella lot of time in potions
#3. Your suggestions.
My question: How do you actually make having a backstabber and such to work? is it in the end that they just operate while your main party is doing their job and your thief snatches 1 of? Since so far it seems pretty difficult.
Maybe handy to let know that im playing the Original saga, and thus not EE. Is EE having that assassin, shadowwalker, bounty hunter class stuff i see coming up every now and then?
Tsunades
Back to Baldurs Gate and small tears of excitement swelled up when i killed my first few rats :'). Will take some time to (re)learn the dephts. so that is why i want you to ask the following:
Well after roaming every house and such so far, im with my own F/T character and Imoen in the mines. In every game i love stealth and backstabbing so it would only be naturally to do so aswell in BG. However when engaging some 4 kobolds every time, it seems to be fucking useless to be around in stealth. when you find a kobold they have already seen you and going stealth is (still) impossible.
The following scenario:
Playing with my own character to scout nearby areas, let Imoen trigger then and then i will backstab 1 kobold with my own character. this mostly 1hit 1 enemy, however now i am visible, thus have to fight. If unlucky 3 kobolds simply kill either one of us or both. or if i survived i simply lost already much health, and i dont like wasting all my potions so early already. Also Imoen is ofcourse a thief and thus not a tank.
so
#1. I have to fucking deal with it that i need more party members or at least a fighter/tank.
#2. spend hella lot of time in potions
#3. Your suggestions.
My question: How do you actually make having a backstabber and such to work? is it in the end that they just operate while your main party is doing their job and your thief snatches 1 of? Since so far it seems pretty difficult.
Maybe handy to let know that im playing the Original saga, and thus not EE. Is EE having that assassin, shadowwalker, bounty hunter class stuff i see coming up every now and then?
Tsunades
Post edited by TsunadesSTR on
3
Comments
A F/T is one of my favourite combinations. A stealthy backstabber is my favourite type of characters.
This is how I play. I always scout invisible. As soon as I've found where enemies are, I stand right on the line of sight of only one of them. Pause. I attack with a missile weapon (a longbow for a F/T). Pause. This particular enemy sees my character. Pause I retreat. Using everything there's (another room, a tree, a mountrain, a house, anything) I try to get out of sight of this enemy. Hide (repeat if the character hasn't managed to go invisible from the first attempt). Wait till the enemy stops walking. Stand right at its back. Pause. Backstab.
Using this tactics, I can deal with nearly every encounter in the game. If the SCS mod is installed, this tactics will be harder to reproduce but it still works, although it takes more time to make only one enemy walk after you.
Another tip I can give you is that you should use your fighter part to the fullest. Before you attack as a backstab, put on the heaviest armour you have. Your F/T will still backstab and if an enemy survives it, you'll have a solid AC to finish it off in melee.
A great tactic as it seems, i am going to try that out. i am not fully mastered with the game yet to know in which depth the ''line of sight'' works. D&D introduced ''stealth'' playstyle and LoS thus after all seems pretty logical. As a kid back then it seemed so much easier with a warrior and easiest difficulty haha!
About your ''heaviest'' armor part, if doing so your are not able to hide in the shadows anymore. i wear a heavy helmet i snatched off a BH, but for chests it is so far a studded chest. So i presume you mean heaviest possible
Thanks!
Tsunades
By the way, you can shoot from the shadows and retreat as soon as you pull the trigger - this way you have a chance the enemy doesn't see you at all and thus stands where he is.
About the heaviest armour. You're in your leather armour while scouting. You're in your leather armour while moving. As soon as you stand in a place for your backstab, you can change your armour to, for e.g., a plate armour. Then you attack. This way you won't be able to hide in shadows again till you take your plate armour off but you're not going to take it off till your enemy is dead anyway, right? And your good AC from the heavy armour will help greatly in melee if your backstab won't kill the enemy.
As for a build, I prefer this:
* one-handed weapon style
** melee weapon of choice (a long sword usually)
* missile weapon of choice (a longbow usually)
At the 3rd and the 6th levels I put proficiencies into the second melee weapon of choice (a dagger usually)
As for thieving abilities, I prefer to focus on HiS/MS till 150 points overall, then improve Disarm Traps up to 75, then improve Set Traps. If you need to open locks, use your STR or the mage spell Knock.
For the LoS it cannot be clearer, now i have just to get used to it.
I got your point about the armor. Sadly it seems that the original ed. does not have quickkey features, and since game unpauses when attending inventory it will something to get used to. or do you have a trick for this?
Your build looks like what i thought about so im glad that it is not something bad :P. I have Imoen to take care of locks and such. Since her stats are so preferably probably will come a mage later. So for the USERNAME im glad that i can focus HiS/MS till 150. I havent seen those feats yet but i presume they come when i am level 3?
Since its so thief like i always prefer the dagger.
I took 2 points in Short swords, 1 point in long sword and 1 point in bows. since i am playing an elf which gains the bow THAC0.
The one-handed weapon style and such you mention is probably of the BG:EE?
what ya think
Greetings,
I will add that when you can, you should pick up the Dagger of Venom. Its poison can finish off an enemy severely damaged by a backstab while you scamper off to hide again. Another thing which might help you is the dart of stunning. I don't believe there are many in the game, but you can make them last a while if you immediately stop using the darts once you've scored a hit. An immobile enemy makes it a lot easier to hide and then backstab again. Boots of speed will be your friend, once you find them, as rushing away to hide again will be a breeze. Potions of speed can help with that too, actually. There is also a ring that offers a few charges of invisibility, for situations where hiding again isn't an option. And, if you do turn Immy into a mage later, she has several spells which will offer more invisibility options.
-reload until i beat the enemies (i'm very patient...)
-set as many traps as needed (10 % trap setting ability is enough. Yes i'm that patient.)
-use the Necklace of Missiles (when i run out of patience).
Ok, i confess: i use the last solution mainly, but it works in the 90 % of the fights...
Sorry, i'm just joking. Honestly!
Well so far indeed I still have to reload fights sometimes. it takes some time to get used to when to pause and when not. since not all enemies will follow you right away.
(presume you actually have to hit). Its also typical for rolling dices that couple of fights against 4 at once end up in a flawless victory by getting slain in 2 hits by a single target. (if not for my crit protecting helmet that is. I get a 3rd chance sometimes :'))
Ill keep the progress up 2 date. so far study has to be done first! T_T
TsunadesSTR
Did I do it right?
If you play as a Cleric/Thief, you can sneak attack/backstab with Spiritual Hammer. That and Mordenkainen's Sword are the only ways of doing a ranged sneak attack/backstab.
(On a side note, thank you, Beamdog, for not making Spiritual Hammer unusable for sneak attack/backstab. I know it doesn't really make sense that it can do that since regular hammers can't, but it makes cleric/thieves so much fun to use.)
Sad most of stuff is pretty un useable for me since its not a IWD thread, (bought em both, will play that later). And i am playing the original saga and thus not the enchanted edition. After a playthrough original i can attend the BG:EE, and use shadow walker
Spread the word!
Tsunades