For a long time I neglected the art of backstabbing. Once the backstab is made the character is in a vulnerable position, so it's a perilous occupation. But that was until I decided to try using the best back-stabbing NPC in the game - and now I'm hooked. 30 or 40 points of damage every time, awesome.

slight spoiler

-
-
-
-

try this: give imoen the boots of speed from the adventuring party at the cloakwood mines, stab, run away, hide, stab again, repeat until stabee is lying on the floor wondering why red stuff is coming out of him.

Silke backstabbed me with her Quarter Staff +1.
That must seriously hurt [img]smile.gif[/img]

I never really used backstab. It's a nice strategy though if fighting mages, like those tough guys outside that youknowwhere with the new cool battlemusic. (Tried not to spoil, forgive me ;) ).
I backstabbed one of the mages so he couldn't mirror image. Helped a little bit, at least, but of course, Branwen's Silence did a nice trick too [img]smile.gif[/img]

Inoma, I hate to burst your bubble; however, by all rules, that I am aware of, one can only backstab using shortsword class weapons (this includes daggers and shortswords of myriad variety).

Nope. ALL weapons that are usable by a true-class Thief are legal Backstab weapons, including Staves and Clubs. And in BG2, there's a Ranger kit called the Stalker, who can also Backstab (to a maximum of x3): I believe that if you just have SoA (no ToB), you can Backstab with ANY weapon, including things like Flails, Halberds, etc. Ouch. This is corrected in ToB, though.

Six, I stand corrected. Thanks for clearing that up.