Ok i am playing an Assassin i have never used a theif mind you. questions
1) How do i back Stab effectavly (sp)
2) Who would be good for a team with me Evil and Good i will take Edwin i think
3) Is Katana a good weapon for him and with using 1 weapon as my profeshenices (sp)
4) How do i want to allocate my theif points

Thanks all

1. To backstab all you have to do is become invisible, either through the thief ability "hide in shadows" or via an item (eg, invisibility potion). Then you stand behind the character your about to backstab (ie you cant backstab someone if your standing in front of their face) and attack. Thats about it really.

2. A good team is one that you LIKE. Personally I always take jaheira, I really like Mazzy, Korgan's a fantastic tank, I'm never without Edwin, but your taking him regardless. Viconia is a good cleric/tank too with the right items. Its just all personal opinions methinks.

3. A Katana is a fantastic weapon for any class that can use them.

4. As an assassin you should prolly get your hide in shadows and move silently up around the 70 mark for each when starting out. Then slowly pump the other attributes up ignoring detect illusion and perhaps set traps (depending if you actually use them).

Thats all I got. Sorry for the boring reply, but yeah, night shift sucks (insert cuss word here)

-Dave

Korgan, Edwin and Viconia would all fit in well.

Add in Jan and you shall find the most hilarious banters in the game. :D

I started a game as an elven assassin, and it's working out well- I must say that there are some annoying encounters-I guess I'd call them annoying mandatory encounters in which my character is hidden in shadows and then the stinkin vampyres (or beholder or whatever) sees me anyway because I'm supposed to be the protagonist. So my cover is blown, no negative plane protection and three creatures of the night are chasing me around like Benny Hill.
Also, I chose Katana as main weapon, but it's hard to find a Katana that's more than +1! Any hints welcome...

I know that Dragons, Beholders and Liches see through invisibility but I am not sure for Vampires. I guess they also can do that. Also there is one really powerful Katana somewere in the game.

You should check out the richer parts of Athkalta if you want to find yoursef a fearsome katana ;)

IIRC vampires do not see through invicibility, you must be doing something wrong ( attacking as example will disable your invicibility )

Here's a hint, and a general piece of advice. One of the biggest lies ever perpetuated on gamers is, "WARNING: Magical katanas are VERY rare in BG2!" Patience, grasshopper. You'll find your steel soon enough.

Ok well i like the sound of assassin, i will start it when my computer comes back

Stupid viruses, even stupider anti-virus [img]tongue.gif[/img]

but what points do i give to find traps
find traps is the 1 that helps you disarm traps isn't it??

if by magical you mean +1 katanas. that should read "Powerful katanas are very rare" as they are only two really useful ones in the game. but yes, a full exploration of areas most holy will yield the steel you seek

Disarm traps that what i want to do or how many points into what to be able to disarm them most of them any way

1. To Backstab, you
1) Equip a melee weapon that a true-classed Thief can use
2) Disappear from sight
3) Go stand behind your target
4) Attack and hopefully hit your target.
Some creatures are immune to Backstab, either because they're so naturally tough (Barbarians), or because they're so watchful (Beholders), or because they're all made of 1 kind of material and therefor have no weak spots (Golems), or because they plain just don't have a "back" (Slimes and Jellies).


2. A good team consists of at least 3 Warriors, 1 Priest, 1 Thief, and 1 Wizard. It is possible to make one person count in more than one class: Anomen, for example, is a whole Cleric, but he's got enough Fighter levels to be considered half a Fighter as well. And Jan can cover the skills of Wizard and Thief very easily. A lot of people agonize over choosing the "best" party members, but there really is no "best"--good enough is good enough. The only thing to worry about is that some of the NPCs will argue with other party members, even fighting them to the death. You can usually avoid this by not mixing Good and Evil alignments in the same party.


3. Katanas, katanas, katanas. Everybody and their grandmother just looooves Katanas. Except me, I tend to despise them. Why? Because they're overpowered and abused. "Hmmmmm," said the powergaming Dungeon Master, "I think I'll make a one-handed weapon with the Speed Factor of a Short Sword, and make it do as much damage as a Two-Handed Sword." Therefore, hordes of gamers started jumping up and down scraming that Katanas are the best weapons, and therefore, since nothing but the best is good enough, Katanas are the only weapons.
Assassins are Thieves. Thieves tend to like using Daggers and Short Swords. I suggest you use Daggers and Short Swords. And Short Bows and Darts, too.


4. Allocation of your Thieving points depends on whether or not you've got another Thief in the party to back you up. Assassins are great in the long run, but in the early game, you'll barely be able to support the party. Let's take two scenarios: If your Assassin is the only Thief in the party, you'll have to invest pretty heavily (around the 75-80% range) in Find Traps and Open Locks. This means you'll have almost nothing left to put into Hide in Shadows, Move Silently, and Set Traps, so you'll be almost halfway through SoA before you can actually *Backstab* somebody. If, however, your party includes Imoen, she's quite capable of handling all your Lock and Trap needs, so you can invest in Stealth right from the get-go.

[ 09-07-2004, 08:31 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

[img]redface.gif[/img] Most situations where you're able to backstab, you'll be able to constantly try and retry your HiS skill until you finally succeed it. Then, during battle, you can either use one of the two Ring of Invisibilities that are floating around or drink a Potion of Invisibility. Failing that, there's always having a friendly Mage cast Invisibility on you.

Or they see invisibility. And no, Assassination does not work on Golems.

You don't always need to invest a ton of points in Open Locks, if you have an NPC with high strength. Just bash the locks open (using force-attack on the locked chest or door). You don't get XP for bashing locks, but it works if you don't have a thief or your thief concentrates on other skills.

soo say 80 points straight into disarm traps use a mage to deal with locks and then all into stealth and hide in shadows??

<span style="color: lightblue">Forget Hide in Shadows completely. It doesn't exist, it's useless. Put everything into Move Silently.
Why is it so? Because your chance to hide is affected by HiS + MS / 2 and a dice roll (probably something like roll below that score = success). Move Silently gives you bonuses to how long your hidden after your roll fails. Hide in Shadows gives no bonuses at all. This might seem semi-cheesey, but realy you're using the stealth as it is in all other Infinity Engine Games (bar maybe Icewind Dale 2), in which you only have one score that represents stealth.

soo with assassin i just put points into move silently and nothing into hide in shadows ?? whats move silently do??

'Hide in shadows' is what is checked to see if you can make a successful hide. However, 'move silently' is the score used to check if you can move from that position and still stay 'hidden'
Regards,
Maidros

so maybe 80into hide in shadows and rest into move sielently??

You can't go wrong with whatever you put your points into...

[ 09-09-2004, 07:28 PM: Message edited by: Assassin ]

That's strange, if beholders see through invisibility, then why don't they see my ranger when he just walks right past them, when hidden in shadows, and they don't really do anything?

<font color=plum>I'm playing a human assassin in one of the games I have going right now. I divided his Thieving Skills points up rather evenly, just concentrating more on the particular skills I wanted him to use most often. I like Setting Traps, so I gave him extra points in that. I also put a lot of points into Hide In Shadows and Move Silently because I planned for him to use a lot of Stealth attacks (though now I know to put MORE points into Move Silently next time thanks to <font color=cyan>LennonCook</font> [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] ). I completely ignored Detect Illusions and I didn't worry too much about Pick Pockets (although that IS a handy skill to have since it can save you a TON of money dealing with merchants).

So I concentrated on creating an assassin that can sneak up on opponents, then either BackStab them or set traps for them to fall into.

As for your party members, whichever characters you like are the ones you should take. From a roleplaying standpoint, I think Keldorn, Anomen, Mazzy, Valygar and Aerie should automatically be eliminated as possible party members. I just can't justify a paladin or a goody-goody elf traveling with an assassin.

My party consists of Viconia, Korgan, Edwin and Jaheira. I also have Yoshimo so that I don't have to risk MY valuable neck to check for traps. :D Also, in Chateau Irenicus, Yoshimo and my assassin developed a "Tag Team BackStab" attack that my assassin became quite fond of. We would Hide or turn Invisible, then get on opposite sides of an opponent. The one behind the opponent would attempt a Backstab. Whether it was successful or not, the enemy would turn to attack him - leaving his back exposed to the OTHER one. Another Backstab would be attempted and the enemy turned to face the new adversary - giving the first party member a chance to Hide again...and attempt another Backstab! It worked quite well on the guards in the Chateau. But even if it doesn't work completely, the enemy spends so much time spinning back and forth that he seems to lose a lot of his attacks (actually, he just loses his Initiative, so the number of attacks he can launch are reduced this way).

Good luck and Happy Hunting. </font>