Question: Is the assasin any good in Tob? He poison abilitie becomes kinda worthless, and his combat bonusses arent really worth mentioning. The thief also gets skills that make backstabing a bit useless, so the swashbuckler would really be the beter choice in my eyes. Does anyone has some arguements for the assasin?

I honestly didn't find any use for the assassin. The Assassination ability pretty much takes away his x7 backstab modifier, and a lot of enemies in ToB are immune to backstab. Use of poison was not enough of an edge in my book.

Once you get into ToB, you must forget about any poison, or backstab, as the game is designed to make things tuff for you. The use any itme for the theives is truly a masta piece, as you can now use like +5 halbards and such. The different traps are an asset to your repetoire.

Thats odd. I find backstab and poison are still VERY useful in ToB... Oh well. Most of the more minor enemies get rocked utterly with asssassinate ability... Oh, and you can get a pure thief to have 5 attacks per round. The only problem is the horrible THAC0...

Lol, for a fun illegal character, make a fighter, then dual to an assassin. Use Shadow Keeper to help. Its really quite cool, and is almost unstopable (was unstopable in SoA pretty much). With Use Any Item, you can have some fun. ;)

How does the assassination skill make the assassin's skills useless??? If anything it makes them even better than ordinary theives as they can use their x7 bonus in normal combat they don't have to hide in shadows. The only time i completed throne of bhaal and baldurs gate 2 was with my dwarf assassin and the only time backstab was useless was when fighting really powerfull bosses where a lot of things don't work.

lol, the poison ability makes killing fire giants a breeze. As long as they are a distance away already..... ;) Simply your hasted assassin, then backstab a fire giant using Poison Weapon. Then, run away. Let the poison do your work for you. It will have effect even if they save against it. ;) This works well if you are a lower level, or using only an assassin.

You've just got to love assassination :D . My kensai/thief dual wielding wearing the gauntlets of extra. spec. had 8 attacks per round with improved haste. When I dumped him right in the centre of some intense action (think frontal assault on monk monastry) his next 8 attacks dished out well over a hundred damage.

By the way, how do you get a pure thief to attack 5 times?!? The only way I can think of is to dual wield (2 attacks) with improved haste (4 attacks) wearing the gauntlets of extra spec (5?). Is this what you mean?

Assuming Swashbuckler,

**, 1/2 attack
Dualwield, 2 attacks
Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialisation, 1/2 attack
Belm, 1 attack
Improved Haste, x2 attack

Giving you a grand total of 8 attacks. ;)

[ADD]
Imagine if the Swashbuckler duals to a Mage. ;)
[/ADD]

PS: An Assassin can have 6 attacks per round, use a Tuigan Bow and combine with Improved Haste.

Ah, forgot about Belm. I wasn't thinking of bows, just weapons that can be used for backstab.

I'm sure when I tried a swashbuckler he didn't gain the extra attacks provided by **, he only got the to hit and damage bonuses, i.e. 2 attacks per round dual wielding. A lvl 1 fighter dual wielding would get 1/2 attack specialisation + 2 for dual wielding = 5/2 attacks. I'm sure my swashbuckler didn't get the extra attack. This may have been addressed by a patch cos I haven't tried it for a while.

I didn't think the game let you have over 5 attacks per round (without whirlwind). Maybe thats the max without magic? Who knows.

Okay, for the thief... my for fun assassin!

Weapons: Scarlet Ninja-to and Belm
Armour: Grandmasters Armour
Gauntlets of Extrodinary Specialization
=5 attacks per round. =)

(4 from weapons and +1/2 from armour and gloves).

I think swashbuckler doesn't get the extra attacks per round a fighter does for specialization for some reason. I hate it! Even with monty's cape and gloves ect I had a terrible THAC0 for being VERY high level.

Kensai/thief is deadly... My Staff of the Ram wielder did over 300 damage once. ;) I love critical hits during assassination. ;)

Swashbuckler mages are VERY powerful. They get extrodinary AC and very good stoping power if done right. Of course, your THAC0 is crappy, but what can you do.

Well, even If I like those comb, that u all have told, nothing gets past my MONK, With the right equipment u'll get those 5 attacks, and ur IMUNE to magic(I stoped at 127%MR, even when I should have more).

Started with him at SoA and made him a good in the end. HE kicks ass...

He even regenerates HP with CON AND Item(Love ion stones), and he got a AC of -13, but I could get it lower, but he finnished at lvl 35, And he aint got no armor, only belts/gountles etc.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jim:
I'm sure when I tried a swashbuckler he didn't gain the extra attacks provided by **, he only got the to hit and damage bonuses, i.e. 2 attacks per round dual wielding. A lvl 1 fighter dual wielding would get 1/2 attack specialisation + 2 for dual wielding = 5/2 attacks. I'm sure my swashbuckler didn't get the extra attack. This may have been addressed by a patch cos I haven't tried it for a while.<hr></blockquote>

Damn... you are right. I made a Swashbuckler just now to test it out and they do not get the extra 1/2 attack for Specialisation. This is an outrage! This means that they can only have a maximum of 7 attacks( until they get Whirlwind)... ...

5 is maximum, nothing goes beyond that without magic

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by 250:
5 is maximum, nothing goes beyond that without magic<hr></blockquote>

I was factoring Improved Haste in my calculations, unless you are responding to toriuxik? If that is the case, then just ignore this post.

yeah boast your monk... many afore ye had died beneth me blades, and many more still to go

Dundee, that post about "attacks" wasn't to you

Thats what I thought. Does improved haste increase # of attacks of 5 per round? Yeah, swashbucklers are nice since they get whirlwind too. Give them montolios cloak, and other stuff, and while no backstab for asssassination, whirlwind would help out alot with an okay THAC0. I like my Swashbuckler in SOA, but I don't know how well the Kensai and Swashbuckler duo will do later on... ;)

Your monk wouldn't take more than 3 hits with assassination. Kensai thieves can do over 300 damage. the only thing that can take that kinda punishment (character wise) is pretty much barbarians... resistance saves lives I tell you! ;) Monks are nice, with instant killing of dragons. ;) It works SOOOOO WELL too!