It DOES occur but only once, with your main hand attack. Your second attack will do normal damage. I think the logic for this is that you don't attack with both hands together (though you could) and so the element of surprise is lost after your first blade sinks into the victim's back.

Regarding backstabbing with a multi/dual-classed character, is it possible to get in 2 (is >2 possible??) backstabs in a single backstab when dual-wielding?

From a fanatical backstabber...

I asked the same question earlier yesterday and got no response.

I appears that backstab damage does not occur when you have 2 weapons equiped

And I don't think having two weapons equiped will allow you multiple backstabs.... only one. But since it seems that if you have two weapons equiped you can't backstab period.

Correct me if I'm wrong anyone...........

So you are saying that even with two weapons... backstab will occur?

Why do I see in some battles an enemy thief will backstab and a X4 (or whatever the multiplyer is) will display in the text. I am in chapter 3 and have been using two handed style for the whole game so far.... and have not seen my character inflict any backstab damage (yes I'm hiding in shadows).

I tested this for fun. I made a 23rd level thief and went around stealing and backstabbing for fun (my rep was 1 almost immediately).

He was dual wield. I scored the damage multiplier if I hit with EITHER hand the first hit. After one BS, the second hand did not get this damage.

Example:
+1 longsword in main hand
+2 dagger in off hand

X5 damage

Hide in shadows successful.
Attack with main hand misses.
Attack with off hand misses.
Attack with main hand hits, 7 points of damage X5 = 35 points of damage.
Attack with off hand hits, 4 points of damage.
ect - all attacks from here do normal damage.


Next....

Hide in shadows successful.
Attack with main hand misses.
Attack with off hand hits, 4 points of damage X5 = 20 points of damage.
Attack with main hand hits, 7 points of damage.
Attack with off hand hits, 4 points of damage.
ect - all attacks from here do normal damage.

So it is only the first hit that gets the damage, and it can be either hand. Obviously since the thief can only get one prof in dual wield, this is usually the main hand, but this tell u something important - to avoid the negative "to hit" modifiers for dual wield, you should ALWAYS SINGLE WIELD FOR BACKSTABS so that you increase your chance of hitting with whatever weapon is better for damage. If they are both similar, it doesn't matter, but if you want to score a better hit with a particular weapon, go with that weapon.

Now, it seems confusing that you are "leaving shadows" when you attack, you would think that this nullifies the BS damage, but this only happens if they are hostile. If they are not yet hostile, you may attack until you hit. If they are hostile, they may or may not see you thus nullifiying your BS damage. I need to do more testing with this.

Can you only backstab with a shortsword?
czo my stalker couldn't backstab with his battle axe or at least he didn't
nor does my assasin come to think off it

what is requered to backstab??/
(and yes i am in the shadows)

Practice against some friendlies in town. You'll see a diff between them and monsters. Plus, u can test the types of weapons that work. I know a long sword also works, as has every weapon that I have tried.

Great advice/data. Thanks Half-Orc!

I didn't realize that u can backstab with either hand. Interesting. My stalker was backstabbing up to x4 towards the end of the game but I always thought it was his main hand attack because at that level he hardly missed. I think you can only backstab with weapons like swords, daggers, scimitars etc. which a thief can use. So if you are a fighter-thief and use a mace or a battle axe I don't think you get the backstab multiplier. Same goes for the two handed sword because thieves can't use it. But if you are wielding a long sword two handed you should theoretically still get the multiplier. I might check it out.

I am suprised to see in Glorick's example of backstabing that the suprise attack still applied after he missed twice because in the AD&D rules it quite clearly states that if your first attempt to backstab fails then you loose all suprise and no more attempts can be made on that creature or any other creature in visual range.

I don't mean to be a boar but if you are going to use a set of rules then you should stick to them. I think that you would all agree that you would notice if someone was trying to use your back as a chopping board and kept missing.

Besides any serious adventurer would have "stone skin" protecting them from just such a nasty thing happening, which is why my old AD&D fighter/theif had a "+3 dagger of stone skin negating" which in turn led to the spell "iron skin", ETC ETC

I agree, if you miss you shouldn't get another opportunity to get nasty damage. If you ever played IWD, you got to be on the recieving end of this - in one of the final chapters you are subjected to a bunch of thieves hiding in shadows. You can't see them until they hit you, lol, even though you see the "NastyThief Critical Miss" etc. It was driving me crazy there.

But it doesn't always work that way for you in BG2 - sometimes they seem to notice right away. Not sure how it is really working but it isn't consistant.

In my experience you can backstab with anything thats not ranged, or two-handed. I never tried with hammers, or axes, though...

From my experience in BG1, you can only backstab with weapons restricted to the thief class. In one scenario, I had Coran (an elven fighter/thief) backstab with a +2 2-handed sword (Spider's Bane), and ended up with a message that read "Weapon unsuitable for Backstabbing" (or something like that) - this was when I was attacking some monsters stuck in a Web spell.
One other thing I noticed: when the thief 'leaves shadows' to backstab, he/she is given a certain amount of time to successfully attack the monster before the thief becomes visible (ie. the translucent figure becomes a solid figure). Thus the thief can miss and try again, and again... (for Coran, it was usually a max of 2 attempts)
Rikard, isn't your stalker a Ranger (and unable to back-stab) by definition? Unless you've dual-classed him?
Regarding my initial question about multiple backstabs, how then do you backstab >1 time (as verified by Tobbin) ??

Stalkers can backstab for a lower damage multiplier than a thief. The highest you can go up to is x4 BUT you can only backstab with weapons thieves can use, excluding blunt weapons like clubs.

I believe that the character has to have been a fighter class of some sort in order to qualify for multiple backstabs. My character is a Ranger/Thief mix. Also, I specialized in those weapons that I planned to use in backstabbing (aka short swords) I do gain strength bonuses due to the fighters strength too. Also, as a thief has high dexterity, this adds to the + bonus too. Lastly, the weapons plus bonus will add to the attack too. My thief only gets a x5 backstab, but with the multiple attacks of the ranger it has allowed me to get in multiple backstabs.I compensate for the off hand by using a higher plus weapon there. Also, I specialized in dual wield. The most attacks (in the first round) that I have been able to backstab is two. Normally these do between 100-150 hitpoints of damage per hit. Well, hope that helps you guys work things out. I haven't tried a straight fighter class/thief, but I imagine it would be the same.

Oh yeah, I don't know if this works for multi-classed characters either. I haven't tried those. I strictly play humans cause I like dual-class. Maybe this is why the demi-humans can't do it. Before, the humans could go to any level they wanted to in DnD PnP, and the demi-humans were restricted to certain levels. I guess that dual-class characters are allowed some things that multi-class aren't for game balance, but I haven't heard anything to confirm or deny this. I just like the Ranger class. But I really like backstabbing too. I thought the best of both worlds would be to merge the two classes together. Makes for a pretty well rounded character too. Attack capabilities of a fighter (Ranger) and stealth (backstab) abilities of the thief. Also, because the Ranger is so high a level (13) I do gain some special abilities and spells too (really minor though, but still better than a straight fighter/thief)

I found my stalker could backstab, but only once even if he was dual wielding. I guess it might've made the stalker class too powerful if they could backstab twice, with higher natural strength etc.

Can you backstab
Vampires?/