Hi, it's me again.

Backstabbing - I cant really get this to be useful. As I understand it, you just hide in shadows and attack. But after playing til level 13 with an assassin, I got this to work like once. Does it matter what weapon you were? What enemies you fight? If you attack from the behind? Also, is it possible to hide again after trying once? It seems to be rather hard to hide in shadows when an enemy is present (well, it should be) but is it possible? Is it possible to backstab while being invisible instead of stealthy?

Help me out please.

Okay, this is how backstab works; you go invisible, walk up behind an enemy, hit it, and it does up to five times as much damage (or seven times if you're an assassin). It's not possible to use the hide in shadows ability at all when there's enemies around. You can run away, hide again, then come back and hit things, but that's it. Another thing you should note is that you don't have to use the hide in shadows skill, you can also go invisible with any other method - like invisible potions or, if you're dualled to a mage, the invisible spell - and backstab will function in the same way.

Oh, thanks. =) Perhaps it's the getting behind thingy I havn't been too careful with.

Can you only backstab with daggers and shortswords or can you use other swords?

Only daggers and short-swords.

Woah, really? That definately explains why it hasn't worked for me yet.

Wrong. You can use backstab with longswords, daggers, and shortswords that a thief can use. No blunt or spiked weapons (or piercing weapons like spears funnily enough).

Ah. But not Katanas, scimitars etc?

Not sure about katanas, logic says you should but who knows? I'll check it out have have an answer a bit later.

Could this be why I can't seem to get Yoshi's bckstab right ? the Katanna I mean.

Anyone found out whether it's possible with Katanas/Scimitars etc yet?

You can backstab with both katanas and scimitars, as well as longswords, shortswords and daggers.

Very strange my assassin somehow wasn't able to backstab but suddenly when i switcht from short to long swords he did
and now all you see is quadruble damage
16*5=80 or something very very cool
i never knew you could do it with undead to

Can't use a two-handed sword, it seems. Pity.

You get a message about it being an "inappropriate weapon" for backstabbing.

Try to imagine a fighter/thief lugging a two handed sword around while invisible before attempting to shove it in someone's back and you'll see why.

Halscion, 2H swords are usually about 6 feet long, to give you a bit of perspective.

hehe, well why not call it backhacking then?
Though I think that spears would be excellent to backstab with! I mean they´re made to stab with and they don´t have to be that bloody long...

It's a bit awkward to backstab with a pole arm. An example scenario would be an assassin, his trusty shortsword at the ready, sneaking through a mansion's dark hallways towards his target: its wealthy benefactor who happens to be writing his memoires in his bedroom. Firstly, the idea of a thief 'sneaking' around with a spear at all seems a little ludicrous, and then the thought of him hefting the thing before impaling the miserly old bastard on it is a bit strange, too. Personally, I don't even think longswords should be a viable backstabbing weapon.

Aha, well you definately should read some Robert Jordan, and I didn´t mean polearms in general, only spears.

I suppose somewhere in his writing there's an exotic, well-known assassin whose weapon of choice is the spear... but I'd wager it's not really AD&D-esque. Spears are usually classified as pole arms - they're essentially a weapon on the end of a pole.