I've set out with the task of determining what the highest possible amount of damage that can be dished out in a single hit is.

The contenders:

Level 40 Kensai, level 23 kensai/level 29 thief (dual classed), level 21 assassin/level 30 fighter.

The bits that matter:
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• All had Grandmastery in Quarter Staves, ** in 2-Handed weapon style</font>

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• 25 STR (possible)</font>

The level 40 kensai was obviously going to get owned since the thief characters can use the backstab ability, but it was interesting to see what the higheset amount of damage possible was using a single melee strike.
The level 40 kensai had a total of +13 to his damage rolls through the kensai kit abilities.
The level 23 kensai had +8 to damage from the kensai kit, and the dual classed assassin was relying on raw x7 backstabbing power.
The thieves did however have a further bonus since they could use the gauntlets of extra. spec. (through use any item) to get a +2 damage bonus.
As for the weapon, I used one that could dish out the most damage on a single hit so I worked that out to be the Staff of the Ram +6.

The results? Well here's the kensai's ultimate raw power (BTW I've got nothing against Amkethrans' good barkeep Zakee Rafeha, he just looked so tempting standing there and was unarmed to maximise damage :D ):
http://www.cybernetics.btinternet.co...vecritical.jpg
110 damage!! That's 55 on a regular hit :D .

And here's what happens when you give a level 23 kensai some damage increasing gauntlets and a x 5 backstab ability. Ladies and gentlemen, you're about to see a grandmastery KAI critical quintuple backstab with 25STR and the staff of the Ram +6:
http://www.cybernetics.btinternet.co.uk/Images/ouch.jpg
That's a lot, but heres where it gets interesting:

http://www.cybernetics.btinternet.co...ages/ouch4.jpg
Despite lacking all the kensais powerful combat bonuses, nothing can touch a x7 backstab! 462 damage is insane :D .

After doing some other investigations, it became apparent that a backstab doesn't deal out as much damage as it could. The kensai/thief could hit for a maximum of 52 damage (using his KAI ability on an unarmed opponent), so common sense dictates that a x5 backstab would give a maximum of 262 damage on a backstab which is a 520 critical, so where has this potential 112 points of damage gone?

After ages of messing around it became apparent that the weapon proficiencies were definately taken into consideration, as were the kensai abilities. What's causing the problem here is the STR damage. I set the strength for this kensai/Thief to 10 (i.e. no bonuses, no penalties) and did my grandmastery kai backstab. 380 damage. That's;
22 for the staff
2 from the gauntlets
6 from the weapon proficiencies
8 from the kensai bonuses

=38 damage. Multiplying this by 5 is 190, doubled for the critical is 380 which is spot on correct, so the error must lie within the STR value.

After many more ages of testing, it is now clear that the strength bonus is received on a backstab, but in a different way to the rest of the damage. The damage for the attack is rolled without considering STR. This value is then multiplied by 5 and then the STR bonus is added on (so 14 damage is added to the total damage roll for the backstab). For example, my kensai/thief has 25 STR. The damage roll for a single hit without considering STR is as above which is 38. Multiple this by 5 gives 190, Add the 14 damage to make 204 and finally double it to make the 408 recieved in the second image.

But hang on a minute.....our good old barkeeper is UNARMED, so where's our +4 damage bonus!!?? Wait, no, it can't be true..NOOOOOOOOOOO, the staff of the ram+6 does NOT do 1D4 piercing like its description. Quickly, I must load IEEP, ok lets see, enchantment to hit 6, damage 1D6+12, special abilities; colour effects and wing buffet.....noooo there is absolutely no 1D4 piercing with this weapon. This is an outrage! I thought it was a bit odd to display piercing and crushing damage in the same value. I even tested this by importing the staff into a very early game and gave it to Imoen, and her damage range was 13-18, not 14-22 like it should have been!

I've now changed it to match its description. The 1D4 piercing is now seperate damage that is displayed immediately below the crushing damage (like the Flail of Ages). You can get the improved staff of the ram +6 from here. Simply download it to your override folder.

[ 10-14-2002, 07:07 AM: Message edited by: Jim ]

I think I can beat them calculations, but let us let mathematics do the talking. ;)

Ladies and Gentlemen. Standing in this corner... we have... SAREVOK!

<marquee behavior="alternate"> http://www.plauder-smilies.de/person/cheering.gif http://www.plauder-smilies.de/person/cheering.gifGo, go, Sarevok! Go, go, Sarevok! http://www.plauder-smilies.de/person/cheering.gif http://www.plauder-smilies.de/person/cheering.gif</marquee>

Fighter->Thief(20->32)

Since we are assuming maximum possible damage, we shall factor in the GoES, 24 STR( does the STR bonus from the DoMT and/or MoLtM stack with the Potion of Storm Giant Strength? If either or both of them do, add to the base of 24 STR), Grandmastery Patch, Staff of the Ram +6, Critical Strike, and... Deathbringer Assault. http://www.plauder-smilies.de/evilgrinblack.gif

Staff of the Ram +6: 18 base damage
Grandmastery: 23 base damage
GoES: 25 base damage
Two-Handed Weapon Style: 26 base damage
x5 Backstab Modifier: 130 damage
STR bonus: 142 damage
SotR Piercing Damage: 146 damage
Critical Strike: 292
Deathbringer Assault: 492 damage http://www.plauder-smilies.de/evilgrinblack.gif

Now if only the DA was factored into the backstab... heh, heh, heh. http://www.plauder-smilies.de/evilgrinblack.gif

With 25 STR, total damage is 496.

EDIT] Factored in new information. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 10-14-2002, 08:36 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

Wow that would be really sweet if DA was factored into the backstab :D . Only problem I can see is that the 324 damage will be displayed, and then the 200 from DA. Now I can't think of any character (with the exception of Wraith Sarevok from hell) that is backstabbable and could survive 324 damage in order to be followed up by a DA!! Any ideas?

As for getting 25 STR.....games that don't use the Baldurdash fixpack, if the PC takes the evil path through hell to get the STR bonuses, the +2 STR is classed as magical and is added to any base stat or any equipment/potion boosted stat. So quaffing a potion of cloud/storm STR would boost this to 25 in this way.

I'm using the fix pack, so the only way to obtain 25 STR is to draw upon holy might, or the assume the following (for a fighter/thief only):

Starting STR of 19
+3 from hell (you get +1 to your primary stat when you give in to the taint fighting Wraith Sarevok as well as the +2 from the tear of Bhaal)
+1 MoTLM
+1 DOMT
=24 natural STR. Then steal the holy symbol from a neighbouring post level 25 cleric and BAM 25 STR :D .

Unfortunately not no, they are non magical, base stat increasing only.

If you think you can beat the assassins backstab then pleaes do. I'm off to the drawing board to see if I can think of anything else to cause even more carnage :D . One obvious way would be to remove the XP cap, somehow assign 2 kits and have a level 40 kensai/level 40 assassin, but of course, that's cheating :D .

Oh, one more thing, since I discovered the problem with the 1D4 piercing damage from the SoTR+6, we can no longer assume 22 damage from it, we can only assume 18. The backstab will only consider the raw power of the weapon, so the backstab would look something like:

character X attacks poor X
character X did 462 damage to poor X
character X did 4 damage to poor x
poor x: Death

This is the same situation as with the DA, in that the creature must survive the 462 damage in order to recieve the piercing damage too i.e. not very likely! But for the timebeing, we can recover the +4 damage from attacking an unarmed character (dont worry I'm not really evil) :D .

I've thought of a way to get a better normal critical hit from the plain kensai though. I'll be right bacl :D ......

Even when I changed the base damage to 18, Sarevok can still deal more potential damage in one hit than the Assassin->Fighter( with just 24 STR to boot). Sarevok can never hit 25 STR though, unless he 'borrows' a Holy Symbol.

I know a certain end-boss who could withstand that backstab on pure HP, though probably immune to it anywayz :(

[ 10-14-2002, 08:59 AM: Message edited by: daan ]

Here we go :D ............

Sarevok:
Quaffs a potion of storm giant strength
Steals Anomens Holy Symbol of Lathander to get 25 STR
Is proficient to the point of grandmastery with Quarterstaves
Is specialised with using 2-Handed weapons
Is wielding the (improved) Staff of the Ram +6
Enables critical strike

Ladies and Gentlemen, you are about to witness the single most offensive legitimate attack in the history of Baldurs Gate:

http://www.cybernetics.btinternet.co...es/awesome.jpg

Looking closer at this immense attack reveals the following:

I had to bump good old Zakee's HP up to 400 so he could survive the initial backstab and still have HP left to experience a deathbringer assault.

Sarevok has not only rolled the full D6 of the Staff, but also the full D4 for the additional piercing damage. 328 is therefore the max base damage from the staff:

18 base from staff, 4 from attacking an unarmed individual, 6 from weapon proficiencies and 2 from the gauntlets which makes for 30 damage. Multiplying this by 5 for the quintuple backstab makes 150 damage. Add the +14 strength damage bonus gives 164, and double this for a critical hit and we have our magic 328 damage. Then add the full +4 piercing damage making 332, and finally add 200 for the Deathbringer Assault. 532 damage!!! That is truly awesome for a single strike. Not to mention that the 15% chance that the staff knocks the victim unconscious has kicked in. Damn the odds for this must be incredible:

1 in 6 for the staff, 1 in 4 for the additional piercing damage, 3 in 100 for the deathbringer assault and finally 15 in 100 for the unconsciousness. The 1/10 chance of getting the critical hit is ignored since I called the critical using critical strike. Therefore the odds that I got this assault were:

(1/6)*(1/4)*(15/100)*(3/100)=3/16000

therefore I had a 3 in 16000 chance of getting this attack :D !!!!!!

But hang on......this might be possible to beat. What's the name of that HLA that increases damage from ToB? Hand of Murder? This gives an additional 12HP damage so this is potentially very potent for the assassin with the x7 damage.....

Hand of Murder is only available if you either have Ascension or the Bhaalspawn Powers mod. It is for evil characters.

Oh well, that be my dream screenshot. :D

You cant be serieus ... did you have to do it over alot, or did you truly get lucky ?

Luck must have been with me...big time. I must have tried it around a hundred times, basically quickloading, enabling critical strike and making the attack, the whole cycle including loading times took no longer than around 10 seconds. I experienced 3 deathbringer assaults, with the last one having max damage.

Oh well if Luke Skywalker can survive a night outside on the planet Hoth, and Han Solo can successfully navigate an asteroid belt in the Millenium Falcon, then I can get a max damage Deathbringer Backstab :D