Rogue Types

[browns1977]

Hello all,

I am currently playing BGII with a Human Barbarian which is a lot of fun. But I am thinking about starting another alternate game with a rogue. I am not sure if it is going to be a solo game or not but I know I want to use a rogue. I have narrowed it down to regular rogue and assassin. But I am not sure which would be better. I know the regular rogue gets less BS damage and no poisoning but they get a lot more points to put into rogue skills (stealth, pick locks, find traps, etc). While assassins get more damage output they get fewer points to spread out to rogue skills. I would have to put most of them in stealth just to make BS effective. For the assassin I have the gorilla tactics in mind. Run in BS, run around the corner hide, and repeat.

I have been reading through a lot of the old posts in this forum and you all have lots of good character creation ideas. Do you all have any opinions on this.

Look forward to posting more in the future

[SixOfSpades]

First off, there's a difference between Rogue and Thief: The "Rogue" classification denotes all Bards as well as all Thieves. Next in importance is the fact that if you've got Throne of Bhaal installed, you're not going to want to play a pureclassed Thief: By the time you're 1/3rd of the way into the expansion, even an Assassin is going to be above 100% in all Thief skills, so essentially you're going to spend quite a lot of the game not getting any better.

But now to your real question: Thief vs. Assassin. The Assassin does get better at Backstabbing, of course, but the plain Thief is no slouchie either. And the Assassin's x6 and x7 multipliers don't even kick in until you reach the appropriate levels, so for the first half of SoA, the two Thieves will have equal Backstabbing power. This means that in early/mid SoA, the Assassin's Poison is his only advantage, and happily it's quite a potent one. Combine it with weapons with a high number of Attacks per Round (such as Darts) or that are poisoned already (such as Bolts of Biting) and most enemies will be literally unable to move due to taking so many hits from the poison damage. Then again, getting only 15 Thieving points per level is a big turnoff.

Summary: You won't want to be a pure Thief, so consider what class you'll want to combine with. You could Dual-class (Assassin->Fighter is a popular combo) or Multiclass (Mage/Thieves are also favored), whichever you prefer. Also, consider your party: If you want to be an Assassin, you'll probably want to bring a backup Thief (such as Imoen or Nalia) along to help support the party while you bone up on your Backstabbing skills. A straight Thief (or Swashbuckler), however, can provide good support right from the get-go.

[shadowhound]

Well I am a huge fan of the Swashbuckler, he is quite good from the start onwards. I might be a bit bias though as he was the first character I finished BG2 with

[browns1977]

Thanks for the clarification Six. I stand corrected [img]smile.gif[/img] I am looking to start an alternate with a thief. I do not have ToB yet. But I plan on trying to get it if it is still available.

I am kinda leaning toward Assassin still but dualing a thief seems interesting. Are there any other dual thief and assassin combos that people think are good?

I will also have to look into Swashbucklers now to see what they bring to the table [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks

[Xen]

Swashbucklers are great Fighters and they get really low AC. Assasain can be really powerful and/or deadly if you dual class him to a Fighter. Also Kensai->Thief comes to mind if you want to have some sort of Thief dualing.

[ 08-20-2004, 11:19 AM: Message edited by: Xen ]

[Assassin]

If you like the way of a Barbarian, try a Swashbuckler/Mage. He will have almost the fighting ability of a Fighter, the thieving skills of a Thief, and once you get the Mage part, he'll be able to cast magic as well. However, he doesn't get backstab, which may turn you off.

[browns1977]

My head is whirling with possible characters ; )

Now I am reading and I kind like the Bounty Hunters too. They still get back stab right? I didn't see anything that said they didn't. I noticed that Swashbucklers don't. Seems like the bounty hunters traps along with Backstab and store bought poison darts would have all the aspects to my gorilla tactics that I want. Should I dual a bounty hunter or just be a straight out BH?

Thanks for all the replies.

[browns1977]

No BH fans out there? I think I am going to try it. If anyone has any suggestions or opinions about them I would like to know.

thanks,