Backstab vs Sneak Attack

[Hayashi]

I have a fighter/thief in my party, and I am wondering whether I should forgo backstab and activate the sneak attack option in the config screen.

I seldom used backstab in BG2 as it's basically a 1-hit hope-for-the-best-and-run strategy. Not very useful when you're faced with a horde of monsters. I feel that sneak attack is better, and gives the thief chances to do more damage (albeit in melee), as compared to backstabbing which is riskier.

Any thoughts/comments?

[Sazerac]

I tend to agree...although I found my thief to be far better at bow (which I used regularly) rather than sneak or backstab.

What I would do is run the thief shadowed into a room with monsters, see how many there were, and then fireball away (this was after I got fireball, natch) from my mages...then hammer at the survivors with missile weapons. Few monsters got close, and the ones who did, the paladin and ranger switched to melee and took them out.

That was on hard groups. On easy groups, I also used the thief to lure monsters one at a time by uncloaking, having them follow, and then start bombarding away with missiles from the others.

Cheers,



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[shawnme]

I like back stab I havent tride sneack atack yet.

[Lord Brass]

I tend to agree with Sazerac on this one. Its rare that Backstab ever comes into play as missile weapons i.e. bows, are really the weapon of choice. I thought about trying the Sneak Attack out, but if you're in close combat with your thief (multi-/dual-) then perhaps you should rethink the strategy and try to avoid sending in the big guys so soon...

[Hayashi]

Well, I've tried it out and my fighter/thief does 10 dmg with a short sword +1 with a sneak attack.

Now that I think about it, how does backstab work? (Goes to show how often I've used it, lol). I've alwys thought that the thief needs to go invisible (potion or hide in shadows), sneak up to the victim, err target's back and WHAMMO!

Would it work in melee combat as well? Say my tank is engaging a monster and I get the thief to move to the monster's rear. When she attacks, would the first (nad maybe subsequent) attack be counted as a backstab?

[Tennessee Ernie Ford]

That's how it worked in BG. In some situations, I'd sneak the thief up to the back of the bad guy and his/her would be the first attack. At high levels 3x damage can be pretty useful, especially if the target is a mage who might otherwise tag the party with a powerful spell. I used it a lot against the bandits in the forest, since it was pretty easy to sneak up (do to the large number of buildings). A thief can enter a domicile hidden/invisible and start the first attack as the rest of the party files through the door.

It's also effective on single monsters, but not helpful against horders, groups of area-attack monsters, groups of spell casters, bosses, or smarter monsters.



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Tennessee Ernie Ford
http://members.aol.com/tenernie
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TEF is the nom de web of the author of several Might & Magic websites. No relationship is intended or claimed to the fantabulous gospel singer of the same name.

[shawnme]

I also agree using a bow is a lot beter than both back stab or sneek atack. I have mine set on sneack atack but dont use it much. I use a bow with three of my cariters.

[Hayashi]

Just a little clarification - I *do* use missile weapons as much as possible. But sometimes the party gets swamped, and all-out melee is inevitable. Except for the mage, everyone else has a decent melee capability. That's when the thief comes in. Can't hide in shadows while in enemy's view; can't afford invisibility potions to drink on a regular basis. Hence backstab's of not much use.
Sneak attack OTOH doesn't require the NPC to be invisible/hidden. Just stand to the side or rear and WHAMMO! heavy damage.
The downside is that it only works once per monster.

[Lord Brass]

Thinking about it of course, you rarely get more than one shot with a backstab - unless of course you engage in the dastardly method of sneaking-backstabbing-running-away ad infinitum. It works, but can be tedious. Sneak attack? Might give it a try.

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Making running away an art form