Backstabbing

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...

[mir_ror]

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.

[Tobbin]

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.

[Tobbin]

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?/