Assassin troubles

[Guardian Jarelia (TGOD)]

I have made an assassin with these statics
str 18
dex 19
con 17
int 12
wis 13
cha 10

Now i have to know where i should place my thief abilities in because i can only put 15 points each level. I want to be a real killing machine so i need to know what weapons i should use. I want to have the best.

It's a female elven assassin which look very cool when wearing leather or studded leather armor. Her name is Curare and allignment is true neatral.

I also need some advice with what party i should walk. I want to have the best. I was thinking of having Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Nalia, Imoen and myself.

[Luvian]

Put all your points in Move silently and hide in shadows, as you will need it so make Backstab.

About characters, Take Aerie too, she is one of the best character in the game. Jaehira is good too.

[Guardian Jarelia (TGOD)]

which npc must i kick out of my team to get jaheira and/of Aerie

[Luvian]

I would remove anomen, and Add Either Aerie or Jaehira. Since you won't have Imoen from chapter 2 to 4, you can put the other character until then, and by the time you get imoen back, you can chose by yourself wich character is the weakest with your style of play.

[ZFR]

ok, my advice is little different.....

invest in set traps first....
then hide in shadows and move silently...
then detect illusions....

leave open locks to imoen and pick pockets to haer'dalis....

the best party:
_Keldorn
_Valygar
_Anomen
_Haer'Dalis
_Yoshimo (substitued for Imoen when you rescue her)
_Yourself

[daan]

Hmmm, im dont completely agree here, sorry

Hide in Shadows is really not something you want to put a lot of points in. It only works once, since when you've landed the backstab,
you wont have the oppertunity to use it again, since enemies are nearby. A true assasin, uses either:
-the ring of invisibilty
-ring of air control ( casts Improved invis. once/day)
-invis. potions
-mages spells
If she's gonna backstab that is. Hide in shadows needs only 40 - 60 points, just keep on trying untill she succesfully hides.
Move silently IS important though, but no more than 70 - 100.

The second skill an assasin has, above all other thieves, is shooting arrows with the most deadly effect ever. Since he has the Poison weapon ability, every arrow will poison an enemy. This is a great tactic against dragons/mages.

-Pick locks : your choice .. it gets you XP if you succeed, but if you have a mage, "knock" will work too (no XP though).

-Detect traps: same as above , any priest/cleric can detect traps ...
only disabling wont work, but most traps can be avoided. They dont give you that much XP, and you're an assasin, you have to be efficient in your distribution.

Set traps: yay ! this one's important I'd say atleast 100
(dont overdo it though)

Detect Illusions: Very handy ! But again, this is a personal choice, you could use this ability and save your mage the trouble. Or you could let your mage cast "Dispel magic" or something. I really liked this one, since it allowed my mage to cast offensive spells faster, not having to worry about dispel-magic.
(note that Detect Illusions only dispels mirror image, duplicate image, and IIRC all types of invisibility, NO spellstraps and such)

Pick pocket: Use a (few) potion(s) of master thievery

So, in the long run,-move silently-, -set traps- and
-detect illusions- are gonna be good choices.
Dont max out -hide in shadows-, its not all that great.

For weapon: Use Katana, this will ensure you do a LOT of damage when you backstab, you got some (read 2, without ToB 1) great katana's in the game, so it'll do.
Again personal choice, but im not sure if Dual-wielding is gonna be good for your assasin. Mine had sword and shield style, since his THAC0 isnt that great .. and you donht want him fighting in the front line. Either she's backstabbing with ONE weapon, or shooting arrows.

So:
Katana's
Sword and shield style
short bow (long bow if you can select it, cant remember)

Later on, Long words (or maybe short swords, since its a bit more thief-like ... ToB provides a good short sword)

Im not good with parties, i usually solo, so no advice here.
Oh, one more thing ... DO NOT max ouy ANY thief-skills ...
There are several problems, where the computer "see's" your skill-points, and when they are above 160 or something, he doesnt believe you. This happens with Pick pockets, if you get to 260 with potions of master thievery, you'll fail every attempt.

Also, Detect illusions is not a passive skill, you have to enable it.
(using the detect traps button IIRC)

IIRC = If I Recall Correctly

Hope this helpz [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 02-28-2002: Message edited by: daan ]

[daan]

oeh ! and -ZFR- ,
If you're going to SOLO an assasin through ToB, do remeber that thieves are the least powerfull class at the higher levels.
They get nice High Level Abilities, but most Bosses are immuned to backstab !! Which kinda negates a very basic thief-skill ...
It's still a lot if fun though [img]smile.gif[/img]

[eb]

Well i am playing my main char as Assasin now and my selection is Hide in Shadows and Detect Traps. Those are about 80-100 in skill now so i shall move on to Move Silently.

I use Katana, Long Sword and Sword and Shield Style.
If you wanna go with Short Bow that is how you like to play the game.

My pary is after hours of thinking.

Andreas = Assasin
Jaheria = Fighter/Totemic Druid (changed a little bit)
Minsc = Berserker (changed and is using Helm of Opposite Alignm.)
Keldorn = Inquisitor
Jan = Thief/Illusionist
Edwin = Conjurer

This party is extremely good and i can think many will say that Edwin and Minsc don´t go together but with the Helm of Opposite Alignment on Minsc they will.
So now you Have 2 tanks, Half tank and half thief.
A Fighter who casts Priest magics.
2 Mages and on of them with good Pick Pockets ability.

[Nifft the Nimble]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Guardian Jarelia (TGOD):
It's a female elven assassin which look very cool when wearing leather or studded leather armor. Her name is Curare and allignment is true neatral.

I also need some advice with what party i should walk. I want to have the best. I was thinking of having Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Nalia, Imoen and myself.

---

Hi Jarelia,

That's 3 thieves in one party! (Well, two and Nalia...)

How you allocate your skill points depends entirely on what role you plan to play in your party. There are three ways you could go:

1) Primary Thief: You are the thief for your party. You must scout, disarm traps and pick locks.

2) Backup Thief: You are not responsible for finding traps or picking locks. You can concentrate on the fun stuff, like setting traps, moving silently and hiding in shadows.

3) Solo Thief: You are the whole party.

It sound to me like you are going to do # 2. If so, you should ignore for now Find/Remove Traps, Open Locks and Detect Illusion. You can put Set Traps up to 70% and then put the rest in Hide in Shadows and Move Silently. (Move Silently isn't important at first, so put more points in Hide in Shadows.)

Elves get a bonus to-hit when using Long Swords and any kind of Bow. Use that advantage -- with your thief's THAC0 you'll need it -- and so pick for weapon proficiencies:
+ Long Swords
+ Single Weapon Style
+ Short Bows

I disagree about Katanas being good for thieves. Ask for a detailed analysis of average damage if you want to know the nitty-gritty of why. There are some good katanas, but if you want to use them, take Valygar or get another fighter to take proficiencies in them.

If you are planning on taking Annomen for romance, you obviously have no substitute. About the rest of the party: Minsc and Keldorn are similar. In my humble opinion Keldorn is superior, but many people are attached to Minsc's personality. There's no harm in taking both, but if you dump Minsc for Jaheira, you'll have access to some good spells. If you want P*O*W*E*R, though, dump Minsc and take Edwin!

Don't take Nalia. Instead, take Haer'Dalis. He's got a good personality, has a bard song, picks pockets, can hold his own in a fight (with the armor you get when rescuing him, stoneskins and offensive spin) and is a fine backup mage. Since you're planning on being a backup thief, take Yoshimo when you exit Irenicus' dungeon. Plan on dumping him when you rescue Imoen.

-- Nifft


PS: Random note on solo assassins: you can hide in shadows whenever you can't see any red circles. so run around pillars (like that big formation in the middle of the crystal room in Irenicus' dungeon) until you successfully hide. Lure foes out of groups by hiding in shadows, moving until you can just barely see them, then leaving shadows intentionally. The foe will see you and move to attack. Run away (behind a corner or something) and hide. You ought to be able to do it with the good lead you've got. To make a neutral face a different way, talk to him or her. You don't need to "close the deal" and actually talk to them, just start to, then move away. They'll follow you, turning to face where you are. Then they'll lose interest and remain facing where you were. This is nice for positioning people you plan to backstab.

[ 02-28-2002: Message edited by: Nifft the Nimble ]

[SixOfSpades]

I'm agreeing with most of the stuff here......

Backstabbing Thieves should invest in Single Weapon, not Sword & Shield. S&S is practically worthless for many characters, as it only boots your AC against Missile attacks. Your Tank and your Backstabbing Thief don't need it, as they're always within melee range when they're fighting. Your Thief shouldn't use a Shield at all, because with 1 weapon and a star in Single weapon will let you Critical Hit (and we all LOVE to see that message on our Backstab rolls, don't we?) with a 19 as well as a 20.

Katanas are good to specialize in early on, but not before Long Swords. The Celestial Fury is a damned good weapon, but you'll need some levels under your belt if you want to survive the battle to get it. Also, some of the Long Swords later on in the game are just plain better. (I'm thinking ToB here.)

Thieving Skills: It's nice to have both/all Thieves in your party have close to 80% Set Traps, because being able to set more of those nasty little suckers never hurts. Pass around the Mercykiller Ring to get everyone's percentage up to 100%, which is the maximum that makes any difference (I think).
Only one of your Thieves should do Detect Illusion. (I'm playing a bit with Imoen: I turned her into a pure Swashbuckler, and will Dual her at Level 15 or 20. I put all her points into Find Traps and Illusions, and gave her the Thief(Adventurer) AI Script. I'm going to see if it gives her permanent True Sight.
I like to have one Thief for fightin' (wears the Mercykiller Ring/Boots of Elvenkind/etc) and one for stealin' (carries a stash of Potions of Master Thievery).

P.S. Read Nifft's P.S. again. Little tricks like that is exactly what I do when I want to plant a Backstab (I always do the "talk to the person to get them facing the way you want" ploy when facing the Lich in the Crooked Crane.)