Detect Illusions and Move Silently

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are these skills worth anything? At what point does detect illusions start to work and, is it as good as say, a true sight spell? thanks.

 

Can't say I ever needed them myself. <thinking> Nope. never needed them.

 

i think move silently is essential (together with hide in shadows) for using the thiefs, hide ability and backstab.....

 

Hide in Shadows determines the chances of you going invisible when you try stealth. But, Move Silently is the skill that is checked every round which determines whether or not you continue to stay hidden...so, IMHO, Move Silently is much more important for your average Joe Backstabber than Hide in Shadows.

Detect Illusions is a fairly powerful ability which is INVALUABLE for solo Thieves and Fighter/Thieves in that it can dispel illusions...ALL of them!

Mirror Image, Blur, Invisibility, Improved Invisibility, Shadow Door, Mislead, Project Image, Simulacrum...they ALL fall to this nifty little ability!

Its like an unlimited True Sight with the added bonus of dispelling Simulacrum! On the negative side, it takes a whole round to kick in AND you have to put atleast 75-100 points into it before it gives you any noticeable difference.

My opinion...Move Silently is INVALUABLE for any self-respecting thief, Detect Illusions is a frills ability, which you can get great use of if you have extra points to spare.

 

Detect Illusions can also be used in the circus tent, to get rid of the irritating werewolves.

*wanders off again*

 

Also, IIRC the check for being able to start hiding in shadows uses the average of Move Silently and Hide in Shadows, so you're better off pumping all your points into MS.

 

Also, for Detect Illusions to kick in, the thief must be actively detecting traps. It takes at least a full round (just like Detect Traps) but sometimes more, depending on your skill and the difficulty level of the illusion.

 

Yep...like Djieff said, every round, there is a check with your skill level against how difficult the other guy's move silently or whatever the skill being tested is. This keeps repeating every round, until the illusion has been detected or you turn the Detect Traps mode off yourself.

 

The best thing with detect illusion is that it ignores magic resistance completely. So if mage/lich/demi-lich casts his dreaded imp. invis./spell immunity: divination-combo (with tactics they do this quite often) just have your thief standing around detecting illusions. Preferably he should stand *right behind* the enemy. Eventually the illusion will be dispelled. Then have your mage cast breach, launch a backstab attack immediately and watch those pieces fly ...

 

I always use my thief to detect illusions when mages are around. That's what a thief is for - utility jobs. Plus it saves on taking up a level 5/6 spell slot.

As for move silently, you can hide in shadows, slip out of shadows and stay hidden for an obscene amount of time, during which you remain unseen and can backstab or detect illusions.

 

I have an assassin with 95 in both, so from now on i will be better off pumping everything into MS? It would give me 5 points/level for something else!

 

Since Imoen has almost always been my only thief, and she lacks both skills, I can only say that they aren't that necessary. If you want to dispell invisibility or the like, one slot to "true sight" won't be much, and it automatically works for several rounds. Move silently isn't that necessary either, since most of time you won't be staying hidden for very long, if you intent to backstab, and with one pair of boots of speed, you won't be seeing any enemies when you don't want to

 

Although it seems counter-intuitive to me that "hiding" depends on "silence," I believe it is also true that a ranger's stealth ability is actually a Move Silently ability. That is, rangers can "go invisible" by moving silently. Can anyone verify or counter that?

 

@Thor: Definitely...sink all your points into it...but once you have it at around 130, you should be fine for the rest of the game.Thing is, the game applies a negative modifier to the skill check when you are in "bright light". I'm not very sure how exactly this is implemented, but I HAVE noticed that its loads easier to hide when you're in the dark rather than in brighter areas. So, I would recommend pushing it up till 125-130 in both HiS and MS. Once you have those set, your next priority should be to get Set Traps up to 100. Once you have that, you dont need to worry about traps ever again.

And yes, then you should sink all your points into Detect Illusions.

This is assuming, of course, that you have 100 in Open Locks and 120 in Detect Traps.

I read in one of the FAQs, that the highest skill check required for the toughest trap in the game, (one in Watcher's Keep lvl 3 IIRC) is 120. Once you get that, your racial bonus should get you beyond that into the safety zone.

So...any accomplished thief should have stats like:

Open LOcks: 100
Detect Traps:120
Hide in Shadows:125
Move Silently: 125
Set Traps: 100
Detect Illusions: Whatever you want...but atleast 75-80 is advised
Pickpockets: Whatever you want...usually, I don't bother unless I'm playing a straight thief all the way through ToB.