Stalkers: Ever play one?

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Seems like many people overlook this class, instead going for an Archer...

This class is very versatile, as you can do many things: cast druid spells, as a well 3 mage spells at level 12, backstab, +20% hide in shadows, as well as all of the other ranger abilities like starting with ++ in dual wield, and racial enemy.

All of this and the only penalty is leather armors! First off, the Hide in Shadows ability is just too darn useful to be wearing anything other than leather with a Ranger anyway, as well as it just looking cooler . AC won't be a problem; I've seen AC up to -10 with fighter/mages and other classes that don't have the ability to wear armor. Plus Leather armor looks cooler, especially on a ranger!

The only problem is see with this class in BG2 is that Valygar is a Stalker and a very good character indeed...

I'd also like to add that the Stalker's backstab table is wrong. The Stalker starts with a x2 backstab, increasing to x3 at level 9 and x4 at 17...

[This message has been edited by Lord Sarevok (edited January 24, 2002).]

 

Good points to make. The Stalker is a good character for playing with.
However, I find the backstab amount not as useful as the abilities of the Archer provide. Also, I believe that there is a bug or something that prevents the Stalker from using spells. But I think that may just be limited to Valygar. On the other hand, it may not be a bug at all, given his hate of magic.

 

No, no bug with the Stalker or Valygar. For Valygar, he has to level up while in your party before gaining his druid spells, and for Stalker, if you memorize one of the mage spells it will appear in your special abilities button, not in your spell list with the druid spells.

[This message has been edited by Lord Sarevok (edited January 25, 2002).]

 

This just reinforces my notion that a Stalker would be an ideal soloist. Lots of pure striking power + backstab. And the quick leveling up means you'll get to those cleric spells quickly.

You can't backstab with spears though right?

 

No, you can't. The Stalker is limited to using all of the theif's weapons to backstab with. But you only need to use one weapon to backstab. Like if you wanted to use a flail or something, keep that in the main slot and a weapon suitible for backstabbing in the second slot.

BUT I remember being able to backstab with a Staff Mace with my Assassin/Mage, so maybe a Staff Spear would work? But if you could think about backstabbing with Impaler +3 heh...

[This message has been edited by Lord Sarevok (edited January 24, 2002).]

 

Actually, hypothetically backstabbing with the Impaler +3 wouldn't provide that much damage, because the +10 piercing damage is separate and therefore not multiplied in the event of a Critical Hit or Backstab.

Wow, 6 posts within 21 minutes.

[This message has been edited by creudzfeldt-jakob (edited January 24, 2002).]

 

Yup, but +10 damage is always nice either way. OF COUSE if we're going to be talking about backstabbing with non-theif weapons someone is going to mention Crom Faeyer so lets just drop it right now .

I'm not saying Stalkers are in any way superior to Archers they are just more enjoyable to me.

 

Crom Faeyer

 

Uh-uh. Crom Faeyr. No second e. But those two forbidden words should be spoken nevermore in this thread.

 

Sorry, but after Lord Sarevok said that I just had to say Crom Faeyer too. Oops I said Crom Faeyer, doh!

 

Well, StressedE, at least you only said one of the forbidden words. "Faeyer" all you like, but the Cr*m F**yr just doesn't seem right for a Stalker, too . . . brutish, if you ask me. Plus you can't backstab with it, which brings us back to the whole point of this subthread.

[This message has been edited by creudzfeldt-jakob (edited January 25, 2002).]

 

*Sigh*

I said I never use the damn thing so you expect me to know how to spell it?

 

Sorry, I have a nasty habit of nitpicking.

 

Hey! Don't look at me! ctrl+c & ctrl+v

 

That may not look that odd if you try to make your party best by class (doing this just as example):

-1 mage
-1 cleric
-1 thief
-2 tanks

..and that leaves place for one more char. If you're gonna put someone that has good ranged attack there, archer is much better than stalker. If you play assasin as your thief, you'll have someone to backstab and scout.
Stalker doesn't make a back-up mage/cleric but has those magics in order to save his ass. Well most of the time anyway, because wearing that leather ac isn't that good.
So you basically have no need for it. Other than that, when palying for new experience I find stalkers rather fun kits to play.

 

Yeah sure, if you made your own party. But I never do, so the Stalker works for me.

There aren't very many good thieves in SoA. There's Yoshimo, and he's good, but he doesn't stick around for long, there's Imoen, who has nice lockpicking and disarming skills, but a puny 9 strength and only a x3 backstab and practically no skills in in hide in shadows/move silently, and lastly there's Jan, who's probably the best theif but he'll only have a x5 max backstab, while a Stalker would have x4 but made up for by his great damage. Nalia can hardly be called a theif, so I won't even mention her.

So, *I think* I can put up with the non incredible AC for some backstabbing fun, and still have a great character.

As far as spell casting goes, I mainly use him to cast spell such as bless and haste, to buffen up my party before fights, freeing up some slots from my mage and cleric.

Also, they have all of then bonuses that normal Rangers do, so I see nothing better about a normal ranger than a Stalker.

They are some of the best dual wielders too, because you can have ++ in 3 different weapons of your choice as well as +++ in two weapons style almost right off the bat.

I *never* dual wield while wearing anything heavier than studded leather anyway...it just doesn't look right, nor make any sense.

So don't write off the Stalker at first glance, it's a very fun and powerful class to play, even if it's not as appealing to powergamers.