Backstabb

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My cool thief has Hide in Shadows over 100%, Dagger of Backstabbing(or something like that),Shadowed armor(or something like that) and ring of invisibilitty, but his backstabbing is still,so to say, poor.How's that.Is it a bug and can I do something about it? I need an answer 'cause hidden "guerilla" style of fighting is one of the best.

 

I also had trouble backstabbing late in the game. My guess is that so many of the opponents at that stage have such low ACs that you still end up missing half the time.

Also, did you know you can backstab with a long sword? Even a measly little +1 longsword can give you much greater damage than the best daggers you can find. Just for the record, daggers have got the be the most useless weapon in AD&D. Anyone care to object? I'd like to hear a strategy where someone has found them useful.

 

I'm starting to agree with you absoluttely.Those daggers are absolutelly useless.Later in the game I couldn't backstabb even the gnomes working in the mine.(funny isn't it, when you wrk your work and someone just sneaks behind trying to kill you, but then you turn around and see a poor thief swinging his complettely useless dagger of backstabbing through the air without any effect)

 

Another trick to backstabbing is that you have to be 'behind' the victim. How does the AI know you are behind? Because someone else just attacked them from in front (arrows are OK). So if you backstab before your other party member gets his/her blow in (because of the initiative roll - see other posts) it counts as a normal attack. All of which seems so fiddly I switched my thief to fighter/thief and get 6 attacks in in the time it takes to set up the 'perfect' backstab. Pity 'cos it is a cool effect.

 

I'm also using a fighter/thief in my current game, but don't think this means you can't backstab! on the contrary, having that fighter THAC0 in the mix means you have an even better chance of hitting with a backstab, and exceptional strength adds more damage to your backstab!

My current party consists of 3 characters, each of whom are played by a different person (it's a multi-player game). Our tactics generally consist of me scouting a room out, our cleric sending in a horde of undead to catch the monsters' attention, then the three of us joining the fight... I usually start with a backstab attempt on either the strongest monster or a spellcaster, since I'm most often behind them all.

It works quite well.. so don't count out your thieves!

 

Yes backstabbing is awesome to say the least! I believe that the POST by ERRAN is helpful. I also realized the difference when a NPC/Monster was hit by one of my party and THEN my Thief attacked -but I always dealt HIGH damage.

I also started another theory that has meted high results. Invisibility. Whether by Potion, Invisibility Spell or Improved Invisibility Spell my Thief started delivering BIG TIME damage. By the end of the game I tried it on UMBER HULKS, Salamandars and the like. -Many occasions - it was death dealing in one blow.

I do think however the AI in IWD needs adjusting to the awesome Thief attack, in that when a Thief goes to Stealth mode it has the EXACT same effect as the Invisibility code/parameters for attacks in the game. -Which I have found a difference with success and the amount of damage dealt.

My highest damage dealt by my best Thief was around 60pts -BOOM! Body parts went a flyin'!!!