Mage/Thief

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Hey I am going to try soloing as a mage/thief and i was wondering what weapons i should use cause i only have i weapon slot. and it would be annoying and hard to switch weapons from a sword to bow during battle. should i use a sword and shield? or dual-wield swords?
Thanks!

 

I seem to recall there being two weapon slots for Mage/Thieves in BGII. BG1 was definitely only one slot.

I would use shortbows (obviously) and for melee you have either Shortsword, Longsword or Katana. Shortswords have low damage but are quick and you can get some could + to hit ones and lots of them have extra abilities besides. Katana for Celestial fury, but that might be better used bya front line fighter. There are plenty of longswords as well. Look at some of the daggers as well, especially ones with poison. There is also a weapon that has a % chance of going invisible on a successful hit and that would be cool for a thief.

I can't remember if thieves can backstab with staffs, if they can then you might want to think about using one. Staff of Rhynn is +4 and you can buy it at start of game. Plus you can get the Staff of the Magi later on.

 

You can back stab with the Staff of Rynn but not with the Staff of the Magi IIRC. You can only bacj stab with weapons a thief can use and the SoTM are restricted to mages. Thet's why Valygar can't backstab with his Katana btw (maybe this bug has been fixed).

I'd dual wield Celestial Fury with a long sword - and then maybe have a few points in dagger for the Fire Tooth for ranged attacks (or simply dual wield katanas with daggers?).

@Bard
He's soloing so he probably want the Celestial Fury for himself...

 

This is slightly but why can't Valygar backstab with his katana? It is a thief weapon after all. But otherwise everything stated above is correct. Any weapon useable by a thief you can backstab with, including blunt weapons such as quarterstaffs and clubs.

 

I'd use some weapons that add extra spells or defence, as I'm not sure if a mage/thief will be that well protected. I recall a short sword with the haste ability, which could free up some spell slots for you. I assume you will wear a mage robe? or will you switch to armour during tougher fights? either way, I wouldn't rely on weapons for fights untill the larger opponents come up...good luck with the big red fire bag.

 

Considering the weapons your class will be restricted to, Single-Weapon style would be a very sound investment. The only 2-handed melee weapon available to thieves is the Quarterstaff. You still have long & short swords, katanas, scimitars/wakizashis/ninja-tos, clubs and daggers, all single hand weapons. Maxing out single-weapon style doubles your critical-hit range and gives you a dandy AC bonus. Besides, the only shields you can use are bucklers anyway, and thre aren't really any in the game. If you really want to focus on Staves, go ahead. But just bear in mind how quickly you'll level up. You'll be able to add proficiency in 2-handed Weapon style later on, when the better staves become available to you. I think you'd have more fun to spread your options out, picking and choosing your weapons depending on the situation.

My 2 cents.

 

I´d go with two weapon style and katana to start with if you´ve modded your game any so you can buy from the lady in Adventurers Mart. Dakkons (sp) katana is great for a T/M. And then I´d put a long sword in the other hand.

 

One thing many of you dual-wielding fans seem to be forgetting is that mage/thieves can only get 1 proficiency slot in any weapon or fighting style. For a character with an already fairly low thac0, the penalties would be far too great. So 2-weapon style for a mage/thief doesn't make a whole lot of sense (unless you cheat using SK). I know this sucks, because I LOVE 2-weapon style, but it just isn't terribly logical. The only way to do this would be to solo a fighter/mage/thief. Sorry.

My advice: Since IIRC you start the game with 4 proficiency points to divie out, select Katana, Long Sword, Short Bow, Single-Weapon Style. This will make your backstabs more potent, and it makes up for the lack of shield. Later on, get Short Swords and maybe Crossbows or Staffs. I would recommend selecting a Gnome as your race, as they make the best mage/thieves by far, but that's your call. If not Gnome, go with a pure Elf (not a Half-Elf). The extra dex will help with ranged weapons, and they get a +1 bonus with long swords and bows. I won't go into much more detail about races unless you want me to - I know you're just asking about weapons.

 

Thanks guys for all your advice! It's helped a lot! and ya i was wrong the t/m does get 2 weapon slots.

 

Aldeth, Valygar simply cannot backstab with his katana because it is a slashing weapon.
(I know its stupid. they should get a mod for that.)

 

Might have been said already. But Valygar can't backstab with his Katana because it can't be used by thieves. Only weapons useable by thieves can be used for backstabbing. It will be because in the item description the flag to say whether thieves can use the item will be turned off.

Hope this clarifies this and sorry if I'm repeating anyone already.

 

No no no its because its not dagger, shortsword, etc. anyway thieves can use katanas.

 

Off topic: the Valygar katana/backstabbing oversight is slated to be fixed in the next Baldurdash fixpack.

 

@xnnixg - sorry, didn't make myself clear. dmc said it better. Although thieves can use katanas, the item settings that say thieves can use it have been turned off so the program code that deals with backstabbing doesn't recognise it as a weapon suitable for backstabbing with. It looks like the backstabbing code checks these flags for each individual item, rather then checking by item type.

There seems to be a few weapons this can happen with. If you have InfExp, then you can look at all the items and you'll be able to see the weapons that a thief can use. This can also be handy for understanding hw some bits of the game work the way they do.

I don't think it is a major problem over all for a mage/thief as he still has an excellent range of weapons to choose from. The only let down is not being able to use the staff of the magi.

What would be better for a mage/thief - robes/bracers or elven chain? Also, every tends to use ioun stones for the bonuses, but what about the death-mask to prevent critical hits?

With my mage/thief I brought over from BG1, I put a lot of points into stealth, but I am thinking now that it might have been better to use the invis spells instead. Improved invis is great for backstabbing, but doesn't last that long.

 

a mage/thief wouldent be able to wear a death mask (do you mean Vhaliors - the one that casts simulacrum or that one that casts desth spell) as mages cant wear helms, and Thieves cant wear helms.

Points in stealth LOL, I never have points in stealth as you get plenty of potions of invis and heaps of rings of invis very early in the game.

 

There is one that you find during the game, can't remember where. It isn't classsed as a helmet and mages, etc can wear it. It has no real bonuses, but does prevent from critical hits and that can mean the difference between life and death for a mage or mage/thief.

If you look through the screenshots for SoA, you'll see Taluntain wearing one. I think it's on page 6, 7 or 8.

It might be called a burial mask, you have to collect pieces of it to make it.

 

You mean the one that you piece together in Firkrags dungeon after you kill the Genies? (King Troms mask?)

I didn't think that that even protected against critical hits.

 

Just had confirmation from 'Sorcerer' that the burial mask protected against criticals. Don't know if this helps any, but you never know.

Getting a bit more back on topic - check out some of the daggers available. They are very fast to use and some have poison which is great against mages and cleric.