New Thief Question

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I had a couple of quick questions about thieves. I'm planning on dual classing a fighter over to a thief and wanted to know what weapons a thief could backstab with (katanas? scimitars?).

Thanks for the help.

 

Anything a (pure) thief can use he can backstab with.

 

Long swords, short swords, katanas, scimitars, clubs, staves, and daggers can be used, with Abomination's caveat that a single-classed thief must be able to use the weapon.

 

it would be worth investing in longswords and katanas - longswords because longswords are everywhere in the game, and katans because as far as single handed weapons go, they deal an awful lot of damage, especially in the backstab situation

 

Don't forget that there ain't nothing wrong with a shortsword either. I prefer Scimitars rather than Katanas. Sure Katana's are nice but Scimitars cover both Piercing and Slashing damage types and if you get the ease-of-use mod you can nick Drizzt's Twinkle/Defender and use it as single weapon style handing you a nice 4 AC.

 

This is important to remember. For example, a mage-thief wielding the Staff Of The Magi cannot backstab with it, because it's a weapon usable only by mages. The same applies to, say, a kensai-thief wielding a fighter-only weapon such as the Blade Of Searing.

 

Although it might not make a lot of sense, iirc you can backstab with a short bow as well. But if you look at it as simply having time to carefully aim your shot, it probably does make sense.

 

With some katanas, you don't have the backstabbing bonus. But the katana+3 "celestial fury" is OK.
Stalkers can backstab too, the same restrictions apply. Valygar can't backstab with his katana, or a spear, but he can with the katana +3.

 

Are you sure about this? I've never tested it, but could it be that the enemies just need a higher '+' weapon than the one being used? If you are right, does it apply to weapons other than katanas?

 

I'm pretty sure any katana will backstab and have never had any problems with Yoshimo and his +1 katana before.

 

There are a few, and it comes down to whether they're flagged as usable by single-classed thieves. Valygar's katana and Dak'kon's Zerth katana from the bonus merchant can't backstab since they're not flagged as usable by thieves; Yoshimo's can since it's flagged as such (otherwise he can't use it).

Valygar's katana not being able to backstab is fixed with Baldurdash, though.