POLL: Which thief kit you think is better? Assassin or Bounty Hunter?

Remove all ads!

Both thief kits are very powerful.

If I wanted an all power thief I would start off in BG1 as a vanilla fighter and give him the tomes for Str, Dex, Con, & Cha if you have a CHA of 17+.

Str 19
Dex 19
Con 19
Int 3+
Wis 3+
Cha 17+

Once the vanilla fighter reach level 9 in BG2 I would than dual him/her to a Thief. This would give me the thief extra hit dice for extra HP. I do know that if a player goes this route they will not be able to gain the special abilities of the kits listed unless shadow keeper was used but this route provides a character with godly stats, HP and super back stabber with high normal thieving stats. The only down side is no posion and no special traps.

 

well.. first of all if i where to make that char, i would duall him at level 13 instead, extra profs. and extra attack, and most likely pick a kit, like kensai or so.

another thing i think i would make a multi F/T instead, if that is possible in BG 1 (tutu)

 

In the original game, the Assassin is the best thief kit hands down. With mods like Tactics however, the Bounty Hunter is the best thief kit.

 

What good is a 7x backstab or poison attack if your enemy has a stoneskin on? Or Improved Mantle? Or PFMW?

Bounty Hunter, no doubt. Also, since I like to be skilled in many areas, I much prefer the 20 pts/lvl instead of 15. Throwing the traps is just the icing on the cake!

That said, pulling off a Critical Hit 7x backstab is a powergamer's fantasy...

 

... a fantasy fulfilled, as my assassin managed to pull one off against those bhaal-spawnies who look like a kobold and a xvart from bg and a kobold commando and rabbit (18,000 xp?!). really nice one:
isam attcks xxx.
isam: attack throw 19 + 12 = hit.
isam: yeah, he he. (voice only)
isam did 190 septuple damage to xxx.
xxx: death.
or something like that

 

You think a Swashbuckler is superior to a Fighter/Thief? Really? I think the fighter/thief multi-class is one of the most powerful characters in the game, once you earn your first 1 million XP. (It takes a while to get enough skill points to have your thief be fully functional. By the time you get to ToB, and get assassinate, you can be hitting enemies multiple times in one round, with 100+ damage per hit.)

Anyway, if the choice must be between BH and A, I'll take the Assassin. As has already been pointed out, in party play, the BH's trap skills become superfulous, and I'll take the X7 backstab and poison (especially while using a bow), thank you very much.

 

Love the assassin. More challenge, more fun. I always find my assassin doing most of the hard work if I'm with a party once he gets the boots of speed. When I solo'd an assassin, I went all the way through Firkraag's duneon without resting once. Problem with a bounty hunter is, what do you do when you're out of traps? Looks like you have to rest, and hope you don't get ambushed.

 

Assassins ROCK!!!!!!!

 

Assassin, easily. If the poll was assassin or swashbuckler, then I'd have more difficulty. I don't think the special snares are impressive enough compared to the backstab and poison of an assassin.

 

What's so great about a Swashbuckler? They're a poor fighter, as the most they can ever get is 4 attacks at horrible THAC0...(the bonus THAC0s dont make THAT much difference).

Assassins and Bounty Hunters are SO much better than Swashies IMO...

What's the point of being a thief if you can't backstab? Meh...

 

Ok then you should go for Assassin or Bounty Hunter, Dual them into a fighter when you get the thieves/bards ability Use Any Item and then kill anything that bugs you

 

Well, on the one hand the Swashbuckler faces no penalties to the rogue points they get when levelling up. The Swashbukler's attack and AC improve with levels. That means that a Swashie will hit more often, and will be hit less times than any other thief type. They can also get 2 starts in any weapon or weapon style they can choose, which is another bonus. And they can dualwield with minimum penalties (for a rogue, that is).

The only downfall is the inability to backstab. IMO, depending on your style of play, that limitation may not be that important.

I still prefer the BH, though.

 

Some Creatures especially in TOB are immune to backstab and others are immune to poison. If you are immune to both the assassin is going to have a real tough time. Besides the poison is really the only thing really going for the assassin. Yes he has a x7 backstab but a BH has a x5 and that is very nasty too. I like adding abilities to my characters rather than make one thing great which is my problem with assassin from a power stand point (but they are still more fun in general to play).

 

That's a good point too. Really, the difference between X5 and X7 isn't as great as you'd think, because it is the base weapon damage that get multiplied. Other bonuses (such as strength) get added on AFTER the multiplication, so your thief with +10 to damage is only going to get that once, not 7 times.

 

An extra 2x isn't as great as I'd think? It only means that you have a better chance of taking out your enemy in 1 hit. It's like saying that a +2 longsword isn't as great as you'd think, because it only does an extra 2 damage, and only adds 2 to your THAC0.

Even if the damage isn't multiplied from strength, if you're wielding a katana, that's a potential of 1d10+(weapon damage)x2 damage bonus with 7x as opposed to 5x. Double that on a critical for an extra 40+(weapon damage). No, not as great as I'd think at all.

For unbackstabbable enemies, use traps. These enemies are few and far between anyways.

 

Well obviously it does MORE Mularkey. I'm just saying from personal experience, spell casters (the most commonly backstabbed enemy) have under 100 hitpoints, so when you hit with a backstab, they're usually gibbed whether or not you have a x5 or x7 backstab. A mage with 50 hitpoints has chunks flying everywhere regardless of whether you hit him with a 100 point or 140 point backstab. You can't make them "more dead" by hitting them for twice the number of hitpoints then they actually have. All I'm saying is the added damage from x7 backstab is usually superfulous.

Also x7 isn't x2 damage compared to x5. That would would be x10. The damage difference is an increase of x1.4.

 

The fault with this is that this applies mainly to enemies any thief with decent equipment could probably go toe-to-toe with anyway. How about Mages with Stoneskin? Dragons? Liches? Amelissan?
Poison is OK, because although by the time you get to late BG2 most enemies will have developed high saves vs poison or resistances against it, it can potentially disrupt spellcasters and slows down fighters. But what's to stop the Bounty Hunter from using items with the poison effect as well? Bolts of Biting, the Scarlet Ninja-To and Neb's Nasty Cutter come to mind.

Most Bosses are immune to Backstab, and the more difficult ones can see through invisibility. Poison is both the Assassin and BH's mutual friend, so it all boils down to traps... and guess who simply "rulez" in this category.

As a side note, the Bounty Hunter has enough points to go around to have decent points in just about every thief skill. (5 points higher than the Assassin, as well as a bonus to hide and set traps iirc)
While the Assassin... 100 points in set traps alone will probably leave you more than a little lacking with his other skills. While high levels fixes this, you don't exactly start the game at lvl 40 either.

 

iv'e soloed an assasin and skill points where plenty, i dislike the BH, as i think it is.... i dunno what i just dont like it.