Pure Assassain V.S Figther/Thief (dualclass)

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Un till i fix a new disc I'm planing for my new party. I will play with a evil party containing Korgan, Edwin, Vicionia and one more NPC. I plan to create a monk and a thief to use as Bhaal spawn. Before I often played with a Kensai dual classed into thief at level 11 or 12. With that I gained the ability to become master in weapon training and get about 3 kai abilities. This time I thought about playing with a pure assassin name any class that can be used in any more evil ways ) But what do I actually gain in doing that. I can get my back stab to x7 and the ability to poison my weapons. But none of those can even be compared to what I gain on dual classing.

To my question: Are there any MAJOR advantages with playing as a pure Assassin compared to Kensai dual classed into thief?

 

Assassin Advantages:

You get to use poison, and the amount of damage the poison does increases with levels. At high levels the amount of damamge your poison does will more than compensate for the extra damage you would do with a kensai-thief over a standard thief. Plus, poison is considered elemental damage, so often times a mage can be poisoned even if the weapon itself doesn't cause damage. For example, if a mage is protected with stoneskin, the poison damage gets through even though the weapon damage won't. The damage from the poison will be more than enough to interrupt his spells for a few rounds, and at higher levels when the poison does a lot of damage, it will probably kill him.

Advantages of the kensai-thief:

Obviously, you're going to have a lot better THAC0. Additionally, I believe it is possible to use the kai ability prior to attempting a backstab, which essentially means all of your backstabs are going to do huge amounts of damage. Until your assassin gets to be a very high level, the average damage of a kai-backstab at X5 is going to exceed that of an assassin backstab.

It's your choice really. If you like to melee, then the kensai-thief is your man. If not, so with the assassin.

 

I suppose that I stick with the old Fighter/Thief kit then. I never really liked poison damage maybe because of bad memories from Cloakwood in BG 1. Thanks for you answer and farewell.

 

quick question, i want to solo a fighter/theif, but i was wondering why i could not get the natural cleric abilities that the protagonist usually gets, is it just a multi char cant get it our what?

 

The abilities you get are dependent upon your alignment. If you are neutral or evil, you'll get different abilities.

 

ooooooooohhhhhhhh i understand, so the heal light wounds is if you are under good alignment. thanks a bunch.

 

And Larloch's Drain and Horror if you're evil. Although once you've been to Spellhold, you'll lose them all.

 

Yah i knew the thing about spell hold, but i never really started playing evil parties in BG2 until recently, always hated korgan and viccy so didn't see the pt of evil party, so now i just make my own evil party on multi.

 

Be a bounty hunter and you can lay traps! That might not sound so great but it works wonders literally when you are gonna fight someone who doesnt attack on sight. Big bad bosses or golems for example, are great targets. You go up and lay all your traps all around them and then when they become hostile and move to attack you, boom! They are screwed! Gotta love the traps man.

 

Although you're a little cheesy there Kovalis... Damn you're SO RIGHT!! Traps are simply utterly great and hilarious. But on-topic, I'd still go with the assasin, the poison ability must be one of the most underrated ones, and just imagine a X7 backstab with cut-throat

 

Kovalis - You're way off topic
This thread is F/T vs Assassin.

Lacecit - How about x5 + kai ability with the same weapon? Difficult choice.

 

I know, but Kai wears off so fast, and (correct me if I'm wrong) Kensai can't use ranged weapons and can therefore not disrupt spellcasting from a distance. An assasin with the tuigan Bow and +2 poison arrows can. Matter of fact, he can do a lot more than that too...

It all really comes down to your playing style, as was said before. If you enjoy sneakiness ( like I do) more than you enjoy straight melee, you should defintely go assasin.

 

true about taking otu spellcasters, interupting them and what not, however with the increased movement speed, you can close the gap to take the spellcasters out faster, and not to mention the fact that most of the spell casters you need to fear have auto cast of protection from normal missiles and such.

 

With the cloak of non-detection and good hide in shadow/move silently, you can sneak up on almost any creature in the game, as far as I've played at least. Then you can do a nice backstab, run away (possibily using a ring of invisibilty to buy yourself a second while running before you're true sighted) then hide in shadows, and backstab again. A backstabbing assasin is pretty much unstoppable with the cloak of non detection. . .

 

I think that as a thief, the main purpose is to do thievery, not to spell cast or any other. I think that comparing the Assassin and the fighter/thief, there is no other way to say but that the Assassin rox big-time!

I think at the highest level in SoA, the x8 of the backstab multiplier is simply overkill. A simple hit with the Cutthroat+4 and I can say that even Dierex the lich or even an Adamantine Golem will find it hard not to die.

On the other hand, the fighter/thief gives it an edge with (maybe) better weapons proficiency and the extra hp. But then again, there is simply not a good enough backstab multiplier to make a really effective killing coupe'de grace.

Therefore, i think that the Assassin is the better choice for a perfect thieving killing machine.

 

I prefer Fighter/Thief. I don't want a main character who spends most of his time hiding (boy ain't that heroic - "Go Keldorn! I'll just hide behind this rock over here while you do most of the work").

The Fighter/Assassin or Fighter/Swashbuckler are great classes. For the F/A you can dual with impressive backstab damage. The F/S enjoys AC benefit and better combat abilities and he might as well use a different weapon than standard issue thief weapons.

 

Hello -

If you are interested, I did a mathematical analysis of the K/T vs. the assassin recently. It can be found in this thread.

If you want the short version, K/T wins. Backstabs like this one are very attainable and can happen pretty early in the game, while the assassin has to wait for that kind of effectiveness. Also, the assassin will never achieve that kind of to-hit bonus (+19 in the pic: +3 Kensai +2 STR bonus +2 weapon specialization +4 weapon +4 striking from shadows +4 target had missile weapon equipped). On the other hand, you could argue that such hits are overkill and that the assassin plays more like a true rogue and has other abilities to make up for his early weakness.

Anyway, they're both fun.

 

Golems are immune to backstab (as are dragons and some other creatures), and Adamantite golems have 90% physical damage resistance to boot. Deirex can also see invisible creatures, so I don't think he can be backstabbed, either.

Backstabbing really comes into its own in eliminating spellcasters and poorly armored creatures.

 

Isn't there a mod or something which will allow you to dual a Kensai to Assassin instead of just Thief?

 

But Adamantite golems has VERY low protection against the poison!