I can't backstab!

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I hide in the shadows, I sneak up on an unsuspecting gibberling, I click on my sword and get ready to KILL and then it says " Stealth failed, leaving shadows!" and I get left ther looking rather stupid tring to back away slowly saying "nice gibberling, good gibberling, stay, stay...RUN"

 

do it the way i do, get into position, pause, select wepon, click to attack, unpause

 

Keeping in the shadows at lower levels is harder. As your thief gains levels put lots of points into hide in shadows, and then you won't leave the shadows so often at inconvenient times. Also keep an eye out for a pair of boots of stealh. I know I got a pair off of a hobgoblin on the Ulcaster school map, south-east of Beregost.

 

To do a sucessful backstabb it is needed to have good stealth. Stealth works like that: Your stealth skill does not only indicates your chars ability to hide in shadows but his ability to stay undetected as well (this has been changed in BG-2). The puter does a stealth check when leaving shadows or when hiding - when you stay/ become visible - you failed. High skill modifies the roll to your advantage, basically it helps to eliminate chance
So, the more skilled you are, the longer will your char stay undetected when leaving shadows. So, even when stepping out of shadows you will do a sucessful backlstab that way.

To give you an idea of the stealth needed not to fail and to stay in shadows long enough - 100 is the norm (btw. usually stealth is the first ability I develop on a thief). If you're low leve two items can help you to improve stealth considerably: the shadow armor (ca be bought in beregost) and the boots of stealth (on two slain orcs in different areas).

So when tryig to backstabb some opponent: first it is pretty likely to fail on low level, sad but true; second: go close behind the back of your opponent and attack with a suitable melee weapon.

more thief info here: http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/thieves.php , though it is mainly focussed on BG-2 thievery the basic principles are the same as in BG-1.

hope this helps

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited December 12, 2001).]

 

Everybody explained it already a bit. Possible solutions: When leveling up, use some thief-skills in stealth. This is the most important. Also use the boots of stealth or the (rather expensive) Shadow Armor to increase your stealth. Note that you can only backstab with dagger, short sword en long sword. With higher stealth, you have much better chance to backstab. You have to hit at the first strike for a succesful backstab. At higher level and with better equiptment, you will discover that backstabbing is better and easier for you and more painful for the enemeies

 

I think the problem is with clicking on your sword. That unstealths you after a brief pause. To get around this problem, I would suggest that you either select the sword as your default weapon before you stealth, then just click to attack, OR do what Spudsquisher suggested.

 

Like Ironbeard said, you should not click on the weapon. When I go for a backstab, I have my sword selected as the default weapon before hiding in shadows. This way, all you have to do is click on the target.

 

Hmmm, I was pretty sure that you can backstab with scimitars, clubs and staves too. Maybe not, I haven't tried it in BG1.

 

I think it's possible to backstabb with scimitars , I tried with Drizzt's scimitar and I never encountered any problems when backstabbing with it

I never use staffs and clubs for backstabbing for obvious reasons

 

Backstabbing with staff or club is impossible like with all blunt-weapons.....

 

Unfortunately a thief can backstabb with every melee weapon he's allowed to use - this would include staffs and clubs I simply cannot accept the thesis that it is possible to *stab* anything but a jelly with a *blunt* weapon

I had to find out about that in BG-2 - however, I refuse to add that to my "why thiefs rule" guide here's the topic - I know it's BG-2, so be aware of spoilers, but it covers the same problem, since the core rules (including suitable weapon) for backstabbing weren't changed from BG-1 to BG-2:
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum2/HTML/003687.html

However, I still lack the final proof that it works in BG-1 as well (I don't want to install it now) hopefully not ....

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited December 18, 2001).]

 

I tried it and it is indeed possible... A pity, however I now lost my Cleric/Thief maybe fight with a club
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ma1rnix/baldr000.jpg

In 3rd edition backstab is changed into sneak attack, wich can even be done with ranged weapon. The theory is that the enemy doesn't see you, so he loses his Dexterity-bonus on his AC, and for your thief can aim carefully at a critical spot like hart, throat or head, he can do additionat damage (also dependent on his level) I like the 2nd edition rules better, but I must say there is some realism in this new rule.