Coming back to the game, rogue advice

[Infiltrator_SF]

Hey guys. So when the game was released I tried to make a rogue with stealth with a full party and got bored fairly quickly. Reason is, stealth kind of sucked back then, and so did backstab, so I gave up half-through the campaign. There was no glorious chomp from BG2.

 

I want to give the game another go, having both expansions, and I was hoping if someone could bring me up to speed with what's good/viable with melee rogues on PotD and non-merc companions.

 

Thanks

Edited August 2, 2017 by Infiltrator_SF

[GuyNice]

For general advice about Rogues you can search the forum, there are quite a few topic about it. Here is a recent one. As for the story companions, they are all useful and viable on PotD. They also start with more experience than the adventurers you can hire, so feel free to bring them along. They're also beautifully written and provide a lot of insight into the world. I do recommend always taking Durance with you, as Priests are extremely valuable party members. Grab as many of the story companions as early as you can before attempting any challenging content (like the temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale).

 

I would focus on getting as many buffs (accuracy especially) for the party and debuffing enemies, which is especially important on PotD. Grab talents like Inspiring Radiance (+10 accuracy, stacks) for Priest, Zealous Focus and the Outworn Buckler for Paladin (+6 accuracy and +5 all defenses, respectively). Have 3 sturdy frontliners (they don't have to be fully defensive tanks, but instead bring a balance of defense and damage/utility) at least to grab attention away from your squishies, who should be buffing, debuffing, CCing and nuking as needed. If you're having a hard time after the early game use summons from items with Spell Holding.

 

Remember that the beginning is the hardest part of the game, excepting a few particularly difficult (optional) encounters. So don't get too discouraged, as things tend to go more smoothly by the time you start act 2.

[Boeroer]

Backstab is ok if you have high stealth and a lot of uses of invisibility. Besides Shadowing Beyond you can get it from Nightshroud (1/rest) and Cape of the Master Mystic (spell holding 1/encouter). As mentioned in that linked thread, a reach weapon is very convenient for backstabbing. you don't need to be that close and you still get two backstab attacks in a row after unstealthing/becoming visible. It's obvious that heavy hitting weapons (or to be precise: weapons with high base damage) are best for Backstab.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Backstab is ok if you have high stealth and a lot of uses of invisibility. Besides Shadowing Beyond you can get it from Nightshroud (1/rest) and Cape of the Master Mystic (spell holding 1/encouter). As mentioned in that linked thread, a reach weapon is very convenient for backstabbing. you don't need to be that close and you still get two backstab attacks in a row after unstealthing/becoming visible. It's obvious that heavy hitting weapons (or to be precise: weapons with high base damage) are best for Backstab.

I was using a Dwarven DW Hammer Rogue with high Stealth. He was excellent. Don't overlook weapons with better Interrupt values. When dropping a BS on a spell caster the longer interrupt period is pretty sweet and usually spells doom for said spell caster. Though I was switching to 2-handers for the Dragon fights/Higher DR foes.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Blades of Vanatar

[Infiltrator_SF]

Backstab is ok if you have high stealth and a lot of uses of invisibility. Besides Shadowing Beyond you can get it from Nightshroud (1/rest) and Cape of the Master Mystic (spell holding 1/encouter). As mentioned in that linked thread, a reach weapon is very convenient for backstabbing. you don't need to be that close and you still get two backstab attacks in a row after unstealthing/becoming visible. It's obvious that heavy hitting weapons (or to be precise: weapons with high base damage) are best for Backstab.

 

Yeah, staff of the ram comes to mind. Still, you're saying I can top dps as backstabber with tall grass? Is it worth the micro? And how would you distribute stats?

[Boeroer]

The micro isn't that bad. What you basically do at the start of every fight is to wait for the enemy to reach your frontline and then poke from the back row. If your stealth is high enough you don't unstealth before the enemy is in reach and you get two attacks with +150% base damage. So basically it adds no micro. It's like two free +150% boosts per encounter. Cape of the Master Mystic also doesn't add micro. The only thing that adds micro is Shadowing Beyond.

 

This also works with a gun, but you usually don't get two shots with backstab while it's easy to get two stabs with a pike.

 

The best melee weapon for Backstab is Firebrand from Forgemaster's Gloves. But this you can only use with invisibility because the summoning obviously drops your stealth. But if you plan to use Shadowing Beyond I would summon Firebrand before that. The combo of high base damage, annihilation and backstab is pretty impressive. That's - of course - a lot of micro.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Boeroer

[Infiltrator_SF]

Eh it's not as intensive as those BG2 dances around FOV for sure I guess you spec your rogue to be more offesive given his reach? Do you dump any stats?

[Boeroer]

Yes, since he will not get hit a lot I give him the stats of a ranged rogue: dumped CON and RES. High INT is nice with a backstab rogue because invisibility lasts longer which gives you more time to reach the targets you want to destroy. High move speed is also kind of important.

 

Backstab helps in the early game, too. There are not many abilites that give you such a high damage bonus that early in the game. Just make sure your steakth keeps up. An item with +2 steakth helps a lot in the early to mid game if you also want to take some points of survival or so.