Theft, Stealth & Backstabbing, Baldur's Gate 1 Original

Baldur's Gate 1 Thief Skills

Thieves play a pivotal role in most Baldur's Gate 1 Original adventuring parties, having a unique set of utility skills without which the party may struggle or even fail. The most important thief skills are Stealth, Open Locks and Find/Remove Traps; Pick Pockets is secondary. The skills can be raised beyond 100%, with only pick pockets and stealth mode taking advantage of points greater than 100. Note that the values are actually "points", not percentages.

Highly dexterous Halflings may manage to max out three of the four skills by tenth level; clumsier races will need to be more inventive, as detailed below. The maximums for Halflings with Dexterity scores of 19 are as follows: Open Locks (135), Find/Remove Traps (120), Pick Pockets (135), Stealth (140).

Stealth Baldur's Gate

Stealth is the art of moving unseen and unheard, a mode of play that blends AD&D's Hide In Shadows & Move Silently skills. Scouting ahead of the party, or lining up a juicy target for a devastating "backstab", are the two most effective uses of stealth.

Scouting is crucial for new players who would rather not bumble into a pack of ogre berserkers unprepared; however, the round-by-round checks can be a little touch and go until we increase the skill to "about 75", buff by quaffing one or more Potions of Perception (+20 % bonus to all thief skills for 6 hours), or perma-buff with items like the Boots of Stealth (+35 Stealth) and Shadow Armor (+15% Stealth).

The safest scouting is conducted by means of a Potion of Invisibility (lasts for 12 hours) or the arcane second circle spell, Invisibility (lasts 24 hours); long enough to learn the lay of the land and find a suitable position from which to mount an attack. Note that the fourth circle Improved Invisibility spell only lasts 10 rounds, but bestows combat benefits.

Backstab Baldur's Gate

Backstab is a surprisingly damaging mechanic if used correctly, the quadruple multiplier, coming at 110,000 Exp, capable of "chunking" tough-ass foes with a single poke (insta-kill). Targets reduced to -10 HPs or lower will explode into "chunks" of meat or gibs, which was invented by Doom 1993. Party members who are chunked by monsters will have their portrait disappear and thus cannot be raised. Nasty! Against a rival crew, opening with a backstab on the mage can notably reduce the duration and difficulty of a battle.

How to Backstab Baldur's Gate

In order to backstab, the thief must be positioned somewhat behind the victim, and also must be under cover of stealth. Usually, the player will pause the game once positioned, click the attack modal and then unpause. This cancels stealth, but not before the backstab is executed.

The meanest backstabbers are not pure thieves, but rather multi-class and dual-class Fighter/Thieves who take advantage of THAC0 and damage bonuses granted by percentile Strength and weapon specialization.

Backstab Damage Formula

Backstab damage = weapon roll + weapon enchantment + weapon specialization * backstab level (+ Strength bonus).

That's right, the Strength bonus isn't multiplied but every bit helps. Fighter/Thieves can also quaff Strength potions, basic thieves can't.

By "specialization", I mean the table which includes Proficient, Specialized, Master, High Master and Grand Master [see here for more info].

Fighter/Thief multi-classes can only Specialize (to-hit +1, dmg +2, ApR +1/2) whereas Fighter/Thief duals can High Master (to-hit +3, dmg +4, ApR +1/2). Thus, the dual-class's backstab is better.

Here is another backstab; this time, on the Demon Knight:

It is impossible to insta-kill the Demon Knight. Note, however, the follow-up attacks by the backstabber, which gave the DK no chance to square up and fight back. Very powerful.

The Boots of Speed (doubles movement rate, stacks with the Haste spell!) are an invaluable aid for repeatedly backstabbing members of a mob: simply stab the first victim, run out of the mob's vision radius, hide again, and then return to stab the next victim; rinse n repeat. 

Weapon-wise, a playful wield is the Dagger of Venom because its poison damage works over time and also slows the victim's movement rate. This weapon is ranked first in my Best IE weapons write-up.

Drizzt's Twinkle scimitar is of course a wicked wield (1d8 +3, to-hit +3, AC bonus 2) along with the Staff of Striking (to-hit +3, dmg +9), a magical quarterstaff found deep inside Durlag's Tower and subject to limited charges, so enjoy it while it lasts!

Open Locks & Find - Remove Traps

Open Locks & Find/Remove Traps are indispensable skills for new and prudent players, particularly in such perilous dungeons as the Candlekeep Catacombs and Durlag's Tower. 

Knock, a second circle arcane spell, can largely replace Open Locks, providing the player doesn't mind filling spell slots for utility actions which thieves can perform without limit and at no cost. 

As its name makes clear, the second circle divine spell, Find Traps, only reveals the trap's location; it does not remove it (I say that because in NWN it does). 

Since many traps cannot be walked around or otherwise avoided, the spell is no substitute for the skill. 

Traps generally reset after being tripped. Thus, they remain a threat until properly disarmed. 

Trap Detection Difficulty & Trap Removal Difficulty

Traps have Trap Detection and Trap Removal Difficulty ratings ranging from 0 to 100. Thieves lacking in skill can therefore not detect or remove traps.

Traps can inflict direct damage and poison. In addition, they can release any spell assigned to them as well as summon monsters (cf. Battle with Sarevok). Note that not all traps can be disarmed, and not all traps are visible to the player (invisible triggers).

Pickpocket Baldur's Gate

Pick Pocketing is the art of stealing from NPCs and certain merchant inventories; the danger being that, if we fail, the target goes hostile and we can't deal with them again unless we employ the Charm trick. Note that, for game balance reasons, we can't steal from merchants who actually have decent wares, like Thalantyr of High Hedge or Halbazzer of Sorcerous Sundries.

The pockets of a few NPCs can yield decent gear (e.g, Algernon, Drizzt, Dushai), with Shandalar in Ulgoth's Beard being a prime target for several powerful scrolls such as Spirit Armor.

Thief skills can be buffed by quaffing:

• Potion of Master Thievery (+40 Open Lock & Pick Pocket for 3 hours)
• Potion of Perception (+20 % bonus to all thief skills for 6 hours)

These are conveniently purchasable in sufficient quantities from Halbazzer and Erdane before we meet with the more crafty locks and deadly traps of the catacombs and Durlag's Tower.

Burglary Baldur's Gate

Note that fists are treated as non-lethal weapons, so the monster is just knocked unconscious and no experience points are awarded. The upside of that is, before robbing someone's house, we can punch them out so they can't report us to the authorities for theft, thereby incurring no reputation loss.

Next up: Baldur's Gate 1 Magic.

Baldur's Gate 1 Original (Index) | Baldur's Gate 1 Review (Index).