JustKneller
Habitué
- Messages
- 891
We're talking about this guy. I started to post a solo run in the candlekeep annex with a vanilla thief, but it just didn't work out. He just wasn't competent enough for backstabs. Granted, part of this was RNGesus messing with me, but even still, there was a LOT of whiffing. Yeah, these are very different game styles (first person stealth game vs. isometric RPG), but it just didn't have the right feel to it. I still want to solo the concept, but perhaps not a literal interpretation. I'm keeping in mind that, at the start of the Thief games, Garrett has been doing this for quite a while and probably is the equivalent of a max level thief. So, I need to give the character some grace while they level up. I have a few ideas of how to do this.
1) Another vanilla thief (turned Bounty Hunter in BG2). This won't help with the first game, but I recently found a mod that un-nerfs the THAC0 tables in that they continue to progress past level 20 (per the tabletop rules). This will keep the thief from having a crappy capped THAC0 of 10 allowing their ability to connect a backstab to progress through the game. They're still lousy toe-to-toe (no specialization), but at least backstabs will land better. Downside, this is a little cheaty.
2) Bring him in in spirit with a halfling fighter/thief. On one hand, its less (or totally not) cheaty, but on the other hand, this is actually a more powerful option than #1. I mean, even if I play it as a thief and don't take fighter HLAs, I'll have better HP, weapon specialization, and bonus attacks.
3) Really lean on the spirit side and create a gnome cleric/thief (or shadowkeeper a halfling cleric/thief, but that's kinda cheaty). Hear me out. Garret can't cast spells or anything like that. But, he could explode undead (with holy water arrows) and his schtick was having a massive toolkit at his disposal (usually in the form of utility arrows and other gadgets). The cleric/thief is the swiss army knife class. This also partially sorts out my THAC0 problem. the cleric caps at 6 instead of the thief's 10. With the +4 for a backstab, it's hitting at 2, which is only 2 points away from a fighter's capped THAC0. A bless/chant spell would put me at only 1 away. Plus other buffs could come in when making the backstab really matters. The upside is that this checks a lot of boxes and be non-cheaty. The downside is that I can't use most of Garrett's weapons (short sword, dagger, bow) with this build (I mean, there's UAI, but I can't pip the weapons). I only can use his blackjack (club). So, this is really leaning into the spirit of things.
Anyone have any opinions of one over another? Especially if you've played the thief games, what do you think would capture the feel the best? Thanks!
1) Another vanilla thief (turned Bounty Hunter in BG2). This won't help with the first game, but I recently found a mod that un-nerfs the THAC0 tables in that they continue to progress past level 20 (per the tabletop rules). This will keep the thief from having a crappy capped THAC0 of 10 allowing their ability to connect a backstab to progress through the game. They're still lousy toe-to-toe (no specialization), but at least backstabs will land better. Downside, this is a little cheaty.
2) Bring him in in spirit with a halfling fighter/thief. On one hand, its less (or totally not) cheaty, but on the other hand, this is actually a more powerful option than #1. I mean, even if I play it as a thief and don't take fighter HLAs, I'll have better HP, weapon specialization, and bonus attacks.
3) Really lean on the spirit side and create a gnome cleric/thief (or shadowkeeper a halfling cleric/thief, but that's kinda cheaty). Hear me out. Garret can't cast spells or anything like that. But, he could explode undead (with holy water arrows) and his schtick was having a massive toolkit at his disposal (usually in the form of utility arrows and other gadgets). The cleric/thief is the swiss army knife class. This also partially sorts out my THAC0 problem. the cleric caps at 6 instead of the thief's 10. With the +4 for a backstab, it's hitting at 2, which is only 2 points away from a fighter's capped THAC0. A bless/chant spell would put me at only 1 away. Plus other buffs could come in when making the backstab really matters. The upside is that this checks a lot of boxes and be non-cheaty. The downside is that I can't use most of Garrett's weapons (short sword, dagger, bow) with this build (I mean, there's UAI, but I can't pip the weapons). I only can use his blackjack (club). So, this is really leaning into the spirit of things.
Anyone have any opinions of one over another? Especially if you've played the thief games, what do you think would capture the feel the best? Thanks!