Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Backstab Technique: DFish games and reality...

trooper6 · 07-14-2010, 04:57 PM

I always figured in those other things it was a game balance thing.

Thieves in these games don't do a lot of damage, they don't tend to be very strong, and their weapons don't tend to do a lot of damage. Mages, Warriors, and Clerics all can do lots of damage in combat.

So the backstab is a mechanic to give thieves extra damage in order to balance out the other classes. If anyone could backstab for the extra damage, then the Fighters, Clerics, Mages would also backstab...thus keeping the Thief at a lower damage amount than the other classes.

I don't think this is about in game justification, it is about meta game balance issues.

07-14-2010, 04:57 PM	#3
trooper6 Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Medford, MA	Re: Backstab Technique: DFish games and reality... I always figured in those other things it was a game balance thing. Thieves in these games don't do a lot of damage, they don't tend to be very strong, and their weapons don't tend to do a lot of damage. Mages, Warriors, and Clerics all can do lots of damage in combat. So the backstab is a mechanic to give thieves extra damage in order to balance out the other classes. If anyone could backstab for the extra damage, then the Fighters, Clerics, Mages would also backstab...thus keeping the Thief at a lower damage amount than the other classes. I don't think this is about in game justification, it is about meta game balance issues.