Crossbow viability for hybrids?

[bati]

I've finished the game once so far (10/10, holy shit) with a dagger/dodge assassin and loved it. Now I'm pulling my hair out trying to come up with a suitable build for the thief questline - ideally I'd like to become Arena Champion again but otherwise avoid combat engagements and focus more on the sneak/lore/crafting/persuasion/alchemy. I've thought about going with crossbows but I can't get that sweet +15 accuracy bonus for AG out of my head - and I'm not too excited about the prospect of replaying the game with the same guild (although I suppose I could go turncoat). The plan was to keep the skill somewhat low (7-8) and rely on alchemy/crafting for the damage and THC bonuses.

Now, the stats - yesterday I made a thief with the follow stat spread:

STR 4
DEX 8
CON 5
PER 8
INT 8
CHA 7

And quickly realised that combined str+dex of dex blows in Teron because I can't even climb on roofs - and I even failed climbing up the rope to the noblewoman's house, lol. Short of dumping CHA to 4 (again) and getting 10 dex and 6 CON I can't really think of any alternatives if I want to have a character that doesn't play like a cripple in combat.

Second, how good are crossbows throughout the game? I've done lots of combat on my assassin (over 200 kills) and I remember getting into situations where I was backed into a corner - not a problem since I was melee but for crossbows you need some space to shoot - are there any such situations later in the game where sticking with ranged option really fucks you over? Assuming of course that there's no alternative to fighting.

 

[Parabalus]

Crossbows are very good for hybrids, especially if you are willing to forgo (talk) most combat in Teron , out of convenience mostly, and only start your murder spree after you get to Madoraan.

That stat spread is great, I'd consider turncoating the AG because of the pretty significant training, but that loses relevance after Teron.

Close quarters don't really matter that much because the hand crossbow and its "upgrade" can shoot point blank, the thieves also have immediate access to all crossbow types so you can have fun with them. Most important bit is to get alchemy up to 4, or if you're having a hard time 6, and poison armor piercing bolts.

Crafting is actually rather bad for crossbows because you can only find schematics for "standard" types, which makes it a waste. I wouldn't put points into dodge unless you want to get Terminator, you won't really need them after. You shouldn't really have any problems with other fights, the raider camp gets a bit iffy if your defense is low.

Liquid fire solves most close quarters issues - you can also aim it so that it hits yourself, you get a free move for some damage.

You can also go with an even more aggressive 456889. You miss out on climbing, but that's rather unimportant after Teron. With this spread you'd go x->Commercium->fix mine to get to madoraan. I'd also skip most combat here except Mili because it's a chore.

 

[bati]

Thanks for the tips, I had no idea hand crossbows can shoot at point blank range. Somewhat related - do bows share the skill with crossbows when it comes to their efficiency? They're listed as a separate weapon subclass on the wiki but ingame there is no associated skill. My plan was indeed to avoid combat in Teron - I did a test run yesterday and it's perfectly doable, but I had to get my persuasion to 5 (which I was happy to do because the raider leader is a cool dude and I wanted him to live). The thief girl and bandits in the city I handled with [thief] option, I convinced the raider leader to attack the outpost and once it was time to get the goods out of the city I greased the guy's palms and then stabbed him in the back when he went for the chest (my former assassin background was showing there ). I think I killed a total of two people by the time I got to Madoraan, one of those was Cassius. Re crafting - I wanted to get it up for story purposes, at least to level 6 or so by the time I reach Gazennar. I haven't done any crafting yet but I think this would also allow me to put 3 techniques on a weapon I craft.

** SPOILERS AHEAD **

Do I lose anything significant by backing out of the Militades ambush (with dex check)? That fight is pretty hard so early in the game, even for combat specced characters.

Second, will I be able to get Mineshield / Abyss completion with 5 CON as a Thief? I read somewhere that you can keep both canisters (?) and thus get +2 to CON but I don't know if this applies to Thief or Assassin questline.

Also, what are my chances of killing Algaloth with this type of char? I had 10 dagger / 10 dodge / 10 CS on assasin, but no Mineshield and I must've missed the elixir quest too (only found out about it later through google) and I got rekt repeatedly, usually on the first or second turn(130 def rating).

 

[Parabalus]

** SPOILERS AHEAD **

Do I lose anything significant by backing out of the Militades ambush (with dex check)? That fight is pretty hard so early in the game, even for combat specced characters.

Second, will I be able to get Mineshield / Abyss completion with 5 CON as a Thief? I read somewhere that you can keep both canisters (?) and thus get +2 to CON but I don't know if this applies to Thief or Assassin questline.

Also, what are my chances of killing Algaloth with this type of char? I had 10 dagger / 10 dodge / 10 CS on assasin, but no Mineshield and I must've missed the elixir quest too (only found out about it later through google) and I got rekt repeatedly, usually on the first or second turn(130 def rating).

You only miss out on the best quest in the game .

Yes, but only after you finish your main questiline(2nd can) in Maadoran, ie. before you go to Ganezzar. Be careful not to forget about it because it gets boarded up after you leave.

Elixir isn't worth it for Agatoth, you have to kill him in 2-3 rounds or you're dead anyway. If you have high alchemy that's enough, since if shooting him to death fails you can always bomb him. Don't actually think dodge matters much, but I never tried with 10.

 

[bati]

Wow I must be completely blind, somehow I overlooked the Bow skill in the game. I did notice that Throwing and Crossbows have a 1-1 synergy though, which makes those stats invested into throwing to help with climbing seem like less of a waste now.

 

[Jason Liang]

Swords or Hammers are probably a better fit for Thieves: 6/8/4/8/7/7 for instance. There's a Blue Steel Hammer you can steal early in Teron.

Charisma is somewhat problematic for Thief Guild starts. There is a Thief-only training that requires 7 CHA, but otherwise CHA is useless for Thieves.

 

[bati]

Small update - managed to finish the arena, get PA, kill the Centurion, Murad and two bowmen in Ganezzar, get the elixir (sided with Raiders), fly the airship without crashing, finish all lore checks I came across, win most of the persuasion checks (I specifically chose to fight in some cases, like the PA armor) and in the end I even managed to become a god. Final stats - http://i.imgur.com/OTbHVi5.png .

tldr - build ended up working beyond my expectations. I plan to load an earlier save and try my luck vs Agatoth and then maybe load the pre-Abyss save to see how the campaign plays out if I don't nuke the city. I don't know if it was a consequence of this decision or not but I didn't have any Thief's Guild quests in Gazeannar.

edit: I killed Agatoth but I cheesed him with bombs. But hey, a kill's a kill.

 

[PlanHex]

Very nice build.
You might actually have trouble with finishing the thieves guild part of Ganezzar with it, but I'm not entirely sure. Depends on whether your 7 CON can survive a certain trap that I remember insta-killing my 5 CON thief, thus requiring either very high lockpicking to get around it or decently high traps to disable it. Don't remember the details on skill requirements though. You'll know what I mean if you ever find yourself in front of an unavoidable trap that kills you.