Hi everyone.

I was playing PoR last night and realized that my fighter / thief couldn't land any backstabs. So I made a research and found a session in the cluebook that explains the opposite sides delay trick to land the backstabs (delay your turn until there is only the tank and the thief to act, then the tank distract the target and the thief attack from the opposite side before the enemy moves again).

Since then I tried a million times with a fighter / thief with longsword and leather armor, pure thief naked with daggers, short swords but nothing seems to work.

In the first picture attached you can see my fighter tank distracting the enemy and the second picture shows my fighter / thief, who is wearing only a leather armor and a longsword dealing 4 damage, while his 18/75 str should do a minimum of 8 damage ((1+3)x2) on a backstab.

Anyone knows what am I doing wrong?

"Studded Leather" armour is not the same as "Leather" armour, backstab will not work with Studded Leather armour.

Hmmmm. Has your target already attacked someone else that round? I think if they attack first, then that will set their facing for that round as well.

Thanks again.

This is how the cluebook advise to use backstab:

"A backstab happens when a thief attacks a monster directly from
behind. Unfortunatly, whenever a monster attacks or is attacked, his facing
can change. The following method can guarantee the thief his chance to
backstab..

To attack you need a fighter or cleric as a stalking horse, and a
thief. Choose the Delay command when each characters chance to move comes
up. This guarantees that the monster will get his chance to move, and that
its facing won't be upset. After the monster has moved, have the stalking
horse move up adjacent to the monster and attack. This sets the monster's
facing towards the stalking horse. Then have the thief move up and attack
from directly opposite the stalking horse. This second attack will be a
backstab that has large bonuses to hit and does multible damage."

That's exactly what I did.

THIS, from PetrusOctavianus, works 100% of the times, even with a longsword and shield. The conclusion is that you need 3 guys to make backstab work. Awesome! Thanks 01kipper for the link.

"I won't post a video, but this is how it works in PoR:
Enter an easy combat and have three of your characters, including your Thief, Delay their actions untill you are sure they are the only remaining characters with actions that round.
Have character A attack an enemy, then have character B attack from a different ange (but not directly opposite). The enemy should now face towards character B. Now have the Thief attack from opposite of character B, and you'll get a Backstab."

Good! I just wish I'd remembered that older thread a bit sooner ;).