Originally Posted by lx07
Originally Posted by Neonivek
Did you know that Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition...
Nope and I don't care.

We are talking about DOS2.


He mentions D&D because these talent suggestions, "Zen Archery" and "Weapon Finesse", come directly from D&D "Feats" first introduced in 3.X, which was a mess of a system that suffered from "Ivory Tower" game design problems. This isn't the first time someone has suggested rules carried over from D&D (regardless of system context), either.

Requiring a talent to backstab is awful because it places a mandatory talent that all scoundrels have to spend a talent on in order to do their job competently. Essentially, other classes/specializations will always have one extra talent option over them. In D&D, this problem was identified as a "Feat Tax".

A better solution would to just make backstab efficiency tied to levels in scoundrel. This way a mage can't equip a pair of daggers and be as effective as a scoundrel without any investment required.

Of course I'm not sure how that would work with the current benefit of backstabbing being an all-or-nothing 100% crit chance. I still think they should change it to a damage multiplier without guaranteed criticals; scoundrels would then be able to benefit from sources of crit chance via wits or gear.