Improved Shadow thief allies in CH6As Longinus pointed out a while ago (and many other players noticed as well) the assassins which come to your aid against Bodhi (if you convince the Shadowmaster) in Chapter Six are pretty weak, not to say pathetic. *Sigh*, and to think they are supposed to be some of the best that the Shadow Thieves have to offer...
An interesting thing to note, most of these characters had weapons of +2 enchantment or less which is certainly not too shabby, but it was still not good enough to damage some of the tougher Vampires in Bodhi's Lair. I decided to replace these weapons with undroppable (yes I too hate doing this!) versions of generic +3 weapons which will make them able do deal out some damage but they will still drop their former +2 loot. The group leader, Arkanis, is the only exception to this and he will drop a (generic) +3 Short Sword along with the Shadow Armor which he is wearing.
When I checked out the scripts and creature files of this group I noticed many mistakes. Apparently, they were all spawned from a single .cre based on a lvl 16 Swashbuckler which was then randomly modified to *approximately* fit the desired characters. Thus most of the characters' saving throws were incorrect, and in some cases the hit points and
AC were abnormally good. The classes of the rogues were incorrectly defined as well, so most of them could not backstab even if they had the chance (which BTW they did not since they were utilizing the generic WTASIGHT.BCS script). This was corrected, and the four rogues are now somewhat more defined:
1) Arkanis (group leader) - CN Human Fighter 13 / Thief 16 (Dual class)
STR 18/77, DEX 18, CON 18, INT 12 WIS 12, CHA 10
AC 0 Hit Points 131
The infamous leader of the group had some pretty good natural
AC, but since he is not an ankheg or some such beast I changed this back to default values. In the process I have equipped him with undroppable versions of Shadow Armor, Thief's Hood, Boots of Speed and the Girdle of Bluntness. He also has an undroppable Ring of Invisibility placed there by Bioware devs for some reason (possibly to allow his first and only backstab). He is now dual wielding an undroppable (Improved) Short Sword of Backstabbing (primary hand) and a generic Dagger +3 (secondary hand). He should act similarly to Venduris from my Chosen of Cyric mod, which means backstabbing then drinking invisibility potions (of which he has 10). Also, at the start of the battle he will quaff a Potion of Absorption.
2) Kachiko - CN Human Fighter 7 / Thief 13 (Dual class)
STR 15, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 12 WIS 10, CHA 13
AC -3 Hit Points 98
SHE was erroneously classified as a male thief
and had the respective avatar, although all characters in the game referred to her as a female, so I fixed that first. Kachiko is now single-wielding a generic Short Sword +3 with which she'll try to backstab. Her inventory contains the undroppable versions of the Thieves' Hood, Armor of Deep Night and Girdle of Bluntness plus another undroppable Ring of Invisibility placed there by Bioware devs for the same reason as with Arkanis. She also has (and will use) 5 Potions of Invisibility and one Potion of Hill Giant Strength.
3) Yeanasha - TN Human Kensai 9 / Thief 13 (Dual class)
STR 18/55, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 10 WIS 12, CHA 10
AC 2 Hit Points 108
This rogue was supposed to be part Kensai judging by his override script which suggested the usage of the Kai ability which was, alas, never assigned to his .cre file. This was corrected and he is now a properly dual classed Kensai/Thief and will occasionally employ his Kai. Also, I noticed that he was wearing armor and since that is not allowed for Kensais I removed it as well. He is now dual wielding undroppable versions of a (generic) Katana +3 and a (generic) Short Sword +3. He is wearing an undroppable Girdle of Bluntness, a Cloak of Protection +1 and a Dusty Rose Ioun Stone. He also has 5 potions of Invisibility and will try to backstab using them to aid him. At the start of the battle he will gulp down a Potion of Defense to improve his week
AC.
4) Gofus - CN Human Swashbuckler 16 (Single class)
STR 14, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 10 WIS 12, CHA 10
AC -5 Hit Points 92
I believe that he was the original model for this entire group, for only his saving throws and hit points were correctly implemented. His dexterity was a bit too high though 19 points, and I lowered it back to 18 since he is a mere Human after all
He used to spawn in a very narrow corridor sometimes wondering off instead of helping the group, but I hopefully corrected that. BTW, Gofus is now dual wielding a (generic) Long Sword +3 and a (generic) Short Sword +3 and wearing undroppable versions of The Night's Gift, the Thieves' Hood, and the Girdle of Bluntness. He also has 5 potions of Invisibility and one Oil of Speed which he will quaff down at the start of the battle. He will go for hit and run attacks while occasionally hiding in Invisibility to throw off incoming opponents.
I have been testing this component for a while now and it seams to work ok. The improved rogues are not too powerful at least IMO, so the player still gets his fair share of the action. Nonetheless I decided to change their Allegiance to 'ALLY' so they are now considered friendly, and you will get the
XP for any kills which they might make while helping you (although you still can not control them). As a side effect of this, the allied thieves can only backstab from the err...rear position just like normal players and very unlike Venduris
Too bad I can't script them to do that, so you'll have to rely on a bit of luck.
In the end, please share some opinions on this new component as it was basically just an offspring idea of my intent to transfer the Improved Short Sword of Backstabbing to Chapter 6. From v2.35 you no longer get the Short Sword of Backstabbing from Renal Bloodscalp after completing his ques. He will now *merely* award you with a generic Short Sword +3. I have transferred my improved Short Sword of Backstabbing to Aran Linvail in CH6. The shadowmaster will now give you the blade if you successfully convince him to grant you his aid against Bodhi. Just FYI, the only other way to get the Short Sword of Backstabbing (aside from Aran) is to kill Renal. I believe this can only be legitimately accomplished if you are siding with Bodhi in Chapter 2.
OTOH, I can do AI scripting and creating or rebalancing items and abilities with relative ease. 
