this is a good point, and a problem with most of the npc thieves in SoA. In my opinion you should never dual-class from a thief, only ever dual-class to thief (if you want part thief). The reason for this is that you never want a thief to stop gaining levels. Other classes are useful to have a few low levels in, but thieves are never 'complete'. There are always more skills you will want. with 7 skills that you will want all over 100 to be really effective, and gaining a maximum of 25 skill points per level (plus a few points on creation), you will probably be level ~27 before all your skills are up to the point you want them. if you're part mage, you won't want ring/gauntlet spots taken up with thief enhancing items. Generally I would say keep all thieves pure class, unless you start with a few levels of fighter... or else multiclass, but this will mean no thief kits and slow level-ups with a full party of 6.

Thieves are nice... But, with the exception of traps, their skills really have no use at all in the bigger picture. Locks? Easy. Bash them. There are strength potions aplenty. Need I mention Crom Faer? Also, Knock, level 2 mage spell. Traps? Use the clerical spell Find Traps and either avoid them, or, use mirror image, spell turning, spell trap, or spells like shield of the archons or death ward to avoid their effects.

Now, for the traps alone, I think a thief is worth it. And maybe a bit of pick pocketing. The other skills? Pheh. A waste of time.

Although detecting illusion can be handy... But once again, there are spells and skills that take care of that as well.

also i would download the improved thief stronghold. the thief stronghold kinda sucks otherwise

I don't know.. backstabing with a staff? Im afraid im going to have to vote for him to multiclass to a mage, therefor he can use Celestial Fury but and he can also cast spells.. though it WOULD be cool to have a healer thief.. i don't know though, i would just miss the classic blade backstabbing.

I've been thinking about this a little (requires ToB installed).

Step one: Import figher from BG1 with 19 strength and dex
Step two: Make the fighter a Kensai
Step three: Advance to L25 as a Kensai
Step four: Dual class to a thief
Step five: Advance to L27 as a thief

If you choose your path carefully, you will have grandmastery in two handed swords, use any item, carsomyr +5, +9 hit/dam from kensai

This should make for a character able to do some pretty neat backstabs ;)

*SPOILER*
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With watchers keep, it's also possible to get +1 to primary stat AND +1 to every other stat. So we should have a char with either 21str/20dex or 20str/21dex depending upon when you visit [img]smile.gif[/img]

Also, because of the thief use any item ability, you can do some amazing things [img]smile.gif[/img]

To bad no back stabbing with two handed swords. Major flaw in that plan.

You can only backstab with weapons allowed by the thief kit or weapons usable by thieves. No backstabbing with the Staff of the Magi either.

Eek!

Never actually tried that, but I thought it might just work because of the use any item ability.

I did test that the thief could use carsomyr however, wondered why backstab didnt work :(

I was hoping to get 5*12 backstab multiplier (on max) for carsomyr rather than 5*10 for celestial fury [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Still, with grand mastery in shortswords and the shortsword of backstabbing... still pretty l33t [img]smile.gif[/img]

this might sound stupid, but how do you backstab, and should i pick an assassin instead of a swashbuckler for it?

another thing, how hard would it be to solo (or maybe 2, 3 max) with a pure thief?

You'd actually be best off dualling the character from a Kensai as described above.

Soloing as a thief isnt too bad because of your hide in shadows ability and backstab, this makes it possible to pick and choose your fights. Could be trickier on the tougher enemies, but thats what traps are for [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for the choice between assassin/swashbucklers...

Assassins are THE best at backstabbing because they can multiply the basic damage by *7, rather than the standard thief *5. Swashbucklers cannot backstab at all :(

To backstab, hide in shadows and walk up BEHIND a enemy. Then attack as normal. 'Tis that simple.

Note: Only your first strike gets the damage and hit bonus's of a backstab.