I am playing through with a fighter. As my NPC, I have been using Tomi Undergallows, the thief. He seemed to be the only way to find and disarm traps and open all of the chests, desks, doors, etc. in the game (bash only seems to work 60% of the time, and I have 19 strength at level 8).

Is there another NPC who can provide this sort of help (with comparable skill) and spells? The game really needs (1) a thief/mage-2d edition-rules-equivalent as an NPC or (2) the ability to have 2 NPCs. I think higher level mages will be kicking my ass eventually.

Any thoughts on this or other NPC and player character combinations that work?

Lord Ed

Sharwyn ( a bard ), can also open lock, plus she can hit with bow (so she don't have to go melee), plus she can raise your stats temperaly with her music.

For a fighter, Sharwyn is one of the best choices of NPCs to go with. Although that Orc looks cool with his bad-ass double ax. Oh, and Sharwyn also has a spear for melee combat.

Those chests that you can't bash require some sort of magical damage. You need a weapon enchanted with fire/cold/acid/lightning or maybe other magics. Good sources for this are magic arrows/bolts/bullets. Also, some of the enchanted weapons that the smith makes will do additional magical damag (e.g. the great sword). These will work as well.