Ok, melusine. Both a multiclass fighter/thief and a fighter dualled to a thief is much better than the regular thief. I prefer the fighter dualled to a thief. Why? Because a normal thief has terribel THACO, cannot specialize in weapons (except swashbuckler), and has a lot lower hit points. If you dual a fighter at level 9, you can get to the same level as a regular thief. The problem with the swashbuckler is that it can't backstab, which is the thief's best ability. The swashbuckler can't get as low THACO as a fighter/thief or get grand mastery in a weapon (not that important, but still).

Ertai:

Swashbucklers can specialize in any thief weapon EXCEPT, for no apparent reason, Katanas. Two points in Long Sword and two points in Short Bow (and later one point in Single Weapon Style) makes for a very effective thief.

The game designers seem a bit conflicted about thieves and katanas. Yoshimo has no trouble backstabbing with his, but Valygar's is "inappropriate for backstabbing". I haven't tried with other katanas in the game. And the "katana => great warrior of HONOR!" thing conflicts just a wee tad with the "katana => weapon of choice for thief" thing as personified by Yoshimo.


My pick for best thief armour is Aeger's Hide. It's not the best AC, but it's available very early and the confusion protection is very valuable, especially when running away from Umber Hulks (to lure them into your traps or just because your backstab didn't quite take one out).

Which are the best thief items including weapons and all armour (gloves, belt etc.),i've heard i should specialize in katana's because of a katana +3 called celestial fury?

I'd sal do a bow, becouse its the best for a thief, and the short bow of gesen, thensers bow..., gloves of pickpoceting, shadow armor, boots of speed.

ehm lets think

Armor of the deep night (look at it cleric it's better than shadow armor)
boots of stealth/boots of elvenkind
cloak of elvenkind
gloves of pickpocketing
mercykiller ring
ring of something that boots your thief skills
eh well
that's about it
these are all specific thief things
other stuff are dependend on you party what is the best to give your thief

lets see, best pure thief items would have to be:

Armor of the deep night
boots of stealth or boots of elvenkind (iI think elvenkind are better, have +30% move silent)
loak of stealth or Solaufeins cloak (he's a drow elf in the underdark, but the cloak is destroyed on exiting the underdark though it is possible to avoid this)
Gloves of pick pocketing
Ring of danger sense (better trap detect skill)
Ring of lock picks

oh and Celestial fury is incredibly effective for a thief with Katana's skills (eg Yoshimo)
And thats about all i can think of right now

Never use a pure thief though, because then you cannot specialize in katanas.
The fighter/thief is the best choice.

No I think a fighter/thief has a big disadvantage because he levels up far slower. One of the biggest advantages of a thief is that they level up so quickly. Besides, the swashbuckler, a pure thief kit, can specialise in any weopon that a thief may use (including katanas)

Melusine, swashbuckler can have *** in dualwielding and his/her attacks progress at the same rate as a fighter BUT they cant specialize in any weapon.
And i dont think a fighter/thief is that bad, im playing one currently and even if he levels up VERY slowly, hes pretty good i think

OK sorry i thought they couldnt get 2 profs in weapons because i tried with katana and i couldnt, so i supposed it would be the same for other weapons (like long sword).

Anyway, maybe this katana thing is because of this: if you read the bounty hunter´s description, it says that bounty hunters have skill with exotic weapons like KATANAS. So maybe this is the reason why only them can backstabb with katanas i think