[Faceman]

If you are not too keen on having a pure theif I would strongly adivce you to start the game as a fighter and immediately dual-class to thief. That way you can use almost any weapon and get proficient up to grand mastery (+++++) with it. You also get better damage and THACO. If you immediately dual at the beginning you'll have to do Chapter 1 with a Level 1 Thief (leveling up very fast), but have all your fighting abilities back at the beginning of Chapter 2 which then will make you a kickass assassin (backstab for 200 dmg, yeah)