[Cerek the Barbaric]

Alright - I'm willing to concede that mages (for the most part) are the most powerful class in the game. The right spell selection and knowledge of which spells to cast and when can allow you to win any confrontation with relative ease. So, if mages are number 1 - who is number 2???

In my opinion, it has got to be the thief! Why? Because of the TRAPS!!!.

If I have the opportunity to set some snares before a fight, I will take a thief over the mage and their pre-cast spells any day. I honostly cannot tell you how many battles my party has "won" before they ever started fighting - all because of the traps we set.

The first time I did this was when I was searching for Firkraag. You know the party that wants to "team up" with you? Well, I refused and they attacked and I had a rough go of it. After that, I had re-loaded and had Yoshimo set down a mine field of snares for them. This time, when they went hostile, the traps went off and killed half of their party outright and severely injured the rest. All I had to do was "mop up" the leftovers.

After losing Yoshimo, I was sadly missing my traps - then I dualed Cerek to a thief. The traps didn't really make a difference until I started getting the "special" snares (Spike trap/Exploding trap/Time Delay trap). Since gaining these, I've started decimating very powerful enemies before the fight even starts. Some examples:

Watcher's Keep (2nd level) - Fire Giant prince (or whatever - the big Kahuna of Fire Giants). Killed by my traps before he ever got close to attacking me.
Watcher's Keep - The Imprisoned One (ie Demagorgon) - OK, it took a couple of tries, but my traps eventually reduced him to Near Death before the party ever launched a single attack against him. It took two rounds to finish him off.
Kurosion, the Acid Kensai - After having the ENTIRE party killed by him several times, I finally set several traps out before equipping Celestial Fury. Luring him into the traps didn't work very well, but I finally got him to "appear" right in the middle of my traps. They all went off before he could cast a single protection spell, taking him down to Near Death. Cerek finished him off with two quick attacks from Celestial Fury. Kurosion never launched a single attack (although Cerek DID take the Acid Backlash from his traps - but I had the Black Dragon Armor which absorbed 50% of the damage)

and finally

The Random Black Sun Party that is generated by Weimer's Tactics Mod. The first time this group showed after Watcher's Keep, they killed Jaheira in ONE ROUND. Their party consisted of one conjurer, one sorcerer, one beserker, one wizard slayer, one fighter, and one bounty hunter. The second time they showed up, Cerek was outside by himself setting the traps for Kurosion. This group showed up and triggered the traps - and the ENTIRE PARTY was killed instantly. The visual was beautiful - it looked just like the opening battle scene from Lord of the Rings when Saurons physical body explodes and the resulting shockwave completely flattens the Armies of Elves and Men. The same thing happened here. The group showed up and said they had come to kill me in the name of the Black Sun. BOOM - my traps go off (including an Exploding Trap) and the entire party is blown flat on their backs - dead as doornails.

So, I have to say that the thief's traps (especially those of the Bounty Hunter) make him/her the second most powerful character in the game. The only reason mages still get the nod for first place is because the traps won't help when the enemy sees you first. Once they "go hostile", you can no longer set traps and must resort to melee, missile weapons, or spells. That is where the spellslingers have a BIG advantage...they can still decimate an entire party with one or two spells whereas the thief will have to rely on "hit-and-run tactics.