[Olorin]

Personally, I wouldn't recommend getting dual-wielding with a thief. You are never going to be as good a melee fighter as a warrior, so don't commit yourself to melee all the time. Go for a ranged weapon (crossbows are fine) to soften up the enemies, and single weapon style and your favorite one-handed weapon. You have a better chance of successfully backstabbing with a single weapon anyway, since there are no THACO penalties. Plus, if you get single weapon style, you get crit hits on both 19 and 20 and an AC bonus when using your melee weapon. I can never turn down twice as many critical backstabs!

Depending on your kit though, I might modify my recommendations. For an assasin, I'd say get the short bow for ranged, and use the Tuigan Bow for it's extra attacks. You can use the poisoned weapon skill with ranged attacks, and every hit puts another slug of poison into your victim.

For the swashbuckler, I would probably use dual-wielding since they get to put three *'s in it, and have lots of combat bonuses from their kit.