Anyone have advice on a thief?

[Psimon]

I'm playing a single classed Half-Elven Rogue, and so far am having a blast. He's 10th level, 18 Dex, 14 Int.

Grimgnaw is the NPC of choice for this class, given his superlative fighting skills. It's hide-hide-hide-sneak attack all the way while your henchman stuns and fists-of-fury the nasties.

If you spot or know a particularly strong foe is just ahead, lay down all your traps (you can auto recover unused ones later) and then sneak attack them with a missile weapon, run like hell, and let the traps do your work for you.

A good Int helps, his is 14, as I'm planning to work him up to 15th or so, then add some mage levels. Still, his magic device skill is 11 or 12, and I use scrolls and other devices for the tough fights, too. I also devoted quite a few points to disarming and setting traps, so I can recover traps as I go, and use them later.

To play him as a fighter, you *must* (against tougher foes) have Barkskin, Bless, Speed at the ready to give him a chance. My favorite tactic was simply to keep engaging foes concentrating on fighting my NPC, since you get the sneak attacks. Also, take a look at the Weapon's Finesse Feat. My thief is equipped with a +2 Rapier, and the feat allows him to use his dex to determine to hit bonuses, as opposed to strength. It also makes it nice, because you can devote stat points to Dex and ignore Strength for a while - your AC improves *and* you adeptness with the weapon increases. Bonus!

Lastly, having just reached 10th, He's picked up Greater Evasion, which is a *wunderful* Feat, 1/2 damage or none from lots of nasty spells and traps.

Huzzah for Rogues!