I need advice on my thief

[Scott Lucas]

I am making a thief character to solo with. I would like to know what gender, race, kit, attributes, proficiencies, and thief skills to give him or even what multi-class (if possible) in order to make him the best for my style. I want a thief who can sneak very well in order to get by most enemies unnoticed but if he is spotted i want him to be able to easily kill one average opponent or a few weak ones.

Thanks for your help!

[Morgan_Corbesant]

gender is completely unimportant. i always do elf, assassin,decent strength, and constitution, 19 dexterity, and start with shortsword and shortbow. i also max out his set traps ability first, followed by find/remove traps, and then pick locks. i dont do hide in shadows or move silently until all others (aside from detect issusion) are at 100. this is because you can get rings that give invisibility fairly early on in the game. i say assassin, because their backstab goes all the way to x7, instead of x5, and if you poison your weapon, it is awesome when you use a bow, sling, crossbow, or thrown weapon. darts are cool too. that is just my personal choice however.

[Jim]

Use an elf, and make sure you set
19 DEX
16 CON

that's a good start. Strength can easily be increased using girdles. Charisma can be increased with the ring of human influence, so distribute the remening abilities how you see fit. A decent role would be:

STR 17
DEX 19
CON 16
INT 14
WIS 14
CHA 13

Choose swashbuckler (my favourite thief kit) if you want a top grade AC and excellent melee combat, or an assassin (I'm sure Dundee will agree) for some wicked bonuses, but swashbucklers can't backstab and assassins get much fewer points to distribute with each level.

Proficiences:

Choose long sword (elves get bonuses with these), katana, short bow and if you can, max out 2 weapon style (swash)

Skills:

Plenty in open locks and detect traps to start with. Once out of Irenicus Dungeon, start placing a few in set traps (if you're cheesy) and hide in shadows (if you want to backstab so this is a highly important skill) move silently has never really showed its benefits to me, nor has detect illusion, so try to get:

100 open locks
100 detect traps
100 pickpockets (for the few good items that are worth pickpocketing I sugest using potions of master thievery and save those skill points, especailly if you choose to be an assassin)
150+ hide in shadows
100 set traps (80 if you wear the mercykiller ring)

as base stats. Increase these by at least 20 for ToB (except traps setting)

Gender is totally up to you.

If you want to use multiple classes, the best best if your solo is to:
solo kensai up to level 13 (gain +4 to hit, +4 damage, extra attacks from level 7 and 13)
Grandmaster katana and eventually longsword, max out 2 weapon style.
Dual to thief at level 13. When you get to use any item, your kensai can then wear armour and other cool equipment (Carsomyr if you want to really show the opposition up)
It get's tricky as soon as you've dualled as you can't access you old class's skills until 1 level after the level you attained in your old class, so leave some easy quests like harpers, and some temple missions to gain levels quickly and safely.

[Scott Lucas]

Thanks for that.

Are there any items that will allow my thief or any other class to be completely invisible for unlimited time. Especially for a sorc so i could hold my own if attacked.

Thanks in advance.

[andrewas]

for a sorc - Staff of the Magi. to get it honestly will require a very tough fight, tougher than any youve foght in Irenicuses dungeon.

id say (again [img]smile.gif[/img] ) that youd shoudnt solo your first time through the game.

[JackOfClubs]

Here is a suggestion for a thief-kit:

Half-Orc (mine was female)
Swashbuckler

STR 19
DEX 18
CON 16
WIS ?? >10
INT ?? >09
CHA 03

The high STR allows you to fight fairly well and save the belt slot for something else (such as Inertial Barrier which protects from area of effect and missile attacks). Also, it gives you better bonuses than a fighter with 18/00 (which thieves cannot get, of course).

The high DEX improves your armor class as well as thieving abilities.

CON at 16 is the highest value that will give benefits to a thief class. CHA at 3 is all anyone needs because of the ring of human influence.

Any extra points should be distributed to WIS and INT. You want at least average values in these fields because low scores make you more susceptible to mind control attacks (think mind flayers, vampires...) I gave an extra point to wisdom so there will be something to sacrifice in the dream when Irenicus has you in spellhold.

I tend to put as many points as possible in Set Traps, Open Locks and Find Traps. Since you mention wanting to use stealth, adjust according to your preference. Remember there is the Gauntlets of PickPocket, the Mercykiller Ring, the LockPick ring and several armor, weapons and boots that improve thieving abilities, so bear this in mind when allocating abilities.

[Jim]

Big problem with using charisma of 3: You need to constantly wear the ring of human influence. This is takes up a valuable ring slot which you could use the ring of gaxx or earth control etc. That's why I set it to a minimum of 13 so you only need to use the ring of human influence when buying items. 13 is the minimum value to gain a positive response from character interactions. 3 will give you a severly hostile reaction when in character interaction so you definately will need to wear the ring at all times. When creating a char, you should easily be able to get over 90 ability points in total. Yours has 75 so I would keep rolling until you get an average of 15 in each ability, and then adjust them.

[Dundee Slaytern]

I am this close >< to wringing my hands and giving up on this guy.

Ideally, a Thief's stats should be the following,

STR: 18+ ( max it out)
DEX: 18+ ( max it out)
CON: 16
WIS: 11+
INT: 10+
CHA: 8

That is around 81-82 stats points, very feasible to get.

8 CHA is the absolute minimum without getting penalties, 10 WIS is the minimum too but you need that extra WIS for sacrifice later on. 10 INT is the minimum too, before you incur penalties.

[Whailor]

Just to add - why the heck someone would even think that the traps are cheesy?? Too many blows on the head?

Traps are VERY handy. Well placed traps can make some big, difficult fights so much easier. Considering that these are your SPECIAL, class defined abilities, they are in no way cheesy. Hide in Shadows, scout the area, see where the enemies are. Set traps some ways back, lure then baddies that way and then just beat up what's left. Heck these Special Snares and Snares sure are handy. I used them well in many situations, i.e. against the golems as well, adamantite, clay and such - I had only 2 +3 blunt weapons, and none of that chars was any good of using them. Main char was the strongest and with most HP, so he grabbed those and started to swing at the golems, and dang, that was a long fight. 3 damage, 2 damage, 3 damage.. Bleh.

So for the next bunch of golems I set up snares, all the way to my party. Lured the golems on those and they were pounded by traps all the way to my party. Took only some hits to finish them off. Or take some of the pesky liches and such - when you know where they will spawn, set the traps there. Usually they launch their spell triggers before you can even blink yer eye, but the snares are even faster. Basically - set snares, lich spawns, talks to cryptic words to you and tells that he will hurt you, then BLAM! Lich gets bucketful of snares blown up under it's feet and then it's spell triggers fire up. You check the lich and it tells - Near Death heh! Watch yer steps, as they say..

Or Thor'gal - he and his goons charged my party and if the geometry of the world could be affected, then probably all these stairs in that room would have been blown in their faces. They got so badly pelted by traps, that the fight was pretty short.

So shortly - the set traps and the snares are very handy and in no way are they "cheesy". One doesn't call Melf's Minute Meteors "cheesy", although they turn your mage into a darn turret. In one big fight, very very far in the game in a creepy area (you know what) I actually bothered to use that spell with Aerie, and dag nabit.. She was standing on the spot, and shooting like some turret in the Star Wars movie, hit with every meteor, blew through every defensive spells "that" dude had on. Fight was over sooner then I thought it will be, and I was ready for a short fight anyway. Is it "cheesy"? No, it's a handy spell worth using. So are the traps.

I like swashbucklers - Ive got a small halfling whos really good. Traps rock too. Halflings are good thieves cos they get good starting bonuses.