Well, the topic is pretty self-explanatory.

The marvellous thing about the Thief class and its kits, is that each has a different slant to the gaming experience you will have. If you are an Assassin, most of your time will go in hiding and backstabbing. If you're a Bounty Hunter, you will be using traps all the time, and maybe a bit of backstabbing as well. If you're a swashbuckler, you're going to be melee-ing.

As can be seen, all three are very different from each other, for kits of the same class.

Hence the poll...which do you think is best, and why?

PS: Multiclasses and Dualclasses are not an option.

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 32 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Best thief kit... (32 votes.)

Which do you think is the best thief kit? (Choose 1)
* Assassin - 41% (13)
* Bounty Hunter - 19% (6)
* Swashbuckler - 25% (8)
* Vanilla Thief - 16% (5)

Good ol' Swashie... The first class I beat the game with, and had -24 AC at the end to boot.

It's got to be the Bounty Hunter for me. I simply love the tactical possibilities that traps give. Plant a couple of nicely distributed traps in a corridor, then lure some enemies and... You don't even need to clean any blood from your blade afterwards. :)

Assassin for me. Just love to poison traps, arrows and stuff then watch mages try casting spells whilst suffering damage... what a laugh.

Seriously though they are all great. Like you said totally different to play.

As can be seen from the posts above, it all depends on how you like to play your thief. If you love backstabbing, obviously take an assassin. If traps are your thing, take a bouty hunter. If you prefer just doing the basic thief skills, take a swashbuckler to improve your melee abilities. Or, if you want to be able to be pretty good at everything, take a vanilla thief.

For me, I never take a pure class thief any more, so I chose vanilla because of the MC/DC aspect (it's the only choice unless you start as a thief, which doesn't make sense to me). If I had to pick a pure class, though, it would still probably be vanilla only because I want my thief to do all of it (so I don't want to sacrifice thief points and/or abilities) and I don't expect him to be a melee animal if he's pure class (I suppose that, ultimately, he could read a scroll of Tenser's Transformation if I needed him as a melee animal).

To me there are no benefits of a vanilla over a bounty hunter. The few more points per level soon become absolutely useless. So your hide in shadows is 150% instead of 120%... who cares?

Having said that with so many theif enhancing potions and equipment, assassins are good enough!

Bounty Hunter when party-ing, Assassin when solo. The Bounty Hunter's special traps are priceless under the right conditions, and he has enough points to go around to become a decent thief.

The Assassin makes an efficient killer, but until higher levels isn't good enough to be the party's only thief. Party-wise his skills aren't as useful. Poisoned arrows can be simulated by arrows/bolts of biting, and you don't need a x7 modifier when you're backstabbing a Mage.
The disadvantages of the Assassin are lost when soloing, however.

Swashbuckler: Beating the game has never been so much fun.

I'll go for swashbuckler as the best all-round thief kit.

Ich auch, swashbuckler rocks.

Assasin for me

Well, they're all ok but i HATE bounty hunters, apart from a certain npc. Traps are so often cheese given form. I'd like to see a modded thief kit without trap setting.