in bg1, they were really important, but i've seen lots of forums where they rarely mentioned...

Unless you wanna run into lotsa death and petrify traps later in the game, you should have one. At minimum have nalia if your good or jan if your evil

Actually, have Jan even if you're good.. he's not evil, and is a better thief than Nalia... though she's the better mage.

Overall, I pick Jan because of his personality. :)

Actually, I made it all the way through BG 1 without a thief...my char had 18 str and could bust most anything open.

In BG2 you get exp for disarming traps, picking locks and memorizing spells. That's pretty nice. There's lots of locks to pick, and I haven't been able to get my barb (19 str) to bash ANYTHING open.
But there could be more traps in the game. Just a few more than there are now.


I would say you need a thief in your party, or better yet be one, then dual him/her to mage or fighter as soon as they start. A hide in shadows spell or sword slinger is pretty cool.

Well oblivion a thief isn't a must but it sure helps things.An invisible scout that clears the traps in dungeons helps and as ironeagle said there are lots of petrify or death traps in BG2.But if you really don't want a thief you can give a girdle of stone? giant strength(the girdle that sets str to 24)to one of your fighters whose throws are low -Keldorn is an excellent choice,with Carsomyr of course- along with ring of resistances and boots of speed.This way you can simply bash the locks and walk through the traps.Oh,I forgot the ring of Gaxx(throws-2&reg 1hp 3sec).Most items mentioned here are late in game items so if you can go through the early game without a thief you won't be needing one later.