what would you take between the two,

I don't want imoen, you know why
I don't want yoshimo, YOU KNOW WHY,
and nalia is not enough with thief ability,

so what would you take a pure thief or a muti class fighter thief? and why

[This message has been edited by Christian (edited November 13, 2001).]

I like Thieves, but if you want to be able to Tank, definately Fighter/Thief.

I like to Backstab (Or make an Undefended Stealth Attack...) a lot! It's really powerful. If you take an assassin, you can 'pop' your enemies with a single hit!

[This message has been edited by LordNocturne (edited November 13, 2001).]

I would take Jan, the best thief in the game if you ask me :D

but as with your choice, it really depends if you play good or evil. Evil is lacking in the fighter department, so if you're evil I'd say mc. If you're good there are plenty of fighter power around and a straight thief would probably be better.

Neutral? well, choose freely from all shelves I guess :)

When Nalia isn't good with Thief abilities, a fighter/thief will also not be great. But he is a better fighter and with a long swords and backstab damage you can do a lot of damage. Go for an Elven fighter/thief or a halfling pure thief to get good thief-options. Wich one you want depends on what you think what is the most important: As much thief-skills as possible, OR a thief that is also a great fighter... Note: There are items in the game that increase Lockpicking and Move Silently and Hide in Shadows, this ones can you use to increase thief-abilites without spending too much skillpoints.

I'd surely take a certain illusionist/thief...;)

If not, I'd probably create an elven or halfling fighter/thief, or maybe even a swashbuckler or assassin... It all depends on what you like, really.

Hi,

Well Ragusa is the thief expert, he has the most experience in playing them in the game as far as I know. I am sure he will be along soon to give his views.

I have only played one thief in BG2 so far, my elven fighter/thief still in chapter 2.

For me the choice between mc and pure was easily made because I want to play him through TOB.
I feel that because of the high level abilities and the extended level cap a mc character will benefit more from this than a pure thief.
I also had a clear view of what my party was going to look like into spellhold and I needed that fighter attribute.
I plan to take a harem party into spellhold and through TOB, me, aerie, mazzy, jaheira, nalia and Imoen, hence you can see why I want the fighter element.

I think you need to have a party plan to help you make this choice.

If you choose a elf or halfing and go for 19 dex its doesn't take long to max out the theif abilities with the mc class. My elf f/t is at lvl 11 and has 100 f/t , o/l, 80 hs and ms and 70 st. Another couple of levels and everything will be maxed apart from detect illusion my mages have true sight for that.

PS. Lord Nocturne, I love your reference to Undefended Stealth Attack, I wonder why....

Cheers,

WittyNewt

If I were you, I would go with the thief, not a pure thief, but a swashbuckler. A swashbuckler is something like a fighter/thief (with +1 to hit and +1 damage) but goes as quickly level up just like any other thief. This means you get your thieving abilities quicker, then with a fighter/thief. A swashbuckler also has -1 AC when you start the game and -1 AC every five levels. The swashbuckler is my favorite thief class and I think it is better then a fighter/thief.

[This message has been edited by Silverblade (edited November 13, 2001).]

Hi,

If you want to backstab, don't take a swashbuckler, they can't do it. Otherwise, they do look great.

Cheers,

WittyNewt

And that's indeed why Swashbucklers aren't great... Backstabbing is so important...


Namuras --> I play a Gnome Ilusionist/Thief in my thief only party and she is really awesome... especially with daggers and touch-spells.

I am currently playing a halfling f/t. I had one in Icewind Dale and that experience convinced me to try one in BG/BG2/TOB. It is a fun character.

I would go with a multi or dual-classed thief. While pure thieves are definitely fun to play, your skills are going to max out, as the other posters have already mentioned. For role-playing purposes, that's just fine, but if you want to be a little more practical, mc or dc! Why not an elven mage/thief? You could give him a short bow and put him in the back for missle/spell support. Or you could beef him up with spells such as stoneskin, mirror image, strength, tenser's transformation, etc. and send him into melee with dual-wielded longswords/katanas/shortswords/scimitars etc. The backstabbing damage won't be as great as fighter/thief (strength spell will help, though) but how many fighter/thieves can cast improved invisibility or shadow door? Plus, you can have a familiar, who can do your pick-pocketing for you, so you can specialize in other thiefly pursuits.

Of course, you could triple-class (F/M/T) too. Or you could just take Jan Jensen, the best of the thieves available to you, and play a jester kit instead. Oh, the potential for comedy!

I used the backstabbing ability once, in BG1 with the Red Wizards of Thay fight. I never used it any other time, so I don't really need it.

About the multi-class thieves, I'm currently playing with a gnome cleric/thief in ToB and he is great. Thieves and blunt weapons are a very good combination (since I don't need edged weapons to backstab)

I'm a fighter/mage/thief so i don't really need one but i have go nalia because i have the keep. i prefer jan though so i would go with him!!!!!!!!!

IMO you should go for a fighter/thief, they are good at fighting toe-to-toe, can backstab good as well, and can also be very good at shooting if you equip them with a missile weapon. Way better than pure IMO.

Hi Silverblade,

You can backstab with club or staff (not magi staff though) if you want to. You can backstab with any melee weapon allowable to thief class.

If you think backstabbing with blunt weapons is silly, go to the link below where I give my thoughts on why it is fine.
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum2/HTML/004136.html

Others give some other interesting thoughts and we have a good old ding dong (friendly banter :D) about the whys and wherefores. One of my favourites so far on this forum:) which is probably why I couldn't resist linking it in!.

If you don't agree with this let me know as I would be very interested in any points you might have to counter those I made, always on the look out for improving my arguments :D

Cheers,

WittyNewt.

I have a game going as a thief at the moment (stats 18/18/18/16/15/8 level 11) and have decided to duel class him to a fighter or a mage (probably a fighter considering his Int is only 16). What level should i DC at? considering that I plan to play ToB after with the same character.

[This message has been edited by Titan (edited November 16, 2001).]

Hi Titan..I would think of like lvl 15 or something close to it, then you easily get lvl 25 as mage and a little more as fighter (of course counting the exp gap from ToB, which is 8 mill) :)..But I would say dual to mage, I like mages, and think of a mage
hiding in the shadows, then unleashing a cloud kill or web then cloud kill..Gotta love playing a mage...hehehe

OH yes, a Mage/thief would be great! and there are none of those in the game either! :rolleyes:
Well, that was my bit of sarcasm for today, So now i will give you some other reasons (the first was that there already ARE 3 maget/thieves in the game) to not play mage/thief:
1. you wont need one if you have some other mages (ie Edwin, Aerie)
2. you will like to have some melee power as well.
3. You cant dual your thief to a mage when your int is only 16. (to DC you must have at least 15 in your first classes primary ability, and min 17 in the class you wish to dual to 's primary ability)
So there!

But as already stated I'm planning on going F/T DC and just wanted to no what level i should do it at :(

In a multiplayer game I'm in, I'm playing a multi class half-orc fighter thief. He has 19 str, 18 dex, and 19 constitution. :grin: I maxed out the two weapon ability and has him dual wielding longswords.

It a great character to play. :)

Oooops sorry didnt notice that one, well thats what you get for multitasking, anyways Firestorm...yes there are 4 "mages" in the game, but Edwin is the only pure mage, and he's Lawful Evil, and has a little thing with Minsc..So if you looking for "peace" first time you go thru it, I'll go for another NPC, and yes cant dual with only 16 :(..but then why not keep the PC a pure thief, cuz there is enough fighters about