I'm sure everyone out there thinks Yoshimo is the man, undisputably the best thief in the whole game. However... (spoiler)
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He dies halfway through, or does he?
Now, some would say that a poisoned heart will number your days. Agreed, it makes life short, but what if he were to die, then be ressurected, curing him, right? well, maybe, but others would say that this information is irrelevant because you cannot ressurect a person who is not in your party. My point? Get him in your party. It's really quite clever (not cheap or exploitive, just clever).

Just Before going to Spell hold, take Yoshimo out of your party and leave him just inside of the Brynnlaw inn(monkey something?), and I mean RIGHT INSIDE, at the doorway or as close as possible! Proceed to Spell Hold, Imoen will suffice as a thief until you return, and afterwards, DON'T TAKE THE PORTAL OUT! Go back to Brynnlaw and enter the inn, ready to pause as soon as you get inside. (I usually pause the game outside, click on the door, click unpause and wait for them to go inside, this way you'll be ready to press pause when you're inside) Pause the instant you get inside, this will take a couple of tries, if it says that Yoshimo dies on the screen, you have to start over. If you successfully pause before he dies, tell your character to talk to him, unpause, get him back in your party, and ressurect him as neccessary. Don't become disheartened if you can't pause it quick enough, it took me a number of tries.

Rinse and repeat (as necessary).

Not cheap or exploitive? Looks both cheap and exploitive to me. I have heard that using this exploit has caused problems because ***SPOILER*** Yoshi is supposed to die after Spellhold and so does not have dialog etc. that is required.

Well, it was Yoshimo's fate to die early and young anyways. If he brought you back to Irenicus, you would have killed him. If he didn't, he would have died by his geas. That's why Yoshimo dies after Chapter 4 if you leave him in the CC. But there is a way to give him peace in death.

That is a well known cheat. It is pretty cheesy. Why not just roll up your own thief? Yoshi's not that good.

Alright, so it's a cheap, exploitive bug that may cause problems with your game that allows you to keep a half-decent thief from dying. What can I say? I didn't like that save anyway. I'm getting kinda bored of that storyline, what does TDD offer?

That bugexploit doesn't have consequences in SoA. For now :evil:

Yoshimo's pretty OK, his traps are pretty helpful and his detect traps is decent. Also, his skill with the bow is great for sniping those pesky spellcasters. That said,
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I'm really glad he gets his ass blowed up after double-crossing me. NOBODY gets away with that and lives! (Right, Boo?) :roll: