this poll contains 2 Qs:
1.what do you think is best thief?
2.what thief do you like best?

Poll Information
This poll contains 2 question(s). 46 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Thief NPCs (46 votes.)

Best Thief (Choose 1)
* Imoen - 4% (2)
* Yoshimo - 48% (22)
* Nalia - 0% (0)
* Jan - 48% (22)

Favourite Thief (Choose 1)
* Imoen - 35% (16)
* Yoshimo - 26% (12)
* Nalia - 4% (2)
* Jan - 35% (16)

Jan is probably the best, though crap at backstabbing, but I always liked Yoshimo for his traps and backstabbing. Though most of all, I prefer my Assassin characters...

It's got to be Jan. Yoshimo has some inherent problems when pondering the long-term. However, even if he didn't, thieves extra skill points become superfulous beyond level 15ish. Imoen only meets base thief requirement, and Nalia value below acceptable requirements. Jan continually improves his thieving abilities, and acts as a back-up mage to boot.

I answered Jan in both - although I do like Yoshimo's personality and his special traps he's not my favourite. Jan almost always makes it to my party.

Nalia's thief skills are too poor and I don't care much for changing rings all the time to make Imoens thieving skills sufficient.

I voted Jan too. His dialogue is funny and he can handle most locks and traps as soon as you recruit him. He's a bit fragile in combat though; he needs his magic for protection. Yoshimo needs a few levels to become a better lock picker - something I generally don't bother waiting for. The two girls have inactive thief classes, so they won't be the best thief. With potions and equipment I suppose they are adequate, but not the best.

As a thief, Jan is probably the best choise since he can cast illusion spells and can improve his thieving skills. Yet, he always misses the cut because Imoen is more interesting as a character, eliminates the need for a separate thief and thus gives room to a extra mage (her). :D

Unfortunately Jan should get the vote just because he can still gain levels as a thief, though I have never found him very useful. Imoen usually goes along, with the ring of danger sense she does just fine. You can always use Minsc (if you can tolerate his ignorant rhetoric) or Valygar as the party scout.

I voted Imoen as the best thief. With equipment and potions she does fine. But I voted Jan as my favorite. I just love him.

:lol: Jan has most of the votes while Nalia got none. No surprise there.

Both, Imoen and Nalia, have inactive thief classes and Yoshimo is not a long term proposal. This leaves Jan clear and there really is no competition.
The reason Imoen may be picked more often than Jan is that she could be your only mage, Jan can't take that position. Imoen can just about manage to detrap and open locks. But there is more to a thief. Try his Detect Illusions skill to know what I mean.

Jan is easily the best thief in a game where I find that you are best served by having your PC be the thief because the choice of NPC thieves is so poor.

I think Yoshimo is the best thief in the game, but Jan is my favorite. A single class thief seems a bit of a waste to me, a F/T of F/M is ideal. The first can be used as a tank and the second has more options (spells) than ranged attacks in a battle.

Ofcourse Yoshi is the ONLY NPC suiting the cool thief concept.

Though I prefer Nalia as I am in love with her. :)

I kind of agree with Harbourboy... PC thieves rock. I like Yoshimo, though, for those kick-@ss special traps. The sarcastic remarks are nice too... The Tortured Souls Mod makes him even more interesting, eh?

Does Nalia even deserve recognition as a thief? Didn't she Dual at level 3 or some such pathetic thing?

[ May 13, 2005, 14:41: Message edited by: Derkoth the Disgruntled ]

Yoshimo is the best one, and my favourite one.

100 in locks and traps, than 100 in setting traps, than raising both stealth skills to 120, raising pickpocketing just because you can... or dualling him to fighter, hey, he is a killing machine! And sexy too.

When I do not play a mage-type, however, I take Nalia.

Do you not use the 'mercykiller rin' and r'ing of danger sense' to boost Yoshimo's skills?

I do. But then I always switch to another ones, there are too many good rings to lie abandoned, and somehow all these "thief" rings end up in the bag of Holding.

Also, I like to use rings of Invisibility (rings of Air) for backstab.

I usually find that rings of invisibility take too long to activate, and you must stand still to get it to work. The potions are much more useful for me.

Off topic but i have noticed that my last few games, I cannot fail to learn a spell, even with Aerie.

I voted for Yoshimo. Those special traps are just too good. He can kill dragons with them all by himself! He is a good backstabber/scout too. He may not steal as well as Jan but a few potions fixes that. Plus Jan is too much of a windbag for my tastes.

A single-class rogue like Yoshimo will always be more focused and have better abilities. I've always wondered what would happen were I able to keep him for the second half of the game (maybe I should download Tortured Souls? (isn't it like 800 MB?)). So Imoen gets the call-up in every one of my campaigns, regardless of whether my fearless sidekick is Minsc, or Valen. ;)

@Cesard:Perhaps you're playing in normal?

Yoshimo is by far the better thief, for the time u have him he will have far better skills than anyone else in the game.

Jan, however, is far more fun to play ... annoying, but fun :)

Yoshimo, dualled to fighter, can kick more ass than any of the other thieves, and will have his skills maxed where you need them to boot. I don't much care for traps, since they are so cheesy and tend to make battles dull....but he is great anyway.
If you have rogue rebalancing, his tranquilizer is too good to be true.

i hate turnip stories so Jan is not an option for me and i used him for once and former lover thing pissed me off so i kicked him out. next time i play i'll kill him in first sight :evil: