Wich thief skills do you think are the most important?

I think pickpocketing is pretty good. Since some certain units carry good items out for the pickpocketer.

Open locks is a must. Without it, you might as well ditch your thief.

Set traps is also pretty important if you dont want the big guys to suck up all the trap damage.

Stealth (Move silently, Hide in shadows) Is good if you are the person who likes backstabbing people. But if you want to concentrate more on a helper thief (Like Jan) then you dont want to put too many points in this.

I find detect illusions completly useless. But since im a newbie, i might be wrong.

Set traps are good if you are the munchkin type who litters the floor with traps before an NCP turns hostile, and then when he does, you blast them to hell. (Thanks SixOSpades.) But you can also use traps in a totally puritan way. To scout ahead and see the enemies, then go back, set some traps, and then lure the monsters there. But as i said, no munchkin for me.

Detect illusion does act similar to a True Seeing spell and will even bypass SI:Divination for those high level mage fights.

Open Locks isn't as important as you say... The level 2 mage spell Knock works just as well, and sometimes better. Detect Traps is useful, as a thief is the only one that can actually disarm traps. Detect Illusion is very useful, but I only ever really spent points on DI with Jan. In the end, it goes back to your method of playing. Open Locks *is* very useful, and although it's possible to live without it, Detect/Disarm Traps is essential if you want to avoid a lot of annoyance.
Pick pockets is a fun skill. But you don't really need it. The rare occasions when you want to use it to, say, get a certain Ring from a certain shopkeep in a certain Promenade, you can use a Potion of Thievery and it works just as well... I've never had success shoplifting, though. Ah well.

Move Silently/Hide in Shadows! Essential for backstabbing, and not only is backstabbing fun, but it makes most of the fights a lot easier.

If you are a bounty hunter then set traps is very useful (or if u got yoshimo in party)

In order of importance...

Fighter/Thief type Backstabbin' Thief: (e.g., Montaron)
- Move Silently
- Hide in Shadows
- Find Traps
- Open Locks
- Set Traps
- Detect Illusions
- Pick Pockets
The early importance of MS and HiS goes without saying for a character of this type. FT and OL are the quintessential Thief skills in which no party should be stuck with less than at least 85%. ST comes next, because the Poison damage from most mid-level Traps can essentially lock the victim in place to give the Thief a chance at a free Backstab. DI is a handy skill for popping Invisible Mages quickly (especially with a Conjurer in the party), and with the sheer abundance of Potions of Master Thievery, PP comes dead last.


Thief/Mage type Support Thief: (e.g., Jan)
- Find Traps
- Open Locks
- Hide in Shadows
- Set Traps
- Detect Illusions
- Move Silently
- Pick Pockets
FT and OL keep your party safe from the springing nasties, and happily sated with the goodies within all those locked doors and chests. HiS is important for a Thief/Mage due to the fiendishly clever trick of going Stealth, scouting around to the opposite side of a group of enemies, then Fireballing them and going right back into Stealth again without fail. You won't need to stay in Stealth for long, so MS isn't as important. The relative placement of ST and DI may be argued; a Thief/Mage will find it quite handy to free up the Level 6 slots he would otherwise have spent on True Sight, but being able to actually *use* all those Traps he's been carting around for weeks should prove useful as well. Again, PP will always come dead last.

Find/dissarm traps, by for the most importaint..

Bard's are better at lifting pockets, and invisiblity potions and spell's takes care or stealth..


BTW, another RP use of set trap's is to guard an area when you rest, which is pretty usefull when you need to refresh your mage spell's or just to rest to heal a bit, give's you back the edge if your attacked.

[ 04-06-2004, 03:48 PM: Message edited by: Q'alooaith ]

Yeah, currently im soloing an Assassin and stealth is VERY needed to backstab enemies, over and over again.

IIRC wether the thief succeeds or fail to hide in shadows is determined by (Híde in shadows + Move silently )/2. After that move silently alone makes the differense if the thief stays hidden or don´t. Therefore newer put any points in hide in shadows; put em all to mowe silently.

[ 04-07-2004, 01:51 PM: Message edited by: Jani ]