Some Thief questions

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Does anyone know if there is a reason there is no viable, full fledged NPC thief? I mean, Yoshimo is gone, no matter what, after the boat ride, Jan can't hit the super high levels because he's a dual, and the 2 girls can't advance as thieves anymore. Why did they not have a swashbuckler or standard thief NPC I could keep? I prefer to play fighters or mages, but thieves are an integral part of my strategy (so I use Jan -- he's the best of a bunch of bad choices)

 

I have Jan and he can do all the things i want him to do. He has even enought skill in stealth so he can backstabb enemies. He can dispell enemy illusion magic (100%).
All you have to do is to put those points to good use.

 

My main is a fighter/mage/thief. I just got out of the underdark and I still haven't gone to Windspear hills (Firkraag), Cult of the Eyeless, Planar Sphere or Haer'Dalis' Planar Prison. Among other things. Which means that I have a lot of exping left yet. And already I have thieving skills that allow for 3 casual and 2 spiketraps, over 100 in stealth/walk silent + set/disable traps + lockpick. I'd have even more if I had skipped the lockpick and relied upon "knock" spell instead.

So if I'm multiclass with 3 classes, and I can have all the skills a thief needs to such an extent that I've not yet bumped into a thief -challenge where my thieving skills weren't high enough.. then I can guarantee you that a mere dualclassed Jan can definitely be all the thief you'll ever need.

Edit: Yes, the dualclassing is not the right term. But it gives a better idea of what I'm talking about.

[ January 24, 2003, 14:11: Message edited by: Foradasthar ]

 

Uh... you are soloing right? Coz its impossible to get HLA at that time if you're playing team. Hell, my Swashie get his 1st HLA very early too. Its much more easier to solo.

Depaara, yeah i know... there's not much choices... but stick with wat u have guess. hehe. Jan is quite good.

 

Either create a Swashbuckler(best thief IMO) or go with Jan "Turnip Boy" Jansen .

 

If you like fighters more,just create a non-lawful human kensai with 15+ str and 17+ dex,and at lvl 13 dual him to thief..you'll get all the thief skills you want(plus 3 attacks per round,more str&hp and weapon grandmastery)!
also consider ripping jan of his items(he's a good thief because of them)..esp his armor(25% resist to all physical damage)..to supplement for poor ac have a mage cast spirit armor on your char(you get ac 1 and all bonuses from rings/cloacks/dex etc)

 

I'd only take a thief if you're soloing or evil since Imoen has all the skills you need for finding/disarming traps and opening locks not to mention also being a great mage.

Personally I think kensai/thief is overrated. Sure you might be good early on but later, your THACO will suck and you can't use any armor(or bracers!) This is only saved when you get the use any item ability, and that won't be for awhile unless you're soloing.

Personally, I'd just take a Wizardslayer/Thief in that case, since I think the bonuses are much better than if you had a Kensai, and you're still going to be able to use any magical item you want to once you get use any item. On a side note, that chance to interrupt spells goes through stoneskin! So it's way more useful than anyone ever bothers to say. If you dualed at level 13, you'd have 26 base magic resistance before any items are added. So if you were evil and used the Human Flesh Leather, Ring of Gaxx, and Amulet of Power you'd have 61 Magic Resistance right there, and you can also get another 10% at the end of SoA. Probably one of the best dual classes IMO.

Oh, Imoen isn't very good at backstabbing, so I'd take Valygar in my group if I wanted that. He can get a x4 backstab later on as well as some other good things like hasting the party.

As for Jan Jansen, if you can really stand his perpetual rants about turnips go ahead and take him, I for one, can't .

 

Deepara: The thing is that you don't need a super-high-level-thief in either SoA or ToB, Jan works perfect as one.

Lord Sarevok: I myself consider a kensai/thief to be one of the best duelclasses in the game, considerd that you have ToB installed that is.

One of my partys out for the moment is my solo kensai/thief, he duelclassed at level 15 and is now at level 40 as a thief, his THAC0, with weapons on and suchs, is -13 in both main- and offhand, that isn't a dreadfull THAC0 IMHO.

At level 23(24?...starts to loosing my memory) will he get the chanse to take "Use any Item" and that will make him even more powerfull, extreamly more powerfull in fact. He also has 5 attacks per round, high lore, over 200HP, AC at -10-something.

He's my third kensai/thief and I just loves them.