How to make a thief

Terente · Post by **Terente** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:13 pm

This may sound very noobish but i have no experience with thiefs in baldurs gate and dont know how the skills work.What is the highest skill needed to open any lock found in the game for example,or traps for that matter.And how much hide and sneak do i need for them not to realize im there.Any help is appreciated.

P.S as a party i was thinking about a 3 person party and its between Aerie and Keldorn or Viconia and Korgan, wich is more powerful ?

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:39 pm

Well, it all depends on what you'd want to do with the thief later on and if you're using a kit or not.

For an Assassin I'd put points into "Hide in Shadows" and "Set Traps". Anything extra should probably go into either Find Traps or Detect Illusions.

For a Bounty Hunter you should invest heavily in Set Traps, but I don't think you actually need to max it out. Get Stealth and Find Traps as well. Anything extra goes into Detect Illusion.

For a Swashbuckler I suggest Find Traps, Open Locks, Set Traps with extra points going into Detect Illusion.

A vanilla Thief I recommend Hide in Shadows, Find Traps, Open Locks, Set Traps.

Now, I'm not sure what Move Silently actually does, if anything, so I'm going to hope that someone else replying to this thread can clarify or explain this.

For every thief kit or combination, excluding any that have to do with the Swashbuckler I would always maximize Hide in Shadows. I find that around 200 or so points is enough in Set Traps to always succeed, the same amount goes for Find Traps and Open Locks.

As for the party I'd go with Aerie and Keldorn as the Mage levels help a lot and you only need so many healing spells. Keldorn is a good fighter and is great against casters as well.

Terente · Post by **Terente** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:59 pm

Well ive got a mod so im choosing a wushi ninja wich give alot of awesome spells and 1 extra in strength and intelligence.What should i concentrate on with this one or can someone tell me if an assasin is better ?

P.S Ive got 440 points at my character creation can someone tell me how to dispense and to what number should take each of them

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:37 pm

It would help to know the kit discription. Is that kit more for melee like a swashbuckler a backstabber, or perhaps a bounty hunter remake ??

Terente · Post by **Terente** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:54 pm

Wushi Ninja Human Thief Kit

WUSHI NINJA: The Wushi Ninja are evolved versions of regular ninjas. This happened a long time ago, when ninjas were greatly exposed to magic. After time they began to gain the ability to cast spells. Like regular ninjas they have the ability to specialize in all weapons that a regular thief can use. They also are stronger than a regular thief, but cannot be as charming. The first Wushi Ninja was Nagura Firo.

Advantages
- Gains Magic Missile as an innate ability at levels 3, 9, and 18
- Gains Cure Light Wounds ability at levels 4, 10, and 19
- Gains Shocking Grasp ability at levels 5, 11, and 20
- Gains Aganazzar's Scorcher ability at levels 6 and 12
- Gains Mirror Image at levels 7 and 13
- Gains Blur at level 14
- Gains Minor Spell Turning at level 15
- Gains Shadow Door at level 16
- Gains Breach at level 17
- In early levels, THAC0 is lower then a regular thief's progression but matches in later levels.
- Specialization of all thief weapons, including katanas
- +1 to strength
- +1 to Intelligence

Disadvantages:
- -2 to Charisma
- Can only wear leather or studded leather
- Can only be Human
- Only 20 thieving points to distribute at level-up

Toxeus · Post by **Toxeus** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:51 pm

Set Trap and Detect Illusion - 100 is absolutely enough, higher points do nothing.
Find Traps and Open Locks - i prefer to have little bit more than 100, there are some hard traps, in Neb's house for example. Or don't put points into Open Locks at all, doors can be easily opened by knock or bash.
And to hide on a sunlight i put remained points into Hide in Shadows and Move Silently. Pick Pockets - next to useless. Well, to steal ring of ram or ring of regeneration, you always can drink potions of thievery (or pick Haer'Dalis for a while).

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:42 am

Ouch thats one overpowered kit, Blur, mirror image shadow door and breach ??

well anyway, I'd reccommend 100 in detect illusion since you have many points to distribute. it works better than true sight and will therefore free up level 6 slots.

after that, well it's obvious he's not going to play as a trapper, so it really depends on his backstab multiplier and how much you like backstabbing

Devide your points evenly untill you have 50 in move silently and 50 in hide in the shadows, pump hide in shadows to 150, then work on move silently

edit you can also put 100 each in detect traps and open locks this will open 99% of the traps/locks in the game

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:03 pm

For your 3 person party Aerie and Keldorn are far more powerful than Viconia and Korgan. It's much harder without an arcane caster.

For the thieving skills 100 is usually perfect, more is wasted.(more is only useful if you get a penalty like when pickpocketing thieves or robbing shops)
First I'd get "open locks" and "find traps" to cover the basic thief skills, 90 is probably enough.
The other skills are optional, it depends on your playing style. "Set traps" is probably the most powerful one, set it to at least 95 or ignore it.
"Detect illusions" is quite useless, unlike with "true sight" active you can't do anything else in that round.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:27 pm

kmonster wrote:For your 3 person party Aerie and Keldorn are far more powerful than Viconia and Korgan. It's much harder without an arcane caster.

I would agree with kmonster, and add that while Aerie is typically slow to develop as a multiclass type, using a party of 3 pretty much negates that problem. I would

Spoiler

buy a potion of master thievery, sell your wands to a minor merchant and steal them back, then head out to deal with Nalia's quest for all its ammo and experience. Hold off on the quests involving the undead, like the Umar Hills, until Aerie's made some clerical levels and acquired a few useful spells against shadows and the like.

Just my POV.

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:45 pm

Why not mix and match

I would go with Aerie and Korgan. Keldorn is nice but I like the Dwarf better

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:53 pm

Aerie and Korgan don't get along very well, one might leave because of the other.

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:43 pm

I've had both many times and it never happened to me. I don't have happy patch either. Probably because whenever aerie was in my team I romanced her but who knows

Thrifalas · Post by **Thrifalas** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:34 am

Crenshinibon wrote:Now, I'm not sure what Move Silently actually does, if anything, so I'm going to hope that someone else replying to this thread can clarify or explain this.

Well, if you for instance cast Mass Invisibility on your party and tries to run away from mobs, sometimes the mobs will follow you, due to that they hear your footsteps. I'm not sure what kind of mobs that it affects, or how much you need - they still cant see you - but I got a nice demonstration of it while trying to run away from Yaga-Shuras helpers with asc installed. :]

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:06 pm

There are situations like that party in the sewers where you can be invisible and that mage will still cast true sight on you. I believe this is where move silently comes in. If you want to be cheesy about it however, just get the cloak of non detection.