Help me set up a thief char

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I am going to use a thief. I would like assistance in how to set up a thief (skills). I know I want high lockpicking, but how high? Also, How high should the other skills be set at? (Please note that I DO have the strat guide, and will know where traps are in advance. (Sorry purists, but I am an old man, and don't need any more headaches than I already have -see signature).

Aslo, should this thief be multi-class thief fighter, or human and switch to fighter later, or what. It would seem that a pure thief might be alittle weak.

I am using 2 fighters, a bard, and mage for my other chars....thanks a lot

 

How it make a thief? Well first off have a high DEX. If you thinking a multiclass also look at the other relavent stats (STR for fighter, INT for mage, etc.) In IWD I think a pure thief is a little weak. There are no city full of people of robe, stores to loot. I used a thief/mage, but it's up to you.
As far as skills go I'd say don't worry about pickpockets that much. There just are not enough people to steal from. If you really want to pickpockets use your bard. I split my points between stealth, open locks and find traps. I went about 2:2:1 with find traps getting the lesser of the three. You said you have the strat guide to find traps. I think this is a little cheap but what ever make you happy.
I hope this helps a little.

 

Disarm traps ìs very usefull in Icewind Dale. That one and lockpicking should be your top priorities, but don't forget stealth either (I found out too late that backstab was quite usefull). Never used pickpocketing.

 

Go for a Halfling Fighter/Thief, focus on Dex/Str/Con, Stealth & Open Locks; Stealth & Backstab will come in very handy later in the game (you can do 30-50pts of damage in one strike, which is generally more than even a lightning bolt). Pick pockets is useless (and your Bard is great at it anyway), and Find Traps is rarely needed (but good to a degree), and the walk-throughs can warn you of the very few traps that exist. As a fighter, you'll get more WPs (and access to all weapons), and I'd pick a bow, long sword, and short sword (for backstabbing), and specialize in all three ASAP.

I'd also add a Cleric or Druid to that party of yours, maybe make one of your Fighters and Dwarven Fighter/Cleric or Half-Elven Ranger/Cleric or Fighter/Druid or something. Healing spells come in very useful in combat and at lower levels.

If you're considering dual-classing, start as Fighter and switch to Thief, as you'll need many Thief levels to get your Thief skills up to useful percentages, and swtiching from Thief to Fighter will strand your skills at the less-than-50% mark, which is too unreliable. But I wouldn't dual-class in this case anyway. Thief is not the best class to dual to or from, as it's weak on its own (without a multi), and you need a good number of levels before your skills are accurate enough to be really useful.

Since you've got two spellcasters, you could even make that mage a thief multiclass (I like Gnome Illusionist/Thieves).

 

Exactly.
You can best use 2 multi-thieves. As in : one fighter/thief, who'll be scout and assassin (so max out stealth asap), and one to disarm traps, a gnomish thief/illusionist. Then, when you reach the level where you can cast invisibility, do that, and have your t/i scout the entire map, and disarm all possible traps. You'll then have both a clear view on the area, and you don't have to worry about decimating fireball/cloudkill traps.

(btw, the rest of my party : paladin, ranger/cleric, fighter, conjurer THEY ROCK!!)

 

Well, if we're sharing parties; paladin, dwarf fighter/cleric, halfling fighter/thief (my stealthy backstabber), half-elf bard, gnome illusionist/thief (my trap detector), and elf druid. They work great.

 

Personaly I would suggest having at least one pure fighter in the party since I've seen what they can do when they have 5 points in a weapon skill and large amounts of strength. Nothing beats a dwarf with 5 points in the axe skill and a 4+ Axe in his hand.

 

thief/fighter is the way to go....I have one..and he is pretty good.(male half ling) Stealth is really important in many parts of the game...and me guy can handle himself if hide in shadows fails for some reason. otherwise he can sneak up on anybody. pickpockets is useless.


the rest of my party is:

Ranger (male human)
Fighter (male human)
fighter/ mage (female half ling)
bard (female half ling)
druid (male human)

Bard is really nice: has a horn to Summonses other fighters...and can cast lots and lots of spells.
druid is now a shape shifter and gets high hit points quickly

 

Really I wouln't bother at all to put a single point of Theif skill into Hide in Shadows if I had a Ranger. Their Hide in Shadows skill is rather good by at least the medium levels and I would concentrate on Opening locks and Finding traps.

 

Ranger can hide in shadows?....I did not know that

 

I notice that none of you invest anything in pickpocketing skills, as it is useless!!
IMHO it is not so useless. I give you a few examples of things you might get:

• Potions of Healing from Everard. As this is in the beginnin gof the game, you don't have a lot of money to buy them yet.
• Ring of Free action from Arundel and also one from Orrick (the mage).
• Some oils and a missile necklace from Oswald (the alchemist).

There is some more stuff to get from others.

On the other hand, you can bash open most locks and doors. I rarely ever had to use this lockpicking skill of my fighter/thief. For those cases that bashing it open does not work, you can always use a knock spell.

If you have a ranger than he can go into stealth mode. If you have a bard then he can do the pickpocketing. If you have them both, than you would need the thief only to find the traps (or use spells for that).

Concluding, I would say that single classing a thief in Icewind Dale is a waste. Especially when you have a ranger and a bard in your party.

But then again, this is my opinion

 

Myrthos, Pick Pockets comes in only mildly handy. You can only pick about four or five character's pockets. You may get something good from picking Orrick's pockets, but most of the stuff you pickpocket can be found just in normal adventuring (like potions of healing). The things you can get from pickpocketing are not worth the points you need to put in the ability to successful pick a pocket. But Bards naturally have a very high Pick Pocket ability, whether you want it or not. But your Thief will have minimal pick pocketing, and you can try it over and over (save and retry, save and retry) until you succeeed against the few people worth stealing from, like Orrick.

And Rane: How the Hell did you get a Halfling Fighter/Mage and a Halfling Bard? Ya big cheater!

 

Neverworlder, You're right, you can buy or get all that stuff later on. And a bard just does a better job on pickpocketing.
The thief, IMHO, is most of the time only usefull to detect the traps, for which you would have to use spells otherwise or just take the damage.

I don't have a bard in my party, so I just let my thief do those evil things that mummy said I couldn't do.

 

I can offer some suggestions, based on my trial and error experiences.
First off, you're right - a fighter/thief is far more useful than a plain thief. The usual race recommendation for a fighter/thief is a halfling, as they get the extra dex. bonus, but I have found that elves make better fighter/thieves because they get the same dex. bonus as halflings, plus they are skilled with bows and arrows. This is really what you want in a fighter/thief character, especially as most of the magical ammo you find will come in the form of arrows.
Stats-wise, max up dex. to 19, and try and get str. and con. as high as they'll go as well (con will only go as high as 17 if you've chosen an elf, but given the other bonuses you get with an elf that shouldn't drastically affect your character unless you decide to plonk him/her in the front line of battle - which is no way to treat your thief anyway!) Don't be afraid to strip points away from wis., in fact knock it down as low as it will go to max up your other stats, since it's not needed to be a good thief. You can take some away from char. as well if it's high - especially if you've got one (leader) character with high char. - but don't go too low on that, not below 9 if possible. You can take a few points from Int., but I would say not too many - have it at least 1 point above the minimum if you can. You can roll and reroll as many times as you want to get some good numbers to start with - a set where every stat is at least double figures is a good starting point. If, when you get your str. up to 18 you get a lousy second figure (i.e. 18/23 for example,) I'd say reroll and start again - you can keep doing that and get far better combos like 18/86 which will be much more useful.
As for allocating your thieving skills, if you've maxed up your dex. to 19 you'll get bonus points to play with. Split them between Stealth and Find Traps - don't worry about the others yet, you won't need them in the lower levels, but you will DEFINITELY need good Find Traps and Stealth skills, and as you level you will get the chance to up the others a bit anyway.
Weapons-wise, you should get 4 points to spend on proficiencies. I'd recommend putting 2 in bows and 1 each in daggers and short swords - you need your thief to be good with a bow from the start, but still able to melee-fight if he/she has to. You propbably won't find many backstabbing opportunites to start with, but it's worth being at least proficient in it anyway, as there are loads of cool magic daggers to be found in IWD.
It's worth investing in a good fighter/thief, as you will be using him/her a lot in this game right from the start. I don't claim to be any kind of expert when it comes to IWD, but I hope this has helped.

 

Which weapons can thief backstab with? Any?

 

A thief (single, dual or multi) can backstab with any weapon that a pure class thief can use. So although this includes fairly obvious stuff like daggers and longswords, it also covers clubs and quarterstaffs for some "backsmacking" action!

 

Remember, anyhting a Halfling Fighter/Thief can do, a Gnome Fighter/Thief can do, but with exceptional STR!!! (yes, this makes an enormous difference)

 

Halflings get also +5 in save vs. death and +1 dex. If they use a strength item they are the best class.

But there is only one item which sets strength high in the last chapter (and a few in the expansions), so the gnome is better for the longest part of the game.

Gnome is also superior to elf for F/T since gnomes are not so vulnerable to magic. The 18 con is more important than the 19 dex.