Best Armor/Items for a Thief (Assassin)

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I was just wondering what the best equipment for a thief would be so that they can still use thier abilities, and be relatively protected. Assuming You can wear multiple protective items, and thieving abilities are all fairly even (Average of 195)
I tend to use my theif for sneak attacks and trapfinding/lockpicking.

Thanks for the input!
Leslie

 

My thieves are usually multiclassed, so I don't know if these will work with a plain thief.

- white dragon scale armor
- boots of speed
- amulet of the master harper
- ring of gaxx
- vhalior's helm or rose ioun stone

 

In addition to what kuemper mentioned, the Cloak of Non-Detection is also an important item.

Gauntlets mainly depending on what you have spare. Perhaps the Blessed Bracers for extra HP.

The Belt of Inertial Barrier would help prtoect you, though you may wish to consider a Girdle of Strength. Even the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength will increase the damage done by a thief's backstab quite considerably.

Naturally, the Staff of the Ram is a popular choice for backstabbing with due to its large damage potential.

 

White dragon scale is classed as chain armor, so I don't think it won't be usable by a plain thief. Black dragon scale (available much earlier, at that) or one of the stealth-boosting leathers will be what you want for your assassin.

 

White dragon scale IS usable by thief, it's only (shown) restricted class is mage.

If your planning to play SoA first: get aegers hide then shadow dragon scale, white dragon later or in ToB

 

Hmph. Turns out the white dragon scale is only ununsable by Mages and Mage/Thieves. And what's worse, neither it nor Aeger's Hide have the appropriate thieving skill penalties for armors of their type or disable thieving abilities.

Shadow dragon scale is two points of AC better than Aeger's Hide, but you have to balance that against the protection from confusion that the latter gives.

 

Shadow dragon scale and Aeger's hide are also different in that Aeger's hide is typed as leather armor. Aeger's hide offers less protection than other armors of a different type, even at the same class.

White Dragon Scale will give you the best armor class without compromising your thieving skills.

Gargoyle boots can also help a bit, giving you two stoneskins per day (skins, not spells).

By the time you've got abilities at 195, you should have Use Any Item. So, you might consider a good shield, either focusing on boosting AC or on special protections (e.g., reflection shield or the shield of harmony). And don't forget the scrolls you can use with that (stoneskin, protection from magic weapons, etc.).

 

Thanks for all the input. I have been playing for a while now, and I am at level 28. I forget about the use any item feat... Wish that was in Icewind Dale...

Thanks
Leslie

 

I'd recommend using the said Shield of Harmony or Crom Faeyr as an off-hand weapon (even if you can only place * in two weapon fighting, the STR bonus from CF leaves you ahead of the game... and those are some NASTY backstabs you'll be dishing out).

 

Wow... That reminds me... I CAN use other weapons besides daggers

I am so used to running the same weapons for all my characters/classes that I forget to change things up a bit from time to time

 

^Remember that you can only backstab with thief weapons. You can not backstab with Crom Faeyr or Carsomyr or Staff of Magi. (backstabbing with SoM could be so cool, and horribly unbalancing as well!)

Though you can put Crom Faeyr to your left hand to boost your STR to god-like scores, and if you have a nice little thief weapon on your main hand you can cause a lot of pain with that backstab. Hopefully, you will attack with your main hand first...

 

Depends on how you want to play your character. For example, do you dual? do you want to have a chance toe-to-toe, or would you rather run away?

Grandmasters Armor (who cares about low AC -- you're in stealth mode and very fast)
Gargoyle Boots (allws you to take that first blow or two)
Cloak of Non-Detection (or Montolio's Cloak)
Bracers of Blinding Strike (or Tsu-Zan's Bracers or Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization)
Girdle of Inertial Barrier (you should already have at least a strength of 19 or 20)
Mala's Soul Stone (or Wong Fei's Ioun Stone or Thieves Hood)
Ring of Gaxx and Ring of Earth Control (keep all the Rings of Invisibility, Improved Invisibility, and Air Control you can find).

Weapons:
If you dual, the Scarlett Ninja-To is a must have. Optionally, use items which give boosts/immunities such as The Equalizer, Crom Faeyr or Angurvadel.

Good primary hand weapons are: Short Sword of Mask, Cutthroat, Blackrazor, Hindo's Doom, and Celestial Fury. Gnasher is a very good weapon against mages.

You should consider staves as a weapon -- Staff of the Ram give the best backstabs of any weapon in the unmodded game.

 

I prefer to take advantage of backstab damage at first, and then to kick butt! That is why I was wanting a way to keep myself protected. I don't like to run away.

 

Don't you always?

 

A-yup.

 

If you go invisible in the middle of your personal combat round (gulp a potion or twist a ring or cast a spell or use a scroll or whatever) and then attack, you risk not hitting with your main hand, am I right?

 

Don't all those things (using an item, casting a spell, drinking a potion) reset the combat round? So that you lose the extra attacks from the round you were in, but will attack first with your main hand.

 

I don't really know. Those things have never been too spesific. I focus mainly on spell casting and the like though. Perhaps, a melee-combat guru can illuminate us all?

 

AFAIK Yes.
Otherwise ask at G3