A question regarding the abilities of a thief.

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Just finished playing thru BG2- SoA & ToB with a Conjurer and ready to go at it again.
Tho this time with a Swashbuckler dual classed over to a Fighter,so i'm wondering about the abilities of a thief, how much in each ability "Find traps & Open locks" do i need in order to play thru both SoA and ToB without any problem regarding those two abilities?


P.S Apologies for posting this in both SoA and the ToB section as i'm not certain as to wich section this topic belongs in.


~Makaveli~

 

If you are asking a question that has anything to do with ToB, it belongs here, not in the SoA forum. Yes?

To answer your question: Since swashbucklers cannot backstab, you don't really need to worry about hiding. Assuming that you do not want the skills anyway, I would say put all of your points into finding/disabling traps and open locks equally. Pick pocketing is not really necessary, since just about anything can be obtained other ways anyhow.

 

Yes,i am aware of that. What i meant was how many points in each ability do i need in order to be able to find/disable/open any trap/lock i might encounter in SoA & ToB.

 

100/100 will unlock/disarm anything.

90/90 might do everything as well.

I do not remember the exact numbers but I do not think you need 100 in either skill to unlock/disarm even the thoughest of locks or traps.

*spoiler*


Also, there is a ring of danger sense(planar sphere)
and a ring lockpicking(Thieves Guild) I believe both rings raise their respective skills by 15(?).

 

You need more than 100 to unlock everything, I've actually gone as far as to have 200 in disarm and 100 in detect for just SoA. I'm not going to dual class my Swashbuckler though, I think with double weapon prof, blackrazer and the super katana, i'll go through the game easy, because swashbucklers are almost as good as fighters, except you can keep increasing other skills you MIGHT need later.

 

I'm playing a swashbuckler as well, and I was wondering, does Detect Illusion really do anything?

 

It makes a single, useful alternative to True Sight and other illusion-cancelling spells.

 

100 for both has been always enough for me. If there are any more difficult locks or traps, you should have some potions of master theivery and perception with you.

 

You may need over 100 in pick locks, but I think 100 will be enough to detect any trap. Heck, I've never even had a problem with Imoen, and her base skills are less than 100 in both detecting traps and picking locks.

Basically anything from the illusion school can be dispelled with the theif's detect illusion ability. So mirror image or invisibility yes, but stoneskin no. It is similar to the true sight ability. It also works on the werewolf illusions in the circus tent.

 

I think that the thief has to actively detect traps for the Dispel Illusion ability to kick in. Not 100% sure though.

 

Actually, pick pocket ability is quite fun, as you can get any of the smaller sized items from shops for free, presuming that your skill is high enough (mine is around 200 at the mo)

 

100 has always been enough for me. As far as stealing is concerned, I cannot tell anything because I don't actually make use more than 50-60 of those points while pickpocketing (so I usually don't spend more points to that than 60).

 

Here's a kind of add on question regarding pick pocketing from stores. It's kind of a game mechanics question. Even at 200 points in pick pockets, there is still a 1% chance of failure. Now, lets say I want to steal a whackload of stuff from a store -- should I do it one item at a time, or should I select a bunch of items and try to steal them that way? Does it make any difference?

Anyway, IMHO, setting traps is a fabulous place to put skill points after you are confident in your trap finding and lock picking skills. Traps rock!

 

I think you can only steal one item at a time - the game doesn't let you highlight more than one on the steal screen. This is irritating, but it also gives you a chance to quicksave between items if you want to steal a lot and not get caught.

 

Wouldn't a sensible storekeeper get a bit suspicious if all his items were mysteriously disappearing? Maybe someone should write a mod whereby the chance of getting caught stealing from someone you've already stole from increases.

 

I guess the more 'sensible' storekeepers don't have a steal option available in their stores. I know that you can't steal from Ribald, for instance.