Thieving skills

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What's the maximum number of thief point you can put in each skill ? And is it worth it to max one of them ?

For example, is it really worth it to have 250 points for Hide in Shadows and Move Silently ? Or is 100 largely enough for the entire game and it's better to put them in something else ?

PS. What does Move Silently do anyway ? It helps to stay in shadows when you're moving around enemies ?

 

Well for stealth capability it's more important to 'stay' invisible(stealth mode) than anything else.

So if you have low 100's to mid 100's from pure points your doing superb. You may want to make it a 'must' to have the Cloak of Non-Detection on your Thief while adventuring. No True Sight, Purge Invis, Detect invis, Oracle and the like will reveal your thief.

Additionally, the only skill that needs to be high in order to 'live large' is pick pocketing. You can use potions to accomplish the preferred high 100's or low 200's for compulsive thieving. Likewise don't neglect points for open locks & find/remove traps. You can rack up decent XP instead of using Knock or forcing open containers.

Finally there is a difference between Hide in Shadows and Move Silently. You can be Invisible... but still be heard by an opponent. I read the descriptions given of these abilities when my Thief 'leveled up'. Those descriptions are better than the manual's.



[This message has been edited by Draco Vlasavius (edited April 23, 2001).]

 

I think that if Hide In Shadows is around 200% you can do it in battle..but that might just be a rumor..maybe someone could clarify...

 

In IWD I was able to shadow my thief in battle with 130% in hide in shadows plus boots of stealth and shadowed leather armor (plus he was in a poorly lit cave at the time). But, that may not be the case in BG2. Of course, I'm not a position to try it out in BG2 yet, my party is moving trough the Thieves Maze on the trail of Sarevok in BG1 as we speak. I'll be moving on to Amn soon enough.

 

Hide in shadow in combat ... an unreachable dream of every thief - you can´t even do it with the incredible drow-pinawafi you find in drow-city (+75 on move silent/ hide in shadows), boots of thealth and 105 base value ... Howewer, perfection is a nice goal

I don´t think it is nessesary to have more than 105 skill in thieving abilities for there are the potions of master thievery that give you what you lack if needen. Though IMHO 150 it could be graet for pickpocketing.

 

What about the thieves Detect Illusion skill?

Will this work as a True Sight or how does it work? I've never really tried it out.

 

Hmm, I didn´t find much use in it - maybe this will turn out to be more important in ToB - therefore my suggestion to ignore it till then ...
I just started to place some points in that skill after having 100+ in the more important skills already ...

 

basically it's like true-sight...Pretty sure it's on all the time. I've heard a lot of people have found it very useful but I never really used it.

 

Ummm, it's not quite like True Sight. The Detect Illusion spell is 'quirky'. For one, you have to be close to the target or 'strike' the target. Then it will 'dispell' Misleads, Simurculam's, Mirror's and the like.

I had Detect Illusion up to 140% with a potion of perception and was able to get 'satisfactory' results. Some time back someone made a suggestion that the 'Find/Remove Traps' ability 'detects illusions as well' here in this fourm.

True... but not in battle. I tried with no success whatsoever. If anyone else has found any tricks with the detect illusion ability please post!

 

Personally I find it a waste of resources. You're better off imho to place points into skills which are commonly used by your thief.
Picking locks and disarming traps gives valuable XP. Yeah, detect illusions might come in handy........once or twice

PS. If you check in the manual you will find that thieves have another list of (useless in this game) skills. I can't help but feel that Detect Illusion should have been left to one side along with -

Detect Noise
Climb Walls
Read Languages.