...I think there were some rings in BG2/ToB to boost your Open Locks and Traps skills (+20% or something similar)
Mercykiller Ring, I think. Was mentioned by Kaigen here.
Or you could be talking about Ring of Danger Sense, because Mercykiller Ring only gives a bonus to stealth and Set Snares.
In addition to the Ring of Danger Sense there's the Ring of Lock Picks (and Jan's personal equipment, though that doesn't help anyone else until UAI).
This is probably better served in a different thread, but there's also the possibility that she simply won't be very good at opening locks or disarming traps when you first recruit her, and will have to work towards having her fill that role (or not, if you have another thief and want to focus on making her an amazing sneaker); after all, since she's going to be leveling up as a thief, there's plenty of opportunity to correct any deficiencies in her skill set.
There's unholy blight, bleeding wound, stat reducing wounds, curse, you could look at one of the hot female elf pictures for a while (re. a featured post) (as a "child of Baahl," perhaps you could go on a spree annihilating all the elves. They're uncouth, undecent, and I don't want them around.), or you could just talk to someone, and say unkind hurtful things.
There's actually one thing I've forgotten - Valygar. Well, not the best backstabber with his backstabbing progression but quite nice to have such a guy on your side.
What you do with Valygar, when you're far away from me is your own business. But I'm uncomfortable with him. I usually get Mazzy, if I have him, just to keep him occupied.
@Basillicum: Swashbucklers are probably the best of all thief kits...
There's already someone similar to a swashbuckler class, Her'dales, in the game.
The Shadow Thief should do Shadow Thief oriented things, like stealth and backstab, and maybe pickpocket, though Jan's already pretty good at this. One that's secretly working for another opponent wouldn't work well, as there's already Yoshimo that does that.
Keep in mind that BG2 has so many more levels than BG1 that pretty soon you'll have more thieving skill points than you'll ever know what to do with.
That is true, but not in BGEE. In BGEE, you scrape the points you can get together to be able to open locks&traps and at least do some other stuff a bit (like set snares or backstabbing)
I for one am very glad for the stealth (Worn Whispers) boots and the Shadow Armor. For ANY thief. Even a Swashbuckler. A +detect traps/+open locks ring would make things much easier. Or at least I wouldn't need to carry another Thief in my group when playing a fight-oriented Thief.
Comments
This is probably better served in a different thread, but there's also the possibility that she simply won't be very good at opening locks or disarming traps when you first recruit her, and will have to work towards having her fill that role (or not, if you have another thief and want to focus on making her an amazing sneaker); after all, since she's going to be leveling up as a thief, there's plenty of opportunity to correct any deficiencies in her skill set.
The Shadow Thief should do Shadow Thief oriented things, like stealth and backstab, and maybe pickpocket, though Jan's already pretty good at this. One that's secretly working for another opponent wouldn't work well, as there's already Yoshimo that does that.
I for one am very glad for the stealth (Worn Whispers) boots and the Shadow Armor. For ANY thief. Even a Swashbuckler. A +detect traps/+open locks ring would make things much easier. Or at least I wouldn't need to carry another Thief in my group when playing a fight-oriented Thief.