Thieves in Black Pits?

MonoCanalla

I assume backstabbing is limited to Shadowdancers, and also there is the option of throwing poisoned arrows and detecting illusions. Now, please without spoilers, is there any reason to use a Thief in Black Pits 2 beyond that? Like the possibility of finding traps, pickpocket...

Mivsan

There are some traps to find and disarm and locks to pick (I think it's very hard or impossible to access some rooms without a Thief). The thing is, from what I remember, the traps aren't particularly deadly and the things you find in the hard-to-open rooms aren't that great. There are diaries to read, though, and items providing some backstory through their descriptions. I'd definitely go for all that, if it's your first Black Pits 2 playthrough.

There aren't a lot of characters that you can pickpocket. It's mostly the guards, but the things you get from them are useful (especially early).

As for backstabbing, there's a lot of opportunities and you absolutely don't have to be a Shadowdancer. I usually go for a Kensai -> Thief and it works great.

So, plenty of reasons to have a Thief, though they are not necessary.

Queegon

Make a dual classed thief/fighter, and you are set for the Pits

meagloth

Yes. Bring a bard with full pickpocket skill (jester or pure) and a shadow dancer or a multi thief.

Skaffen

I can wholeheartedly recommed a thief, actually started a thread on it here

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/30010/bp2-in-praise-of-a-thief-well-traps-actually

If you know which battle is in which arena you can purposefulky preseed it with traps redoing an earlier easy fight if you have problems. See the following for a list which battle is in which arena (among many other infos, beware of spoilers)

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/465405#Comment_465405