About new thief skills...

Demonoid_Limewire

Well, i don't know, but i was heavily disheartened, about the changes. There are many thief skills, and some of them are completely new! Which is pretty bad, because this way, the points you get, will waste away, without you being able to fortify enough the abilities you critically need, upon getting a level up...

Anyone care to point towards some headers, concerning the changes? I am almost midway this game (1EE), and i still have not picked up any thief (i always keep Imoen around as a decorative element, she is too pretty to send forth and face danger), because i was in chaos! (i simply manage with priest detect trap and mage knock spell)

DreadKhan

1 thief is enough for utility... you really have a rough time without Remove Traps and Open Locks. I would just make life easy and get both to 100 unless you're an assassin or a 3 some multi.

Safana, imoen or even montaron can all provide an early thief, though most people would use Monty as a stealth specialist. Later thieves suffer GREATLY from strange skill distribution, but Alora is decent as long as she avoids combat.

Demonoid_Limewire

Pwah... Sounds pretty hard. In 1 original, there was a premade thief character, which was a halfling, and by some random game mistake, he had ungodly thief skill numbers, even from starting him at level 1! Now, here, not only there is not a happy glitch/mistake around, but you need like 2-3 thieves to manage your tasks adequately... Sheesh!

I guess that at the end of ToB, if you max an EE thief character (assuming you get one created yourself), you do not get enough skill points to max ALL thief skills, minus 20 (points), which was the case in 2 original...

DreadKhan

No, you really dont need 2 or 3. I have done assassin to fighter as a tutu solo, totally could get by. I had no xp cap, but probably got only 1 or 2 more assassin levels. She opened the locks, disarmed traps and used stealth. I used potions for Candlekeep catacombs though, and to kill Sarevok. I ran a similar bounty hunter who also used traps. Its doable.

You dont need to max out skills right away other than stealth, and using the boots and shadow armour make hiding easy enough for a halfer at lvl 1. Its not as easy as BG1 having 4, but its not that bad.

meagloth

The skills aren't completely new. They're all back ported from v bg2, right?

jackjack

As has been said, a lone single-class thief is plenty in BGEE. I personally prefer Safana.
By the end of BG2, and on into ToB, even one multiclassed thief, (e.g. Jan), will be more than enough thief for your party.

Demonoid_Limewire

jackjack said:

As has been said, a lone single-class thief is plenty in BGEE. I personally prefer Safana.
By the end of BG2, and on into ToB, even one multiclassed thief, (e.g. Jan), will be more than enough thief for your party.

Hm, great idea (and npc) that jan. Not only he has special, unique, self-useable only equipment, he is funny, and he is both mage/thief! Few times i failed to pick him up. At least in original 2.

Blackraven

Note that having a high Find Traps score only becomes an asset in Candlekeep, the Undercity and the TotSC content. I never rush with boosting that ability toward 100. (around 50 will suffice up until, and including, Davaeorn's lair). This means a plain Thief will be able to increase their Stealth skill as well.

simples

that and potions of perception

TheGraveDigger

Pure thief is just a trapper. Just give him 100 Find Traps and 100 Set Traps. Let the other classes handle the locks and scouting.

Belanos

Demonoid_Limewire said:

There are many thief skills, and some of them are completely new!

What new thief skills are you referring to? They look exactly the same as they always did to me.

elminster

Belanos said:

What new thief skills are you referring to? They look exactly the same as they always did to me.

This is talking about original BG1 skills vs the BG2 skills that were introduced in the EE.

Set Traps and Detect Illusions are entirely new skills for BG1. Hide in Shadows and Move Silently were split up from "Stealth", so you end up spending a lot of points to get that up.

Belanos

elminster said:

This is talking about original BG1 skills vs the BG2 skills that were introduced in the EE.

Set Traps and Detect Illusions are entirely new skills for BG1. Hide in Shadows and Move Silently were split up from "Stealth", so you end up spending a lot of points to get that up.

I see. It's been a very long time since I played vanilla BG1. Before the EE version I was playing it through TUTU.