Recommended thief progression
fanscale
Member Posts: 81
How do you assign thief points and on what type of thief e.g Fighter/thief?
On my first thief I would put most on open locks at level 2 I would put most on find traps. For a second thief would put all on stealth until they reach 100.
On my first thief I would put most on open locks at level 2 I would put most on find traps. For a second thief would put all on stealth until they reach 100.
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My approach to soloing:
- Stealth (i.e. sum of HiS/MS) => 130
- Detect Traps => 45-50
- Set Traps => 75
- Detect Traps => +20
- Detect Illusions => whatever remains
[Edit: the above refers to BG1; in BG2 skillpoints go to Detect Illusions and Lockpicking during the first level-ups.]
As you can see, I consider lockpicking and pickpocketing the least important skills. Potions can be used for those two skills, and lock bashing also often works instead of lockpicking if you have a high STR Thief (which is recommendable for better Thac0 when backstabbing).
In my current party with an Assassin as the only Thief, I've focused so far (level 6) on Find & Set Traps and some stealth. The party got lucky when they found a Knock scroll, so they're getting by quite well. My Wizards/Priests can Detect Illusions, so I'm less inclined to assign points to that skill, and will reserve more skillpoints for traps and stealth.
If you have more than one Thief in your party, as seems to be the case in your party, skill point distribution would depend a bit on what roles you have in mind for your Thieves. Generally speaking I'd have my first Thief focus on one utility skill (detect traps for example) and my second Thief on another utility skill (e.g. open locks). That way both will have points to spare for more combat-oriented skills, i.e. trap-setting and stealth, and thus both will have their use in combat. I find that preferable to having one good combat Thief and one pure utility Thief.
For soloing, I'd probably do much the same thing, due to force of habit, but I would say Stealth and Set Traps are the better priorities, since they will buttress a thief's poor combat abilities in the vulnerable early game. For multi- and dual-classed thieves, Stealth is much less important, and to a lesser extent, you can sacrifice Set Traps, too.
And of course, Swashbucklers have little need for Stealth, Assassins have great need of it, and Bounty Hunters need maximum Set Traps as soon as possible.
I don't think I've ever had more than one thief, except for brief stints where Yoshimo and Jan were in the same party. But if you have more than one thief, the only skill that both thieves could make use of simultaneously is Stealth, since there's a cap on traps and a thief's other duties are mostly one-person jobs.
As for values, I believe 95 is sufficient for all traps/locks in BG2. 100 is the cap on DI afaik, and on Set Traps as well. All the rest gets dumped into Stealth.
Detect Traps, Open Locks, Detect Illusion, Stealth (ms/hide), Set Trap, Pick Pocket.
You can always come back to locks if it isn't high enough, you can not go back to traps.
I take stealth to 100 & 100 then all to 50, followed by all to 100, followed by all to 150.
I solo a lot and rely on good stealth to survive in nasty places way before I should be there...
I understand we're talking about a thief that will go through both BG1 and BG2, right? Because if not, then the strategy would be different.
There're rings in BG2 available not far into the game that give +25% to Find/Disarm Traps and +25% to Open Locks.
So, I usually don't waste points and don't put more than 75 into both these skills.
Before I acquire these rings, I use potions of master thievery to open locks and potions of power to disarm traps (if playing solo). There're many of these potions in the game. If I play with a party, the Knock spell and/or high STR from a cleric with DUHM does the trick. Buffed mages take off the traps.
I like putting points into Set Traps and using this skill. Even not the most powerful version of traps are useful. I usually put only 80 points into this skill because there's a ring in BG2 giving +20% to Set Traps.
So:
I put 100 into Detect Illusion (it's a very useful skill, helps a lot against mages), 80 into Set Traps, 75 into Find/Disarm Traps, 75 into Open Locks.
The rest goes t into HiS/MS - it doesn't matter which skill from these two/
I don't bother with putting points into Pick Pockets - I gulp several potions of master thievery, they stack and I easily have many points in this skill to steal from the person I need.
- pickpocket: complete waste. Few items are worth pickpocketing. Use potions if/when you need it.
- lockpick: almost wasted. Very few worthy items in locked containers. Use bach/knock/potions if you really need to open it. The only drawback is a small loss of xp.
- disarm traps: THE thief skill that cannot be replicated by other means (apart from cheesy prebuffing before setting up the trap). However for BG1 early game, getting to 100 is not necessary as the traps of early chapters have very low detection treshold.
- HIS/MS : very useful, especially for a solo character. Requires a big investment to be worthwhile though.
- detect illusion/set traps: also very good.
Therefore here is how it typically goes:
- first few points go to HIS/MS to reach around 130 in total (same as blackraven). Coupled with boost from items, this makes it manageable.
- then i max find traps to make sure i will not miss any
- then (BG2) i pump detect illusion/set snares to reach decent levels (75) and ultimately max them
- then i pump HIS/MS to 200 in total
- then i max lockpick
- then i pump HIS/MS to 400 total
- finally i dump the rest in pickpocket
If i have limited skill points (like playing a dual thief/XX), i skip HIS/MS (investment is too high) and focus on find traps/detect illusion/set snares.