Thief

This page about thieves is specially made for the games of Baldur's Gate II, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. See Thief (Baldur's Gate) for a version especially for Baldur's Gate

Thieves can open locks, steal items, hide in shadow and find and disarm traps, as this the only class with these abilities, they are essential for a good party. All races can become a thief as a profession and the only alignment which is not available is lawful good for obvious reason. A thief wears leather or studded leather armor and can only use bucklers as shields to protect themselves. The array of weapon for a thief consists of lightweight weapons such as daggers and throwing daggers, short bows, short swords and long swords, staffs, clubs, darts and slings. A thief can't wear any metal helmets.

Character abilities

 * Prime Requisites for Dual-Classing. Humans Require a minimum of 15 in this stat and a 17 in the prime requisite of the class you are dualling to.
 * For the information of this table the human race was used, because they have no character bonuses/penalties related to race and therefore act like a 'neutral'. For other races this may be slightly different. See Character Abilities and Thieving Abilities for more information.

Abilities of the thief.
A thief gains +25 thieving ability points upon level up. Starting stats in various thief skills are determined by race, with Halflings having the best overall thief skill bonuses.

Dexterity determines how many points are added to each skill during the game as well.

Find/Disarm traps
A thief can find traps if they activate their find traps mode. Any found traps can then be disarmed if the find/disarm trap percentage is high enough. Disarming a trap successfully grants the party experience in Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. There is no benefit to increasing this score higher than 100.

Hide in Shadow/Move Silently
All thieves can use their special ability hide-in-shadows to stealth, so long as they wear studded leather armor or less. The chance to succesfully hide-in-shadows depends primarily on a thief's invested skill points into the skill (including thieving equipment that may provide bonuses such as Boots of Stealth), as well as time of day and whether the thief is standing in a shadow. Significant penalties occur when attempting to hide during daylight hours or while not in shadows. A stealthed thief- whether hiding-in-shadows or invisible due to a spell- can attempt a backstab when attacking from behind using a thief melee weapon (longsword, short sword, dagger, club, scimitar/wakizashi/ninja-to, katana or quarterstaff). Successful backstabs inflict multiplier damage, which increases as the thief gains levels.

Pick Locks
A thief can lockpick locks from doors and containers to open them. The chance to open a door/container depends on the difficulty of the lock and works on a threshold system - if you're within 5 points of the target lock's difficulty you have a 50% chance of bashing it successfully, while if you're equal to or greater than the lock's difficulty, it's guaranteed. Picking a lock successfully rewards the party with experience in Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. Does not benefit from scores higher than 100.

Pick Pockets
A thief can steal items from characters. The chance to steal an item depends on the percentage and receives a penalty based on the weight/value of the item and the level of the target, so will often require a Pick Pockets skill in excess of 100 points to steal more valuable items.

Set Traps
Allows thief to lay a trap when outside an enemy's line of sight. Also required to use special traps gained by high level thief abilities. Failing to to lay a trap can cause the trap to be fired at the thief. Does not benefit from scores higher than 100.

Detect Illusion
Thieves may attempt to dispel non-friendly illusion spells within 30 ft whenever their Find Traps skill is active. Does not receive any modifier from a thief's dexterity score. Does not benefit from scores higher than 100.

Backstabbing
When thieves are invisible, a thief can try to execute a backstab upon an enemy with a thief melee weapon, which inflicts more damage than a normal hit, but makes the thief visible once again.

All melee attacks from concealment receive a +4 to-hit bonus. Attacks from behind using a thief melee weapon will also receive the thief's backstab modifier, providing the target is not immune to backstabs. Thieves may also backstab while under the effects of Invisibility, whether from a potion, an item or a spell, providing they attack from behind with a suitable weapon. Cleric/Thieves may not backstab while under the effects of the Sanctuary spell unless they also Hide in Shadows first.

A thief able to wear armor heavier than studded leather, either through multiclassing or the Use Any Item high level ability, may not attempt to Hide in Shadows, but may still backstab if under the effects of Invisibility and all other backstab conditions are met.

Non-thief weapons gained through multiclassing or the Use Any Item high level ability, such as bastard swords and warhammers, are unsuitable for backstabbing and do not receive any damage bonus. All summoned melee weapons (Shillelagh, Flame Blade, Black Blade of Disaster, etc.) can also be used to backstab.

If the character receives a damage bonus due to having a high Strength, this bonus is applied AFTER the backstab multiplier.

* BG:EE has a 161,000 XP cap, thus allowing only level 10 and the associated x2 backstab multiplier.

Assassin
Assassins are trained killers to kill targets efficiently and discreetly. Anonymity and surprise are the cornerstones of this profession.

Advantages:
 * May coat his/her weapons once per day for every four levels in poison.
 * +1 bonus to THAC0 and damage
 * Backstab multiplier increases to x6 at level 17
 * Backstab multiplier increases to x7 at leavel 21

Disadvantage:
 * Gains only 15% thieving ability points each level.

Bounty Hunter
Bounty Hunters hunt down men and bring them back alive. They may offer their services to lawful organisations or to underworld lords. They are more specialised in laying traps than other thief.

Advantages:
 * Gain +15 points to laying traps
 * Traps they lay are more powerful and they may traps, which have special effects, depending on the level of the bounty hunter.

Disadvantage:
 * Gains only 20% thieving ability points each level.

Swashbuckler
Swashbucklers are part acrobat and swordman and wit into a single class. They can specialise in all melee weapons a thief may use and they can become even more skilled in wielding two weapons at the same time. Charm and grace are the values of the swashbuckler.

Advantages:
 * +1 bonus to armor class at the start and +1 bonus every five levels
 * +1 bonus to THAC0 and damage every five levels.
 * May become specialised (+1 to hit, +2 damage, but does not gain extra 1/2 attack) in all melee weapons a thief may use
 * Can invest up to three points in two weapons style
 * Gains the Whirlwind Attack high level ability from the Fighter pool in place of Assassination

Disadvantage:
 * No backstab multiplier for attacks when invisible. Still receives +4 to-hit bonus for attacking from hiding.

Shadowdancer (Enhanced Edition Only)
Shadowdancers can harness the power of magic to increase their stealth abilities. Enigmatic and dangerous, these uniquely skilled Thieves are able to blend seamlessly into the shadows in ways that a normal Thief cannot, striking without warning—sometimes with supernatural speed.

Advantages: Disadvantages:
 * Hide in Plain Sight: A Shadowdancer may Hide in Shadows even while being observed. Can be used once per round.
 * May cast Shadowstep once per day every 5 levels: Step into the Shadow Plane and move for 7 seconds while others are frozen in time. The Shadowdancer cannot attack or cast spells while in the Shadow Plane and cannot use thief skills except find traps/detect illusion. Items stolen from chests while shadowstepping will not raise any alarms.
 * Slippery Mind: +1 bonus to Saving Throws.
 * High Level Abilities:
 * o SHADOW FORM: This ability temporarily transposes some of the Shadowdancer’s tissue with shadow-material, making the subject partially incorporeal. For the next 5 rounds, all physical attacks directed against the Shadowdancer deal only 50% of their normal damage. During this time the Shadowdancer is also under the effects of Improved Invisibility and cannot be directly targeted by spells.
 * o SHADOW MAZE: This ability opens a temporary gateway to a small pocket within the Plane of Shadow. All enemies within 10 feet of the Shadowdancer must make a saving throw vs. spells at a -4 penalty or become trapped inside a shadowy labyrinth, as per the Maze spell.
 * o SHADOW TWIN: This ability creates an almost exact duplicate of the Shadowdancer for 2 turns. The duplicate is created at 60% of the level at which the Shadowdancer is currently on. It has all the abilities that the Shadowdancer would have at that level. It also has 60% of the hit points of the Shadowdancer. The duplicate is fully under the control of the Shadowdancer.
 * May not be of Lawful alignment
 * Backstab multiplier is one less than a regular thief, cannot backstab until level 5 (lv 5-8: x2, lv 9-12: x3, lv13: x4)
 * May only distribute 15 skill points per level (30 at level 1) among thieving skills.
 * May not use Set Snare ability.
 * Has three Prime Requisites For Dual-Classing: Strength, Dexterity (already has a min. requirement of 15), Charisma.

Shadowdancers have different stat requirements than regular thieves:
 * Prime Requisites for Dual-Classing. Humans require a minimum of 15 in all three stats and a 17 in the prime requisite of the class you are dualling to.

High-level class abilities

 * Alchemy
 * Assassination (Except Swashbuckler)
 * Avoid Death
 * Evasion
 * Greater Evasion, requires evasion already selected.
 * Scribe Scrolls, use any item is a requirement.
 * Set Spike Trap
 * Set Exploding Trap
 * Set Time Trap
 * Use Any Item
 * Whirlwind, (Swashbuckler only)
 * Shadow Form (Shadowdancer only)
 * Shadow Maze (Shadowdancer only)
 * Shadow Twin (Shadowdancer only)

Stronghold
In Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, thieves can gain a stronghold during Find Proof of Mae'Var's Treachery.