Ello all I recently purchased this great game again after playing it when I was a kid. I beat it as a gunman and a mage back in the day but now I want to make a thief character and was wondering what the best route would be. Im a little fuzzy on the skills and cant remember if which were useful and which were not. Im thinking of going tech since I want to try out grenades. Any tips you guys can give would be a big help.

You should improve your throwing skills, if you´re going for grenades.

Try to get Sogg Meat Mugg in your Party at Shrouded Hills (first town), for carrying your equipment and melee.

Don´t forget to look into every rubbish can...........

Depends on the kind of thief you plan to play. For example, if you want to roleplay a sneaky catburglar who likes to enter houses he isn't invited to through a window at night, prowling will come useful. If you, however, just wait there for the shopkeeper go to sleep, then you'd only need pickpocked to swipe the key from him.

All in all, DEX is the stat. Don't skimp too much on perception if you want to be a grenadier, but don't bother raising it too much either, throwing is ruled by DEX + APs are given by DEX, too. Take pick locks and pick pocket, those will always be useful. Prowling is situational and best when soloing, so you'll have to leave your companions waiting somewhere. Backstab goes very well with dagger of speed (if you're magical) and max DEX, but even a couple of levels can be very useful if you have a sword or dagger ready to be equipped. And if you're into tech (and overkill), you can take Expert and start backstabing people with pyrotechnic axes.

Spot Trap makes no sense without Disarm Trap, because your companions will happily stomp over traps spotted or not.

Finally, you may want to raise your Haggle to at least Expert, because it's handy for a thief to fence anywhere. Plus, it feels sweeter when you sell his own stuff to a shopkeeper you just robbed clean, and for the increased price no less!

Thank you guys but I sidetracked my self with a slow witted half ogre and now I need to finish it before I start a thief. The dialogue and insults are just too good not to.

Yeah this dialogues as an ogre are worth another playthrough, just amazing.

I would not recommend playing the game as a backstab assassin/thief solo. It ruins the game's concept and you cannot utilize ambushes as well.

I beat arcanum as a more fighter geared backstab assassin. I finished the game with just a fine steel dagger and no party members. Once you are an expert backstabber swords become actually useful. I would not go for axes just because it doesnt make sense and swords are better. When you go to the island and pit fight there is a sword that drops that if picked up, is really friggin good. Another thing is that always when backstabbing in the beginning, start in turn based mode. You can get 3 backstabs that way.

Trust me on this though with prowling, solo is much more rewarding as you can take out a whole squad of people if you combine good tactics. I took out the whole barbarian fort with backstab plus minor fighting.