While I've played the Baldur's Gate Trilogy endlessly over the past decade or so, I'm more or less completely new to IWD, and I was wondering people's opinions on the value of thieves.

I've always been told that pure-class Thieves are a bit of a waste, though in BG2 I loved playing as them - the kits were really interesting and the extra thief skills made for more diversity.

It's not quite the same in IWD, with no kits and only the four thieving skills. So would you ever take a pure-class thief? Why or why not?

A second question: How long does it take to max out a thief's skills? Is it worthwile taking more than one? I had the idea of a Fighter/Thief who would work up stealth and be a scout/backstabber alongside an Illusionist/Thief who would focus on trap detection and opening locks. But if one mc'ed thief would be able to handle all those responsibilities, it might make sense to replace the I/T with a straight specialist mage.

Finally: Is Pickpocketing any useful? I know that in BG there's a dedicated group of players who swear by Pickpocketing as a great way to get additional (and sometimes duplicate) rewards and items. Since IWD seems like more of a dungeon crawl, I'm not sure if it would be of any use.

Pure class thieves level extremely fast which means they would max their skills out in no time at all. This sounds good but they would only get 1 attack per round and their THACO isn't so hot. A pure class thief wouldn't be terrible but really adding the fighter class into the mix makes them much better fighters with better THACO , APR, starting strength, and HP while still leveling at a fast rate. My fighter/thief is 10/13 and I just maxed out pick locks and find traps. I concentrated on stealth though but I still only had a few problems with locks and no issues with traps whatsoever. In other words, your mc'ed fighter/thief can handle it all. You won't need a second one unless you just want one. If you do, then a thief/illusionist would be what I would use. As far as pick pocket goes, it isn't useless. There are some very good items that you can pickpocket. Bards are quite good at pickpocketing so if you bring one then you won't have to worry about your thief doing it.