What would be the best race for a thief?

[Vibhor]

I have tried the troll
it was not so good,He was slow and burly
I'd rather take a fighter or a barbarian with troll but it seems hurthlings are good

[minchazo]

Jellyslayer made good observations there. I used to play lots of DE thieves for the roleplaying and fun factor...

Me too! I always imagine going UCG ending and ripping out Drizz't's spleen before the final dive in an attempt to redeem our race.

Too bad I haven't gotten there yet

[MrNiceguy]

My personal favorite thief is the hurthling. You've got a real good chance to get the heir gift, and if you're like me and make your first stop in bandit town, the black market will often have a pile of rocks for sale. Yeah, it's kinda silly to think about paying for rocks, but they make a huge difference in early game survival.

And yes, Pick Locks is definately a lifesaver. PROTIP: Picking Locks can be used to lock doors as well as unlock them. Locking doors by lockpicking is actually better than with keys, because with lockpicking, you can close and lock the door in the same turn, whereas using a key requires you close the door first.

[pblack]

And yes, Pick Locks is definately a lifesaver.

Very true. I forgot to mention that as well. All thieves should use that ability extensively in the early game to make sure that those ravenants stay locked in after they are generated by the sadistic RNG in PC: 4.

Pick locks enables you to control levels with more ease right from the start (later on any character can get the skill and there are guaranteed thieves picks in the game). Small cave is the best place to use that skill extensively. if you open a door and there's nothing but monsters inside a room you can just get out and lock it imediately, decreasing monster generation in the SMC.

Pacifying the SMC completely before level 6 means that there will be almost no chance of a lvl 10+ monster being generated in the path you use between stairs. Of course, sometimes the dungeon configuration doesn't allow pacification due to the presence of too much corridors and fewer rooms, and it is possible for a nasty high level blink dog to appear, but still, beats the chances any other character might have in the SMC (except trolls, those do very well in the SMC).

Also, it's an amazing skill to lock in those 20 lich kings you came across in a tension room before they can get out and rip your guts =P

[fazisi]

Also, with a high Stealth skill, you can even walk up to open tension/threat rooms and lock them before the monsters are even aware of your presence.

[Tupimus]

I noticed the Pick Locks locking doors earlier on today. Needless to say, I enjoyed that thief right until it died. I don't really remember how. Raised thieves right above fighters and elementalists on my class scale.

[Elone]

I only ever play humans. Is that so bad?

[Silfir]

Yes. Racist!

[gut]

speciesist

[Elone]

Thats something called ARPEE! As Grey said once, it seems like most players are all about stats and numbers, whereas numbers dont really decide whether you live or die. Lets just say that I feel that ADOM is too random for a few minor stats to matter. This is in the similar way that you dont care to answer intro questions but roll random stats. It matters more whether you'll get a really bad roll on that explosion trap, or whether an out of depth monster will totally come out and kill you. And given the length of the game, this is BOUND to happen. And you dont get a say in it. So what I'm trying to say, while character creation might be important very early in the game, your survival wont depend on your initial stats/items soon enough anymore. Exceptions are the super special awesome items like SLB or similar, but they're just that, exceptions. But you keep the same race thruout the whole game. I prefer humans. But I wish there were cat people in there. I'd be one.