Advice on Playing a Thief?

[Garresh]

I've been trying to get somewhere with a Thief lately and I think they may be the hardest class I've ever played. They're definitely rougher than Farmer. I think the only class worse is Merchant, and tbh at this point I'm not sure.

What strategies do you use to get a Thief rolling? What race and stuff?

[grobblewobble]

Yeah imo thief is the worst class, harder than merchant.

One option is to go for a hurthling, for archery and the extra talent. Go for heir, find the goblin camp, start throwing rocks. The drawback is that you get really low strength and your potential strength limits training.
Another option is to play drakeling, as usual they are arguably the best race. Your starting strength and toughness are.. still not great, but better than most thieves. Acid spit helps out. Pick the candle starsign, get heir and fight in true berserk mode until you find some decent armor.

Orc is not bad either, for find weakness. Troll is also an option, it makes you less of a thief and more of a troll.

[Grond]

1. Pick talents that help with the early-game (healthy, PV, speed).
2. Start out using true berserk unless your armor has higher PV than normal.
3. Wander in the forest at level 1-2 until you generate goblin camp. You get rocks for free, and a bunch of goodies once you can deal with (or run from) ogre/goblin chieftain.
4. Take the Healing quest, and don't be afraid to do it the chaotic way if necessary.

[blunk]

Goblin camp, long stride, healthy, quest for healing.
I prefer hoarder talents (ie porter line) and missile talents after that.
Others prefer the PV-line.
Try go for PC6 and then you're good to go.
Don't expect much from the crowning gift.

I basically play it like a warrior/archer but with worse combat abilities.

[Blasphemous]

Nah, it's not so hard; grey elven thief is one of my favorite combinations.
They are really hard to play in the early stages so a careful approach is necessary but even early on, they get a big thing going for them - trap detection and mitigation.
That way you can avoid insta-gibs due to undetected stone blocks, fireballs and acid streams.
Personally, I'd take herbalism over healing but it is going to make the play somewhat more challenging in the - again - early game.
Once you get your PV into double digits and reach respectable values in trap & door management, the game becomes almost trivial. Every door is suddenly your friend and you can lock things away, divert traffic in dungeons, deal with cats (or other monsters) by leading them over known traps etc. With pick pockets you get to replenish potions and use invisibility ones to streamline gameplay.
If you train in daggers from the onset, there's a chance to be precrowned with one or even wish for a phase dagger and thieves become really powerful with them at level 25.
Stealth+backstab bonus can truly make a tremendous difference and the skills can be easily maxed early on.
Heir gift is pretty good but depending on stats and race, you might want to pick other talents for early game.
Now that I've said all this, I haven't played this combo in a while, I think it's time.