Also I simply cannot get over forcing the party to camp only at night and in a fixed location. It's just so utterly daft that if you want to play a rogue, you can't sneak around at night.
Its so true. In the first two BG games the rogue protagonist felt pretty well served. From the very first level in Candlekeep the thief immediately felt like a worthwhile class to explore, with different lines of play. The Bard also, with the whole library backdrop and pick pockets being one of their skills in that set up. Running a rogue/scout oriented party was one of the more entertaining playthroughs, especially since there were so many rakish companions to slot in at either end of the alignment Axis. There were like twice as many rogues you could run with as the other classes. Also the human pcs that could also duel into or out of the thief class.
BG2 had a great roguish arch to get out of the City of Coin and launch into the main campaign, and their stronghold was rad. In BG2 the kits were fun as well, which was one of the reasons to revisit those enhanced editions of BG1 and TotSC to play as an assassin or bounty hunter etc. 2e was also kind of cool, since even at higher levels you could usually find a reason to throw another rogue on the team, just because of the way the skill points were distributed. Like your stealth and backstabbers vs lockbusters or trapfinders or sticky fingers types. They had some nice epic level abilities invented up for them in ToB too. There always felt like stuff for the thief to do in the dungeons, but especially in the towns, and at night.
Even though I usually end up with Astarion in the party for this one, I tend to have him take the spell-casting line, just because it seems more interesting. I don't feel like the Thief shines all that much in this one, and having two in the party seems like it would just feel redundant, instead of opening up a whole different avenue of the game.
Funny that this thread would end up so engaging lol
