True. I wasn't making the argument that there shouldn't be a trade off. Just saying that to go a second path, you're giving up some pretty nice skills and you still won't reach the top of a second path. As it should be.

To be honest, I am no expert when it comes to several of the paths. I've played a lot of thugs and have a pretty good knowledge of the general thief skills as I've explored them quite a bit. I built a necro-killer with blackjack/isolate/earclap that was nice for a couple of otherwise very tough kills. Of course once they are undead...you are no threat to speak of.

Another challenge to thugs at hero are assassins and duergar warriors as they are the two you cannot avoid by hiding. Both, unless incompetent, can curb stomp a thug without breaking a sweat without trance and without legacies. Duergar Shaman and APs I doubt view a thug as a risk other than getting knocked out and stolen from. Even with earclap on the AP (which is woefully unreliable on an awake foe) your direct damage skills are no match and a thief's limited weapon knowledge means he's eating you in melee anyway. Of course if he has protections...

Starting to sound like a whine fest. But it seems at hero, every class has an answer to thugs and then some. I usually hero a thug before he dies to remind myself why I hadn't before.