*Old man voice* Why in my day, you couldn't even see the thief points! I remember taking a binder to drag and crossing my fingers on thug. Guess what...no cheap shot. You had to play a thief through and just hope for the best with whatever plan you had. Shield block was for trappers. Scrolls for all thieves. I like the 'new' system (I'm sure it's like ten years old or something at this point) and think it's balanced. When I think of a combo that would be very excellent including two whacks of devious versatility (AFAIK three isn't mathematically possible) there's usually a decision to make where I'd like 2 or 3 more points, sometimes even just one, and to me if I'm building a good combo for whatever purpose it seems balanced to me if there HAVE to be tradeoffs. They're usually in the final 'general skills', I'm always satisfied with the path choices. Abandoning general skills usually means some unlikely combo (full 2 paths, for example, which was NOT always possible as I mentioned earlier.

While I think they could use some fine tuning, my general impression is that the IMMs don't play them, or understand them really. I was shocked the thief points being visible came out as well as it did. This isn't a jab at said imms either, the only thing that would shock me more than their having refurbed the class well would be any one of them suggesting they knew much about them. Or cared, frankly, but that's more speculative. I think the class is solid, but it's difficult and it's certainly more utility than it is anything else. I don't necessarily disagree with the poster's sentiment about general skills, but I'd challenge anyone to come up with a better (and complete!) system than there is presently.

Also someone mentioned they're useless against undead at high levels, that is pretty much spot on, save for trappers geared towards combat or thugs patient enough to be the opportunists they should be (waiting for wraithform flight to drop etc) and even then. Always a rock for your scissors, and you can still rob them pretty handily. The class isn't for everyone, but play more combos and come up with a better system than there is or really it just seems like a gripe from a place of ignorance. And it would probably get shot down anyway, that's quite a lot of effort I'd say with no promise of a result!

...I should add I'm obviously biased, I play a lot of thieves. K thanks