Hi this is my first character and I am hoping to get some advice. I want to play a stealing thief, basically someone who's opposed killing, but doesn't mind fleecing a few sheep. What's the best to way proceed?

Do I need to go all the way to fence and counterfeit? What exactly do they do?

Also, what other paths complement me the most. I play randomly for short periods of time, so I would also like to be able to solo. Can that be done with a pickpocket thief?

Thanks for the tips, guys.

http://www.qhcf.net/thf.html

I kind of figured that you wanted a thiefy thief/explorer combo, so I designed you a set like this. You will have to choose which skills you want to delay and pick later.

-I recommend gentlewalk for walking past aggro mobs safely (the chance of mob to aggro depends on you skil %, meaning that at 100%, you can stand in the same room with an aggro mob and it does not attack you while the skill is active. Spam it to 100%).

-Envenom will help you to whittle down mobs by changing your weapons damage type to poison temporarily. While poisoned, the mob does not regenerate.

-Shield block gives you the additional defense that is good for soloing.

-Knife gives you an opening attack for whittling down mobs etc. It is also good in PK.

-And of course, pickpocket to acrobatics like you planned.

-The rest I just chose to fill in the remaining points. Anyway, - means that you don't have enough points to pick the skill at that level so you have to decide what to leave for later. I would suggest picking gentle walk and shield block early, though.

Here is the skill set I made with thief designer:

Rank Used Avail Study
1 4 -2 scrolls
10 8 8 envenom
12 6 6 plant
13 10 -2 gentle walk, arcane lore
14 8 -8 knife
15 4 -10 discerning gaze
19 4 -6 eye of avarice
20 10 -14 shield block
21 8 -20 climb, deft touch
23 2 -18 cutpurse
25 4 -18 appraise, combat steal
26 4 -20 warning skill
29 2 -16 container stealing
33 12 -20 acrobatics
34 8 -26 advanced picklock
40 6 -20 locksmith
42 0 0

Rank Used Avail Study
2 4 0 scrolls - will help you survive
12 6 14 plant
13 3 13 gentle walk - for ranking/exploring
14 8 7 knife - for ranking/surviving/pkilling
15 4 5 discerning gaze
17 8 1 blackjack - to deal with duergar/assassins
19 4 1 eye of avarice
22 6 1 deft touch - perfected (along with steal), you won't come out of hiding except on a rare, rare occasion
23 2 1 cutpurse - use if you knock people out
24 3 0 thief waylway - you can steal/counterfeit and they can't input any commands
25 2 0 appraise - physical equivalent to mage's identify
30 10 0 shield block - for survivability/ranking
31 2 0 doubleback - survivability
35 7 1 arcane lore - increases scroll potency
36 1 2 glimpse
37 4 0 veil of secrecy - will need when you steal lots of stuff
38 2 0 shadow disappear - survivability against entwine/cutoff
39 2 0 combat steal
41 4 0 warning skill
42 16 2 container stealing, acrobatics, counterfeit

With 2 points left over, you could spend on one of the 2 point skills or hold out for devious versatility. If you do the devious route, some suggestions for more skills would be lore of the ages (which will probably play a bigger role in the hero ranks), envenom for the poison bite (which will play a bigger role in the hero ranks), grease weapon (for when you knock people out), precision strike (if you join a cabal, will be useful in raids/defenses), improved hide (if you join a cabal, necessary for scouting), climb (niche, but usefulish), push/kidney shot (for cabals if you find yourself in a fight, just that little added bit of -str, combine with scrolls to maledict or with poisonous weapons)

As far as edges go, I got a lot of use out of Battle Tested for solo-ranking. I could often sleep the next hour after fighting, which helped speed things up. Then flee/gentlewalk/knife/repeat to kill mobs

I'll definitely go this route.

How does Veil of Secrecy help me though? Won't I see other thieves coming?

Also prevents tracking by locate spells, so if you steal something, it's harder to prove it was you.

I haven't played a pickpocket in a long time but I can answer some of your questions.

Counterfeit lets you create a fake copy of an item. Uses include stealing an important potion from somebody, counterfitting it, and then planting the counterfeit back onto them. Then when they go to use it at a critical moment they are in trouble. Also it could be a way for somebody to not know they were robbed. Steal their weapon, counterfeit it, plant it back onto them. They don't know their weapon is gone. Devious people could come up with more ideas.

Fence used to work like this (unsure if it still does): You have an item you can't sell for whatever reason (shopkeepers have no money, in wrong town and need cash, etc.). You fence the item and it gives you money for it, but only a fraction of the worth. It has a timer so you can't just fence everything you have.

Most classes you can solo level to 20 without too much trouble if you are patient and look around for good areas or opportunities and incorporate quests/obs exp/etc. Thieves are not particularly good at solo-leveling. I'd say after a certain rank (30 at the very latest) you would have a hard time solo leveling at all.

Counterfeit is an excellent skill if you want to frustrate people. For instance, if you participate in cabalwars, steal the Cabal's item from the person who just defeated the inner guardian, counterfeit it, then plant it back and they're none the wiser. I also used it a lot with mages and their wands.

Fence was not worth the points I spent on it, in my opinion. Yes, you can sell anything instantly, but the timer was ridiculously long.

With gentlewalk, knife, and shield block, you can solo-rank to hero. Not necessarily easily, but it's still possible to creep up.