hellooo. so i'm starting a run through of BG1 again (last one was about ten yrs ago, and I didn't finish it). my plan is to take a pure thief, finish the game, and then import them into BG2. my question is... will a pure thief be useful in BG2 or can I change my imported character in some way?

i'm asking because I never played BG2. not interested in being a multi/dual thief because I always liked the idea of playing a scumbag rogue who gets by on their wits alone while others do the hard graft. by the time i get to BG2, though, it might be nice to have a thief that does a bit more offensively. i keep reading about kits in BG2?

ohh yeah, i'm playing the Original Saga; so no Tutu or Trilogy, but some mods (tweaks, unfinished business etc)

thanks anyone!

If you are importing from a BG1 engine game, you can choose a thief kit in BG2.
Swashbuckler would be my pick, but you do loose backstab damage.

Pure thief is still playable in BG2. I'd say play BG first and decide if and which kit you want upon importing. Be aware that you need to be CN or evil if you want to be able to select the assassin kit.

Pure thief is eminently useful in BG2, especially when you get the HLA 'Use any item'. That allows you unrestricted access to every single piece of armour, weapon, magical item etc. in the game. I personally would go for Bounty Hunter. They lose the least in thieving abilites (for taking a kit), and traps, especially high level traps, are battle winners tactically.

It sounds like this is your first playthrough of BG2, since your post suggests you don't have direct experience with kits? If so, some translation may be useful:

A "kit" is a sub-class you can choose during character creation, after choosing your class. It modifies certain features of the class, removing some abilities and exchanging them for new ones. For instance, with the Bounty Hunter kit Hickory mentioned, you get bonuses to your trap setting, at the expense of less points to spend on the other thief skills. Each class gets a different selection of kits.

Because kits weren't implemented in BG1, when you import your character into BG2 you'll be able to apply a kit, even though the character has been used in gameplay (while normally you can only apply them in character creation). You don't need to know this for your character, but multiclass characters can't have kits and dual class characters can only have kits in the class they started with.

HLAs are "high level abilities", which are added in the BG2 expansion. When you reach very high levels (as a rule, soon after you complete the main BG2 campaign and go on to the expansion's) you begin getting access to these. From that point on, each time you gain a level you'll get to choose a new special ability from a selection which depends on your class. Thieves have access to the particularly nice "use any item" which...does what it says on the tin. Note that you don't get access to these abilities until the endgame, though.

That's not strictly true. HLAs are granted to single and multi-class characters when their XP exceeds 3,000,000 (class level is irrelevant), at each level up. That means that if you have ToB and/or mods installed that add extra content, you may reach epic levels way before end game. The only time end game is a factor is if you only have SoA without ToB: XP cap SoA 2.95 million; XP cap with ToB 8 million; XP cap with mods... the sky's the limit.

I wanted to make it clear that in a "normal" game, quite a large proportion of BG2 will be spent without having access to HLAs, to avoid the OP designing a character around them and finding that the character's weak for most of the game. That's all.

I understand. But I likewise wanted to make it clear that they are not restricted to end game.