it's chapter wise.
For a pure trickster it's the best choice to take for the first weapon the demon needle, then in chapter 3 you can upgrade it, but it's a long run to chapter 3 and the needle would be not that good if you don't skill dex enough in ch 2. even at 150 dex ch 2 it's intended to be a real pain in renovation, probably it's the hardest ch2 in the whole gothic 2 mods since enemies are reistent to anything, all that matter is reflexes and skill.
If you want to go hardcore and you decide to clean up the 3 macro areas before ch 3 you should then get in ch 2 the katana and improve it up to level 4 if i remeber that can be made. The katana will be stronger in the end but you will need way more statistic, but still a level 4 katana it's stupidly strong before ch 3 and level 3 katana is easily achieveable