I realize that as an orc you can't practice wilderness. Does that mean that an orc thief should practice endurance? If so, to what extent? Any other tips are appreciated.

Well, there lives in the old orc caves, somewhere hidden in the treacherous Redhorn Pass, two great masters of their art. The first is the Black Numenorian Sage, dreaded by both foe and ally, the second is a great master-ranger, skilled not only in the arts of the wilderness, but with heavy weapons as well. If you feel you can survive the long, arduous trip, treat the masters with respect, and perhaps they will spare your miserable life, and teach you some of their craft.

You can also train wilderness with another orc who has it, but you only get 1 prac's worth, still it helps alittle for before you make a trip to ooc.

My thieves always have a few pracs in end - helps with move regen.

i have tried like 14 different orc thieves...
with different stats and pracs.
Mortem was pretty fun, (pounder warscout).
he had about 370 hp, 152 moves on thirdage. and it was really fun to fight people, ride a warg, pound people low (so stab would kill) then run few rooms away, yell something to him so he would yell back, dismount, wield brd, stabbit rip:D worked fine with many enemies b4 i became too famous.
Also my maxcon thieves are kinda fun becoz of neverending moves (esp zorcs), i remember my level 40 zorc scout got 360 hps, and 157 moves, + i had endless amount of flasks, so it moveability really rocked...
tho pounding warscout with decent pracs could get the same amount of moves but then stab will go too low, since you cant prac much endu when u prac conc aswell...mortem stabs were about 230 dam at level 35 i think, and ob was little over 130 with ornate and fullset (ironring not rubyring).
didnt lost much def neither...but since torc scouts are prettty boring then i suggest you making a maxcon zorc scout. i can quarantee that you never die moveless with enough credit and age:P

Main problem with zorcs is they're next to impossible to level up. No safespots, no moves and no draughts because you can't get credit unless you have moves to drag equipment back to zoc without being fucked to death by every group that goes past.

Erm? If the conditions are same and everything (meaning no friends helping etc) then it's possible to get a decent set and reach lvl8 faster as a zorc (close to no difference whether your a warrior or scout by nature) than a whitie! And I know that because I've done that!

If all else fails you can use the goblin caves to get some credit. It's not the greatest, but it's beter than nothing, and you can generally spam from there to zoc without going moveless if you have decent strength/age/moves.

Goblin caves are hard even for hero level chars, I wouldn't want to go there at lower levels.