Editing Thief

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You are a hulking, skulking thug waiting
for your next victim, a dexterous
wall-climber cozening treasures from
ostensibly impenetrable vaults, a fleet-footed
cutpurse outrunning shouting pursuers through
a crowded market, or a brooding killer stalking
a difficult target.


Thieves can be big or small, fast or slow, tall or
thin, but they all have one thing in common: they
survive not by sword or spell, but by stealth and
cunning.


Hit points: A thief gains 1d6 hit points at each
level.


Weapon training: A thief is trained in these
weapons: blackjack, blowgun, crossbow, dagger,
dart, garrote, longsword, short sword, sling, and
staff. Thieves are careful in their choice of armor,
as it affects the use of their skills.


Alignment: Although thieves have little regard
for the laws of civilization, they are not necessarily
chaotic.


Lawful thieves are ubiquitous, and they belong
to institutions of organized crime: guilds of beggars
who feign illness to fleece the generous, pirate
gangs that hijack innocent travelers, or organized
brigands who charge “protection fees” for
certain routes. They are fences who dispose of
stolen goods, enforcers who maintain the pecking
order of the underworld, and petty burglars
who work their way up to become mob bosses.
Chaotic thieves operate as independent agents.
They are assassins and con artists, swindlers
and sociopaths, or outright murderers and killers.
They acknowledge no master aside from the
glint of gold.


Neutral thieves are double agents: the kindly
housekeeper who filches valuable baubles while
the master sleeps, the “inside man” who leaves
the vault unlocked one night, or the urban spy
who sells secrets to his court’s enemies.
Thieves’ Cant: Thieves speak a secret language
called the cant known only to members of their
class. This is a spoken language with no written
alphabet. Teaching the cant to a non-thief is
punishable by death. Certain double-entendre
phrases in Common have an alternate meaning
in the cant and are used by thieves to identify
their brethren covertly.


Thieving skills: A thief learns certain skills that
aid his illicit pursuits. A thief can pick locks, find
and disable traps, sneak silently, hide in shadows,
climb sheer surfaces, forge documents, pick
pockets, handle poison, and read languages.
The thief’s alignment determines his interests,
and those interests determine his rate of advancement
in the various thieving skills. The
thief receives a bonus to his skills based on level
and alignment, as shown on table 1-9.


To use a thief skill, the player rolls d20 and adds
his modifier. He must beat a DC assigned to
the task at hand. An easy task is DC 5, while an
extremely difficult task is DC 20 – for example,
picking an extraordinarily well crafted lock, or
picking the pocket of an alert guard. In some
cases, the judge may make the roll for the character,
and the result will not be known until
some trigger event occurs (e.g., a forged document
may not be truly tested until presented to
the king’s commissary).


A thief needs tools to pick locks, find and disable
traps, climb sheer surfaces, forge documents,
and handle poisons. A 1st-level thief must purchase
a set of thieves’ tools that allows him to
use these skills.


Lawful thieves (path of the Boss): good with hiding, climbing, disabling traps / bad with forgery, disguise, read languages, poisons

Neutral thieves (path of the Swindler): good with sneaking, pickpocket, climbing, forgery / bad with backstab, disguise, read languages, poison

Chaotic thieves (path of the Assassin): good with backstab, disguise, poison / bad with pickpocket, disable trap, forgery, read languages