Thief

TKDCC:Main Page 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