The Role of the Thief

The skulking burglar pilfering through the night is perhaps the most common picture of the thief. Neither players nor Dungeon Masters should blind themselves to other possibilities, some of them more useful (and socially acceptable) than common theft.

The thief character kits introduced in Chapter 3 provide a variety of thief types. These are not new character classes by any means, but the kits can help players define thieves in one of several areas of specialty. Some of these include:

The Spy, long a noble practitioner of the thiefly skills. Indeed, lockpicking, moving silently, hiding in shadows, and the like are all skills of prime importance to the Spy.

The Scout can do for an adventuring party what skirmishing troops do for an army: he is a fast, lightly armored individual who can utilize stealth and speed to study terrain and watch for ambush. Thief-scouts and rangers in combination make splendid reconnaissance bands.

Other kits include the Troubleshooter (the dungeon-crawling thief), Acrobats, Beggars, Bounty Hunters, Swindlers, and many more.

Typical thiefly personalities are also provided, allowing players to create detailed PCs based upon these archetypes, but also providing useful pieces of imaginative roleplaying information for many long-lived, high-level PCs.

Chapter 2 describes additional nonweapon proficiencies of particular use to thief characters. New equipment types, both magical and mundane, are introduced in later chapters. And a few new rules cover areas of concern to thieves—lethal and non-lethal poisons, for example, and how to determine the quality of workmanship used to build a lock or trap.

A section on running a thief campaign provides players, and most particularly DMs, with suggestions and guidelines on ways to tailor the campaign toward the thief PCs' areas of interest and expertise.

Whatever area of the book yields the most use, players and DMs alike who wish to expand the domain of the thief in their campaign world should find many things of interest between these covers.

Table of Contents