The Guild of Honorable Gentlemen

As a really unusual guild, which could exist in parallel with the established thieves guild in a large city, this is a splendid option.

The members are aristocrats, men of learning, education, and exalted social position (preferably by birth). They are refined, dignified gentlemen of impeccable manners and superior Charisma. They are a small group, and they thieve for the excitement of it all. They are bored with their life of sybaritic self-indulgent possibilities, easy comforts, and gold-digging members of the opposite sex. They steal for the thrill of it.

What motivates these people is a challenge to their skill. They steal things not because they are valuable or important, but because they are there to be stolen (which doesn't mean that they are valueless or banal—they usually aren't). The Emerald of Kummkqvaat will be stolen by such a thief not because it's worth a fortune, but because it is believed to be impossible to steal it.

Such thieves will usually be of notably high level, and they will tend to have exceptional Intelligence and Charisma scores. They will very rarely be Evil, and will also tend away from Chaotic alignment. For these reasons, they can become excellent mentors for a PC thief if this is appropriate to the campaign—for example, a PC thief can come across one of them at work, or find evidence of the person's true identity as a renowned master thief.

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