Thieves Beyond 20th Level

Extra Thieving Skills: At 21st level, a thief gains five new skills. The skills have base scores as shown on Table 48 and the character can immediately apply discretionary points to the skills:

Bribe: A thief can bribe an NPC with minor gifts of money or merchandise. Only one bribe can be attempted per target. If the attempt fails, the DM should make a reaction roll for the target to determine how he counters the bribe.

The amount of money required for a bribe varies with the NPC’s status, according to the table below:

NPC Status	Bribe
Peasant/Slave	2d4 cp
Freeman/Soldier	3d8 cp
Merchant/Officer	5d10 cp
Noble/General	5d100 cp

Bribery procedure: It is best to role play an attempt at bribery, but here are a few guidelines:

First, the DM must decide if the NPC in question can be bribed, not everyone is susceptible. No character can be bribed to do something that falls outside his job or station. A simple peasant or a palace guard would not agree to assassinate his king or liege lord for a few coins. However, the peasant might offer a party shelter for the night or hide the thief from a search party. A guard might agree to look the other way while the party sneaks out the gate.

Likewise, a simple bribe never induces a character to compromise something he believes in or do something that places the character in danger. For instance, an acolyte cannot be bribed to look the other way while the party defiles a holy water font. In any case, an NPC bribed through the use of this skill does not perform any action that takes more than a few minutes of effort or places himself in danger—the task must strike the character as something that is quick and harmless.

Once the DM decides that the NPC can be bribed, use Table 59 (Encounter Reactions, from the Dungeon Master Guide) to determine how the NPC responds when meeting the thief. Secretly roll 1d20 and find the NPC’s reaction on the table. Do not tell the player what the reaction is, simply role play the NPC’s response to whatever the thief does.

If the die roll results in a friendly reaction, the NPC probably does what the thief wants without a bribe. If not, the thief has to offer something—money, services, a magical item, information, or anything else valuable—to sweeten the NPC’s reaction. To determine the exact amount required, roll on the bribery table, above, and multiply the result by the difference between the reaction roll and the highest number on Table 59 that is a friendly result.

The player should never be told exactly the NPC’s station, the base bribe value, or the initial reaction roll. Good role-playing on the DM’s part should allow a perceptive player to guess the first and the last.

For example, Jobare, the King of Thieves, approaches a peasant in a friendly manner and starts fishing for information about the local baron. The DM rolls a 13 for the peasant’s reaction and checks the number on the first column in Table 59 (because Jobare is acting friendly); the peasant is cautious. The DM decides that the peasant is suspicious, and thinks the thief is a spy or bandit. “Boy, stranger, you sure do ask a whole lot of questions,” says the peasant while backing away slowly.

The DM secretly rolls 2d4 and discovers that the base value of the bribe is 5 cp. However, the highest number that gives a friendly result on the first column of Table 59 is a 7, the difference is 6 (13–7), so Jobare has to give at least 30 cp (5x6) to make an effective bribe. Once Jobare pays the required amount, the player can make a bribery roll. If it succeeds, Jobare can ask a few simple questions and get equally simple answers.

Detect illusion: Thieves, masters of deception themselves, can see through visible illusions within their line of sight, up to 90 feet away. They perceive the illusion as a translucent image, seeing through it as though it were a light mist. The more real the illusion, the more solid the image.

For example, phantasmal force would be totally translucent, while a simulacrum would be mostly solid. Demishadow monsters would be somewhere in between the two. Invisibility and other nonvisible effects cannot be discerned.

Detection is not automatic, and the thief must spend a round concentrating on the area of effect to discover its illusionary qualities. Knowing that something is an illusion is not necessarily a fail-safe defense against illusionary magic, such as in the case of a simulacrum.

Detect magic: Thieves can spot magical emanations within their line of sight, up to 60 feet away. They can determine the intensity of the magic—dim, faint, moderate, strong, and overwhelming. This ability can be blocked by the same things that prevent detect magic spells from operating.

Escape Bonds: There comes a time in every thief’s career when his luck runs out and he is apprehended. The ability to escape bonds such as ropes, leather thongs, manacles, chains, and even straight jackets is a feat of contortion and determination. The thief must roll to break free of every device binding him. If he’s tied at the wrists and at the ankles, he must make two successful rolls to free himself. This skill takes five rounds to use. A thief might hurry his efforts, but he suffers a –5% penalty for each round he tries to shave from the required time. Locked items also require the thief to successfully pick the locks. A failure on any attempt means that the thief cannot loosen that bond or pick the lock.

Tunneling: A thief might need to dig a tunnel to get to a cache of riches. His success at tunneling depends on several factors. The tunneling table below shows the time required to dig a 10-foot tunnel with adequate tools. Every 10 feet, the thief must make a skill check, failure means that the front of the tunnel collapses. It can be re-dug at the loose earth rate.

Type of Earth	Modifier	Time
Sand/loose earth	–10%	5 hours
Packed earth	—	10 hours
Rock	+10%	30 hours

Tables 49, 50, and 51 give racial, Dexterity/Aim, and armor adjustments for the skills.

If the character point system from the Player’s Option: Skills & Powers book is in play, a thief may already have some or all of these new skills. In that case, the thief gains 50 bonus character points at 21st level. The character must use the points to buy thieving skills from Table 27 in Skills & Powers. If the thief already has 9 or more of the skills listed on Table 27, the character cannot spend all 50 points on thieving skills and is allowed to spend them on proficiencies and high-level rogue skills instead. The ability to acquire additional thieving skills is a special bonus for reaching 21st level; it is not normally possible to gain additional thieving skills after the character is created

Improved Scroll Use: At 24th level, a thief begins to develop an understanding of magic. The character becomes enlightened enough to read some spell scrolls with no chance of failure, as follows:

Thief Level	Spell Level*
24–26	1st
27–28	2nd
29–30	3rd

* There is no chance for failure when reading a scroll of the listed level or less. Scroll spells of higher level have the standard 25% chance for a reversed or harmful effect.

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