The Thief: A special look

 

Pick pockets	Opening locks	Finding and removing traps	Setting traps	Moving silently
Hiding in shadows	Hear noises	-	Climbing walls	Back stabbing
Dragon	Classes	-	Best of Dragon, Vol. III	Dragon 47

The thief character is more often
abused by players than underrated,
though some players miss capabilities
that thieves should have. The easiest
way to discuss a thief is to look at his/her
special abilities.

How often does a thief pick pockets? I
had a thief progress to 16th level over a
two-year period and in that time he
picked one pocket! Picking a pocket is
best done just as an assassin plans a
killing. The two acts have a great deal in
common. If you tell a player, “A drunk is
approaching and bumps into you as he
passes,” or some such statement, it will
be obvious to all the players what has
likely occurred. On the other hand if you
allow the thief to pick his/her time of
attack with some real forethought, it will
be very difficult for the victim to realize
when his/her pocket was picked.

To encourage pickpocketing, it is very
wise to have many encounters for the
party in a town. Mention every person
the party passes on the street if the town
is small. In a town with a thousand or
more persons there will be a number of
crowds encountered, or people will be
passed almost every round of movement.
Such situations are a thief’s bread and
butter. A good thief will not attempt to
pick up something if he/she will stand
out. This should be obvious from the victim’s point of view as well. Allow more
experienced thieves, that player characters might run into, to convey this concept (for a price) if your players have not
already caught on to it.

Thieves also enjoy slipping in and out
of camps to pick up things. A sleeping
victim can add as much as 100% to a
thief’s chance of stealing something. A
good thief will try to sneak past an outpost/lookout and get into the sleeping
/drunken camp. A good thief will rarely
kill the guard unless he/she has to.

One of the most important functions of
a thief is not even mentioned in the Players Handbook. That function is mapping! The ability to sneak into a place
and get the “lay of the land” is very important to any party. It is most valuable

when a building is the subject of the
party’s eventual attack. However, the DM
should be sure that a thief takes the opportunity to draw a map promptly. If the
thief must do it from memory after the
investigation, the map will likely be inaccurate. Also, the DM must require some
reasonable Intelligence on the part of
the thief to make a good map. Stupid
thieves (Intelligence 7 or less) might not
even know how to read, much less write
or draw accurately.

On the Intelligence table (PH, page 10)
we can see that those of Intelligence 7 or
less can learn only one language over
and above their minimum number. Intelligence can be used — for all characters
—to determine the chance to be able to
read and write any and all languages
known. Multiply Intelligence by 12 to
yield a percent chance that a character
of any class will know how to read and
write. Optionally, Wisdom may be added
to this chance (cumulative) but at a lower rate; 3% per point of Wisdom. This
method ensures that most characters
can read and write, ‘but not all.

Thieves, or any other characters for
that matter, who fail to map as they go, or
at least to pause during the investigation
to map from time to time, should be
forced to draw a map later from memory.
If a single player is making the map, for
game purposes, allow no one else who is
present to make a map. This is especially
important if any player has no character
on the mapping expedition. A good party
will rarely send the thief on a mapping
foray alone. They will send along one or
two back-up characters who can help if
things go wrong.

Opening locks, as we all know, is a
matter of “cleverness, plus knowledge
and study of such items” (PH, page 27).
Again, stupid thieves could be penalized, but likely that would be going too
far and players would rebel. However,
real Intelligence does come into play on
puzzle locks and complex closures. Nothing forbids the inclusion of “complex
 locks” in addition to the run-of-the-mill,
crude lock the thief will run into most of

the time. “Complex locks” can subtract
some set amount from the thief’s percent
chance to open the lock, cutting his
chance by a third, half, two thirds or even
more for truly unusual, challenging closures. Such complex locks should be
expensive and rare. Picking a complex
lock (or an ordinary one) in stress situations (practice does not count) can give
a thief actual experience, if the DM
chooses to award experience for such an
act. An ordinary lock takes 1-4 rounds to
open; a complex one can take 1-10
rounds (as suggested in the DMG, page
19) or perhaps even longer for unique
ones.

Finding and removing traps are two
separate acts. It is best for the DM not to
go into detail on what kind of trap is
found, because that might tip off the way
to disarm the trap. Some traps can be
obviously disarmed and thus the second
act (removing) does not come into play.
The DM is wise to say something like:
“You find no traps,” or “You think you
disarmed it,” as opposed to “There are
no traps,” or “You have disarmed it.”
Only if the character is absolutely sure
(100% chance) should a definite announcement be made.
A new ability in this category is given
below — Setting Traps:
 

Level of thief	Chance to set trap
1	26
2	32
3	38
4	43
5	48
6	53
7	57
8	61
9	65
10	68
11	71
12	74
13	76
14	78
15+	80

Adjustments for Dexterity:

9	-10
10	-6
11	-2
12	+2
13	+5
14	+8
15	+11
16	+14
17	+17
18	+20

Adjusments for race:

Dwarf	+15
Elf	-5
Gnome	+10
Half-elf	0
Halfling	+8
Half-orc	+4

The best possible chance to set a trap
is 99.9%. Let 1000 convert to 99.1%,
101% to 99.2%,.......108% to 99.9%. Failure to set a trap successfully will cause

the trap to spring on the setting thief.
His/her chance to escape from his/her
own trap can be a function of Dexterity
for mechanical traps, at a chance of 3%
per point of Dexterity. If the thief does
 not jump free, he/she will suffer the full
consequences of the trap.

Moving silently is only abused when
the DM forgets that the rate of movement
is only twelve feet a round (DMG, page
19). If the thief moves faster, reduce the
chance of silence by as much as 3% per
foot of movement above twelve feet per
round. The actual surface being crossed
wilt dictate the proper subtraction (ranging from ½% to 3% per foot). It should
also be noted that the thief using a SiIence 15’ Radius spell will have that
sphere of silence hit his/her victim while
the thief is stilt 15 feet away; a sudden
lapse into silence will often alert a victim.

Circumstances must be considered in
such a case. It should also be remembered that Boots of Elvenkind do assume
some slow rate of movement — not
twelve feet a round, but not running either — in order to function properly. A
speed of up to half of the thief’s normal
walking speed would allow the boots to
function as designed. A higher speed
would begin to negate their effectiveness.

Hiding in shadows has been discussed
numerous times. Shadows must be fairly
deep to be effective. Do not forget that a
figure hiding in shadows can still be detected by smelt, a Wand of Enemy Detec

tion, Detect Magic (if he/she has a magic
item(s)), etc.

The chance to hear noises assumes
that the area is quiet. If the party is talking or moving about, this action will negate the chance. Hearing a sound can
also involve discerning what is heard —
but this ability does take thief’s training.
Reroll (at the same chance as to hear a
noise) to see if the sound was discerned
as to what a likely source or cause might
have been. Discerning a noise might not
only mean hearing bits of actual conversation, but might also allow a guess as to
how many persons are engaged in speaking. The DM should not give away too
much!

Obviously, non-thieves can hear things,
but the ability of discernment should not
be allowed to them. Give other characters half of a thief’s chance (by level) to
hear noises, but avoid a procession of
one character after the other going to the
door to listen! Such a procession might
be heard from the other side. Note that
Undead rarely make noise.

Climbing walls can be aided by spikes
driven in with a hammer. But this makes
“Thor‘s own good sound” and can be
heard for miles in some tunnel complexes. Such driving of one spike will
take 3-18 segments, longer for very hard
rock. Thieves who try to cast darts, throw
daggers, and perform similar acts while
clinging to a wall by their toes should fall
flat on their behinds! A player will claim

great things are possible while hanging
on a wall, not the least of which will be
disarming traps, melee, drawing a map
and other absolutely absurd things. Give.
this turkey a chance to hold on equal to
2% per point of dexterity on difficult acts
— but any act the DM considers impossible will cause him/her to fall, period.
Falling can deal out quite a bit of damage, not the least of which will be to carried items which will suffer ordinary or
crushing blows as our hero hits the floor
below.

Back stabbing can be partially negated.
It does not have to be an all-or-nothing
affair. Only total surprise will
give the full bonus to damage. This bonus
is due to the thief's skill at placing
the blow exactly where he/she wants it.
This can only be done on a surprised
victim. A figure who catches sight of the
thief, even if that sight is subsequently
lost, will be on guard and might be hard
to sneak up on. This cannot be quanitified
but must be determined on a
situation-by-situation basis. For example:
A figure is running away from a party
at full speed. A thief takes off after him
and tries to hit from behind. The figure is
not really surprised, but the fleeing figure
is also not looking behind him/herself
at every step. Thus, a bonus of +3 to
hit (instead of +2 or +4) and perhaps
double damage if a hit occurs (instead of
triple damage) would be quite fair.