Thief

Treasure lures many adventurers, but thieves most of all. Low-lives, burglars, footpads, bandits, cut-purses, skulks, robbers, highwaymen – these are all common names for those who follow the path of the thief. They are agile infiltrators and cunning specialists who use wits, skill, and subterfuge to best their enemies and extract wealth from the coffers of the rich and the tombs of the dead.

Of all adventuring classes, thieves are the most adept at exploring the dungeon and avoiding the traps and hazards that guard the treasure. Because they are so stealthy, they are often used as scouts to sneak through unknown tunnels and survey the path ahead, hoping to silently eliminate foes that threaten to raise the alarm and bring reinforcements that could spell disaster for the party.

Hit Dice: Thieves gain +1d6 hit die per level.

Restrictions: Thieves can wield any weapon. They can wear only padded, leather, or studded leather armor. They cannot use shields.

Alignment: As one might expect, thieves are almost always chaotic or neutral, given the nature of their skills. Lawful thieves are indeed a rarity, though not entirely unheard of, as many thieves operate on code of ethics, and a thief who ends their life of crime retains the skills they learned in the shadows.

THIEF EXPERIENCE LEVEL TABLE

Level	Title	XP	HD	Attack Bonus	Skill / Luck
1	Knave	0	1d6	+0	+3 / 1d4
2	Footpad	2000	2d6	+1	+3 / 1d4
3	Robber	4000	3d6	+2	+4 / 1d6
4	Burglar	8000	4d6	+2	+4 / 1d6
5	Cutpurse	16,000	5d6	+3	+5 / 1d8
6	Sharper	32,000	6d6	+4	+5 / 1d8
7	Pilferer	64,000	7d6	+5	+6 / 1d10
8	Scoundrel	125,000	8d6	+6	+6 / 1d10
9	Rogue	250,000	9d6	+7	+7 / 1d12
10	Master-Thief	500,000	10d6	+8	+7 / 1d12

THIEF SAVING THROW TABLE

Level	Death/Poison	Wand/Rod	Petrify/Poly	Dragon Breath	Spells/Staves
1	+4	+3	+3	+2	+1
2	+4	+3	+3	+2	+2
3	+5	+4	+4	+3	+2
4	+5	+4	+4	+3	+3
5	+6	+5	+5	+4	+3
6	+6	+5	+5	+4	+4
7	+7	+6	+6	+5	+4
8	+7	+6	+6	+5	+5
9	+8	+7	+7	+6	+5
10	+8	+7	+7	+6	+6

Special Features

Skill: Thieves are exceptionally skilled at performing certain activities during an adventure, gaining a special bonus to certain rolls. A thief’s skill bonus starts as +3 at 1st level, increasing to +4 at 3rd, +5 at 5th, +6 at 7th, and +7 at 9th. The thief adds their skill bonus to checks to climb, tumble, disarm traps, open locks, pick pockets, disguise themselves, read non-magical languages, and forge documents. A thief also adds their skill bonus to their Awareness and Stealth. Note that thieves are the only class in the game that can open locks but must have a set of thief’s tools to do so.

Backstab: If the thief sneaks up on a creature and attacks it from behind, add their skill bonus to the attack roll. A successful backstab inflicts double damage; this increases to triple damage at 5th level, and quadruple damage at 10th level.

Dual Attack: When a thief makes a dual-attack (see Combat), they do not suffer a penalty to hit.

Luck: Fortune favors the bold. Once per day, a thief can add their Luck Die to any ability check, saving throw, or damage roll. Luck starts at 1d4 at 1st level, increasing to 1d6 at 3rd, 1d8 at 5th, 1d10 at 7th, and 1d12 at 9th.

Thieves’ Cant: Thieves can speak a secret coded language called thieves’ cant that allows them to relay information to other thieves without revealing the true details to an eavesdropper. They can also read and write special symbols that only other thieves can read which denote useful information about an area, such as the presence of danger, traps, monsters, law enforcement, watchful folks, or wealthy rubes.

Scroll Use: A thief can attempt to cast an arcane spell scroll as if they were a magic-user, but do so with a -4 penalty.

At 9th Level: If the thief controls a stronghold, they attract 5d6x10 knaves to serve as a ring of thieves.