Article: 76376 of rec.games.frp.dnd Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!newsfeed.ACO.net!Austria.EU.net!EU.net!Germany.EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!purdue!news.bu.edu!news3.near.net!netnews.whoi.edu!stout.whoi.edu!user From: cvl@gause.whoi.edu (Craig Van de Water Lewis) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Thieves Book I: Discussion of Thief Abilities Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 10:19:30 -0400 Organization: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Lines: 181 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: stout.whoi.edu I downloaded this from the net many years ago, and apologize wholeheartedly for not attributing it to the original author, whose name I do not know. I claim no authorship for any of this work, but any who pass it on should consider it copyrighted material. ____________ New Uses for the Same Old Skills Pick Pockets rule change: Normally the chance of a target noticing the thief picking his pocket is solely dependent on the target's level. Our DM has modified this rule to be that it is the level difference that actually counts; thus high level thieves can reduce the targets' chance of noticing him. In other words don't count on seeing the guildmaster pick your pocket! 1) One obvious use for the pick pocket skill is place pockets; a successful place pockets roll can allow you to deploy itching powder, scarabs of death, tracking devices, etc. Poison or drugs can be put into drinks or food by making a successful place pockets roll. 2) A pick pockets roll is sometimes required to conceal equipment when the thief is being searched. Thieves will be able to palm small items (lockpicks and spell components) to avoid having them taken by jailers. 3) Some secret pockets require a pick pockets roll to access them even if the pocket is on you! One of our thieves owns two such special pouches which seem to be an eastern innovation. To access the pocket quickly, a pick pockets roll is needed to slip your fingers between the concealed cloth flaps. Open Locks 1) Safecracking is largely based on open locks skill: a thief must own a set of drills to supplement his normal thieves tools. A thief can opt to do safes without detect noise at half his open locks roll. If a successful detect noise roll is made on the safe (at half chance without a stethoscope), the thief can subsequently use his full open locks chance on that safe. In addition the thief must receive special training in the art of safecracking; this does not require a proficiency slot or percentage points. The thief learns safecracking up to his open locks roll or his trainers', whichever is lower. It is possible for a thief to have a lower safecracking percentage than his open locks percentage if he is unable to find an adequate trainer. Safecracking works on safes and other combination lock doors. Acid or explosives can be used to burn though small safes whose doors are not that thick. If the safe fails its item saving throw vs the attack, the safe door opens but if the door makes its save, the safe door is ruined and unopenable. If the safe critically fails its save (1), the door opens but the contents inside may be damaged by the acid or explosives if they too fail an item saving throw. A normal safe can be cracked in 2d10 rounds. 2) Thieves can also use their open locks skill to tackle puzzle locks. Usually puzzle locks cannot be detrapped separately; successful completion of the lock evades the trap and critical failure triggers it. Lockpicks are not used for puzzle locks; the thief slides the panels around with his fingertips. To crack a puzzle lock, several successful open locks checks have to made in a row. One failure does not prohibit the thief from continuing with the lock but a critical failure does. The number of successful checks which need to be made is dependent on the quality of the puzzle lock; a standard lock requires three checks. If the puzzle lock is marked with symbols, a thief can sometimes make a read language roll to reduce penalties imposed by the lock. 3) Normal locks can be picked with lockpicks improvised out wire, etc. Improvised lockpicks give penalties ranging from -5 to -60%. The thief's chance to craft improvised lockpicks is based on his intelligence and level; the DM can raise or lower this chance depending on the quality of materials available to the thief. Find/Remove Traps 1) Different traps have different "blow-up" chances; the most common trap has a 5% chance (critical failure) of detonating on the thief. Magical traps can be done by thieves at half chance and have the same chance (5%) of exploding on the thief. Penalty traps start increasing the blow-up chance as well as making it harder for the thief to perform the trap: a trap with a -20% penalty on it has a detonation chance of 25%. 2) Magical traps are a source of annoyance for thieves because even a low level priest or mage can mass produce traps which are difficult for thieves to crack. Special powders have been developed for dealing with the most common magical traps (fire traps, glyphs of warding). Thieves brush the semi-magical powder on the runes to deactivate the symbols; this can be done at the thief's full percentage if he has the right kind of powder. 3) According to our DM, find traps can sometimes be used to make visible, invisible locks or traps, although we have not attempted it. Move Silently A successful move silently roll allows a thief to gain surprise on a target even if he chooses not to backstab. Moving silently while hiding in shadows cannot be accomplished simultaneously without the use of the special items (see below). The main uses for moving silently are fairly obvious: scouting, escaping, backstabbing. Hide in Shadows rules change: The spell detect invisibility halves a thief's hide in shadows chance; the spellcaster does not automatically discover all thieves hiding in the vicinity. Certain magical items (see below) allow the thief to evade detection at full hide in shadows chance. Hiding in shadows allows a thief to freeze in place and hopefully remain unseen. Usually scouts will move silently and rely upon their senses (detect noise or alertness/observation proficiencies) to warn them of danger. Then they freeze and wait for the threat to pass before moving on. Also a thief will often position himself at key locations (behind doors) and await his quarry. From his hidden position he can often either backstab his target or eavesdrop on conversations. Detect Noise 1) Detect noise can be used to supplement a thief's safecracking. A successful detect noise roll at half chance allows a thief to open a safe at full open locks chance; if the thief deploys a stethoscope he can use his full detect noise chance. 2) Detect noise is often used by adventurers to listen to command words to wands; any character can detect noise to some extent in appropriate armor, without a helm. In general detect noise is used to alert the thief of upcoming dangers: the conversation of guards, ominous rumbles of monsters, eerie silences. A wise thief moving though a dungeon will stop at corridor intersections and listen for possible encounters. If the thief is close to the noise source, he might be able to glean more useful information: approximate number of creatures speaking, language being spoken, direction, or, in the best circumstances, snatches of conversation. In town eavesdropping is less challenging; usually by choosing an inobtrusive disguise, the thief can position himself close enough to glean useful information from his targets. Climb Walls The utility of this skill is obvious; there are often walls to be scaled or second story windows to be entered. Often adventuring thieves neglect this skill in the hopes of getting flying items or having their mages cast levitate or fly. Although fly is a wonderful spell, the ability to climb walls can still come in handy at higher levels. For instance high wind conditions make flying impossible whereas climbing walls is difficult but doable. More secure fortifications may have dispel magics or anti-magic zones which make the use of the fly spell dangerous. Also a thief cannot hide in shadows while flying to escape observation, whereas he can hide while climbing a wall. One option which especially acrobatic thieves attempt is leaping from walls to backstab unsuspecting targets. These thieves hide on the wall, slightly above eye level, and leap upon their prey. If the thief misses his target completely (missing AC 10), he is allowed a tumbling check to avoid taking damage. Read Languages rules change: A successful read languages check allows you to derive the important meaning from the message. If the message is failed critically, the thief interprets it incorrectly. There are positive and negative modifiers depending on the language. The read language skill is sometimes neglected by thieves who rely on their mages to cast comprehend languages. One important thing to remember about the comprehend language spell is that it is limited to one written object per spell; thus for doing library searches it is not as useful because the mage can only look at one book per spell. A new use for the read language skill is for reading mage or priestly scrolls. The skill allows the thief to read the title of mage or priest scrolls; a useful ability especially at high levels when thieves have been known to read scrolls without knowing anything at all about them. This skill does not enable the thief to cast off the scroll before 10th level, just identify magical writing correctly. To read mage writing a prism is required and for priest writing a holy symbol (any religion). The thief must also be specially trained, but unfortunately we have not found anyone who knows this skill. Backstabbing Backstabbing is usually only possible before combat begins; once someone is in melee combat they are alert enough to notice thieves approaching them, even from the back side. Clever thieves will strike a target, flee, and backstab again after some time. Spells Which Mimic Thieving Abilities These are some spells which are commonly used to mimic the thieving abilities. Although these spells work well most of the time, there are some instances in which the use of these spells is actually detrimental. Since these spells are so often used, certain traps have been deviced to trigger specifically on usage of the spell. comp lang: Since this spell requires touching the document, certain writings are protected with nasty touch-activated traps (contact poison, etc). Comp lang also does not decipher coded writing. invisibility: Sensors can use detect invis to reveal any thief who is invisible even if he is hiding in shadows as well. Also the cheap method currently popular in the Free City is to have minor undead guard your stuff. knock: In the hey-day of Silverton, there was a booming business in making knock proof chests; these chest locks have dummy tumblers which shield the true tumblers from the spell. Also some doors have traps which trigger specifically on knock. find traps: One mage has recently invented a deception spell which fools the find traps spell; the priest becomes deluded about the true nature of the trap (how it triggers etc). The priest will mistakenly believe that the trap is triggered by one action when in reality some other action will trigger the trap. dispel magic: The use of dispel magic will automatically trigger advanced magical traps if the spell fails. Also some traps have magical containments which hold in toxic substances; if the containment is dispelled the trap automatically triggers. -- Craig Van de Water Lewis Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Redfield 222; Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 PH: (508) 289-4814 Fax: (508) 457-2169 Email: cvl@gause.whoi.edu