Thieves don’t fight because they have better things to do

Last week, dwarves and elves. This week, The Arduin Adventure rulebook, on thieves:

Page 10:

“He accompanies adventurers to earn fame and loot and is the one who opens locked treasure chests, doors, and other enclosures. He almost never steals from his adventuring companions, and will fight only if it is desperately necessary.” 

Page 11:

“THIEVES add one point each to their agility and dexterity. They also have a 30% chance of hiding in darkness and shadows.”

That’s it for thief skill mechanics in the book: hiding. Minimal, compared to any official version of D&D. It’s works as a baseline thief class that focuses on sneakiness. A skill applicable to a variety of adventure situations. Locks are mentioned, but no rules provided.

Sneaky, rarely fights, and doesn’t steal from the party?  Sounds like a famous burglar: Bilbo Baggins…

The baseline 30% chance of successful hiding at 1st level is notable. Thieves in early D&D editions need to gain a couple levels to approach that skill chance. Some editions have race or stat bonuses to help close the gap, but typically 1st level D&D thief skills have such low chance of success that it disincentivizes usage. (An old post with a proposed solution) 30% seems about right for 1st level. That’s a 15+ on a d20.

Thus, in addition to hiding and sneaking, we use the 30% baseline chance for all thief skills, such as lockpicking and trap disarming. Want more? Preceding The Arduin Adventure, the original Arduin Grimoire trilogy elaborated on the gamut of thief abilities, including bonuses for demihumans and ability stats. With good stats, a 1st level demihuman thief can push a skill chance beyond 50%.

Treasure chests are a classic adventure element and I never tire of seeing them sprinkled throughout dungeons. We had success with them in DL8 Dragons of War. The Arduin Dungeon modules have chests all over the place, in many shapes and sizes. Usually locked and trapped. Lockpicking ought to be preferred over smashing or prying open a treasure chest. Raise the dungeon alert level (and chance of ambush) when the party is being noisy and leaving a trail of smashed chests and doors. It’s better to bring a thief.

“Should have brought a thief”

Back to The Arduin Adventure page 10…a thief “will fight only if it is desperately necessary.”

So they do nothing during combat? What about the glorious backstab?

No. They have better things to do…

Sneak around for loot and secrets. Maybe bring that wimpy mage to help decipher weird runes.

Climb that idol and pry out its ruby eyes.

Disarm and unlock that treasure chest.

The party doesn’t need to kill every hoard guardian. Just have the warriors keep them busy long enough (maybe some parrying involved) for the thief to grab the treasure. Then everybody skedaddles.

If melee is raging and the thief discovers that the chest cannot be disarmed or unlocked, the party can consider withdrawing from battle.

Or decoy the monster to smash the treasure chest open for you, springing that nasty trap right in the beast’s face.

Or get a 2-for-1 deal by luring foes near the chest, then the wizard flings a Fireball, blasting the chest open and frying the monsters. That may damage the prize inside, but sometimes sacrifices must be made.

Tie trip wires along escape routes. Let the rest of the party know this is being done, of course. Maybe create a diversion out in the hall.

And so on. There’s much for thieves to do while the rest of the party is clashing with the enemy. Burglars gotta burgle.