Thief Skills

## Specialist Thieves

Starting at 3rd level a Thief may begin to specialise and hone their skills in a variety of directions, or they may opt to stay as a generic “Thief”.

The options open are:

* Generic Thief – jack of all trades
* Blackguard – combat focus
* Spy – information broker
* Safecracker – complex breaking and entering
* Guard – provision of security
* Mageblade – focus on taking out arcane wielders (Thief cannot have spell casting ability)

Training in any of these options requires tuition, generally only available at formal “Thieves Guilds”, but individuals may be able to provide training in one specific path. Training generally costs around 50gp. Should the Thief achieve 5th level, without any specialisation then he has lost the opportunity.

### Generic Thief

All normal Thief rules apply, the Thief will gain +1 Dex, +1 Int or +1 Cha (player choice) at 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter.

### Blackguard

Blackguard can no longer improve the skills of Pick Pockets, Open Locks, Remove Traps.

Blackguard can spend one Thief Ability point per level gained to gain +1 HP.

Blackguard gains +1 Dex, +1 Con or +1 Str (moving to 18/xx strength as a fighter) at 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter.

Blackguard can use a shield in combat without penalty.

Blackguard backstab is as a Thief of 2 levels higher, e.g. a 7th lvl Blackguard will backstab as a 9th lvl Thief (x4 damage)

### Spy

Spy can no longer improve the skills of Pick Pockets.

Spy backstab is as a Thief of 1 level lower, e.g. a 9th lvl Spy will backstab as a 8th lvl Thief (x3 damage)

Spy gains +1 Dex, +1 Int or +1 Cha at 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter.

Hide In Shadows, Move Silently and Hear Noise skills increase by +1%/Spy level

New skills can be learnt: Detect Lie/Evasion, 20% + 5%/ability point spent, modified by Charisma bonus

#### Full details after training:

**Spy (Thief Specialisation)**

Thieves that specialise in information gathering and brokering naturally gravitate towards the spy specialisation, leaving behind petty larceny for the biggest prize of all…. knowledge. Spies are found employed in most organisations, both civil and military and are often used as scouts when out in the field. The Perceval and Barosan churches are both known to value and employ spies for their ability to ferret out information.

**Abilities**

The Spy can no longer improve the skills of Pick Pockets, and will backstab is as a Thief of 1 level lower, e.g. a 9th lvl Spy will backstab as a 8th lvl Thief (x3 damage).

The Spy gains +1 Dex, +1 Int or +1 Cha at 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter.

Hide In Shadows, Move Silently and Hear Noise skills increase by +1%/Spy level

The Spy can develop a new skill: Detect Lie/Evasion, 20% + 5%/ability point spent, modified by Charisma bonus

At 8th level and above, a Spy with 12 Intelligence or more can read any scroll that casts a Divination type spell without chance of failure.

At 10th level and above, a Spy with 14 Intelligence or more can read any scroll that casts an Alteration type spell without chance of failure.

At 12th level and above a Spy with 15 Intelligence or more can use any item that have Divination abilities. (Note basic item restrictions apply, e.g. the Spy could not use Plate Mail that enabled the user to cast Clairvoyance 3/day)

### Safecracker

Safecracker backstab is as a Thief of 3 level lower, e.g. a 9th lvl Safecracker will backstab as a 6th lvl Thief (x3 damage)

Safecracker gains +1 Dex, +1 Wis or +1 Int at 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter.

Detect Traps, Remove Traps and Pick Locks skills increase by +1%/Safecracker level

Detect Traps has half chance of detecting magical traps (so if Det Traps is 78%, the safecracker has a 39% chance of detecting a magical trap)

Remove Traps has half chance of circumventing (not removing) magical traps (so if Remove Traps is 78%, the safecracker has a 39% chance of circumventing a magical trap)

### Guard

Guard can no longer improve the skills of Pick Pockets or Open Locks

Guard gains +1 Dex, +1 Con or +1 Wis at 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter.

Hide In Shadows, Move Silently and Hear Noise skills increase by +1%/Guard level.

New skills can be learnt: Sense Ambush, 15% + 4%/ability point spent, modified by Wisdom bonus

### Mageblade

Mageblade cannot be multi classed with a spellcaster (including Ranger/Palladin/Bard)

All thief abilities drop by 1% per Mageblade level

Mageblade gains +1 Dex, +1 Str or +1 Wis at 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter.

Providing the Mageblade is aware of a spell being cast that targets him/herself or includes him/her in the area of effect:

* Mageblade can apply Dex AC modifiers to saving throw
* For damage effects a save indicates ¼ damage (as opposed to ½)
* For spells with no saving throw (e.g. Magic Missile, Slow) the Mageblade gets a saving throw (target = 20) and can apply all protections and Dexterity bonuses to that save

#### Full details after training:

**Mageblade (Thief Specialisation)**

The Mageblade specialisation bears many similarities to the Fighter Class Spellbreaker specialisation. Thieves that operate against high level arcanists can have a very difficult time surviving once detected, and so techniques have been developed that give the Thief a chance of buying some breathing room to make their escape. Most of the techniques involved are around breaking the focus of the arcanist, and hence spoiling their ability to target the thief.

As a natural result of being able to naturally use these techniques, Mageblades are unable to cast spells themselves except from scrolls.

**Abilities**

All thief abilities drop by 1% per Mageblade level, learning and effectively employing the Mageblade techniques is a distraction from the focus involved in other skills.

The Mageblade gains +1 Dex, +1 Str or +1 Wis at 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter.

Providing the Mageblade is aware of a spell being cast that targets him/herself or includes him/her in the area of effect:

* Mageblade can apply Dex AC modifiers to saving throw even to spells that would not normally allow it (e.g. Hold Person)
* For damage effects a save indicates ¼ damage (as opposed to ½), but a failure is for full damage
* For spells with no saving throw (e.g. Magic Missile, Slow) the Mageblade gets a saving throw (target = 20) and can apply all protections and Dexterity bonuses to that save

Note that for these skills to apply, the spell must be actually cast by the Arcanist (or read from a scroll), item use (such as a Wand of Magic missiles) cannot be evaded in the same way.

## Thief Specialisation

These only apply to the Thief class, Assassins and Monks use the normal progressions.

At level 0, a thief has no skills in the abilities of:

* Pick Pockets
* Open Locks
* Find Traps
* Remove Traps
* Move Silently
* Hide In Shadows
* Hear Noise
* Climb Walls

At first level, and every level thereafter, the Thief can spend 8 points to improve these abilities, with at most 2 points spent on a single skill per level.

The %age ability the thief then has in that ability are:

Pick Pockets: 25% + 5%/point

Open Locks: 20% + 4%/point

Find Traps: 15% + 5%/point

Remove Traps: 15% + 5%/point

Move Silently: 10% + 6%/point

Hide In Shadows: 5% + 5%/point

Hear Noise: 5% + 5%/point

Climb Walls: 60% + 4%/point

**Racial Modifiers Table**