D&D 1977 Basic [Holmes] D&D 1981 B/X [Moldvay, Cook & Marsh] D&D 1983-85 BECMI [Mentzer] D&D NPC (Non-Player Characters) D&D PC (Player Characters) OD&D 1974 OSE RPG

Old School Thief

Two of the classic ‘Old School‘ character classes that often get maligned these days are the Magic-User and the Thief. This is partly because the style of more modern D&D versions (primarily from 3e onwards, but more specifically the current 5e D&D rules) provide a completely different type of game and place a lot more focus on detailed micro-managing of the role-playing aspect with their feats & skills and in the case of spell casters much more generous numbers of spells at lower level (e.g. cantrips for magic-users). Here’s some thoughts on the thief class.

Daniel at Bandit’s Keep talked about his thoughts a while ago, so here’s his video on the subject which I thought was very good:

Also Robert Fisher’s excellent article referred to Daniel’s video above is here: On Thief Skills in Classic D&D. It’s a great summary and has some really good ideas and clarifications around the old school D&D Thief. Essentially both Daniel and Robert highlight some key points – to partially quote/paraphrase Robert’s post (but please read his full post linked to above):

  • Anybody can hide. Thieves, however, have a chance to hide in shadows. A thief generally prefers to hide rather than to hide in shadows. Halflings have a similar ability. To hide in shadows, the thief cannot be moving, silently or otherwise.
  • Anybody can move quietly. Thieves, however, have a chance to move silently. If the thief fails to move silently, they should still be considered to be moving quietly. Note that if he is moving silently, a thief is not hiding, in shadows or otherwise.
  • Anybody can search for traps. Dwarfs have a 2 in 6 chance. Everyone else has a 1 in 6 chance (Moldvay pg.B22). Thieves [should] use this 1 in 6 chance until 3rd level when their [own] skill becomes more favourable. They must however use their less favourable F&RT skill when attempting to disarm a trap. [Regarding pg.B22 reference these may only be what are sometimes known as ‘Room Traps’ and may not include what is known as ‘Treasure Traps’ such as a poison needle on a lock or chest, see Moldvay pg.B52 – which only a Thief may find and disarm with their F&RT skill].
  • Anybody can hear noise [Thieves and Demi-Humans are just better at it].
  • Anybody can climb. Thieves, however, have a chance to climb sheer surfaces.
  • Open locks & pick pockets are thief only skills.

Thief Ability Score Modifier Suggestion

One distinction between ‘Basic’ D&D and AD&D is the more extensive use of the ability score modifiers in the latter. While this may or may not be a good thing depending on your point of view; and to be fair I think in some cases they should not be as significant as they sometimes are in AD&D, which is one reason to like B/X; and the randomness of a percentile roll (i.e. d100) means minor differences probably don’t really make as a significant difference as people think, but it is a nice piece of flavour to make individual characters of the same type and level differ slightly from each other.

I’m sure something like this has probably been proposed in the past and/or documented on blogs or similar – but I have not specifically encountered it. One aspect I like about this is it provides more aspects for the player of a thief to consider at character generation time – there is reason to give more thought to abilities other than Dexterity and what type of thief skills they will be especially good at. So my thoughts around this are:

Allow Thieves in D&D B/X and similar to have minor thief ability modifiers. This is based on the standard ability score adjustment table (e.g. so 18 provides +3, 16-17 +2, 13-15 +1) but only positive adjustments are used. A specific Ability Score is relevant to each Thief Ability, and modifies it (one of the following ways listed below). This provides lower level thieves with a small bonus to improve their abilities while not significantly unbalancing their abilities as they get to higher levels. In any case no ability should get modified above 95% by these modifiers (greater than 95% can only be done by the Thieves Ability once they reach the appropriate level), or 1-4 in the case of HEAR NOISE:

  • The relevant Ability Score Adjustment provides a basic % modifier to their Thief Ability, so an 18 Dexterity (see below) would provide +3% to Move Silently for example, a 13 Dexterity +1% modifier; for HEAR NOISE it gets applied as the simple +3 or +1, etc, or
  • As above except (excluding HEAR NOISE) the base Ability Score Adjustment is always multiplied, either by 2, 3 or 5 for example. So an ability of 18 might provide a +6%, +9% or +15% bonus. The DM will obviously decide what the multiplier is and applies it to all modifiers. An alternative is it might relate to Thief Class Level (e.g. the modifier might increase every 3 levels so at levels 1-3 it’s x1; 4-6 x2; 7-9 x3; etc, until it maxes out at x5) – so a Thief with 17 Dex at 7th Level gets +2 x3 = +6%.

The suggested Ability Score Adjustment modifier for each Thief Ability is determined as follows:

  • STRENGTH: Climb Sheer Surfaces.
  • INTELLIGENCE: Remove Traps, Read Languages*.
  • WISDOM: Find Traps, Hide in Shadows.
  • DEXTERITY: Open Locks, Pick Pockets, Move Silently.
  • CONSTITUTION: Hear Noise.
  • CHARISMA: —

* Read languages is covered in Cook & Marsh Expert Set, gained by 4th Level Thieves with a fixed base chance of 80% regardless of level.

As noted in the Cook & Marsh D&D Expert Set (pg.8) higher level thieves (>14th level) will ‘gain new abilities requiring greater skill and danger‘ which the DM will determine, and the appropriate ability score can be applied for the purposes of the above modifier (i.e. the examples of ventriloquism and powers of distraction listed might use CHARISMA for their ability score adjustment).

Given most characters will not be eligible for all or even many of these modifiers, as a typical B/X Character may only have 1-2 exceptional abilities at best), choosing option 2 and having a more generous modifier (e.g. Ability Adjustment x5, except for Hear Noise) might seem the best way to go? Anyway that’s my thoughts around that – such that they are.

And here’s a slightly different thought about thief abilities from Daniel at Bandit’s Keep base don his experiences playing OD&D (in it’s original form before the thief Class was added):

More Thief Class Thoughts

[EDIT] I since found some thief ability adjustment ideas along similar lines to those above in the Rambling Cleric’s B/X D&D House Rules post, albeit purely hard coded to Dexterity.

More on Old School D&D Classes