True Thief - Class
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The True Thief (will be renamed) is the thief that you never even knew existed.
HP and proficiency bonus follows normal rogue.
The class features are changing.
Will post more when not on my iPad.
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and five days later… I haven’t got back to this.
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Alright, let’s do a little about this.
First things first all of this is the original brainchild of @dwarf with some playtesting by @halfgiant some years back.
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In prior editions of D&D, the thief was a gear based DPS class. Their power in combat was the sneak attack and was completely tied to their ability to get the drop on their opponent. The thief would spend all his time on upgrading gear to improve the ability to be hidden. A single Dispel Magic or Spellfire explosion could completely devastate the thief’s ability to do significant DPS.
The True Thief is innately antimagical. They do not use traditional magic items because they simply will not work for them if they wanted it to. This is not to say that they are immune to magic, because they are not. Instead they are more like a mana sink. A whole in the weave, almost a conduit to the Void. This antimagical essence at the core of the True Thief both helps and hurts them. They will only take a single point of damage per die from any spell effect, but conversely, they can only be healed for a single point per die of healing. Instantaneous spells have a chance to land that varies as the thief gains levels. Enchantments are almost a waste of time. Even if they land, they will likely fade in a round or two.
The whole concept of the True Thief is to NOT GET HITin the first place. Thieves are not supposed to stand up in combat to go toe to toe with a fighter, or even let the wizards target them from afar (those instant spells can land). Thieves are the class that is supposed to bend over backwards to avoid detection and damage. Whether from people or traps and treasure. In all things, the True Thief’s core concept is to AVOID taking damage. So following that logic, any thief failing to do his job and avoid the trap or detection from the enemy, deserves what he gets. Whether that be a fireball to the nose, a sword in his chest, or a long trip down a spiked pit.
The True Thief is a master of camouflage. He comes equipped with more tools designed to allow him to avoid combat at all costs. Or to put it another way, only start combat at a time of his choosing. He may use a miniature telescoping mirror to peer under doors or drill a small hole thru the door enabling him to see an opportune time to crack open the entryway and get “set up” for an upcoming combat. His alchemically designed Chameleon-cloak defaults to the color of the walls in his current surroundings. The True Thief is not designed to take the abuse of direct combat, and so looks for a choice spot to hide himself and protect/aid his party when the time comes. He’ll be the rooftop sniper, picking his targets with deadly accuracy - and never from the same spot twice.
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True Thieves are so far outside the “society of men,” that their very existence is often questioned by the general populace. Much like the Ninja of old Japan. A stranger will never see his face twice, if they ever see it at all. Players who enjoy reading things like the poor man’s James Bond, improvised booby traps and the like would enjoy playing a True Thief.
So what, you may be wondering, does the True Thief use treasure for? Surely, in a game based upon killing monsters and swiping their treasure, the notable thief has to find some things they can use… and you’d be right. While they have very little use for traditional magic items, thieves are all about gear. Like other adventurers, they still want and lust for gold, but magic items claimed by a thief are typically taken back to his guild. There to be transformed by the alchemical masters into things he or she can use, often to lethal effect.
Certain of the most common, least-secret items devised for thieves have gone public in the past. Tanglefoot bags, alchemical fire and whatnot are now available in most general stores across the realm. Of course, the guild alchemists who first allowed this to happen met a slow and grisly end, but this only spurred on the Guildmasters to develop better items for the “brotherhood of the shadow”. No thief, no matter how aligned or what the mission, will allow thief gear into the hands of the non-initiated - nor reveal the whereabouts of the shops and guilds. There may be no “honor” among thieves, but there is a code - which cannot be broken.
True Thief gear concepts (this is much a work in process)
- Supressed Magic
- Items with magic abilities weak enough to be suppressed just by being on the thief’s person.
- Negative stat items
- Missile/weapon attraction
- Energy attraction
- Items with magic abilities weak enough to be suppressed just by being on the thief’s person.
- Implantables
- Items designed to be reverse pickpocketed, generally suppressed magic or delayed reaction alchemical items
- Transparent weapons
- Alchemically treated to be nearly invisible and almost impossible to tracked back
- Achemical Items
- Quick Weld - Fast hardening metal used like spackle on enemy armor joints, scabbards, etc.
- Burrowing arrowheads - made from worms/beetles, green slime, etc.
- Contact explosives
- Supressed Magic
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The True Thief
Level… Proficiency Bonus… Sneak Attack… Class Features 1 +2 2d4 Sneak Attack, Expertise (Alchemical), Chameleon Cloak 2 +2 2d4 Cunning Action 3 +2 2d6 Combo I 4 +2 2d6 Ability Score Improvement 5 +3 3d6 Shadow Walk 6 +3 4d6 7 +3 4d8 Weaponstrike 8 +3 4d8 9 +4 6d8 Improved Chameleon Cloak 10 +4 6d8 11 +4 6d10 12 +4 8d10 13 +5 8d10 14 +5 8d10 15 +5 10d10 Join Strike 16 +5 10d10 17 +6 10d10 18 +6 12d12 19 +6 12d12 20 +6 12d12
