Chapter 1 - Class - Character Kits - Thief Kits
Burglar
Note: This kit is taken from the Complete Thief's Handbook.
The consummate Burglar is an expert at breaking and entering the most
difficult buildings, bypassing walls, locks, traps and guardians, grabbing the best loot,
and escaping unnoticed as stealthily as he arrived.
The cat Burglar requires a minimum Strength of 10 and Dexterity of 13.
Role: In many ways, the cat Burglar is the stereotypical professional thief. He
probably uses more of the traditional thief skills, and more frequently, than any other kit.
Even within the ranks of Burglars, thieves often specialize even further. Some
specialize by skills. A "box-man," for instance, is an expert at opening locks, especially
safes and well-protected chests. A cat Burglar or second-story thief specializes in
climbing walls (which can be a remarkably effective protection, especially if groundlevel entrances have people around them). Teams of Burglars who specialize by skill
often find the most success.
Other Burglars specialize by target. Jewel thieves in particular are the elite among
Burglars; the protection found around the objects of their attention demands that their
skills and cleverness be honed to perfection.
Burglars of any background may be found. Even thrillseekers of the privileged
classes may take up jewel Burglary as a challenging, profitable, and exciting pastime.
Almost all successful Burglars have some sort of guild affiliation. In order to get rid
of the loot they take, they of course need a fence (especially if their score is distinctive—
e.g., fabulous gems, valuable artwork). Guilds provide the Burglar with innumerable
benefits: fencing of even the most distinctive items, connections with potential "business"
partners, access to specialized equipment, and, not least of all, protection. A guild can
arrange the fix (to free an imprisoned Burglar), and provide deterrence, protecting its
Burglars from other guilds and powerful criminals—people who don't take kindly to
being robbed themselves, and are more likely to make hasty decisions about a suspect
character's guilt or innocence.
Secondary Skills: Any.
Weapon Proficiencies: Better Burglars do not bring weapons with them on a job; it
only means more serious penalties if they are caught—either legal penalties, or more
immediate ones like a jumpy victim panicking and attacking them. On some jobs,
however (e.g., stealing from dangerous criminals) a Burglar is wise to have means of
self-defense. Small, quiet, concealable weapons are naturally favored, though a Burglar
may choose proficiency in any weapon among those normally permitted to thieves.
Nonweapon Proficiencies: Required: Alertness, Looting.
Recommended: Begging,
Gather Intelligence, Jumping, Observation, Rope Use, Tightrope Walking, Tumbling.
Skill Progression: The vital skills of a Burglar are open locks, find/remove traps,
move silently, hide in shadows, detect noise and climb walls. As mentioned before, a
Burglar may concentrate particularly on one of these, but he would probably then want to
be as evenly excellent as possible in the others.
Equipment: Burglars love to use specialized hardware to increase their chances of
success. For a thorough examination of some specialty items available, and their effects
on thief skills, consult the equipment chapter later in this book.
Special Benefits: None.
Special Hindrances: None.
Races: Members of any race may be Burglars, and it is a favorite kit. Non-human
thieves often specialize in areas that offer excellent racial bonuses. For instance, dwarves
may specialize in lockpicking and trap detection. And elves may specialize in
reconnaissance (they sneak around and report on the presence and nature of obstacles).
The Specialist Burglar
A broad, general range of skills is often what adventurers choose, but for the urban Burglar, specialization is the way to go. There are a number of reasons for this.
A specialized thief is simply more marketable. People in the underworld want
someone excellent for a job. That may mean a high-level generalized thief, one who has
been in the business long enough to be good at everything. But it's not easy for a thief to
reach that level. Therefore, by concentrating on one skill, a relatively low-level thief may
compete with a thief many levels higher for jobs of a certain type.
Suppose, for instance, we have a "box-man"—actually a woman—named Annelise.
By concentrating as many points as possible in her open locks skill, she can have a score
of 85% at only 4th level (this does not include modifiers for race, Dexterity, armor or
kit). Since she can put no more than half of what she earns at each level into any one
skill, she distributes her remaining points more or less evenly among the other skills. She
would probably neglect pick pockets and read languages, however, since they usually are
not useful to a Burglar.
Compare this to a "generalist" thief, which adventurers tend to be: On Table 19 of the
Dungeon Master's Guide (Thief Average Ability Table), you can see that Annelise's level
of lockpicking skill would not be attained before 14th level.
Now imagine that a mob of jewel thieves is preparing for a job. They have diverse
skills—except that they are lousy at lock-picking. They need to bring a box-man into
their mob. Who would they choose? Well, first off, a 14th-level thief is pretty bloody
rare.
And even if one were available and willing to work with less-experienced thieves, he
would probably demand a larger share of the take. Otherwise it would not be worth his
time: He has uniformly good skills, and could probably commit this robbery on his own.
A job with which he would need assistance is probably well out of the range of these
thieves.
Annelise, then, is a pretty attractive option. She might be able to climb little better
than a fish, but that's the cat Burglar's expertise; after he's mounted the building, he can
lower a rope for the less sure-footed. By offering Annelise a reasonable share of the loot,
the other Burglars are almost assured that their difficult lock will be opened.
