How to Roleplay a Thief in an RPG.

[@dorkomatic]

I love that "steal from the paladin, then give it back" idea! Great work Kevin!

[@kevinmason1310]

+Howard Dickins thank you. I tried it once and it was as much as shock to the GM as the player. I miss playing with that group

[@thomasschultz9721]

Great video dude. Im struggling with the rogue on dnd 5e and this was helpful. Thanks

[@patrickhandley627]

Or steal their gold then get their attention and toss it back to them. With a line of, "hey paladin catch," tossing their money to them. "Don't keep all your money in one place, because if I can swipe it in broad daylight, then so can the other thieves, and I'm not always gonna be able to watch your back."

[@fairytalejediftj7041]

Great advice about being the guide for PCs without good urban survival skills. :)As for stealing from the party, I don't really buy the "that's what my character would do" unless the thief PC is going to leave the group permanently and steal some of their stuff on the way out, planning to never encounter them again. What you'd want to do as a thief is use the rest of your party to further your schemes, possibly without another PCs knowledge. Tell the naïve cleric that this new town would be a good place to start preaching his message, then if he gathers a crowd, you pick their pockets. The cleric might be ticked off if he finds out what you did, but you didn't steal HIS stuff. :) Ultimately, though, you would want to keep the rest of the party on more or less good terms with you, because you can use them as muscle. Non-thieves will often do most of the fighting but give you an equal share. You want to keep those suckers around! :P

[@savannafc]

Excellent tips! Rogues have always been one of my favourite classes because of all this. A lot of players I’ve played with see rogues simply as: assassins, lock pickers and trap disarmers, the archer of the group, or the gambler. But it goes deeper than that. The most fun, in my mind, is playing the enterprising, opportunistic, sneaky bastard who advances the party’s goals through out-of-the-box means that the other characters would never consider or attempt. Thanks and keep up the good work!

[@patrickhandley627]

Playing a rogue for my group, we've uncovered a plot by a corrupted bishop his church captain of the guard and a few other corrupt clergy to open a gate to the hells, the group had to sneak into the church catacombs to stop the bishop. We played lock smith, and the group stopped the bishop. The next day we played servant to a party member so we could look around while they interviewed the two clergy we suspected of being in on the bishops plan. I spotted a knife on one of them they had hidden up their sleeve. When the interview was over I pointed it out and then tailed them when they ducked out of the church. They went to a rival thieves guild to mine so I waited for them while the rest of the group smoked out the other 2 perpetrators and moved to make the arrests. A chase ensued during which both were captured one got severely burned but both were taken alive. The best part was taking booze to the severely burned captain of the guard and playing good cop to pump him for info before the paladin chased me off with a bad cop routine only for me to sneak back in later and gather key info playing good cops again that wouldn't have been possible without the initial set up.

[@larsdahl5528]

I can tell the story about a thief I once played. Maybe you can extract some inspiration from how I did play that thief. It was in Birthright, a D&D 2nd ed. setting. (Modified a lot by our GM.) I took over the character from another player who, due to RL interference, had become unable to play. Thus I came into an already ongoing story. --- The group had carried out a job for the Duke, who have made a deal with the Bugbears in the mountain range: The Duke paid tribute to the Bugbears for the Bugbears to refrain from pillaging the land. When we delivered the tribute payment, I made my first discovery: There was more to it: A plan to assassinate the Duke. Having the thief skill "Information Gathering" is a good hint to what a thief can do! What I did: Move around the bugbears while the tribute received celebration party was going on, and listen to what they was talking about. You can say: I am a thief, I stole some information from the Bugbears... However I only got the time and place: At night at the Dukes castle. From a 'better safe than sorry' perspective we thus showed up at the castle, at the night the assassination was planned. And, yes, we did intercept a group of sneaky types, and some chaos ensued: Our wizard tried to cast "Melf's acid arrow", but it backfired. Our Cleric got target for a "Command word 'Strip'". Our paladin tried to do something with a halberd, while charging up the stairs to the balcony, but the halberd shaft got stuck in the railings. The situation got so messy that the assassins decided to flee. As the guard was now awake, they came to see our Wizard in the goldfish pond, desperately trying to wash off the acid stuff, and our Cleric making strip-show among the threes in the orchard! --- Later we realized the assassins was still in the city, and again it was me, the thief, getting into play: Finding the shady corners (It is here a thief shines at information gathering!) and figure out more about those assassins. Though we could not prove anything well enough to warrant an arrest, we got enough for our cleric to get a tray full of mugs with strong dwarven ale, placing it in front of a certain suspect, and cast "Command word 'Drink'". I later gathered a rumor about that someone had been at the temple to get a "Cure serious hangover" cast. What I further gathered was that the assassins had a base, in an abandoned castle ruin, near the mountains. At least the Duke was grateful enough for us saving his life, that he granted us minor nobility titles and a Keep (Some sort of small fort/tower/castle/whatever) and farmland. This way we became landowners. Worth to remember: You are not 'only' a thief. My character was a farmer too, extremely good at the "Agriculture" skill. This way I became the bailiff for our farming community. I will say it help greatly to make a thief multi class: In my case here: A Farmer & Thief. This way I do honest labor such as farming, and hold a public respected position. (So my 'motivation', as you talk about, is to enhance my Farming career!) --- Onward to the castle ruin, at the last road intersection before it, there was a sign (Pointing to the ruin) saying: "Level 2 monsters this way". As said: Our GM had modified the D&D a lot, and that sign was a reference to a stupidity in the D&D system: As the characters Level up, so do everyone around them. So playing strictly according to the D&D system there are no point in leveling up, you never get ahead of your surroundings anyway. That is plain stupid game design. In the ruin we got into a fight with some drows (Sort of dark elves). Again something weird in the D&D system allow for a thief to assassinate people...? Hey! I'm a thief! - Not an assassin! But, ok, the rules are there, and thus I made the "dagger to the throat"-insta-kill at one of the drows. The drows did suicide attack them self at us, this way we gained some interesting equipment, adamantine stuff and a drow dark suit which turned out to fit me perfectly! A dark suit help and assassin with "Hide in shadows" and "Sneak", which is good for a thief too! Another interesting ability a thief have is "Appraising", the skill to determine the value of things, useful when selling off stuff. We did sell off some of the stuff we had gathered. When we joined together again it turned out that one of the others had sold one of the adamantine scimitars for 1 k SM, I had sold the other adamantine scimitar for 50 k SM! (Ok, that was a "piss off everyone else in my party" moment.) Again: A thief not only have a good idea at what things are worth, but too have better connections to get in touch with buyers willing to pay extra for unusual stuff! Onward exploring the ruin: We found a treasure chest, how convenient! Grrr! Why is it always the thief who have to check for traps and pick locks? Ok, as we played Birthright I had a blood power enabling me to sense traps, it was not trapped. But! There was something wrong with it... Turned out to be a mimic! The others wanted to smash it, but I got them to capture it instead. Sorry, I am a thief... Would be a shame to see such valuable object be destroyed! And again I managed to make a good trade, well knowing that mimic poop and glue are important ingredients in certain potions! Thus we got a valuable new friend: She was happy, as she domesticated the mimic and thus gained an excellent pet, and as it eats almost anything: An excellent garbage can! (Again: D&D is troublesome, despite it having a "Monster Manual" it is still needed to look in other places to find the trade value of a mimic, and what material components it provide for which potions.) Our wizard managed to set an old tapestry on fire, sad for my thief who then never got to determine how valuable it was. But over time I managed to teach my fellow party members that, with a thief in the group, they had to control their destructive tendencies! --- Our Keep. Having a place to call "home" is nice, and we began to build a village near it. There was a moat around the keep and in it lived some sort of 'lock ness monster', we never saw what it was, but I, as thief saw the potential in it: It was a nice "trap" for all who would try to sneak swim to our keep! So I did remember to feed it once in a while. Thief duty: Feed the moat monster! (It is part of the trap maintenance!) The keep was in bad shape, so we had to repair a lot, so we decided that each got their own private chambers. I furnished mine with high quality stuff, luxurious bed... Of course! I am a thief! I have to live accordingly! In luxury! (Here we are at the core of my characters motivation: To live out a good and joy filled life!) That was in sharp contrast to our paladin who kept his rooms almost empty, except two pieces of furniture: A straw mattress to sleep on, and a small altar to pray at! Something crucial to have for a thief: I installed a secret door with a secret passage out of the keep, so I thus could unofficially go to work while I was officially sleeping in my bed! Again my advice to the players of thieves: Know what tools you need, and get them! (Hey! I am your bailiff! As boss I am allowed to get to work late in the day...) --- Advice to GMs: A party (get-together / celebration / social event) is a good opportunity for excellent role play, and more parties are even better! Though we was lowest rank nobles, we was still nobles, thus we got invited to the dukes party. How to prepare? I got myself a stylish set of high fashion silk robes in red and black coloring. ... Over all our different approaches ... To our paladin who did not want anything special, his "shiny armor" was his best party dress! (Again we are in at my characters core motivation: To live out a good and joy filled life!) This way we did learn of some of the other noble houses in the duchy. Each member did party in their own way. Our cleric definitely got his 'spiritual' needs satisfied: He got serious drunk. (Enough for ... I think you can guess what spell he went to the temple for, the day after...!) Our paladin preferred to be ascetic and did not drink any alcohol at all. Our wizard decided to play thief and 'stole' several bottles of Mead for to make a stash in the dukes garden. (I may admit I did never understand what he was trying to achieve by that.) A party is an excellent place for a thief to gather valuable information, and I thus gathered that the Bugbears not always kept their part of the deal. That is of course useful information: So shortly after I got our group to visit the affected areas, and see out the rampaging bugbears and convince them to keep their part of the deal. And (here come the important part) let the locals know that it was us, who sorted out their bugbear problem. Yes, I was letting them know that the grass was really greener at our pastures! Causing some of them to move to our 'house'. Hey! I am a thief!!! I steal peasants from the other noble 'houses'! --- In our heavy modified version of D&D, we had skipped its stupid way of learning new skills: Selecting the "Dagger specialization" and ... (You can almost hear the "Bing!" sound a computer game make) ... you are expert with daggers. Instead we had to find a teacher to study with. This way I did spend quite some time with one of the Duke's guards, as he taught me the "Dagger specialization". Along I collect useful information: The Duke have expanded the guard force, with dogs. As the dukes castle was a useful place to be able to sneak in and eavesdrop at the conversation, those dogs could become a problem for me. So I used my time with my teacher to learn to know the dogs. (The point is that I get the dogs to know me! And thus see me as 'friend' and not as an 'intruder'!) Thereby I gathered some useful information from my eavesdropping, the duke wanted to build a city wall, but it was going to be a costly project due to the bugbears controlling the mountains, and thus the best source for stones was out of reach. *End of part 1*

[@larsdahl5528]

Continued: *Part 2* I pieced things together: The Bugbears needed food. The Duchy needed stone. Now it was time to start trading with the bugbears! Some other members of our group had made a forge/blacksmith, they did wish to make weapons. I got their production redirected to produce farming tools, as I saw the potential in this excess food production we had, more of it! And now I directed them to make mining tools too. Food and mining tools to the bugbears and stone from the bugbears. This way I got the money to roll into our pockets even faster, while delivering crucial services to the community: Keeping the bugbears at rest, and provide a good supply of building stones! (The thief's way of thinking: Seeing the opportunity and strike at the right moment!) --- In the city I had stumbled over some newcomers to the career as thief, fumbling with their "Hide in Shadows" -skill, and I had taken pity on them and begun my teachings in how to "Hide in Shadows" (Remember our modified D&D where teachers was needed to learn skills.) (That way I expanded my 'underworld connections', as you talk about.) This way I gained popularity in the Thieves Guild, and thus got a VIP invitation to a party for thieves. (Yet again we are in at my charters core motivation: To live out a good and joy filled life!) --- We did some journeys to the "Level 3 monsters this way" ruin. Where I still had to direct things: Remind people why we was going for the gargoyles, our potion brewer, she needed Gargoyle horns as material component, so try to get the horns as intact as possible! (I am a thief, I rob Gargoyles of their horns!) --- One of my more amusing robberies was when I did sneak into the dukes castle, into the dukes daughters wardrobe and stole one of her dresses: One that did not stand out and had sign of that it had been used. I doubt that anyone figured out what I was up to this time. But it was a part of a longer plan: I am a thief, I intended to steal the dukes daughters heart! Rumors had it that she had a heart of gold, it was definitely worth stealing! My plan was to sneak in gifts to her, being the "secret admirer". Thus I needed the dress to have with me, at my business trip, to the south where I could get a silk gown for her, as the tailor could then take her measures from the dress, and thus make the silk gown to fit! To get that done is a really long term project, and lot of good role play can come out of such. However RL got in the way for some of the players, so the campaign ended. But! We have had a brilliant time, with many creative intertwined story lines. Feel free to steal any ideas from my thief's story and use them as inspiration for your own. My thief did like thunderstorms: They provided water for the crops to grow, while making a good soundscape to hide the noises created while breaking and entry!

[@savannafc]

These are brilliant. Sure, it’s from a long time ago with a different system but the core concepts are there. Thanks!

[@larsdahl5528]

A while ago I met our DM again. We did talk about the campaign, I did ask him if he would continue the campaign. I still have the character sheet, notes, and everything. Technically it is on pause for an indefinite time, but we both know that the other players were disappointed, as they were not interested in role-playing. They wanted it to be D&D, the murder-hobo game, only having to kill and plunder.

[@Mithon81]

Very helpful, thank you! :)

[@Zandalorscat]

This is really good advice, thank you!

[@kevinmason1310]

+Zandalorscat thank you. I am trying to make the advice better. I am spending a lot more time talking to other players to gather their tips

[@mossesaccounting5422]

i just started playing D and D a few months ago, the thief in my group had that mindset of i got to screw you all... he found a magic longsword and he did not give it to the paladin - barbarian or fighther.. instead he was using it! claiming it was better for him because it dealt more damage with a 2 handed sword...

[@kevinmason1310]

+Mosses Accounting ugggg!! Yah I know that kind of player

[@bloodofurtedbear8749]

I take stuff from my party all the time. I give it back but it can still make for some solid comedy..

[@johnscheibeler9076]

I have killed Kender characters ON SIGHT... as the DM. As in, "Oh, you're playing a Kender? Rocks fall. Your character is dead. Roll up a new character. This one won't be a Kender." And remember, Wheaton's Law is always in effect. "Don't be a dick" -- stealing from another party member is being a dick. "It's what my character would do" is not justification for breaking Wheaton's Law. You need to change "what your character would do", or you need to change hobbies. There are scads of good PvP console and computer games out there.

[@kevinmason1310]

+John Scheibeler well said

[@cosmoshunters7674]

I can’t find any role-play groups around me, due to medical reasons I am unable to drive so out of town groups don’t work. Is there any website where you can role play on?

[@kevinmason1310]

I hear good things about Roll20 and Fantasygrounds. I have only stated using Roll 20 but have issues joining games due to timezones.

[@CharroArgentino]

I like that you talk about thiefs in general, when you look up videos like this most of them talk about the Thief Rogue in DnD, and while I'm gonna play a thief in Dnd, my character is not a Rogue class but a Wizard, so I'm just researching the RP aspect rather than the mechanics, which I already know.

[@nanoBDbutters]

Do Monks next!

[@kevinmason1310]

+Damiano Besabe I did not even have monks on the list till you mentioned it!!! I have added them to the list just for you!