Footpads, Robbers, Burglars, Cutpurses, Sharpers, Pilferers and Thieves... Quite a mouthful! In the original Monster Determination Table found in Underworld & Wilderness Adventures you won't find these entries, but of course, when the Thief class was introduced in Greyhawk an updated Monster Determination Table was provided. Now, that's all well and good, but the supplement did not include details for these entries. It's true that these are simply individual levels of the thief class, but Monsters & Treasure does gives some information on how to handle encounters with NPC fighting men, magic-users and clerics. i.e. under the entry for Bandits there is a 5% chance per level that any of these three classes might have an appropriate magic item with them. There are two ways to interpret this. One way is to assume that these super-normal types might only have magic items when leading a group of bandits. Another popular option though is for referee's to extrapolate this out so that the chance applies to any encounter with a fighting man, magic-user or cleric. So, should a good referee do the same when the party encounters any sub type of thief?
OD&D Monsters - Footpads, Robbers, Burglars, Cutpurses, Sharpers and Thieves... Catch your breath!
The basic Holmes D&D set uses a similar Monster Determination table, which also includes entries for the various levels of thief, but also doesn't extrapolate and neither does it include any chance of thieves leading a group of bandits.
In the AD&D Monster Manual under the heading Men, it says "For each level that [...] fighters, magic-users, and clerics have attained there is a 5% chance that they will have magical accoutrements [...]"
Although this sentence does not mention thieves the passage does go on to present a table that includes the thief, confirming that the thief has a 5% chance per level of a magic shield, sword, misc. weapon, potion, ring or misc. magic item. I think this is good evidence to suggest that Gary Gygax intended all main categories of super-normal types to have a 5% chance per level for a magic item, not just when encountered leading bandits but in any random encounter.
Here is an example of how I handle thieves in my game. I present my statistics for a footpad encountered in the underworld:
FOOTPADSAlignment N or C
Lair 15%
Intelligence Yes
Size: M
Surprise 1-2 (same as Hear Noise)
Armor Class 8
Move 12”
Hit Dice 1d6+1 (2d8)
# of Attacks 1
Damage 1-6 or by Weapon Type
Treasure A
Abilities:
Pickpocket* or Move Silently* 25%
Hide in Shadows* 15%
Climb 88%
Backstab x2 damage
Footpads will have a 10% chance to have a magic sword, and 10% chance to have a magic dagger, otherwise they wield either a mundane sword (1-2) or dagger (3-4). They also have a 10% chance of having a magic ring.
*A score above the indicated percentage means failure, and no further attempts may be made. Also, there is a chance that the one who is being pickpocketed may detect the thief. To determine this, for each level above 5th, the victim has a + 5% chance of detecting the “lift,” so a 10th level, for example, would reduce the possibility of a successful attempt by 25%, i.e. if a base 100% it reduces to 75%.
Most of the above was extrapolated directly from the OD&D books and its various supplements. The only liberties I've taken is to suggest thieves surprise follows their Hear Noise ability. So, lower level thieves like the footbad only have a normal chance of 2 in 6 but higher levels gain bigger bonuses. I've also ensured magic item chances are limited to three categories to bring this in line with the OD&D chances for the fighter, magic-user and cleric.
For the hit dice I've included notation for the original six-sided system and the 8-sided system from Greyhawk (in brackets).
On a side note, there is a complication when determining hit points for a thief that's encountered as a monster: Greyhawk recommends using the 8-sided die for monster hit points. Take a look at the discrepancy when comparing the original 6-sided hit die system with the Greyhawk system:
(d8) (d4)
Monsters Players
Type Original Greyhawk Original Greyhawk Greyhawk
Hit Dice Hit Dice Range Range Range
Footpad 1 + 1 2 2-7 2-16 2-8
Robber 2 3 2-12 3-24 3-12
Burglar 2 + 1 4 3-13 4-32 4-16
I had to reference the original thief class from the Great Plains Game Player's Newsletter to find the original 6-sided hit die progression for the thief, but as you can see thieves encountered as monsters are a lot more powerful than their player counterparts. You'll also note that the ranges are similar for players whether opting for the 6-sided or 4-sided hit die.
I'd love to know how other players handle this discrepancy. For me, I just leave it alone and settle for stronger monster thieves with better survivability than their player counterparts...
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