TEXT: UL5
  PREVIEW!
  
  WHAT'S ALL THIS NOW?
  The Thief class was officially introduced to 
  the Dungeons & Dragons mythos with the 
  publication  of  its  very  first  supplement, 
  Greyhawk (1975),  largely  based  on  Gary 
  Gygax's  home  campaign.  Gary's  campaign 
  did not have a thief class, at least initially. 
  The notion was suggested to him in a letter 
  from a D&D fan, and he ran with it and 
  Gygaxized it for print.
  Since its appearance, the Thief-as-
  class-unto-itself  has  faced  crit-
  icism  from  Dungeon  Masters  far 
  and wide. The bone of contention: 
  The thief isn't really a necessary 
  element of the game. Player Char-
  acters were doing plenty of burg-
  larizing, sneaking, looting, skulk-
  ing  and  various  other  sorts  of 
  shady  business  well  before  the 
  appearance of Supplement I. One 
  could  even  argue  that  thieves—
  through  their  very  existence—
  deprive other PC classes of their 
  agency. All of a sudden, fighting 
  men  are  novice  lockpickers  at 
  best, inevitably losing every hide-
  and-seek game and laughably bad 
  at  just  moving  silently  down  a 
  passage.  The  thief's  exclusive 
  skillset  is  just  that—it  excludes 
  other PC types and relegates them 
  to permanent dilettante status in 
  the Sneaking Department. 
  Cross-Class  Subterfuge  Protocols 
  folds the Thief class back into the 
  game batter. But not like it never 
  happened. No, the thief skills were 
  cool and we're keeping them.
  SOME DEFINTIONS
  For the sake of clarity:
  •
  ROGUE: What every adventurer has to 
  be sometimes to get results.
  •
  SNEAKY: Furtive, sly.
  •
  SUBTERFUGE:  Deception  and  illcraft 
  used in order to achieve one's goal.
  •
  THIEF: An adventurer who has made a 
  career of burglary and grifting.
  GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS
  1.  All  player  characters  are  Adventurers, 
  and  surviving  adventures  requires  sneak-
  iness from all involved, regardless of class.
  2.  Adventurers  get  sneakier  as  they  gain 
  experience.
  3.  Some  classes  have  more  opportunities 
  than others to hone their sneakiness. [eg. A 
  fighting  man  will  get  to  practice 
  walking silently more often than a 
  magic-user  probably  will.]  Thus 
  the pace that sneaking skills are 
  developed will vary from class to 
  class.
  4. Some races are innately better 
  at being sneaky than others. Facts 
  is facts. A Halfling is just going to 
  be  better  (on  average)  at  pick-
  pocketing  than,  say,  a  half-orc 
  would be (on average).
  5. Characters with very high WIS 
  or DEX scores are also naturally 
  endowed with the sneaking ju-ju. 
  THE BASICS
  Six specific types of sneaking sit-
  uations are addressed by a char-
  acter's  Sneaking  Throws.  Mech-
  anically  these  work  just  like 
  Saving Throws: You roll a d20—if 
  the  result  is  equal  to or  greater 
  than the character's Throw value 
  than  the  sneaking  action  is  a 
  success. The six Sneaking Throws 
  are:
  PICK POCKET:  Attempt to grab a 
  handful of coins, gems, lint, rotten 
  teeth (whatever) from a target cha-
  racter. Picking for a specific item is possible 
  but incurs penalties to the roll. This makes 
  the  pick  more  difficult  depending  on  the 
  specific circumstances involved. The referee 
  has the final say on how the throw's result 
  should be modified—generally a -1 or -2 is 
  an adequate representation for a challenging 
  pick situation such as an overfull money-
  purse where a single magic emerald is the 
  target item.
  1
  
  Halflings  and  dwarfs  get  +1  to  their  pick 
  throws. Half-orcs and all other big n' burly 
  types get -1 to all pick throws. 
  Characters with DEX scores of 17 or higher 
  modify their pick throws by +1.
  OPEN LOCK: Attempt to jimmy or bypass a 
  lock  or  lock-like  mechanism.  The  default 
  assumption is that your character is using 
  the right tools to do this. If those tools are 
  not present, then a narrow dagger or stiletto 
  might do the job with a -3 modifier to the 
  throw.
  Not all locks are created equal. A superior 
  lock  will  subtract  2  from  the  throw.  A 
  masterwork lock will subtract 4. Extramun-
  dane  locks  can  be  opened  by  a  skilled 
  magic-user  who  casts  read  magic  on  the 
  target lock. Treat this as a masterwork lock.
  Dwarfs  and  gnomes  are  especially  handy 
  with locks and get +1 to their throws. Half-
  orcs  and  similar  brutes  get  -1  to  their 
  throws  because  their  fingers  are  like 
  sausages.
  Characters with DEX scores of 17 or higher 
  modify their lock throws by +1.
  DISARM  TRAP:  Attempt  to  deactivate  or 
  possibly  destroy  a  trap's  mechanism. 
  Conceivably  this  could  also  apply  to 
  clockwork  devices  of  the  non-trap  variety. 
  This  throw  encompasses  a vast  variety of 
  trapworks, and the referee should feel free 
  to  apply  modifiers  for  especially  difficult 
  designs.
  Disarm Trap also covers the use of magical 
  devices  like  wands,  rings  and  amulets.  A 
  successful  throw  indicates  that  the 
  character undestands the basic functions of 
  the  device—though not necessarily its  eff-
  ects—and knows what is required to activate 
  it. Magic-users get +2 to trap throws used in 
  this manner.
  Dwarfs  and  gnomes  probably  invented 
  booby traps and naturally get +1 to all their 
  trap throws. 
  All characters with sub-average INT scores 
  (i.e. scores below 9) get -2 modifiers to their 
  trap throws. 
  MOVE  SILENTLY:  Attempt  to  navigate  a 
  given  distance  without  alerting  nearby 
  creatures who may or may not be listening. 
  Without the proper magic it's impossible to 
  pull  off  in  anything  heavier  than  studded 
  leather.
  Elves and halflings get +1 to their throws. 
  HIDE: Attempt to conceal oneself from being 
  seen by any means possible. Will prove to be 
  difficult  for  larger  than  man-sized 
  characters  (adjust  modifiers  according  to 
  vastness).
  Because  so  much  depends  on  the 
  percipient, who may or may not be actively 
  looking for the character attempting to hide, 
  the  hide  throw  can  sometimes  be  a  very 
  tricky  roll  to  pull  off.  The  referee  should 
  carefully  consider  modifiers  for  monsters 
  with exceptional sensory apparati, magical 
  creatures  and  lesser  divine  beings.  Gods 
  should be exempt—they're impossible for a 
  mortal to hide from.
  All  non-humans  get  +2  to  their  throws. 
  Except half-orcs, who seem to be mentally 
  impaired while trying to hide.
  Characters with WIS scores of 17 or higher 
  modify their hide throws by +1.
  DISGUISE: Attempt to falsify one's appear-
  ance through the use of makeup, mask, or 
  whatever  materials  are  available.  Highly 
  circumstantial—the  referee  must  rely  on 
  their best judgment, scaling how convincing 
  the disguise is versus the visual acumen of 
  those characters who chance to see it.
  Gods and undead see through all disguises, 
  but most mundane beings can be fooled. 
  Elves  and  gnomes  get  +1  to  all  disguise 
  throws.
  Characters with WIS scores of 17 or higher 
  modify their disguise throws by +1.
  2
  
  KEEP IT SECRET
  It's assumed that the referee will handle all 
  sneaking throws from behind the screen, or 
  at least in cases where the consequences of 
  the throw result would not be immediately 
  evident to the player character.
  There's no reason for the players to clutter 
  up  their  character  sheets  with  sneaking 
  throw information either.  They've got saving 
  throws. They'll be fine.
  That said, make sure the players are at least 
  aware of the basic mechanics behind their 
  characters' choices.
  NATURAL 1s: CRITICAL FAILURE
  An unmodified roll of "1" is always a critical 
  failure. It means that beyond botching the 
  attempted  action,  the  character's  whole 
  situation has gone awry in some way.
  A critical failure on a lock throw means that 
  the  device  has  become  jammed  and  any 
  alarm system connected to it has a 3-in-6 
  chance of being activated.
  Blowing  a  trap  throw  means  the  trap  (or 
  device) is triggered AND that the character 
  has injured himself (1d6 damage) through 
  some freak display of discoordination.
  BACKSTABS?
  Treat backstab situations as a bonus attack 
  round (aka Attack of Opportunity! Look! A 
  3Eism!) with all relevant modifiers for the 
  target's rear AC.
  FINDING TRAPS?
  You don't roll to "Find Treasure" do you? 
  And yet those treasures still end up getting 
  found  (eventually).  I  made  the  call  to 
  dispense with this artifact of the Thief class. 
  Players should have plenty of other in-game 
  resources to help them locate traps—ye olde 
  and much-vaunted  ten-foot  pole  comes  to 
  mind immediately. 
  ___________________________________________
  CREDITS
  Greg Gorgonmilk: Words and Design
  Camille Flammarion: Border
  Gavin Norman: Good Advice
  NECROTIC GNOME PRODUCTIONS
  February 2017
  rpgnow.com/browse/pub/5606/Necrotic-Gnome-Productions
  gorgomilk.blogspot.com
  3
  
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Old-School Essentials BX Essentials/BX Essentials/BX Essentials Cross-Class Subterfuge.pdf