Thoughts on high level thief paths
by WingofCootSome very rough thoughts on high level thief paths.
Investigator: To become an investigator, a thief must be 9th level or higher, and must study under another investigator; at an university; with a sage; or with a name-level Magic-user who has established a tower.
The investigator gains the following benefits:
- The investigator's Read Languages chance increases to 90%. At 12th level, it further improves to 95%; at 24th level, to 99%; at 30th level, 100%.
- The investigator's chance of backfire when using a spell scroll is reduced to 5%; at 18th level, it is further reduced to 1%; at 36th level, there is no chance of failure.
Assassin:
To become an assassin, a traveling thief (Rogue) of 9th level or higher must receive training from an existing assassin, and must not be of Lawful alignment. (Nearly all assassins are Chaotic, but rare Neutral ones are possible.)
Assassins are separate from the usual Thieves' Guild, and an assassin automatically and permanently loses any aid or benefits from the Guild or the community of thieves (such as a traveling thief's chance to pick up clues or maps to treasure). A thief who becomes an assassin can never attract apprentice thieves or lead a Thieves' Guild, even if they later build a Hideout.
The assassin gains the following benefits:
- Backstab damage is tripled rather than doubled
- An assassin can "shroud" intentions from detection magic. This can be done once per day, and lasts for 3 turns; while the "shroud" is active, Detect Evil will not register the assassin, and ESP and similar magic will pick up only inoffensive, boring thoughts.
- An assassin is especially skilled at poisoning: when attacking with a blowgun, the victim's saving throw against Poison suffers a -2 penalty.