The "Lone Wolf": Unique Thieves

Most thieves go through a period of training and apprenticeship, as do legitimate tradesmen. They are taught by an established, experienced thief, who was taught by a thief before him. This goes back untold generations, to the earliest thieves who developed skills on their own and then shared them with partners and apprentices. Over the years the skills and techniques have been formalized and perfected, especially under the normalizing influence of the large and powerful guilds that have arisen.

But not every thief is molded in this way. There are always others, known as "lone wolves," who developed outside the "system" of the established underworld. They discovered and developed their larcenous abilities without the aid of a mentor.

Many lone wolves resemble normal thieves so closely that they may be treated as the very same thing, as far as class, abilities and restrictions go.

However, in some cases a lone wolf may turn out very different—perhaps different enough to be considered a class unto himself. To design such a character, you may use the optional rules, "Creating a New Class," in Chapter Three of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

The emphasis of such a character should still be on thieve's skills, but it may be that not all of the traditional skills are present. And the character may have other unusual abilities as well, cultivated to assist in his roguish endeavors.

Imagine, for instance, a self-taught pickpocket. He may have Pick Pockets, Move Silently and Hide in Shadows, and perhaps Climb Walls (to help get himself over fences or whatever when he is pursued by an observant and angry victim). But he could have no other thief skills; for his thieving lifestyle there was no need for them.

Note how this would be different from a traditional thief specialized in pickpocketing (as in, for example, the cutpurse kit): Even though he specializes in the course of his career, the cutpurse received a core training that included all the thief traditional skills—a liberal arts education in larceny, if you will.

Lone wolves often lead dangerous lives. They must be very self-reliant, and they have to find their own contacts for scoping out jobs and fencing stolen goods. As "freelancers" they run a constant and most serious risk of running afoul of monopolistic thieves' guilds.

Guilds are often wary of lone wolves, who are more likely than "established" thieves, with trusted contacts and reliable references, to be spies for authorities or rival guilds. The lone wolf is also regarded by guildsmen with a mix of curiosity and contempt—and sometimes even admiration, if his odd mix of abilities proves particularly useful "in the field."

A lone wolf, as we said, may be a character class unto himself. Most such classes never have more than one member, and when he dies his unique combination of skills is forgotten; the class ceases to be. On rare occasion a lone wolf may take an apprentice or two, and the class may be perpetuated in this manner. (If you are using the 1st edition AD&D® game, you may suppose that the Assassin class arose in this manner.)

Guilds who have accepted lone wolves into their ranks may ask the thief to take on apprentices—but two things usually prevent this: One, conservative guildmembers typically see the lone wolf's unorthodox methods as a threat (because they are not understood), or as inferior to the traditional way of doing things; and two, lone wolves, used to doing things by themselves, are reluctant to share their secrets. An example follows:

"Bluehand" Ajathar, Lone Wolf

Ajathar was originally apprenticed to an illusionist. He never completed his formal training, however. His master, Zalabom the Magnificent, was outspoken on a number of religious and political issues. One day his words went too far against the popular grain, and a mob dragged him from his tower, stoned him to death, and set fire to the building after looting it. Young Ajathar narrowly escaped with his life and a couple of texts of illusion magic.

Homeless and hungry, Ajathar had to steal for a living. Assisted by what few illusions he could muster, he became a burglar—and a surprisingly proficient one, considering that he was self-taught. As his burglary skills improved, so did his understanding of the magical arts of deception.

He took as his symbol, his trademark to be left at each "job," an illusionary blue hand. The illusion would fade after a few days—but its discovery came to invariably bring panic to the heart of anyone who discovered it in his house. Sometimes Ajathar would not take a thing, but only leave the hand as a warning, a taunt, a mockery of a house's easily-penetrated defenses.

Eventually Ajathar moved on. His native town, where Zalabom was killed, was neither affluent nor an exciting place for a daring young entrepreneur. "Bluehand" may therefore be found anywhere that the DM should wish to relocate him.

One peculiarity of Ajathar's character is his strict adherence to the alignment of True Neutrality. The lesson he gained from Zalabom's death is that extremism and fanaticism in any form are dangerous and to be avoided. Both the illusionist and the bloodthirsty crowd are, to Ajathar's mind in hindsight, repulsive. Any apprentice that Bluehand might train would have to be True Neutral as well.

Following are the elements of unique class, along with the multiplier of each (see DMG, Tables Eleven to Eighteen): Fight as thief (-1 Saving throws as thief (0 1d4 hit dice type (+0.5 No armor permitted—interferes with spellcasting as well as thief skills (-1 Weapons: any (0 +1 hp per level beyond 9th (+0.5 6 initial proficiency slots (+1.5), select as if a normal thief of the cat burglar kit; Climb walls (+1 Find/remove traps (+1 Open locks (+1 Move silently (+1 Hide in shadows (+1 Use Illusion/Phantasm mage spells (+3 Must be of True Neutral alignment (-1 TOTAL MODIFIER: +7.5.