House rules for thieves
by MezukaNote: If you are happy with the current BECMI thief skill system there is no need to say so in this thread. I'm happy for you.
The purpose of this thread is to reimagine how thief skills work. As stated in another thread recently, levels and percentiles are problematic. More so when the spread is over 36 levels.
Proposal: Warning this is radical.
- All thief skills have a base 65% chance of success regardless of level. It never changes.
- Variability in the system is introduced by Difficulty Tables for each skill.
- The DM decides the degree of difficulty before the roll is made.
Difficulty Table (example using the level of the target of a pickpocket attempt)
Level of Target-------------%
- 0---------------------> +10 %
1-6---------------------> +00 %
7-12-------------------> -10 %
13-18------------------> -15 %
19-24------------------> -20 %
25-30------------------> -25 %
31-36------------------> -30 %
Thievery Points
Levels 1-6: The thief has a daily pool of 10 thievery points. Whenever a skill roll fails the thief can spend up to 5 points to modify the roll by as many percentage points.
Levels 7-12: The thief has a daily pool of 15 thievery points. Whenever a skill roll fails the thief can spend up to 10 points to modify the roll by as many percentage points.
Levels 13-18: The thief has a daily pool of 20 thievery points. Whenever a skill roll fails the thief can spend up to 15 points to modify the roll by as many percentage points.
Level 19-24: The thief has a daily pool of 25 thievery points. Whenever a skill roll fails the thief can spend up to 20 points to modify the roll by as many percentage points.
Levels 25-30: The thief has a daily pool of 30 thievery points. Whenever a skill roll fails the thief can spend up to 25 points to modify the roll by as many percentage points.
Levels 31-36: The thief has a daily pool of 35 thievery points. Whenever a skill roll fails the thief can spend up to 30 points to modify the roll by as many percentage points.
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Example:
A thief tries to pickpocket the belt pouch of a level 7 fighter. It contains the key to the prison cell holding his associate.
The base chance is 65%. Looking at the Difficulty table the DM tells the player he has -10% on the roll because the fighter is level 7. The new target number is 65%-10%= 55%.
The player rolls and the result is 59%. The thief would normally fail because the roll is over 55%.
The player decides it's critical to have the key. He spends 4 points from his daily Thievery Pool points to lower the result to 55%. It becomes a success. The thief gets the key!
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Tell me what you think.