We have a new player in the group whose first game will be Saturday (Aug 11). He came to me asking about making a "fighter who does thief things." I'm having some difficulty with this since I've never actually played this kind of character, so I'm reprinting our conversation here with his permission.
Joe said:
I was thinking about making an elf figher/thief ... with the thief being unknown... would that be a 6/6 class ? I haven't played since 2 ed... so don't know a lot of the changes ... I can always play a ranger too, but would rather do a fighter/ "thief" if possible. I would need 85 points in skills which I can do , just need to know what class is allowed.
I said:
That depends heavily on what you want out of your character. I'm not familiar at all with 2nd ed, though.
((combat-focused rogue build))
You will be able to find and disarm traps, have a general awareness of what's around you, sneak up on opponents, avoid opportunity attacks while on the move, set up flanks, hit other people who are on the move, and feint as a move action (Bluff check to make opponent disregard you).
Joe said:
I want a fighter that the group doesn't know is also a thief, helps in picking up valuables to better gear the character or to avoid getting the group into trouble, by his sneakiness. Had a fighter that actually would pick locks with knives and swords if he couldn't just brute strength the lock... group never found out he was actually a thief also. he had fun with the random pick pocket and appraisal runs..
I said:
I'm having trouble modeling this character in third edition, the main problem being that fighters don't get enough skill points to cover what you want to do. So, with your permission, I'm going to post this conversation on a message board and see what they come up with. Let me know.
Books: Core is preferred, but a feat or two from Completes is usually fine. Of course, something simple is preferred since he hasn't played in a decade or so.
Thanks!
