Thief

Note -- This page refers to the Thief Guild, for a list of disambiguities, see Thief (Disambiguation).

Returning players may want to read the page for Returning Players, and Thief Newbie Help Guide before continuing.

Thief Guild
Image copyright of Simutronics Corporation
Primary Skillset:	Survival
Secondary Skillsets:	Weapon, Lore
Tertiary Skillsets:	Armor, Magic
Special Abilities:	Khri, Backstab, Sign, Passages, Voice Throw, Slip, Contacts, Lockpick Carving, Poison Resistance, Mark
Mana Type:	None
Barbarian - Bard - Cleric - Commoner - Empath - Moon Mage Necromancer - Paladin - Ranger - Thief - Trader - Warrior Mage

Beyond skulking in shadows and relieving the careless of their burden of coin, Thieves' superior stealth, hyper-aware senses, and familiarity with locks and traps make them valuable additions to any adventuring party.

A life in the shadows is like no other -- never above the law, but always one step in front of it.

Official Information

Guild crest: A blank charger shrouded by a concealing veil

Information courtesy of Dragonrealms Website.

Guild Hall Locations

That is a secret -- think of gaining entry to the guild as your first test.

Zoluren

The young snake Kalag the sly has brought order to the guild.

Therengia

Crow and Swan watch over their den.

Ilithi

The guild hall here is managed by Saishla.

Qi'Reshalia

The criminal element of Qi'Reshalia is overseen by Dwillig.

Forfedhdar

The Elven mistress Ivitha holds this province in an iron grip.

Skillset

A Thief's primary skillset is Survival. Weapon and Lore are secondary skillsets, with Magic and Armor as tertiaries.

Crafting Affiliation

Guilded thieves receive two free technique slots in the Carving discipline of the Engineering skill and one free technique slot in the Poison discipline of the Alchemy skill.

See: Crafting

Guild Abilities

All thief abilities are considered in-game secrets.

Skill Bonusing System

Urban Bonus

This is dependent on where the thief is currently located. Thieves are most comfortable in places populated by the masses and/or with structures artificially created. SMIRK SELF can be used by a thief to discern if the location is very urban, urban, neutral, or wilderness. This portion of the thief's bonus will directly raise the effective ranks a thief will use when doing contested actions. In the wilderness the thief is working with no urban bonus so can in essence only be using base ranks. Urban bonus cannot be negative, it varies from 0 (neutral) to positive.

Reputation

This is a reflection of how the guild currently views the member. Bringing heat down upon the guild by being caught breaking the law of the province will lower the reputation of the member causing the thief to be without the aid of the guild as a whole. A thief with a reputation at the lowest point will be punished when entering the guild by Death. Standing in the guild can be raised with donations of stolen goods into the appropriate bins, performing a TASK for an NPC associated with the Thief Guild and by not being wanted by the law of the province.

Confidence

This is the feeling a thief has for their own skills. When a thief performs a skill successfully that is of some risk to them, they will gain confidence in their skills overall. The thief can SMIRK SELF(see SMIRK for full list of confidence messages) to tell how confident in their skills they currently are. If a thief botches a skill check that should be easy for them, confidence level will lower. A low confidence will hinder a thief's base ranks by 5% and can negate the urban bonus of where the thief is located. The bonuses to skills from high confidence and a good urban spot will stack, giving the thief a good edge on difficult tasks.

Confidence can vary from positive to negative.

• Right now only stealth, blindside, and thievery will modify a thief's confidence.

• Starting Khri now checks confidence. It is possible to not be able to use some Khri with low confidence.

Blindside

Blindside is the act of surprising an opponent from hiding with a high damage attack.

This attack, when successful, causes far more damage and death than a simple ambush or weapon attack. It requires melee range, hiding, and a melee weapon.

Sign Language

A secret, thief only, language. It uses sleight of hand to communicate with other thieves. With enough perception, non-thieves may notice the hand motions. This skill is taught by the lovely assistant to the guild leader Crow

Passages

Thief-only shortcuts and hideouts found throughout several Elanthian cities. In The Crossing there are many passages spread around town, but no central hub. Shard features a large, interconnected, passage system while Riverhaven has a system which combines a small hub and many not-connected bolt-holes. The only passage in Throne City access to the rooftop of the Museum of Imperial History.

Contacts

The guild has Contacts in each major city and some smaller cities that can do a variety of small tasks. For each 20 circles a Thief has they will gain the use of 1 additional contact, up to a maximum of 5. Up to 5 may be used simultaneously.

Lockpick Carving

Lockpick repair and Lockpick CARVing are Thief-only abilities that can be attempted beginning at 12th Circle. Lockpick carving involves creating a lockpick by carving a keyblank with a knife. The greater the Lockpicking skill and agility, the better quality of lockpick. Read more in the Lockpick Carving article.

This is slated to become an ability all guilds can engage in, with the lore system rewrite. No current date is available.

Khri

KHRI is a Thief-only ability based on intense concentration that leads to surpassing normal body limitations. All guild leaders teach all Khri. "Khri" is both the singular and the plural term. Thieves get their first Khri at 1st circle then get one every 5 circles after that.

Thieves get an additional Khri slot for being subscribers.

Please see the Thief abilities for more detailed information, including descriptions of individual khri.

Ambush Moves

Thieves have special guild-only ambush moves. These require a physical component, like dirt or a melee weapon, and usually require hiding and melee range.

Thief ambushes are taught by specific guild leaders, so a potential thief should be ready to travel.

Ambushes require a khri slot to learn.

See ambush.

Slip

Slip is a command thieves share with several other guilds, including bards and rangers. Thieves have the widest variety of options, and learn them earlier.

Voice Throw

Thieves of sufficient skill and level can use Ventriloquism in several ways. This is an ability shared with Bards, and may only be learned from a member of that guild.

Mark

Mark is a thief-only command which allows the thief to gauge the difficulty of stealing from another player, fighting an opponent, or shoplifting from a store.

See MARK for full details.

Reduced Load While Hidden

With sufficient skill, Thieves do not incur the +1 second penalty that other guilds incur for loading ranged weapons while hidden.

Important Skills

Survival Skills

Thieves need to train a minimum of 8 survival skills to advance consistently in the guild, with Stealth and Thievery skills as a Soft Requirement; meaning they can also count as Nth skills.

Some survival skills Thieves might find important:

• Athletics
• Backstab
• Evasion
• Locksmithing
• Perception
• Stealth
• Thievery

Weapon Skills

Thieves need two weapons to advance in the guild. Most thieves would suggest one to be a Small Edged weapon user for employ in backstabbing, as well as general combat.

If not at first, by later on in a Thief's career they will probably want to train the Brawling skill and be trained in the use of either Bow skill or Crossbow skill as well.

A Thief may also want to train Light Thrown weapons if they wish to excel at throwing dirt in the face of their opponents.

Lore Skills

Three of the many lore skills are required for gaining circles as a thief. Tactics, Appraisal and Scholarship are excellent choices, as is one of the various crafting skills.

Armor Skills

Leather Armor is an excellent choice that offers good protection and light stealth hindrance. One may consider Cloth Armor to be an option as well, which is the least stealth hindering at the cost of lower absorption.

The armor for sale in Tembeg's Armory is good for new characters - it is very close to player crafted quality, at an affordable price. Most other store bought armor is not recommended, as it typically has very poor protection, very high hindrance, and is much heavier than the Tembeg sets or player crafted armor.

Magic Skills

Thieves use magic skills to power their supernatural abilities (i.e. Khri) in a manner similar to magic classes. This means they require ranks in the Augmentation, Debilitation, Inner Magic, Utility, and Warding skills. The skillset is renamed for thieves, as supernatural instead of magic, though magic is an alias.

Thieves cannot learn Targeted Magic or Attunement skill, either through guild abilities or classes. If a thief joins a class on either, he will join as though he used the 'listen observe' command, and will gain no ranks in the magic skill (instead, all of the experience is awarded to scholarship). This is done so thieves can pretend to be magic users.

Thieves can learn arcana skill from Achaedi crystals and sanowret crystals. They cannot harness mana, cast spells, charge cambrinth (although faux cambrinth exists to support disguises) or perceive mana. Thieves gain no inherent benefit or penalty from learning arcana, though it can reduce the difficulty and cost of activating some magical devices.

Thieves may use scholarship to read spell scrolls to identify them, but cannot invoke or learn them.

Thieves cannot focus on runestones to identify them. Thieves cannot activate runestones.

Guild History

Kalag Ka'Hurst founded the Zoluren Thieves Guild around the start of the Elanthian Calendar, just as the Dragon Priest war was ending. All guild leaders following have taken the name "Kalag" as their own, until the most recent leader, Varsyth, who has stated he will not follow in that tradition. Varsyth has since adopted the name Kalag the Sly.

Kalag's tale and therefore the founding of the guild is described in two books residing within the Zoluren Thieves Guild library:

• Kalag's Memoirs, Part 1
• Kalag's Memoirs, Part 2

The memoirs tell of how Kalag first came to River Crossing, fleeing his hometown which had been beset by famine. Kalag came across an old man being attacked in the streets and helped fight with the old man. After the encounter Kalag learned the man was a well-known locksmith named Lyanothe, who then offered to teach Kalag many skills in return for Kalag's work as a runner and business partner.

One day their hideout was discovered and Kalag proposed they move to the sewers, for its easy access to anywhere in the city and its superior defensibility from foes. Kalag and Lyanothe became well known and opened their home to locksmithing students. This band of students began cross-training each other in skills that collectively made them qualified thieves. Kalag proposed they form a Thieves Guild and bring in other members from around the town that were engaged in criminal enterprises.

Kalag planned to have the guild recognized by the city council, but then the Dragon Priest army came to town. The Thieves Guild united against the army and their cunning helped defeat the Dragon Priests. Their actions and some support from the shrewd Trader guildleader earned them official acknowledgment by the city. And thus the Zoluren Thieves Guild was formed.

Thief Council

The governing body of all Thieves Guilds in the Five Provinces. Little is known.

Major Thief Events

• Inquisitor Anamir's discovery of the Zoluren and Therengia Thief guild halls.
• Ishtvan's attempt to violently overthrow Kalag and install Ladoc as new Zoluren Thief Guild leader and the deal made to train Ishtvan's men in the Crossing's sewers.
• The Thief Guild Council suspects Kalag the Black's loyalty to the Guild.
• Zoluren General Zukir's destruction of the Zoluren Thief guild and Kalag the Black's subsequent death.
• Varsyth, later known as Kalag the Sly appointed new Zoluren Thief Guild leader.

Thief Merchants

• Ambika
• The gnome tinkerer (Freiden?) who sells imitation magical devices
• King Fade

Circle Requirements

Circle	1st Armor	1st Weap.	2nd Weap.	Parry Ability	1st Surv.	2nd Surv.	3rd-4th Surv.	5th Surv.	6th Surv.	7th Surv.	8th Surv.	Stealth	Thievery	1st Lore	2nd Lore	3rd Lore	Inner Magic	1st Magic	2nd Magic
1-10	2	3	1	1	4	4	3	3	2	2	1	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	0
11-30	2	3	2	2	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	2	3	2	2	1	2	2	0
31-70	2	4	3	2	5	4	4	4	4	3	2	3	3	3	2	2	3	2	2
71-100	3	4	3	3	5	5	5	4	4	4	3	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	2
101-150	3	5	4	3	6	6	6	5	5	5	3	4	4	4	3	3	4	3	4
150+	8	13	10	8	15	15	15	13	13	13	8	10	10	10	8	8	10	10	8

Thievery and Stealth are soft requirements (can be used toward Nth survival requirements).

Related Forum Posts

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Additional Information

• Thief Titles