Rogue Class

Athas is a world of intrigue and treachery, of shady deals and secretive organizations. In short, it’s a rogue’s paradise. Beyond the cities, in the wasteland villages and among the slave tribes, thieves live by their wits and skills. Within the secure walls of the city-states, many typically roguish occupations have become institutions unto themselves. Thieves and bards have become pawns of the wealthy, deployed in deadly games of deceit between noble families, merchant houses, and even other sorcerer-kings. There are still those, however, who use their disreputable talents toward altruistic ends, but they are especially rare.

Rogues’ selection of weapons and armor isn’t limited; a rogue character can use any weapon he becomes proficient with. A rogue choice of armor, however, may limit some of her abilities as described in the Player’s Handbook. Note that there’s no such thing as elven chain armor on Athas.

Athasian rogues—including bards—don’t gain the use of magical spells at higher levels. In all cases where the rules here don’t contradict them, the rules about bards and thieves in the Player’s Handbook apply.

TSR rules place rogues into three categories: Bard, Thief, and Merchant:

Bard Subclass

The bard is a rogue who uses songs and tales as his tools of trade. He’s a person of wit and camaraderie. Despite having few other talents to offer, the bard is a welcome source of entertainment and information across Athas. However, bards are noted to be extremely untrustworthy and even ruthless—they often sell their skills as assassins and poison alchemists to the highest bidder.

The bard is a member of a bizarre class of entertainers and storytellers prized by the aristocratic city dwellers. Free citizens all, bards tour through cities in groups or individually, then travel on, making a living with their wits and talents. It’s also widely accepted that many bards lead double lives as notorious blackmailers, thieves, spies, and even assassins.

The bard must remain mostly neutral in alignment; that is, a bard character must have "neutral" as one of the aspects of his alignment. The bard’s profession puts him in touch with all sorts of people and situations, so he can’t afford to have a strong polarity of alignment to complicate his interaction with them.

Athasian bards tend to wear no armor, favoring more festive clothing, and their weapons are often small enough to be easily concealed.

Bards are first and foremost entertainers. Each has some skill as a singer, actor, poet, musician, and juggler. Every bard character specializes in one particular mode of performance, which should be noted on his character sheet. This skill may become pertinent in some role-playing situations.

In the cities, bards often become tools of the nobility. They’re commonly hired by one noble house and sent to another as a gift. The bards are sent not only to entertain, but also usually to perform some other subtle task as well (such as robbery, espionage, or even assassination). Nobles consider it rude to turn down the gift of a bard or bard company. However, when presented with a troop of bards from one’s worst enemy, it’s sometimes better to be rude and turn them away, for the consequences of their visit could be downright deadly. To get around this, the noble who hired them sometimes disguises their approach by having another noble send them. A very complicated collage of intrigue and deceit is often woven wherever bards are involved.

Thief Subclass

The thief is a rogue whose strengths lie in stealth and pilfering. On Athas, the thief can be regarded as a talented individual for hire. Some city-states don’t even consider the thief to be a wrongdoer; only the person who hired him is guilty of a crime. The thief may also be a simple robber seeking personal wealth or redemption.

Athasian thieves run the gamut of society. They range from guttersnipes who prey upon the merchants and free citizens of the cities to vagabonds who steal what they can from passing caravans or merchant trains. At their best, thieves can be in the employ of the nobility, plying their trade by contract in the name of a royal household, or they can be men or women of principle and honor who steal only from the corrupt and wealthy. Perhaps because of their corrupt nature, thieves can choose any alignment except lawful good. However, they can be from any social class: slave, free citizen, or noble.

There is no thieves’ cant used on Athas, nor do thieves attract followers. However, at 10th level a thief can attempt to attract a patron. A patron is a noble who will sponsor the thief and protect him under his house and name. The thief is expected to perform certain tasks for his new master in return—including theft, spying, and even assassination.

Trader Subclass

The trader is a rogue who specializes in commerce and mercantile endeavors. Hagglers of great skill and procurers of fertile imagination, traders are welcome throughout Athas by ordinary citizens for the goods they deal in.

Individuals capable of providing the basic necessities of life wield enormous influence in a world where everything is in short supply. Traders as a class specialize in finding the impossible and getting it to market for the maximum profit. Because of their ability to provide goods otherwise unattainable, traders are tolerated everywhere, from the cities of the sorcerer-kings to the slave tribe villages in the distant wastes.

All traders aspire to become masters of major trading houses, but most have to start much lower on the scale. On their rise to power and riches, they have no problem accompanying adventurers. A trader PC acts as a negotiator, interpreter, and diplomat for his group, appraising the treasure they find and bargaining for the supplies they need. Those adventurers who travel with a young trader often form the core of a new merchant house, get adopted into the trader’s family, or earn spots as senior agents after the trader becomes successful.

In daily life, traders usually wear ordinary clothes and carry weapons that can be easily concealed. A trader learns the arts of stealth, double-dealing, and thievery from an early age, for intrigue and espionage are normal parts of everyday business on Athas. Traders may be of any alignment.

Thief Saving throws Table

Optional House Rules on Rogues

Rather than breaking rogues into the strict subclasses of Thief, Bard, and Trader, House Rules allow the player to spend 70 points to mix and match among the all of the benefits listed in the rogue ability chart. Note that most of these abilities are not available to any of TSR’s standard subclasses. A player may opt to save up to 10 points from this process, and convert these points into charps for the purchasing of traits in the next character creation step. See House Charps and Skills for details. As well as listing the benefits available to rogues, the following chart lists the abilities selected by TSR’s standard subclasses:

Rogue Benefits Table: (90 Points)

Descriptions of Rogue Benefits

Even if the player opts to follow a TSR subclass description, the following descriptions of rogue abilities apply:

Note that targets who have an Intelligence score of 3 or less are so dim that attempts to fast-talk succeed automatically, while those who have high Intelligence or Wisdom scores are impervious to the skill. Like the skill bribe officials, fast-talk should never be used in place of good role-playing, only to show the skills a character might possess beyond the player running him. Further, fast-talk can’t be used on other player characters.

Of course, the modifiers shown above are guidelines only; the DM is free to assign any modifier he or she sees fit. Situational modifiers are also determined by the DM, and they are defined as follows:

A routine situation is a normal transaction for a trader, including receiving up to 10% more or paying 10% less for an item than it’s worth, or persuading a target to believe a plausible exaggeration or falsehood.

A moderate situation isn’t beyond a trader’s ability, but it isn’t one he wands to find himself in on a regular basis. Such events include getting as much as 30% more or paying 30% less for an item than it’s worth, persuading a target to believe an implausible falsehood, or convincing a band of raiders of equal or lesser level not to attack.

A very difficult situation is probably beyond the skills of the trader in question, but the payoff is such that he has to try. These include receiving 50% more or paying 50% less for an item than it’s worth, convincing a target of an outright and obvious lie, or talking higher level opponents out of making an attack.

In the campaign, having a patron means several things. First, the DM can assign the rogue jobs from the family. The thief must perform these jobs or be targeted for assassination. Second, the thief can never be personally held responsible for his crimes while working for a patron. Typically, patrons have powerful friends among the defilers and templars of a city-state to protect both themselves and their employees from the law.