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In your opinion what makes a good Rifts thief? Great stat bonuses to be a good Con-man? Piles of skill bonuses to compter, hacking, forgery, etc? Physical skills allowing breking and entering, slight of hand, and exceptional sneaking? Spell, psionic, or cybernetic advantages? Tell me your favorite Thief OCC for humans and which tricks and sidd books make them amazing.

I've had two good thieves

A Psi-Ghost (Psyscape): Walking through walls, with a set of good physic abilities. I'm not sure about the skill set off the top of my head.

A Super-Spy (Mercenaries): Access to superpowers. This one had Bend Light, Warp Sound, & Frequency Absorption.

For a thief type its pretty hard to beat a psi ghost. Maybe the gypsy shape changer would be another good one.

Do you want a thief, or a con-man?

Human of Seeron (Skrapers) or mutant human with super powers; 1 major and 2 minor. Major power Chameleon, minor powers (pick appropriate).
Has to play an Adventurer & Scholar O.C.C., I would pick a Raider from World Book 19 - Australia, the have good skills and bonuses.

A phase mystic or temporal mage

I would suggest the 'Professional Thief' OCC out of Rifts Mercenaries.

The best Thief O.C.C. is easily the Case Man out of the Black Market book. Superpowers or no they are impressive. Page 86 read it and love it.

One of their abilities listed under the Case Man O.C.C. is literally called "Master of the Heist". It gives him a 5% (+1%per level) bonus to ALL skill checks relating to the theft. The Case Man has a huge skill list from basic electronics and mechanics to picking locks/pockets and tracking and covering his own tracks. Can even go undercover to get a feel of the place they want to score from.

They get Black Market abilities and benefits that make living as a thief even easier. (They won't steal from the wrong people and have backup if they screw up.)

Sure they don't have superpowers or psionics or spells......They don't need it. They don't even start of with cybernetics. Augmenting them Cybernetics later is almost overkill.

Incriptus wrote:I've had two good thieves

A Psi-Ghost (Psyscape): Walking through walls, with a set of good physic abilities. I'm not sure about the skill set off the top of my head.

A Super-Spy (Mercenaries): Access to superpowers. This one had Bend Light, Warp Sound, & Frequency Absorption.

Exactly these two.

I am surprised none of the Gypsy classes have come up ore the City Rat and variants thereof. Looks like over a lot of people prefer super powers.

Richardson wrote:I am surprised none of the Gypsy classes have come up ore the City Rat and variants thereof. Looks like over a lot of people prefer super powers.

I think that the Gypsy classes have too much cultural/social baggage where as the Pro Thief is nice and generic.

Richardson wrote:In your opinion what makes a good Rifts thief? Great stat bonuses to be a good Con-man? Piles of skill bonuses to compter, hacking, forgery, etc? Physical skills allowing breking and entering, slight of hand, and exceptional sneaking? Spell, psionic, or cybernetic advantages? Tell me your favorite Thief OCC for humans and which tricks and sidd books make them amazing.

I don't think there is a single good Rifts thief that is multi-purpose. That is why there are specialists that can be thought of as thieves, because thieving comes in a variety of forms. A good Rifts Thief would actually be more of a team affair optimized for a given mission(s).

I do not dispute that you can make a single character do everything, but I do question weather they could do as good a job as a team that included specialists.

It's hard to beat super powers for a purpose-built character.

One of my old characters was an exceptional thief even though that wasn't her primary role. She was a vagabond with super powers as per CB1. Her major powers were APS: Ice, Shrink, and Vibration. Her minors were Wingless Flight, Adhesion, and something else (Advanced Sight? Bend Light? I no longer have the character sheet and it was a long time ago...).

Anyways, she could get just about anyplace (usually undetected) due to her small size, ability to fly, and ability to vibrate through stuff as necessary. If you're a thief, getting to your target is 90% of the battle.

--flatline

ShadowLogan wrote:

Richardson wrote:In your opinion what makes a good Rifts thief? Great stat bonuses to be a good Con-man? Piles of skill bonuses to compter, hacking, forgery, etc? Physical skills allowing breking and entering, slight of hand, and exceptional sneaking? Spell, psionic, or cybernetic advantages? Tell me your favorite Thief OCC for humans and which tricks and sidd books make them amazing.

I don't think there is a single good Rifts thief that is multi-purpose. That is why there are specialists that can be thought of as thieves, because thieving comes in a variety of forms. A good Rifts Thief would actually be more of a team affair optimized for a given mission(s).

I do not dispute that you can make a single character do everything, but I do question weather they could do as good a job as a team that included specialists.

Oceans 11 versus To Catch a Thief....
A good team of specialists is going to pretty much always out perform any single generalist. Simply because you can have people specialize into enough depth that they are going to be nigh unbeatable AND not have to worry about not having another area covered (that's what the next guy is for)

If I was going to make a single specialized thief I would seriously look at the Super Spy in Mercenaries. The skills are great, and the option to have either Psionics, or Super Powers, or Magic, or Something Else Special is just icing on the cake.

The Case Man O.C.C. can use his Black market connections to hire a crew for a job.

Cyber ninja in rifter 29, psi ghost, kittani espionage agent, temporal warrior & temporal wizard, psi slayer, super spy, professional thief, forger, safecracker, cyber knights (seriously, they make exceptional thieves just pick the right skills and accept you're a robber knight)
Black market had some nice ones and the vanguard mage variants were also worth checking out.

Morik wrote:The best Thief O.C.C. is easily the Case Man out of the Black Market book. Superpowers or no they are impressive. Page 86 read it and love it.

One of their abilities listed under the Case Man O.C.C. is literally called "Master of the Heist". It gives him a 5% (+1%per level) bonus to ALL skill checks relating to the theft. The Case Man has a huge skill list from basic electronics and mechanics to picking locks/pockets and tracking and covering his own tracks. Can even go undercover to get a feel of the place they want to score from.

They get Black Market abilities and benefits that make living as a thief even easier. (They won't steal from the wrong people and have backup if they screw up.)

Sure they don't have superpowers or psionics or spells......They don't need it. They don't even start of with cybernetics. Augmenting them Cybernetics later is almost overkill.

Ah totally forgot about this guy. The black market perks do give folks tied directly to them some pretty serious benefits. And having direct ties means fencing the loot is a lot easier for them. Its one thing to steal the stuff but its not worth much if you can't find a buyer.

Temporal Raider, Wizard and Warrior... they use magic to get in, get the goods and get out. What more do you need?

The Vanguard Mystic Thief is a nice powered thief OCC.

Athos wrote:Temporal Raider, Wizard and Warrior... they use magic to get in, get the goods and get out. What more do you need?

"Tell me your favorite Thief OCC for humans" OP's post.

Raider is a R.C.C. (so not a O.C.C. for this forum topic) and if your using d-magic many different groups track (and kill) those who use it to steal from them.

what about Rift Runner from the Rifts Black Market book and Mystic Ninja from the Japan book?

Morik wrote:

Athos wrote:Temporal Raider, Wizard and Warrior... they use magic to get in, get the goods and get out. What more do you need?

"Tell me your favorite Thief OCC for humans" OP's post.

Raider is a R.C.C. (so not a O.C.C. for this forum topic) and if your using d-magic many different groups track (and kill) those who use it to steal from them.

Seriously dude? Are you the OP Gestapo? The OPer of the OP doesn't have an issue with it why should you? Chillax

Zer0 Kay wrote:

Morik wrote:

Athos wrote:Temporal Raider, Wizard and Warrior... they use magic to get in, get the goods and get out. What more do you need?

"Tell me your favorite Thief OCC for humans" OP's post.

Raider is a R.C.C. (so not a O.C.C. for this forum topic) and if your using d-magic many different groups track (and kill) those who use it to steal from them.

Seriously dude? Are you the OP Gestapo? The OPer of the OP doesn't have an issue with it why should you? Chillax

I could not answer if I was in the OP Geheime Staatspolizei because they are in fact secret police. That's the point. The oppression is accomplished/maintained easier if the secrecy stays omnipresent.

We should all have issue with collusion and sedition against the Op's original post confinement.

I just want people to shy away from the spell casters and turn more to the skill monkeys for this thread.