Brazen Bandit (Thief)

Author: Rigby Shepherd – Last updated May 14th, 2025

Disclaimer

This handbook follows the same color coding scheme which is common among other handbooks or build guides for Pathfinder. To help those that have difficulty with colors there is also a “star” rating, with 1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest. If any word is color-coded then it is referencing those ratings, though in the case of blue text with underlines, they are hyperlinks to the specific word’s rules or reference page.

• Red: Bad. These are normally the worst parts of a feature or parts you should not focus on.
• Orange: Ok. Features that function but are not generally outstanding.
• Green: Good. Reasonably applicable and can work in many situations.
• Blue: Fantastic. Parts you will love having or should try your best to maintain.

Introduction

Every party wants a Thief. They disable traps, they unlock chests, they find hidden loot, they can handle whatever skill role a group of adventurers might need. Not only that, but they want to be in a cohesive party. Their main mechanics rely on flanking for sneak attack damage, and inflicting this also inflicts some debuffs to support themselves and their party. No matter what kind of campaign you’re playing in, there’s probably room for a thief.

One of the unique things about FFd20 thief compared to Pathfinder’s unchained rogue is the support for Steal and Sleight of Hand, along with the Larceny and Grand Larceny thief talents. These talents allow the thief to procure random alchemical items with a Steal maneuver, even if there’s nothing else to steal. While this guide is centered on Larceny, it is readily usable for a normal Thief, as well as the archetypes of the class.

Character Attributes

Thief Class Features

Hit Points: d8 hit points leaves you very squishy for someone who wants to get in melee.

Base Attack Bonus: 3/4 BAB can be difficult to work with given that most thieves will want to use two-weapon fighting, but flanking, feinting, and a singular need for Dexterity can compensate. Once you get one sneak attack in, you also have Debilitating Injury to lower enemy AC – especially for you.

Saves: Good Reflex saves, high Dex, and Evasion are real nice. Fort and Will saves are bad, and those tend to be tied to nastier effects than Reflex saves.

Proficiencies: Simple weapons and chakrams, hand crossbows, rapiers, saps, shortbows and shortswords. Thieves don’t get many options, but they get everything they want. They can also access others through talents.

Skills: Only class with 8+Int skill ranks, and the longest class skill list in the system. Thieves are the go-to skill monkeys in FFd20, but even with all the skills you can get, there are never enough skill ranks to cover everything. Other party members will need to cover other skills in the list of 33+. Talk to your party in character creation, so you can cover the roles your party needs.

Sneak Attack: A d6 onto your attacks at every odd level, to bury your foes under a mountain of plastic. Damage builds in Pathfinder/FFd20 go one of two routes; get your static damage as high as you can, or throw as many damage dice around as you can. Sneak Attack is the latter, and will be your primary source of damage. It can be hard to use at times, since it requires flanking or hitting flat-footed, the enemy to not be immune to sneak attacks, and for the enemy to not have total concealment.

Trapfinding: Skill bonus to Disable Device and Perception to find traps. The real meat of this feature is the ability to disable magical traps. Using Dispel to deal with a magical trap only suppresses it temporarily. With this, using Disable Device can turn it off permanently.

Finesse Training: A necessity for thieves to not need Strength, allowing them to focus entirely on Dexterity as long as they stick to finessable weapons. A godsend for any thief that wants to get into melee, but those with a ranged focus will only use this as a backup plan. Still, hard to argue with free Dex to damage. If you have a natural attack, you can choose that at 11th level to add Dex to that attack’s damage.

Mark: Mark an opponent to gain a bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and certain skill checks, as well as the DCs of thief abilities against them. The action economy for this is tough at first, but you can always use an immediate action to apply this against a creature you hit with your sneak attack, and can put it on as a swift by 7th level. The skill check bonuses give this ability applications out of combat.

Evasion: “Ok, I take no damage.” If you don’t love this class feature when you first pick thief, you will very soon.

Thief Talents: Thief has one of the largest talent lists in the system. Not only that, but they also get access to Ninja Tricks for talents not on their list. See the section titled Feats & Talents for more information.

Measure the Mark: Know the odds before you Sleight of Hand something off of a creature. Helpful to not get caught, though it is a bit of a niche situation. Keep in mind this has no interaction with the Deft Swipe talent.

Danger Sense: Scaling bonus to defenses vs. traps and Perception to avoid being surprised. Ideally you won’t need these bonuses, but the Perception bonus can come in handy.

Debilitating Injury: Apply an extra debuff to a creature damaged by your sneak attack for 1 round, additional hits extend the duration. You can only pick one at a time, so choose wisely.

• Bewildered: With your BAB and two-weapon fighting, this massive penalty to enemy AC is sometimes necessary. By the time you get iterative attacks, this will be cemented as your most-used Debilitating Injury.
• Disoriented: For when the enemies get smart and try to hit you instead of your flanking buddy. If you’re not having issues hitting enemy AC, use this to help your survivability.
• Hampered: Once creatures enter threatened squares, they will usually stay there in the melee until someone dies or runs away. This won’t come up much, but if you need to run away or keep an enemy from running away you’ll be glad you remembered this one.

Uncanny Dodge: Since your Dexterity will be the lion’s share of your AC, you would hate to lose that bonus. This will keep your AC nice and safe.

Improved Theft: Steal and Sleight of Hand don’t come up too often, but Larceny builds will like this. If you have Deft Swipe, take note that you only apply this bonus once as it’s from the same source. Also, the competence bonus to Sleight of Hand is completely eclipsed by Sneak Gloves anyway, and you can get those way before level 20.

Thief’s Edge: Gain unlocking bonuses relating to a skill based on how many ranks you have in it. You’ll get to pick four from this feature. Most of the choices are covered on the RPGBot Practical Guide to Skill Unlocks handbook. For FFd20 unique skills, there’s Drive, Navigate, Pilot, and Repair. If your campaign frequently uses one of those methods of transportation, Drive, Navigate, or Pilot would be useful to have. Repair’s not really meant for thieves.

Skilled Liar: Add half of your thief level to Bluff checks made to lie to someone (different from feinting). If you’re the party’s face and less than reputable, this is good to have.

Improved Uncanny Dodge: You can’t be flanked, denying your enemy a +2 to hit. This is much less useful than Uncanny Dodge, which tends to prevent your enemy from getting around a +8 to hit from your lack of Dex to AC. This will make it much harder for you to be sneak attacked, in the event your GM throws you into a mirror match.

Distraction: I don’t think I’ve ever seen this come up, but Skilled Liar should apply to this. Will only save you once, so you’ll want to increase your Stealth modifier anyway.

Mug: Hit a flat-footed enemy that has yet to act in combat with sneak attack and you make a free Steal combat maneuver against them. Free combat maneuvers are the best combat maneuvers, but not every thief will have invested into Steal to make use of this. Good for Larceny builds.

Thief Advanced Talents: What if I told you there’s Thief Talents, but better?

Skirmisher: Get your sneak attack damage when you move over to the next target in combat. Specifies an attack action, so if you have a standard action ability that makes an attack this doesn’t apply. Kind of a mulligan so you don’t lose your extra damage.

Steal Life: At first, this might seem like a bad feature that you can just cheese by tapping a party member and having the healer top them off before a fight, without much other use. However, by using this on a sneak attack, you massively increase the temp HP gained from this, giving a thief a lot of staying power with about 42.5 temp HP gained by the level they gain this ability. Full attacking will always be a better option for damage, but it’s possible to move into flanking and use this on the rounds where you can’t full attack.

Theft Mastery: Taking 10 on skill checks is nice, though Sleight of Hand doesn’t come up often. If you’re building a thief that can perform certain combat maneuvers using Sleight of Hand instead of CMB, this is good to have.

Master of All: Once per minute reroll on a trained class skill is going to be an amazing trick to have in your back pocket. Be careful, you always take the second result.

Hide in Plain Sight: What do you mean I have to retrain Hellcat Stealth?! This ability is worthwhile to have, but you can get this much earlier than 17th level.

Shadow Step: Teleport in shadows 30 feet as a move action. Very flavorful, though you should have easy access to haste by now, this can get you around some obstacles.

Masterful Talent: +4 untyped bonus to every skill. Yes, even the ones with no ranks in them.

Master Strike: Fortitude save against sleep, paralysis, or death when you first sneak attack a target. Most creatures will be able to make the Fort save at this level, but the chance to end combat before it really starts is nice to have around, and it’s added on to what you always want to do anyway. No impact to action economy and the daily limit is 1 per target, so you can keep trying to make this go off whenever you get into a fight.

Archetypes

Agent: Trades four thief talents, Measure the Mark, Trapfinding, and Mark for abilities that focus around disguises and social skills. While it does allow access to the Rumormonger advanced thief talent at level 8, the abilities you do gain won’t interest most thieves outside of Intrigue campaigns, as a hat of disguise will act as a handy replacement for most of them. Link

Assassin: Gets poison use and an early death attack, and replaces some weaker features of thief. Take Trapfinding back using a ninja trick, since Poison Use will save you a talent choice anyway, and see if you can get Disable Device as a class skill through a trait like Vagabond Child. Look into poisons that are available in your campaign setting to get the most out of this archetype. Link

Bounty Hunter: If you’re multiclassing into thief from another class, Bounty Hunter can be a good option to get what you want and more. Has some effective CMB stuff, but loses a few too many talents and its abilities don’t synergize well. Don’t take this beyond 4th or 5th level. Link

Burglar: Replaces mark, debilitating injury, and all of your thief talents for worse abilities. Blind Bet can be a devastating no save Daze that lasts 1d4 rounds, but it’s a standard action attack that takes 2 rounds to execute and your GM won’t let you get away with this cheese forever, which is really the only thing that would make Burglar remotely good. Some of the Burglar Tricks can be nice, but overall they pale in comparison to Thief Talents. Probably best as a two level dip from another class. Link

Combatant: Slayer, is that you? Wait no this loses sneak attack. The combos can be hard to manage since they each take ki points, and Weapon Focus into Weapon Versatility is a necessity. Also has a dependency on Wisdom. You won’t want too many finishers since they replace thief talents. Can be good if you ignore the combos and finishers and just build a Full BAB dual-pistol user that can eventually Sap for free with bludgeoning via Weapon Versatility, but that comes in at level 10. Link

Deadly Courtesan: Buff your party with Inspire Competence when your skills won’t solve a problem. Adds a class feature dependency on Charisma, but you’ll want that for building a party face. Doesn’t give up too much important stuff, and gains a one-and-done morale to attack boost in place of Improved Uncanny Dodge. Link

Festivalist: Lose your first 3 thief talents and normal sneak attack progression for super situational bardic performances, a Handle Animal buff, and a familiar that gets your sneak attack. Might be ok if you build around an improved familiar, but it gives up way too much compared to what it gains. Just flank with one of your party members instead. Link

Filcher: Helps Steal and Larceny builds get online sooner and avoid some feat/talent tax, and Rummage gives you everything you’d want from the Appraise skill unlock. This comes at the cost of evasion, uncanny dodge, and improved uncanny dodge, so you need to invest in your defenses or you will pop like a balloon. Consider a Ring of Evasion or Evasion materia. Bad if you’re not doing a Larceny build. Link

Keyblade Master: Lets you use your χ-blade as a tool that provides a massive boost to disable device. Even DC 40 locks can be overcome with ease at a certain point, and you can get trapfinding back from the ninja trick list. Use this with a race that gets +1/6th of a thief talent for the FCB, or darkness within darkness awaits you. Or just deal with having two less thief talents and needing trapfinding back. Link

Knife Master (Tonkin): Dual wield kukris and deal d8 sneak attacks to everything, which will far outweigh any penalties from small weapon damage dice. Losing Mark will hurt your attack rolls, so consider Weapon Focus and Outflank to compensate. Gains a scaling dodge bonus from wielding light blades, so you can skimp on some defensive feats thanks to your heightened AC. Link

Merchant: You might look at this and scoff at how many core features you lose. Then you see that you gain Leadership at level 1 and tons of ways to boost your passive income. If that wasn’t enough, you can easily get into a Larceny build and start selling off all those extra alchemical items for even more money. You also don’t need firearms, since you can just use Gil Toss instead. Rest and Hang Tough are also incredible defensive abilities to help keep you alive in combat. Bargain and Trade Wind will help keep the money rolling in, just talk with the GM since haggling can take up lots of session time. You’ll lose Finesse Training, but can take it from the Ninja Trick list. Charisma will also be a priority for your class features, skills, and Leadership score. This won’t dish out the same damage a normal thief could, but it’s like a completely new class in and of itself that laughs at the suggested wealth-by-level. Best suited for campaigns centered around a kingdom or city instead of globe-trotting. Link

Prowler (Palico): Mess with medium or larger creatures by being in their space and get bonuses to avoid attacks of opportunity. The loss of Uncanny Dodge will hurt a lot. Slinking Leap is like Lethal Acrobatics with an extra step, but you also have the option to hide in Stealth instead of feinting. It’s effective at what it does, but it’s very gimmicky. Link

Raptor: Replaces weaker thief class features with situational ones based around tracking. It’s good if you’re playing something like a monster hunting campaign where Survival will be important, but if you’ll be indoors more than outdoors go with base thief or another archetype. Can take trapfinding from the ninja trick list. Be careful if you combine this archetype with others, you don’t want to lose the Mark class feature or Stalker stops working. Link

Rogue: Stamina thief with some incredible talent choices, pump up your Constitution for more stamina. Some standouts among the talent list are Throat Cutter and some of its follow up talents, Hidden Step, the Mark for Death tree if you get a decent INT mod, and Clinging Shadows. The talent trees may not measure up to some Advanced Thief Talents, and you do lose out on Mark, but it’s very strong with what it’s got. Link

Saboteur: While Marked Target is an upgrade to Mark, you lose out on thief talents completely and get traps instead. Mercifully, some thief talents dealing with traps are gained as class features. I’ve never seen a PC be able to effectively use traps, this archetype’s more for GMs making NPCs with class levels. Link

Skulking Slayer: Shifty is the best thing this archetype gets; a bonus to Bluff for feinting. It’s entirely possible to just ignore the Greatclub flavor and just build a Dex-based two-weapon feinting build instead, and this might be the best thief archetype to do that. You still get sneak attack, so getting as many attacks in as you can will outweigh the two-handed damage from a greatclub. Link

Sky Pirate: Replaces far too many core features to be worthwhile, adds a dependency on Charisma, and is focused a bit too hard on the ship/airship flavor. This archetype is more for GMs to make unique ship/airship captains, only consider this if your campaign will be heavily based around traveling on a ship or airship. Link

Solid Snake: Body armor with a scaling enhancement, tons of useful gadgets at 1st level, proficiency with all light blades and one-handed firearms, and Martial Flexibility to top it all off? This archetype is a powerhouse, it’s easy to see why Snake can complete his missions mostly solo. Losing Debilitating Injury hurts, but Finesse Training can be picked back up via a Ninja Trick. You also get Improved Unarmed Strike, so selecting that with Finesse Training and getting a Monk’s Robe helps pile on some serious damage. Link

Spellthief: Gives up half of your thief talents for Steal MP, black mage spells, and Spelljab. The price of getting magic sneak attacks is steep, but this is the ideal archetype for a more magic-focused thief hybrid. Has no access to greater vanish for easy sneak attacks, so you may need to look into a reliable source for that. Link

Street Magician: Uses black magic spell-like abilities for magical sneak attacks, up to 5th spell level. Is able to cast more spells per day than a Spellthief. Doesn’t give up nearly as much for magical sneak attacks as Spellthief, but gets core abilities at later levels. Spell-like abilities may not be as popular as normal casting, but this is definitely a viable alternative to Spellthief if that doesn’t appeal with its sacrifices. Link

Streetrat: Gives up trapfinding, debilitating injury, and a couple of thief talents for a familiar and… eliminating penalties for running on rooftops? That had penalties? Misdirection might seem nice on paper, but you can just as easily invest in permanent bonuses to Stealth instead. Link

Thug (Seeq): If you want to play a Dirty Trick focused thief, this is the archetype for you. Can be extra nasty and apply Frightened and Sickened too, and gives some support for unarmed thieves. Giving up Uncanny Dodge and Improved Uncanny Dodge can hurt. Link

Time Bandit: Gives up Mark in exchange for Time Mage’s Motes of Time, and some extra talents to help use them. Well worth the trade. Link

Treasure Hunter: This archetype is very situational. Underperforms against typical enemies a thief would want to face, but is good against enemies thieves usually have trouble with; undead, constructs, and oozes. Treasure Hunter’s Luck can be an upgrade to Mark, at least if you have a high Charisma, and especially if you have the Fortune’s Favored trait. Has a plethora of useful abilities for dungeon delving and can regain trapfinding from the ninja trick list. If you’re playing in campaigns that would give a thief a rough time due to enemy types, consider this as an option. Link

Trickster: Have some core thief class skills function off of INT so you can focus your stats, and trade Danger Sense for a Charm spell-like ability. If you want to focus on your INT, this is a great archetype to do so, especially since Trapfinding can be regained as a Ninja trick. Link

Archetype Stacking

With the most archetypes out of any class in the system, there are plenty of opportunities for thief to stack two or three archetypes together. More testing would be needed to determine viability, but if you want to mix things up, here’s what you can mix.

Doubles:

Assassin/Bounty Hunter
Assassin/Burglar
Assassin/Rogue
Assassin/Time Bandit
Bounty Hunter/Filcher
Bounty Hunter/Prowler
Bounty Hunter/Raptor
Bounty Hunter/Rogue ¹
Bounty Hunter/Street Magician ¹
Bounty Hunter/Time Bandit ¹
Bounty Hunter/Trickster
Burglar/Filcher
Burglar/Prowler
Burglar/Raptor ³
Burglar/Trickster
Combatant/Filcher
Deadly Courtesan/Rogue ¹
Deadly Courtesan/Time Bandit ¹
Festivalist/Raptor ²
Festivalist/Rogue ¹
Festivalist/Street Magician ^{1 2}
Festivalist/Time Bandit ¹
Filcher/Keyblade Master
Filcher/Raptor
Filcher/Rogue
Filcher/Street Magician
Filcher/Time Bandit
Filcher/
Keyblade Master/Knife Master
Keyblade Master/Rogue ¹
Keyblade Master/Time Bandit ¹
Knife Master/Spellthief
Prowler/Rogue
Prowler/Street Magician
Prowler/Time Bandit
Raptor/Rogue ³
Raptor/Time Bandit ³
Rogue/Skulking Slayer ¹
Rogue/Solid Snake
Rogue/Spellthief ^{1 4}
Rogue/Streetrat ¹
Rogue/Thug ¹
Rogue/Trickster
Saboteur/Trickster
Skulking Slayer/Time Bandit ¹
Solid Snake/Spellthief
Solid Snake/Time Bandit
Spellthief/Thug
Spellthief/Time Bandit ¹
Spellthief/Trickster
Street Magician/Trickster
Streetrat/Time Bandit ¹
Thug/Time Bandit ¹
Time Bandit/Trickster

Triples:

Assassin/Bounty Hunter/Rogue ¹
Assassin/Bounty Hunter/Time Bandit ¹
Bounty Hunter/Filcher/Raptor
Bounty Hunter/Filcher/Rogue ¹
Bounty Hunter/Filcher/Street Magician ¹
Bounty Hunter/Filcher/Time Bandit ¹
Bounty Hunter/Prowler/Rogue ¹
Bounty Hunter/Prowler/Street Magician ¹
Bounty Hunter/Prowler/Time Bandit ¹
Bounty Hunter/Raptor/Rogue ^{1 3}
Bounty Hunter/Raptor/Time Bandit ^{1 3}
Bounty Hunter/Rogue/Trickster ¹
Festivalist/Raptor/Rogue ^{1 2 3}
Festivalist/Raptor/Time Bandit ^{1 2 3}
Filcher/Keyblade Master/Rogue ¹
Filcher/Keyblade Master/Time Bandit ¹
Filcher/Raptor/Rogue ³
Filcher/Raptor/Time Bandit ³
Rogue/Spellthief/Trickster ^{1 4}
Solid Snake/Spellthief/Time Bandit
Spellthief/Thug/Time Bandit ¹

¹Whether this combination is legal or not depends on your GM’s stance on if archetypes modifying the same optional features makes them incompatible. This is an open question, a common example being Bladebound and Hexcrafter for the Pathfinder Magus. Viladin, the creator of FFd20, stated that such combinations are “probably” fine, but you should ultimately check with your GM.
²This combination modifies class skills twice, but in a way where both changes are compatible. Strictly speaking, this makes it illegal, but ask your GM about it if you want to try it.
³This combination replaces or modifies Mark, which makes Raptor’s Stalker feature nonfunctional.
⁴Not recommended, as you will not get to use Rogue’s talent list until 10th level.

Abilities

Finesse Training and access to ninja tricks helps Thief be primarily concerned with DEX for combat, as well as INT for skills and some class features. However, the thief can be a bit MAD (multiple ability dependent) when it comes to skills, archetypes, and talents that add a dependency on other stats. Talk to your party about what skills they’re taking to figure out what you need, and look over optional talents to figure out how to assign your ability scores.

Str: This stops being useful at level 3, and carrying capacity issues can be solved with magic items. Be careful if you dump this to 7, until you get Dex to damage it’s possible for your attacks to roll low enough to not deal any lethal damage. If this happens, you instead deal 1 non-lethal damage and your sneak attack doesn’t go off. If this can become an issue for you at low levels, put this at 10 and dump CHA instead.

Dex: Your defense and offense, the most important stat for every Thief no matter what their build. You’ll either be using Weapon Finesse or ranged weapons, yes even Skulking Slayers.

Con: With a d8 hit die and bad Fort saves, every thief will want CON.

Int: Essential for skill ranks and certain class features. 8+ ranks per level might seem like a lot, but it will never be enough.

Wis: Pump up your Will saves. Some talents and skills also use this.

Cha: Some Charisma is nice, but there are ways to get around needing this for the party face skills. Certain talents or archetypes will also need this, but you can dump this pretty safely if you’re not interested in those. If you dump CHA, don’t dump STR unless you’re desperate for points.

Thief Ability Score Distribution

25 Point Buy	20 Point Buy	15 Point Buy	Elite Array
Str: 8	Str: 7	Str: 7	Str: 8
Dex: 18	Dex: 18	Dex: 18	Dex: 15
Con: 14	Con: 14	Con: 13	Con: 14
Int: 14	Int: 13	Int: 13	Int: 13
Wis: 10	Wis: 10	Wis: 10	Wis: 12
Cha: 10	Cha: 9	Cha: 7	Cha: 10

 

Races

Any race with a bonus to Dexterity can make a good thief. Having a bonus to Intelligence or Charisma can help, too, but as long as you get one of those stats boosted you’re golden. Races that have natural attacks can also make good melee thieves, since Weapon Finesse and Finesse Training can apply to those.

To narrow the scope, this handbook will mostly be focusing on races that have racial Favored Class Bonuses for thief. Thief has a few good racial FCBs, with standouts being +1/6th of a thief talent and +⅓ on critical confirmation rolls while sneak attacking. The only skill check bonus you really care about is +½ to Stealth checks. Even if your race does have a good FCB, you may find yourself wanting to take the extra skill ranks or HP anyway.

Aegyl: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Cha, -2 Con. 40 ft. flight speed, low-light vision, wind and lightning resistance, a bonus to Perception, and Eternal Hope. The stat penalties can be rough for most thieves, but aegyl are a very solid race overall, and have a nice racial FCB.

Amalj’aa: +2 Str, +2 Int, -2 Dex. Deathless Spirit is actually quite nice, and amalj’aa have a natural claw attack and 60 ft. of darkvision. Stalker can be switched out for poison use or a natural bite attack. Grab Silent Hunter for an alternate racial trait. The -2 Dex is going to hurt, but amalj’aa can still be usable despite the poor stat spread.

Al Bhed: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha. +⅙ thief talent racial FCB, simple firearm proficiency, +2 to Disable Device or UMD and get an extra skill rank for either of them. Technologist as a bonus feat or a +2 to any of your knowledges. Replace Desert Nomad with Wary if you’re playing a face, and if you don’t want guns you can swap out the proficiency for Magic Resistant. Al Bhed are great for high tech settings, a solid choice all around.

Au ra: Raen have +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con. 60 ft. of darkvision, +1 natural armor, 5 fire, ice, and lightning resist, +2 Diplomacy, and ferocity to top it off. Au ra may lack a racial FCB, but they have a lot to bring to the table for thieves. Put your FCB into extra HP to make up for the Con penalty. Swap out Survivalist for Keen Senses. If Ferocity with a Con penalty isn’t your thing, you can switch it out for proficiency with wakizashis, Dodge as a bonus feat, a natural bite attack, or even prehensile tail.

Bangaa: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Int, OR +2 Con, +2 Cha, -2 Str, OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str. 5 fire and ice resist, +1 natural armor, +2 to Perception, Intimidate, or Diplomacy depending on heritage, +2 to Acrobatics, a natural bite and low-light vision. Replace Stability with Prehensile Tail if you prefer, and Deft Pugilist with proficiency with any weapon you want. You can also replace the Acrobatics bonus with a Knowledge bonus and treat all knowledge skills as class skills. The racial FCB of +1 sneak attack damage during the surprise round or against targets that have yet to act, combined with the racial traits that give bangaa staying power and offensive capabilities, make bangaa a top choice for thieves. If you want to go nuts with sneak attack damage, roll a bangaa.

Burmecian: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha. Improved Initiative, darkvision 60 ft., and natural claw attacks which can be used as a secondary weapon if attacking with a hand free. Burmecian thieves have great stats, even if they want to play a face they can go for the Market Dweller alternate racial. Plagueborn is also a good pick, and stealthy scouts may lean towards Skulk instead of Market Dweller. Improved Initiative is probably why you’re picking Burmecian, but they have plenty of good racial traits to suit thieves. Ignore the racial FCB.

Dwarf: Go with Firstborn for +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Cha, or Tavern Hopper for +2 Con, +2 Cha, -2 Wis if you want to be a face. You get 60 ft. of darkvision, Hardy, and Master Tinker to craft yourself a pair of kukris. Dwarves are slow with a really situational racial FCB. Get a pair of Boots of Striding and Springing as soon as you can to get into position for sneak attack. Probably better suited for campaigns that heavily feature caves.

Elvaan: Go with Wildwood for +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Str. A +⅓ to crit confirms racial FCB, great stats, +2 to Perception, Weapon Focus as a bonus feat, and low-light vision are nice draws for thieves. While there may be better options, they’re very good all around.

Galka: +2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Cha. Ferocity is great, and Hardy and Low-light Vision are nice, but they’re really just worse dwarves. Racial FCB is trash. There’s no reason to be a galka thief.

Garif: +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Int. +⅓ to crit confirms, +2 Perception, low-light vision, +1 to all saves, and a bonus skill rank per level for Knowledge (nature or dungeoneering(alt racial)), Survival, or a Craft skill. Garif doesn’t have many draws to thieves, and that -2 Int really hurts if you want to be a skill monkey, but if you want to use one of the skills they get a bonus rank in it’ll even out.

Genome: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Wis if you want to be a face. Going with Ignorant Upbringing is also desirable for the Weapon Focus feat. Sneaky alongside the +½ to Stealth checks FCB makes Genomes some of the best scouts or snipers. Ideal Vessel and Dextrous Tail can come in handy, too.

Goblin: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Str. The perfect stat spread for thieves, alongside a ton of various skill bonuses to boot, as well as low-light vision. Craft yourself a pair of kukris that you’re proficient with. Thug Life and Greedilox are fantastic if you’re doing a Larceny build.

Gria: +2 Str, +2 Cha, and -2 Wis if you want to fly, OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Wis if you want to swim, OR +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Str if you want to be faster. Low-light vision, bonus Weapon Focus feat, and +2 to acrobatics, diplomacy, and survival. Gria can also fly for a short period of time, unless you switch your heritage. Grab Dual-Minded if you don’t care about using longbows. They have a racial FCB that helps spam the major magic thief talent.

Half-Breed (Ask GM): Combine Bangaa and Burmecian.
-Choose +2 DEX. Size: Medium Defense Trait: Natural Armor Feat and Skill Trait: Improved Initiative Magical Trait: N/A Movement Trait: N/A Offense Trait: Bite Other Traits: Thief + 1 other. Senses Trait: Darkvision Weakness Trait: N/A.
You get +2 Dex without penalties, +1 natural armor, Improved Initiative, a natural bite attack, 60 ft. of darkvision, and +1 HP and skill rank per level. If you are wielding a single weapon instead of doing two-weapon fighting, go with Burmecian’s claws instead of Bangaa’s bite. The FCBs you can choose between are 1. +1 sneak attack damage during surprise round or before your target has acted, 2. +½ on bluff checks to feint and diplomacy checks to gather information, or 3. +½ escape artist checks. If you would rather have +⅙ of a new thief talent, switch out one of the races for amalj’aa, al bhed, or viera.

Hume: +2 Dex, a bonus feat of your choice, and an extra skill rank per level. Pick up Multitalented to get both +⅙ of a new thief talent and +1 skill rank per level. Party faces will also like their social-focused racial traits. The only alternate racial trait that might interest thieves is Heart of the Slums, but Skilled usually wins out. It’s hard to go wrong with humes.

Hypello: +2 Dex, +2 Con. 60 ft. darkvision, Hardy, a +4 to Stealth in marshes and forests, Amphibious. Can have either a 30 ft. swim speed or bump their land speed up to 30. Hypello make great thieves, and are a fantastic choice for the rogue archetype. Poor Communication will hurt if you need to be a party face, and is the main reason they’re not rated higher.

Immortal: +2 to Dex, immunity to Death and undeath, +1 to Bluff and Knowledge (local), get 4 more knowledge skills as class skills, and the ability 1/day to cast a spell from an ally’s spell list. You’ll mostly want to cast Vanish or Greater Vanish on yourself. Magic Ineptitude and Not of this Plane will really hurt, and stop you from being able to use wands and a fair bit of magic items. Definitely the weakest race with +⅙ of a new thief talent FCB.

Kobold: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha. Burrow speed of 20 ft., +1 natural armor, low-light vision, +1 Knowledge (dungeoneering) and Disable Device. Craft yourself a pair of kukris that you’re proficient with. Take Scavenger for a +2 to Appraise and Perception checks to spot hidden objects. Basically Goblins, but medium.

Loporrit: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis. 40 ft. move speed, Sprinter, Low-light Vision, Scent. Loporrits are the fastest small race, and being small is quite the boon for thieves with a +1 to attack and +4 to Stealth. Party faces will want the Clever Bunny alt racial, scouts will want Natural Hunter, but you can’t have both. If you stick to areas of dim light or darkness, their racial FCB can be a great boost, though you may want some goggles that provide darkvision.

Mandragora: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Con OR +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis OR +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Int OR +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con, OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Wis. Mandragoras have almost every stat combination you’d want as a thief. You won’t care much about their base spell-like abilities, and their weaknesses can be scary, but they have plenty to make up for it with natural armor, low-light vision, 5 earth resistance, plant resistances, camouflage for the situational Stealth buff, and Bioluminescence when you’re not sneaking around. Dark root can replace low-light and bioluminescence with 60 ft. of darkvision and a burrow speed of 15 ft. Some alternate racial traits will give you the ability to grow food for your party, or gain a swim speed. If you’re not scared of taking extra fire damage or being staggered by ice, Mandragora are worth looking at in-depth.

Mithra: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Wis. Can also go with Keepers of the Moon for +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Str, or Seekers of the Sun for +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Int. Natural Hunter’s bonuses are great, but don’t be afraid to swap them around if you want different stats. Fleet-Footed’s initiative bonus will stack with Improved Initiative. Sprinter and Low-light Vision are also nice to have around. The best racial is Cat’s Luck, which will help keep you alive for 12 levels until you can get Improved Evasion for your low rolls. Get darkvision from an alternate racial trait or magic item if you plan on using the racial FCB.

Moogle: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Wis OR +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis, or +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Str. Eternal Hope as Nat 1 insurance, flight for a few rounds, multiple skill bonuses (including 2 +2s to Perception with Scavenger and Keen Senses, if you don’t swap out Keen Senses for alternate racial traits/heritages), and low-light vision give moogles a lot of great potential as thieves. Make sure you can dry off quickly if you’re hit by water, that -2 to attack will hurt you enough to keep this race from being rated higher.

Moomba: +2 Con, +2 Cha, -2 Int. 40 ft. move speed, Prehensile Tail, Slapping Tail, Darkvision. A -4 to Diplomacy means they can’t really act as a party face (except to Moogles), and the -2 Int means they’ll get less skill ranks. Not a bad choice if you want to just build a thief to sneak attack.

Namazu: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con. A 30 ft. swim speed, choices between +2 Diplomacy and Bluff, a 40 ft. move speed, and a bonus Skill Focus feat at 1st, 8th, and 16th level. Namazu don’t have too many useful racial traits, but they do have a couple of nice ones.

Nu Mou: +2 Int, +2 Wis, -2 Con. These guys are really for making casters. A couple of thief archetypes could make use of the caster level boost or black mage cantrips, but those archetypes tend to be pretty weak.

Palico: +4 Dex, -2 Str, -2 Wis. Palicos have a massive boost to your most important stat, and traits like Heavy Lifter and Nimble help you get away with dumping Strength further and getting away with it. Sprinter, Bite, low-light vision, and scent more than make up for the weakness racial traits. You can also go with the variant racial heritage and alternate racial traits if you want to focus more on your skill usage or build a party face.

PuPu: +2 Dex, +2 Int. +⅙ of a new thief talent, darkvision, and +2 bonus versus mind-affecting effects. PuPu are a decent all-around choice, but they’re not the best. Fantastic if you go for their racial Leadership feat that uses Intelligence instead of Charisma. Keep in mind they are aberrations, and certain effects that only work on humanoids won’t affect them.

Seeq: +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Int. Hardy and low-light vision are always nice, and Seeq also have a +2 skill bonus to Bluff, Sense Motive, Appraise, and Perception (+4 when spotting traps or other hidden objects). No bonus to Dex and a -2 Int is tough to work around. You’re probably rolling a Seeq to play a Thug and dirty trick your enemies.

Tarutaru: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Str, OR +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con, OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Wis, OR +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Str, OR +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Con. Low-light Vision, Stubborn, Magic Resistant, an at-will detect magic, and a +2 bonus to a skill based on your variant racial heritage. Most of their racial traits deal with magic, so you definitely want to look into replacing them with alternates as your GM allows. Some good choices are Dirty Trickster, Eternal Hope, Inquisitive, and Vivacious. If you can’t replace alternate racial traits, they can still be ok thieves. Their FCB may not be applicable in FFd20.

Tonkin: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Str, OR +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Str, OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str. A +4 to stealth on top of the small size bonus gives a huge boost early on, or you can get a +4 to Knowledge (Dungeoneering) or Diplomacy. Low-light Vision and Limited Telepathy are also great to have for scouting. Swift as Shadows is massive for anyone who wants to do ranged sneak attacks with sniping or move faster in stealth, as these penalty reductions stack with other sources that do the same. Serrated Wound is a nice bit of extra damage if you build for melee. +⅓ to crit confirms is a good cherry on top of Tonkin’s stellar abilities.

Varg: Go with Light Build for +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Cha, OR +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha, OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con. 60 ft. darkvision, scent, +1 natural armor, a natural bite that counts as silver, and +2 to Perception. Civilized will get rid of Emotionless if you want to be a party face, and Loper will give you 40 ft. land speed to help with positioning for sneak attack. The racial FCB of +½ to Stealth checks helps a lot with scouting. Varg have great stats and lots of racial traits that thieves would want, easily a top pick for thieves thanks to Light Build.

Viera: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Con, OR +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Str, OR +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con, OR +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con. Vieran Immunities make you immune to sleep and give a +2 bonus against enfeebling spells and anything that inflicts a status effect. Low-Light Vision and Keen Senses are nice for scouting. You’re proficient with orc hornbows if you ever want a beefy ranged option, but if you don’t want those you can swap that out for Fleet-Footed. In fact, you may want almost all of your alternate racial traits except for Spirit of the Waters, and Silent Hunter since that replaces Vieran Immunities. +⅙ of a new thief talent gives you more good options.

Yagudo: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Con. +1 natural armor, a natural bite attack, proficiency with kukris, and low-light vision. Take the Sturdy Feathers alternate racial trait for DR 5/cold iron. It will be fantastic early on, though it might peter off when 5 less damage for each attack becomes less significant. Yagudo may not offer as many advantages as other races and the -2 Con hurts, but they’re still a solid choice.

Traits

Some of the listed traits may be from campaign settings, so ask your GM if they allow those. Remember that you can only have one of each type of trait (1 combat, 1 social) and that trait bonuses do not stack.

Acrobat (Social): A minor boost, but any bonus to acrobatics helps avoid AoOs.

Adaptable Flatterer (Seeq): +1 to Bluff and to attack rolls when enemies are denied their Dex to AC. This trait was made for feint builds.

Ambush Training (Combat): If you’re building around surprise attacks, this will be nice to have.

Anatomist (Combat): Critical hits don’t matter too much to most thieves, since sneak attack isn’t multiplied by them. This can be good if you’re going to be getting Outflank with some of your party or other critical-based effects, and you have a race that has +⅓ on critical confirms (this stacks with that FCB).

Backstabber (Religion) (Ask GM): +1 trait bonus damage when flanking. Ask your GM first, as Thamir Gixx is not a valid FFd20 deity.

Canter (Social): Better for intrigue campaigns where you need to pass secret messages, especially if the rest of your party isn’t quite as skilled at Bluff.

Clever Wordplay (Social): Focus more on INT and still be a face. You only get one skill, so I recommend Diplomacy getting swapped to INT.

Cosmo Canyon Native (Regional): Buffs a bad save.

Crowd Dodger (Combat): You need to get into flanking, and this will help.

Deft Dodger (Combat): You already have a good Reflex save.

Dim Seer (Regional): A bit situational, but combos with some racial FCBs.

Doublespeak (Social): Better in intrigue campaigns where you need to pass along secret messages.

Feline Instinct (Mithra): +3 bonus to initiative when you act in the surprise round, the biggest initiative bonus from a trait. Skip this if you’re not going to build or strategize around acting in the surprise round and just get another initiative bonus instead.

Forest Senses (Viera): Half of your skill unlocks for Perception, as a racial trait and available from level 1.

Gifted Smuggler (Social): Too situational.

Guide of the Streets (Regional): +1 initiative and Knowledge (local). You may need both of these.

Hidden Hand (Combat): Useful if you plan to do a lot of surprise attacks, like what the Assassin archetype wants to do.

Indomitable Faith (Faith): Buffs a bad save.

Inspired (Faith): You’ll be using skills a lot, so you have plenty of chances to use this. Since initiative rolls are a Dexterity check, you can also use this for rolling initiative twice, but you’ll forget all about that once you have Celerity.

Life of Toil (Social): Buffs a bad save.

Magical Talent (Magic): Nice to have if you plan to pick up the Minor/Major Magic talents. Pick a utility option like Grab, or something else not on red mage’s cantrip list.

Mako Poisoning Survivor (Regional): Buffs a bad save.

On Guard (Regional): More for the ranged weapon thieves, +1 to initiative and draw a weapon as a free action during the surprise round if you’re able to act in it. Two-weapon fighting or thrown weapon builds will want Quick Draw instead.

Ordinary (Social): Thieves in urban campaigns will love this, though it’s bad in the wilderness or dungeons.

Pragmatic Activator (Magic): Did you dump CHA but still want to use wands and scrolls? No problem! Swap UMD to use INT instead, and you’ll be golden.

Reactionary (Combat): That sweet +2 initiative. I always see people take this trait no matter what class they are.

Resilient (Combat): Buffs a bad save.

Scamper (Burmecian): Ignore difficult terrain and gain +5 movespeed in the first round of combat. Positioning is key early on, so this can help a lot.

Student of Philosophy (Social): Diplomacy checks to persuade others and Bluff checks to convince others that a lie is true use INT mod instead of CHA mod. If you’re a face, this is what you’ll be doing with those skills.

Survivor (Regional): +1 to Sense Motive, but it’s already a class skill for you.

Truth’s Agent (Social): +1 to Diplomacy to gather information and all Knowledge (local) checks. Knowledge (local) is already a class skill for you.

Unabashed Gall (Social): The “hold my beer” trait. Works well with another trait that activates in the surprise round, as well as the Ambusher thief talent. Needs a high Bluff modifier and high initiative modifier.

Warrior of Old (Elvaan): Same as Reactionary, but it doesn’t take up your combat slot.

Worldly (Social): Not as good as Inspired, but you can take the two together.

Skills

You gain 8+Int skills per level and it will never be enough. Make sure to coordinate with your party on what skills are needed. If someone else is building a face, you could skimp on the social skills.

Acrobatics (Dex): Tumble through a foe’s threatened area without provoking an attack of opportunity to get into flanking. You will need to beat a foe’s CMD with your Acrobatics check, so you’ll need enough ranks to overcome that.

Appraise (Int): Too situational to use in most cases. If your campaign has background skills, and you want to build around Stealing, this can be a good option as a background skill to pick out a valuable item.

Bluff (Cha): If you’re building a party face or trying to feint, you’ll need this. Feinting can give you some options to get sneak attack without needing your party in position, in case your flanking buddy gets incapacitated. Fantastic if you’re playing a Merchant, since you’ll want to Bargain as much as possible.

Climb (Str): Too niche, get someone to cast Wall Climb instead.

Craft (Int): Craft (Alchemy) can be very nice if you want to craft your own alchemical weapons, like tanglefoot bags, or poisons. It’s not a necessity, and some campaigns aren’t suited for this at all.

Diplomacy (Cha): The most important face skill.

Disable Device (Dex): They’re called “thieves’ tools” for a reason. If you’re not opening locks and disabling traps, who is?

Disguise (Cha): Get a Hat of Disguise instead of investing in this.

Escape Artist (Dex): Also very situational, though a ring of freedom of movement is a bit pricey for a magical solution.

Intimidate (Cha): Helpful for party faces. Just keep in mind coercing people will make them like you less.

Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int): One of the most important knowledge skills. Covers aberrations, caverns, oozes, and spelunking. Lets you still bring something to the table against oozes.

Knowledge (local) (Int): Gain information about humanoids as well as plot information relevant to the campaign.

Linguistics (Int): Tongues and comprehend languages can cover the need for this. Creating forgeries is very niche.

Perception (Wis): The most-used skill in the game, everyone should have ranks in perception. Thieves will need this if they plan on searching for traps, scouting ahead, or even want to find hidden loot.

Perform (Cha): Can be flavorful, but you’re no bard nor busker.

Profession (Wis): Even in campaigns where the downtime actions can be useful, thieves tend to have higher INT or CHA than WIS. Go for one of those skills instead.

Sense Motive (Wis): Useful for any party face. Even if someone else is building the party face, this is still helpful when dealing with social situations. Fantastic if you’re a Merchant, since it is necessary for haggling.

Sleight of Hand (Dex): Very situational to use, but thief gets some talents to use this in place of certain combat maneuvers, and you can hide weapons or other objects on your person if going into sensitive areas. If your campaign uses background skills, this can be a good option for a background skill.

Stealth (Dex): You’ll need this for scouting ahead and getting the drop on enemies.

Swim (Str): Even if you haven’t dumped STR, the situations where this comes up can be covered by the low level Swim spell.

Use Magic Device (Cha): This can open up a lot of options you couldn’t normally get by letting you use wands and scrolls. Getting your own self buffs is nice, but dropping Fog Cloud when you need to beat a hasty retreat is great to cover your escape. If you have Greater Vanish available with another caster putting it on you, you will be able to make ranged sneak attacks with ranged touch spells and essentially never miss.

Feats

Cloak and Dagger Style: Free dirty trick as you make an attack in the surprise round, and foes provoke an attack of opportunity from you when they remove your dirty trick conditions. The prerequisites are very steep for this, and some thieves may not be able to take this until level 11.

• Cloak and Dagger Subterfuge: Make a free dirty trick on AoOs, and make a free steal maneuver on a dirty trick maneuver. If this wasn’t so intensive for prerequisites, it’d be great for Larceny and Dirty Trick builds. Might be better for Moogle in the Room.
  • Cloak and Dagger Tactics: You can’t qualify for this without multiclassing.

Combat Expertise: You won’t use the effect of this. It’s feat tax to get at some of the follow up feats, but thieves can get around this somewhat through talents.

• Improved Dirty Trick: Dirty Trick can be one of the nastier combat maneuvers out there, but it might not seem too impressive at first. It lasts one round plus one round for every 5 you exceed the target’s CMD and takes a move action to remove.
  • Greater Dirty Trick: This is where the fun begins. Dirty Trick can now last more than one round and takes a standard to remove. At the very least, it can lock down an enemy’s action economy.
    • Dirty Trick Master: This is the payoff for a Dirty Trick build. Make a sickened enemy nauseated and unable to remove the condition, or whatever else you can come up with. Notably does not have Combat Expertise as a prerequisite, so if you skip that feat tax you can easily take this at level 15. You may consider multiclassing into a full BAB class just to get this a couple levels earlier.
  • Quick Dirty Trick: Quick maneuver feats are necessary for any build focusing on combat maneuvers. Giving up your highest BAB attack sucks, but you still get your other hits in.
• Improved Feint: Lets you feint and attack in the same round, so you can Sneak Attack without flanking or hiding. Bad if you are two-weapon fighting, as the Two-Weapon Feint feats are a much better choice for you.
  • Disengaging Feint: Just use the Withdraw action or Acrobatics to tumble.
    • Disengaging Flourish: Just use the Withdraw action or Acrobatics to tumble.
    • Disengaging Shot: Just use the- wait, this lets you Feint, attack, then move all in the same turn. You have to invest in taxing feats, but if you want the tactical option it’s there.
  • Greater Feint: Lets you feint an enemy and make them flat-footed not only against your attacks, but until the start of your next turn.
    • Incite Paranoia: Extremely situational. Don’t bother looking at this unless you’re in an intrigue campaign.
• Improved Steal: Who doesn’t love free stuff? Thief has lots of support for this otherwise situational combat maneuver, including talents like Deft Hands and Larceny.
  • Greater Steal: More bonuses to steal, which work nicely if you’re building around it.
  • Quick Steal: Quick maneuver feats are necessary for any build focusing on combat maneuvers. Giving up your highest BAB attack sucks, but you still get your other hits in.
• Surprise Maneuver: Pulling off a combat maneuver build as a thief can be tough since you’re not full BAB. This gives you a nice, scaling bonus. Also applies for talents like Deft Swipe, but not to Feinting.

Cunning: Thief is the premiere skill monkey. You will never have enough skill ranks, but this can help.

Dodge: If you find yourself getting targeted a lot in combat, this can help your defenses a little.

• Mobility: Sometimes those Acrobatics checks don’t work out. If you find that happens often, this can help keep you from sneak attacking the floor.
• Canny Tumble: Outclassed by Lethal Acrobatics since that has no prerequisites.
• Passing Trick: Outclassed by Lethal Acrobatics since that has no prerequisites like size.
• Sidestep: Just take a 5-foot step on your turn.
• Spring Attack: You can just use Acrobatics to tumble through a foe’s threatened area.

Expert Sniper: Reduce the sniping penalty on Stealth by 10. Combine this with Thief’s Edge’s rank 5 unlock or the Stealthy Sniper advanced thief talent, and it reduces the -20 penalty to 0.

• Master Sniper: Take a -2 penalty to attack to make two attacks while sniping. Not quite as good as the advanced thief talent of the same name, but you can take this feat much earlier than 13th-14th level. Retrain this if you take that talent later.

Extra Thief Talent: Thief talents are fantastic, with one of the largest lists to choose from. Many of them offer abilities that you just can’t find through feats, or get around feat taxes like for Combat Expertise.

Fox Style: You will be able to have more ranks in Bluff than points in your BAB, and pumping INT to 19 takes a lot of effort. There are better ways to get feint bonuses.

• Fox Insight: Defense against feinting. See Fox Style.
  • Fox Trickery: Perform dirty tricks as AoOs, and get a +4 to dirty trick maneuvers if your INT is at least 19. Finally offers something useful, but not worth the other two style feats.

Improved Initiative: You really want to go first in combat.

Kirin Style: Requires Improved Unarmed Strike and ranks in Knowledge (Arcana), but if you’re picking up the slack for Knowledge skills you can put this to use.

• Kirin Strike: Double INT mod to damage sounds quite tempting, but it only applies to a single attack since it’s a swift action.
  • Kirin Path: If anybody can benefit from being able to expend an AoO to move without provoking, it’s you. A bit lackluster for the final style feat, but makes setting up flanking pretty easy. Also lets you take 10 on Knowledge checks to identify creatures.

Kitsune Style: Dirty trick at the end of a charge. Thief has some nice support for charging, so this can help you round 1.

• Kitsune Tricks: Apply two conditions with your dirty tricks. Ok when you first get it, but later on in a dirty trick build this can really pay off.
  • Kitsune Vengeance: Make a dirty trick in place of an AoO. More useful if you have Combat Reflexes and Opportunist.

Outflank (Teamwork): Increases the attack bonus for flanking to +4 from +2, and if you or your flanking buddy critically hits, the enemy provokes an Attack of Opportunity. This feat was made for you, and is the main reason a thief would care about critting. Coordinate with your flanking buddy to make sure this can fit into both of your builds.

Pernicious Stab: Get a +1 to poison DC for every two sneak attack dice you give up. It’s not as good as Treacherous Toxin, but it’s not capped by level or DC. If you’re bumping up against the DC limit with Treacherous Toxin at higher levels, consider retraining it to this.

Piranha Strike: Thieves don’t want to deal with attack penalties as much as other classes would, but if you’re not building Two-Weapon Fighting or have applied the Bewildered Debilitating Injury, this is a good option to get some extra damage.

Quick Draw: While you can generally pull your weapons out while moving, this is essential if you want to use wands or thrown weapons.

• Quick Stow: I am paranoid about dropping my weapons/wands/stolen items, so I tend to take this. Not every build that wants Quick Draw will want this, like thrown weapon builds.
• Sly Draw: Replacing Bluff for Sleight of Hand might get you a few more points to your check, but this will only work once in combat (unless you also get Quick Stow).
• Wave Strike: Worse than Sly Draw since you can only ever do this on the first turn of combat.

Sap Adept: +1 damage per sneak attack die, but you can only deal nonlethal damage. The merciful weapon enchantment may be something you want to look at.

• Sap Master: Double your Sneak Attack damage dice with your nonlethal bludgeoning weapons. All those dice get the +1 from Sap Adept. There are situations where nonlethal damage doesn’t work, but in those cases you’ll still do about as much damage as a normal thief. Works best with feinting builds.

Step Up: Take a 5-foot step as an immediate when foes 5-foot step away. 5-foot stepping out of flanking is a pretty common way for enemies to get out of sneak attack positioning, at least if they’re intelligent. Staying in flanking positioning might be tricky in some cases.

• Following Step: Move up to 10 feet when you use Step Up, and you can still take a 5-foot step on your turn. More useful to keep in flanking position.
  • Step Up and Strike: Make an attack of opportunity against an enemy after you use Step Up to follow them. Likely will not get sneak attack damage, unless your flanking buddy is grabbing Step Up at least, but it can be a bit taxing with all these feats. Confer with your party before investing.
• Press to the Wall: Treat solid terrain and objects as allies for flanking if you’re the only person threatening an enemy. Very useful to keep sneak attacks rolling out, and doesn’t even depend on Step Up to activate it. Bad if your DM has the habit of making big, empty rooms to fight in.

Stick-Fighting Style: Make your saps masterwork, or give them a bunch of properties that enhance combat maneuvers if it is masterwork. A nice compliment to Sap Adept and Sap Master, especially if you go into feinting.

• Stick-Fighting Counter: Make an AoO counterattack against a single opponent when you fight defensively. You probably don’t want to take that attack penalty all the time, but it can net you an extra attack.
  • Stick-Fighting Maneuver: Make a free combat maneuver after you full attack with your saps. Free combat maneuvers are the best combat maneuvers.

Throat Slicer: You’ll be able to pick this up easily and use it with every melee weapon you’d want. If you don’t have an ally who is focusing on grappling or binding targets, skip this.

Toxicological Timing: Make a poison with alchemy that normally ticks once a minute tick once a round. Opens up a few options for poisons.

• Improved Toxicological Timing: Reduce a poison’s onset time of up to 1 day down to 1 round. There are very few ways to deal with long onset times in FFd20, and this is one of the best.

Treacherous Toxin: If you’re relying on lower DC poisons, this can help pump them up a bit. Unfortunately gives up some sneak attack damage to do so. You’ll want the Enhanced Delivery talent before you even take this, as well as other DC increasing methods, but this will scale well with leveling up. Bad if you’re going for higher DC poisons.

Twin Fang Style: Reduces an enemy’s armor bonus to AC each time you hit with your mainhand and offhand dagger. Very useful and provides some support to your party, though it doesn’t work on creatures not wearing armor.

• Twin Fang Strike: If you standard action attack, you make your offhand attack too. But your TWF penalty is -4 and you don’t apply sneak attack twice. Not even a mulligan for your first round of positioning, your offhand weapon damage won’t be amazing enough to justify the attack penalty.
  • Twin Fang Lunge: Move twice your speed and use Twin Fang Strike at the end of it. You could get Haste and save yourself two feats.

Twinned Feint: Very situational, you tend to want to focus down one enemy, and you really need to invest heavily into feinting for this to matter. If you have Greater Feint or Improved Two-Weapon Feint, this is an ok option to give those feats more party utility.

Two-Weapon Fighting: TWF has been the go-to build to dish out as much sneak attack damage as possible since time immemorial. Thieves don’t have much use for shields, better to get extra attacks in to pile on the sneak attack damage.

• Double Slice: I know what you’re thinking, but this doesn’t do anything for you. Finesse Training specifies that you can only add half Dex mod to off-hand damage.
  • Two-Weapon Rend: Finesse Training also won’t affect this, which could lead to this doing no damage at all.
• Improved Two-Weapon Fighting: 4 attacks total, starting as early as level 8. This really piles on the damage.
  • Greater Two-Weapon Fighting:With all the attack penalties – -12 in total – on a ¾ BAB class, it can be difficult for thieves to land their third iterative attack. If you put on Mark, Debilitating Injury (Bewildered), and someone in your party gives you a +5 attack bonus, this can be good, but not everyone will have that many buffs to throw around. Don’t feel too bad if you decide to skip this.
• Two-Weapon Defense:Either pick Dodge or have the caster take Shieldra.
• Two-Weapon Feint: Improved Feint but for Two-Weapon Fighting builds.
  • Improved Two-Weapon Feint: This is where feinting comes online for two-weapon fighting builds. Giving up your highest BAB attack sucks, but your opponent is flat-footed until the start of your next turn, meaning your allies can take advantage, and so can you if you can make an AoO.

Weapon Focus: Finesse Training will typically make you want to stick to one weapon early on anyway, and you’re going to be desperate for attack boosts.

Extra Traits: Thieves want traits from a few different categories, so this can be nice to pick up once. Just keep in mind trait bonuses don’t stack.

Accomplished Sneak Attacker: If you’re multiclassing as a thief, losing 1d6 of sneak attack damage is easier to stomach than losing a feat. It’s also possible to dip a level into Ninja or Spear Warden (Dragoon) to get more sneak attack dice.

Acrobatic: help my acrobatics checks still aren’t beating enemy CMD after getting Skill Focus (Acrobatics)

• Roof Runner: If you need this many boosts to Acrobatics, you need to start looking for ways to increase it besides feats.
• Slayer’s Feint: More useful if you want to feint without building a party face, but it’s locked behind two feat prerequisites. I miss Slayer.

Alertness: One of the better hybrid skill focus feats, just because Perception and Sense Motive are so useful.

• Ambush Awareness: You should have enough Perception after increasing it to not be ambushed like this.
• One Eye Open: Gripping your pillow tight! Just take the Perception skill unlock instead of this.
• Uncanny Alertness: Like taking two Skill Focus feats, but you get a +2 untyped bonus to saving throws against sleep and charm.
• Uncanny Ally: Give your party Uncanny Dodge, and a single ally Improved Uncanny Dodge. They have to be adjacent to you so it’ll only work at the start of combat, but this can save lives in a Dexterity-focused party.

Athletic: Use spells for these instead.

Cat’s Fall: Just get Boots of the Cat or a Ring of Feather Falling.

Deceitful: Focus on Bluff instead.

• Fool Magic: I don’t think I’ve ever seen racial and alignment requirements for magic items come up in FFd20.
• Intoxicating Flattery: This will probably be limited only to intrigue campaigns.
• Misdirection Tactics: Needs you to be using Total Defense instead of sneak attacking.
  • Misdirection Redirection: See above.
    • Misdirection Attack: You can finally attack with this, and it only took 5 feats to do it.

Deft Hands: Useful for trap disabling. Builds using Deft Swipe or Weapon Snatcher might think this is pretty good.

• Close Call: Another skill reroll, you can take the Inspired trait or the Certainty thief talent instead.
• Sabotage Specialist: This is a very niche use of Disable Device.
• Walking Sleight: No longer take a -20 penalty for speeding up the action economy of Sleight of Hand checks. If you take Sleight of Hand with Thief’s Edge, you need to retrain this at level 20. Still situational, but the increase is massive.

Graceful Athlete: If you’re climbing and swimming so often that your low Strength is an issue, invest in magical solutions instead.

Grasping Tail: Get Prehensile Tail or improve it. More useful when Two-Weapon Fighting since your hands will be full.

• Mischievous Tail: With Deft Swipe and Weapon Snatcher, this can circumvent most of the feat tax for the steal and disarm combat maneuvers while still providing the +4 bonus. If using the Larceny build in this guide, this will save you a feat. Bad if you don’t care about disarm, steal, or Sleight of Hand.

Lightning Reflexes: You should already have a really good Reflex save…

• Improved Lightning Reflexes: …But if you want to make sure you survive with evasion, these two are nice to have.

Mobile Acrobat: Get the Skill Unlock for Acrobatics or some Boots of Striding and Springing.

Persuasive: Only party faces will have room for this feat.

• Betrayer: With all the prerequisites involved, I’d let a player do this without this feat. The -2 to initiative is nice, but it’s really just the surprise round.
• Call Truce: You may never get to use this effectively, even in intrigue games, since the DC starts so high.
• Cutting Humiliation: Another intrigue only feat.
• Nerve-Racking Negotiator: Mitigates one of the biggest flaws of using Intimidate for coercion. If you’re going to be a party face and expect to use Intimidate a lot, this might be worthwhile.
  • Threatening Negotiator: This, on the other hand, is too taxing to get to. If you’re pumping Intimidate this high, you probably can just re-intimidate your target before the time is up.
• Persuasive Bribery: Gives a bonus to bribes and makes them less risky. A decent choice for intrigue games.
• Quick Favor: The time taken to gather information won’t be much of a threat.
• Rhetorical Flourish: If you didn’t pass the Diplomacy check, you’re probably not passing the Bluff check either.
• Sinister Reputation: This is a bit of effort to go through to roleplay as Batman.

Prodigy: You don’t need to buff two of these kinds of skills.

Signature Skill: Just wait for the Cutting Edge thief talent instead.

Skill Focus: You may center your entire build around a single skill, but it’s also just as easy to take this with a Skill Materia.

• Bloody Mess: Funny, but you don’t want to be taking this much damage.
• Dampen Presence: Situational, its worth depends on how frequently you’re up against enemies with blindsense or blindsight.
• Deft Catcher: If you are building for Sleight of Hand stealing/disarming, do not ever let your GM find out about this feat.
• Esoteric Linguistics: You could get much of the same effect from this as a trait like Pragmatic Activator. Skill Focus (Linguistics) is a trap.
• Hellcat Stealth: An absolute necessity for thieves who want to hide. You’ll end up needing to retrain this at level 17, though.
  • Hellcat Pounce: Can’t say no to a second attack at full BAB. If you’re building for this, you probably will be initiating combat surprise rounds anyway by attacking from stealth.
• Master Swimmer: You could get a wand of Swim for crying out loud.
• Needle in a Haystack: If you need to, you could just take ranks in Survival. Might be ok if you’re in a monster hunting campaign and want to save some skill ranks, but this would put you down two feats.
• Orator: Did I say Skill Focus (Linguistics) is a trap? What I meant to say was that this can save you skill ranks and stat investment in the most commonly used face skills.

Sneaky Vagabond: Another city intrigue feat. There are better ways to invest in Stealth, but this does give you some other bonuses.

Stealthy: I’d prefer Skill Focus (Stealth), but if you really need to pump up your check and invisibility doesn’t work…

• Subtle Devices: Get some wands to buff yourself before combat breaks out, or pop down a distraction to get away before it starts.

Street Smarts: Alertness is better.

• City Sprinter: There are better ways to deal with difficult terrain, even crowds and slippery surfaces.
• Measure Foe: If you’re building around Sense Motive and you’ve got some recurring foes, this can be a nice way to get more information about them. At the very least, you get a +1 insight to attack rolls.
• Sense Relationships: A costly way to get +2 to Bluff or Diplomacy.

Toughness: Thieves might want to get more hit points, and this is the tried and true way to do that.

Fast Learner (Hume): Get a +⅙ of a new thief talent and +1 skill rank every thief level!

Black Cat (Mithra): Save this for crits and you’ll save your life. That -4 penalty on top of a reroll is nothing to sneeze at.

Talents

Thief talents are extra, selectable abilities that the Thief gets every even level.

Acrobatic Assist: Just tell your party to take Dodge.

Acrobatic Charge: Look mom, I’m a dragoon! Can help get in position for sneak attacks or get around other characters if you don’t start out in front.

Ambush Assailant: Essential for hiding in stealth, lets you hit flat-footed for your full attack.

Ambusher: Get your full action economy for surprise rounds. Obviously bad if you never go for surprise rounds. Pick Surprise Attack and Instinctive Awareness if you go for this.

Armor Expertise: Wearing medium armor makes you lose important features like evasion, this is a trap.

Artful Dodger: If you’ve built a face, this is better than Mobility for you. Obviously bad if you dumped CHA.

Assault Leader: As a ¾ BAB class, you will inevitably miss attacks. Gives your flanking buddy an attack when you miss one of your iterative attacks, too, so this will only improve with level. This talent’s effectiveness is directly proportional to how good your flanking buddy’s attack is. Don’t take this if your flanking buddy needs to use their swift/immediate actions a lot. Once per day hurts its usefulness, but there are multiple ways to increase it.

Black Market Connections: Get access to more wealth in the settlement you’re in and have a place to sell stolen goods. How valuable this is depends on the type of campaign you’re in, might be very good in campaigns that go on the road from settlement to settlement.

Blindsense: Might be better to try and get true seeing instead, but useful if creatures are hiding non-magically.

Bomber: You don’t add your INT mod to damage, and since these are splash weapons you can’t sneak attack with these. Chemist bombs are hard to use effectively, and you get way less uses per day than a Chemist. If you want a ranged touch option, save some thrown alchemical items gained from Larceny or see about getting Pistol proficiency.

Bomber’s Discovery: A cheeky way to get access to a third talent list, but relies on subpar bombs. If only you could take Chemist’s poison discoveries.

Camouflage: Nice to have in wilderness campaigns. More urban environments might still allow this to work, but your GM will have words for you, Snake.

Canny Observer: If you’ve got Skill Focus (Perception), Alertness, the Seeker trait, and the Keen Senses racial trait, then sure pick this up. If you’re not going all-in on Perception, it’s a bad option since it takes a thief talent. It’s a situational +4, more situational than Camouflage.

Card Shark: A set of 54 darts costs 27 gil, a much better investment than this talent.

Celerity: As much of a boost as the Improved Initiative feat mathematically, and anyone going high level into thief will want this. Some classes might even multiclass into thief just to get this talent.

Certainty: Daily use reroll of a skill check that you’ve likely placed a high priority on in your build, gains more daily uses as you level up. The best skill check reroll talent Thief has.

Charmer: Certainty but only for Diplomacy, and its daily uses are per creature. If you go around persuading different people a lot as the party face, this is a no-brainer pick.

Chink in the Armor: Thief doesn’t have too much support for sunder, but this doesn’t need to break anything, just be successful. Look into Surprise Maneuver and Maneuver Mastery if you want to build around this. Doesn’t let your allies hit flat-footed like feinting eventually does.

Cloying Shades: Unfortunately doesn’t let wands count for prereqs. It’s dependent on multiclassing and scales based on your thief level, so it doesn’t really work, not even for the mage archetypes since Dimension Door’s only for geomancer, summoner, and time mage.

Coax Information: Great for faces who want to skip out on Intimidate. Saves you skill ranks and from the consequences of the skill, too.

Combat Feat: Helps your build come online sooner by taking a combat feat in place of a feat talent. The only reason this isn’t rated fantastic is you can only take it once, and thief talents are just as valuable as feats.

Combat Ruse: Skips feat tax. Bad if you’re doing two-weapon fighting.

Combat Swipe: Skips feat tax. You can also take Greater Steal at level 6 or higher instead of waiting for the advanced thief talent.

Combat Trickery: Skips feat tax.

Consummate Avoidance: You should have a decent AC and touch AC thanks to a Dex focus, but if you’re putting ranks into Acrobatics anyway, this could save you. Rules as written, you need to roll this before an attack is made against you. Talk with your GM on how to handle the logistics of this, especially if you use a virtual tabletop.

Convincing Lie: I could see this coming up in intrigue campaigns, but outside of those this is bad.

Cunning Trigger: This might be the only thing that makes traps usable, though they still take very careful setup that you and your party might not be able to pull off consistently.

Dampen Presence: Still situational, but does save you the feat tax. You might want Skill Focus (Stealth) anyway though.

Deadly Range: +1 circumstance bonus to damage per sneak attack die on ranged sneak attacks, and increases the range at which you can range sneak attack. A no-brainer for ranged and thrown weapon builds.

Deflect Arrows: A situational pick, but a negated attack is a negated attack. If your campaign setting heavily features guns, this is obviously bad.

Deft Palm: You didn’t do anything, honest! Hilariously, there are absolutely no penalties for hiding a weapon while being observed. Can enable some campaign derailing shenanigans, please use responsibly.

Deft Swipe: Use Sleight of Hand bonus in place of your CMB when making steal combat maneuvers, and keep any bonuses to steal combat maneuvers when you do this. Since thief isn’t full BAB and focuses on Dex, this will put your CMB for steal on par with a warrior’s and even surpass it. Not only that, you can snatch fastened items with no penalty. Skip this if you’re not getting Improved Steal, it still provokes AoOs.

Demand Attention: You won’t be able to use this in most combats, especially if your flanking buddy is in heavy armor and can’t move 30 feet away.

Detective: An intrigue campaign talent, though lowering a DC by 10 is hard to ignore.

Developed Poison Immunity: Unless your GM is in the habit of throwing things like Quicklime at you at low levels, skip this talent. Might be ok if you want to throw inhaled poisons around or want insurance against a poison you plan on using exclusively.

Dexterous Extrication: It’s possible to pump Escape Artist up higher than your Reflex or CMD, but a Ring of Freedom of Movement also stops all these conditions cold.

Dig In: Swift action to gain concealment while prone. Very useful for sniping builds, so they can hide anywhere.

Disease Use: Filth Fever isn’t worth a talent, just go for poison use.

Duelist’s Precision: Roll double your sneak attack damage dice, keep the highest half. Only usable with single weapons, but this helps those builds catch up to two-weapon fighting for damage. Increases your sneak attack damage way more than Powerful Sneak, but has special interactions with that talent line if you want even more sneak attack damage.

Eerie Disappearance: If you drop prone as a free action and use Dig In, as well as get the skill unlock for Intimidate, this can lead to combats becoming very silly as all the enemies suddenly get frightened by you running in and flopping on your face. It might not be quite as effective as actually stabbing people, but it works… until your GM throws enemies at you that can’t be frightened. This combo can be good if you have a dark knight in the party that would like an extra round to put on his buffs.

Eldritch Conduit: Take two wands and buff up the caster level of one. If you’ve got an ally crafting wands, scrolls, or potions for you with a higher than base caster level, you can use a cheaper one increased to your party’s CL to increase the effect of found items.

Esoteric Scholar: Pick three Knowledge skills to gain as class skills, use knowledge untrained, and can take 10 on Knowledge at level 10. If your party doesn’t have anyone else suited for being a walking encyclopedia, this will let you fill the gap.

Expert Cipher: Use Magic Device utilizes Intelligence instead of Charisma. Fantastic if you’re playing in a game that doesn’t use traits. You won’t care about the rest.

Expert Leaper: Hardy Landing, is that you? Only applies to jumping, so it won’t come up too often.

Extreme Prejudice: You want to Mark enemies that you Sneak Attack, and this will push up average damage per die by 1. Nearly every build that wants to deal Sneak Attack damage will want this, and that covers most thief builds.

Face in the Crowd: Nice for evading the guards in an urban intrigue campaign, and applies to quite a few skills. Skip this if you ever go into the wilderness.

False Attacker: A really funny trick for sniping builds to have. Note that convincing enemies of friendly fire incidents has a -5 to -10 penalty, but once your skill ranks are higher you can grab this.

False Friend: A situational boost to Bluff, works best if you plan on infiltrating through disguises a lot.

Fast Getaway: Speeds up the action economy of withdrawing to a move action after you sneak attack or Sleight of Hand. If you find yourself in danger a lot, this can tide you over until you improve your defenses. A good option for Time Bandits who can get an extra move action.

Fast Stealth: Necessary if you plan on using stealth in combat. Even out of combat this can still be nice to have.

Fearsome: -1 attack penalty on most non-boss enemies you fight, but only if they attack you. It’s like taking Dodge, if you get into melee often, though Dodge works beyond 30 ft. of range.

Feint from Shadows: I don’t see sniping thieves build for feint that often, but if you get spotted it could be a backup plan if you don’t want to try finding another vantage point.

Firearm Training: Oh yeah, dual-wield pistols and sneak attack from Stealth! *misfires* …Oh, thieves can’t fix these. You need a gunner or engineer buddy for that, or the reliable enchantment.

Fleet Footed: +10 untyped bonus to movement speed, you absolutely want this if you’re small and your base speed is 20.

Flowing Feint: Feint while moving into melee. Very useful if you want to build around feinting, skip it otherwise. A bit better than other abilities that let you keep your sneak attacks going when you move in, such as Skirmisher, since you also hit flat-footed AC with this.

Focused Target: Mark less targets for a +1 to attack and damage. You need to be able mark up to three targets for that, so put this off for later in your build.

Follow Clues: If you really need to follow tracks often enough in your campaign, just bite the bullet and take Survival ranks.

Getaway Artist: Unless animals, mounts, or vehicles will be a mainstay of your campaign, skip this.

Ghost Assailant: More useful when you’re initiating surprise rounds or if you tend to retreat behind cover. Turning invisible is more useful in general.

Gloom Magic: Pop down a magical smokestick that you can see through even without darkvision. A nice utility option to escape, but only usable two times a day. It’d be better if you could use it more times a day, but even Multitalented won’t let you increase the daily uses.

Got Your Back: +2 AC isn’t the best support option if it only lasts for a turn. Your flanking buddy can take care of themselves.

Ground Fighter: Being prone tends to be a detriment, so getting out of that without eating into your action economy is a major boon. Sniping builds will want this to get out of bad situations, and so will thieves who plan on getting a Ring of Freedom of Movement alongside their entire party, as that tends to cause GMs to break out enemies with trips.

Guileful Polyglot: 4 additional languages, can be circumvented with magic.

Hard to Fool: Always roll twice on Sense Motive and take the better result. No daily limit.

Heads Up: Only relevant to avoid being surprised, you can simply alert your party when you find something anyway.

Hidden Flight: You shouldn’t need to run or charge during stealth very often, but it can help in escape attempts.

Hold Breath: This is a trait.

Honeyed Words: Certainty, but only for Bluff. Seriously, just take Certainty.

Hunker Down: Going from improved cover to total cover is worth the standard action cost, but bad if you’re never in this situation. Keep in mind, this is for cover and not concealment.

Instinctive Awareness: Always get to act in the surprise round, and always get to use Ambusher. Best when your flanking buddy is a holy knight or dark knight with First Into Battle, and if you also take Ambusher and Surprise Attack.

Iron Guts: The real meat of this talent is the +4 bonus to saves versus sickened and nauseated. Still quite situational, however.

Ki Pool: Worse than Fast Movement, but does let you qualify for the Unlock Ki advanced thief talent.

Larceny: While heavily reliant on building around Steal combat maneuvers, Thief has more than enough support to make that viable. In return, you can gain a ton of free alchemical items, either to sell or to use. You don’t need to actually steal a valid item, so animals and equipmentless monsters can still be targeted by this. Consult with your GM before taking this talent, as it requires a way to randomly generate alchemical items from each tier, and can potentially screw with wealth by level recommendations even if you only steal from one enemy each combat.

Last Ditch Effort: Worse than the Close Call feat, even with its prerequisite, since you take a penalty for the check.

Lasting Poison: Overcomes one of the weaknesses of poison use, and is essential to save money if you plan on using poison. Also helps save your action economy so you don’t have to re-poison your weapon after every attack. The saving throw bonus can be overcome by poisoning an enemy again, or through certain magic items or talents.

Ledge Walker: Extremely situational, not worth a talent.

Lethal Acrobatics: Get your sneak attack damage while you move into position for a new enemy. It’s a bit of a mulligan while you move to the next enemy after one dies, but it helps you keep the sneak attack damage rolling. You need to move through an enemy’s square instead of their threatened area, which incurs a -5 penalty, so skip this if you’re not ready to invest much into Acrobatics besides a rank per level. You can retrain this once you get Skirmisher.

Mage Hunter I: Buffs your bad saves.

Mage Hunter II: An extra sneak attack die against targets with an MP pool. Situational, but does exceed your normal maximum.

Magic Adept: Please just take Certainty. I’m begging you at this point.

Major Magic: Daily uses scale with your level, so you’ll start with at least two or three. There are some great choices from the red mage list; Disappear, Lead Blades, Saber, Shield, and Shrink are some standouts. See the Red Mage Handbook for more details on spells. You get enough uses – especially if you’re Gria – where you could justify taking meta-SLA feats, like Quicken Spell-Like Ability.

Maneuver Mastery: Thief suffers from performing combat maneuvers since they’re not Full BAB, so this can help catch them up. You’re probably selecting Dirty Trick for this, since Thief can get around feat tax for that but doesn’t have any other way to boost its potency. Good when paired with Agile Maneuvers, but that can be a bit taxing to put a feat and talent towards catch-up.

Marked Strike: An extra 2d6 precision damage when you melee attack a marked target. Keep in mind, this doesn’t apply to ranged sneak attacks or other abilities that depend on your sneak attack dice. It’s purely extra damage, an easy pick for melee builds. You don’t need to be flanking or hit flat-footed for this, which makes it a nice backup.

Melee Archer: Make dealing ranged sneak attack damage a lot easier, at least early on. Bad if you don’t get a way to avoid provoking attacks of opportunity from ranged attacks by the time you’re regularly facing Large or bigger enemies.

Menacing Demeanor: Funny if you’re going for that Eerie Disappearance combo. Also has a lot of daily uses for what you’ll do with it.

Mien of Despair: A situational way to remove a situational bonus type. Has anyone ever gotten this to work?

Minor Magic: Gain a red mage cantrip you can use at will. Pick Elemental Orb for cheeky ranged touch sneak attack potential, or go for some desirable utility.

Multitalented: Only useful if you have another qualifying talent, but you can spend the daily uses on different ones. Scales with level, so it’s not as taxing as it seems. Some useful choices are Assault Leader and Resiliency.

Nimble Climber: Might I suggest a wand of Wall Climb?

Ninja Trick: Access the ninja trick talent list. Ninja tricks are great, and while there’s some overlap between thief talents and ninja tricks, there’s plenty of valuable tricks that synergize well. Graceful Toss and Defensive Throw are invaluable for thrown weapon builds. If your archetype trades out Trapfinding or Finesse Training, you can take it as a ninja trick instead.

Notorious: Pick this or Menacing Demeanor, depending on whether or not you want the Fearsome or Unsavory Reputation talents too. This can be tricky to use in combat since it takes your swift action, but most thieves don’t need their swift action each round.

Obfuscate Story: It is rude behavior to actually use this talent in a tabletop game. The point of this talent is to avoid getting arrested, but check with your GM on the logistics of how you’ll use this for the sake of etiquette.

Peerless Maneuver: Always roll twice on Acrobatics checks to move through threatened areas and take the better result. Pairs well with Lethal Acrobatics.

Phantom Presence: Always take 10 on Stealth checks, and you can push that modifier very high. You also can’t be tracked in dungeons or urban environments. Retrain this if you take Skill Mastery at a higher level.

Philologist: Can be solved with magic.

Poison Use: Never poison yourself when applying poison to a weapon, attacking with a poisoned weapon, or crafting a poison. It’s only a 5% chance to poison yourself with one of these methods, but poisons are scary to PCs. Using poisons can be iffy in FFd20 since there’s less support for them, but magical items and some other thief talents can help pick up the slack. There are a few helpful guides to Pathfinder 1e poisons available, and I suggest consulting those before deciding if you want to get into using poison.

Positioning Attack: If you can feint or use Lethal Acrobatics to hit flat-footed, or win initiative, you can reposition yourself into a flanking position.

Quick Disable: I’ve never seen traps or locks that take longer than a standard action to disable, or ones that need to be disabled in combat.

Quick Scrounge: I’ve never seen Perception checks take longer than a standard action, but if you want to take 20 to search a place thoroughly this will save 1 minute of time.

Quick Trapsmith: Even setting up traps faster still makes them difficult to use.

Quicker than the Eye: Pull out alchemical items, wands, potions, and scrolls as a free action. You can run over to a downed party member to Phoenix Down them as soon as they drop, full attack throw a bunch of damaging alchemical items, or just pull your wand out as a free action. Larceny builds may really want this with all the alchemical items they’ll have.

Ranged Mark Strike: Get the Marked Strike damage with your ranged weapon. Not as good as Marked Strike since this requires two talents for the effects of one. Ranged thieves might prefer to pick up Deadly Range instead of this, but thieves who want to switch between both melee and ranged with throwing weapons may want these two.

Rapid Boost: Please just take Certainty.

Rapid Perception: Search for a specific item or creature as a swift instead of a move action. If you’re not trying to spot invisible creatures or Steal valuable items, this is obviously bad.

Rapid Swipe: Get around feat tax.

Rapid Trickery: Get around feat tax.

Resiliency: As soon as twice your thief level is equal to your Constitution score, this can be like Diehard without the feat tax. It’s a shame it’s only once per day, but you don’t want to be in this situation more than once per day anyway. Already has the Vest of the Cockroach buff, but you can get that magic item instead of this talent too.

Revealing Secrets: Another intrigue talent, though lowering a DC by 10 is hard to ignore.

Rope Master: Have the spell caster cast Wall Climb or have the warrior tie up people.

Sacrifice Self: You should have a good enough Reflex save to be able to save your flanking buddy. This is bad if your flanking buddy already has a good Reflex save, but good if your flanking buddy is a Berserker with Hunting Pack that you can be adjacent to.

Scavenger: A cheap way to get around Quick Draw/Quick Stow feat tax, though it can’t do everything those feats do. Drop the item to the ground (free action), then use your swift action to pick it up and put it away. Still takes action economy, but thief isn’t too hard-pressed for swift actions.

Set-Up: No one in your party will benefit from flanking as much as you, so giving up your sneak attack damage for this makes this talent worthless.

Shadow Duplicate: 50/50 chance to avoid an attack, the same as total concealment. Daily uses scale with level too, so this can save you against anything that doesn’t have true seeing.

Shadow Striker: Once per combat standard actions? No thanks. What’s worse is that Blinding Strike can’t be used to set up for the other two that rely on concealment. It is worth noting that nothing is immune to Confusing Strike, though the enemies you’d really want to hit with that tend to be able to easily make the save.

Shove Aside: Better than Sacrifice Self, since it can be used for more than Reflex saves. Use this on your healer to make sure they don’t get dominated or petrified, so they’ll be around to patch you up.

Silver Tongued Scoundrel: Eliminates a hefty Diplomacy penalty for when a stealth mission goes bad. Situational, but you’ll wish you had it when you’re in that situation.

Skill Monkey: Skill Focus as a bonus feat. Nice if you want Skill Focus in a feat-heavy build, but you can get Skill Focus in other ways, too.

Small Favor: As big a bonus as a 10,000 gil magic item, if you can make a DC 25 Diplomacy check with ease. More for intrigue campaigns.

Snap Shot: Melee thieves can carry around a bow, pop off a shot against flat-footed AC, then drop it and Quick Draw their normal weapons. Ranged thieves will prefer to have Ambusher so they can full attack.

Sniper’s Eye: You get to apply ranged sneak attack to targets within 30 ft. that benefit from total concealment. Not bad, but since you still have to deal with miss chance, you’re better off getting effects that negate the concealment.

Stalker: Not a bad way to gain a scaling bonus to Intimidate and Stealth, since you can Mark targets at will. I miss Slayer.

Steal the Story: Don’t.

Strong Stroke: Always roll twice on Swim checks. If you need this, buy a wand of Swim.

Superior Senses: A +10 bonus versus a -20 penalty can still fail pretty easily, you should probably be investing in wands of See Invisibility instead.

Surprise Attack: In the surprise round, you consider all foes flat-footed and add half your thief level to your sneak attack damage. You really want to win initiative anyway in the surprise round, or any round. Good if you’re a bangaa, since the sneak attack damage bonus stacks with your racial FCB. Combine this with Ambusher and Instinctive Awareness.

Swift Poison: Go for Lasting Poison instead.

Swift Tracker: Catch up to your tracking targets more easily. Obviously skip this if you don’t invest in Survival.

Throw Off-Balance: It’s like a free reposition attempt that needs no roll and can help maneuver for flanking, but you’re probably the one person in the party who really benefits from hitting flat-footed AC.

Timed Strike: Fights probably won’t last long enough for you to get enough damage out of this to make it worthwhile. More useful if you can set up Mark outside of combat, skip this if you never get that chance.

Trap Spotter: The value of this ultimately depends on your GM’s leniency or strictness in how the party searches for traps, but automatically detecting 10 + Perception bonus DC traps can be really nice if you pump up your Perception skill.

Unsavory Reputation: A bit better than Fearsome, but the conditions are harder to trigger. The penalties stack, so it might be worth it if you’re going for an Intimidate build.

Unseeing Acumen: Blind Fight with extra cushioning for your skill checks.

Wall Scramble: Just get a wand of Wall Climb.

Waylaying Charge: Get in to combat more easily without giving up sneak attack. Fantastic for Skulking Slayers.

Without a Trace: Some utility for Hellcat Stealth builds. Other thieves will need to wait until level 17 for Hide in Plain Sight to put this to use.

Sneak Attack Thief Talents

Masterful Strike: While it might be taxing for your build, there are plenty of good sneak attack talents that you’ll want to be able to use two at once for very potent effects. It’s harder for ranged builds to find good sneak attack feats that work at ranged, so they might skip this.

Agonizing Attack: Decent for harassing mages, and you don’t even need to ready an action. There are better options to shut down spellcasting, however. Keep in mind, continuous damage concentration DC is equal to 10 + half the continuous damage + spell level. Works on ranged.

Befuddling Strike: Stacks with Debilitating Injury, but only applies to you. Might be better for feint builds that may not have a flanking buddy. Works on ranged.

Bleeding Attack: Enemies don’t tend to live long enough for this damage to really tick, and there are better talents to get more sneak attack damage. Works on ranged.

Brutal Beating: No save sickened can be really nasty, though a 1 round duration that doesn’t stack means you will need to reapply it every round. Works on ranged.

Distracting Attack: Even if you’re setting up another thief who can deal just as much sneak attack damage as you, you are giving up that much damage just to use this. Feinting is better for getting your party to hit an enemy flat-footed.

Emboldening Strike: Scaling circumstance bonus to all saves for a round. This will absolutely save you.

Enhanced Delivery: Absolutely necessary for poison builds, this is one of the few ways in FFd20 to increase poison DC. Still gets its full effect even if you use Treacherous Toxin or Pernicious Stab. Obviously ignore this if you’re not building around poison. Works on ranged.

Extinguishing Strike: Only ever useful if you and your party have darkvision, but the enemies you are attacking do not. Still, leaving an enemy group completely in the dark is a real advantage, and can help take out guard patrols on stealth missions.

Focusing Attack: Confused is harder to get rid of, so this may come in handy, but it’s RNG dependent on whether or not you can cleanse yourself. Shaken and sickened should not be picked since it’s easier to get rid of those.

Obscuring Blow: Makes a creature have 20% miss chance, and does have an effect on a successful save. Some builds could potentially use this to hide from a single enemy, but it’s not worth it at once per day. Works on ranged.

Offensive Defense: A huge scaling circumstance bonus to AC for a round. This will absolutely save you.

Powerful Sneak: Thief typically can’t deal with the -2 attack penalty for a chance at increasing their damage floor. At lower levels, Piranha Strike is a better damage increase, but the attack penalty for this doesn’t scale. Factoring in the attack penalty, this is an average damage loss from levels 2 – 11. Also has the chance of rolling two 1s on the same die, which feels really bad. Does more damage with Duelist’s Precision, and you won’t have the second -2 attack penalty from Two-Weapon Fighting to worry about, so that can be ok. Works on ranged.

Shadow’s Chill: Converts 1 point of damage from each sneak attack die from precision to ice damage. This will not be enough to take advantage of weakness, and just screws you over when going against even 5 ice resistance.

Silencing Attack: Bully the mages by silencing them. Even though most creatures have high Fortitude saves, spellcasters tend to have bad Fort saves. If you ever want to stealth in and pick off high value targets, this is part of how you do it. Works on ranged, and might be better for ranged builds to begin with.

Slow Reactions: Tumble in and stab a big guy to let your party advance without fear of attacks of opportunities. The advantage falls off a bit as combat goes on, though. Works on ranged.

Sneaky Maneuver: -2 to hit, no sneak attack damage, takes a swift action… you should really just get the relevant Quick Combat Maneuver feat for what you want to do instead. While you only give up the damage of a single sneak attack, a -2 to hit for normal weapon damage isn’t worth the investment.

Stem the Flow: How many clerics are you going to fight, anyway? Works on ranged.

Underhanded: Dependent on Charisma for uses, but if you’ve built around concealing weapons, this can start a fight with max sneak attack damage. With other talents that buff up sneak attack damage, this can be insanely powerful. Also provides a skill bonus to Sleight of Hand for concealing a weapon. Party faces may want this to help catch up in damage.

Advanced Talents

Adaptive Assailant: At higher levels when you’re facing really huge enemies, this can help get you into a flanking position with little risk involved. Still ok if you invest into Acrobatics for tumbling, since bigger enemies will have bigger CMDs.

Against the Odds: This does save on action economy, but it’s not like thief is hard-pressed for swift actions. A bit underwhelming at 20th.

Another Day: This will not save you if you are fighting enemies with more reach than you. Good for ranged thieves, since enemies will usually move to just be within reach to melee you.

Blindsight: The big part of this is that it negates 50% miss chance, meaning you can sneak attack creatures with total concealment.

Center of Combat: You may be facing larger enemies that don’t need to be adjacent to you, even if you move behind the melee line. Dodge can be more reliable, and Offensive Defense offers a bigger bonus. You don’t want to be surrounded by 8 creatures.

Confounding Blades: Opens up some very interesting strategies if you can land this on multiple enemies at once. With how short combats tend to last, this can shut off an enemy’s AoOs for the entire combat. Ok if you’re just focusing on one enemy, but why bother taking this talent when you have Slow Reactions already? Note that this doesn’t work on ranged sneak attacks like Slow Reactions does.

Cutting Edge: Forget Signature Skill, this is how you get new skill unlocks.

Deadly Cocktail: Not the biggest boost for poison DCs, and it can be costly using two doses at once, but every little bit helps. It does compensate for the DC loss from Lasting Poisons. If you have the money at this level, go for it.

Defensive Roll: Make a Reflex save versus any damage to take half, but evasion doesn’t apply. If you’re getting targeted by full attacks, it’s possible to make the save versus the last hit against you, but it is difficult. Big spell attacks will exceed the damage you can reasonably reduce with a save. No daily limit!

Fast Tumble: You can get the Acrobatics rank 5 unlock or this. The increase can be beefy for sure.

Frugal Trapsmith: Cost reductions are nice, but I’ve seen traps used less often than poison.

Getaway Master: Drive checks don’t have too high DCs, you shouldn’t need this by the time you can get it.

Grand Larceny: If you’re going for Larceny, make sure you can get this as soon as you hit level 12. Thankfully, thieves can qualify for Greater Steal much earlier, which makes picking this up as soon as you need it no trouble at all. Tier 3 and 4 alchemical items are where they start getting really valuable, either for using or selling. Lucking out on even one Turbo Ether will have your party’s casters kneeling at your feet.

Hard Minded: A second chance to save against mind-affecting effects. Can save you from some really nasty effects, even if you’re stuck with it for a round.

Hunter’s Surprise: Once per day, get two rounds of sneak attack damage against an enemy. Helpful if your flanking buddy goes down, or when you really need to dish out damage to a high value target. Even though it’s once per day, this overcomes a thief’s biggest weakness. Feint builds can skip this.

Knock-Out Blow: Unconscious leads to coup de grace, so losing sneak attack damage isn’t so bad. Also staggers an enemy if they pass the save, but once per day usage kinda limits this. It’s good with Multitalented, Greater. Works on ranged sneak attacks.

Improved Evasion: Most builds want to take this at 12. Even with high Dex and a good Reflex, it is still possible to fail these saves, and any ability that reduces the damage you take is essential.

Light Walker: While ignoring difficult terrain isn’t a bad effect, there are better ways to get it than having to take a super situational talent.

Master of Disguise: You are not turtley enough for the turtle club. Just get a hat of disguise.

Master of the Mark: Basically a second daily use of Master Strike, but is a standard action instead of going off of any attack. It’s alright, but a weird duplicate of your capstone. Even archetypes that replace Master Strike get something similar, or also replace the advanced talent at level 20.

Master Sniper: Absolutely crucial for sniping builds, especially if they want to Rapid Shot. Make sure you’ve got your sniping penalty reductions set up before you use this, as well as the Shadow armor enhancements.

Merciless Butchery: Standard action coup de grace can be neat, but this is only worthwhile if you have someone in the party who can inflict stunned or intense fear effects. If you do have such an ally who can toss around those statuses with ease, this can be a fantastic way to synergize with them.

Multitalented, Greater: Use Multitalented uses on Advanced Thief Talents. It is pretty taxing to get both of these as well as prerequisite talents, but if you really want to use your daily use talents more, the option is there. Some useful choices are Another Day, Hunter’s Surprise, Knock-Out Blow, and Redirect Attack.

Opportunist: Why yes, I would like to make an attack of opportunity when my flanking buddy hits. If you’re also taking Outflank, you may want to get Combat Reflexes earlier on in your build.

Quick Poison: Lasting Poison is better for keeping poison up mid-combat. Can work if you have Quicker Than The Eye, but putting Injecting on your weapons might be easier to get.

Quick Shot: Ranged thieves will prefer this over Snap Shot. It eats up your first round’s swift action, but since you’ll always hit flat-footed like that, you get to apply Mark as an immediate action from your sneak attack.

Reckless Charge: Gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage in exchange for losing all of your Dexterity to AC. Do not fall for this trap.

Redirect Attack: Potentially swap an attack made against you to an enemy (including the one who made it), or the party’s tank if they’re beside you. Fantastic if you’ve got a Berserker with Hunting Pack in the party.

Rumormonger: Increase how many rumors you can start spreading each week by your Charisma modifier. The rules text is long, but it is basically the base Rumor rules to use for intrigue campaigns. Intrigue campaign faces may really like this to run circles around the propaganda of enemy factions, but everyone else should skip this unless you really want to break out the Rumor rules.

Skill Mastery: Take 10 on a number of skills no matter your circumstances. If you don’t spread out a few ranks to skills and fully invest your ranks all into maximum, you’ll be able to select all but 5 of your trained skills. Selecting this a second time will let you take 10 on everything you have trained if you have at least a +2 Intelligence modifier, but you only really need to take it once.

Steal Heart: Read this closely. Enemies don’t make a save against this, you make a skill check against a DC. Party faces who have pumped up their Diplomacy will probably want to take this at 12, Charm Monster is a massive payoff for a social-focused character. Even once per combat this is super powerful.

Stealthy Sniper: Reduce the penalties for sniping and lets you have an easier time staying hidden. The wording lets this stack with most other sniping penalty reductions.

Superior Combat Ruse: Get around feat tax.

Superior Combat Swipe: Combat Swipe already skips the feat tax, letting you take Greater Steal at any time, way before you can qualify for this talent. Still, lets you take a feat you’d be focusing your build around.

Superior Combat Trickery: Gets around feat tax.

Tactical Master: More scaling daily uses of Assault Leader than Multitalented will get you. Due to wording, this works with Multitalented!

Thoughtful Reexamination: Why haven’t you taken Certainty yet?!

Unlock Ki: If you prefer to switch between your skill unlocks when the situation calls for them, this can be a better option than Cutting Edge. It’s easier to qualify for this by multiclassing, as it saves you an earlier talent choice. Choosing the Ki Pool thief talent will make this give way more ki points in the long run, especially if you don’t pump up your Wisdom.

Unwitting Ally: It’s better to just flank with your flanking buddy, or just feint.

Weapon Snatcher: While thieves don’t have much support for disarming, meaning you will need to pay your feat tax, this can let you hold onto a weapon instead of knocking it on the ground. This makes it much harder for an enemy to get it back, and can turn them into a non-threat very quickly. Making this based on Sleight of Hand also gives as much of a bonus – even more of a bonus – than a full BAB class doing the same.

Sneak Attack Advanced Thief Talents

Crippling Strike: By this level, despite being able to put out a lot of sneak attacks in a round, you shouldn’t expect to kill an enemy by Strength damage before you kill them through HP damage. This will steadily decrease an enemy’s melee attack and damage, as well as CMB and CMD. Builds that are centered around combat maneuvers will find this good for that reason, and if your party wants to use combat maneuvers they’ll be thankful for your support. Works on ranged.

Deadly Sneak: A bit better than Powerful Sneak, until you roll a 2 and then reroll that into a 1. Has more bonus damage with Duelist’s Precision, giving you +1 damage per sneak attack die dealt, so that’s ok. Works on ranged.

Devastating Sneak: Consistently get above average sneak attack damage, though it’s weighted towards 4 on each die. Finally gets somewhere, but you have to take three talents to get this effect, and two are advanced talents. Duelist’s Precision’s effect is a much better buff than this, and strangely this is skippable if you do get Duelist’s Precision since it adds next to no damage due to how it interacts with that talent (or rather doesn’t). Works on ranged.

Dispelling Attack: At higher levels, enemies may start combat with magic items or buffs. This handily solves that problem. Works on ranged.

Double Debilitation: Inflict attack and AC penalties at once, giving you a massive advantage in combat. Works on ranged.

Entanglement of Blades: You have Debilitating Injury for this.

Eviscerating Attack: Constitution and Dexterity bleed can be devastating, maybe even worth spending a talent on Bleeding Attack. Works on ranged.

Hamstring Strike: Fortitude save versus being knocked prone, but you forgo sneak attack damage. Does mess with the enemy’s action economy, but it’ll be hard to get an enemy to fail this save. You’re better off just dealing sneak attack damage instead of trying to land the trip. Works on ranged.

Leg Strike: You have Debilitating Injury for this. Works on ranged, but so does Debilitating Injury.

Magebane Attack: Depending on how much you invest in increasing your damage for sneak attacks, the DC for Agonizing Attack can surpass this. Might be ok if you haven’t invested a lot in damage and need a way to shut down mages. Works on ranged.

Example Leveling Guide

Thief has several builds available depending on playstyle and archetype. As Larceny is unique to FFd20, and many guides exist for building a Pathfinder rogue, this build guide will primarily focus on using Larceny and Steal maneuvers. Advice for other builds will be given where applicable. The build can be talent intensive, so for that reason it assumes a race with +⅙ of a new thief talent FCB is used.

• 1st: Improved Initiative – You really want to win initiative so you have more chances to hit flatfooted.
• Hume racial: Dodge – Can help boost your survivability, especially early on. Could potentially take Combat Expertise early on, or Weapon Focus if you want more attack bonus. If your campaign uses retraining, consider Agile Maneuvers until you can take Deft Swipe.
  • Talent 2: Combat Swipe – Skips feat tax, gets the ball rolling.
• 3rd: Quick Draw – You’ll want this for later in the build, and gives you the option of picking up a ranged option to swap around.
  • Finesse Training 3 (rapier, dagger, shortsword) – You want a free hand for this build to properly steal with Larceny. That means your first choice of weapon is a rapier, it’s the beefiest weapon you start with proficiency in (not counting Two-Weapon Fighting) and you can still get Dex to damage even if your other hand is occupied. Other two weapon choices don’t really matter, if you have a natural attack pick that at 11th level.
• • Talent 4: Larceny – Steal those alchemical items! This is where this build comes online.
• 5th: Quick Stow – Free up your hand so that you can steal items more than once per combat. While it isn’t super strong, for a Larceny build this will come in handy.
  • Thief’s Edge 5: Sleight of Hand – The rank 5 unlock offers a bonus to Steal and Disarm maneuvers. Unfortunately, it ends up invalidated one level later when you take Deft Swipe, unless you want to make a Sleight of Hand check vs. CMD to gain a +2 bonus to your Sleight of Hand check vs. CMD. Feel free to pick something else that you’d want, like Knowledge, Stealth, Sense Motive, or Perception.
• • Talent 6: Deft Swipe – This catches you up – and possibly surpasses – a full BAB class trying the same thing. This is essential if you want to beat enemy CMD. If you took Agile Maneuvers, retrain it at this level.
• • FCB Talent 6: Quicker Than the Eye – Put those alchemical items to good use without impacting your action economy too hard. If you don’t want to be an item caddy, consider taking a core choice like Celerity, or something like Duelist’s Precision or Extreme Prejudice if you want to improve your damage.
• 7th: Surprise Maneuver – Scaling bonus to combat maneuvers based on your sneak attack dice. It’s the best bonus to any combat maneuver you’d want to do, at this level it’s a +4 bonus if your positioning is right. You always want to be able to sneak attack, so this should trigger often.
  • Talent 8: Rapid Swipe – Full attack and steal, essential if you’ve got a reliable source of haste by now.
• 9th: Skill Focus (Sleight of Hand) – Get a +3 bonus to Steal now, double it next level. There’s a bit of leeway in the feat choice for this level, so you can start picking feats that you’d want from later in the build or get a luxury pick you missed from earlier on. If you are not a race with +⅙ of a new thief talent, you’ll want to take Greater Steal at this level instead to get Grand Larceny at 12th.
  • Thief’s Edge 10: Perception – It is the most rolled skill in the game. The unlocks at this level halve the penalty for checks made while asleep, give you a +5 bonus to spot invisible creatures and objects, and reduces the distance modifier to +1 to DC every 30 feet. In 5 levels, your party won’t even need to set up a night watch.
• • Talent 10: Celerity – You’ve put off this talent for far too long, you want this by 10th level anyway. If you already have this, you can take a luxury pick!
• 11th: Combat Expertise – Can’t evade that feat tax forever, but this will give our build more utility later down the line.
  • Talent 12: Superior Combat Swipe – If you have +⅙ of a new thief talent for a racial FCB, you have the room to take necessary feats using your talents. If not, pick up Greater Steal a bit earlier in this build, so you qualify for Grand Larceny.
• • FCB Talent 12: Grand Larceny – This is the goal of this build. Tier 3 and 4 are where you start hitting the really valuable alchemical items. Even if you’re just selling them, most Tier 2 alchemical items will cost either 1,400 or 1,500 gil, while on the lower end of Tier 3 there are items that cost 2,250 or 2,275 gil. More than half of the tier 3 alchemical items cost upwards of 3,000 gil, which nearly doubles the value you steal. You need Grand Larceny as soon as you can get it.
• 13th: Improved Disarm – Don’t provoke attacks of opportunity when you disarm. These already take the place of melee attacks, so there’s no “Quick Disarm” feat. You won’t use this until next level, when you get…
  • Talent 14: Weapon Snatcher – Grab enemy weapons right out of their hands with your massive Sleight of Hand and combat maneuver bonus. You get to hold onto this weapon too, which makes combat easier and lets this build provide some more utility. Sadly doesn’t trigger Larceny, as this is a disarm not a steal. If you’re not running into any enemies that have wielded weapons at this point, you can put this off or skip it altogether.
• 15th: Greater Disarm – Improve your disarm maneuvers.
  • Thief’s Edge 15: Sense Motive – Give you a bonus to initiative rolls as well as a +2 insight to AC as an immediate action. This is useful starting at 5 ranks, so take this earlier if you want to. 5 levels from now, you’ll also be able to negate a single attack.
• • Talent 16: Improved Evasion – You’ve put off your defensive options for far too long.
• 17th: Disarming Strike – This is the main reason why you care about crits for this build. If you don’t care about crits, you could instead start taking Extra Thief Talents to get some defensive options like Hard Minded or Defensive Roll.
  • Talent 18: Opportunist – Free attacks are the best attacks, you’ll want this sooner or later.
• • FCB Talent 18: Crippling Strike – Lowers enemy CMD to make your combat maneuvers easier. If you’re not having trouble hitting enemy CMD, you can take Double Debilitation instead.
• 19th: Extra Thief Talent (Redirect Attack) – Rounding out your defensive options.
  • Thief’s Edge 20: Appraise – This build only cares about the rank 20 unlock for Appraise, since that will provide a bonus to steal and disarm combat maneuvers as a swift action, as well as point out the most valuable target.
• • Talent 20: Defensive Roll – Rounding out your defensive options. You can take this one earlier depending on your preferences.

Weapons (Main Class)

Thief doesn’t have access to the widest selection of weapons, and some weapons they may want they aren’t proficient with. Multiclassing for weapon proficiency isn’t unheard of for thieves. In most cases, thieves will want to stick to light weapons to be used with Finesse Training, and dual-wielded for Two-Weapon Fighting. Some thief builds can get away with fighting with a single weapon and keeping their off-hand free, but for the most damage output you want to go Two-Weapon Fighting. The bulk of a thief’s damage will come from sneak attack, which isn’t multiplied on a critical hit. As a consequence, thieves don’t care too much about their weapon stats, apart from “can I use my Dex with this?”

Close Weapons

Brass Knuckles: 1d3, monk. Can carry other items in your hands, but this is basically just a way to avoid taking Improved Unarmed Strike. Link

Cestus: 1d4, 19-20 crit, monk. Brass Knuckles, but better. Put these away before disabling traps. Link

Kunai: 1d4, 10 ft. range increment. Can be used as a crowbar or piton without being damaged. Daggers without the crit threat range, though most thieves don’t care much about critting as other martials. Their usefulness as tool substitutes can come in handy, but you probably won’t be the one who needs to use a crowbar or piton. Link

Punching Dagger: 1d4, 3x crit. That 3x multiplier might seem tempting, but your Dex mod will be most of that damage, and damage from your Dex mod is halved for your off-hand attacks. Link

Sap: 1d6, nonlethal. The obvious choice if you’re going for Sap Adept and Sap Master, since light maces would need the merciful weapon enchantment. Link

Tri-Bladed Katar: 1d4, 4x crit. Martial proficiency. A step up from the Punching Dagger, but you’re not proficient by default. One level in most full BAB classes can get you proficiency, but certain races can also craft them and be proficient in them. Link

Firearms:

Thief can take simple firearm proficiency with a talent, but need the reliable weapon enhancement or a party member who can fix misfires. Some archetypes will start with firearm proficiency.

Handguns: Pistols can be a good option for two-weapon fighting. You’ll need to get in close to hit touch and sneak attack. Machina Pistols might also be good for two-weapon fighting, and though you’ll take a -4 attack penalty, hitting touch AC can overcome that for most enemies. Link

Longarms: If you have Deadly Range and are sniping, rifles may be your preferred option. You’ll either need to invest in Strength or get a Bipod, so don’t expect to be very mobile in combat. Link

Shotguns: You need Strength for all of these and can’t get around it with a Bipod, since you want to get in close anyway. Use Pistols instead. Link

Light Blades:

Chakram: 1d8, 30 ft. range increment. Has a -1 attack penalty if used as a melee weapon, but thrown weapon builds will like these. Unfortunately, you can’t use Blinkback Belt with these, and will probably want to build towards Ricochet Toss – something you can’t get until 9th level, 8th with a combat feat talent. Link

Dagger: 1d4, 19-20 threat range, 10 ft. range increment. Ol’ reliable, the most versatile weapon in a thief’s kit. You also get a +2 Sleight of Hand bonus to conceal these, so if you want to conceal weapons you’ll go with a pair of these. Graceful Toss will give you Dex to damage when you throw these, and you can use these with Twin Fang Style. Link

Dueling Dagger: 1d4, 19-20 threat range, 10 ft. range increment. You need martial proficiency to get that +1 AC bonus when fighting defensively or using Combat Expertise. It’s otherwise just a more expensive dagger, but someone can probably use it, like Genomes. Link

Elven/Mandragoran Thornblade: 1d6, 18-20 threat range. Requires exotic proficiency, and mandragora can’t get proficiency from their race unless they get martial proficiency. It’s rapier with a +2 to crit confirms, stacking with Critical Focus and +⅓ to critical confirms FCB. It’s easier to just roll with a rapier since you start with proficiency in that. Link and Link

Kukri: 1d4, 18-20 crit threat range. Requires martial proficiency. These are fantastic for Knife Masters and races that can craft them for proficiency. If you care more about the crit multiplier than threat range, go for tri-bladed katars instead. Link

Rapier: 1d6, 18-20 threat range. The beefiest weapon you start with proficiency in, assuming you aren’t two-weapon fighting. If you want to be cheeky, pick this for Finesse Training at level 11 and use one in your main hand for a two-weapon fighting build. Link

Sanpkhang: 1d4, 19-20, monk, increases the DC of injury poisons by 1, or by 2 if you’re sneak attacking or critting. Requires exotic proficiency. Obviously ignore this if you’re not going for poisons, but increasing the DC of your poisons is absolutely essential if you plan on using them. Link

Shortsword: 1d6, 19-20 threat range. Slightly more damage than a dagger, so it’s nice to start with for two-weapon fighting. Daggers are more versatile, but if you don’t need throwing weapons these are probably what you’ll go for. Link

Sickle: 1d6, trip. I don’t see many thieves go for trip builds, but if you do, keep these in mind. Link

Spiral Rapier: 1d6, 18-20 threat range, blocking, disarm. Requires exotic proficiency. Might have a place in that Larceny/disarm build if you can get proficiency by being a bangaa, but most other thieves will want a normal rapier instead. Link

Spring Blade: 1d4, 10 ft. range increment, +4 to Sleight of Hand to conceal this weapon. Creatures need to pass a DC 20 Perception check to realize the wooden handle has a blade inside. Fantastic if you want to hide weapons on your body, just keep in mind daggers are cheaper if you want to throw them. Link

Starknife: 1d4, 3x crit multiplier, 20 ft. range increment. Requires martial proficiency. Might be worth it if you’re focusing more on thrown weapons but still want a melee backup. Link

Switchblade Knife: Same as dagger, but hidden in a wooden handle that can be spotted with a DC 15 Perception check. Not too much more expensive than daggers, so these are a viable alternative. Link

Sword Cane: 1d6, hidden in a wooden cane that requires a DC 20 Perception check to spot. Requires martial proficiency. You’ll want Quick Draw to pull it out without eating your swift. Easier to use a rapier. Link

Wakizashi: 1d6, 18-20 threat range. Requires exotic proficiency. Basically a rapier for your off-hand. Dipping a level into Samurai or Ninja will get you proficiency, Ninja might be the better option since that gives you 1d6 sneak attack but Samurai will give you +1 BAB. Au ra can start with proficiency with these. Link

Waveblade: 1d6, 18-20 threat range, monk, +2 to CMD versus disarm. Requires exotic proficiency. Basically a rapier for your off-hand. Dipping a level into Monk will get you proficiency, and potentially let you delay getting TWF feats thanks to Flurry of Blows. Notorious for the description being really confusing as to what the weapon actually looks like. Link

Thief Sword: 1d6/1d6, 19-20 threat range. This double weapon is essentially a double Shortsword, and requires exotic proficiency. It’s a good choice for Genomes since they can get proficiency from their race. Link

Other Weapons:

Dart: 1d4, 20 ft. range increment. Not as good as daggers since they get destroyed after you throw them and can’t be used as melee weapons. Then again, they are pretty cheap, you can buy 50 of them for 25 gil, and enchant them as ammunition. Link

Dueling Sword: 1d8, 19-20 threat range. Requires exotic proficiency. Not the best rapier upgrade. Link

Estoc: 2d4, 18-20 threat range. Requires exotic proficiency. A better rapier upgrade than Dueling Sword, though proficiency is still an issue. Link

Hand Crossbow: 1d4, 19-20 threat range, 30 ft. range increment. Dual-wielding these is cool, but you need a way to reload them with both hands occupied. Maybe better for races with Prehensile Tail. Link

Heavy Crossbow: 1d10, 19-20 threat range, 120 ft. range increment. Weighs 8 lbs and reloads as a full round action. You’ll need something that stacks with Rapid Reload to use these past round 1. Even still, some melee thieves will want to pop off a shot and then drop their ranged weapon to switch to melee, so these are a viable choice for that strategy. Link

Light Crossbow: 1d8, 19-20 threat range, 80 ft. range increment. A nice starter weapon for snipers, and thieves who want to pop off a shot round 1 and then switch to their melee weapons. Absolutely no penalty for low Strength with these, so this may stick around even past low levels. Link

Light Mace: 1d6. Like a Sap, but lethal. Can apply the merciful enhancement if you want to use these with Sap Adept and Sap Master. Link

Scorpion Whip: 1d4, disarm, performance, reach, trip. Requires exotic proficiency. Flanking sometimes becomes harder with reach weapons, better to stick to close ones. You can TWF with these, however. Link

Shortbow: 1d6, 3x crit, 60 ft. range increment. The go-to weapon for ranged thieves. Strength penalties apply a penalty to damage, so don’t dump Strength if you go for this. If you have dumped Strength, consider a crossbow instead. Link

Shortbow, Composite: 1d6, 3x crit, 70 ft. range increment. While you don’t want to dump Strength for shortbow builds, you don’t gain much by pumping it, either. There are better ways to increase your damage than by ability scores. Link

Whip: 1d3, disarm, nonlethal, 15 ft. reach, trip. Requires exotic proficiency. Can’t damage creatures with a +1 armor bonus or a +3 natural armor bonus. Provokes an attack of opportunity like using a ranged weapon. Can’t be used with Two-Weapon Fighting. You don’t threaten the area you can attack with it, but can target any square within 15 ft. Worse than Scorpion Whips. Link

Bounty Hunter Weapons

Aklys: 1d6, 20 ft. range increment, performance, trip. Can trip at range, and be retrieved with a move action when thrown. Can be enhanced with merciful to be used with Sap Adept and Sap Master. These are probably why you’re taking Bounty Hunter. Link

Bolas: 1d4, 10 ft. range increment, nonlethal, trip. Doesn’t quite measure up to the aklys, but these are expendable and don’t risk having you being tripped in return. Link

Dan Bong: 1d3, 19-20 threat range, 10 ft. range increment, blocking, monk, +2 to grapple checks. Not as good as the aklys, but better than brass knuckles. Better for monks than thieves. Link

Lasso: No damage, range increment depends on the length of rope, entangles foes. When you need to target a fleeing foe from far away, you want a lasso. Link

Net: No damage, range increment of 10 ft. Harder to break out of than a lasso, so this is good if you want to get closer. Link

Skulking Slayer Weapons

Greatclub: Skulking Slayer can outperform this with basic Two-Weapon Fighting builds that rely on Finesse Training, even with the other features that buff up the greatclub. You could pump up your Strength, or dump it to 9 and not be as penalized as other thieves for it. Link

Solid Snake Weapons

Unarmed Strike: Damage as a monk – 3 levels. Can choose to deal nonlethal damage at will. Fantastic if you get a Monk’s Robe, Finesse Training to use your Dexterity for attack and damage, handwraps to enchant, and Sap Adept and Sap Master. It takes a bit of investment, but this can pay off later in the campaign. Link

Armor/Shields

Studded Leather: Gotta start somewhere. This should give you some room with max Dex, but you want to replace this sooner rather than later.

Mithral Chain Shirt: Gives you lots of max Dex and basically no skill penalties, this should be the armor you wear for most of the campaign. Won’t last forever, you should replace this when your Dex mod hits +10 or sooner.

Buckler: If you’re willing to eat a -1 penalty to attack rolls, a masterwork buckler can offer some defense to ranged and two-weapon fighting builds. Mithral can be good enough to be worth seriously considering.

Haramaki: No maximum Dex bonus, so you are never limited by cumbersome armor. You can enhance this to provide +6 AC, and add more special armor abilities like Shadow. Padded armor never stood a chance.

Mage Armor: A wand of Mage Armor costs 750 gil, providing 50 hours of +4 AC with no max Dex. You can buy 10 wands of Mage Armor for 7,500 gil for 500 hours of mage armor. You can buy a pearl of power 1 for 1,000 gil, and have your caster ally cast mage armor on you for much longer. This might be your first replacement for Studded Leather.

Magic Items

Thieves can benefit greatly from magic items, whether it’s boosting their defenses, giving them more offense, or even buffing up their skills. Make sure you spend your money wisely, you’ll never have enough.

Weapons

Thieves generally want to prioritize enhancement bonus, if only to help their attacks hit. There are a lot of special abilities they can use, so this is probably where most of the magic item budget will go.

Dagger of Doubling (10,302 gil): An infinite supply of +1 daggers for your thrown weapon builds. Get Quick Draw and throw enough daggers around to make Vax jealous. If your GM lets you further enhance this weapon, this is a fantastic choice for thrown weapon builds. Be cheeky and switch which hand holds this to use your off-hand attacks. Link

Sword of Subtlety (22,310 gil): A +1 shortsword that gives +4 attack and damage when you make a sneak attack with it. The cost is around a +3 weapon, but can give the effect of a +5 weapon. If your sneak attacks get shut down, however, so does this. If your GM lets you further enhance this weapon, this is a fantastic weapon, but be careful as its cost doesn’t quite line up to normal weapon enhancement progression. Link

Concealed (variable gil cost): Transform your weapon into a non-weapon object that doesn’t register as magical. If you’re not taking Sleight of Hand and playing in an intrigue campaign, this will help you sneak your weapons into secure areas. Link and Link

Dueling (+14,000): Gives you a +4 enhancement bonus to initiative checks if you have your weapon out. Also provides bonuses to disarm and feint. Every melee weapon you’d want to use can qualify for this, and the initiative bonus stacks with traits and Improved Initiative. A bit pricey, but well worth the investment. You only need this on one weapon if you’re two-weapon fighting. Link

Sneaky (+5,000): Another daily use of the Hunter’s Surprise advanced talent, and only for 5,000 gil. While it’s only once per day, it’s cheap enough that you want to put it on everything. Take the talent and put this on your two wielded weapons for 3/day uses. Link

Sniping Stealth (variable gil cost): Half the price of an equivalent Shadow armor enhancement, but only applies while sniping. Both are competence, so they don’t stack. If you have more than enough Stealth bonuses to not need to worry about Stealth checks outside of sniping, this series is a viable alternative to the armor enhancements, though keep in mind these can only be placed on ranged weapons such as shortbows. Link, Link, and Link

Agile (+1): Even if your archetype trades out Finesse Training, you can just take it with a ninja trick. You’ll never need this. Link

Bane (+1): Depends on the campaign, if you know you’ll go up against a certain enemy type a lot then go for it. Link

Called (+1): This shouldn’t come up often enough for you to need a permanent enhancement. Link

Debilitating (+1): Increases the penalties for bewildered and disoriented Debilitating Injuries by 1. Fantastic if you go for Double Debilitation. Link

Dispelling (+1): You should go for Dispelling Attack instead since that is every sneak attack. Link

Elemental (+1): Each elemental damage enhancement stacks, and you can apply all 8 to the same weapon to get +8d6 damage. It may sound tempting, but even 5 elemental resistance on enemies will nearly nullify a specific enhancement. Good general choices are Holy, Dark (except against undead), and Fire. If you fight a lot of bosses, elementals, flans, and dragons, this can be a bad option. Link

Fortuitous (+1): When you make an attack of opportunity, make a second attack of opportunity at a -5 penalty. That penalty can be steep, so wait until you’re a higher level to get this. If you’ve gotten Combat Reflexes as a feat, and other ways to enable additional attacks of opportunity like Outflank or Opportunist, you should definitely get this on your weapon. Only needs to be on the mainhand, as the effect can only trigger once per round. Obviously bad if you don’t have a way to easily enable attacks of opportunity. Link

Keen (+1): Thieves don’t care too much about crits, but most weapons they can use will have high threat ranges, so there’s no harm in slapping this on. Good when combined with Outflank. Link

Ghost Touch (+1): A situational enhancement to deal with incorporeal undead. Considering your damage would otherwise be halved, you’ll want this when it comes up. Link

Heartseeker (+1): Helps you hit when enemies have concealment. Useful against everything you’re good against, but remember that you can’t sneak attack against total concealment, as you only ignore the miss chance. Link

Injecting (+1): Store 3 doses of poison that can be applied as a swift action. Even with Lasting Poisons, sometimes you can run out in combat. This is better than picking up two thief talents for the same effect. Link

Merciful (+1): Non-lethal damage will work against everything you’re good against anyway, and this will let you use Sap Adept and Sap Master on all bludgeoning weapons with ease. Link

Returning (+1): Have a thrown weapon return to you right before your next turn. You’d need this on every weapon you throw, which adds up in price really fast. Consider a Dagger of Doubling or Blinkback Belt instead, to have to enchant less weapons. Link

Seeking (+1): Better than Heartseeker since it works against everything, but only for ranged weapons and not thrown ones. Link

Spell Storing (+1): If you have a caster in the party, they can put a spell of up to 3rd level as a one-shot discharge on attacks. Helpful for instantly deleting an enemy, but can be taxing on MP. Link

Sticky (+1): This will go a long way for the Larceny build. Attempt a free steal on critical threats instead of rolling to confirm, and gain a +2 to the steal maneuver. Bad if you have Outflank. Link

Training (+1): Thieves can be hard-pressed for feats, and this can help ease that pressure. Probably the best way to grab Outflank, unless you really want Improved Outflank too. Link

Virulent (+1): Increases the DC and round duration of poisons by the enhancement bonus of your weapon. Despite not being on the FFd20 site, this is FFd20 legal since pernicious poison is in the system. Poison users want every trick in the book to increase poison DCs. Link

Alignment (+2): Dependent on the campaign, as well as your own alignment. Overcoming DR and an extra 2d6 is nice to have, just needs some planning. Link

Elemental Burst (+2): See Elemental (+1). Thieves don’t care enough about crits to get any of these. Link

Dispelling Burst (+2): Thieves don’t care much about crits, but this can store Greater Dispel if you need to get rid of multiple buffs ASAP. Link

Sharding (+2): Spawn a duplicate weapon to immediately throw it. Great for thrown weapon builds, especially if they want to use something besides daggers for two-weapon fighting throwing. A Dagger of Doubling is better if your GM lets you enhance it. Link

Silencing (+2): Does not make a sound when you draw or attack with it, and can prevent your assassination target from crying for help. Link

Toxic (+2): +2 to poison DC, and a 25% chance per poison dose to not use it up. Every bit of poison DC helps, since those are tough to increase. Link

Unseen (+2): A bit too pricey to make your weapon invisible, Concealed is a bit better. Link

Wounding (+2): About on par with Bleeding Attack. While this can stack with itself, you won’t be able to get enough hits in before an enemy dies of normal damage for the bleed to matter. Link

Gory (+3): See Wounding (+2). Link

Speed (+3): You really want the other buffs from haste, so get that. Link

Umbral (+3): Might be useful for stealth assassins, but the walking cloud of darkness is a really obvious tip-off. Link

Vorpal (+5): You want other abilities, this takes up too many. Link

Armor/Shields

Thief surprisingly has a few desirable things for magic armor, though maybe not as much as magic weapons.

Celestial Armor (22,400 gil): One of, if not the, best armors in the system for high Dexterity builds in terms of AC. A +5 haramaki will only provide more AC when you reach a +11 Dex mod, or +13 if your GM lets you enhance this armor further. Also lets you fly for 5 minutes each day. Link

Murderer’s Blackcloth (12,405 gil): Increase the bleed damage from Bleeding Attack by 1. Yeah, just 1. Link

Buoyant (variable gil cost): A wand of Swim costs 250 gil less than this. Link

Shadow (variable gil cost): This is the best way to get a competence bonus to Stealth checks. Sniping builds may want to prioritize this. Link, Link, and Link

Slick (variable gil cost): It might not take up a magic item slot or enhancement total, but I would rather save up for a Ring of Freedom of Movement for the sure thing. Link, Link, and Link

Burdenless (+4,000 gil): Increases your carrying capacity by 50%. With your lower Strength, this won’t do much. Look into Muleback Cords and ask if your GM will let you add it to your cloak instead. Link

Expeditious (+4,000 gil): Save up another 1,500 gil for Boots of Striding and Springing instead. Link

Comfort (+5,000 gil): You already want to wear light armor. Link

Creeping (+5,000): The penalties you’d take from ACP are thankfully pretty minimal. This can give you a bonus to Stealth checks on top of Shadow, so don’t turn your nose up at this. Prioritize getting this later on. Link

Balanced (+1): Sniping builds actively want to avoid this. Link

Shadow Blending (+2): Put Shadow, Improved Shadow, or Greater Shadow on your armor first to get the full effect of this. Avoid this if your party has trouble even in dim light. Link

Materia

Thieves can benefit from a lot of materia and will never have enough materia slots. The sooner you accept this, the better.

Barrier Materia (Support): DR is the bane of two-weapon fighting builds. Slot these into your weapons and your damage will top the charts. Link

Dodge Materia (Ability): Ability materia does pretty well on thieves, since it helps them save feat choices. You’ll only need level 1 or 2 of this materia. Link

Doublecut Materia (Independent): The extra attacks are really tempting, but the attack penalties are so hard to justify on a ¾ BAB class. Maybe the first level, but you’re better off passing this off to a Full BAB flanking buddy. Link

Expertise Materia (Ability): Grants you Combat Expertise to get around feat tax. Link

Flank Materia (Ability): You might be disappointed if you were drawn in by the name, because this actually grants feinting feats, the thing you want to do when you’re not able to flank. Requires Combat Expertise to actually work since materia doesn’t let you skip prerequisites. Just take these with talents if you want them. Link

Shadow Materia (Independent): Buffs your stealth skill and gives you partial concealment. Not enough to be able to hide in plain sight, but miss chance is miss chance. Link

Skill Materia (Ability): You have a wide variety of skills, enough to benefit from this materia. You might want only a level 1 or 2 version. Link

Time Materia (Spell): You want initiative bonuses, you want attack bonuses, you want haste. You can buff your party with Hastega if you get this to level 3. Link

Rings

Dark/Earth/Fire/Holy/Ice/Lightning/Water/Wind Ring: An extra d6 of the respective elemental damage whenever you attack, which fits in perfectly with your modus operandi. Nice early on, though it may not stand up late game. Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, and Link

Ring of Climbing (Improved): Just get a wand of Wall Climb. Link and Link

Ring of Eloquence: Gives a +2 competence bonus to the face skills and four languages. Not very significant, but it’s cheap. Link

Ring of Freedom of Movement: Makes you immune to grapples, slow, paralyze, difficult terrain, entanglement, and immobilization. Choose this over Escape Artist investments. Link

Ring of Invisibility: While Greater Vanish is better for combat, this is an invaluable tool for scouting, stealth, and surprise. You can even keep this around as a third ring, and put it on when you need it. Link

Ring of Maniacal Devices: +5 competence bonus to Disable Device. Pretty easy to pop this on when you need it. Link

+1/+2/+3/+4/+5 Ring of Protection: Always a solid option for increasing your AC. Thief has lots of competition for their ring slots, and this might not stand up to other options. Fantastic if you don’t have a caster applying Protectra or some other way to gain a deflection bonus. Link

Ring of Rat Fangs: Grants you a natural bite attack if you don’t get it from your race. Since Weapon Finesse lets you use Dex to attack, it’s another attack for sneak attacks that’s quite likely to hit. Can also select bite with finesse training to get some more damage out of this. Link

Ring of Swarming Stabs: Twice per day, add 1d6 to your sneak attack as a swift action. Applies to a single melee attack. Even if I got this as loot, I’d sell it and get something better. Link

Ring of Swimming (Improved): A wand of Swim is much cheaper. Link and Link

Wands

Fog Cloud: Drop this bad boy down to flex all over smokesticks. A great escape mechanism. Link

Mage Armor: See Mage Armor under Armor/Shields. Link

Swim: Situational, but it’s a sure thing instead of making swim checks. See if you can get this at a bit of a higher caster level. Link

Vanish, Greater: Thanks to illusionist and dark knight, this can go on a level 4 wand. 7 rounds of greater vanish will be more than enough, you’ll definitely get through the charges of the wand worryingly fast. Link

Wall Climb: 30 minutes of a 20 ft. climb speed. Helps with infiltration. Link

Wondrous Items

Amulet of Natural Armor (Neck): Pump up that AC to stay alive. Link

+2/+4/+6 Belt of Incredible Dexterity (Belt): A boost to Dex means a boost to attack, AC, and certain Skills. Thieves can get away with increasing just their Dex. Link

+2/+4/+6 Belt of Physical Might (Belt): Increase Dex and Con for more survivability. Essential for Rogues and races with a Con penalty. Link

Belt of Tumbling (Belt): Very cheap for its effect. Good to have early on, so you’re prepared by the time you face your first Large enemy. Ask your GM if they’d allow you to add this item’s effect onto your stat belt for 1,200 gil. Link

Blind Gloves (Hands): While enemies can potentially make a DC 12 Fortitude save as soon as you can afford these, being blinded is a death sentence against a thief. They are cheap enough that fishing for natural 1s on saves is worthwhile. Link

Blinkback Belt (Belt): Instantly returns thrown weapons to you, letting you enhance just one or two thrown weapons instead of needing a collection. A much better investment than Returning. Ask your GM if you’re able to add this item’s effect to your Dex belt for 7,500 gil if you’re a thrown weapon build. Link

Boots of Speed (Feet): Buff yourself with haste for 10 rounds a day. The best way you have to be self-reliant for that buff, and cheap enough to get it early on too. Link

Boots of Striding and Springing (Feet): A cheap way to get +10 move speed. Perfect for races with 20 base land speed and anyone else who wants to have more room to get into flanking position. Link

Boots of Vaulting (Feet): You’re not a dragoon, so these don’t help you avoid AoOs. Link

Brass Spider (Slotless): A magical set of masterwork thieves’ tools, once per day disable a device from 15 feet away. Pretty cheap, pick this up if you feel like you want some extra distance just in case a trap goes off. Link

Bronze/Iron/Crystal/Titanium/Platinum Bangle (Wrist): Provides additional HP to keep you alive. If you have the wrist slot open, this is very helpful. They’re a bit expensive for their effect, so don’t feel the need to upgrade past Bronze Bangle. Link

Cat Burglar’s Boots (Feet): +2 competence to Acrobatics and Stealth, and once per day reroll a failed check as an immediate action. A helpful starter item. Link

Charm/Witty/Personality Bracelet (Wrist): A bit expensive for their effect, you won’t care too much about Curse or Silence. Link

Claws of the Ice Bear (Hands): You cannot wield weapons while wearing these. Link

Cloak of Arachnida (Shoulders): While a wand of Wall Climb is cheaper, this has no time limit and provides some extra utility if you need to deal with spiders. It’s also possible to just put this on when you need it, but you could buy 3 wands of Wall Climb for a total of 75 hours of the effect. If you’ll need more than that, then consider the cloak. Link

Cloak of the Diplomat (Shoulders): Helps a lot for party faces with the bonuses to Diplomacy and Sense Motive, and allows a 1/day advantage on those checks. You can put this on when you know you’re going into social situations. Link

Cloak of Displacement (Shoulders): A nice defensive option, but can’t be used to hide in plain sight. If you have room for Shadow materia, that’s a better investment. Link

Cloak of Elvenkind (Shoulders): A small boost to Stealth. Takes up your cloak slot when the Shadow armor enhancement doesn’t take up even the enhancement bonus, so that’s preferred. Link

+1/+2/+3/+4/+5 Cloak of Resistance (Shoulders): This item is the reason all those other really cool shoulder slot items don’t get used as much. Absolutely essential. Link

Death’s Will (Hands): Fire a poisoned needle as a ranged touch attack as a swift action, and add a +4 to Sleight of Hand to conceal poisons on your person. Very cool name and effect. Obviously ignore this if you don’t use poisons. Link

Duelist’s Vambraces (Wrists): Eliminates the attack penalties for your off-hand weapon while Two-Weapon Fighting. Cheap enough to be picked up early on, though the benefit is limited. Link

Dusty Rose Prism (Ioun Stone): Normal version is +1 insight to AC. Cracked version is +1 competence to initiative. Both are fairly cheap and slotless. Link

Eyes of the Eagle (Eyes): A cheap way to buff Perception. You might replace these later on, but these help out early in the game. Link

Gloves of the Keen Evaluator (Hands): If you’re prioritizing Appraise over Diplomacy for some reason, these can let you bargain for items much more effectively. Doesn’t compete with your gloves slot, since you can put these on when you need them. Bad if you’re a party face. Link

Gloves of Larceny/Sneak Gloves (Hands): Competence bonus items for Sleight of Hand. Normally very situational, but good for thieves with the Deft Swipe and Weapon Snatcher talents. Link and Link

Gloves of Swimming and Climbing (Hands): You can buy a wand of Swim and a wand of Wall Climb and spend less money than it would take to get these gloves. Link

Goggles of Minute Seeing (Eyes): Bonus to Disable Device. Cheap, but you shouldn’t need the increase unless you’re not feeling confident at low levels, as Trapfinding will eventually give you a larger boost. Link

Goggles of Night (Eyes): A lot of your kit is based around sneaking around in the dark. If you don’t have darkvision from your race, pick these up. Link

Hat of Disguise (Head): At will disguise self, for all of your infiltration needs. Link

+2/+4/+6 Headband of Mental Prowess (Headband): If you’re playing a party face, you’ll want to increase your Charisma and Intelligence. You can be extra cheeky and have the headband grant ranks in face skills. Link

Headband of Ninjitsu (Headband): +2 insight bonus on attack rolls for sneak attack and you can sneak attack creatures with total concealment. You don’t care about the other bonuses that much. Even if you have access to a Time Materia, you may still want this to be able to sneak attack through total concealment. Link

+2/+4/+6 Headband of Vast Intelligence (Headband): Some of your class features use Intelligence, and you can never get enough skill ranks. Try to have this crafted so you can choose what skill ranks it grants. Link

+1/+2/+3 Islander’s Wayfinder of Light (Neck): Gives you an extra materia slot, as well as a bonus to skill checks and saving throws. The best compliments for your skill set are Speed or Magic, pick between them based on whether you want to buff Reflex or Will. Speed buffs Dexterity based checks, so it also provides a sacred bonus to initiative. Link

Jade Collar (Neck): You can just take the feat. Hell, even a Dodge Materia is cheaper. Hell, an Amulet of Natural Armor provides more AC for cheaper. Why does this item exist? Link

Lens of Detection (Eyes): +5 competence to Perception and Survival checks to track. Survival DCs aren’t really that high, and tracking is situational to begin with. Still, these are cheap enough that you can grab them early if you do need to track creatures. Link

Living Garments (Body): Cheaper than Cloak of the Diplomat and doesn’t compete with your shoulder slot. If your GM is really picky about the special crafting requirement for this to exist, see if you can find a Duskwight from the Black Shroud. Link

Marker’s Monocle (Eyes): Spend money to make money. Better in campaigns that use background skills, and where you can act unlawfully as you please. Link

Mask of the Rabbit Prince (Head): +2 morale bonus on initiative and fear saves, and always count as having a running start for jumping. You want every initiative bonus you can get, and there aren’t many morale bonuses to initiative. Not much competition for the head slot, either. Link

Masterful Gray Gloves (Hands): For thieves with Deft Swipe and Weapon Snatcher, this can be a cheaper way to get the competence bonus to your Steal maneuvers, but check with your GM before you commit. Link

Monkey Belt (Belt): The tail can come in handy if you need an extra hand, but you’re better off just having a Dex belt. Link

Montblanc’s Satchel (Slotless): At least one person in the party should be carrying this item. If you’re a moogle, that someone will be you. Your carrying capacity might prevent you from carrying one of the bigger versions. Link

Muleback Cords (Shoulders): A very helpful boost to your carrying capacity, especially if you decided to dump Strength. If your GM allows custom magic items, you can add the effect of these on top of your current cloak for 1,500 gil. Link

Mythril/Diamond/Crystal Gloves (Hands): Increases your Intelligence and Constitution. If you’re going for a Headband of the Ninjitsu, these are good to have to avoid slot competition. Ask your GM if you can get versions of these without the Poison and Silence immunities for a cheaper cost. Link

Nimble/Agile/Quick Bracer (Wrist): Some thieves, like Combatants, will need Wisdom. Frees up a couple other item slots, most thieves won’t need these though. Link

Pearly White Spindle (Ioun Stone): A cheap, slotless version of the ring of regeneration. With some very good choices for thief’s ring slots, this helps avoid slot competition. Don’t expect to rely on this mid-combat. Link

Pendant of the Souk (Neck): Lets you cast identify once per day, but you can just buy 4 or 5 wands of identify for around the same cost. Link

Philanderous Compact (Slotless): A Hat of Disguise is only 300 gil more, and the +2 to gather information is nowhere near worth it. Link

Poisoner’s Gloves (Hands): Make a melee touch attack or a claw natural attack to deliver a dose of poison stored in the gloves. Good if you’re playing an ambidextrous Burmecian or a Solid Snake that wants to get into poison. Link

Quick Change Cloak (Shoulders): A Hat of Disguise is only 300 gil more, and you can wear a Cloak of Resistance with it. Link

Quickfingers Gloves (Hands): You can just get the skill unlock for Sleight of Hand with Thief’s Edge. Link

Rope of Climbing (Slotless): Save up a bit more and you can get a wand of Wall Climb. Link

Slippers of the Triton (Feet): A wand of Water Breathing and a wand of Swim are a better, cheaper investment. Link

Sniper Goggles (Eyes): Outdoes the Deadly Range talent, with +2 competence bonus for each sneak attack die adding on tons of extra damage. Stick with the regular version and get within 30 feet when you can, as the Greater version can apply the damage beyond 30 feet, but only once per sneak attack instead of per die. Combine with Deadly Range to make your GM strangle you for deleting enemies immediately. Link

Spectacles of Understanding (Eyes): You could buy 4 wands of comprehend languages for the same price as these. Link

Speed Bracer (Wrist): Much more expensive than the Boots of Speed, if you find yourself burning through all the daily rounds of those boots, this is a solid upgrade. Link

Sprint Shoes (Feet): While you want Improved Initiative, you want it sooner than you can afford these boots. Link

Teleporting Climbing Rig (Slotless): An upgrade to the grappling hook, if you’re finding yourself unable to make the ranged attack rolls to hook it with your ¾ BAB this could help. Link

Trackless Boots (Feet): Avoid “whose footprints are these?” on infiltration missions. Very situational, and the competence bonus to Stealth is outdone by the Shadow armor enhancement. Link

Vest of the Cockroach (Chest): Gives you the Resiliency thief talent. Not much competition for your chest slot, and this will save you a talent choice. Link

Permanent Spells

There are a select few spells that benefit the Thief with Permanency. Permanency carries a risk, it can be dispelled, and all of your gil investment vanishes. A few of these are personal spells or not on the time mage’s permanency table (noted in brackets), so ask your GM if you can use scrolls to emulate the steps for permanency.

Darkvision: Useful for races that lack this naturally. It may be a better investment to just buy goggles or cast it, however. Link.

See Invisibility (Ask GM): Lets you sneak attack invisible creatures since it removes their concealment. You don’t have a built-in way to handle invisible creatures, so this can pay off more than just a wand. Link

Shield (Ask GM) or Shieldra (Ask GM): +4 shield AC with no ACP. Lasts a lot longer than a wand. Take care if your GM throws ruin your way. Link

Shrink, Greater (Ask GM): Gives you an easy +4 to Dex and +2 attack, as well as a +8 Stealth bonus from size. Only do this if you are staying at range, this will completely brick your melee sneak attacks with 0 feet of natural reach. Link

Tongues: Linguistics ranks are for chumps. Only go for this if you’re the party face. Link

True Seeing: Say goodbye to illusions and concealment! Link

Multiclassing and Prestige Classes

Thieves tend to not want to take too many levels in other classes, however they can benefit from taking a level or two in another class. In addition, certain classes may also benefit from a level or two into Thief. If you do want to focus on Thief while multiclassing, there are some good choices.

To get martial weapon proficiency, Warrior or Knave (Knight archetype) are good choices. Both will provide +1 BAB as well, and Chosen weapon from Warrior will give you an additional +1 to attack and damage. Knave is useful if you wish to use light blades like kukris, as dagger training will let the enhancement bonus from your weapons increase a +1 shield bonus that it grants you. This can be especially helpful for Knife Masters, to get a superb AC just from dual-wielding knives. Their Shank knave talent also blows Bleeding Attack out of the water if you take a second level.

Monk will grant proficiency in monk weapons, such as waveblades, sanpkhangs, and shuriken, and Flurry of Blows will also let you delay getting your two-weapon fighting feats until later on. You’ll also get +1 BAB and a boost to Fortitude and Reflex saves, as well as Improved Unarmed Strike if you want to use something like Crane Style or Kirin Style.

Berserker can be a good choice if you plan on putting a few levels into the class. The Hunting Pack rage power will make flanking much easier, as you and your flanking buddy simply need to be adjacent to an enemy. Check with your GM on whether or not Mark would require patience, since you study a target, if it does then Rage will cancel that out. There are some archetypes that replace Mark, so this may work better on those.

A single level into Ninja or Spear Warden (Dragoon) will get you an extra 1d6 sneak attack, helpful if you plan on going to level 19 Thief. Ninja also grants proficiency with wakizashis and shuriken, while Spear Warden will grant +1 BAB. If you go for Ninja, consider being the Shadow archetype so that your class features from that will function off of Intelligence instead of Wisdom, and so you can pick up Knowledge (Arcana) as a class skill.

For prestige classes, Dark Emperor can be an off-the-wall choice, but is viable for Thieves. Party faces in particular may like the utility offered by this prestige, and you won’t lose out on too many skill ranks by taking levels in it. These types of thieves may want to look at the Battle Lord, Legendary Beauty, Paramortal, Resourceful Combatant, and Trophy Taker lines. Emperor Talents will also give you important features like Improved Evasion, or let you continue sneak attack progression. Good domain choices for thieves include Chaos, Darkness, Glory, Knowledge, Liberation, Luck, Time, Travel, and Trickery.

Kingsglaive can be tough to get into, requiring +7 BAB, but can offer some very nice choices for Thieves who want to swap between throwing weapons and melee. More effective with high Charisma, some of the big draws for thieves are an immediate thrown weapon attack and teleport into melee on rolling initiative, Charisma to initiative, a penalty to an enemy’s attack and damage that can stack with debilitating injury, and swift action vanish. Prescient Attack completely negates the need to invest into feinting, as well. Can also pick up Improved Evasion and Defensive Roll. The uniform given as armor really sucks for AC, despite its stat boosts, ask your King if you can wear something different.

Turk is the choice of prestige if you want to lean into your focus on skills. You still gain 8 ranks + Int mod per level, so there’s no tough choices to make on what to stop ranking up. You gain bonuses to various skill checks and can add 1d6 to the result of your checks on top of that, as well as attack rolls and saving throws. If you have a high Intelligence modifier, Studied Combat can outpace Mark right off the bat, and their bonuses stack. The suit of armor you get is amazing with no maximum Dex, and gives you a bonus to Dexterity as soon as you get it. You can also take thief talents in place of turk knacks, and you may want to do so even though you may not be able to access advanced thief talents. If you get to thief level 12, you can take advanced thief talents through that knack.