My Life As A Gamer: Your Leader Is A Thief, Alien

Reviewing the playable races of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition (AD&D1e) revealed an interesting pattern.

With one exception (Half-Orc), every demi-human race allowed Unlimited leveling for the Thief class. For some races, that class is the only option for Name Level characters to be their leaders. For others, it was the most likely one because reaching Name Level on the other class required 18+ scores in the Prime Requisites for that class and that greatly cuts down on the odds of having someone of that level in the leadership.

Omitting the Half-Orc and Half-Elf (as they are subsumed into other racial cultures), what we see here is that Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, and Halflings are ruled by masters of a profession that relies on stealth, guile, cunning, and misdirection to achieve the big aim of taking down big scores and getting away with it.

That's uncharitable, especially as all four races are Good in Alignment, but the class is called "Thief" for a reason.

All four of these races have demographic issues. Three of them are very long-lived, and the last (Halflings) are still longer-lived than Men. Two of them are flat-out midget races, one of them can't ressurect their dead, two of them lack significant access to divine or magical power to compensate for their lacks (NPC only casters), and all of them are beset by far more numerous and determined enemies ready, willing, and able to exploit those numbers to their advantage.

If you are of a long-lived, but low-population (comparatively) race then resorting to unconventional means to compensate is beyond question. It has to be done, and when there is little or no magic to be had (or it is unreliable), that is where all that I said above about Thieves makes its impact.

Those Thieves are not burglars or confidence men. They are guerillas.

It's why (X)/Thief multi-classing is omnipresent in the game. It is a matter of routine for these races to cross-train simultaneously, knowing that it takes time and has other costs, but the benefits individually and collectively make it worthwhile.

Being able to back up invisiblity with Move Silently, to synergize Backstab with a Fighter's attack table, to further hide one's identify with alter self before you pilfer those war plans, and so on is an advantage all four races are smart and wise enough to see the utility of and value its cultivation.

And all you need is one Ability score to make Thief a viable option: a Dexterity score of 9 or greater. To top out on other possibile classes you either need one or two scores at 18+ (Fighter, Magic-User, Illusionist) or you to submit to an existing hierarchy that sits outside of any racial culture (Druid). By sheer number alone, the odds of that leader being a Thief (solely or in part) are much higher than the alternatives- and I would argue that multi-classed Thieves dominate the single-classed ones in three of the four races concerned (Halfling being the exception).

Thief also synergizes well with the racial abilities of these four races in particular. Dwarves and Gnomes find Thief to allow them to perform most of the core function of the Ranger (in its role as a pathfinder and trailblazer), while Elves and Halflings appreciate how Thief makes exploiting their ambush capacity so much easier to do (the other Ranger function).

Being able to manuever in the dark (even if that is somewhat impaired compared to normal vision) also leverages the Thief skillset well. The Halfling insurgents slip into your camp unseen and unheard, not needing light to find their way in or out, take what they're after and leave what they want discovered all while you and your men have no idea what is going on.

Because that is how the demi-humans have to deal with the goblinoids and giants that make up most of the threats they face. They have to operate like insurgents or Special Forces to make it work. These are not races firm in their dominion, but rather put-upon peoples in constant danger from enemies of superior might and number. Intelligence, cunning, and carefully-employed violence is necessary for them to maintain what they have- nevermind engage in any expansion.

As for any extraordinary leaders among those enemies, that is where the Assassins find their worth. Dragons, undead, or whatever get murked by the cohort that each of these races tolerate as a Necessary Evil because while the Thieves can do it they don't specialize in surgical strike capabilty and Assassins do. As none of these four races have Assassin leaders, their Assassin cohort is permanently under the thumb of the Thieves running things. (Can't poison anyone if you have none.)

The consequence is that, while each of these races can slap on the heavy armor and throw down they would rather not square up; fair fights, for them, are a sign of failure and likely are going to end at best in Pyrhhic Victories. That's a thing for Men, not them; all of them practice a way of war that considers winning before squaring up to be how it is done- yes, even the Dwarves.

This plays into the adventuring life. Such practices naturally transition to life as an adventurer, be it under cover (doing mercenary work as part of a larger campaign of intelligence work, not unlike how the CIA uses private companies as fronts for their operations). The new face in the regular merchant ship or caravan coming to town may well be an agent of an alien throne- especially so in times of peace, as it allows talented youths to develop their potential without drawing undue attention to their homelands.

This is another nail in the coffin for the false idea of "D&D Is Tolkien-derived". Here, most obviously, is the Sword & Sorcery roots of D&D's literary roots making their presence felt. This is Lanhkmar, the Hyborean Age, and Elric's Young Kingdoms- not Middle-Earth. You want Middle-Earth? Go play MERP or adapt Pendragon.