Robbing rogues

[Cicciograna]

Hi there, I've a big trouble. One of my player is a 7th level rogue: he lives in a big city, and since is hungry for money, he wants to rob every house he sees in Noble District. Since the city he's in is rich, but not so rich to boast heavy magic defenses against rogues, there's the chance that he's going to be succesful in all his robbings: maybe the reward would be mere 2000 gp in every house, but he would do it, rest assured.
Morever, he boosted his stealth abilities, having many ranks in Move Silently, Hide and Pick Lock (the former two enhanced by Boots of Elvenkind and a Cloak of Elvenkind) so it would be very difficult _for_anyone_ to detect him, lest to get him caught! I would be happy to give him the possibility to rob some house, but since I know him, I know that he woud abuse this possibility, and since he'a lamer he would obviously focus on robbings instead of playing adventures!
I don't think I gave him too many magical aids, but I regret allowing him to find the Boots and the Cloak! What should I do to discourage him?

 

[Jin_Kataki]

It doesn't matter how good you are at something Karma and the law of averages are gonna catch up with you eventually. Maybe a higher level bad guy rouge is already casing the neighborhood and when he catches your PC giving the eyes to his targets he does something to set him up. Maybe have this lead into an adventure that the PC needs to perform in order to clear his name.

 

[blargney the second]

The noble district is not as it seems - most of the nobility are members of an evil cult, and he walks right in on one of their ceremonies...

 

[Rath the Brown]

Is he a member of the local thieve's guild? If not, they're going to be pissed when they find out about someone poaching on their turf.

And they will find out, because after a few houses are robbed, the nobles are going to be up in arms about getting their stuff protected. One or a couple of homes burglarized will be bad, but if he keeps going, it will become seen as a streak. Word will get out; servants gossip. Even with the nobles trying to hush things up to avoid the humiliation, eventually everyone in the city will know that someone is targeting the noble district.

While they will begin doing everything they can afford to do to beef up the protection for their homes, the nobles will leaning heavily on the authorities to do something. Many nobles are into politics and, if the robbing goes on too long, will begin trying to get measures put into place to make thieving more difficult.

 

[Cicciograna]

Is he a member of the local thieve's guild?

He's a member in good standing of the Zhentarim, but they don't want to be known: this can be good...

 

[thenamelessbard]

maybe on one of the valuables is an ancient family heirloom and he is in trouble of the family doing all tings to get it back (and maybe he will be identified when trying to sell this).

Another may include an ancient valuable piece has a curse on it, when someone not belonging to the same family/cult/clan gets it.

If he's in good standing with the zhentarim, but they want to keep things low. Then they can forbid him to repeat stealing.

 

[thenamelessbard]

and don't forget that when there is a burglar in the city, robbing all houses it would be only a matter of time that he has a bounty on his head, attracting some (or many) bountyhunters that may have magical help to track someone down....

 

[darthkilmor]

Nothing says "surprise!" like a golem in a house.

Or a resident ghost/vampires/humanoid-form dragons in a house.

Or if the homeowners are home, catching a thief in the act could lead to problems, esp. if one of the homeowners has a few spellcasting ranks.

You could have magically hardened glass, and/or after a few robberies ppl start barricading their doors and windows.

Or just have a permanent Alarm spell on a house. <ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding>

After 3 or 4 robberies have the city guard triple patrols in the area.

Also, most houses arent just going to have a pile of coins under the bed, they''ll have silver platters, goblets, paintings, jewelry, and other bulky items. How is he selling all this stuff ?

 

[Folly]

If each house has 2000gp value for robbing, hiring a guard at the normal rate is reasonable. That combined with the alarm idea makes it very difficult to sneak in, gather loot, and get out without being noticed. Remember no amount of hide check will help you if you do not have cover/concealment to let you hide. Though if he has or gets hide in plain sight, the guard becomes completely ineffective.

 

[AuraSeer]

Rich folks have plenty of resources, both to defend themselves and take revenge on their enemies. Robbing the noblemen should wind up being a bad idea-- or else why wouldn't every mid-level rogue give up adventuring to become a burglar?

As soon as the second house gets robbed, the nobles are going to know something is up. They'll petition the local government to do something about the thefts. If that fails to work (or doesn't make sense in your gameworld), the rich folks will spend some of their own money on protection. At first they'll probably act individually, but if the crime spree continues they're likely to pool their efforts for greater defense.

When they get paranoid enough to install magical defenses and hire guards with levels, your thief should have big problems. Some night as soon as he slides open a window, an alarm trap will go off, a Brd4 guard will hose the area with glitterdust (-40 to Hide checks, no save), and then a squad of light-armored fighters will chase him through the streets and try to shoot him full of arrows.

For the people who have already been robbed, there are divination spells that could find the identity of the thief. Good-aligned victims are likely to offer a reward for his capture, and also report him to the city guard (even if he can't be arrested without more evidence). Unscrupulous victims may retaliate directly, even going so far as to hire assassins to punish the offender and retrieve their property.

And speaking of the stolen property, what does the thief intend to do with it? The loot he gets from the houses will include very little cash; most of it will be jewelry, artwork, silverware, that kind of thing. If he tries to sell all of it on the black market, he'll get pennies on the dollar at best, and the fences will only be willing to buy so much hot merchandise at once.

What's more, disposing of all that loot will make it obvious to the underworld that he is behind the string of upper-class burglaries, and someone is certain to snitch on him for the reward. Then the next time he shows up to fence a new haul, the police will be waiting to ambush him with overwhelming force.