I occasionally visit Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World" blog, and I was very interested to see that he recently posted the original presentation of the thief class - published in a fanzine courtesy of Gary Gygax, before it was released in Supplement I: Greyhawk.
Of particular note was that Gary gave an example of how the thief worked, and seemed to imply that the thief automatically found traps; given the low chance of removing said traps (10%, also in Greyhawk), this seemed quite sensible.
The other note was that thieves were meant to stay out of combat - which certainly explains their lack of combat skills!
I've written a little more about the thief (and its latest incarnation) on my blog, but I was wondering how you deal (or dealt) with the thief and his finding of traps.
It's funny: 10% seems low, but when you use AD&D's method, the thief has only a 4% chance of finding AND disarming a trap.
Cheers!
Of particular note was that Gary gave an example of how the thief worked, and seemed to imply that the thief automatically found traps; given the low chance of removing said traps (10%, also in Greyhawk), this seemed quite sensible.
The other note was that thieves were meant to stay out of combat - which certainly explains their lack of combat skills!
I've written a little more about the thief (and its latest incarnation) on my blog, but I was wondering how you deal (or dealt) with the thief and his finding of traps.
It's funny: 10% seems low, but when you use AD&D's method, the thief has only a 4% chance of finding AND disarming a trap.
Cheers!