Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="roguish" data-source="post: 9502606" data-attributes="member: 7046843">I have <a href="https://roguish.wordpress.com/2020/06/18/locks-rogues-and-thieves-tools/" target="_blank">Opinions</a> and <a href="https://roguish.wordpress.com/2018/03/06/historical-lockpicking/" target="_blank">Essays</a> about thieves' tools, but the tl,dr; version is: there's no good reason to assume it's just a bunch of lockpicks. It's called "breaking and entering" for a reason, most burglaries involve forcing things open. The tool kit is not just for locks, it's also for sabotage and tinkering. (Well. It should be.) And it's pointless to stick to medieval technology (which would mean "lockpicks" are really skeleton keys, not hooks and rakes): the game is full of early modern contraptions, and the pin-and-tumbler lock that everyone imagines when they think of "lockpicking" is late modern. Also, it's D&D, not Earth.Therefore, a Rogue walking around with tools of the trade can and should be carrying tension wrench, hook and rake lockpicks, skeleton keys, jemmy, small pick, small hammer, chisel, awl, auger, nails, tweezers, penknife, gum or other adhesive, string, wire, rags, and oil. If you do that, a) it will be so much cooler, b) it will be easy to imagine the toolkit being used to disarm traps and the like, and c) you will have no reason to tell the Rogue "you can't roll Thieves' Tools to open that door because it has no lock". People have bested bolted doors with nothing but a jemmy in real life, so of course it should be feasible in D&D.(And it's still totally cool to roll dexterity while forcing things open: the ancient technology of the Fulcrum and Lever is just that good. Trust me, I have a strength penalty in real life.)</blockquote>

Verification