Why do we need thieves??

[A_Carrington]

Literally the worst take on this I can think of. No where near the mark.

Asserted without reasoning, dismissed without reasoning.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I did oversee that, but it doesnt change anything about my answer. Class-based games - like D&D - have the thiev as class because the distinction of character mechanics is done via classes. Skill-based games don't have this "problem" because they don't have any classes at all. It is a non-problem. I don't understand what gets discussed here. Class based games have classes, skill based games don't.

At the very least you need to acknowledge there are games that land well in a muddy ground in between. Any class based game with a skill system may well have no useful niche for thieves since most of what defines a thief is just specific skills. Its notable that they had to carve out spots for the D&D rogue across time to keep it at all distinct from any of the high-skill-point classes once those appeared.