Let's look at a few popular OSR games today and compare thieves! Why? Well, I was reading the new Swords & Wizardry Boxed Set and saw that quadruple damage modifier at level 9+ and asked myself, how many other OSR games do that? And if you see a rule you like in one system but don't have it in yours, guess what? House rule it in; this is B/X. I am approaching this in a "what if I have to pick one game" way.
And since we are talking thieves, that d4 picture is appropriate since we will be rolling many of them today.
Old School Essentials
This is your pretty standard B/X thief class. I have seen a few YouTube videos mentioning people thought the OSE thief class felt weak, but from what I see, this is your pretty middle-of-the-road thief class compared to most of the popular B/X games.
Why is the lack of magic resistance important? If casters can't land spells, it is up to martial classes to make up the difference in damage output, and a well-placed backstab could be the deciding factor in a fight. Magic resistance in a game is a huge buff to martial character viability and keeps the game from being too caster-dominated.
- Hit dice: d4, +2 hp after 10th level
- Backstab: +4 to hit, double damage
- Read Languages: 4th level, 80%
- Scroll Use: 10th level, 90%
- Thief Skills: As normal
- Armor: Leather, no shields
- Weapons: Any
- STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
- Monsters have no magic resistance
Swords & Wizardry
S&W does the backstab damage scaling at higher levels, which is why I think people feel the standard OSE thief feels weak. We get a save bonus here as well. Note the hit points go up at +1 after the 10th level, and S&W tends to keep hit point inflation down in every area to preserve balance. Also, note only the fighter class gets hit and damage bonuses for STR, which I feel is a solid rule for that game.
This has to be my favorite B/X OSR "avoid combat" style d4 thief, just because the payoff from backstabs is so great at higher levels. I do not mind the loss of STR damage and hit bonuses since this fighter buff in the game and magic weapons still usually work.
I also like the tighter hit point balance in S&W a lot. They keep a lot of modifiers down, and they specifically buff fighters to be excellent. Whenever they added a modifier or class feature, they carefully considered it and returned to the original rules, and I feel S&W has the best design balance in this list.
Quad damage to a magic-resistant creature on a backstab? Yes, we are talking about a significant party-saving moment sort of attack when the casters run out of spells and things look dire. This is what you are paid for.
- Hit dice: d4, +1 hp after 10th level
- Backstab: +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage
- +2 to save against devices, traps, wands, staves, and all magical devices.
- Read Languages: 3rd level, 80%
- Read Magical Writings: 9th level, 90%
- Thief Skills: As normal
- Armor: Leather, no shields
- Weapons: Any (magical weapons, daggers, and swords only)
- STR bonus to damage disallowed
- Monsters have magic resistance
Basic Fantasy
More of the standard thief here, but we do not have the read languages or scrolls powers. I am sure you could house rule those in; this is Basic Fantasy, after all. Note the lower hit points after the 9th level, like S&W.
This is my least favorite OSR thief, but then again, easily house-ruled, so not a huge problem.
- Hit dice: d4, +1 hp after 9th level
- Backstab: +4 to hit, double damage
- Thief Skills: As normal
- Armor: Leather, no metal armor, no shields
- Weapons: Any
- STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
- Monsters have no magic resistance
Iron Falcon
This is a new game, the spiritual successor to Basic Fantasy, written by the same author. This is very close to Swords & Wizardry in that STR bonuses are only for fighters, and it is nice to see another game adopt this rule. The game's damage multiplier goes up to an astonishing seven times at the 21st level! Wow. Otherwise, this is a race + class style game, much like Basic Fantasy, and a fantastic option to that set of rules.
I have not played enough of this game to rank it, and I would love to know how that super-high damage multiplier works in play. Otherwise, this compares with S&W just fine but lacks the magic resistance of that game.
- Hit dice: d4, +1 hp after 10th level
- Backstab: +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage; 13+ quintuple damage; 17+ 6x damage; 21+ 7x damage.
- Read Languages: 3rd level, 80%
- Scroll Use: 10th level, 90%
- Thief Skills: As normal
- Armor: Leather, no shields
- Weapons: Any
- STR bonus to hit and damage disallowed
- Monsters have no magic resistance
Labyrinth Lord
The standard B/X thief is here again, and the only real difference from OSE is the high-level hit points. Again, sort of middle of the road for me.
- Hit dice: d4, +1 hp after 9th level
- Backstab: +4 to hit, double damage
- Read Languages: 4th level, 80%
- Scroll Use: 10th level, 90%
- Thief Skills: As normal
- Armor: Leather, no shields
- Weapons: Any
- STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
- Monsters have no magic resistance
ACKS
At the 13th level and higher, you get five times damage. We see the AD&D-like 2 hp per level modifier and a no 2H weapons rule. I see a pattern here if the game is more like AD&D, +2 hp a level at high levels, and if it is more like B/X, +1 hp a level at high levels. Also not, some games give 10 total hit dice (AD&D) versus nine maximum (D&D).
The five times damage seems high for d4 hit die thief games, and I feel this fits better with an AD&D 2e hit point scale, and a d6 thief hit die. This feels really high-risk to reward and feels "extreme," but it is my second favorite OSR thief.
- Hit dice: d4, +2 hp after 9th level
- Backstab: +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage; 13+ quintuple damage.
- Read Languages: 4th level, 80%
- Scroll Use: 10th level, 90%
- Thief Skills: As normal
- Armor: Leather, no shields
- Weapons: Any, but no, 2H melee weapons.
- STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
- Monsters have magic resistance
OSRIC
We see the first AD&D-style d6 hit die here and the 5x backstab damage. A fighting-oriented thief compared to the other games. With that d6 hit-die, your thief is not avoiding combat all the time, and your group behavior changes to more of an off-tank role.
We see the d6 hit die here, so five times damage feels right for the increased AD&D hit points. Probably my third favorite on this comparison, and above the middle-of-the-road ones. But this is clearly a "combat style" thief compared to the others.
- Hit dice: d6, +2 hp after 10th level
- Backstab: +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage; 13+ quintuple damage.
- Read Languages: on chart
- Scroll Use: 10th level, INT roll %
- Thief Skills: As normal
- Armor: Leather or studded leather, no shields
- Weapons: Club, dagger, dart, oil, sling, single-handed swords (except bastard swords)
- STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
- Monsters have magic resistance
Castles & Crusades (Rogue)
It feels bizarre to put C&C in here since C&C is more of a 5E-style game (developed more than a decade before 5E). We get the fighting-oriented thief of AD&D, the scaling damage multipliers, read languages and scroll use at level one, and then several modern "class abilities" that activate as you level. The high levels feel especially interesting as the "superpowers" start to activate, so this should be considered a modern game design - and the most B/X of 5E-style rules (if that makes any sense).
Note the small shield use and a lack of a five times modifier. There is a "back attack" damage bonus for situations where the target is aware of the thief but not expecting an attack (like flanking or rear attacks), so overall combat damage is higher. This is the best "fighting thief" on the list.
I love C&C, so this is my top choice for a modern-style game. The high levels are exciting compared to everything else on this list when those class powers come online. But again, it feels unfair to put this on the list since we have a lot of modern design mechanics that were copied by Pathfinder 1e and 2e and D&D 5.
This is tied for 1st place, but with a huge difference. If I want the sneaky, avoid combat d4 thief, then S&W. If I desire a swashbuckling modern d6 thief, C&C is my choice. If the campaign goes past the 10th level, C&C wins easily because new powers are constantly activated.
- Hit dice: d6, +2 hp after 10th level
- Backstab: +4 to hit, +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage
- Read Languages: 1st level, SIEGE check
- Scroll Use: 1sh level, SIEGE check, -10
- Thief Skills: As normal
- Armor: Leather, leather coat, and padded. Small shields are allowed.
- Weapons: Blowpipe, broadsword, cat-o-nine-tails, cestus, club, dagger, dart, light hammer, hand ax, hand crossbow, javelin, knife, light crossbow, longsword, mace, main gauche, quarterstaff, rapier, sap, shortbow, short sword, sickle, sleeve tangler, spiked gauntlet, sling, whip
- Class Abilities: Back Attack, Sneak Attack, Detect Secret Doors, Dex Bonus, Sixth Sense, Hide/Move Silently, Quick Reaction, Evasive Maneuver
- STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
- Monsters have magic resistance
Dungeon Crawl Classics
- Hit dice: d6
- Backstab: +4 to hit, automatic critical table roll
- Thief Skills: As normal
- Bonus skills: forgery, poison use, disguise
- Read Languages: 1st level, skill roll
- Scroll Use: 1st level, skill roll
- Armor: Any but increasing check penalties apply.
- Weapons: blackjack, blowgun, crossbow, dagger, dart, garrote, longsword, short sword, sling, and staff
- STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
- Monsters have no magic resistance (but this varies wildly by module)
Wrapping Up...
Whew! What a lot of research, and I hope I got everything right. This is not to say one game is better than another, but many design choices go into these games, and they vary wildly at times. Comparisons like this are also meaningful when you house rule, which further affects balance.
What I love about Swords & Wizardry and Iron Falcon is they go against the "well it would be fairer if..." feeling for strength hit and damage modifiers. Yes, giving everyone the modifiers is "fair," but is it balanced, and are we taking something away from fighters? Are we raising overall damage too high?
Ultimately, what you like matters the most, and your preferences in a game. You may have a different idea of what a thief is than the game presents, like a thief's ability to fight. You may love the d4 hit die sneaky avoid combat thief, or you may want to participate in the fighting as a second-rank fighter. You may want to play a game with tighter balance in the numbers to make that d4 dagger more worthwhile. You may wish to have a party where the fighter is fantastic at fighting, and you are free to sneak around and cause trouble and backstab.
You may love the unlocks and superpowers at high levels and have more to look forward to past the 10th level than just marginally better numbers. This is where I am now; I like C&C's progression and old-school compatibility. If I were playing straight B/X and wanted that d4 thief, I would do Swords & Wizardry. OSE has a lot of variety, but it comes at the cost of some classes not having enough, so they play and are balanced versus other classes well. S&W also has many AD&D rules I like, such as magic resistance and that sweet damage multiplier.
Finding the game that matches your preferences is what matters the most.
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