Since the thief is one of the main archetypes of Skyrim, the path to role playing as a thief might seem pretty obvious. There is a whole quest line, skill trees, and other game mechanics dedicated to such characters, and you might think that role playing one is already pretty easy. This is in some ways correct, which is why this guide will be fairly simple, and will involve some of what is most likely common sense for the hardcore role players, but I hope to address some issues that I personally encountered when role playing a thief, and shed some light on a few simple rules that can make the thieving role play experience feel more fun, challenging, and immersive, and help you find more use for all the thief skill trees, some of which are often disregarded.
Rule #1: Robbing Over Killing
What separates a thief and an assassin is their objective--the thief wants money, the assassin wants death. Does it really make sense for a professional thief to kill everyone in every location he comes across and loot the place afterward? Not only is this a waste of all the skills you've spent your life honing, but it would realistically draw a lot of attention to you, which is never good for someone of your profession. Don’t limit your thievery to quests. Instead, have larceny on your mind at all times. You can decide how your character feels about killing--he/she could have a strong aversion to it, or a casual disregard for it, but either way, remember your objective is not to wipe out everyone in a given location, it’s to walk away with all the loot. This can help you discover a whole new approach to dungeons and forts, and encourage more strategy. It can actually be much more challenging to steal without or with less killing, because we all know stealth characters kill pretty easily. When I tried this for the first time, I entered Valtheim Towers (a location I had cleared many a time) in a way I never had before. I jumped from the cliff on the other side into the tower, landing in the small nest that protrudes from the tower and hiding behind the wall. Little things like this can make the thieving experience much more unique.
Rule #2: Don’t Loot Bodies (Usually)
You’re a professional thief, a master of your craft. You’re wealthy, respected, and for those unfortunate enough to know your true identity, feared. Does it really make sense for you to strip search every dead body to find some hide bracers and a few septims? Have some class. This might seem counter-intuitive, as a thief doesn’t make a habit of passing up coin, but we’re talking about a real thief here, not some petty scavenger. What separates the thief from the common bandit is that they usually set out to steal something specific. Obviously you usually can’t do this unless you’re on a quest, but you can still incorporate this mentality by only looting chests, or otherwise things that would likely hold valuables worth stealing. This makes for much more fast-paced gameplay, as you spend little to no time in menus, making every heist a seamless experience that is much more immersive and exciting than if you were searching every urn and body like a desperate beggar.
I don’t recommend sticking religiously to this rule, as there are some exceptions that make sense. Many difficult, high-level enemies have a lot of valuables on their person that would be obvious to your character. If you kill a Draugr Deathlord wielding an ebony sword, you’re going shove that sucker into your bag right away. The same can go for bandit chiefs, etc, but remember, when going on a heist in which you're after real treasure, don’t root through the belongings of the dead unless unless your character would have reason to suspect they’re carrying something valuable. The main exception to this rule would be if you are not on a mission. If you are attacked on the road by bandits or another thief, you will most likely be forced to defend yourself. In this case, it makes perfect sense for a thief to take his attackers’ valuables before moving on. Just remember: never take equipped apparel, (think about it, it’s pretty weird) two-handed weapons, or heavy armor chest pieces. There's no way your bag is big enough for those.
Not looting bodies can certainly enhance role play, but let’s not sugarcoat it--you’re not going to come out as rich as you would otherwise. This is probably a pretty big turn-off, but ask yourself honestly--have you ever had any financial worries as a thief in Skyrim? I sure haven’t. At about level fifteen, the money was flowing steadily and I could basically afford anything I wanted. My first real thief character, a bosmer named Elwynn, reached 1,000,000 septims. A cool million. Kind of ridiculous, no? Money being a little harder to come by is something I found to be somewhat of a blessing. It’s obviously a little more challenging, but it also makes it feel a lot more rewarding when you rob a house, or carry out a Thieves Guild job, or any other act of larceny that normally doesn’t feel fulfilling. When you think about it, jobs like this are what being a thief is all about, and there should really be more incentive to complete them. You will also find yourself much more compelled to invest in the otherwise much less useful speech tree, which a thief should totally do. I mean, come on.
The last advantage of rule number two is that it will also encourage you to follow rule number one. Though you’re avoiding the searching of bodies, pickpocketing the living is fair game. This will add a lot more incentive to use pickpocket, because, why wouldn’t a thief make use of pickpocketing? When robbing a bandit camp, picking pockets is always a good idea. However, when pickpocketing (or stealing in any way, for that matter) in cities or other populated, public areas, remember to follow...
Rule #3: Don’t be too Impulsive
No one ever became a master thief by grabbing everything he found shiny--always steal with a battle plan. This mainly applies to thievery in cities, where anonymity is a must. Say you walk into a shop and notice some very enticing merchandise. Don’t just crouch in the corner until your detection meter goes to hidden, or grab all the ingredients when the alchemist turns their back, or, god forbid, put a bucket over someone's head and rob them blind. (See what I did there?)
It kind of breaks immersion when the owner of an establishment looks away from you and finds their shop empty when they look back, thinking nothing of it. Not only that, but it’s a lot less fun. Instead, take note of every detail of the place from which you intend to steal, under the guise of an innocent customer, member of the court, etc. Once night falls, plan your heist from the privacy of wherever you are staying, away from the watchful eye of the public. In the dead of night, don your thief armor and sneak out into the deserted streets, and be careful to avoid guards. Rooftops are always a fun way to get around or just to take reconnaissance of any possible witnesses. Unfortunately for us role players, time literally stops when you pick a lock, so only lockpick when you see a real opportunity where you feel your character would be able to pick it before anyone notices. Hopefully your theft goes off without a hitch.
You should also apply this rule to pickpocketing. Don’t sneak around busy city streets in broad daylight reaching into the pocket of every passerby, but rather, take a page from Brynjolf’s book and size up your mark. If they’re wearing fine clothes or strutting around boasting, their pockets are probably quite heavy. But don’t just walk up to them, crouch in front of them, and proceed to pick their pocket. Try to stage an excuse to get close to them, such as striking up a conversation, or just bumping into them as you walk past. (A good way to role play this is to walk at a brisk pace, and, once you pass them, quickly drop into sneak and roll into them, activating them as you roll past, then stand back up before the roll is finished.) Also, don't take the Perfect Touch perk. Even as a master thief, stripping somebody down to their undergarments without anyone noticing is pretty ridiculous. However, take it if you think you can restrain yourself to only taking arrows and jewelry. Carelessness is what gets those of your occupation caught, so be careful, be patient, and be calculating. Remember, a thief is not only physically skilled, but cunning.
Rule #4: Don’t Carry too Much
It breaks immersion quite a bit to be carrying around ten suits of armor in your ass. Instead, designate a handful of items that are “equipped.” (I highly recommend the equipping overhaul if you have access to it.) This is one set of armor, and a few weapons that you use regularly. Now, instead of using the vanilla carry weight system, pretend your carry weight is half of your max stamina. This means you will have fifty carry weight at the start of the game. However, do not include your designated set of “equipped” items in this carry weight. The carry weight is meant to simulate your backpack, or loot sack, or whatever you want to call it. It makes sense that these would not be in your pack. If you get the extra pockets perk, pretend it gives you 25 instead of 100 extra carry weight. Nerfing your carry weight will also significantly decrease your income, but, for reasons explained in Rule #2, that’s kind of the idea.
There are some items that are weightless, and therefore need their own system to keep you from being able to carry an infinite amount. Quest items don't pose much of a problem as they are very rare, but you should try and add their weight to your backpack if it is a weapon or otherwise heavy object. This leaves arrows and septims, and lockpicks.
Septims are important because, not only is it immersion-breaking to be carrying around 100 pounds worth of them, but also because thieves are streetwise--having worked your way up from the lowest of the cutthroat underworld of Tamriel, you know the consequences of being indiscreet with your wealth--falling prey to people like yourself. For these reasons, try never to carry more than 1000 septims on your person. You don't have to stop altogether once you reach that number, I personally don't see a thief doing that, but be conscious of how close you are to that number, so you can stow away your precious coin before accumulating too much. It is cool to hide stashes throughout Skyrim if you play on PC and have the means to keep them there, but otherwise, most storing containers respawn, and you can't drop septims on the ground. Ideal locations are your house, or your personal chest i
Since the thief is one of the main archetypes of Skyrim, the path to role playing as a thief might seem pretty obvious. There is a whole quest line, skill trees, and other game mechanics dedicated to such characters, and you might think that role playing one is already pretty easy. This is in some ways correct, which is why this guide will be fairly simple, and will involve some of what is most likely common sense for the hardcore role players, but I hope to address some issues that I personally encountered when role playing a thief, and shed some light on a few simple rules that can make the thieving role play experience feel more fun, challenging, and immersive, and help you find more use for all the thief skill trees, some of which are often disregarded.
Rule #1: Robbing Over Killing
What separates a thief and an assassin is their objective--the thief wants money, the assassin wants death. Does it really make sense for a professional thief to kill everyone in every location he comes across and loot the place afterward? Not only is this a waste of all the skills you've spent your life honing, but it would realistically draw a lot of attention to you, which is never good for someone of your profession. Don’t limit your thievery to quests. Instead, have larceny on your mind at all times. You can decide how your character feels about killing--he/she could have a strong aversion to it, or a casual disregard for it, but either way, remember your objective is not to wipe out everyone in a given location, it’s to walk away with all the loot. This can help you discover a whole new approach to dungeons and forts, and encourage more strategy. It can actually be much more challenging to steal without or with less killing, because we all know stealth characters kill pretty easily. When I tried this for the first time, I entered Valtheim Towers (a location I had cleared many a time) in a way I never had before. I jumped from the cliff on the other side into the tower, landing in the small nest that protrudes from the tower and hiding behind the wall. Little things like this can make the thieving experience much more unique.
Rule #2: Don’t Loot Bodies (Usually)
You’re a professional thief, a master of your craft. You’re wealthy, respected, and for those unfortunate enough to know your true identity, feared. Does it really make sense for you to strip search every dead body to find some hide bracers and a few septims? Have some class. This might seem counter-intuitive, as a thief doesn’t make a habit of passing up coin, but we’re talking about a real thief here, not some petty scavenger. What separates the thief from the common bandit is that they usually set out to steal something specific. Obviously you usually can’t do this unless you’re on a quest, but you can still incorporate this mentality by only looting chests, or otherwise things that would likely hold valuables worth stealing. This makes for much more fast-paced gameplay, as you spend little to no time in menus, making every heist a seamless experience that is much more immersive and exciting than if you were searching every urn and body like a desperate beggar.
I don’t recommend sticking religiously to this rule, as there are some exceptions that make sense. Many difficult, high-level enemies have a lot of valuables on their person that would be obvious to your character. If you kill a Draugr Deathlord wielding an ebony sword, you’re going shove that sucker into your bag right away. The same can go for bandit chiefs, etc, but remember, when going on a heist in which you're after real treasure, don’t root through the belongings of the dead unless unless your character would have reason to suspect they’re carrying something valuable. The main exception to this rule would be if you are not on a mission. If you are attacked on the road by bandits or another thief, you will most likely be forced to defend yourself. In this case, it makes perfect sense for a thief to take his attackers’ valuables before moving on. Just remember: never take equipped apparel, (think about it, it’s pretty weird) two-handed weapons, or heavy armor chest pieces. There's no way your bag is big enough for those.
Not looting bodies can certainly enhance role play, but let’s not sugarcoat it--you’re not going to come out as rich as you would otherwise. This is probably a pretty big turn-off, but ask yourself honestly--have you ever had any financial worries as a thief in Skyrim? I sure haven’t. At about level fifteen, the money was flowing steadily and I could basically afford anything I wanted. My first real thief character, a bosmer named Elwynn, reached 1,000,000 septims. A cool million. Kind of ridiculous, no? Money being a little harder to come by is something I found to be somewhat of a blessing. It’s obviously a little more challenging, but it also makes it feel a lot more rewarding when you rob a house, or carry out a Thieves Guild job, or any other act of larceny that normally doesn’t feel fulfilling. When you think about it, jobs like this are what being a thief is all about, and there should really be more incentive to complete them. You will also find yourself much more compelled to invest in the otherwise much less useful speech tree, which a thief should totally do. I mean, come on.
The last advantage of rule number two is that it will also encourage you to follow rule number one. Though you’re avoiding the searching of bodies, pickpocketing the living is fair game. This will add a lot more incentive to use pickpocket, because, why wouldn’t a thief make use of pickpocketing? When robbing a bandit camp, picking pockets is always a good idea. However, when pickpocketing (or stealing in any way, for that matter) in cities or other populated, public areas, remember to follow...
Rule #3: Don’t be too Impulsive
No one ever became a master thief by grabbing everything he found shiny--always steal with a battle plan. This mainly applies to thievery in cities, where anonymity is a must. Say you walk into a shop and notice some very enticing merchandise. Don’t just crouch in the corner until your detection meter goes to hidden, or grab all the ingredients when the alchemist turns their back, or, god forbid, put a bucket over someone's head and rob them blind. (See what I did there?)
It kind of breaks immersion when the owner of an establishment looks away from you and finds their shop empty when they look back, thinking nothing of it. Not only that, but it’s a lot less fun. Instead, take note of every detail of the place from which you intend to steal, under the guise of an innocent customer, member of the court, etc. Once night falls, plan your heist from the privacy of wherever you are staying, away from the watchful eye of the public. In the dead of night, don your thief armor and sneak out into the deserted streets, and be careful to avoid guards. Rooftops are always a fun way to get around or just to take reconnaissance of any possible witnesses. Unfortunately for us role players, time literally stops when you pick a lock, so only lockpick when you see a real opportunity where you feel your character would be able to pick it before anyone notices. Hopefully your theft goes off without a hitch.
You should also apply this rule to pickpocketing. Don’t sneak around busy city streets in broad daylight reaching into the pocket of every passerby, but rather, take a page from Brynjolf’s book and size up your mark. If they’re wearing fine clothes or strutting around boasting, their pockets are probably quite heavy. But don’t just walk up to them, crouch in front of them, and proceed to pick their pocket. Try to stage an excuse to get close to them, such as striking up a conversation, or just bumping into them as you walk past. (A good way to role play this is to walk at a brisk pace, and, once you pass them, quickly drop into sneak and roll into them, activating them as you roll past, then stand back up before the roll is finished.) Also, don't take the Perfect Touch perk. Even as a master thief, stripping somebody down to their undergarments without anyone noticing is pretty ridiculous. However, take it if you think you can restrain yourself to only taking arrows and jewelry. Carelessness is what gets those of your occupation caught, so be careful, be patient, and be calculating. Remember, a thief is not only physically skilled, but cunning.
Rule #4: Don’t Carry too Much
It breaks immersion quite a bit to be carrying around ten suits of armor in your ass. Instead, designate a handful of items that are “equipped.” (I highly recommend the equipping overhaul if you have access to it.) This is one set of armor, and a few weapons that you use regularly. Now, instead of using the vanilla carry weight system, pretend your carry weight is half of your max stamina. This means you will have fifty carry weight at the start of the game. However, do not include your designated set of “equipped” items in this carry weight. The carry weight is meant to simulate your backpack, or loot sack, or whatever you want to call it. It makes sense that these would not be in your pack. If you get the extra pockets perk, pretend it gives you 25 instead of 100 extra carry weight. Nerfing your carry weight will also significantly decrease your income, but, for reasons explained in Rule #2, that’s kind of the idea.
There are some items that are weightless, and therefore need their own system to keep you from being able to carry an infinite amount. Quest items don't pose much of a problem as they are very rare, but you should try and add their weight to your backpack if it is a weapon or otherwise heavy object. This leaves arrows and septims, and lockpicks.
Septims are important because, not only is it immersion-breaking to be carrying around 100 pounds worth of them, but also because thieves are streetwise--having worked your way up from the lowest of the cutthroat underworld of Tamriel, you know the consequences of being indiscreet with your wealth--falling prey to people like yourself. For these reasons, try never to carry more than 1000 septims on your person. You don't have to stop altogether once you reach that number, I personally don't see a thief doing that, but be conscious of how close you are to that number, so you can stow away your precious coin before accumulating too much. It is cool to hide stashes throughout Skyrim if you play on PC and have the means to keep them there, but otherwise, most storing containers respawn, and you can't drop septims on the ground. Ideal locations are your house, or your personal chest i
