Gimme Your Lunch Money!
If picking pockets is the art of street-theft for those with a modicum of subtlety and patience, mugging is surely the means used by those who have neither. Again, on paper it's a pretty simple course of action. You find your victim, threaten him or whack him on the head, and help yourself to whatever he carries. It's likely that at some time someone's tried to rob your character in this way, and as such you'll know there are two ways in which this can go.
- Approach your mark from behind, threaten him with a bit of the old ultra-violence if he doesn't hand over his purse, watch, and anything else of interest that he might have. He is scared into submission, or is quickly rendered helpless. Help yourself to his goodies (not those goodies! Filthy pervy bastard!) and scarper.
- As before, but find that your victim is a polymorphed great wyrm gold dragon who resists all attempts at intimidation. Your cosh bounces off his armoured hide. He breathes fire, and you end up as a silhouette on the nearest brick wall. Whoops!
Muggers are a bit more versatile than pickpockets because their trade requires that they be feared rather than invisible. They do well in urban settings for the same reason that pickpockets prosper, but they can also handle villages and even wilderness settings -- wherever there are people you'll find someone trying to forcibly liberate their wealth. The only real difference between a mugger, a pieate and a bandit is the name and the terrain.
The ethical problems facing a mugger are more pronounced than the sort encountered by pickpockets. There's a whole new level of evil and lawlessness to face; as a mugger you invariably end up threatening, injuring or killing people just for the contents of their pockets. However you slice it, demanding money with menaces is not a nice thing to do! If you're committed to villainy, however, go ahead. Other people don't matter.
How, then, does a hero pursue such a career? The short answer to that question is 'with great difficulty'. Again, you'll need to adopt a Robin Hood approach. Choose your targets carefully, and redistribute the wealth. If you're a bandit it'll probably be as a last resort too: unable to do good according to the law, perhaps due to poverty or disenfranchisement on your part, you have resorted to robbing the rich to feed the poor. In the event that violence takes place during the course of a robbery, you may want to stop short of murder. If that's the case, then get a sap. If you're simply going to kill people and take their treasure, you might as well do that in the dungeon!
In order to be a successful pickpocket, the most important ability scores are Dexterity and Strength. Charisma comes in handy too, but it's not essential. All that's needed is that you can hit someone hard when they don't expect it at all, and that you look fearsome enough to scare people out of the idea of fighting. As far as classes go, rogues are pretty good at their trade, but rangers and barbarians also make good choices due to their aptitude for stealth and intimidation. Consider the following skills:
- Bluff is a pretty important skill for a mugger. You'll notice how most forms of theft require their practitioner to be economical with the truth. Besides the obvious benefit of a +2 synergy bonus to Intimidate checks if you have 5 ranks in the skill, it comes in handy for persuading your marks that you have accomplices. (
You sure you want to draw that sword, pal? I've got two crossbowmen concealed there and there, ready to fire on you before you clear that scabbard…
) - Hide? Why would you need Hide? Answer: Stealth is the mugger's friend. Either you sneak up on the mark (see Move Silently) or you step out of the shadows before robbing someone. Either way, a stealth skill (preferably both) is pretty handy. If you can spare a feat, Stealthy is a good choice. Wouldn't recommend taking Skill Focus (Hide), though, since you don't get many feats between levels 1 and 20.
- Intimidate is the most necessary skill for the professional mugger. If you can scare the mark into submission he'll give you his money without a fight. That means there's less risk of you being injured or killed, and if you get caught it means there's one less assault or murder on your charge sheet. Even if you have a low Charisma, take this skill. You might be able to get away with a variant rule that makes it a Strength-based skill, and even then lots of practice at looking mean can make even the most uncharismatic little nobody scary. Take the Skill Focus (Intimidate) and Persuasive feats — a total bonus of +5.
- Listen comes in very handy. A time-honoured rule of thieving is that if things go badly wrong, get the Hell out of there. Did you hear the watchmen sneaking up on you, drawing their swords? No? Oh dear.
- Move Silently is another essential skill for the mugger. First impressions count, and if you can approach your mark silently and get a knife to his throat before he knows you're there, then you're halfway towards getting your beer money.
- Spot is one of those skills that can save a character's life. Think about all the occasions where things could have been so different if, for want of a bit of keen eyesight, you could have seen the concealed weapon, or the sign that said
Danger: Hell Hounds Patrol This Area
. Keep 'em peeled!
Okay, so you're committed to the course of robbery with violence. Where do you go from here? Chances are this isn't something you're going to keep secret from your friends for long. Your best bet is to make sure they're helping you with this career, or at least are so far implicated in your nefarious doings that if they breathe a word of it to the law that they'll go down with you. The advantage of having a band of muggers is that it gives your group a pretty neat gimmick; the group has purpose and identity, and that makes it a bit easier for a GM to plan adventures for you. It's probably best to work that stuff out in advance, though; get the go-ahead from your GM first. If he's committed to doing a load of dungeon crawls or the sort of adventure where the characters change the world through their actions you may want to rethink the whole band of thieves idea -- or at least keep an eye on how such principles can be applied to the world at large as opposed to just mugging whichever poor bastard crosses your path.
It takes a certain kind of personality to be a good mugger. Like the pickpocket, a mugger needs bags of courage. Robbery is the sort of job where there's always the threat of violence; and if you don't succeed in scaring the other guy you've got trouble on your hands. Even if you're not a violent psychotic, you need to be able to give the impression that you are. Turn your glare up by a few megawatts. Snarl at anyone who looks at you. Make sure you have some convincing threats and insults memorised. (Hand over that bag or I'll, er… hang on. I'll… I'll do something. Dunno what yet…
). Rush into combat; any hesitation will be taken as a sign of weakness.