1) Yep, the heavy robe and hood should work. It's a staple of drow, which have similar issues. Note, that he stands out like a sore thumb, which means he is instantly recognizable (hey, it's that weird guy who wears the robe and hood all the time, even in 90 degree weather!), he get's penalties to perception checks (I'd go with -5 for visual and aural, with no penalty for things like feeling vibrations and maybe a bonus for noticing wind as it flaps his robe around) since his head is buried in a cloak which dampens sound and reduces his vision to tunnel vision straight ahead. Just make sure you assess the realistic penalties for the robe, and they balance out the loss of the dazzled condition.
2) Well, see part 1 for why you shouldn't have to worry about that. "Who robbed your store? Well, it was a figure in a black robe with a deep hood, but I couldn't see his or her face! Really? Well, there's only one guy like that around here, so we'll arrest him!" It would give him some bonus's at night, since he can remove the robe and nobody will recognize him. And that's ok, if he's stealing from the hamlet, just make him make the rolls, and if he succeeds, he's RPing his character as a CN thief (enforce alignment). And if he get's caught, he get's a hand cut off, or turns his character sheet over, or something.
Disclaimer : I played a dhampir, and did similar to this guy, and penalized myself for the hood and perceptions and I stood out like a sore thumb, and I just didn't try to be a sneak thief. :)
1) It wouldn't do anything. You're not dazzled because the hideous light of the Daystar is touching your flesh, you're dazzled because your eyes are sensitive to the brightness of sunlight. My eyes are very photosensitive and it doesn't matter how much shade my face has, it's still freakin' bright outside (the light reflecting off other surfaces, despite not illuminating my face, sure as Hell is slamming into my eyeballs). My dhampir wears shades to mitigate the obnoxious piercing pain, but he's still considered dazzled so it's pure fluff.
Don't let your players ignore drawbacks like that through cheap means--it should cost them resources, whether through more expensive magic items, a feat, a spell or by taking other penalties.
Abbas Kiarostami, a famous Iranian film director, is very sensitive to light and wears sunglasses too. But take a look at the causes for this kind of photophobia and you can see why shades don't negate the entire condition.
I don't think you should be so heavy handed concerning the theft of items. That is just a factor of a rogue, and the player should be allowed to attempt such things.
The player should likewise understand that if he is caught or identified, it is almost a guaranteed they are going to be sorry - all property confiscated, taking off their primary hand, and likely booting them out of town. Or maybe a straight up lynching.
I think that a theft spree could be an interesting campaign in its own right. If you and the rest of the group are not interested in devoting lots of time to running heists, I think you should talk to the player about toning it down.
Remember, most high-powered items are made on commission, so there is little to steal. The only time a merchant would be justified in having lots of expensive item on display is if there is a market for it. I.e. high level adventurers. In which case he can probably afford some adventurers of appropriate level to track the thief down.
If your player insists on thievery after you've talked to him about the kind of campaign you want to run, you can always offer to resolve it with a single check. Use his Stealth vs a high DC. If he wins, he gets some magic items. If he fails, his character loses all his wealth and one hand :)
Dazzled is not much of a penalty, especially given the some of the race's abilites. If he wants to wear the hooded cloak, or a big floppy hat, for RPing the light sensitivity I think that's great. In the long run I would allow some kind of magic item to be purchased to negate it.
As far as stealing, I guess he is Evil? In small isolated communities in a typical medieval world all outsiders are going to be viewed with a small degree of suspicion anyway - all it takes is one 1st level Paladin to Detect Evil on him to get him run out of town at least.
How do the good members of the party feel about it? Are they aware of it? Even if not they have the means to figure out whats going on, regardless of whether the locals do or not. Letting someone consistently prey upon the innocent is not Good. You don't have to have a Paladin's Code of Conduct to realize you have to do something about it.
Basically, running a mixed group of Good and Evil is going to be a problem very quickly, unless there is some clear "put aside our differences to save the world" kind of theme. So you may want to do a little reset of your campaign.
Or, you can have him become beholden to a much more powerful evil. Said evil takes him aside and says "You are making enough that you don't have to steal from peasants. Your kleptomania might draw attention to you, which might draw attention to me, and you would NOT like that. So cut it out."
Another option is let him cross the wrong person. Little shop keeper seems like an ordinary Expert, but in reality is a middle man in chain of smugglers who run things through the tiny village. He notices the theft and sicks some muscle on the PCs when they leave town. IF they kill the muscle, that only makes things worse - the boss' favorite nephew who was learning the ropes was among them.
No one gets away with it forever, they either quit or get caught. Even NPCs can roll a 20 on perception now and then.
There are also two very good OOC ways to handle a player like that:
1. "Bob, I want to run a heroic high fantasy type game. I'd rather you didn't run that kind of PC in my game, OK? Also I don;t have the time to run side-quests for your burglaries, this is a cooperative game, you need to work together with the party."
2. Show the player the WBL tables. Explain that getting wealth from stealing will just reduce the loot he finds while adventuring.
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Want to steal for money? Profession: Thief. This is how much you can safely steal per week.
I would throw in a cursed item or two that some other unscrupulous adventurer dumped at the "unknowing" shopkeepers store in the back-water hamlet. Let him use up his resources trying to get rid of that.
As for him stealing stuff, what I'm worried about is that he's going to steal some pretty sweet and expensive stuff.
I'm confused. His PC can't steal anything that you, the GM, don't rule is available to be stolen.
This is how my drow gets over his light sensitivity when needed. Still looks weird though.
Penumbra
School: evocation [darkness]
Level: sorcerer/wizard 0
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Components: V, S, M (a bit of soot)
Range: touch
Targets: creature or object touched
Duration: 10 minutes/level (D) (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: yes
This spell keeps the creature or object touched slightly in shadow. The target of this spell does not suffer any penalties or blindness caused by bright light, such as those from light sensitivity or light blindness.
You can have only one penumbra spell active at any one time. If you cast this spell while another casting is still in effect, the previous casting is dispelled.
How many "sweet" and "expensive" items could possibly by in a hamlet by the rules anyways? As I recall, the generators for magical items (based on community size) have them set at fairly low powered items.
R
Expensive magical items are protected by spells, and merchants have little patience with thieves. A simple locate object can find the stolen item, wizard mark can ensure they know it is theirs, and then the laws of justice turn...
@Dabbler
Locate object is a great spell since he'd most likely have no way of covering the item in lead (heck, a law could be passed around the land banning lead items due to this trait (it wouldn't mean he couldn't get one, just that he wouldn't be able to get one easily)) but arcane mark (I'm assuming this was the spell you meant) can easily be removed with a simple erase spell. They have a wizard in the group who'd be able to perform that. Reading up on erase though, illusory script could work, and it is a low level spell (any spell that can remove it though?).I'm going to be telling the player he'll have to go the profession route for thievery, as for IF I allow him to steal from shops, I'll be using the illusory script spell in addition to the locate object spell. When they get to high enough levels to suppress or remove the illusory script, they'll be in cities at that point and I'll be making use of more powerful mages for dealing with theft in the...
I would just point out to him that there are only a limited number of people making magic items, they frown on thieves and are very powerful, and that it's probably more trouble than it's worth as he could get himself blackballed from getting any custom items made, ever.
Thieves of epic level steal the eyes from the idols of mad gods in far off temples for a reason.
Why not allow the characters to "special order" magic items at these vendors? Someone out there is making the stuff. It isn't ALL random loot found in dungeons and brought in to sell. Just figure out an amount of time that they would have to wait that fits your campaign timeline.
@coffee golem
I couldn't find that spell using the PRD but I'm assuming it's a homebrewed spell. If it is, then it's a simple cantrip and would ESSENTIALLY be a 'always on' spell since it doesn't waste any resources, rendering the balancing (minor) weakness pointless. The dazzled effect is a problem for HIM, not myself, and I'm not looking to get rid of it.
I use an app that creates a comprehensive spell list. WHen you said that it made me curious, so I did a little digging. Apparently it's a non-PFS legal spell that was left out of the UM, but later listed on the website.
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Your player sounds like kind of a pain, but hey, they exist. (He also sounds new to the game. Is he new?). If he's trying to go on a crime spree in really small village, chances are there's really not a lot you can do about it. Most countryside folk probably aren't going to be able to afford the means to protect their stuff against a rogue with class levels.
However...
Show him that it's not a cake walk. Sure he can break into their shop and steal their stuff (and if it is a hamlet or thorp it shouldn't be much. If it is, he just got lucky that you rolled really well on the charts, so go him, the dice were on his side that day). Of course, what happens when your stuff suddenly goes missing and you know EVERYONE in town? Of course it's the creepy masked man who just showed up! Furthermore, it stands to reason that many small towns were founded by a retired, mid to high-level adventurer or two, because in a world with tons of weird monsters and supernatural threats, a village without someone to protect it isn't going to last. If he gets into the bad side of the law in town, have there be someone who can enforce the law. When he does get caught, he gets kicked out of town, and then what? He has to wait around out in the woods while the rest of the party enjoys being the town's new heroes? How is that fun? He may succeed here, but is it really going to be worth whatever crap he managed to grab from some mud-hole farming community in the middle of nowhere?
Once he tries pulling this in larger towns, of course, the amount of protection that shop keepers have is going to increase. There will be magical traps, security guards, other high level PCs, PCs with access to divination magic, etc. etc., and stealing stuff is going to require a LOT MORE EFFORT than just waltzing into a building with a good stealth check followed up by a disable device.
Make stealing things complicated, make it an adventure (but a tedious one, mostly. Not a fun one). Pretty soon he'll realize that the world isn't his personal grab bag, because theft is going to require more time and labor than he's willing to put in at the gaming table. I mean, if any rogue could just waltz into wherever he wanted with a high enough stealth, the world obviously wouldn't function.
I'm going to be telling the player he'll have to go the profession route for thievery
And as one final note, don't do this ^. If your player thinks that being an awesome thief is his "cool thing," don't take that away from him by whittling it down to a lame mechanic. Obviously he can't just rob people constantly because that would put the focus of the campaign on whatever he's doing, not what the whole group is doing, but let him have his moment to shine once or twice before you dial it back & start letting him feel the consequences of his incessant thievery. Remember, the game is never about GM vs. the players. You want to work to make sure that everyone is having fun, and pulling the rug out from his character concept = not fun.
One minor problem - how is this aspiring thief going to be able to detect and identify the "powerful" minor magic items correctly for what they are?
Does he have a respectable Appraise bonus? Some means of using detect magic? Lacking either of these things he's going to be grabbing the shiny trinkets that to trained eyes means that they're barely worth the coin to pay the appraiser.
All of these activities take time to do as well. If he's going to simply swipe the trinket seller clean, that takes encumbrance and carrying capacity. Be sure to ENFORCE the encumbrance rules!
Don't screw with this player's wealth as a result of his thievery. Reduce the entire party's wealth because of it. Essentially, the player is running solo encounters to go steal stuff (fine by me), but everything he nabs reduces what the party as a whole will obtain from normal adventuring activities.
Next you have to consider how to dissuade him from going overboard with it, which is a case of making the items he obtains useful to him and not anyone else in the party. Make it clear to the group as a whole that this character's activities benefit only him, but to preserve balance the gear other characters obtain is reduced commensurately.
Third, don't play nice. Risk vs reward. If the player wants a 1000 gp item, (mid-XP track), then he needs to solo a CR 4 encounter. Just make it an encounter that a fighter, wizard and cleric would be useful to have along. Multiple CR 1 traps are your friend. And trap everything. Doors, windows, chests, the floor in front of the chest, the wardrobe.
And then make the shopkeeper a retired L15 wizard.
... As for him stealing stuff, what I'm worried about is that he's going to steal some pretty sweet and expensive stuff...
First, your small settlements shouldn't really have much 'pretty sweet and expensive stuff.'
Second, the whole group will get a reputation. A small settlement doesn't get many visitors. If everytime their group comes to town stuff disappears, that will get around.
Third, anyone that can afford 'pretty sweet and expensive stuff' can afford to indulge a grudge. Fairly soon, they could have a whole cadre of thief takers and bounty hunters after them. If they start killing very many NPC's during their crime sprees they could easily end up with a crusade of paladins after them.
Fourth, yes their are alot of things to get around the protections a small shop can afford. There are also alot of ways (especially in a magic society) to find, track, pursue, and capture thieves.
Fifth, "My Liege, all the magic items we had set aside with which to pay our taxes were stolen by a group of shifty troublemakers. Rumor has it that they have done the same in several towns beholden to you. This may be an attack on your very honor and reputation. We do not have the means or authority to pursue the miscreants into another shire. But you my Lord do have the means and authority."
This could actually be alot of fun, but it could also derail the entire campaign.
Don't screw with this player's wealth as a result of his thievery. Reduce the entire party's wealth because of it. Essentially, the player is running solo encounters to go steal stuff (fine by me), but everything he nabs reduces what the party as a whole will obtain from normal adventuring activities.
I would caution against reducing the rewards to the rest of the party because of one player. It can tick the rest of them off if OOC they know that they are getting less (and still giving him a share of it) because one PC is a one-dhampir crime wave and keeping the profits all for himself.
I would just make sure that he understands that there will be consequences if he is caught. Don't let him tell you how he won't be caught, let him tell you what he does to avoid it. If he goes too far from the party, let them carry on without him.
Or just say: "No solo adventures."
I agree wholeheartedly that caution is needed, but as a GM, I've had better luck persuading recalcitrant players to toe the party line when the rest of the players are backing me up.
The idea, though, isn't to pit one player against the others (and you as GM), but to make them understand the balance of the game, which is built around a party, not one player.
If everyone knows, going in, that you will be handing out treasure for the party as a whole in line with the treasure per encounter guidelines, then "extra-curricular treasure hunting" will, by necessity, reduce the treasure obtained elsewhere.
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This guy is also a min-maxer, effort stealing an item? Doesn't matter, he likes power. I may be blowing this all out of proportion since he said he's not planning on simply stealing for the sake of it, just stealing to further increase the power of his character (which is where I'm worried). I'll give it a shot, let the party go through a few levels and then try and make a decision.
Sounds like you've got a pretty awesome campaign world! I envy you; I had to abandon homebrewed campaign settings after college started - just couldn't put in the time to maintain and create one :l
But I think my suggestions may still play to your advantage. The character may gain a statistical bonus bonus for having +1 shadow armor that he got for free, but he also has to deal with the fact that the town they were trying to work with now views him as a criminal and he has to lurk in the woods outside of town. And who wants to do that? Camping is only fun for like, two days if you're unprepared for it. Then it starts to suck. Basically, show him that yes, he can be a super awesome thief, but that there will be significant consequences and challenges involved. In the end, those challenges will be such a headache for him that getting the cool stuff for free isn't really worth it.
But seriously, dude sounds like a huge headache to GM. It may be worth just having a calm but firm one-on-one talk with him outside of the session to explain that what he's doing is making GMing his character a huge headache. You could tell him that you're willing to indulge him every now and then, but to have to keep up with that sort of play style on a regular basis would be difficult for you and the party. Ask him to be considerate of the rest of the group and adjust his behavior so that everyone can have a good time. Just be sure to let him know that you don't want to crap all over his character concept, but as it is it's going to be a problem. I'm sure you guys can work out a compromise.
As for him stealing stuff, what I'm worried about is that he's going to steal some pretty sweet and expensive stuff. I found a generator for settlement items and the way I see it, if he insists on stealing from shops, I may be forced to make it so that you can only rarely find magical items in a shop and that almost 95% of it has to be found via adventuring. I'm not fond of this method since it'll render much of their gold worthless if they can't buy better items with it but I'm running a proper session for the first time and already it's gotten out of hand (it's not difficult to foil scrying and other detection methods and higher level detection would be out of the question for places like thorps, hamlets and small villages), two out of a six member party want to go evil whereas two of the rest will be good (don't know what the remaining two are going to be).
Most villages and hamlets aren't going to have a lot of expensive stuff to steal. It's not like a magic shop is just going to pop up being run by a 3rd level commoner. There are gp limits in those places. He might make off with a potion or two from the local temple, or get some alchemical equipment with a five-finger discount, but not much else. As the GM, you have final say on what is and isn't available in these places.
Then there's the ripple effect. Stuff doesn't just happen in a vacuum. If enough merchants and other folk complain, the message will go up the chain of command. Someone will eventually come to deal with the thief. If the local mayor/council can't handle it, they'll take the problem to the local lord. If he can't handle it, perhaps he'll take it to a local temple. An inquisitor of Abadar might take an interest in apprehending a thief using magic to rob local merchants...
The shopkeeper will glowingly describe his inventorin order to boost sales. This is largely an age of barter and haggling, not an age of "crafter's suggested retail price". Minor magical trinkets are going to be described as though they are incredibly capable items, not one-use feather tokens. These items are going to be as secure as the shop keep can afford to make them.
If the dhampir buys into the shopkeep's glowing descriptions of his magnificent magical inventory - all 3 or 4 items - without himself being able to Appraise and/or discern any magical auras, the dhampir should (if he "lifts" the items) wind up with items that had magic aura applied to the and/or one or more cursed items.
If the *one* shopkeep in that hamlet / thorpe / one-building settlement keeps a 'special stash' of bogus items on hand specifically meant to be sold to guillable adventurer types (read: strangers with heavy purses) you can bait the greedy player into getting himself into all kinds of trouble.
Combine this with the numerous above suggestions as you see fit.
Encumbrance is an issue because it's part of the game. A simple way to keep thieves from sneaking in and waltzing off with your strongbox is to weigh the thing down with a gob of ingots, say iron or lead. A DC 30 lock is quite affordable while a DC 40 lock is simply a *sound* investment for purveyors of magical wares. When the thief can't pick the lock, the next normal course of action is to simply snatch the chest. When the 400-pound strongbox doesn't budge, odds are the player's impatience gets the better of him. As a decoy have the strongbox secured via bolted chains between itself and the floor and/or walls. Such relatively simple ironwork should be doable by the local blacksmith.
Hopefully the thief heriates trying to tug the strongbox, wakes the shopkeep and gets his comeuppance. More likely, the shopkeep gets his family out of harms' way as he sounds an alarm...
My understanding is that the items per hamlet is not a magical shop, it is the number of items in the hamlet at all. ie they are owned. Probably by someone who *wants* that item to some degree.
So a +1 longsword is in the hands of the local lords dilettante son (a magus).
The +1 shadow armour is in the hands - and on the body - of the sherrif. 3500 is about an APL 8 ecounter, so you can have a reasonably experienced sherrif who has a very competent set of dogs.
Worst, both could be in the hands of the same guys.
I agree with whoever said these are solo adventures, sometimes quite awesome ones. If this is where the guy wants his cool to be, then go for it. However, I think limiting the number of solo adventures is an understandable thing for a GM to do, and that is where profession comes in.
@Dabbler
That is actually a really cool thought you just put in my head. I'm picturing: Items are signed by wizards who crafted them, making higher level wizards respect the effort of lesser wizards who also craft, and they hate when those lesser wizards items get stolen since they sympathize with the effort and dedication.
It makes a lot of sense that those that make these rare and expensive items would want everyone to know that it was their work, and they would be distinctive and recognisable. It's kind of like the artists or Renaissance Italy: signed, paid for, and everyone knows who made it and how much it cost so they could all make appropriate praise of the person that owned it.
In the case of magic items, there will be the occasional 'shady dealers' prepared to erase the marks of another maker, or to come up with speciality items with no questions asked, but these are devious people not easily trusted. If they could be trusted, they wouldn't be blackballed by the other makers and wanted by the authorities.
It's also worth noting that those with the gold make the rules. The nouveau rich annoy the already-wealthy at their peril.
For your viewing pleasure: Protective Penumbra - Ultimate Magic (pg 233). Or, you can just use the rare cantrips if you want to allow them.
As to the problem of the crime spree PC, I agree with previous suggestions. Locks (arcane lock it for +10 and knock only suppresses it for 10 minutes) cursed items, as well as limited wealth in small towns, etc. You can also try placing a stone of alarm inside any locked/shut boxes, maybe have some tiny holes so there's no question the 'piercing screech' can be heard? Use traps.
He's only a beguiler, you could easily take him out with any decent tier 1 if he gets problematic. Not that you have to kill him, just shift his focus from accumulation of wealth to dealing with problematic <kingdom> <wizard/druid/cleric/>. As a beguiler he'll never be versatile enough to deal with every trick every person has. If he's optimising that's likely to change though.
You can also have him make his disguise/stealth checks so the villagers don't specifically suspect him and so the whole party starts to feel the backlash of him stealing things. That said, that could just cause enmity between you and your players. Especially if they're going along with it.
As long as you're creative you should be able to reduce the amount he takes and get him the satisfaction of completing a challenging encounter. And you can just do as others have suggested and alter the WBL levels accordingly (if you do do the backlash thing this would be an interesting way to drop IC hints he's getting more than his fair share).
Just my 2cp.