Track - Revisited

[Yonna]

I would ask that the administration reconsider the case of Track's removal from the thieves guild skill list. Thieves would be masters of their trades, and this would include being able to find a target in a populated area. If not track, perhaps a refined version of this skill more geared towards city establishments. Thank you for your time and consideration

[Zach]

I would have to agree with Yonna... like the rangers can only hide in the wilds.... thiefs could only track in the city... the city for the thief should be the wilds for the rangers...

I think of the thief as being just at home with his suroundings in the city... as a ranger would be in the wild.

[Hrosskell]

I agree with this, from a personal standpoint. There are quite a few skills that can be used differently in a city setting vs. a wild setting, and while thieves are not rangers directly, they are your more Urban ranger. They know the streets, the back alleys, quicker ways to get places, and all that jazz. I would also think that track for thieves would have a certain intellect part to it, just as a hunter tracking a beast would need to know its habits. I see thief-tracking as a sort've mix between gather information, a skill in DnD, and track, but I could be wrong about this.

[Kilak]

In the second edition thief handbook I think they called the skill Trailing. It was, for all purposes in the game, the tracking skill only usable in urban/city settings.

[Kregor]

As I recall.... the reason for track being taken out of the thief guild file was for the sake of the scouts guild that would be coming into the game. Sort of a way to differentiate the two guilds based on the rogue. The incentive being that one would draw to one guild over another based on the skill set.

As it stands right now, it has been months since the scouts guild was discussed, that guild still does not exist. As it stands now, there is no rogue guild that can track, and there hasn't been for months.

At the same time, we are moving toward D20. Track is not a skill, it is a feat. It is an automatic feat for rangers, automatic for scouts, and an option for thieves (and, other classes, for that matter, a fighter could actually take the feat, as could a priest, etc. with the cost of a feat point)

My first thought is this, that as we reexamine skills and feats for the 3E migration, things will change, the way some skills will be acquired will possibly change as well.

My thought would be allow the skill to be trainable with a feat point, much in the way we can acquire non-guild skills via feats like militia (which gives bows and polearms to those fromt he right regions who train it.)

We have more major D20 revisions to the game in the near future: saves and resistances, feats and skills, and combat and armour. I personally want to see revisions next that benefit the thief class the most. In FKMud 3.0 came large improvements and new spells, etc. for all primary and secondary casting classes.

Thieves got nothing, and in fact ended up slightly less empowered due to changes in the spell code that underlies influence and discern. Some skills, like sap, are way unbalanced, while some, like backstab/circle, are crippled and clumsy vs. the D20 sneak attack. Skills and feats for the rogue need review and refinement. Thieves are the class that need attention next, in my opinion, to make them the versatile jack of all trades and asset to an adventuring party that the D20 system makes them.