The rogue or thief is one of the standard playable character classes in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A rogue is a versatile character, capable of sneaky combat and nimble tricks. The rogue is stealthy and dexterous, and in early editions was the only official base class from the Player's Handbook capable of finding and disarming traps and picking locks. The rogue also has the ability to "sneak attack" ("backstab" in previous editions) enemies who are caught off-guard or taken by surprise, inflicting extra damage. Publication history Creative origins The abilities of the thief class were drawn from various archetypes from history and myth, but clear debts from modern fantasy literature can be traced to characters such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Bilbo Baggins, Fritz Leiber's The Gray Mouser, and Jack Vance's Cugel the Clever. In his article "Jack Vance and the D&D Game", Gary Gygax stresses the influence that Vance's Cugel and also Zelazny's Shadowjack had on the thief class. Dungeons & Dragons D&D fan Gary Switzer shared the idea for a thief class with Gary Gygax over the phone; development was done in Switzer's roleplaying group, primarily by D. Daniel Wagner, one of the writers of The Manual of Aurania, the first non-TSR D&D supplement. The thief was first published in the Game Players Newsletter #9 (June 1974). The thief class was then included in the original 1975 Greyhawk supplement. They had 4-sided hit dice under the new combat system introduced in that supplement. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition The thief was one of the standard character classes available in the original Player's Handbook. The thief was presented as one of the five core classes in the original Players Handbook. In 1st edition the thief was the only character class that any nonhuman type, such as an elf, dwarf, or halfling, could achieve unlimited levels in. The thief's hit dice improved to a d6. In 1st edition, thieves were swiftest to earn new levels. At the same time, thieves were sharply limited by having their essential skills (such as Open Locks and Move Silently) defined as beginning at a flat chance of success of perhaps 10-20% regardless of most circumstances, and requiring perhaps ten levels to reach the point where they had much confidence in using them. Basic Dungeons & Dragons Thieves were available as a character class in the game's "Basic" edition. In