Town of Salem Game Forums

Thief

Summary: The thief is a Neutral Evil role that steals information from innocent townies and can reveal it to evils if they so choose.

Ability:
Spoiler: Choose one person to steal from each night, learning their secrets. Click the sun icon during the day to reveal the information you found last night to all other evil players.

Attributes:
Spoiler: *You will learn the alignment of your target.
*You can reveal information twice per game.
*You have one-time Basic defense against non-town attacks..

Special Attributes:
Spoiler: *Bite Immune.
*You may only reveal information gathered the previous night.

Stats:
Spoiler: Attack: None
Defense: None
Priority: 3

Goal: Wins as long as Town loses (does not have to survive until the end of the game).

Investigative Results:
Spoiler: Sheriff Results: Your target is not suspicious.
Investigator Results: Your target possesses sensitive information. They could be an Investigator, Consigliere, Mayor, or Thief.
Witchsiegliere Results: Your target steals valuables from those around him. They must be a Thief!

Messages:
Spoiler: You managed to steal notes containing information on other citizens. Your target is Town Investigative.
You managed to steal a weapon. Your target is Town Killing.
You managed to steal a guard contract. Your target is Town Protective.
You managed to steal innocent-looking trinkets. Your target is Town Support.
You attempted to steal, but you noticed your target's fine suits. Your target is Mafia Support.
You attempted to steal, but recognized an old ally. Your target is Mafia Deception.
You attempted to steal, but you saw a gun hidden in your target's desk. Your target is Mafia Killing.
You managed to steal a list with the names of recently murdered citizens. Your target is Neutral Killing.
You attempted to steal, but your target is on your side. Your target is Neutral Evil.
You attempted to steal, but your target had nothing of value. Your target is Neutral Benign.
You managed to steal a scroll with crazed writing on it. Your target is Neutral Chaos.
You managed to steal a scroll with ancient runes inscribed on it. Your target is a member of the Coven.
A Thief informed you that (target) is (alignment)! (Only shown to evils when the thief chooses to reveal information)
You were about to attack (target) but you recognized them as a Thief! (Shown only to an evil player who attacked you while you had defense.)

Achievements:
Spoiler: Sneaky: Win one game as a Thief.
Sticky Fingers: Win five games as a Thief.
Wanted Robber: Win fifteen games as a Thief.
Invisible Man: Win twenty-five games as a Thief.
Grand Theft: Steal from five different people in one game.
Traitor: Steal from two different evil players in one game.
Repeat Offender: Steal from the same person twice in one game.

Lore:
Spoiler: The Thief started his career as a young boy, using his charms to distract his victims while he pick-pocketed them while their guard was down. It started with small things, just a few coins or some baubles he found interesting. As time went on, he conducted bigger heists, stealing from important town figures like the Mayor, but he never got caught. Until one day, that is. He went snooping around in the house of the town Investigator after dark fell. As he was leaving, loot in hand, he heard a gun cock behind him. He turned around and saw two well-dressed figures, one with a fine rose on his lapel, and the other pointing a revolver straight at the thief's chest. The thief had heard rumors of the Mafia in Salem, but had thought nothing of it until now. The Mafia demanded that he hand over the loot, and if he complied, he just might live. The thief, thinking quickly, dropped the loot at his feet and told the Godfather that he had valuable information that the Mafia could use if they let him go with his loot that, in the thief's mind, was rightfully his. The Mafioso kept the gun pointed at the thief, but turned towards the Godfather. The Godfather gave an almost imperceptible nod, and the Mafioso lowered the revolver. The thief then told the Godfather of his harrowing raid on the Mayor's house, and with it detailed knowledge of how to get to the Mayor himself. From that day forward, the Thief remained a close ally of the Mafia, always willing to lend a hand to anyone looking to take down the Town of Salem.

Changelog:
Spoiler: 4/1/18: Added Lore
4/2/18: Changed Basic Defense to Evil-only Autovest that notifies the attacker that you are a Thief.
4/4/18: Cleaned up formatting.
4/17/18: Removed Roleblock/Transport immunit, added priority.

My overall goal with this role is to make a Neutral Evil that actually benefits all other evils. Currently the only NE that actually helps evils is Witch, and this requires the Witch to choose between Mafia and Neutral Killing. Executioner and Jester have their own primary goals, and only help evils in a kingmaker situation if they choose evils over town. The Thief helps all evils, as they can use the information gathered to choose targets and make fake claims, and if the Thief finds another evil, they can provide further help through whispers. I think this would be a good way to give a small boost to evils across the board. Please give any and all feedback you have, and thanks for checking out my role idea!

It kind of reminds me of the gossiper, only gossiper gives one evil the information every night.
All in all, it seems like it could be a decent NE, but it's ability is too much of a double edged sword. It could turn the evils against each other, which would give Mafia and Coven too much advantage over the Neutrals.
Also change the defense from Basic to NE autovest.

I thought about Thief being too helpful to Mafia/Coven compared to other Neutrals, but so is the Witch. And, the Thief can reveal anyone, including Mafia and NK. In Ranked, which the Thief is balanced for, the only other evils are Maf/Coven and NK. Finding a Mafia member simply tells the NK who to target if Mafia ever gets majority. Your point about turning evils against each other is moot, because it is already like that from the start. Maf needs NK to clear out more townies in the beginning but NK quickly becomes a threat by N4 when they hit Mafia as well. It even says in the goals that Mafia must kill NK’s and vice versa. I do like the autovest though, I’ll think about that one.

EvanFishsticks wrote:I thought about Thief being too helpful to Mafia/Coven compared to other Neutrals, but so is the Witch. And, the Thief can reveal anyone, including Mafia and NK. In Ranked, which the Thief is balanced for, the only other evils are Maf/Coven and NK. Finding a Mafia member simply tells the NK who to target if Mafia ever gets majority. Your point about turning evils against each other is moot, because it is already like that from the start. Maf needs NK to clear out more townies in the beginning but NK quickly becomes a threat by N4 when they hit Mafia as well. It even says in the goals that Mafia must kill NK’s and vice versa. I do like the autovest though, I’ll think about that one.

While that's a poor balancing act, I can't deny that you're right about its balance or the way it is.
BUT as an NE, you want to keep the other evils working together to eliminate the town ASAP.
Also NE autovests are a must at this point, since TG has basically taken Exe and Jest, moved them to NB with some reworks done and made all NEs roles with autovests and the witch wincon.

Blackwolfe99 wrote:

EvanFishsticks wrote:I thought about Thief being too helpful to Mafia/Coven compared to other Neutrals, but so is the Witch. And, the Thief can reveal anyone, including Mafia and NK. In Ranked, which the Thief is balanced for, the only other evils are Maf/Coven and NK. Finding a Mafia member simply tells the NK who to target if Mafia ever gets majority. Your point about turning evils against each other is moot, because it is already like that from the start. Maf needs NK to clear out more townies in the beginning but NK quickly becomes a threat by N4 when they hit Mafia as well. It even says in the goals that Mafia must kill NK’s and vice versa. I do like the autovest though, I’ll think about that one.

While that's a poor balancing act, I can't deny that you're right about its balance or the way it is.
BUT as an NE, you want to keep the other evils working together to eliminate the town ASAP.
Also NE autovests are a must at this point, since TG has basically taken Exe and Jest, moved them to NB with some reworks done and made all NEs roles with autovests and the witch wincon.

This is why I made the win-con state that the thief does not have to be alive to win. I want it to be a true Neutral Evil, in the sense that it is an Evil that is Neutral. It helps all evils, and doesn't care who wins in the end, as long as it is not town. Mafia knows not to mess with the NK early on so Town dies faster, but they run the risk of NK hitting them instead. Yes, this can be swingy, but it is how the game works and I decided to balance for that. It's not that Maf/NK should be a team, it's more that they both work on the principle of "Eliminate the biggest threat the fastest", which in both cases, is Town.