Investigator
Skill Progression: A balance of generalized skills serves Investigators well. Picking pockets is less important, of course, although you must remember that it may be useful for sleight-of-hand, which may serve an Investigator. Read Languages skills are a must for deciphering clues; some criminals write important information in obscure languages or secret codes, and being able to decipher it may mean success or failure for the Investigator. Other skills (lockpicking, trap detection and disarmament, and so on) are useful for penetrating and examining the hideouts and houses of suspects.
Some Investigators are of course in the employ of some government. This does not necessarily identify them as good, however. An Investigator may be portrayed as a sort of "good guy cop," if it suits the campaign. But if the players are running thieves (especially folk hero types), the Investigator could be sinister and evil, a perfect foil to the PC thieves' capers.
The relationship between Investigator thieves and guilds is not usually that of allies. An Investigator might be employed by a guild, however; though usually a Spy, or perhaps a Troubleshooter, would do the guild's "investigating."
In fact, an Investigator might not even realize that he is employed by a guild, if his ostensible employer is a "front" business. Interesting cloak-and-dagger-style adventures could be built around an Investigator discovering, in the course of his work, that the shadow he is following actually lurks behind his own employer.
And of course, Investigators ostensibly employed by the government, like other magistrates and officials, sometimes "go bad," and are bought off by a guild, either for information, or in exchange for a blind eye turned toward guild activities.
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