Help me make the stickiest-fingered thief D&D has to offer

[Yipyioh]

Right, so I've been out of RPG's for a while, and I'm very rusty on 3.5 after having done so much Pathfinder previously. I'm playing in a new "Evil-Only" campaign with a group (all very close friends) who I have yet to roleplay with. As such, I want to keep the game-breaking down and the special requests minimal. I've been given the impression that at least for the first large chunk it will be a primarily urban campagin.

All I want is a dude who steals things exceptionally well. I've probably been playing too much Thief recently, and that old Garrett roleplay itch is coming on. I'm finding myself lost after having dealt with the Rogue extensively in Pathfinder, where archetypes and maneuvers make stealing, disarming, and general tomfoolery a breeze with the abilities even on their PRD. The Cutpurse PF archetype along with ready-made trees of feats and Rogue abilities to improve combat maneuvers would have been my go-to, but going back into 3.5 I find myself... Drawing a blank.

The specifics of what I am looking for are as follows:
-Ability to snatch things with impunity, possibly even in combat
-Lots of disarming enemies
-Ability to inflict a high amount of nonlethal damage, preferably with a sap
-Fallback plan of running, jumping, and climbing until I can hide again
-Other cartoonishly useful toolbox abilities along the lines of Throat Punch

I know I'm probably going to be making heavy use of Luck/Ambush feats along with movement based Skill Tricks via Uncanny Trickster coupled with Thief Acrobat, but beyond that I don't even know where to look for feats or other rogue prestige classes that aren't specifically focused on dealing more damage in more creative ways. I don't mind magic (a level or two of beguiler was probably going to be in there somewhere) but bonus points for helping me make this dude mundane.

Anyone who points me in the direction of water arrows will have my eternal gratitude, for what little that's worth to you.

[Cerefel]

The Cutpurse feat in the Dragon Compendium lets you steal in combat. Aside from that your main thing is going to be boosting your sleight of hand through the roof.

[One Step Two]

Well, I am about to utter the two words that are likely to set off a powder keg here on the forums: Kender Handler

The Kender race from Dragonlance are the premier race for being a pickpocket, and if you're allowed access to the Races of Ansalom third party handbook for Dragonlance, you can use the Kender Handler prestige class, which has a few neat tricks including: whenever you land a sneak attack, you pickpocket an item from your target.

If you can find a copy of the book to view the class, I can't recommend it enough.

[Zancloufer]

Cutpurse feat is pretty much a must have. Beyond that you only need to hit DC 50 to steal weapons and similar items of someone person. DC 80 let's you STEAL A PERSON, so I'm pretty sure you can rob people of their armour by that point. For a -20 on your check you can do it as a free action.

Does anyone remember that one goblin build that could steal itself? IIRC by level 13 they could reliable hit DC 100 slight of Hand checks, you probably don't need more than 60-70 to literally rob someone blind as a free action, but it's a place to look for slight of hand boosters.

As for optimization, well literally stealing all but the pants of an enemy as a free action, especially in a city setting, is pretty solid.

[MisterKaws]

Well, I'm sorry to say, but, just like about anything else, Wizards do it better. There are teleportation spells and other stuff, so stealing items is quite a breeze for them. Most of the spells DO allow a will save for held items, but you can just boost those through the roof.

[daremetoidareyo]

The feat that you want is tucked away in the Eberron book, city of stormreach. Master pickpocket: only -10 to make your sleight of hand checks a FREE ACTION. You can steal basically anything that isn't in their hands, infinite times per round. That's all of their arrows, spell components, scrolls, amulets, gold pieces, belly button lint, etc.

[Darrin]

My Lightning Thief (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?142080-3-5-The-Lightning-Thief-Epic-Sleight-of-Hand-Abuse) build (AKA: STEAL ALL THE THINGS!) might be worth a look.

[DMVerdandi]

Well, I'm sorry to say, but, just like about anything else, Wizards do it better. There are teleportation spells and other stuff, so stealing items is quite a breeze for them. Most of the spells DO allow a will save for held items, but you can just boost those through the roof.
This.

I mean...Mundanely being a thief is like... Something you can struggle to make happen, but in reality, 3.5 doesn't really have that kind of final fantasy "Steal" kind of thing going on with it. In reality, it's easier to just kill something and loot the body. Pick-pocketing is not really a reliable source of income, nor practical.

Spell-point wizard variant FTW. You don't have to take one overtly magical spell. You could have nothing but buffs, utility spells (like swim, divination spells, invisibility, teleportation), and like fog spells and just be that cat-burgular that disappears in a puff of smoke.

[Zancloufer]

Well, I'm sorry to say, but, just like about anything else, Wizards do it better. There are teleportation spells and other stuff, so stealing items is quite a breeze for them. Most of the spells DO allow a will save for held items, but you can just boost those through the roof.

Actually I would argue a Rouge with enough Slight of Hand is MUCH BETTER at stealing everything that isn't bolted down than a Wizard. Also they can do it all day instead of as much as they dedicate their spells to. Also said Rouge would probably be decent at the normal stealthy Rouge things to, so he wouldn't be useless out of combat. I mean as a FREE ACTION AT WILL stripping ALL the gear of someone isn't something a wizard could do, but a decently optimized rouge (like the Lightning Theif build posted below) can.

[Extra Anchovies]

Actually I would argue a Rouge with enough Slight of Hand is MUCH BETTER at stealing everything that isn't bolted down than a Wizard. Also they can do it all day instead of as much as they dedicate their spells to. Also said Rouge would probably be decent at the normal stealthy Rouge things to, so he wouldn't be useless out of combat.

Rogue 1/Wizard 4/Unseen Seer 1/Arcane Trickster 1 can keep alternating between the two PrCs and end up with 19/20 wizard casting, 8d6 sneak attack, and max ranks in all the useful rogueish skills (R1/W4/US7/AT8 averages 4.5+Int skill points per level, and will likely have a huge Int modifier).


I mean as a FREE ACTION AT WILL stripping ALL the gear of someone isn't something a wizard could do, but a decently optimized rouge (like the Lightning Theif build posted below) can.

Sleight of Hand only allows the user to take small objects, with examples of light weapons and hand crossbows. Epic sleight of hand allows the user to take weapons up to one size category larger than the user, but does not extend that benefit to nonweapon objects.

[MisterKaws]

Actually I would argue a Rouge with enough Slight of Hand is MUCH BETTER at stealing everything that isn't bolted down than a Wizard. Also they can do it all day instead of as much as they dedicate their spells to. Also said Rouge would probably be decent at the normal stealthy Rouge things to, so he wouldn't be useless out of combat. I mean as a FREE ACTION AT WILL stripping ALL the gear of someone isn't something a wizard could do, but a decently optimized rouge (like the Lightning Theif build posted below) can.

An Incantatrix can persist enough buffs to auto-succeed in all epic-tier rogue skill checks, and if we start using Incantatrix Sorcerers instead of Wizards, casting eight or more low-level spells with a single high-level spell slot(8 or 9) isn't really an issue.

Don't even get me started on Wizard/Incantatrix/Shadowcraft Mages with Arcane Disciple(Luck) and Residual Magic; that's just not fun. I mean, you can't compete with a wizard spamming Twin Repeated Invisible [Insert even more metamagic feats here], zero-xp, 100% real, Shadow Miracles.

[Yipyioh]

Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate the pointers towards the arcane. Some levels of Unseen Seer may not be amiss...

For thematic (and balance reasons) I'm going to stick to the mundane for about 10 levels though, and I'm looking intently at a 2-level dip into Monk (with Aescetic Rogue, Stunning Fist, Improved Disarm, and the Decisive Strike swap) and later the Superior Unarmed Fighting feat. Cutpurse and Master Pickpocket will be thematic necessities. Having thought about the ramifications of an all-evil campaign, and having drawn a blank on ways to make that nonlethal blackjack useful, I'm going to be content with cracking some skulls and breaking some noses, and THEN stealing their crap.

Looks like the intent for this guy will probably just be doing a bunch of SA damage unexpectedly (ability to function at 100% without weapons will be entertaining for infiltration things) as well as making an attempt at all times to be taking away the bad guys' toys pre-or-mid-battle. This is starting at level 1 and I get the feeling it'll be slow-grow, so I'm not too concerned right now with the meta of having to fight high-end monsters or mages who nullify practically all of a Rogue's abilities compared to a wizard.

Any ideas for feats or abilities I should look into that will play into the unarmed sneak attack deal? I'm staying the hell away from the Tome of Battle and eastern influenced stuff entirely for this one, so anything ki-ish is out. Anything monk-wise/unarmed that I could use in combination with a sneak attack to debuff their ability to react to stealing and/or disarming?