Thieves guild (minion ideas)

[FlintWestwood]

Hi everyone, this is my first thread/real post. I am DMing a game set in Silverymoon/ Silver Marches in 3.5e. For our second adventure I was planning on doing the sort of cliche sewer adventure where they discover the thieves guild in town is using it to smuggle and do their other types of business.

Anyways, the reason for the thread was to ask about what types of minions would be good to use here instead of just having humanoid rogues of 1-3rd level. The characters/party are about 2-3rd level (mixed). What I mean here is like lots of goblins, well trained hob-goblins, hordes of kobolds, etc. Monstrous type beings would be more interesting but also perhaps a reasoning as to why they are operating for the thieves, etc.

For example I had the idea that this thieves guild is rather new, with its leader being an ex-zhent agent that retired (yakuza style with the pinky slicing) but in actuality he grew bored of retirement and thought himself clever enough to outfox his old band and start new with this little *side business*

So, I just thought it would be cool to hear thoughts or suggestions on what types of minions to use so to speak. I mean, I can perfectly well stay with mostly human, half-orc, half-elves, gnomes, etc.

Thanks for reading!

[BowStreetRunner]

For sewer-work, it always helps to have amphibious creatures. They can use the tunnels even when they are submerged, and it makes for an opportunity to have the PCs have to make some swim checks. Locathah, Kuo-toa, and Sahuagin have the aquatic subtype. Lizardfolk can hold their breath a long time.

[Zaq]

Why does your guild of thieves exist in your world? Thievery is usually fairly, y'know, legally and socially discouraged. So if you've got a whole guild full of thieves, what does that imply? The answer to this question might help you brainstorm what direction you want to take this whole world-building exercise in.

Are they like the mafia, a group of organized criminals that the authorities (well, the ones who aren't on the take, at least) would just love to get rid of but that they just can't for some reason? You know, a shadowy underground organization whose existence is basically an open secret but that few would admit to being part of, or perhaps an extremely visible presence in the parts of town they "own"?

Do they operate aboveboard with some kind of official approval? What kinds of thievery are "legitimate"? Who gets to decide what kinds of targets get stolen from and in what manner? Maybe they even have some kind of truly legitimate services to offer the general populace (locksmithery, for example) that just so happen to strongly overlap with the kinds of skills needed by people who want to take things from other people. Even calling themselves the "thieves' guild" might be something of a kidding-on-the-square joke. Walk into their main office in broad daylight and order some legitimate work (private investigation or something), but come in when there's fewer eyes to see, subtly drop the right key words into your conversation, and you might be able to find messier work offered for a messier price.

Maybe they sell themselves primarily as a training academy for people who want to learn skills like disarming traps and so on. Again, give the right signal to the right person at the right time, and you just might be able to hire someone who would be willing to demonstrate some of the skills taught there, but officially, they're just teachers and trainers.

Basically, the concept of a guild of thieves is a little awkward, but that means that you've got some various threads to follow.

This isn't actually an answer to your question, but I'm hoping that you can use it to generate some other ideas!

[Efrate]

Depending when in the timeline of FR you are might help. If alustriel is reigning, and obald many arrows has his nation, orcs can make great brutish thieves and might get away with a bit more than non orcs because of political tension. Silverymoon is very well policed so you need something reasonable to make it work at all. Drow also work within the timeline though being so brazen as to operate a thieves guild might be beneath them. However a disguised elvan sage giving advice to adventurers would be totally legitimate and a way to scope the town from the inside, and makes a reasonable guild leader. Orcs could report to him especially if he's a mysterious non native, finding a kinship in a fellow outcast. Or so they would say.

For dungeon denziens, trained crocodiles with a ranger or druid looking out for them works. Something like svirfneblin or derro operating as a far outpost for rare surface goods for the underdark also could make sense. Magical beasts can be trained with handle animal so thoqqua which get into places they shouldn't and leave a nice tunnel for something small or tiny to follow after it cools, provided someone can stone shape it closed or do quick masonry that holds up to at least casual scrutiny, duegar or derro could readily enough. Germaline or any small or tiny fey could easily follow.

Myconids would thrive in a sewer, and could allies unwittingly or not of either side, and a plant domain cleric, or a druid likely, can get some violet or shrieker or phantom fungus to work as sentries or alarms.