The thief character in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st edition is just that; a thief. Pickpocket, cut-purse, cat burglar, sneaky little blighter….
I'm thinking of running a non-combat (or minimum combat) series of games. One of the ideas is to turn the thief into a con-man and run a 'con the greedy rich baron' scheme, or something along those lines.
First, is AD&D even the right system to be doing this in? And if it is, what kind of abilities, besides 'pick pockets', 'hide in shadows', 'move silently', etc., would you expect a 'con-man' to have?
Best Answer
AD&D is a terrible system for this kind of play. This isn't the appropriate question to get into what games would be better (I recommend a new, follow-up question).
As written, most versions of D&D are combat-oriented games. They're geared for high action, preferably in a dungeon or similar environment. I'm not saying you can't do other things--it's obvious that you can--but you're outside the comfort zone of the rules.
If you were going to play a con man in AD&D, I'd create a new class for it. It'd have none of the thief abilities you list. Con men are social warriors, not sneaks. I'd create a percentile chart (by level) for these con abilities:
Note how "fuzzy" these abilities are compared to thieves' abilities like Climb Walls and Hide in Shadows! You're counting on your DM to really make this work for you.