How do I join the Thieves Guild? I've only been playing for about a month, and I want to make a thief.


I don't know if there is already a topic about this. But if there is, sorry.

Pick a few pockets and they'll contact you soon. There's an entry quest; don't botch it.

If you want to pick pockets easier, wander inside a dungeon and pickpocket rats or other innofensive animals. Don't do it outside a dungeon though, because guards will arrest your for pickpocketing an animal.

And don't be suprised to find a love letter on the said rat, or a half-eaten sandwich on a bat. You know, regular stuff on regular animals.

Thanks

Should I just choose the Thief class or make my own? And if I did make my own thief class, what skills should I pick?

The advantage of making a custom character is boosting your stats.
The pre-made classes can give you good starting stats, but not as good as doing it custom.
That's why the custom class creation is a lot of fun.

If you plan on making a pure Thief, I suggest degrading your strength a bit and boost your speed, agility and intelligence.
Here's my skills suggestion :

Primary
- Lockpick
- Stealth
- Pickpocketing

Major
- Short Blade
- Backstabbing
- Mercantile

Minor
- Jumping
- Streetwise
- Swimming
- Medical
- Climbing
- Dodging

Streetwise is very useful if you are caught by the guards and are brought to court. You can lie about your crimes and if you have good Streetwise you can reduce your jail sentence or even convince the judge that you were not guilty of the crimes.
I didn't put running anywhere because it's the skill that improves the fastest. Simply always run and your running skill will improve quickly.

If you do not intend to use magic at all, you can use the disadvantages to your advantage..
Take the one where your magicka is "stunted" (cannot fill up by sleeping)
Take the one where you are less powerful with magicka during the night AND during the day.
Take the one where you CAN'T use magicka.

These three will bring your leveling dagger all the way down and will allow you to get powerful advantages like "Immune to Parylisis", "Immune to Diseases". I also recommend taking Athleticism, which will give you a boost in every Acrobatic/Athletic skills.

As a Race, I recommend a Khajiit too. They (apparently) have a boost in thievery skills.

Enjoy your Thief! You will see that it's really fun to pickpocket a citizen, run away from the guards, climb up buildings, get inside the city fortifications, reach the top of a city wall then leave town by jumping off the city wall. Just make sure not to die in the attempt.


I wonder what Jormungandr thinks of my class proposition. Jormungandr likes magic, I believe. Me, I despise it.

Thanks, I'll try it out.

So I made a Thief (not custom) and I broke into a house. Will I be able to join the Thieves Guild now?

I'm not sure if stealing stuff from wardrobes, drawers or crates can get you in the Thieves' Guild. Just breaking in a house won't, though.
But the best way is pickpocketing people on the street and then running away or pickpocketing a monster in the wilderness.
If you don't get any answer from the Thieves Guild, continue your criminal activities. They will get to you eventually.

ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!
With slight differences you just recreated my all-time favorite character! No magic whatsoever, nothing but roguish goodness (or evilness, depending on the wind). That's the character I used to conquer the main quest (including the Mantellan Crux) without using magic at all. That was one heck of a rewarding character

Breaking and entering (picking a lock on a town/city door and going inside) will get you an invite to the guild. I don't think that it works if you have to bash the door down, though.

A little off topic, but I didn't want to create a new thread. How do you kill town people without getting caught so you can join the brother hood? I have been trying to crouch and sneak up, but since there's no indicator like morrowind and oblivion I can't tell if I'm detected or not. I've tried to sneakily kill town people many, many times, and each time I always think I got away with it for a few seconds, and then hear that notorious "halt!"

that's the point, you show that you're a killer, and they contact you. i don't think you can contact them any other way, except maybe killing guards.

If you kill someone you will always alert the guards. Even if it's the middle of the night and there's nobody else around, they will still beam down from the Guard Mothership and try to arrest you.

However, unless they actually catch you (that is, they ask you to surrender), then they will not know it was you. So you could slaughter the entire city, lay waste to entire battalions of guards, and if you run off without letting them actually lay at hit on you and ask for your surrender, then you get away with it. Just remember that taking damage is what flags the surrender message, not the actual guards themselves; so falling damage and sunlight damage will trip the message as well. You could be far away and free, but jumping over the city walls and hitting the floor for the smallest bit of damage will seal your warrant and your legal rep will go down. Until you get away, that is. Once you travel away you're OK.

I see, thanks. I thought that somehow I just wasn't able to do a sneak kill, even though my skill is pretty high. This helps a lot now that I know I have to run away, I'm used to morrowind's system so I would have never guessed.

Thanks everyone. I guess I'll keep breaking into houses and pick pocketing until they send me a letter.

Okay, I know I have picked at least 10 pockets by now.. but nothing. Can I just pickpocket an animal 10 times, or 10 different animals?

You have to pickpocket "townies" (the villagers). Just keep at it. Have you tried resting and just walking around a bit? Like all notes, someone will run up to you and stuff it in your inventory at a random time, you may have to wait a day or something before the game triggers it.

Thanks

I have one last question, does it matter if I get caught by the guards?

I don't think so. I spent much of my initial time in the city pickpocketing and breaking in. This was before I was good at making clean getaways. I was caught and trialed at least 2/3 times before I got my thieves guild letter.

Okay, thanks.

No problem. If you still are uncertain, I figured it out - it's a 10 day delay between reaching the quota of pickpockets/break-ins and the letter arriving.

That helps alot, thanks again!

I'm pretty sure you don't have to pick-pocket villagers. You can do it in dungeons and still get the invite. I think it is either 3 attempts or 3 seperate victims, one or the other, they send a letter a few days later.

I broke into a shop. I should be getting a letter in a few days, right?

Yay! I got the letter! I have to steal a shirt from some house to join. Any tips on picking locked doors? I ccan't seem to open it.