Using a Beggar Kit in 2nd Ed AD&D

When Chris was designing his Thief for JADE's 2nd ED AD&D Campaign Arachnophobia, he made Butters a Beggar. At the time, it was simply a roleplay decision to justify his presence in town. Little did he know, in 2nd Ed there are rules for everything.

I was positive that there would be something in  in The Complete Thief's Handbook. So I flipped it open, and there it was on page 28: The Beggar Kit. This would canonize his roleplay choices, and likely give him some abilities he did not have.

Useful Book for 2nd Ed!

For those of you unfamiliar with 2nd ed Kits, The Complete Class Handbooks (like the Thief's above) added Character Kits to the game. These Kits Gave different Role-Play options to the player allowing them to hone in on what they want their character to specifically do. These kits usually give the player bonus proficiencies and a special ability called a benefit. However there is a downside: each class comes with a hindrance, some negative to balance out your skills.

I absolutely love using character kits and encourage my player's to use them where they think they will fit in. They add for a wonderful element of roleplay, and will often give your players (and yourself) and new way of looking at a classes. Whether they want to run a Paladin using a Field Medic Kit, or a bard using a Riddler Kit, the books will open up the possibilities.

For Butters, it was exactly what he needed to properly run his Beggar.

There's the Little Guy!

Being a beggar, as you can imagine, doesn't give you a lot to work with. It limits the weapons proficiencies you can choose, gives you a -2 on reaction rolls with NPC, and you only start with 3d4 gold pieces. It is a pretty long list of hindrances, but they all make sense. The Weapon's Proficiencies you are limited to (Club, Dagger, Dart, Knife, Sling and Staff) represents your lack of any formal training. The -2 Reaction Rolls: society's view of the homeless. And of course the low starting gold is due to your character's poverty.

However using a Beggar does come with an advantage. You get the following proficiencies for free: Begging, Disguise, Information Gathering and Observation. These additional proficiencies more than double a thieves usual starting abilities, making them very versatile and useful character for spying on others.

JADE's Arachnophobia Campaign is our first time using this kit in Game, and so far it has fit the role perfectly. It better defined the abilities of a beggar in game, and Chris used those to his advantage when playing Butters. It also gave me as the DM some information on how my NPC were supposed to react which smoothed out any NPC interactions.

If you have a beggar in your campaign in any edition, it is worth having a look at this kit for some ideas on how to handle it.


Written by: Andrew Gregory