I'm excited about thief's getting some class-specific edges, and have been daydreaming about what I'd like. Maybe some are obvious, maybe some are good, but wanted to offer 'em up!

(Gnomes/Svirfs)
Long legs
Thief 2 sizes down can trip big folks

Long arms
Thief 2 sizes down can backstab/jack
--

Parting evade
Good chance of dodging parting blow when fleeing warrior

Calm nerves
Don't panic as much when fleeing, better chance of success

Container peek
Chance of seeing what's inside random container when looking at person

Deduce hovering
ability to tell if person flying (think already a similar/more powerful edge, but not sure)

Reciting expert
Improved success rate or power when reciting a scroll

Scroll excision
Intelligent thieves can read a scroll in combat!

Versatile circler
Can circle with piercing spear or sword

Precise knockout
Chance to improve odds of landing blackjack

Long knockout
Based on str, chance to knock out jacked victims for longer periods

Knot expert
Learn how to tie *really* good knots when binding, making bindings have chance to take longer to come off

Versatile backstabber
Can backstab with any piercing sword or spear - come on, go old school!!

Swindler
Enhance affects of CHR - better haggling, lower chance of aggro picking you out of group to attack, chance mobs won't attack when you fail steal

Knife-fighter
Dextrous thieves have improved aim and chance of evade when fighting with daggers

And for good fun...

Teacher bribe
Pay trainer more, but he'll train HP higher when you train HP (15?)

Guildmaster affinity
With some more gold and a good standing, guildmaster will give you extra attention and enhance your pr % for an already learned skill by a few points

Mercenary Whore
Can buy multiple mercs!! Can get mercs to do more things!

Forgecraft
For a steep price, can get some dwarf love and take weapons to blacksmith too

Gold shield
When fighting, thief's worth drops, not his HP! That'd be sweet ;)

Dirty split
Thief appears to autosplit, but taking an unfair share, like 2/3s

Merchant thief
Thief has better chance of stealing gold from merchants, and less likely to get beat down.

Item hider
Can hide items. Become vis when he quits. Any one with detect hidden will see them. Just a nice tactic for stashing junk, saving eq from friends corpse, etc.

that gives you a chance to avoid parting blows.

'DEFENSIVE WITHDRAWAL'
A character with this edge has learned to protect themselves somewhat better as
they flee from combat; they are less likely to draw a parting blow in doing so.

Dirty split, merchant thief, and -maybe- knife fighter seem ok. But even the knife-fighter seems more like a warrior thing, and not a thief thing.

Yeah, looking over again, looks more like wishlist. Thin line between suggesting completely new skills.

Intent was to give ways for thieves to tie gold more to their success, but couldn't think of anything not extreme.

Also wanted to think of ways to counteract some races deficiencies (apt learnerhelps dumb races, strong back helps weak ones, etc, why not help short thieves? Because they already have measure of bash protection? OK)

That said, by making things low-chance rolls you can weaken a lot of them. To occasionally get a strong bind or unusually good jack doesn't seem too out of ordinary.

We need some spy-like ones too. How about you look at someone and can tell their hometown? Cabal?