When I play thief characters, it's usually because the mechanics of the game incentivize stealth/stealing SO MUCH that I can't help but do it.
I find this to be the case in most Bethsoft games. I mean, at low level Oblivion/Skyrim destruction magic is hardly usable, and in Oblivion melee is a bit shit as well, unless you pick a melee centered race, until you've built into it a bit. Meanwhile, in both games, you can just lawlsneakattack with impunity while the enemies keep forgetting you are there. In the recent Fallout games, as well, the game is infinitely easier if you sneak around a bit, even if your stealth skill isn't very good.
Given a true equality of play (or high enough level to ignore how good stealth is), however, I usually end up being the righteous fist of an avenging god. No hiding, no cowering, no retreating, no stealing (at least until all the owners are dead), and no survivors--but only when the killing is justified. Basically like SO's 'good thief,' but with a lot more charred corpses.
In most games I tend to end up with any morality counters all the way to good.
I don't enjoy crossing any kind of moral event horizons, and doing things that I wouldn't find justified. Even when I play an 'evil' character, I need to build up some kind of backstory and personality in my mind that allows me to justify--through the character's eyes--anything awful I'm doing, and those ones tend to have high morality marks in lots of games, too, because I still, for instance, wipe Paradise Falls off the map. Just for different reasons.
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