Originally Posted by
noobium
On Faery/Rogue, Halfling/Mystic;
Halfling/Mystic is pretty bad in general. Stick with Faeries or Elves, unless you have a really good purpose for picking Halfer/Mystic (which means you probably wouldn't need my advice).
The really useful stealing bonus for faes is their +40% sabotage gains, especially with Rogue's added stealth. Cheaper thieves makes it easier to retrain should you lose thieves as well, so your profit margins are better when dealing with sparse or difficult robbery targets. So no, Halfling/Mystic (or any non-Rogue) can't steal like Faery/Rogue, and Fae and Halfer Rogues are way above others for robbery (and about equal with each other; however, Faery's economy is better otherwise).
Oh and you don't lose any fewer thieves as a rogue, but you pay a lot less for retraining - or just training in the first place. For a province that needs to train 4 tpa, saving 500 gc/acre is a substantial amount of money. Being Rogue also means training thieves mid-war is a lot more viable - if I recall correctly, training about 1 tpa on a kingdom's acreage is roughly equivalent to the cost of a dragon with Rogue personality, to give an idea of the scale of economy involves. So, treat your thief training during war like a dragon project, and it makes a lot more sense (especially if you can stack the effects of Sapphire or Gold dragon with a pre-existing economic advantage)