Rogue Lockpicking Question

pitttbulll · Post by **pitttbulll** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:02 pm

Hello.

I was wondering if anyone who has finished the game playing a rogue could help me out?
Several people have said that if your cunning is high enough you don't need to max out on the deft hands talent to be able to open most locks.
What is the lowest level you need to raise deft hands to and what cunning score is needed to do this?

Thanks.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:32 pm

It's utterly impractical. Something like:

40 - 1
50 - 2
60 - 3
70 - 4

To make matters worse, even all 4 talents won't allow you to open all the chests in the game, rather you need an effect "5th" talent (or a 40 in cunning and all 4 talents). ..Or something like that anyway. (..and there isn't a whole lot of modifying equipment in-game to help you out either.)

Tenser · Post by **Tenser** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:16 am

Well, Every feat grants you +10 on the Cunning check. And the hardest chests are at 70. So if you have all 4 talents, you need Cunning 30. While with only 1 talent, you need Cunning 60.

As you can backtrack and open chests later, many people only get the first feat and open the chests later.

holeraw · Post by **holeraw** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:57 am

What are you going to do with all the unassigned skillpoints though?
I don't know what to spend them on anymore and I never failed picking a lock or stealing...
Maybe it's a bit tougher if your main character is the party's only rogue - since (s)he's the only one that makes any sense spending points on coercion.

Tenser · Post by **Tenser** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:34 am

Deft Hands etc are TALENTS not SKILLS.

And theres definitely no shortage of uses for Talents.

holeraw · Post by **holeraw** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:37 am

Tenser wrote:Deft Hands etc are TALENTS not SKILLS.

And theres definitely no shortage of uses for Talents.

Oh... right that's true. My mistake.
I suppose I forgot because I maxed it early anyway (I was expecting a lot more traps than I found and more interesting stuff locked inside chests - unfortunately neither is of critical importance though)

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:58 pm

holeraw wrote:unfortunately neither is of critical importance though

While it might not be "critical", traps and locks are pretty important.

Both add a fairly substantial XP gain.

Removing Traps can be pretty important if your characters don't have a very high physical resistance (..and most don't).

Traps OFFENSIVELY can be exceedingly worthwhile. In fact, a single well-built Rogue can be worth several Mages. :speech: (..provided you have the coin, skills, recipes and materials for the traps - AND use the right traps for the occasion with the proper level of Stealth.)

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:02 pm

Tenser wrote:Well, Every feat grants you +10 on the Cunning check. And the hardest chests are at 70. So if you have all 4 talents, you need Cunning 30. While with only 1 talent, you need Cunning 60.

As you can backtrack and open chests later, many people only get the first feat and open the chests later.

Ah, my mistake - that sounds better, but it's still largely impractical. On the other hand I could see 50 cunning and 2 talents, or more practically 40 cunning and 3 talents.

holeraw · Post by **holeraw** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:56 pm

Scottg wrote:While it might not be "critical", traps and locks are pretty important.

Both add a fairly substantial XP gain.

Removing Traps can be pretty important if your characters don't have a very high physical resistance (..and most don't).

Traps OFFENSIVELY can be exceedingly worthwhile. In fact, a single well-built Rogue can be worth several Mages. :speech: (..provided you have the coin, skills, recipes and materials for the traps - AND use the right traps for the occasion with the proper level of Stealth.)

Yes but you will probably have a rogue around though, I was thinking about whether you will need to take all Deft Hands levels, not about whether you need to have a rogue at all.
Also does using traps depend on Deft Hands? I know trap-making is a skill that class can take (yes I know that... I'm certain about it

) but are there any requirements for using them effectively?

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:25 pm

holeraw wrote:Yes but you will probably have a rogue around though, I was thinking about whether you will need to take all Deft Hands levels, not about whether you need to have a rogue at all.
Also does using traps depend on Deft Hands? I know trap-making is a skill that class can take (yes I know that... I'm certain about it ) but are there any requirements for using them effectively?

The trap setting, detecting, and making are all *skills* (..not talents). Deft hands is a talent for lock-picking and trap removal. On the other hand the Stealth required to make it largely useful (trap setting and removal) are talents and not skills.

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vs.

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Between the two (for traps), the skill-based trap line is more important, but again - with Stealth. (..at least the first *2* Stealth Talents.) IMO you pretty much need all *4* Trap-making skills to be effective with spotting/removing traps (..though perhaps I had neither as high a cunning attribute nor as high a Deft hands talent at the time.)

Again, cunning seems to be the attribute of choice for traps, and perhaps operates in the same fashion of 30 = 1, 40 = 2, etc..

I think *2* in each (Stealth, Trap-Making, and Deft Hands), with a 30 in Cunning should be an excellent start. Also, 2 of the coercion *skills* pretty much works for most of the game as well and ALSO relies on cunning.