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I am just getting into the whole "Evil" scene and I'm really into Pickpocketing and Backstabbing with my new PC Thief. If you read my post on the Interplay Forums (I'm not quite sure why they are down right now) called Better Backstabbing that covers the latter of my topics, but I'm really interested on how to get better pickpocketing results.

Right now my thief has 205 Points in Pickpocketing, and 200 points in move silently (the other ones are at their base).
What I usually do is I quicksave, then pickpocket the person.
I've cleaned out most of WP, Docks, Govt, etc. but I'm not exactly getting anything special....

What I would like to know is....

1) Will Move Silently actually benefit me in any way as far as backstabbing or pickpocketing?
2) Is there any way to get better yields pickpocketing people?
(Tolgerias gave me a frickin gold piece woohoo).
3)If I attempt to pickpocket more than once on the same person will it A)just have less items so less chance of yield, or B)increase risk of getting caught more and more

anymore questions I can think of I will post.

1) I don't think so. I think that move silently combines with Hide In Shadows to calculate whether anyone notices you. (when you're hiding in shadows, not when you're pickpocketing)
2) No. Most people have nothing good to pick pocket. A few, like Ribald, have interesting things, but most people have cheap jewels or a bit of gold.
3) You can sometimes pickpocket someone more than once for another jewel or something, but usually it'll just say 'target has no more items'. Your risk doesn't change.

I'm sure you already know this, but...
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The best yields come from the merchants. Steal potions of Master Thievery, and apply them when stealing other unique items. And, of course, the ultimate cheese tactic: get a wand. Sell it to the Thieves' Guild. Steal it back. Sell it again. Steal it back again. Continue until you get tired of breaking the game. This is so open to abuse that it still surprises me Bioware didn't put in some kind of special trigger that would bring out a dozen high level thieves to eviscerate your corpse permanently after pulling this off.

What I usually do is I quicksave, then pickpocket the person.

This, in brief, summarizes everything that's wrong with the standard approach developers take to pickpocketing.

You try it, and you have an equal chance of grabbing a small potion or a spare weapon. If you're caught, the penalties are so grave that you immediately reload. I have to wonder why pickpocketing wasn't implemented as an improving skill that eventually gave you more awareness of what was available, and let you choose bigger items only with a much higher skill.

And the penalty should be reasonable, too. Who cares if you pickpocket a beggar? That's no reason to lose so much rep, and maybe incur the wrath of guards. Logically, you should be given a small fine that increments dramatically with repeat offenses. A shame there's no way to prevent quicksaves and reloading around pickpocketing. I like the idea of it really being a challenge, with the implied thrill that if you fail or succeed, you're stuck either way with the results.

Fable until you mentioned the wand thing, I had no real problems reading about spoilers... now I completely respect you for the idea of making a big deal about spoilers, that's horrible that people are allowed to do that and yes I believe it ruins the entire concept of money.

i totally agree with you fable
however, seeing as that isnt part of the game and there is no mod, im afraid im going to have to keep doing it the cheesy way
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you can pickpocket a genie-summoning bottle from the dao jinn outside their tent in trademeet
you can pick a ring of regeneration from robald
you can pick a ring of gaxx from kangaxx before you start fighting him (and get another when you kill him. However, this is UBER CHEESE.)

pickpocket also determines how well you can steal from a shop (the hand icon when you are on a merchant) so you can get some great stuff that way if youre good enough

you should always pick people untill they stop giving items.
*spoiler* If you pick Tolgerias you can get an extra Ring of the Ram
and dont put more in PP. for some reason you seem to have les chance of succces if you put more than 200

About some other possible gains... (location spoilers abound)

This topic had me thinking of this.

Has anyone tried to pick these people's pockets:

- Aran Linvail
- Roger the Fence (rogue merchant in the Temple District sewers)
- Missus Cragmoon (Wizard-merchant in the Bridge District during the day)
- Maheer the storekeep (the guy in the middle of Waukeen's Promenade that upgrades the Silver Horn of Valhalla)
- Lord Coprith (the lord of Trademeet)

Spoilers.

One other cheesy guy to pick-pocket is the Wizard that asks you to find Valygar. You can pick-pocket him before you talk to him to get 1 Ring of Ram. If you can pull it off, pick-pocket a 2nd Ring of the Ram before he turns hostile in the Planar sphere, and then you still get the one after you kill him.

I haven't verified this, but I have seen in the forum that you can pick-pocket a sorcerer ring from Lavok before he goes hostile the first time as well. And you still get the one after you kill him.

On my first day in Aktala I usually will get a Theif, Bard, or Ferret to pick-pocket the Preistess of Talos for her amulet (at Mae'Var's request), head over to the Government to get a ring of the ram, then over to Ribald for the ring of regeneration. If you drink a potion of Master Thievery or two before the first one, you can do all 3 before it wears off.

and dont put more in PP. for some reason you seem to have les chance of succces if you put more than 200

once you go over 200 it resets your score to 0 and starts all over again...i found that out when i drank about 20-30 potions of master thievery to get into the chest in the basement of the duchal palace in BG1 (did anyone ever open that or is it still a mystery?)

Originally posted by Mini Me
once you go over 200 it resets your score to 0 and starts all over again...i found that out when i drank about 20-30 potions of master thievery to get into the chest in the basement of the duchal palace in BG1 (did anyone ever open that or is it still a mystery?)

For some reason I highly doubt this. My thief right now doesn't ever get caught no matter who I steal from and his pickpockets are like 225. If what you're saying is true then his "real" pickpocket ability would be around 25 and there is no way he would be successful as he is.

i am referring to BG1...i suppose it probably was fixed

I have heard that it resets after 255. Thinking computer like, if the programmers only allocated one byte to this score, then anything over 255 would strip the first bit and leave you with your current level -256.

I have never tested this myself, but have seen it posted many times.

Originally posted by Screaming Johny
Spoilers.

One other cheesy guy to pick-pocket is the Wizard that asks you to find Valygar. You can pick-pocket him before you talk to him to get 1 Ring of Ram. If you can pull it off, pick-pocket a 2nd Ring of the Ram before he turns hostile in the Planar sphere, and then you still get the one after you kill him.

I haven't verified this, but I have seen in the forum that you can pick-pocket a sorcerer ring from Lavok before he goes hostile the first time as well. And you still get the one after you kill him.

On my first day in Aktala I usually will get a Theif, Bard, or Ferret to pick-pocket the Preistess of Talos for her amulet (at Mae'Var's request), head over to the Government to get a ring of the ram, then over to Ribald for the ring of regeneration. If you drink a potion of Master Thievery or two before the first one, you can do all 3 before it wears off.

3 rings of ram...tested and confirmed...

pickpocket tolgarious at the government district, one ring....

pickup valygar at the umar hills, go to the slums, open the door to the sphere, then kill him, and sell the body to tolgarious. second ring is your reward.

finish the planar sphere, kill tolgarious for the third ring...

jonny, I was the one who posted that you can pickpocket a second ring of acuity from lavok, and yes, it has been tested and confirmed...

Re: About some other possible gains... (location spoilers abound)

Originally posted by Galuf the Dwarf
This topic had me thinking of this.

Has anyone tried to pick these people's pockets:

- Aran Linvail
- Roger the Fence (rogue merchant in the Temple District sewers)
- Missus Cragmoon (Wizard-merchant in the Bridge District during the day)
- Maheer the storekeep (the guy in the middle of Waukeen's Promenade that upgrades the Silver Horn of Valhalla)
- Lord Coprith (the lord of Trademeet)

picked most of them dont give any of the cool quest rewards. almost imposible to pick Aran and Bloodscalp (i picked the entie thief guild on my last runtrough)

Best picking of all:
SPOILER...
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...the ring of regeneration on the Ribald, the merchant in the Adventurer's Mart. That has to be the single nicest item you can pick (or to be more accurate, shoplift) in BG2/SoA.

Re: Re: About some other possible gains... (location spoilers abound)

Originally posted by IHateUsernames
picked most of them dont give any of the cool quest rewards. almost imposible to pick Aran and Bloodscalp (i picked the entie thief guild on my last runtrough)

That bad, eh? I would have wondered if someone with practically maximum permitted (as in allowing the skill to opperate at it's value) points in Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, and Pick Pockets would have at least a slim chance of getting something out of the guildmaster. Oh well.

Re: Re: Re: About some other possible gains... (location spoilers abound)

Originally posted by Galuf the Dwarf
That bad, eh? I would have wondered if someone with practically maximum permitted (as in allowing the skill to opperate at it's value) points in Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, and Pick Pockets would have at least a slim chance of getting something out of the guildmaster. Oh well.

they just have items a thief would have.

Originally posted by Screaming Johny
I have heard that it resets after 255. Thinking computer like, if the programmers only allocated one byte to this score, then anything over 255 would strip the first bit and leave you with your current level -256.

I have never tested this myself, but have seen it posted many times.

This is correct.

It also happens to high level bards (who only get Pick Pocket skills). I had Haer'Dalis at around 25th level revert back to 10% in Pick Pocket because he had exceeded the 255 maximum. After that it progressed normally.

another p pocket target, spoiler

Especially early in the game, I like to "nick a bit from our friend here" in the promenade: (little spoiler)















there are these 2 nobles, male and female, in the SE end of the Promenade on the wooden elevated sitting area. The guy typically has 5 potions of extra healing or so, some fair coin, and maybe a scroll. It takes a fair number of pickpockets to empty their reserves...