GameBanshee Forums

i'm playing SOA with my multy class fighter/mage/thief. My pick pocket ability is at 100%... so why can't i steal anything from shopkeepers?? i have never succeded. they always catch me, no matter what i try and steal, even if it's just a bullet.
Is this a bug?

This may sound stupid, but is the thief the person who initiates the merchant? If your Protagonist talks (and is not a thief) then in the store part you go to your thief and pickpocket, it is still your PC talking, the rolls are based on the initiate.

well, i'm soloing so i don't think that my problem

Who are you trying to pickpocket... The guy in the CC? becuse I found with him (and the merchant in Mar'valars' (Sp.) guild you need a high PP. But I've stolen stuff with Jan at 100% with other merchants with no probs, just don't do too much at once.

Are you wearing armor that give penalies to our theif stats?

You need a higher PP to steal from shopkeepers, somewhere up around 120-130. I find it best to have it at 150 or above to avoid failing the roll.

Those shopkeepers have eyes in the back of their heads You need like 200% to be relatively reload-safe...

potions of master thievery.........

Yep, use potions of master thievery and you can pretty much figure out the exact percentage where your pickpocket succeeds all of the time (the potion effect stacks, so swallowing two is better than just one). As people mentioned, pickpocketing is easier with some merchants than others. There is a not-so-swift merchant in the docks district (the rival thieves guild) who is both easy to steal from and will buy stolen goods. You can imagine that there is quite the opportunity to achieve an infinite money loop with this guy. Stealing at the copper coronet has to be one of the hardest.

I rather enjoyed being the pick-pocket scourge of Athkatla last time I played, and I noticed a few things.

At 160% pickpocket abilities, I was just about impervious to merchants, with the exception of the guy in the Copper Coronet. I was NEVER able to steal from him. Not once. Not even with half a dozen potions od master thievery. He got me every time. Don't go there, my friend.

On the plus side, that steal-sell-steal trick is pure gravy. The black market merchants will buy stolen goods, even their own. So go to one of them (like the guy in Mae'Var's guildhouse) and spend some time fleecing him. You can generate massive amounts of cash in a little while, then go buy what you wanted at the CC.

The pickpocket ability is a really slick way of abusing the game. I started a fighter/magic-user/thief and maxed his pick pockets immediately. Once I got out of Irenicus' place, I started stealing scrolls. I gained a few levels just be learning all the spells in Waukeen's Promenade (go to the temple for potions of intelligence to max out your number of allowed spells.) You can pull this trick for other spellcasters as well - get Aerie or Nalia a few levels as soon as you meet them. An especially cheesy tactic for not-quite-pure soloing is to bring them into the party and have them read all these spells for experience, then dump them when you run out of scrolls.

Anyway, after having spelled up, go to one of the black market merchants and pull the sell-steal-sell trick for a while. It is sometimes a good idea to go buy something very valuable as soon as you can, then return to the sell-steal trick with that to make money faster - it can be a tedious process. Then, go back to the AM and CC and buy the sweet stuff. Ka-POW! You are buffed up on spells and wearing 200,000 worth of magical goodies, and you've been in town a couple of game hours.

Some of that is munchkin, but most of it is decent - you just have to think like a thief!

I used Jan to steal from the Copper Coronet guy, after two potions of master thievery--and even then, it was chancy. He's very good, which is appropriate, given the kind of riff-raff that visit the establishment.

Oh yeah - I forgot this bit.

When stealing from another thief, apparently the target's pick-pocket ability is subtracted from your own! So just because you can rob everybody else blind, don't go trying to snitch something from Renal Bloodscalp's purse! I got nailed trying to pick the pocket of a bard in the Harper compound - Jahiera attacked me and everything went to Hell. I had not been challenged by a pocket in many game weeks, but then I hadn't been trying to stel from bards/thieves. Be careful!

[ 07-12-2001: Message edited by: smaug chow ]