Picking Pockets

abacus

I've never really used this skill... Always wanted the extra points for dungeon crawling/scouting, and never really wanted the extra risk factor.
Apart from raiding shopkeepers, what other goodies are available, and where? Does being hidden/ invisible improve your chances?
Thanks for the help...

ryuken87

Ribald has a Ring of Regeneration and one of the Trademeet genies has a genie summoning item. Nobles sometimes have potions and scrolls. There was a recent thread detailing how you can steal weapons prior to a fight to make it easier which is a cool idea.

Heindrich

Sylvus_Moonbow said:

Travel safe, brave warrior @abacus and may you find adventure, fortune and fame in your pick pocketing venture!

Finding fame as a pick-pocketer could be bad for his career, and somewhat dangerous given the culture of law enforcement in the Sword Coast.

Silverstar

I wanted to steal back the Tome of Wisdom I gave to the Umberlee priestess, but even after beefing pick pocketing up to 110 I got a message stating there was nothing for someone of my skill other than that Sphene Gem. Sad times

abacus

Thanks to all for aiding me in my descent into a life of crime. Korgan is already looking at me with a renewed sense of respect.

GemHound

@Silverstar That is why you kill her after giving her the book.

Silverstar

GemHound said:

@Silverstar That is why you kill her after giving her the book.

Hmm. Maybe my Nymph Cloak and some creative use of summoning spells might do the trick without me getting blamed. It makes sense after all that she'd defend her temple from random monsters.

Wolk

@abacus
@Skaffen wrote a tip about it in his thread Hint: "Don't underestimate pickpocketing to make some fights easier". Here was his tip: pickpocket people you can easily guess you will have to fight(or those you know you have to if you metagame), so you can steal their potions wands and other potentially usefull stuff for you or that they could use against you.
I haven't tried it out yet, but I will as soon as I finaly start BG2EE.
Here is the link to the thread: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/26395/hint-don-t-underestimate-pickpocketing-to-make-some-fights-easier

Edit: found in which thread it was

abacus

Wolk said:

@abacus
@Skaffen wrote a tip about it in his thread Hint: "Don't underestimate pickpocketing to make some fights easier". Here was his tip: pickpocket people you can easily guess you will have to fight(or those you know you have to if you metagame), so you can steal their potions wands and other potentially usefull stuff for you or that they could use against you.
I haven't tried it out yet, but I will as soon as I finaly start BG2EE.
Here is the link to the thread: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/26395/hint-don-t-underestimate-pickpocketing-to-make-some-fights-easier

Edit: found in which thread it was

Smart. Thanks for the link.

GemHound

@Silverstar You think you get blamed for killing her? People cheer your name in the streets if they find out. Otherwise, no rep hits for emptying the entire temple.

Heindrich

GemHound said:

@Silverstar You think you get blamed for killing her? People cheer your name in the streets if they find out. Otherwise, no rep hits for emptying the entire temple.

I mostly roleplay Good, and I still wiped out that temple cos their deity is evil.

In BG 2, if I am unsure, I use Detect Evil. If somebody is evil, then... "A den of stinking evil. Cover your nose Boo! We will leave no crevice untouched!"

Jagged

Does 100 in PP guarantee success?

Heindrich

Jagged said:

Does 100 in PP guarantee success?

No... That's Find Traps.

For PP, I don't know the exact calculations, but there seems to be a % chance of success, as opposed to a definite threshold like for traps.

Naveen

Just and hour ago I stole from a Trademeet (one that looks like a noble) merchant a Belt Of Inertial Barriear and a +3 bow of infinite arrows (can't remember the name). It was not enough with my 105 in pp, but a master thief potion did the trick.

GamingFreak

Pickpocket is that hidden gem of a skill that can let you get a TON of crap for free. For example, that Scroll merchant up the stairs in the Adventurer's Mart? You can steal every single one of her scrolls, and a scroll case to put your recently stolen scrolls in.

[Deleted User]

The thing about pickpocket is that you can get most of the benefits of high skill in it by chugging a few potions of master thievery and running a vicious burn on every shop in Athkatla in one go. It's very useful, but not consistently so, which means it's generally more useful to get it from a bottle than from permanent skill points.

GamingFreak

Unless you're a swashbuckler, which means two less skills to invest in, so might as well put points in it, or if you're playing a bard, then you're FORCED to have points in it (not like it's a bad thing).

TJ_Hooker

Kaigen said:

The thing about pickpocket is that you can get most of the benefits of high skill in it by chugging a few potions of master thievery and running a vicious burn on every shop in Athkatla in one go. It's very useful, but not consistently so, which means it's generally more useful to get it from a bottle than from permanent skill points.

In my current playthrough I found a PoMT in Irenicus' dungeon, and by the time I exited the dungeon and sold my loot I had enough to my 2 or 3 more. With 3 or 4 PoMT you can probably manage to rob most of Athkatla all in one go due the potion's fairly long duration (and the lack of travel time between districts). You'll actually end up with far more PoMT than you started with, so you can always chug a few later on if you come across someone you missed in your intial spree.

I'm actually restricting myself pretty heavily on what I'm stealing during my current playthrough, just because it feels so cheesy to just steal all kinds of good equipment the moment you leave Chateau Irenicus, especially if you never even invested in the pickpocket skill.

Wolk

The irony of PoMT you buy it in a store so you can steal all the store.

Dragonspear

You can also get a ring of free action in TotSC with PP

Silverstar

Heindrich1988 said:

GemHound said:

@Silverstar You think you get blamed for killing her? People cheer your name in the streets if they find out. Otherwise, no rep hits for emptying the entire temple.

I mostly roleplay Good, and I still wiped out that temple cos their deity is evil.

In BG 2, if I am unsure, I use Detect Evil. If somebody is evil, then... "A den of stinking evil. Cover your nose Boo! We will leave no crevice untouched!"

Eh. I usually try to justify killing with a bit more than "tehy were evulz". Interesting that there's no rep hit for taking out Umberlee's high priestess though. But judging by this thread I just need to drink a couple more Potions of Master Thievery.

Though huh. Seeing as having really high pick pocketing is apparently really useful that puts a dent in the oh-but-Imoen-is-a-good-enough-thief-so-it-doesn't-matter-they-dual-classed-her brigade's defense of story robbing us of our one decent companion thief until Hexxat.

booinyoureyes

Wolk said:

The irony of PoMT you buy it in a store so you can steal all the store.

haha, this cracked me up

Worst. Business-model. Ever.

Silverstar

Blurgh. With heavy potioning and use of the Luck spell I got pickpocketing up to 255... and I still couldn't steal the damn tome.

In completely unrelated news, Jalantha Mistmyr suffered a case of bloodrage and attacked my summoned Phase Spiders with her bare hands after examining my pretty Nymph Cloak. She did not survive the encounter. Knowing that she wouldn't want a powerful artifact like the Tome of Wisdom potentially ending up with the likes of the Tymoran church again I took it off her corpse. It's what she would have wanted.

moody_mage

booinyoureyes said:

Wolk said:

The irony of PoMT you buy it in a store so you can steal all the store.

haha, this cracked me up

Worst. Business-model. Ever.

The ultimate worst business model is that of the black market merchants who buy fenced goods, yet are seemingly dim enough not to recognise items that have been just been in their inventory just minutes before - again and again and again and again ý

bbear

I once emptied all Roger the Fence's merchandise. It's funny that he is buying the same merchandise over and over again. I guess it doesnt matter since he has infinite gold anyway.

moody_mage

That then begs the question why is he hiding in the sewers selling a few trinkets if he has infinite gold to hand?

booinyoureyes

decado said:

That then begs the question why is he hiding in the sewers selling a few trinkets if he has infinite gold to hand?

All about the ambiance

But seriously, I always found it weird, though perhaps necessary for role-playing reasons, that if you kill a merchant (particularly those in secluded locations) you can't collect all their gold and select items. Unless he has a super secret safe in the sewers, I can't see why you can't just slice up Roger and make a killing (financially that is).

Silverstar

decado said:

That then begs the question why is he hiding in the sewers selling a few trinkets if he has infinite gold to hand?

Hiding from the Amnian Revenue and Taxation Board no doubt.

booinyoureyes

@abacus
As @wolk said, that thread actually opened my mind to pickpocketing. Whenever it makes sense for roleplaying reasons to pickpocket someone before an inevitable/probable fight (MaeVar, Lehtinan's Copper Coronet henchmen, Gromnir's Gestapo in ToB, the wizard in the sewers, and others). The Cult of the Unseeying Eye members are actually the perfect targets. It will make your battle easier:
1. you can actually rob some baddies of their entire collection of ranged weaponry (kinda funny how you can "pickpocket" three longbows in a row and no one notices XD)
2. less potions for them + more potions for you= double win (particularly with thieves and invisibility potions, which I've recently discovered to be very helpful for backstabs)
3. scrolls from some douchey casters (not sure if they actually use them in the fights... but just in case, it may be one less spell from their repertoire and some more gold/arcane power for you)

Pickpocketing is awesome