[Known, #7421] [CORE] - Blade and Skald pickpocket ability

Thrasymachus

I'm not sure if this is a bug, but I thought that I would mention it here just in case.

Blades receive only 50% of the standard bard pickpocket ability. The way this is calculated, though, seems to integrate the race bonus (+10% if PC is half-elf) and dexterity bonus (variable) before imposing the 50% penalty. In effect, blades receive only half of the applicable race and dexterity bonuses.

I would think that the correct way to impose the 50% penalty on blades would be apply it to the base pickpocket %, with full race and dexterity modifiers applied afterwards. This is how race and dexterity modifiers are applied to thief kits (e.g., assassins and bounty-hunters) that distribute fewer thief ability points per level (assassins and bounty-hunters receive the full dexterity and race bonuses, not a smaller portion of them).

I don't recall if BGEE also determines the blade's pickpocket % in this way. (Although I played my blade through BGEE, I only noticed this problem once my pickpocket ability ceased to improve in BG2EE.)

Also, i don't know if skalds suffer from this problem as well (which would be even more severe for them -- they would receive only 25% of their race and dexterity bonuses!).

Illydth

@Thrasymachus: Will try to repro this tonight sometime. I'm guessing you have this correct and that the Racial bonus is being applied before the class penalty. I could see this happening easily since Race is selected before Class in the character creation screen. If I set your base PP to 10%, then add the bard base PP and then cut it in half, we have exactly what you describe.

--Illydth

elminster

I noticed awhile back that Haer'Dalis's pick pockets seemed unusually low. I couldn't put my finger on why that was either. Anyways with regard to the pick pocket issue here Thrasymachus and I were also discussing it in another thread.

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/28804/pickpocket-cap-for-bards

I've tested out the Blade and Skald and they both seem to be wonky in this regard. My level 16 half elf skald (with 18 dexterity) has 33 pickpocket. My level 16 half elf blade has 67, so at least they are working consistently in their wonkiness

I'm going to test to see if BGEE is also experiencing this though chances are thats the case. Since I've already prepared two different saves that relate to the problem I'll then post a bug report internally later tonight.

Edit: Looks like its the case in BGEE as well. My level 1 human bard with 13 dexterity had pick pockets of 40. My half elf blade with 18 dexterity had 29 (which I assume is an issue of improper rounding). Assuming 40 is the correct amount for the human bard to have that means the blades PP should have been cut in half to 20 and then had 20 added to it from racial/dexterity benefits.

Internally reported: #7421

Illydth

You just saved me the bug report trouble @elminster: Thanks VERY Much!

Tagging for 7421 and Adding to the Consolidated Report.

Vakarian

Was hoping this would be addressed with the 1.3 patch, but it looks like it hasn't

CrevsDaak

Vakarian said:

Was hoping this would be addressed with the 1.3 patch, but it looks like it hasn't

It will, but when the 1.3 patch comes out for BG2:EE, not now unluckily.

elminster

Not that I want to be the bearer of bad news but its not getting addressed. Apparently that would open a can of worms, but I don't know anything more than that.