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Thief Question

Dragonfolk2000Dragonfolk2000 Member Posts: 388
in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Do thief skills work the same way in Icewind Dale? As in they are percentile rolls and I don't need a find traps or open lock skill higher than 100?

Comments

  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    Yes though Move Silently and Hide in Shadows would benefit from having over 100 (pickpocket too though I don't know how many targets you'd have there).
  • JarrakulJarrakul Member Posts: 2,029
    edited September 2014
    Theoretically they're percentage rolls, but Find Traps and Open Lock seem to be mostly threshold based, with only minor randomness (so if your skill is high enough for a given trap, you can disarm it most of the time). Pick Pocket is both thresholded and highly random in EE. Pick Pocket can also suffer penalties to the roll, as I think can Hide in Shadows and Move Silently.

    Note: This is based on my own observations of the game, and not on actual knowledge of the game code. In other words, it's possible that I am wrong.
  • dreamriderdreamrider Member Posts: 417
    edited September 2014
    Find Traps/Open Locks: If your thief has the appropriate skill at a level equal or greater than the rating of the Trap/Lock, the action (find/open) always succeeds.

    Note: Find Trap may take a moment, during which an incautious character could walk into the trap, because the check only executes once per round, and is only effective within a fairly limited range, 20-30' I think.


    If your thief has the appropriate skill at a level within 5 points of the rating of the Trap/Lock, there is a 50% chance per check that the action will succeed. This means that within 5 attempts there is a 97% chance of success. (So, try that lock pick 5-6 times, then quit until your skills are better.)

    Note: "5 attempts" at Detect Traps really means move a little (~20'), wait 5 rounds, move a little more, etc.; luckily the rating on traps in most locations is generally low enough relative to expected thief skills progression that stopping for a single round is generally enough, if you have been putting 10+ points into Find/Disarm Traps regularly.


    If your thief does not have the appropriate skill to within 5 points of the rating of the respective Trap/Lock, s/he will NEVER succeed with that action, no matter how many checks are made. Wait til your skill is higher.


    So, for Traps & Locks, the appropriate Thief proficiency is NOT a percentage, it is a "rating" between 0-100, which is compared to the rating of the Trap or Lock. There is no percentage roll made in the sense that many players imagine it, and there are only a small number of cases when the thief's skill is "close but not quite" adequate in which a limited random check is made at all.


    Disarm traps works the same way, except of course that there is a small chance (1%? 5%?) that a thief who is in the marginally adequate skill range may set off the trap if he fails to disarm on a given attempt.
  • Grimo88Grimo88 Member Posts: 191
    Will hide in shadows and move silently be split as they are in BG2?
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    edited September 2014
    Yes. Thief skills are exactly like BG2EE.
  • windspinwindspin Member Posts: 20
    I have read that IWD is a lot more combat-tuned. For my Baldur's Gate plays I have taken a thief mostly for the lockpicking and traps.

    Does IWD have an abundance of locked chests inside dungeons? Are there still going to be a lot of settlements to raid with lockpicking? Just wondering if a thief is still going to be as necessary as it is in BG.
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    Dualed human thieves were good too, but you cant really get by with no thief in certain earlier areas. Thief to mage was popular, fighter to thief was awesome in HoW with evasion iirc, very good backstabber. I liked it anyways.
  • jamoecwjamoecw Member Posts: 41
    windspin said:

    I have read that IWD is a lot more combat-tuned. For my Baldur's Gate plays I have taken a thief mostly for the lockpicking and traps.

    Does IWD have an abundance of locked chests inside dungeons? Are there still going to be a lot of settlements to raid with lockpicking? Just wondering if a thief is still going to be as necessary as it is in BG.

    in BG2 it is quite possible to ditch the thief entirely from your party. for locks use knock, and for traps use find traps+a tough character. i can't say it is better than having a thief, but it does deliver more spells when you need them for those tough encounters (at least one extra spellcaster).
  • FrecheFreche Member Posts: 473
    Is there gear available that increases certain thief skills in IWD?
    And if so, are they available in time to matter (no need to tell exactly where they are)?
  • scriverscriver Member Posts: 2,072
    If I remember correctly... Yes, there is, and fairly early on. Depending on which @CamDawg content gets implemented, it'll be upgradeable as well.
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