Why is thieving being removed
Just started playing Baldurs Gate 2 ee and am noticing that merchants that you used to be able to steal from in SOA no longer have the option to steal in the shop window. Why are unnecessary changes being made to the game
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And select only one item at time.
Stealing from merchants and selling stolen goods to the fences works the same, only a little change in the UI.
And only the merchant and guards eventually present should go hostile if you fail stealing.
But I am fine that the merchant's inventory is no more available, is lost forever. Other way in many shops, where only the merchant is present, the tactic to fail stealing, kill the merchant, loot al his inventory and then pay something to a temple would be so easy and abusing.
This because stealing is one of the things that make a thief powerful, as you can have free money and free useful stuff. But the way it is implemented now there is little point in putting ability points in pickpoketing, there is plenty of potions and they stack, and give enough of them to Nalia, she will have enough points to steal safely from every merchant, sell and steal to a fence multiple times and make you rich and well equipped at the beginning of chap2. Add a haste spell to run from a merchant to an other fast so you can make better use of the potions. And this is not making the thief powerful, is just make everyone that has even a single level in thief gamebreaking, The way I say the thief has to invest points in pickpocketing, delaying other useful abilities like hide in shadows, set traps and detect illusions, and if you want to do it in early game even find traps and open locks. As it is now there is no point in having a pure class bard instead of a blade or a real thief instead of Nalia (stealing related only, UAI, set traps, detect illusions and hide and backstab are a different thing), or to spend a single point in pickpocketing.
And if you factor in the power of reload there is also almost no risk, having only the guards and the merchant hostile would make the stealing viable also for no reloaders, having a thief or bard with high score and using the 2 potion types + luck spell the chances of failure would be minimal and in cause of failure the consequences not so heavy.
A fighter is as good at it, trying to steal and fail is not needed at all. Enter the shop, kill and take everything you find, and also the infinite cash that he seems to have.
Is quite evident that the entire steal button is more likely an abstraction of some clever ruse/burglary than a literal picking of pockets, and even so it is not realistic at all, as is not credible that you steal using ruse the whole inventory of a merchant, or use some burglary to do it with the merchant in the shop.
Like is not realistic that every merchant has the same prices, only depending on your CHAR and REP, and has almost infinite money when you sell.
And is not realistic that every merchant knows if something that you have, even a mundane dagger or arrow, has been steal or legally acquired.
My opinion is that the developers intended the stealing from shops as one of the features of the class, implementing it in a not realistic way, but a way that pay a lot if you invest a lot in the ability, with almost no risk, is risky if you invest less than a lot (afaik is the only thief ability where investing 200 or more points still pays), and is almost impossible without investing points or with a very low score.
And they did also intentionally left open the abuse of stacking potions, like they left open other abuses introducing an anti beholder shield, anti demi liches scrolls, setting traps and summoning in front of a neutral dragon or in a known spawn point. I am talking of the original developers, the new ones can have nerfed some of those things, but I am not sure, I never set traps in front of neutral dragons.