Thieving skills minimums for both games
WatchForWolves
Member Posts: 183
So I was bored and reading the "Did you know?" thread and suddenly it turns out you actually need 110 Find Traps once in BG(Durlag's Tower, altar with Tome of Wisdom) and in ToB(Trap before the Sendai's Enclave)
PlayItHardcore already made pickpocketing lists for both BG:EE and BG2:EE, so that one is covered.
But what about Open Locks? Is 100 really enough?
PlayItHardcore already made pickpocketing lists for both BG:EE and BG2:EE, so that one is covered.
But what about Open Locks? Is 100 really enough?
2
Comments
in fact, besides that trap and the trap in the room where the level 2 wardstone is ( in durlag's tower in front of that big white statue) you actually only need 95% find traps through out all of BG 1
in BG 2 again you only ever need 95% except in prebek's house, all his traps require 100% ( to at least detect, dont know about disarm ) but other than that, 95% find traps is good enough
when it comes to ToB never knew the trap before sendai's enclave required over 100, although at that stage of the game, it is super easy to have ANY type of thief with over 100 % find traps anyway, because they will no doubt be wearing amulet of the master harper which gives them a +20% bonus, and even if you only had 95% to begin with and are even wearing elven chain or some sort you will still have 110 %
now for open locks, worse case scenario anything that can be opened with open locks can be opened with a knock spell, so dont worry if your open lock isn't high enough, that spell has you covered
now with that being said, 90% in BG1 is enough to open any lock in the game ( although the one chest in durlag's tower that holds kiel's items i believe, and a couple of the chests in the ducal palace might take a couple of tries, but it will open )
in bg2, im not 100% sure if 90/95/100 is enough/required, since it is super easy to get a ring of lock picking in SoA, i want to say realistically you only need 90% in open lock ( for the convenience if you are making a dual class for example ) and then either pay the 15000 gold to the thief dude or bodhi and once you do that the ring of lock picking is not far away
if you join aran's side ( the thief side) you can get the ring faster:
once you grab the special shadow thief key, go to the special shadow thief area, once in there, you have 3 options to go: north, east ( via secret wall ) or south, travel north and continue on going all the way around basically, and then you will eventually hit the end where there is a lone thief in a room that has like 3 tables or something, talk to him, and will talk about switching guilds and then he will get backstabbed immediately and he will drop the ring of lock picks
if you join bodhi's side ( the vampire side )
this one takes a little longer because you won't be able to get the ring until the final task when you actually have to infiltrate the thief's guild, but anyway, once you actually do, you will have to go into the secret thief area, and again go north, then follow the path around, and i believe the holmes will be in the area where there is 3 "fake?" walls or so, and i believe there is some sort of fighter in this area, he will drop the ring ( it's been a long time since i've done this route, but im pretty damn sure that is where it is )
*Also note, if you choose this path you will NOT be able to get the 6th pair of boots of speed between SoA/ToB, you will forever only be limited to 5 pairs, but if that doesn't bother you, then carry on
now with that being said, chances are that you are importing your bg2 team into ToB, and chances are you are going to have over 100% lock picks because of the ring of lock picks, although if you do not wantto carry a ring of lock picks and you have points to spare, i have NEVER seen it necessary to dump more than 100 % in lock picks because it was necessary to open or unlock something, also note, the amulet of the master harper also gives a +20% bonus to open locks, so again if you only have 95% in open locks, wearing elven chainmail and the amulet you will have 110% which is more than enough to do any lock
in fact for ToB i wouldn't even be remotely surprised if you only need like 90/95% open locks to open any of the locks in the game, but to be on the safe side as long as you have 100% you are good to go
The only locks I have been unable to pick with my Thieves who had 100 in Open Locks, have been the ones that require a quest item (key) to be found or a quest to have progressed to a certain point. So afaik normal locks can always be picked with a 100 Lock Picking score.
One skill that one might want to develop beyond 100 is Set Traps, to allow a simulacrum to set traps 100% reliably. You'd have to go all the way to 167 though, which will only be worthwhile in very specific runs.
using the items and the other ways i had never problem to run even nalia, that is the worst thief possible as is a very early dual, as thief.
one skill that afaik is always beneficial to invest in is detect illusions as if i am not wrong a high score not only helps in having more chance to dispel invisibility, but make it work faster. avoiding the spell immunity, that is not used in vanilla but is used in some mods like tactics, so is more reliable then true sight. maybe mine is an opinion based on the fact that i play often with that mod and there the mind flyers and other creatures can go invisible at will, so making them visible again is really heavy on the spellbook. but i boost my detect illusions also in my vanilla runs.