For fun, I tried to obtain Furnock's ring via pick pocket outside the Inn. Occasionally I would succeed, but more often my attempts failed. Looking at the rolls, I see that my rogue is consistently passing the skill check, and Furnock is consistently failing his Spot check. Yet I still fail the attempt. The only thing I can think of to explain this is that a success requires exceeding the DC by 10 or more, but neither the in-game help nor the PnP manual says anything about this.
Hi Hal If you are still trying to pick Furnock's pockets, check the amount of gold you have. Sleight of Hand is a "random" skill in that you can "succeed" but still not get what you want. I recall a comment made in another thread last week, where Dala (at the Waterside Hostel in Nulb) had actually "pickpocketed" the Robes of Midnight from a character, and a complete suit of armor from someone else. I admit I don't use Slight of Hand at all in ToEE, and only once in KoTB (there is a quest that practically demands it in KoTB). The Royal Canadian
Oh right, cash can be pickpocketed, I did not think to check. Was still stuck in Arcanum mode I guess.
But hang on a sec...the floating text says "Failure". Yet the rolls say success. Not the other way around, as you described. What gives?
If the roll (in the background like a DM does) says the pick pocket gets coins and you have already stolen everything they have, you succeed and get some pocket lint.
OK, I'm going to use a direct example from the game, maybe that will be more clear. Out of 6 consecutive pick pocket attempts, the first 5 give a floating text of "Pick Pocket Failed!'. For all 5 of these attempts, I succeeded my DC. For all 5 of these attempts, my victim fails her Spot check. On the 6th attempt, I gt "Pick Pocket Succeeded!". There is now an item from the victim in my inventory. Therefore, there is still an unsolved mystery here. It is not that I have taken everything, and it is not that I am only getting coins. It is that the result does not jive with the rolls.
Hi Hal I think there is something "buggy" about the way ToEE does Sleight of Hand. First there are the "Success - Failure" combos that you noted (by the way success or failure on the part of your victim to spot the attempt has no effect on your success in picking the pocket in the first place). Second, according to the rules, you should only be able to pocket a SMALL item, but I have heard of cases where rather large items (up to and including complete suits of armor) have been "pocketed" (that would be a trick I would like to see: a 3rd level Rogue stuffing a suit of Full Plate Armor in her (non-magical) pockets :yes The Royal Canadian
"What has it gots in its pockets, my precious? Not string, no, but not... a full suit of stone armour?!?!?" "Is that a tower shield in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" You keep saying that! There is indeed one such quest but I haven't written it yet...
Hi Ted unless you have changed things since I last played KoTB, there is a quest where you need to get a key to get into a certain building to get something for the thieves guild. The other way of getting the key involves a female rogue getting a "low" reputation. The Royal Canadian
Ahhh, of course <slaps forehead> Pickpocketing is a perfectly licit way of doing that quest, but it can be done in different ways by both a male and female PC. The other use I am thinking of will also helpy you avoid a reputation, but thats another story.
I've been kind of suffering with this as well. It makes neither good roleplaying nor mere mechanical sense to me. Why would my master thief search what is evidently the same empty pocket for ten successful pocket picking attempts, when the mark has pockets bulging with coin? Or, from a gameplaying perspective, this extra check, which a PC evidently has a chance of failing for no good RP reasons, doesn't seem to be something you can reasonably affect in this game. It kills the point of levelling this skill up, buffing, etc. With the chance of critical failure already in the game, I can't really justify this extra roll as a way to introduce risk into the proposition even for high level characters. I mean, I'd rather the difficulty were increased other ways, like having to pass sleight of hand checks against all observers, not just the mark. That makes better mechanical and roleplaying sense to me... I did notice something funny, though. Experimenting with this, I've noticed that if I craft enough scrolls and sell them to Burne, my next successful pickpocket attempt will always seem to grab those. It seems to work consistently when I sell him 50+, with merely improved chances with less. However, selling to him seems to always increase the chances that I grab something on a successful roll. Practically, this is only useful as an exploit for players, I think... But it does raise questions about how the game rolls on the back end that I kind of hoped somebody who's been up to his elbows in the code might be able to explain. I ask because if I can affect that roll this way, maybe there's a less exploitative way of affecting it! Help?
