Rogue Skills

I'm not understanding something and think it might be a bug in Co8 5.7.2.

I have a theif (rogue) trying to pick pocket Nim in Hommlet. My skill level total is 14. My die rolls are showing success for me and failure for him to spot. Yet nothing shows in my inventory.

Meanwhile, and sometimes at the same time as above, the text that pops up over Nim's head will show success sometimes and failure at others. At other times the floating text will state failure while the die rolls show success for me and failure for Nim to spot. The numbers agree on this.

Can someone explain this for me please. An odd happenstance of checking die rolls vs. the floating text.

 

Another interesting aspect of this scenario of game play. Should not a thief get better odds if he / she is invisible—it should be something like a -4 on the spot check of the shill (target)? The level or hit die of the target should not come into play either as an NPC or monster would be considered to be upgrading their spot check skill. This might be a balance issue.

 

Who's Nim? Maybe he has nothing in the inventory for you to steal. Also, sometimes "success" means you steal money and it goes directly to your "account" not inventory.

 

Nah!, that wasn't it. Nim is the gem seller / purchaser / merchant in the northwestern parts of Hommlet. The two sectioned house just north of the stream bridge and to the left.

I checked my money when I started the encounter and wrote it down, did the stealing as described and then checked when the floating text said "success." I got nothing some of the times. Did a pick pocket the very next time and got items, even his +1 dagger. The die rolls showed success for the thief and failure for Nim's spot check each and every time—but the receiving money or items was hit and miss. Odd!

So I played it again from scatch, sold a gem and tried to steal it back from him. Same results. Again, Odd!

 

When you sell something it goes into the store's inventory, you can buy it back, not the merchant's inventory. If the merchant has anything on him, you can PP it. When you PP, sometimes its an item, sometimes its cash. But if you stole all their cash, or they don't have any on them, you can succeed, but not get anything.

 

True, but I would get a floating text failure from the get go even though the rolls showed success for me and failure for Nim. And I knew he had items to steal. As for my sold items going into the store inventory that is not true. The items I was able to steal were the same items I had sold plus one or two that Nim had on him. All-in-all, the items in his chest were not worth the effort to get the key from him. And the thief cannot pick the lock on Nim's chest. It would have been nice, for the effort, to have had a shortsword +1 in the chest. Something minor enough to not upset the balance too much but still reward the effort to finally get the key off him.

 

Make the chest a mimic that only attacks when you use the key.

 

You each made interesting additions to my original thread of thought. Carrying this farther along, I would recommend making the difficultity of acquiring the key stay as it is. It took me quite a length of time to finally get the key itself. I kept getting the gems and whatnot I had already sold Nim.

Looking at Ghoul's suggestion I would say place a trap on the chest. If the thief successfully disarms the trap the mimic stays asleep—Nim had recently already fed him. But if the trap is not disarmed then the mimic attacks him. And to be even more devilish, each time the character leaves the building and comes back, the trap resets. Nim would obviously be checking his chest every so often! I will let your imagination take over from here, but imagine the surprise of the character to see that the trap has been reset.

As for the mimic itself I can only ask if there is an instance in the game where one is used. If not perhaps take an in-play monster and mod it. If one is already used then tone it down somewhat as the thief is likely only going to be third or fourth level.