Picking Pockets help

[davyd]

Are there any master pickpockets or respectable people with knowledge of picking pockets watching this forum? How much silver can you steal at a time? is it possible to steal other items? I used to play a while ago and I think that I remember you could steal gems, am I wrong? I used to play 2 years ago and im about to start a new rogue if anyone could answer these questions i would appreciate it greatly.
Thanks

[The Ponzzz]

Hold on, I'll grab everything you need.

[The Ponzzz]

The chance for a skilled pickpocket to outright fail is basically zero, so the system pretty much boils down to a contest between thief skill and mark skill.

The thief is helped by Pickpocketing skill, Dexterity bonus, Discipline bonus, being a Rogue, dark rooms, foggy rooms, being invisible or hidden, and Mobility. The thief is hurt by various injuries, not having empty hands, encumbrance, armor, light rooms, not being standing, and having stuff in hands.

The mark is helped by Perception skill, Pickpocketing skill, Wisdom bonus, Intuition bonus, watching the thief, and having been stolen from by that thief recently. The mark is hurt by being incapacitated in various ways (like being stunned or dead), various injuries, and watching someone other than the thief. Crowd size can either help or hurt the mark, depending on the size of the crowd.

Neither the thief nor the mark are helped by Lucksong, though they probably both should be.


Item that can be stolen:

amulet
feather
knuckle
spine

canine
finger
nail
stinger

coins
firethorn
nose
talon

crystal
gems
pincer
tooth

ear
herbs
scale
whisker

eye
horseshoe
scraping
wands

fang
incisor
skins

[The Ponzzz]

Also, with the addition of crappy box found jewelry, you can steal that too, as long as it's not really good.

[davyd]

Thank you, can you choose what to steal or which container to steal it from? How many coins in general do you get?

[The Ponzzz]

1-250 on coins.

Yes you can type steal XXX backpack.

[davyd]

Thanks alot, you can do this while hidden without coming out of hiding?

[The Ponzzz]

Nope.

[AestheticDeath]

It pulls you out of hiding when you attempt to steal. I don't think I ever saw a benefit to stealing while hiding. If your good at hiding, you can hide afterwards, if your not good - don't bother hiding all the time, or someone will catch onto just from watching you pop in and out. Even if they don't see you stealing.

Besides its just alot more work.

[Artha]

It unhides you before you make the pull, so it's really doubtful that it helps at all.

[Bobmuhthol]

If you're good, people won't know you're there if you keep hiding but it doesn't give you a better success rate when stealing. It's always good to not make your presence known, though.

[Sean of the Thread]

Steal herbs from empaths and listen to them whine.

[ELO]

If you're good, people won't know you're there if you keep hiding but it doesn't give you a better success rate when stealing. It's always good to not make your presence known, though.

Unless they use the SF window. /mini rant

[The Ponzzz]

I'll just re-quote for those that need what ildran said about bonuses.


The thief is helped by Pickpocketing skill, Dexterity bonus, Discipline bonus, being a Rogue, dark rooms, foggy rooms, being invisible or hidden, and Mobility. The thief is hurt by various injuries, not having empty hands, encumbrance, armor, light rooms, not being standing, and having stuff in hands.

Now Ildran has also said, the bonus is small and people like Leash and Grandsome don't need to hinder themselves with being spotted via SF room window as he just said above.

[fallenSaint]

Wasn't there something mentioned about having greater chance at lifting an item that you watched the mark just put up, like if you just saw them drop a diamond in their pouch and you steal from that pouch you have a better chance at snagging it?

[Artha]

They have a better chance of seeing you snag it.

[The Ponzzz]

Yup. And making a rogue a decoy is always great. If mark WATCHED rogueA and rogueB is actually the threat, bye bye mark.

I'd like to thank Leash, Yipsy and Grandsome for this. Without you, I woulda never made a mil at Ebon Gate 2005.

[ELO]

1-250 on coins.


You reach into Galadhriel's pockets and pull out 309 silvers.

[Fallen]

I hate that Grandsome is in my hunting area of late. Still hoping to catch him should he give it a chance.

[Krayton]

It's dumb to steal from someone when you two are the only two in the room, even highly skilled pickpockets will get caught by someone not skilled enough to catch them otherwise. Pick your marks carefully (fame them, profile them, look at them, etc.). Sorcerers are poor targets as they curse gems and throw them in their containers and archers are poor targets because of their increased perception.

steal help
There are two possible formats to use (optional parts are in []):

STEAL [ITEM] [FROM] <player> [CONTAINER]
Ex. steal amulet from Taelrand's puppy-skin pouch

STEAL <player> [ITEM] [CONTAINER]
Ex. steal taelrand amulet puppy-skin pouch

For further help, try:
STEAL HELP ITEMS
STEAL HELP TARGETS
STEAL HELP SENSE
>steal help items
A number of different types of items are subject to theft. Some examples are wands, some skins, amulets, and crystals, and of course, coins and gems. Non-gem items must be of the variety commonly found in treasure.

A thief can specify a type of item to go after, such as amulets, gems, wands, etc. However, they may not go after a specific type of an item, such as white crystals or diamonds, with the exception of allowable skins, and it is still possible to simply get coins.

A thief may also specify a specific container on their target through which to rummage. The container must be open and worn.

If specifying a type of item, the container must also be specified, as a thief could not feasibly get away with rummaging through a person's entire inventory looking for something specific. That would be the SEARCH verb. That's a joke.

>steal help targets
A mark who catches a thief by a high enough margin will have their item automatically returned.

When an item is placed into a container, there is a brief period during which the thief's chance of being caught is greatly increased if trying to take that item, or somewhat increased when trying to take anything else from that container. This is to simulate the mark's attention being focused on that container.

The more often a thief steals from the same mark within a given time frame, the more likely they are to be caught.

A mark can WATCH a thief for a significant bonus to catch that player stealing from them. However, they might potentially be at a penalty to catch a different thief stealing from them.

Crowd size makes a big difference. Stealing from someone when there are no other players around is almost impossible. A small crowd will make it difficult, and a large crowd will make it easier for the thief.

>steal help sense
Rogues can SENSE and get an idea of the relative difficulty or ease of picking pockets in an area, based on crowd size, lighting conditions, etc, as well as a chance to see people watching them. An unskilled rogue has a chance to be caught scanning the area by a perceptive bystander.


Also highlight strings such as "opened" and "closed" for when you want to see people open/close their containers for making easy marks. Take your time, pick your targets well, and pick multiple targets--you could make a killing in one night ;)

[ELO]

I hate that Grandsome is in my hunting area of late. Still hoping to catch him should he give it a chance.

Don't hold your breath. I have a hard enough time surviving there without worrying about stealing from people.

[Gan]

I always heard there was a bonus to being hidden before making a pull.

As a thief you'll love foggy and or dark crowded rooms. All of Krayton's post is good stuff to remember.

Also remember known thief's have a 'jacket' on them that make it very popular for people that are rarely victimized to jump on the band wagon (see: Rocksand). So having a decoy, or working an area along with another rogue is a good thing.

As a picker you'll definately want to stack up 402 prior to going to 'work'. And being a master in rogue gambits will help you stow your pulls quietly without having to leave the room/returning constantly, which is also a dead giveaway that you are up to something for those who are watching.

[Anebriated]

Does wezas still post here? He still have a copy of that log parser he was working on for thieves? would love to get my hands on a copy of that to run through some logs.

[Artha]

He no longer posts here.

If you search for it, I'm pretty sure he posted the last version of his pickpocket log analyzer some time ago.

However, he also stopped being able to pick pockets some time ago, so he stopped development on the project...it's kind of buggy, IIRC.

[The Ponzzz]

I had worked on it for awhile trying to get the value of gold rings in there and just counting box found jewelry, but my lack of how to use that database proved it to be a waste of my time.

Lost everything I worked on in a HD formating as well.

[Drew2]

Best pickpocketing method:

Get an empath (or any pure) to a high level.

1x Pickpocketing and Perception.

Go to mid-level hunting areas (level 40+) and rob people who are hunting blind. No law enforcement reprocussions, and if they try to attack you for it, you get to kill them!

Only thing I miss about Gemstone.

[Domidor]

I noticed after stealing that they guard pockets very well, is there a time limit on this or is there a way to get around it?

[NocturnalRob]

I noticed after stealing that they guard pockets very well, is there a time limit on this or is there a way to get around it?

i'm fairly certain that just means you failed the pickpocketing attempt badly enough that they're now aware you're trying to jack them.

then again, I don't train in pickpocketing...

[Some Rogue]

i'm fairly certain that just means you failed the pickpocketing attempt badly enough that they're now aware you're trying to jack them.

then again, I don't train in pickpocketing...

Right, they saw you stealing. Not that I have a thief either...

[Fallen]

I wonder how much training in pickpocket helps against defending yourself from it. If picking up 25 ranks or so nets you tangible defense, it might be worth it as a long term bonus. It all depends if your skill is completely discounted if the other person's training blows yours out of the water, or if it is threshold based.

[Some Rogue]

IOI: 4
I would like a list of factors that go into pickpocketing.
The chance for a skilled pickpocket to outright fail is basically zero, so the system pretty much boils down to a contest between thief skill and mark skill.

The thief is helped by Pickpocketing skill, Dexterity bonus, Discipline bonus, being a Rogue, dark rooms, foggy rooms, being invisible or hidden, and Mobility. The thief is hurt by various injuries, not having empty hands, encumbrance, armor, light rooms, not being standing, and having stuff in hands.

The mark is helped by Perception skill, Pickpocketing skill, Wisdom bonus, Intuition bonus, watching the thief, and having been stolen from by that thief recently. The mark is hurt by being incapacitated in various ways (like being stunned or dead), various injuries, and watching someone other than the thief. Crowd size can either help or hurt the mark, depending on the size of the crowd.

Neither the thief nor the mark are helped by Lucksong, though they probably both should be.
- Consigliere Ildran, Shizlock Holmesplice

[DaCapn]

Is there a chance for people to notice when someone is using the SENSE verb to pick out marks?

EDIT: Didn't read. The answer is yes.