Scarabs!

[StJimmy]

WTF am I doing wrong?

You carefully begin to examine the scarab for traps...

Knowing how delicate magical runes can be, you carefully scrape a few extra lines into the markings, hoping to alter their meaning and defeat the spell they may hold.

*scritch scritch* If that had been any easier, you could have done it blindfolded.
>get scarab
A spiked onyx scarab suddenly darts forward and launches itself at you!

Blood jets forth as a spiked onyx scarab burrows into your abdomen!
... 15 points of damage!
Strike pierces gall bladder!
That's gotta hurt!
You are stunned for 3 rounds!
You are still stunned.

No matter what scarab I disarm, I always get the scritch scritch message and lately every single time I've picked it up it's not disarmed at all.

I recently used a fixskill, but I can't figure out what the hell could be causing this.

I've got 273 ranks in disarm, 19 dex bonus and 25 ranks in AS. WTF?

[Ilvane]

How many times has this happened lately?

I have only had that happen to me twice with the same messaging, which is basically fumbling from what I've gathered. I'm sorry I don't know much else to offer up to you.

Angela

[StJimmy]

It's happened every single attempt I've recently made, at least 5 times now. It's weird, I just don't get it.

[whorrak]

Are you positive that no one else is dropping a bug in the meantime? i.e. you disarm yours, someone drops a new one, and you pick up that one? Or that you are disarming the bug on the ground and not one on your person?

I'm under the impression that the scritch msg is an absolute that it's been disabled.

[Ilvane]

It is usually.

That's what I was trying to figure out..5 times seems insane, that you would fumble that much.

Angela

[Krendeli]

Or he has a scarab in his inventory and is continually disarming that one.

[Asha]

Or he has a scarab in his inventory and is continually disarming that one.

ding ding ding

[StJimmy]

Nope, removed everything I had, at a table by myself. Got the scritch scritch message and it killed me straight away. Beats me.

[JJBummer]

Only ever had that happen once after the scritch messaging myself. What skills did you delete with your recent fixskills?

[CrystalTears]

Arcane Symbols helps with scarabs, so if you dropped that, it could be why you're failing.

[Ilvane]

Usually that scritch scratch is a pretty good indicator. It's really odd that it happened a bunch of times, once or twice I could see, but hmmm.

Angela

[CrystalTears]

I've never seen any other messaging other than that of the scritch scritch, so I don't know what would show differently if you didn't do it right.

[The Ponzzz]

There are a ton of other messages. Onces saying you made a decent attempt, one saying you aren't positive, etc.

I always thought the scritch message was an indicator of 100% safe!

I have 25 ranks of AS and knowledge of 410. So I don't know of that helps now...

[Ilvane]

It's something like "You disarm the scarab and you feel fairly confident of your success" I haven't had that one in a while myself.

As far as I know 25 ranks in Arcane symbols should be enough too, but I guess it would really depend on the scarab.

Not sure what else could be going wrong.

Angela

[fallenSaint]

Had it happen in different rooms and whatnot or do you sit at the same table every time? May be a bugged room issue since you cleared up the inventory issue. Only time I ever get a scarab that bites back is if I try to work with multiples on the ground at the same time for some reason its never as smooth as disarm and grab.

[Sean of the Thread]

This is what happens when you buy characters.

[FoolsNeverLose]

Or he has a scarab in his inventory and is continually disarming that one.

I think this would be it, this happened to me more then once.
And my locksmith has 11 Arcane Symbol ranks, and she disarms them flawlessly every time.

[Sylvan Archer]

Are you using 'disarm scarab' or 'disarm my scarab'? If you're using the latter, then it's definitely disarming one in your inventory somewhere. Sometime when you're not picking, and in a room where you know there are no scarabs visible (basically by yourself), try typing in the command and see if you're getting the 'scritch scritch' response. If you are, you've got one lurking somewhere on you.

This is why I put my disarmed ones in one place, and keep that container closed when I'm picking, just to avoid any mixups for which one I'm disarming.

[Gibreficul]

Make sure you aren't typing

DISARM MY SCARAB


Make sure it's DISARM SCARAB

That's my best guess.

[Sthrockmorton]

The only time this ever happens to me is when I'm disarming a scarab that is barely within my ability to pop out of the box. But with 273 ranks in disarm, the only thing this would probably give you issues with is -1400 or worse scarabs.

I don't know the mechanics that well, but like I said, the only time I get the "scritch scritch" message and actually fail is when it's right around my max difficulty.