Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Thieves Tool Proficiency situation is confusing.

The game provides a lot of contradictory and confusing information about Thieves Tool proficiency.

- By 5e Rules, Rogues, and anyone with the Criminal and Urchin backgrounds are supposed to get it automatically.
- However, it is not listed under Rogue's class features.
- The descriptions for Backgrounds only indicate that they grant skills.
- The tooltip description of Thieves' Tools and Trap Disarming kits says that proficiency is given by the Sleight of Hand skill.
- However, in Character Creation, this is not indicated by the description of the Sleight of Hand skill.
- The Ranger's Urban Explorer feature says it grants proficiency in Thieves Tools. ...but they do NOT get proficiency in Sleight of Hand.
- Lockpicking appears as a progress bar and not a check in the combat log, so you can't even check what you get your proficiency from, if anything.

...This is a mess.


If the tooltip for Thieves' Tools is correct, that is a problem. Rogues still get the standard 4 skill proficiency options as 5e says. The key word there is 'option'. It is entirely possible to make a Rogue and not take Sleight of Hand as one of the chosen proficiencies - especially given that character creation doesn't have that information. The result of that is that the Rogue will have lost yet another unique class feature for no good reason.

The solution already exists. Thieves Tools proficiency should be its own separate thing, not tied to a skill. Give Rogues, and the Criminal and Urchin backgrounds the proficiency they're supposed to have.

For the currently non-existent "Custom" background option which Larian SHOULD put in the game, you would be able to select two skills or one skill and one tool proficiency. (Everyone would take custom if you could take two skills AND a tool proficiency.)

Yeah I was playing a rogue and tried to disable a trap and it used a Sleight of Hand skill check when it should have used my proficiency with thieves tools, I think this is due to Larian setting up disarming kits as something separate from thieves tools when in 5e traps and locks are both disabled by thieves tools. I also agree that I strongly wish to use a custom background option.

Edit: Me ranting a bit

Also, when it comes to traps, in general, I think this game needs to adopt a feature that NWN used fairly well, Active Search Checks. In 5e dnd, you can perform a perception check whenever you would like to take a look around, or an investigation checks when you are examining an item with your hands. From what I have noticed all perception checks in the game are automatic and feel more like a passive check as you aren't actively looking for anything. Additionally, only perception checks are used when finding traps in this game. I wish that they would add a toggle button or something for whenever a player would like to specifically look for anything out of the ordinary.

Having not heard or seen any trap disarm kits on my first play through, so my rogue died many a time to the two traps i came across. it was a bit ridiculous. More so, when i didn't get the thieves tools for a good bit of time, either, so he couldn't pick the locks.

I think this could have been done a little simpler and clearer.

I honestly don't mind if they just replace thieves' tools proficiency with slight of hand proficiency. It makes it a bit easier to make sure someone in your party can unlock chests, and we're a little less constrained on party members. But it should be cleaned up a bit.

*sigh* I already explained the problems with that in the OP. Did you not read the whole thing?

The Ranger's "Urban Tracker" says it grants TT proficiency, but it does NOT get Sleight of Hand proficiency. If TT is part of Sleight of Hand, Urban Trackers should get it automatically. If TT proficiency is a separate thing, then there should be no issue giving it to Rogues as a class feature. EDIT: Some people say that Urban Trackers do get Sleight of Hand in-game, but Character Creation does not indicate that, which is why I thought they didn't. That's clearly a bug.

If TT is part of Sleight of Hand, it screws over Rogues because they are losing a class feature FOR ABSOLUTELY. NO. REASON. AT ALL. If they want TT prof. - which they will, as it is THE single reason to play as a Rogue - they are forced into taking Sleight of Hand as one of their proficiencies, whether they wanted to or not. And yes that is a problem, especially because character creation does not tell you how to get TT proficiency.

I have to admit, I would really like an official answer to this. I don't care what the answer is, but I need to know as this is greatly impacting how I build my Character. Please someone provide some insight. Currently as is, and stated by OP...it's very confusing.