Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Ideas to Balance Pickpocketing

You know its coming. Some kind of arbitrary throttling of this powerful ability in order to preserve some sense of economy in the game. Rather than do things like Limit the number of items you can steal like in Divinity, how about some balance fixes that are more in line with D&D?

1. Shopkeeper ability checks: Currently in situations where you just catch an unsuspecting shopkeepr looking the wrong way, and you just pick em clean and run away, they just kind of walk around the same spot looking very low effortly until they return to "sell mode" and you can creep back up and do it again. I noticed sometimes they say stuff like "there must be more evidence!" so what if there was? After a shopkeeper realizes hes been robbed, he should be allowed to make a perception check or survival check to look for tracks. When the shopkeeper passes a check like this, they follow the route the player took when they ran away. Essentially they coulld be forced to make a few more attempts before giving up and heading back... this way they dont just stand at the storefront while the player only needs to sneak off about one screen over and wait. Eventually they may track down the player and confront them, at least forcing the dialogue options to be used more.


2. Increase suspicion: So I just robbed the first vendor in the Grove. He looks around and then gives up... I sneak back up and all the required sleight of hand scores are still the same as before. Despite being robbed, he is just as easy to steal from as 2 minutes ago. Perhaps a fair way to balance pickpocketing is have the vendors get increasingly protective over their goods being stolen. "I have been robbed 3 times today! theres no way I am taking an eye off my inventory!". They could tie it in with long rests if they feel its too heavy handed but ultimately this is a light version of the divinity method, which just gave you a one shot attempt at stealing something with each guy. The difference is its still an RNG driven model but results in "required roll of 20" for scrolls after a few robberies rather than simply fully locking it out.



any other ideas out there?
Do people feel pickpocketing is too strong? or mayben the items are just too strong too early and a pickpocket can gear out teh second they hit the grove?

Should we emulate Divinities solution or take a more novel approach for this game?

No!!!!!! If them damn vendors are going to charge me 2100 for a 650 gold piece item. Or offer me 75g for it, I am going to pick them clean. Cheap punks.


But honestly I think your idea of the shopkeeper making a perception check. They could "send guards" to search you if successful unless you can get away. I say disable fast travel when guards are in pursuit of you. But that would have to be like a 18-20 roll. Something high. Otherwise when you come back, they could be suspicious of you and only offer like 2g for a 650 gold item. 16-17. Etc etc etc.

Yes I think the potential for pickpocketing has high potential for breaking the economy currently. A few things to point out:

1. As of right now the shops replenish each long rest. It would be much better if the resources were finite.

2. The checks involved should be passive perception if behind/active perception if in visual against Sleight of Hand if noticed as well as Stealth

3. It would be neat if after a merchant realizes they have been robbed, they maybe obtain more Guards/NPC for the vicinity.

4. In a tabletop there would be a very rare chance that I can pickpocket Magical Weapons and armor lol. It would make more sense if you can pick pocket things that are smaller in nature ( Potions, Scrolls, Money )

5. Ultimately, I would like merchants to behave more dynamically if it was a tabletop.

Jaz

Bug/exploit related. If you open your inventory and pin it to the screen, you can have that open and the pickpocketing inventory open. Now you can drag and drop stackable items to bypass the DC roll, so you can steal stacks of gold without a challenge. Don't know if this is a known, but it needs to be fixed.

I would not mind if it was made more difficult. There should definitely be some sort of timer before you can pickpocket the same person again, this to indicate they are highly aware of their surroundings until they relax. Also each time you do it, the roll needed should increase a lot, maybe reset this on a long rest.

For those who think everything is overpriced and have a hard time keeping gold, when at a vendor ask yourselves do you need this item or do you just want it. Most good gear is looted, everything you pick up can be sold, and planning rather than rushing in to combat uses less potions so what really do you need to buy? Carry only what you need, keep a few situational items at camp and sell everything else, doing this will leave you with more gold than you need.

I do not know, pickpocketing is pretty hard to balance in all games. A cooldown could work, although it would not solve the problem, just mask some symptoms. You would just loot a thing or two whenever you enter the hub. You could also change the way traders are positioned, so they do not turn their back to you, or you could add additional NPCs, so you can not sneak as easily. Still an invisibility potion would do the trick and I do not know how expensive or accessible these are. You could increase the amount of checks required to steal something, or make only certain items pickpocketable, small things not halberds. You can make it as hard as you want and there are many easy ways to do it, but then you are also robbing the player of choices and possibilities, which the devs likely want to avoid.

Right now there also aren't any consequences attached to stealing it seems. You just fail and that is it.

The biggest issue with pickpocketing however is unfixable. That is quicksaving and reloading. You will not want to restrict saving in a game that is pretty difficult to start with and that is pretty transparent in it's mechanics.

+1 for increasing suspicion!

let that slowly reset after 1 -x days or so

I like to add that pickpocketing should be taken as bonus action ... in mine opinion.
It seem incredibly stupid that my rogue-thief can steal all merchant's stuff within single turn (aka. 6 seconds) ... flash will blush about their speed. :-/
But if it will be threated as bonus action ... usual character can steal at once half items than tief, with seem quite accurate.

Then every turn vendors can roll perception ... preferably with lowering dificiulty.
You know ...
one thing missing > dif. 20 to notice
two things missing > dif. 19 to notice
five things missing > dif. 16 to notice
etc.
And for very lucky thieves:
20 items stolen > dif. 1 to notice ... aka certainity.