Obviously that's going to depend on "luck" with RNG loot, which is another topic that gets debated heavily. With that setup, we can (unfortunately) never predict how much funding a player will have to work with by any particular point in the game. That makes party resources very tricky to balance.
I completed the whole game on normal difficulty with having only TWO unique items during my whole playthrough. It's not like you really need the "best" stuff. The game is pretty doable with just common stuff you can get everywhere without much luck, even if you don't steal much/anything...
That was also how I was coming at it. I wasn't dealing with RNG (or chest scumming) as a make or break part of what I described above. The gear I was working with in each case was white-quality pieces with maybe one or two blue or green items between the entire party (and if I had those, they probably came from the Ishmaeshell chest). And that was with the starting active skills plus 1-2 books between the whole party.
You just don't need a whole lot of stuff to get started in this game. Serial kleptomania for the sake of starting with lots of stuff is a valid choice, but it's just that - a choice, not a requirement.
