Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Help/Tips/Tricks When to pickpocket?

So considering that you can only steal from an NPC once (or till your bar is red), how do you know when to steal from the NPC since NPCs often restock?

Is there a sweet spot where certain NPCs sell choice stuff? Are there any tips anyone has discovered as to the best time to steal from certain NPCs?

I usually just steal the skillbooks my party needs, and whatever else I can grab to push that max value bar up. NPCs restock when you level up or after some time has passed (not sure the exact time, but possibly 60+ minutes real time).

The higher level you are, the better stuff they sell. Most of the skillbooks worth getting don't appear until you hit level 4. I usually wait to pickpocket until then, since you'll usually want these new skillbooks, and they can get pricey.

Oh, and a tip for stealing: Have a party member talk to the NPC, then sneak/pickpocket them while they're occupied. Then cheese it out of there. Make sure the character talking to the NPC doesn't have any stolen goods on them, because they'll usually be searched before they can get away.

Can you steal with multiple characters on the same NPC and max the steal line for each of them separately? Or do they have a common pickpocket threshold?

Yes, you can pickpocket with multiple characters and they each have their own attempt/max value bar. When I feel like doing a min-max kind of run, I usually give all of my party members thieving, just for skillbooks.

If you don't care about cheesing the game hardcore..... Make stacks of 1 gold coin on the character who's doing the pickpocketing then drag the 1 gold coin to whatever you want on the NPC. Doesn't matter if its above your skill to take or not. It will swap the coin and the item and it won't increase either of the bars. So, you can completely clean out an NPC if you wanted.