Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Thievery

So, probably going to get ignored/it's too late... but I hate the thieving mechanics.

Issue 1. Single pickpocket opportunity the entire game. That is ridiculous. I didn't like it in DoS:EE, and I don't like it here. If I pickpocket someone at lvl 1, now they are permanently off-limits to me the rest of the game... why? If I now have more skill at pickpocketing, have greater dexterity (finesse), why can't I pickpocket them again?

Solutions/alternatives:
1. Timer. You have to wait 4 hours of play time before you can pickpocket them again.

2. You can't pickpocket them until you have a new level in thievery or at least 4 more points in finesse.

3. Alertness. After the first pickpocket, they become more alert, making it harder to pickpocket them. Requires greater skill and dexterity, becomes harder every time you successfully pickpocket them.

Issue 2: New to DoS 2... now, not only can I only pickpocket them a single time... on top of that, they magically figure out it was me (even though I was successful) and now demand to search me... So, not only do I get 1 single opportunity, I can STILL fail, if I can't talk them out of searching me... RIDICULOUS. So, even though I was successful, they get an automatic, 100% chance to catch me...

Solutions/alternatives:

1. Any and all options above.

2. Only a very limited number of characters should be able to search you or even request it. Is some random shopkeeper REALLY going to force a confrontation which will likely lead to their death over 40 measly gold pieces? Because right now, the answer is yes. If it is a high-ranking NPC, maybe they could have this ability. But, normal NPCs shouldn't.



Don't double-penalize me for picking a rogue. Make realistic game balancing decisions. Either legitimately include thievery or remove it altogether. Don't make it a useless skill that there is no point in investing in because you can only use it a single time and it pretty much is impossible to do without being caught.

Yeah the system feels like it needs some work.

This is how me and my friends did:

1. Person 1 talks to the NPC.
2. Person 2 pickpockets the NPC.
3. Person 2 sends the items to Person 3.
4. Person 1 stops talking and the NPC searches Person 1 and 2.
5. The NPS finds nothing.
6. Person 3 sends the item to Person 1/2.
7. DONE!

Feels a bit like cheating.

I don't think you're supposed to be able to pickpocket everything you want. You being a rogue has NOTHING to do with pickpocketing, everyone can do it. You can avoid getting caught.
You're arguments are rather invalid, since you're basically upset that you cant pickpocket EVERYTHING, but that would be broken.

Except, no, that isn't what I said, at any point. What I said is that pickpocketing as a skill isn't balanced properly. I didn't say I wanted it to be easier. I didn't say I wanted it to be unlimited.

Let me make an analogy. You have combat skills, yes? Unless it is a once per combat skill, you can use those multiple times in combat. They are on timers. Same concept as what I am proposing, except a longer timer.

If you have a conversation with someone and then there is a skill check against persuasion and you win, they don't get a 2nd opportunity to win that skill check... If you roll to hit them and you win the roll to hit them, they don't get a 2nd opportunity to avoid getting hit.

Right now, someone who is pickpocketed automatically gets a 2nd nearly unbeatable opportunity to catch you... unless you apparently shuffle items around your characters based on the metagame knowledge that only the first 2 characters are searched... which no reasonable person would know. I don't know how you figured that out, and commend you for it (I'll use it if the skill isn't adjusted and they don't make it so ALL characters are searched), but there is no reason to think that when they ask to search your party that they wouldn't search everyone.

Steal and run.

I really like this crime site system. Makes thievery more interesting. And it is good that the Devs united pickpocket and lockpick.

However, I wish there was a chance of failing even the simpliest thievery to decrease artificialness.

Michael, the NPC will search everyone but what you need to do is swap the item around so the persom being searched doesn't have the item.

I understand what you are saying now- they only get searched when you answer the request to search with that character. Seems like an exploit to me. I just run now... but, that seems ludicrous as well. If they realize they got pickpocketed and the last people they talked to literally ran off... Seems pretty obvious who did it. Right now, have no problem with money or gear, so maybe it isn't that important. Mainly do it for skill books.

I disagree with your comparison. Because a game mechanic work one way doesn't make it mandatory for every mechanic to work the same way.

It makes you think about whether or not you should try to steal. Maybe I am wrong but you can still cancel your attempt and try later if you feel not skilled enough.
Also, the crime thing is fine to me but I wish they would also talk to NPC. So you could try to sell stolen good to and NPC how then would get arrested because he has stolen items. Or some NPC would refuse to buy stolen items so you would have to go to a black market.

I mean I think the current system is fine but I would like tiny bit more depth.

Just for your info:

The reason you're getting caught has to do with the fact that you're probably trying to pickpocket someone of equal or higher level than you are, and attempting it with a low Thievery score or a Thievery score that isn't high enough to surpass your targets suspicion check. Try pick-pocketing lower level characters, or save all of the +Thievery gear you can find and make a "pickpocket set" to do it. They shouldn't automatically distrust you if you do this.

If you've sold a lot of items to a specific vendor as well, you may also be able to get away with pick-pocketing upwards of a 3000 gold stack.

*SPOILER*:

Vendor gold and inventory resets once every real-life hour as long as you have acquired at least one point of experience since your last visit to that vendor, provided that XP was acquired outside of the same map area of said vendor. The inventory that you have sold to that vendor will still remain, however.

Knowing this, one of the best ways to hoard an insane amount of gold before the final stages of the game is to immediately start selling EVERYTHING of decent value that you find to Zaleskar, the level 8 skeleton just outside Fort Joy, as soon as you escape the fort. He usually carries about 1000 gold after a reset, so he's a good source for high value item sales.

Once you are ready to start preparing and gearing up for end-game, pick-pocket Zaleskar and take as much gold from him as you can successfully. He'll still "distrust" you and turn against you - let him.

Kill him and loot his corpse. There is no adverse effect to this, as he is not aligned with any other NPCs that I've found. Just make sure you've completed Ifan Ben-Mezd's quest line first. If you do this properly, the amount of value in the items you have sold him throughout your play-through is nearly 25,000 gold. Every single item you've ever sold him since your escape can be looted from his corpse. You can then take all of those items and piece-meal sell them to all the vendors in the Seeker Hideout. They have a lot of gold, and again, their gold will reset roughly once per hour if you can find something to kill after you've drained them on your first round of sales.

Make sure you've also saved a "Bartering" item set as well, as this helps both with purchasing AND selling items. You will, at this point, have MORE than enough gold to purchase an entire set of level 7+ purple items for all 4 of your choice characters and, if you're patient enough with the vendor resets, can deck out your characters with fully min/maxed gear and just melt away the final bosses with ease.

This is on Classic difficulty as well.

Also, make sure you pick up EVERY last stack of Nails that you can find. I think I used less than 10 lockpicks my entire play-through yet you can craft upwards of 400 lockpicks using only one repair hammer, as those are not consumed when you craft them, only the Nails are. Each lockpick stack is worth about 450-500 gold with a pumped-up bartering set. That's about another 1600-2k gold right there.

Hope this helps.