I usually love the thief/assassin archetype in RPGs. I love being sneaky, and sometimes the darker delights are all too tempting, especially if IRL I had a bad day. NPCs beware ;) Clearly, scoundrel/poly-Sebille seemed perfect for that.
I'd like to share my perception of this type of gameplay up to now (admittedly only just reached Driftwood) -- sadly it's not turned out the way I hoped it to, and I was wondering if people have made different experiences and what, if anything, they'd like to see done about it.
The current implementation of the rogue skillset (sneaking, thievery) is rather demotivating to me. Simply put, I find that there is too much clairvoyance involved on the part of NPCs.
- "Pickpocketing counter": The main feature of skillful pickpocketing is that you are not noticed during the feat. The owner will simply realise that the item is gone, and probably be more wary of future pickpocketing attempts if the item was valuable. There is no reason, however, why PC thief #1 should be unable to pickpocket him/her again, while PC thief #2 can merrily have another go. We already have a useful maximum weight/value mechanic, why add a counter-intuitive... counter (I'll show myself out) on top of it? The absurdity of this mechanic is tragicomically both highlit and worked around by exploiting throw-away thief characters to repeatedly pickpocket the same NPC vendor after every inventory reset... but I refuse to do that for obvious reasons.
- "Warning: Item secured by RFID and alarm systems." Seriously, the way vendors and guards 'know' that that one book you nicked from that table littered with dozens of books is suddenly gone borders on heavenly (or hellish?) inspiration. How a guard is supposed to know that the pair of gloves that 'fell into your pockets' in a neighbouring village is stolen remains a mystery to me; similarly, I find it hard to imagine that a note in an unwatched tent displays reticence to being stolen and alerts every guard in the vicinity (perhaps it's the bastard progeny of Harry Potter's Howling Letters?). Apparently a work-around some people use is to place a 'tanker' character somewhere remote and transfer everything stolen directly to him, out of Clairvoyant Guards' Tom, Dick and Harry reach... but eh? Not RP-y enough for me. An idea to fix this mechanically could be to change the thievery skill. Currently it only affects pickpocketing and lockpicking -- why not make it so a highly skilled thief can remove the 'stolen' flag from higher-value items as she picks them up? If deemed necessary for balance, make this skill interact with the general 'crime awareness' mechanic.
- Stealth as a combat mechanic: It's simply disheartening. Forfeiting an entire round worth of AP for a laughable damage buff for one attack in the next round... but only if you pick an extra talent, and only if you forfeit valuable social skills to invest heavily in stealth, and only when the combat is almost over anyway (it's practically impossible to not be in one of the 5+ mobs' cone of vision while it still matters; if there's only 1-2 mobs left, stealth usually makes no difference any more on the outcome of the battle)... seems quite lacklustre. I'm not sure that working around the system by making other group members engage enemies while the thief remains out of combat and sneaks around on her own time while everybody else magically holds their breaths is engaging gameplay. Given the value of those precious skill points -- especially if you include opportunity costs, i.e. the benefit of picking up e.g. persuasion instead --, stealth could definitely use a bit more oomph. AP cost should simply be reduced (maybe 2 is more appropriate?), or scale again with skill as in previous divinity games. Alternatively, the 'Guerilla' talent could receive a significant buff. Both would probably be the easiest alternatives to implement, but also not very creative. Another option could be giving stealth a defensive (passive?) mechanic in combat, so that enemies at range suffer increasing penalties to their to-hit chances.
As it is now, I was quite sad having to spec my beloved main character rogue-Sebille out of both stealth and thievery to make her a significantly more valuable group member. Lockpicking? In most cases simply replaced by smashing things. Thieving in general? Don't do it any more, can't be arsed with clairvoyant guards. Pickpocketing? Useless unless exploited -- don't do it any more. Stealth? No significant benefit either in combat or out of combat that I can see; movement skills and backstabs are far more efficient. I'd rather play my Sebille as a femme fatale then and put the points into persuasion instead. And even then, I sometimes cannot shake the gloomy feeling that my scoundrel/polymorph-Sebille is less useful than my wayfarer/summoner-Ifan who puts out incredible damage from the (relative) safety of range AND boasts group utility with pet talk, heals and status management. =/
