And I will say...since this isnt an MMO and therefore how others play doesnt affect you...who cares? Like I mostly agree with Fire, but "I would rather they just dramatically raise the DC for pickpocketing from merchants, specifically. Make it high enough that if people really want to clean out the merchants, they're gonna have to spend a long time save scumming." Why do you care? If someone wants to do that...let them. It has ZERO impact on your game. From my posts, you know I don't cheese. As such, I might pickpocket a story item but I am not cleaning out a merchant. It's not fun for me, but why would I care if others did?
If pickpocketing isn't a realistic challenge, then I can't play a thieving character who is challenged by stealing. I want there to be a risk/reward relationship so
I have to make judgement calls on whether to steal or not steal.
Your point is a complete non-argument. You are completely overlooking that a game needs to be designed with an eye on both mechanical challenge and narrative internal consistency in order to create a convincing world. You don't put the BFG in the first room of the Doommaze and then tell the player "so what? Just don't use it if you don't want to". That's a terrible design attitude to have.
