Explain, please why this skill must be decreased? Its the UnderDark, chaotic, full of danger, and if someone wants to steal let them! If they get got so what? I mean its part of the fun to have theives....

Granted I won't steal but my previous charecter was however, and I found that problem to be quite a nusenice really I mean -44 skill points....It takes atleast 12 skill points to become a pickpockter who won't be noticed! :? :roll:

By my understanding, it was removed because It's an extremely buggy skill and more trouble than it's worth.

It's actually not removed entirely. Last I checked, the skill just can't be used to constantly steal things from other PCs without their knowledge.

I believe that if you roll a pick pocket skill check, it accurately uses the skill points you put into the skill. Which means that you could still use pick pocket checks in roleplaying situations - next time you want to steal something small and specific from someone, try working out an agreement for a skill check with another player.

I know there's also at least one quest where a high pick pocket skill can help out.

The reasons for removing the skill from its normal use are basically that it can be very annoying, exploitable in some ways, and hard to script to be less so.

Unless I am mistaken, Pick Pocket also works on NPC's.

It's my understanding that PP was reduced to balance the rogues. Being a dark and dangerous city as it is, the DMs didn't want everyone making rogues and spamming PP thus causing a griefing problem and craploads of OOC player issues.

i.e. you need a dm to use it

You can use in DM or scripted situations, but early in the server's development we just decided trying to script it to work properly (stealing only small sums of gold, with a time limit on attempts) was more effort than it was worth for something we didn't think added much to the server.

you could just wait till the player gets to lvl 6 or something then take off the skill decrease. (lvl 4 for arabel rouges) though you must also have thief mode toggled at the same time to use the ability.

I've seen it work on another server, to some degree. The rules are as follows:

- You can't pickpocket items off low lvl characters (you get the equivalent value in gp) - There is a heavy penalty until you reach lvl 4 - You can't pickpocket items heavier than 10 lbs - If items is stacked, you only get one item from said stack. So if you successfully pickpocketed the stack of arrows, you would only get one of them.

Pickpocketing is hard to roleplay, and easy to exploit, and I don't know if it's going to be worth the effort to script it, as it probably won't add very much to roleplay. *shrugs*

Pickpocket is a PITA. No matter how its implemented.

I'm fine with a guy saying "Hey, I know you have a god stone in your pocket which I need for this plot. Can we roll my PP vs your Spot to see if I can swipe it?"

About all I regret is that it isn't an option on more quests. Instead of persuading the Quest Giver to give you those extra potions, why not swipe a few instead while he's handing over the reward? Another viable option for gaining extra rewards on a quest beyond just the social rolls.

Agreeing that it should not be used as a way 'just to get items'. It rarely ends up being fun to have your plot and other important items suddenly dissapear without any indication.

I also agree that it should come up more in other situations. Anywhere where a 'slight of hand' is or could be involved. I had/have planned on adding that to a card game, but I have just not spend considerable time on it for awhile. I bet with some time devoted to creative thinking, more uses for it could come up to make people feel it's not a wasted skill for a rogue.

Perhaps puting in an option for charecters to pickpocket certain npcs at the end of a quest (much like how now you get the option to persuade, intimidate ect) that way the skill becomes a little more useful but still dosent turn it into something that can be heavily exploited.