First off, hello everyone. I've been lurking about this forum for some time now. [img]smile.gif[/img]

My question is this - How do you go about practicing pickpocket?

I always save before starting but the thing is, no matter how many times I reload I ALWAYS get the same results, like.. "You have pickpocketed 87 gold.. pickpocketing failed.. NPC goes neutral"
(I even tried resting and exiting the game just before I got the neutral message.)

Basically I cant try to pickpocket this NPC again till my pickpocketing character has leveled up.
Which is very annoying since I read about all the good stuff you can snag of the NPCs :/

Is there a trick to getting around this? [img]smile.gif[/img]

I have noticed the same thing, the results from a pickpocket attempt do NOT seem to be anything other than a series of scripted events based on your pickpocket skill. I have even tried cheating, by saving and reloading, but the results are always the same. It does not seem like it is a "die roll" at the time you attempt the pickpocket but rather the dice are rolled prior to you initiating conversation with the person. And the dice for every subsequent attemp have already been rolled as well. Example...I try to pickpocket the rapax. First attempt fails without the rapax noticing, second attempt also fails without him noticing, third attempt fails and he gets upset. So I reload my quick save from right before I talked to him. And the results are the exact same. 4 reloads later with the same 3 results, I have decided that the development team was smart enough to not allow this kind of cheating by pre-rolling the chance that pickpocket attempts will succeed/fail before you even try it. So the only way to practice is to try to pickpocet everyone you see. When you succeed leave the screen and save. Then try again, if you fail then it's time to reload and move on to someone else to practice on.

If your going to pickpocket your best results are going to be with version 1.00 Thats what i found any way.

Some NCP are alot harder to pickpocket. I suggest you start with the Bank Teller then the girl at the ship shop then Lord Braffit in the temple *don't get Miles in you group right away* then go pick pocket Miles.. then recurit him then save Vi pocket it her then recurit, go the the jail get Martens ID go to the HLL Bluilding pocket the Guy up Stairs the Try Antone the Rapax.. by now you should have your pickpocket skill around 65-70. He still will be hard to pickpocket.

Hope this helps

sorry about the grammer hope you can read retardise

Just a side note on pickpocketing.

Level is important to the sucess rate.
I have a level 25 Ninja with only 15 in pickpocketing skill who is *much* more effecient than a level 7 Rogue (Myles) with 45 in that skill.

Use Ninja, not a thif... and use pickpocking on enyone NPC

You can also find a NPC that only goes neutral and pick pocket until they catch you. Now have someone cast charm and repeat the process. Not only do you get to practice PP but you can also practice you magic skills.

Just a clarification on one of the above notes. They made a change in one of the patches so that you will always get the same results from pickpocket if you reload a save from before the attempt. Makes it much more difficult to up the skill, obviously. But yes, as someone else mentioned, if you can find an NPC that doesn't go hostile when you are caught and have a character with the charm spell, you can kill two birds with one stone. I believe Anne in Anrika is this way, with the added benefit that she 'lets you off the hook' when you sell her stuff that you took off her.

Patch v1.2.2 - Stylus @ 09:33 PST
Wizardry 8 retail patch has been released. Get it from 3dgamers here.

Some of the gameplay changes are:
- Pickpocketing will now produce the exact same results if you simply reload & try again
- NPCs will now notice and act accordingly when their stuff keeps disappearing just after you've paid them a visit (successful pickpocketing is noticed - after the fact - and remembered).

This patch also disables CyberMan's Trainer.

it seems with that patch they have made PP useless...

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Dyntheos:
it seems with that patch they have made PP useless...<hr></blockquote>

It just requires more charming. I recommend the Viola D'Amore for your Bard. Antone loves my rendition of "The Devil came to Georgia" (when I play it for him the Devil wins).

Thanks for the replies everyone, that clears things up a bit [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hello,

Please explain to me what charming is supposed to do for me when pickpocketing. I use the Viola D'Amore before I pickpocket and after I fail. It does not seem to increase my chances for success and it doesn't make them like me any more if I am caught. I still have to choose the one time only buttons that say something to the effect of friendly or threaten or give item to get them to even show the the trade or pickpocket buttons again. Seems to me like charming them is doing absolutely nothing.

I always wondered about that myself, but if I remember correctly, once, after practicing my charm spell and using the charm instrument for a while on a neutral NPC, they did eventually come back to friendly.. If I had to guess, you'd have better luck with it at higher levels and/or higher skill levels in the spell fields or music. But that's just a guess..

can anyone in point form list the "nuetral" npc's to train upon, and at what level of PP you should be attempting to start to train?