*Warning: Spoilers Inside!*
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Hello again, gentle persons;

The very first Role-Playing game I ever played was Wizardry 7. I can still remember arguing with my friend that he shouldn't pickpocket anyone because stealing is wrong! Since then I've played a lot of games where picking up anything that isn't nailed down is considered to be correct and ethical behavior [img]smile.gif[/img] But when I bought Wizardry 8, I resolved to get back to my good behavior and not steal anything. (I do open chests and locked doors, though...which isn't really always very 'good' of me [img]smile.gif[/img] )

Thus, I have a bard that has great lockpick but no pickpocket, and Myles hasn't had his pickpocket raised either. So far everything has been going great, but I'm concerned about the future. I really, really want to get the "best" ending - where you broker an alliance between the T'rang and the Umpani. As I understand it, people have been saying you need to pickpocket a certain item from an Umpani merchant NPC. And of course, there might be other parts of the game where you "need" to pickpocket something in order to complete a quest.

The makers of Wizardry 8 have done a great job of offering more than one solution to many problems, so I'm hoping that pickpocketing isn't necessary to get that "best" ending, but I'm worried that it might be. Can anyone confirm that pickpocketing is necessary for any quest, or provide an alternative solution to one that is usually solved by pickpocketing?

Thank you very kindly for your replies;

there are no quests that have to be complete'd with pickpocketing as far as i know. However it is possible to use pickpocketing to solve some quests/do some things that you couldnt do otherwise (unless you use a walkthrough/ask for spoilers)

besides, in the newest patch its HARD to pickpocket, so you best not try anyway if you have any ethical problems with it, as you will get caught [img]smile.gif[/img]

Pickpocketing that item off the Umpani merchant helps you figure something out about him, but I'm not sure whether or not you couldn't also figure that out on your own (through mindreading and talking to various NPCs around the base).

Having recently allied the T'Rang and Umpani in my previous game, I can tell you that I did pickpocket this individual, but as I said, I'm not entirely sure that you *have* to do it this way. I plan on testing this further with my current game, but unfortunately I have a party full of hybrids that are incredibly slow to develop this time around and it's taking me a bit longer.

Given the recent changes to the pickpocket skill, I would hope that pickpocket is not required for such a significant quest.

Now, the T'Rang/Umpani alliance aside, there *are* some items that I've run across elsewhere that seem to be obtainable only by pickpocketing. For the most part, though it is merely items - not actual quests.

Hope this helps ease your mind somewhat, I'm sure others will be along to give you their input as well. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I recently completed a game where I alligned the Umpani and the T'Rang and never successfully pickpocketed. When I was at the commissary, I tried to pickpocket him and was unsuccessful. He attacked and I wasted him. I expected him to hit the red button and turn all the Umpani against me, but he didn't do that. Everyone was still friendly. I turned the item over to Balbrack and got some extra exp for finding a spy.

Good Luck,

Knarfling

I agree pickpocketing is not necessary.
I had to kill the umpani guy outright, to get the alliance.

Did you know that pickpocketing is very level related.

I had a ninja level 28 with a skill of 15 in pickpocketing who had about 10 times better success rate then Myles (level 6, with 30 in pick pocket)

More spoil ahead
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I killed the Shaman in Trynton too, in the 6th bough to get Diamond Eyes. The funny thing is that his two Trynnie bodyguards attacked him too when he turned hostile.

It had no negative result with the Trynnie faction either, but I later found another Diamond Eyes and regretted killing him, but well...