I have the latest patch installed and pickpocketing is a whole new ballgame. No endless runs of stuff off the npcs. The Cane of Corpus remains a myth so far for my faerie ninja I'm afraid. But truthfully, am not sure it's necessary anyway because she is mighty powerful without it, plus I like using a bow (ask anyone whoever posted with me on the old MM6 board, taking on Darkmoor Castle armed only with bows at level 33 and no magic. *Eyes, eyes everywhere, aieeeeee!*)
Long range spells are vital, bow notwithstanding. Just got into the Mountain Wilderness because I heard (from my brother) that Bela might sell me a Strong Bow. Puffed up with a false sense of invulnerability, 4 Bitter-something flying snakes quickly wiped me off the map because I tried close combat using dual wielded nunchuckas without casting the duration spells. (All right, I spose the CofC would have been handy here.
) My supply of single round damage spells is poor at this point (level 23).