It's still this way. One of the pickpocketing systems I liked the most, it's a real game changer if you know what you're doing and it allows several peaceful (well, non-violent at least) solutions that wouldn't be possible otherwise, high diplomatic proficiency included.
It can also allow you to become filthy rich very soon and get unique, not-for-sale high quality gear. Goodbye shopping, welcome shoplifting!

At least one game in the Fable series reportedly did this. [I did not play them.] But that's a different thread.

This. Picking pockets is one of the best ways to increase your evil alignment, unlocking certain quests and a slightly different pool of potential followers

Plus, the Fate points you slowly earn throughout the game can be used to ensure a critical success when it's absolutely necessary, even if your pocket-picking skill is subpar or even nonexistent

And planting an inferior weapon on someone is hilarious! "Oh, you were planning to fight me with your bare hands? Here, equip this railroad spike that I found, which does less damage than a fist and is almost as likely to hurt you as it is to harm me!"

Reminds me of how, in Morrowind, you can sell a merchant an item with a Damage on Self effect, and the merchant might actually equip it, dying some time later as a result, without the kill being attributed to you.

Mages dresses didn't have pockets either for that matter.

The problem with pickpocket skill in WoW was that it took ages to level up and then one patch the skill was given to everyone making that effort wasted.* You could also distract the target so they would be startled and look away making it less risky to perform.

*That might have been pick locks rather than pick pockets IIRC.

17:30

The most fun I had with a picket pocking type skill was when I played Final Fantasy 6. Specifically the part of the game where Locke is in South Figaro by himself and stealing clothing from enemies in the middle of a fight.


However the absolute best use of a pick pocketing skill that I have run into was in the Neverwinter Nights user created module Honor Among Thieves. All the quests in the game have multiple ways of being solved, some of which can involve using the pick pocketing skill. Examples:

- In the Stolen Star quest, you're hired to steal a gem from Merurry Bweibert that is kept in a chest at the foot of his bed. You cannot pick the lock on the chest, which means you need to either pick pocket Merurry for the key, kill him for the key, or just blow the chest up with a wand of missiles.

- In the Rare Coin quest, you're hired to steal a coin from Mert Diams without killing him or getting caught. Your options are to pickpocket the coin off Mert while he wanders around the town or follow him home and take it from a cabinet that he sometimes puts it away into.

- When doing the test of skill, you need to a key to unlock the first door. You can pickpocket the key from its keeper, but you can also persuade the keeper to unlock the door for you.


Most of the time when I run into pick pocketing in a game, it ends up only being an awesome way to make NPCs hostile for worthless loot. In games where you have a finite amount of skill points or experience thus cannot possibly learn all skills, there is usually some more important skill to get.

I've been playing Chaos Strikes Back lately, and in that game you can find an item called Lock Picks, which will allow you to open many locked doors without needing a key. However, there are some catches:
* The location of the Lock Picks is random. (I'm not sure if it's even guaranteed to be somewhere accessible.)
* There's at least one place where using the Lock Picks instead of the correct key will trigger a trap.

(Worth noting that "random" isn't technically true; the Lock Picks actually start in the possession of a Giggler that's in a deterministic but inaccessible part of the map, along with other Gigglers carrying items. At some point, the Giggler will be teleported, or it will fall into a pit and die and its items will be teleported, and depending on the random movements the Gigglers make, could end up in different spots on different playthroughs.

One thing I wish to see is a situation-based system, e.g. easier to pickpocket someone when they're doing a certain activity like sleeping or eating in a restaurant or getting drunk in a pub or walking through a busy market. Or you can create an environmental distraction momentarily to caught them off-guard. In fact separate their inventory from their 'person', so you can pickpocket their things from their clothes or bags while they're taking a bath or go swimming or having sex.

...wait, after reading what I wrote above, seems like I just describe a Hitman game instead of an RPG.

Just realized this thread was virtual "lightfingers", not literal. Better not to reveal some of "tricks of the rade" then, just in case we encounter one of you lads, "in the flesh", as it were.((;--))