Is stealing supposed to work as it currently is?

[Angra]

Every NPC you steal from immediately finds about it. It is annoying that after every steal attempt, no matter how successful or how mundane the item is, you have basically to run away quickly and go through a pointless dialog accusing another party NPC of the deed they can't prove (or if you are around, they immediately know you stole from them).

Also, guards just spawn on top of you as soon as the victim raises an eyebrow (even when you succeed). Cyberpunk vibes anyone? I think this is the same behavior in Divinity 2, so it is not like it is an early feature that they will improve later.

It would be nice to have some random range of time before people realize something is missing. And maybe some check to realize they have been robbed versus they misplaced the item.

It is not like this will prevent people from stealing if they want to. But the mechanic is too cumbersome for me to bother, especially since I can buy almost anything with the amount of gold and garbage you can sell as game progresses.

[Zygfryd]

Originally posted by Angra:

go through a pointless dialog accusing another party NPC of the deed they can't prove

Erm, just move the rest of your party far enough away beforehand.

[Ruffio]

Imagine a trader notice fast that someone lifted their entire inventory... strange that...

Maybe a invisible spell/potion can help...

[Angra]

Originally posted by Zygfryd:

Originally posted by Angra:

go through a pointless dialog accusing another party NPC of the deed they can't prove

Erm, just move the rest of your party far enough away beforehand.

Sometimes your party is distracting onlookers and can't be too far away. Besides, that's not the point. The point is that you still have to run away because the NPC will IMMEDIATELY realize it and KNOW it was you who did it and guards will spawn out of you pocket with the item in hand.

[SoloQ]

I've stolen 23K gold in one swipe before. So it's not broken.
You have to pick the vendors that are off on their own. There's quite a few of them in Act 3.
I also had like 15 or so for sleight of hand at the time. I had just about every sleight of hand boost you could get. I took the feat, got my dex to 20, buffed up with guidance and cat's reflexes, etc.
You can also use a bard to distract everyone if you position yourself well.
Also, just a tip. Get behind your target and in sneak. Then enter turn based mode. After stealing what you want use dash and get as far as you can before leaving turn based mode. Even if you leave everyone else behind they won't find anything on them. You're golden.

[Angra]

Originally posted by Ruffio:

Imagine a trader notice fast that someone lifted their entire inventory... strange that...

Maybe a invisible spell/potion can help...

Has anyone said anything like this. A wild, hyperbolic conjecture is not an argument.

[Angra]

Originally posted by SoloQ:

I've stolen 23K gold in one swipe before. So it's not broken.
You have to pick the vendors that are off on their own. There's quite a few of them in Act 3.
I also had like 15 or so for sleight of hand at the time. I had just about every sleight of hand boost you could get. I took the feat, got my dex to 20, buffed up with guidance and cat's reflexes, etc.
You can also use a bard to distract everyone if you position yourself well.

That has not been my experience. People are hung up on merchants. I could accept a merchant being more careful about his inventory. But I am talking about the average joe in the middle of nowhere.

Example: the Tiefling lady that has the Soul Coin in the grove. I RPed an honest character which makes her keep the coin. Astarion goes to her, picks her pocket for the single gold coin she has and by the time he's at the edge of the hill, running away, a guard is already speaking to her.

This has been my experience regardless of the type of NPC.

[Zygfryd]

Originally posted by Angra:

Originally posted by Zygfryd:

Erm, just move the rest of your party far enough away beforehand.

Sometimes your party is distracting onlookers and can't be too far away. Besides, that's not the point. The point is that you still have to run away because the NPC will IMMEDIATELY realize it and KNOW it was you who did it and guards will spawn out of you pocket with the item in hand.

The point is that it's not as laborious as you're portraying it to be. Hide, go turn-based, save game, pickpocket, run around a corner, repeat. There's seldom any need for other party members to get involved and get bogged down by conversation.

[AncientsLegacy]

-Have no stolen items on anyone but thief character
-Have innocent party member talk to trader
-Change characters to thief while merchant is locked in convo
-Rob merchant blind
-Walk thief a safe distance
-End conversation
-Tell merchant you are don't know how he lost all his stuff while talking to you

[CirnoHakurei]

For all the ones arguing how "good" it is, a pickpocket shouldn't have to be in the middle of nowhere to successfully steal from a mark. Stealing in a crowd is far far more likely to work out. Moving on from that, the problem isn't that they can realize they lost something, it's that they do, and immediately. It's a design decision, but a poor one. Even if someone were to filch a real life shop keep's valuable item, chances are high it wouldn't be noticed for minutes, let alone seconds. A low value item? could be days, let alone hours before they notice it's gone.

An average citizen? Often won't realize something is gone until the thief is long gone. as long as it's a very experienced pickpocket.

Even outside of all of how this is just not how things should work (esp not in a fantasy game), but Larian will do what Larian does, it's buggy as can be. I never once have seen this diplomacy/deception check after stealing. I believe it exists, as even my good friends say it does, but I've yet to see proof of it myself. It actually surprised me when I read there was one.

[dadpool]

Originally posted by Zygfryd:

Originally posted by Angra:

Sometimes your party is distracting onlookers and can't be too far away. Besides, that's not the point. The point is that you still have to run away because the NPC will IMMEDIATELY realize it and KNOW it was you who did it and guards will spawn out of you pocket with the item in hand.

The point is that it's not as laborious as you're portraying it to be. Hide, go turn-based, save game, pickpocket, run around a corner, repeat. There's seldom any need for other party members to get involved and get bogged down by conversation.

i absolutely disagree with you i'm nearly 90 hours in and all have but given up on any theft/criminal based role playing in this game. i just finished in a building where. I was up not 1 but 2 flights of stairs invisible and stealth-ed, and still had a guard from outside run all the way up and talk to my mc like none of that mattered. the criminal based choices/activities of this game are broken period. it's honestly gotten so bad i stopped playing early tonight, and came here because at the current rate im struggling to play anymore this is ridiculous. It is 100 percent taking away from the enjoyment. I even had an event where i drank 1 drink i guess passed out. woke up in prison game miles from where i was, mean while my party just hanging out at the bar like. man you see tom where did he go?

[Noctoculus]

I think NPC reactions to theft are bugged since last patch. Had no problems getting away and having other party members "honestly" tell suspicious NPCs that they have no idea about any theft.

Last session an entire town turned aggro because one of our players accidentally looted a red corpse, took nothing, but the guard demanded thousands of gold with no way to talk out of it.

Something aint right.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Angra:

Is stealing supposed to work as it currently is?
Every NPC you steal from immediately finds about it. It is annoying that after every steal attempt, no matter how successful or how mundane the item is, you have basically to run away quickly and go through a pointless dialog accusing another party NPC of the deed they can't prove (or if you are around, they immediately know you stole from them).

Also, guards just spawn on top of you as soon as the victim raises an eyebrow (even when you succeed). Cyberpunk vibes anyone? I think this is the same behavior in Divinity 2, so it is not like it is an early feature that they will improve later.

It would be nice to have some random range of time before people realize something is missing. And maybe some check to realize they have been robbed versus they misplaced the item.

It is not like this will prevent people from stealing if they want to. But the mechanic is too cumbersome for me to bother, especially since I can buy almost anything with the amount of gold and garbage you can sell as game progresses.

Stealing is pretty much how things are supposed to be.

It is not like in the U.S.A. where you can seemingly enter a store, steal and nothing happens

[Doomvora]

Invis, turn based mode and disguise self alleviate a lot of these issues.

[Moffin Bovin]

just teleport out.

yeah its dumb.

[Empukris]

They copy divinity mechanics. So it work in a very similar manner except you can give yourself advantage and increase the roll in BG3.
They add many spell in BG3 that make stealing actually much easier.

1. It is restricted 1 time per each vendor, you can steal as many as you like so you can pop a darkness behind an NPC in the middle of a city and you can rob them completely.
2. You can use illusion to distract their attention.