Subterfuge school - Pickpocket

In the game someone asked how to train pickpocket and most had no idea as it´s only PVP.

Usually a skill is trained either versus lowlevel monsters or practice dummies to gain some chance of success before trying in a more dangerous environment.

However pickpocket seems to be the only skill that can only be used on other players, as it´s only PVP, and most of the PVP players are far beyond in power than any newbie who wants to start training pickpocket. So either it´s voluntarily allowing to be pickpocketed, which requires a form of trust that normally is rare in PVP or going full risk and be caught and punished.

In a TV film with Adriano Celentano (Mani velluto, "Hände aus Samt", auch "Millionenfinger") he trains to be a pickpocket on a practice dummy wearing clothes and bells that ring when he makes mistakes.

Ingame using a practice dummy results in the error "The target is out of range." which seems wrong.
Really - am I out of range here?

Spoiler

I´d rather suspect that the generic "out of range" error usually is used to prevent PVP-pickpocketing when out of range and when trying to non-PVP pickpocket the same error is used, despite better using something like "no valid target".

 

It would be fantastic if Pickpocket were effective and functional in PvE gameplay (in turn making for a way to train the skill for PvP).
Any potentially hostile NPC with an inventory, you can swipe gold, food and potions from them while they're not in combat mode, and/or while they are targeting another player/offline companion.

 

If pickpocket worked on NPC’s, literally everyone would do that all day.

 

It does not need to work on all NPC´s, only those that are hostile and practice dummies.

 

Just my own personal opinion, a skill that is specifically used for PVP, should only be able to be raised/trained while on a PVP player.

Of note, this is currently disabled (if you didn't know).

 

Create a second account.

 

Right, did not think of that. However it seems to me to be a very unpractical way to train a skill to create a docile target under my own command.
If that works then what would be different from training on a practice dummy I crafted myself?

 

I don´t have PVP enabled and "auto-decline duels" so I can only guess - and please some PVP player correct me if I´m wrong - but I do think that the number of PVP players is far too low to enable a new player to find a suitable number of lowlevel targets approbiate to his skill level to train the skill up. Most players I see ingame and of whom I guess would be PVP players are far beyond my characters statistics - a new player trying to train pickpocket on them would be like me trying to train daggerfighting on an Ornery Reaper or worse.
Which is why I think that there ought to be a way ingame to train pickpocketing just like all other skills.

It is disabled? How and where can I see that ingame?

 

*Ideally* people would be actively engaged in PVP, and then of course, you could train it then. We are just lacking tech and mechanics that might help flesh that system out better to make it more appealing. Like for example a Faction system.

There was some bug or "other issue" with that skill so it was disabled currently (to my knowledge). I have not actually checked to see if it IS actually disabled or not though. I just recall a brief comment from Chris on a live stream a while ago that he disabled it (due to some bugs).

In game however, the skill will show as available.

 

Resurrection also doesn't work on practice dummies because they're not dead players.

 

They are not players *at all*, neither living nor dead nor undead - yet I can use all weapon or magic attacks on them to train those.

Edit: Not that I would expect pickpocket to be trainable with all practice dummies - there could be a different practice dummy (e.g. wearing clothes and with bells and strings attached to it, and the bells ring whenever a wannabe pickpocket fails its attempt) and instead of a dozen in a training ground like in Castle Atos there could be one of them in a more secluded space (e.g. next to the Subterfuge Master Trainer, or in a Tailor´s shop).

 

It would be nice to see something get done with the skill to make it useful again. I would honestly like to see something done with it to make it not a pvp only skill, but still have a function in pvp. Stealing from NPC's could tie into a really fun system if it's done right. Imagine something like: You can only steal from creatures with pockets (no animals), you can only sell stolen items to a fence you have to find (which could involve a quest line to find them), and you get low-balled on prices initially and have to fence many items to get the full payout for stolen items. You could even make the items very particular items that have no use or function outside of being sold to a fence to avoid the whole stealing items from creatures you would never have a chance to actually kill problem, or people just camping NPCs and stealing gold directly. Make it a thing to do, and not just a way to make gold. It could have tiers of stolen loot that would scale appropriately with the tier of the creature it was stolen from, and the value would scale accordingly. Maybe even very rare chance (think cabalist mask rare) to steal something that can be used as house deco or salvaged for a cool pattern (but nothing that actually gives stats or increases the players power). A system like that could be a fun way to make a currently useless skill actually desirable to a wide swath of players.

 

This is a very cool idea! You should consider adding it to the wishlist!

 

And when we have practice dummies to train pickpocket we might see more "reactive" training dummies for other skills, too: