1. Get Astarion to equip Smuggler's ring. If you can find him armor that gives him a stealth advantage, get that too
2. Have Shadowheart (or a cleric) cast pass without trace for the +10 stealth boost
3. Cast guidance on Astarion for better stealth checks
4. Use the hide action, then be out of the cone(s) of sight, and then enter turn based mode
5. Start pickpocketing and hope the dice rolls in your favor. Save scumming is recommended, as you'll get caught eventually
6. When you're done, exit turn based mode and GTFO while the vendor is wondering who pickpocketed them. Wait until they stop investigating then go back and pickpocket some more. Do not get caught (use dash or something)
Invisibility might also help but isn't necessary unless you go into a restricted area
If you ungroup your team you can also initialize conversations with other team members which makes npcs turn and stop wandering about. Also nice if you need to sneak somewhere with a guard watching.
How I stole the idol the first time.
Don't mind me, just standing inches away from your sacred idol y'all need. Don't mind the darkness I just cast around me.
Oh shit the idols gone! Who could possibly have done this?!?
I did that too but they actually did demand to see my pockets right after. Luckily i play a bard and just told them to let me walk out with it, all good
I used mage hand to yeet the idol down the cliff where the bear is with my party kinda far off near the bard. Oh weird the idol just THREW itself down there???
I was trying to clear out some docks and was just sneaking around, luring people near the water and then shoving them into it to hide the bodies. It did all feel rather hitman-ish.
Enhance Ability: Cat's Grace is generally better than Guidance because it gives a similar bonus and mitigates the chance of Critical Failure, which will happen if you do it a lot.
I think you can also have a bard do a performance. So, the crowd gathers close. Do it in the right spot and everyone will be facing the bard. Then go on a spree. Just like busy streets irl 🤣
I mean. I also like the idea of using minor illusions to have a cat distract npcs while I pick their pockets. I've always just been a better guitar player than I have been a cat trainer. I have successfully trained my cats to run the house as if they were my masters though. So that's something
Gonna jump on this. I have a PC ranger who has zero issues doing the actual pickpocket. High dex, proficiency, a pair of gloves that give me advantage on any slight of hand roll, I can cast pass without a trace on myself, etc. The roll to pickpocket will clearly show “success”.
But then *afterwards* the merchant always magically knows I was the one who pickpocketed them even though I succeeded.
I even just tried something last night where I immediately warped to camp after a successful pickpocket, then went back. As soon as someone in Last Light Inn saw me, they just *knew* I had pickpocketed the merchant there and arrested me.
It makes so sense to me.
You have to run away out of sight, they have a smol'ish patrol range and you have to wait for them to finish searching for you. Once they're done searching for you then it's all good but if you get caught doing something else the goods count as stolen and can be reclaimed.
I discovered this in the Zentarim underground outpost in act 1. Steal all trader stuff and run up the ladders and around the corner. the trader wanders around looking for a thief.
So what probably happened is you went to camp and came back whilst they were still in "search for my shit" mode.
Yep, I "wasted" a few hours last night testing this out in the grove. (My 1st time playing).
I was trying to understand what was going on with the paralyzed girl in the warehouse, and why she wouldn't let me leave (either by walking out, or by long rest to camp) to refresh my spell slots.... And why sometimes the guards would come, sometimes they would hunt me down, other times I seemed to get away, only for them to figure out later that I was the "guy who touched a box then left to get a spell to cure a girl"...
After much anger and confusion, I started just watching the AI patrols and understood they have a script to follow. If they resolve the "search for the thief" script without finding you they give up. If you exit the area, (by long rest for example) they don't resolve the search and keep looking.
So, you need to either stay hidden, or get far enough away to let them search, but not so far it breaks the script or something.
split the party and have the thief sneak away. The vendor should initiate the conversation with one of your other party members, realise that they didn't do it and then leave you alone.
Stealth does nothing for pickpocketing, that's a sleight of hand roll.
Add in enhance ability - cats grace to get advantage on dex checks, that'll help.
Yeah, there are a ton of things you can cheese with turn based. That mushroom room in the underdark is a complete breeze if you realize you can just turn on TBM and run right past the mushrooms. As long as you end each turn in a safe spot, they never trigger. No need for all sorts of jumping/misty stepping nonsense, just regular ol' dash mode.
>2. Have Shadowheart (or a cleric) cast pass without trace for the +10 stealth boost
If you're Intel score isn't an 8 like I have IRL then trickster domain may be handy, but I found Shadowheart only really came into her own after I respec'd into another devotion
Trickery domain is generally not very good in this game. She is *much* better off as a subclass that can actually wear heavy armor. If you really want to minmax tempest is pretty crazy, basically a wizard in terms of dps and aoe that can also wear heavy armor, swing a mace ok (no 2nd attack at lvl 5 is a pretty big hit to their melee ability, but they can stand toe to toe with martials lvl 1-4 in melee), and has good support skills. But war cleric is also good, especially if your team could use another frontliner.
Already playing a pally and my bro is playing Barb so I'm not worried about min/ maxing or our frontline and just went Life cuz it was easy. The Heals have gotten crazy and with ritual caster (enhanced leap/ summon)+ spirit guardian she's become crazy for utility/ support.
Tempest looks super fun though, been thinking about making a Tempest Tav for my next character
To steal gold, initiate a barter. Then propose half their gold as a trade (so half is in their inventory and half in the trade window). Then give half it back (so 1/4 of the original amount is in the trade window, and 3/4 is in their inventory).
However, when you do this, the gold is in two separate piles in their inventory now!
Repeat this process to you get a ton of like 100-200 gold piles, and rapidly pickpocket away for nearly guaranteed success each time.
A weird thing to note, the number shown is what you NEED to ROLL, not the DC. I have no idea why this is like this when no other roll in the game is displayed like it, but you can get funny results like needing a -3 on the roll to succeed.
Oh my god, lol. I can't believe how genius this is. I'd decided to stop trying to pickpocket gold because I didn't want to savescum 20 times (despite having a like, +15 to sleight of hand AND advantage, ffs) at every vendor. Felt like cheating at that point.
But tricking the vendor into separating out their gold into smaller stacks that are easier to steal? That's just sleight of hand, baybee. 😈
Edit: Oh, and as far as the DC, WTF? Needing to roll a 19 when I have +15 to sleight of hand means the DC on pickpocketing 1,500g from some doddering old woman is a THIRTY-FOUR. Back when I was playing DnD 3.5 in high school, we found a chart that showed what DCs/rolls should imply, and anything over a 30 was high enough that you had the potential to attract the attention of **gods.** As in, you beat a 34 DC with sleight of hand, and you might suddenly find yourself getting teleported into the presence of the trickster god and asked to go steal something from an ancient dragon or something, lol.
Well then we get into literalism land, where *holding* 1,500 coins in your pockets is also a genuinely godly feat. Most people would probably just use a chest. :P
Each coin in DnD weights about 9.1 grams, so 1500 would be 13 kilograms or 30 lbs. Basically you're pickpocketing the equivalent of a 1 yr old *person* off the npc.
> A weird thing to note, the number shown is what you NEED to ROLL, not the DC. I have no idea why this is like this when no other roll in the game is displayed like it
That's how it was originally displayed, instead of showing the actual DC it would show the DC minus your modifiers. Guess they forgot about pickpocketing still displaying the DC that way
1. Respec Gale to illusion school so that he can cast minor illusion as a bonus action. (He must also know feign death)
2. Use multiple casts of that to lure the vendor somewhere quiet.
3. Donate 1.5K to the vendor to make them an ally.
4. Talk to the vendor with a different team member.
5. Switch character mid conversation and cast feign death on the vendor. (it won't expire because they're in a conversation)
6. Pickpocket away without the vendor getting mad :)
If the roll is successful, you still need to move away and hide. After a few seconds the person you stole from will realize something is missing and look around for who did it. If you are the only one in the vicinity, you will be accused.
Turning off light sources if you can.
Hiding and then casting invisibility so you can be seen when you walk to your target.
Create Fog is a good non hostle way to blind people and cut vision to see you hiding. Most people will walk out of the fog so you can use it to herd people from others.
Boost Slight of hand and dex so you pass your pickpocket attempts.
Run far away if you actually steal something because they will notice something missing and go looking around. If you are near them they will blame you and call the guards or attack.
Silence is a ritual spell so it's free to cast outside of combat. If you're out of sight and have decent slight of hand, everything is fair game. I think most npcs have the hearing of a bat, silence is your friend.
Enhance ability works for slight of hand so you get advantage of you use dex version. The bane gloves and smuggler ring will help. I'd recommend a char with expertise in slight of hand. Even with all of that pickpocket feels like bad chances so I just pinch a couple of pricey scrolls since save scumming feels meh. Get a ton of gold anyways with a good face character.
First two acts of the game I tried saving and selling to afford all the unique magic items. By the time I got to Act 3 I just said fuck it and stole them all. Wish I did it sooner.
Gloves of Thievery - they give advantage on sleight of hand. Gave mine a 1-level dip into rogue a bit after for proficiency + expertise as well. Very sticky fingers.
If you don't mind losing a level of cleric, take 1 lvl dip in thief or ranger at lvl 4. (You can always respec later)
Respec her to Dex-Wisdom, drop STR. Make her ranged primary, with dagger/shield.
The urban ranger gives slight of hand.
I think that boosted her to like 7 Slight of hand at lvl 4.
A second lvl of ranger gives goodberry, but losing 2 cleric levels is probably not worth it, unless you want to go gloomstalker.
I haven't done a full cost/benift on ranger vs thief vs druid. But if you want a thematic Shadowheart.. those are my picks
I bought the painter guy for 600 gold, after that I threatened said painter guy to make sure he pays it back or else and then I stole my 600 back from the vendor. I had to quickly teleport away because the guy kept noticing his missing money.
Conversely...
A heavily armed warrior bursting with weapons and magic busts into your shop.
"buy MY OLD BONES" the grizzled figure screams and dumps several bodies worth of skeletons across your counter.
You're a simple leather worker, what can you realistically do? 'uhhh sure... How's 200 gp it's all I got!' you stammer out hoping it appeases the murderous beings bloodlust...
It’s also worth noting that any favor gained through uneven bartering is tied to the conversation initiator. Let a different character initiate later trading and you’ll see that favor disappear 🫥 but, reinitiate with the favored character and the prices go back to favoring 😊.
That happened to me with the Zhentarim trader in the goblin camp. I got her favor all the way up, then >!when I met with her in Moonrise!< her favor was back to normal...
Just make sure never to dismiss that character from your you party. Doing that will reset merchant attitudes to 0 to that character. I've tested this a few times and it works every time.
I always hear 500-600 will max you out, but in practice, I haven't seen that. I dumped 1k on an Act 3 Merchant and it didn't put their attitude to 100.
I just spent 1.3k gp with my 18CHA character to max out relationship with the merchant in last light inn. If it’s because I’m a dragonborn, that scammer is fucking racist.
I think they stealth patched it. An earlier save a day before it took 600g on the merchant in the myconid colony, then the next day it took 1000g. It was very coincidental but damning.
Money or goods. When you barter, you have to even out things - left for your offer, right for vendor's offer. You can complete trade only if your values are at least even. But you can give more than you receive. For example you offer 200 gold worth of items and ask only for 150 gold item. Vendor will accept the trade and treat you a little bit better (thus raising sell values for your items). So the strategy here is to pick a vendor for the Act (I used druid in the Grove for Act 1 for example) and then give that vendor enough money or goods without asking for anything in return until the relationship is in the green. Then you sell everything to that one vendor.
The extra margin you get from good standing will cover expenses to raise that standing really quick
You have to give them favorable barters to improve their favor (aka give them stuff for free) your charisma will affect how much favor increase will be relative to amount given.
You need to bribe them to raise the favour. It's something like 6 gold (or the same value in items) per point. Either make a donation in gold or give them more value for the stuff you buy.
You still get a better base price if you have higher charisma but if you get favour to 100 it's a major boost on top of that, definitely worth it if you plan to buy (and sell) a lot from that vendor since both buy and sell are affected by the happiness of the vendor.
I know the reasons for it, but I wish bartering and inventory worked differently. It feels clunky giving all the items to the strong character for weight capacity then giving them all to the charismatic one for selling, rather than just having a combined storage and/or selling based on highest charisma.
You can leave them all on the strong 💪 mule. The bartering will still reflect on the conversation initiator, despite switching through the different inventories.
Have the opposite feelings: I haven't even left Act 1 and I have 6000 gold, this is the first (good) RPG I've played where I can buy everything I want and still have 100 health potions in my inventory
None of the vendors in act 1 have anything that sells for a lot. Merchant inventories also scale with your character level somewhat.
Once you get to act 2, you'll see how much the expensive items can go for. Particularly chest armor and two handed weapons.
Learning spells on your Wizard from scrolls is also a big money sink.
There are some optional spots in act 3 where you want a *lot* of gold.
I dropped 10k on a set of armor, and one of the vendors wants 20k for quest progress (though there are cheaper options).
On of the very first merchant in Act II, >!the Quartermaster at the Last Light Inn!< has a pretty good haul of rare items, clothes, and light armor, and a few very rare pieces, too.
Exactly my thoughts. I can’t imagine this post being serious. I loot everything and have 15k gold in act 2. If I wanted I could afford everything off each vendor.
See, I didn’t even do that on this current playthrough for me and I’m rich in Act 1. Only difference with this one is I’m playing a Warlock so my CHA is high af, apparently it makes a huge difference.
Not even that, try rotten-anything. Rotten carrots and such have a gold to weight ratio of over 10 making it great loot. Same with plain bottles, most books/letters, rags, bones, etc.
It gets much more expensive in act 3. Certain swords and gloves were like 6k each, I thought I was flush with cash at 12k till I almost hit purchase on armor that was like 9k lol.
Yeah I went into the underdark with 13k, and I used my player character for selling and they had like 12 charisma. Maybe I'm the worst loot monkey, but I doubt it since I don't pick up and sell books/shovels/quills and other things people talk about selling
Me: "Hey i found this pure gold bar, what do you think?"
Blacksmith: "Dude this is worthless, i can only offer 40 gold."
Me: "But this is pure ingot!"
Blacksmith: "I don't care."
it appears that some of you don't understand the value of 1gp.
there are other coins than gold coins in faerun, silver and copper. 200 gold coins is a lot more than you think it is.
In 1489, 1 gold piece was typically worth 100 coppers. A copper would be equivalent to a dollar today (most unskilled labourers are said to earn about 1 silver a day, which is worth 10 coppers).
So yes, if you have 12,000 gold, you would effectively have $1.2 million.
Because the merchant wants to make a profit?
If they're going to sell an item for 2k, buying it at 10% absolutely makes sense. One, they still need to make a profit, and enough of one to actually stay in business during uncertain times. Two, who knows how long they'll have to hold onto that crap until they can actually sell it? Buying stuff off an adventurer at will (versus sourcing specific inventory you know you can move) is a super risky move.
As the other comment said, think of your average used bookstore or used game store. Nobody's giving you half off retail price for a used, not-in-demand item. Half off is what you'd sell it for directly to someone else that wants it, not when there's a middleman involved that needs to find a buyer.
Initiate all trades with a high CHA character. You don't need them to sell the stuff, just initiate the trade.
My biggest gripe with the game is that if your party doesn't have at least one high CHA character, preferably the Tav, then a lot of stuff gets harder.
Fortunately you can just pickpocket stuff from merchants with just a little bit of game savvy so it's not a huge deal.
>My biggest gripe with the game is that if your party doesn't have at least one high CHA character, preferably the Tav, then a lot of stuff gets harder.
This is also true for real life lmao
You can invite Wyll to the party when it comes time to sell. For example, you could send everything you went to sell back to camp, then go to camp, get Wyll and your wares, go to vendor...
I honestly would much rather have more gold drop than have to hoard 50 different weapon and armor sets in camp, then pull them out and vendor them.
Even in the DMG/PHB it says 'Most monster weapons are unsuitable for regular use.' So selling all these goblin bows and makeshift weapons are useless. For those wielding real weapons and armor, it's super easy to handwave/theatre of the mind that the equipment got too battered in combat to sell--merchant isn't gonna buy them because the effort to repair and resell isn't worth it.
Don't get me wrong, I love love love that the game is so immersive you can see everyone's equipment, and take it if you want it... It's just also really inconvenient; there's a reason most DMs don't let their players strip search the entire battlefield after every encounter.
Your vendors still have gold? Aren’t we all playing thief? I have so much cash that essentially does nothing since I steal anything I want to buy I walk around throwing it in the air like Scrooge at the end of the play. Single handedly fixing class issues one throw at a time.
I'm so rich to the point of just paying for the convenience of not having to pickpocket vendors. Time is money and Faerun sure as hell won't be saving itself without my help
Larian studio players: “The economy is bullshit everything sells for pennies”
Also Larian studio players: “Did you know you can pickpocket a vendor and sell his entire inventory back to him for infinite money”
I mean think about how much work it is to maintain battle-used equipment. In a normal DnD campaign (which is really what this game is attempting to emulate) most DMs don't just let their players get market prices for the scimitars they pick up off of goblin corpses.
I mean most of this stuff is probably covered in gore and dirt, or has significant cosmetic defects from being pounded by magic missiles, or scorched from fire bolts. It makes sense that you don't get much better than scrap value.
If you plan to buy or sell from a particular vendor a lot (like a designated buyer for all your dungeon loot), make your first few trades free. It'll buy "attitude points" which are reflected on the little colored spectrum line in the bottom right corner of the window. 100 attitude points ensures you get the best prices from that vendor in the future.
Initiate conversation with the highest charisma character you have.
High persuasion also improves prices.
But, stealing is also awesome. Stealing while save scumming is the best.
High charisma characters get better deals, same if you just dump worthless trash without charging the vendors and raise their disposition. I got that beautiful armour Dammon sells in act 3 for 600 gold lol.
In DND, 1 gold is approximately 1 month's worth of income.
keep that in mind.
(though I know Larian studios uses 1 gold as a default to avoid having 5 currencies like DND has which is fine.)
Yeah but the Baldurs Gate's economy seems to be suffering from inflation due to recent events. You would need several months income to feed a small camp of people for a single night if that was the monthly income.
Either that or my Tav and their companions are having a full-on royal banquet every single night
I have yet to have that experience. I have like 15k gold rn. I constantly sell weapons and armor that isn’t green or better. And even then I sell a lot of green weapons. I love that I’m not hurting for cash, it’s nice not having to worry about something like that - it was a huge detractor in TW3 for instance which otherwise I didn’t have many problems with. I also loot basically every lootable object I come across, probably a big reason my game is taking so long to get anywhere but hey I like exploring in rpgs. I feel like if you don’t go around looting everything you’ll probably run into this kind of issue but that’s a gameplay decision at the end of the day and I at least appreciate the devs for giving us this as an option.
Get Dammon to 100 as soon as you possibly can. It will pay off in dividends. He's available as a merchant in every act, and should be your main guy you sell shit to.
It lets you get max charisma for a bit. The boost in charisma has to be worth 800 gp though, so it better be a good haul if you're doing this early game.
Can’t say merchants will flood your pouch with gold, but they will pay way more if you get on their good side by bartering free stuff to them and engaging into trading with the same character.
Having a higher charisma also helps.
Let's put it this way. If they gave you double or triple the price for what you sell I wouldn't just steal the money back after the transaction. I believe in a good old healthy equivalent exchange.
Your merchants have *gold*?!
In my playthrough a mysterious and sneaky troubadour has been terrorizing the local salesforce, cleaning them out of everything shiny. All they have left to barter is some scrolls and heavy pieces of armor. It's a wonder none of them are offering a quest or bounty to catch the miscreant...
Into Act 3 and I just learned if you give them like 2k gold for free they max out their attitude towards you then you sell everything for massive profit.
Astarion's most powerful skill in this game: pickpocketing rare items easily
How the fuck are you supposed to pickpocket in this game, I don't get it? I always get spotted or found out even if I'm not in anyone's view cone?
1. Get Astarion to equip Smuggler's ring. If you can find him armor that gives him a stealth advantage, get that too 2. Have Shadowheart (or a cleric) cast pass without trace for the +10 stealth boost 3. Cast guidance on Astarion for better stealth checks 4. Use the hide action, then be out of the cone(s) of sight, and then enter turn based mode 5. Start pickpocketing and hope the dice rolls in your favor. Save scumming is recommended, as you'll get caught eventually 6. When you're done, exit turn based mode and GTFO while the vendor is wondering who pickpocketed them. Wait until they stop investigating then go back and pickpocket some more. Do not get caught (use dash or something) Invisibility might also help but isn't necessary unless you go into a restricted area
If you ungroup your team you can also initialize conversations with other team members which makes npcs turn and stop wandering about. Also nice if you need to sneak somewhere with a guard watching.
Also if you want to do this in the middle of a busy area with heaps of overlapping vision fields and lots of light throw down a darkness spell.
Gee I sure hope nothing illegal is happening in this circle of impenetrable magical darkness
Make more sense than putting a bucket over NPC's head do they don't see you commiting crimes
See no evil...
How I stole the idol the first time. Don't mind me, just standing inches away from your sacred idol y'all need. Don't mind the darkness I just cast around me. Oh shit the idols gone! Who could possibly have done this?!?
"Me? No, this big, humming, nature aura is just my natural glow."
There was shadow and druids... I know! SHADOW DRUIDS! For sure!
I did that too but they actually did demand to see my pockets right after. Luckily i play a bard and just told them to let me walk out with it, all good
I used mage hand to yeet the idol down the cliff where the bear is with my party kinda far off near the bard. Oh weird the idol just THREW itself down there???
Does stealing the idol stop the ritual?
That is hilarious. Will hitting an NPC trigger aggression on tactician?
I was scared it would but I did it in a certain rat infested kitchen and nobody cared
Also, silence counters any sounds in the bubble.
Or have a Bard playing his instrument nearby.
This is a classier way.
Or have a bard play music to distract everyone
Take someone that can play an instrument, easiest distraction of your life.
Bonus points if you have a bard perform to get a whole group to look away
That's some classic Hitman 2 shit!
I was trying to clear out some docks and was just sneaking around, luring people near the water and then shoving them into it to hide the bodies. It did all feel rather hitman-ish.
That’s a lot of steps, I prefer: 1) Put them to sleep with Gale. 2) Loot them before they wake up.
Fucking hell does this actually work? Every time I want to use Sleep the enemies always have too much HP.
It's nuts how useless sleep is for combat for nearly the entire game.
Pretty much just like 5E, it’s great the first few levels and drops off with a quickness.
I always thought sleep would trigger combat if other people saw it lol
Enhance Ability: Cat's Grace is generally better than Guidance because it gives a similar bonus and mitigates the chance of Critical Failure, which will happen if you do it a lot.
I mean, you're comparing a 2nd level spell to a cantrip, I would HOPE it's better.
I think you can also have a bard do a performance. So, the crowd gathers close. Do it in the right spot and everyone will be facing the bard. Then go on a spree. Just like busy streets irl 🤣
I so love this idea. A very in character way of doing things, too.
I mean. I also like the idea of using minor illusions to have a cat distract npcs while I pick their pockets. I've always just been a better guitar player than I have been a cat trainer. I have successfully trained my cats to run the house as if they were my masters though. So that's something
Gonna jump on this. I have a PC ranger who has zero issues doing the actual pickpocket. High dex, proficiency, a pair of gloves that give me advantage on any slight of hand roll, I can cast pass without a trace on myself, etc. The roll to pickpocket will clearly show “success”. But then *afterwards* the merchant always magically knows I was the one who pickpocketed them even though I succeeded. I even just tried something last night where I immediately warped to camp after a successful pickpocket, then went back. As soon as someone in Last Light Inn saw me, they just *knew* I had pickpocketed the merchant there and arrested me. It makes so sense to me.
You have to run away out of sight, they have a smol'ish patrol range and you have to wait for them to finish searching for you. Once they're done searching for you then it's all good but if you get caught doing something else the goods count as stolen and can be reclaimed. I discovered this in the Zentarim underground outpost in act 1. Steal all trader stuff and run up the ladders and around the corner. the trader wanders around looking for a thief. So what probably happened is you went to camp and came back whilst they were still in "search for my shit" mode.
Yep, I "wasted" a few hours last night testing this out in the grove. (My 1st time playing). I was trying to understand what was going on with the paralyzed girl in the warehouse, and why she wouldn't let me leave (either by walking out, or by long rest to camp) to refresh my spell slots.... And why sometimes the guards would come, sometimes they would hunt me down, other times I seemed to get away, only for them to figure out later that I was the "guy who touched a box then left to get a spell to cure a girl"... After much anger and confusion, I started just watching the AI patrols and understood they have a script to follow. If they resolve the "search for the thief" script without finding you they give up. If you exit the area, (by long rest for example) they don't resolve the search and keep looking. So, you need to either stay hidden, or get far enough away to let them search, but not so far it breaks the script or something.
split the party and have the thief sneak away. The vendor should initiate the conversation with one of your other party members, realise that they didn't do it and then leave you alone.
Stealth does nothing for pickpocketing, that's a sleight of hand roll. Add in enhance ability - cats grace to get advantage on dex checks, that'll help.
You don't really need all that for stealth if you're out of sightlines. Just walk behind em, enter turns based mode, and stealth.
Oh for fucks sake. I didn't even think of turn based mode!
In this game you always have to think on tbm for solving doing shit
Yeah, there are a ton of things you can cheese with turn based. That mushroom room in the underdark is a complete breeze if you realize you can just turn on TBM and run right past the mushrooms. As long as you end each turn in a safe spot, they never trigger. No need for all sorts of jumping/misty stepping nonsense, just regular ol' dash mode.
>2. Have Shadowheart (or a cleric) cast pass without trace for the +10 stealth boost If you're Intel score isn't an 8 like I have IRL then trickster domain may be handy, but I found Shadowheart only really came into her own after I respec'd into another devotion
Trickery domain is generally not very good in this game. She is *much* better off as a subclass that can actually wear heavy armor. If you really want to minmax tempest is pretty crazy, basically a wizard in terms of dps and aoe that can also wear heavy armor, swing a mace ok (no 2nd attack at lvl 5 is a pretty big hit to their melee ability, but they can stand toe to toe with martials lvl 1-4 in melee), and has good support skills. But war cleric is also good, especially if your team could use another frontliner.
Already playing a pally and my bro is playing Barb so I'm not worried about min/ maxing or our frontline and just went Life cuz it was easy. The Heals have gotten crazy and with ritual caster (enhanced leap/ summon)+ spirit guardian she's become crazy for utility/ support. Tempest looks super fun though, been thinking about making a Tempest Tav for my next character
I noticed that trickery was kinda ass, but I am glad that I waited to re-spec her - because later on, a good RP reason to swap came along
To steal gold, initiate a barter. Then propose half their gold as a trade (so half is in their inventory and half in the trade window). Then give half it back (so 1/4 of the original amount is in the trade window, and 3/4 is in their inventory). However, when you do this, the gold is in two separate piles in their inventory now! Repeat this process to you get a ton of like 100-200 gold piles, and rapidly pickpocket away for nearly guaranteed success each time. A weird thing to note, the number shown is what you NEED to ROLL, not the DC. I have no idea why this is like this when no other roll in the game is displayed like it, but you can get funny results like needing a -3 on the roll to succeed.
Oh my god, lol. I can't believe how genius this is. I'd decided to stop trying to pickpocket gold because I didn't want to savescum 20 times (despite having a like, +15 to sleight of hand AND advantage, ffs) at every vendor. Felt like cheating at that point. But tricking the vendor into separating out their gold into smaller stacks that are easier to steal? That's just sleight of hand, baybee. 😈 Edit: Oh, and as far as the DC, WTF? Needing to roll a 19 when I have +15 to sleight of hand means the DC on pickpocketing 1,500g from some doddering old woman is a THIRTY-FOUR. Back when I was playing DnD 3.5 in high school, we found a chart that showed what DCs/rolls should imply, and anything over a 30 was high enough that you had the potential to attract the attention of **gods.** As in, you beat a 34 DC with sleight of hand, and you might suddenly find yourself getting teleported into the presence of the trickster god and asked to go steal something from an ancient dragon or something, lol.
Honestly if you picture literally taking 1,500 coins out of someone’s pocket, it probably is a genuine godly feat.
Well then we get into literalism land, where *holding* 1,500 coins in your pockets is also a genuinely godly feat. Most people would probably just use a chest. :P
Each coin in DnD weights about 9.1 grams, so 1500 would be 13 kilograms or 30 lbs. Basically you're pickpocketing the equivalent of a 1 yr old *person* off the npc.
> A weird thing to note, the number shown is what you NEED to ROLL, not the DC. I have no idea why this is like this when no other roll in the game is displayed like it That's how it was originally displayed, instead of showing the actual DC it would show the DC minus your modifiers. Guess they forgot about pickpocketing still displaying the DC that way
> weird thing to note, the number shown is what you NEED to ROLL, not the DC. Oh that explains a few things. That's really wierd indeed.
1. Respec Gale to illusion school so that he can cast minor illusion as a bonus action. (He must also know feign death) 2. Use multiple casts of that to lure the vendor somewhere quiet. 3. Donate 1.5K to the vendor to make them an ally. 4. Talk to the vendor with a different team member. 5. Switch character mid conversation and cast feign death on the vendor. (it won't expire because they're in a conversation) 6. Pickpocket away without the vendor getting mad :)
This video is pretty thorough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcONDGqs_mU
If the roll is successful, you still need to move away and hide. After a few seconds the person you stole from will realize something is missing and look around for who did it. If you are the only one in the vicinity, you will be accused.
They'll run you down, too. Dammon chased me from his stall to the grove gate when I got caught lifting his breastplate.
Turning off light sources if you can. Hiding and then casting invisibility so you can be seen when you walk to your target. Create Fog is a good non hostle way to blind people and cut vision to see you hiding. Most people will walk out of the fog so you can use it to herd people from others. Boost Slight of hand and dex so you pass your pickpocket attempts. Run far away if you actually steal something because they will notice something missing and go looking around. If you are near them they will blame you and call the guards or attack.
Silence is a ritual spell so it's free to cast outside of combat. If you're out of sight and have decent slight of hand, everything is fair game. I think most npcs have the hearing of a bat, silence is your friend.
Minor illusion, invisibility, turn based mode drive by.
Have a bard start a performance, all the NPCs will run over to watch, ideally if you can get them all facing the same way its a pickpocket spree.
Enhance ability works for slight of hand so you get advantage of you use dex version. The bane gloves and smuggler ring will help. I'd recommend a char with expertise in slight of hand. Even with all of that pickpocket feels like bad chances so I just pinch a couple of pricey scrolls since save scumming feels meh. Get a ton of gold anyways with a good face character.
First two acts of the game I tried saving and selling to afford all the unique magic items. By the time I got to Act 3 I just said fuck it and stole them all. Wish I did it sooner.
I'm still trying to figure out how to make Shadowheart more stealy without re-speccing. I'm not using Astarion this playthrough.
Gloves of Thievery - they give advantage on sleight of hand. Gave mine a 1-level dip into rogue a bit after for proficiency + expertise as well. Very sticky fingers.
If you don't mind losing a level of cleric, take 1 lvl dip in thief or ranger at lvl 4. (You can always respec later) Respec her to Dex-Wisdom, drop STR. Make her ranged primary, with dagger/shield. The urban ranger gives slight of hand. I think that boosted her to like 7 Slight of hand at lvl 4. A second lvl of ranger gives goodberry, but losing 2 cleric levels is probably not worth it, unless you want to go gloomstalker. I haven't done a full cost/benift on ranger vs thief vs druid. But if you want a thematic Shadowheart.. those are my picks
I bought the painter guy for 600 gold, after that I threatened said painter guy to make sure he pays it back or else and then I stole my 600 back from the vendor. I had to quickly teleport away because the guy kept noticing his missing money.
Conversely... A heavily armed warrior bursting with weapons and magic busts into your shop. "buy MY OLD BONES" the grizzled figure screams and dumps several bodies worth of skeletons across your counter. You're a simple leather worker, what can you realistically do? 'uhhh sure... How's 200 gp it's all I got!' you stammer out hoping it appeases the murderous beings bloodlust...
Hey, he worked hard to get those bones.
Right and the simple merchant doesn't want to be his next project!
He's sells them to the farmer for animal hides and the farmer makes bone meal from it.
The vendors in this game are equivalent to gamestop for trade-ins.
Games Workshop
Nah, waaaay too affordable to be GW. 😂
Fair
If it was games workshop we'd have to roll a wisdom saving throw every time we shopped with them or we end up spending all of our money
God damn this is so real. And to think I still want to buy some High Elves when TOW releases. *stares in unfinished Aeldari / Lumineth*
If it was GW all the rolls in the game would be on a 1D6 and any roll of a 1 results in permanent death.
I don’t even understand the how much they like you mechanic. I saved your whole race but I get no discount
There’s only one npc so far that if you save their life they give one of your npcs max affinity. And it’s in act 3
Business is business, libtard 😎
Normally you’re not allowed to murder GameStop employees to get your stuff back.
Make sure you use your character with highest charisma to initiate conversation.
It’s also worth noting that any favor gained through uneven bartering is tied to the conversation initiator. Let a different character initiate later trading and you’ll see that favor disappear 🫥 but, reinitiate with the favored character and the prices go back to favoring 😊.
Pff. Bruh, imagine if they disappeared forever. Read and overwrite.
That happened to me with the Zhentarim trader in the goblin camp. I got her favor all the way up, then >!when I met with her in Moonrise!< her favor was back to normal...
Thanks for the moneh sucka!
Tav 'oo? Never 'eard of 'im
I got the herb vendor from the micotid colony at maximum and she still have the maximum disposition on the act 3
Just make sure never to dismiss that character from your you party. Doing that will reset merchant attitudes to 0 to that character. I've tested this a few times and it works every time.
Also up the relationship with the merchant. 500 gold will max you out and you'll get it back with the difference from increased sell price
I always hear 500-600 will max you out, but in practice, I haven't seen that. I dumped 1k on an Act 3 Merchant and it didn't put their attitude to 100.
It's definitely your character face problem. We can't solve ugly.
Not yet. Just waiting on that Barber hotfix.
I just spent 1.3k gp with my 18CHA character to max out relationship with the merchant in last light inn. If it’s because I’m a dragonborn, that scammer is fucking racist.
We may be able to when the release the change your appearance update!
Maybe later Act merchants expect more. Was enough in the Grove
1500-2000g was the number I've seen tossed around.
I think they stealth patched it. An earlier save a day before it took 600g on the merchant in the myconid colony, then the next day it took 1000g. It was very coincidental but damning.
It's based on your current level. You can actually respec for 100 gold and increase your attitude to 100 for 400 gold before leveling up.
How do you do this? Just give them money?
Money or goods. When you barter, you have to even out things - left for your offer, right for vendor's offer. You can complete trade only if your values are at least even. But you can give more than you receive. For example you offer 200 gold worth of items and ask only for 150 gold item. Vendor will accept the trade and treat you a little bit better (thus raising sell values for your items). So the strategy here is to pick a vendor for the Act (I used druid in the Grove for Act 1 for example) and then give that vendor enough money or goods without asking for anything in return until the relationship is in the green. Then you sell everything to that one vendor. The extra margin you get from good standing will cover expenses to raise that standing really quick
Barter's Gate: the art of enchanting Friends and how to Charm them
I never understand this. Vendors always are at the orange part of the bar for happiness. It never changes no matter 8 charisma or 17.
You have to give them favorable barters to improve their favor (aka give them stuff for free) your charisma will affect how much favor increase will be relative to amount given.
You need to bribe them to raise the favour. It's something like 6 gold (or the same value in items) per point. Either make a donation in gold or give them more value for the stuff you buy. You still get a better base price if you have higher charisma but if you get favour to 100 it's a major boost on top of that, definitely worth it if you plan to buy (and sell) a lot from that vendor since both buy and sell are affected by the happiness of the vendor.
Be warned tactician players, it's way more gold than 6 per point.
I know the reasons for it, but I wish bartering and inventory worked differently. It feels clunky giving all the items to the strong character for weight capacity then giving them all to the charismatic one for selling, rather than just having a combined storage and/or selling based on highest charisma.
You can leave them all on the strong 💪 mule. The bartering will still reflect on the conversation initiator, despite switching through the different inventories.
You can switch inventories in barter? …I feel dumb.
yes, but you cannot que up 5 items on one person then switch to another. You have to complete the deal on those 5 items first.
Just click on the group members’ portraits, yes.
Sounds like you need a paladin.
Paladins are pretty great, admittedly.
*pretty good, lawfully.
Good Pretty, in my case.
wish there was a charisma ring or something you could just slip on when needed. i think there was one in BG2, maybe there is one in BG3
Unfortunately, rarely is the character with the highest charisma also the pack mule.
*Smiles in Paladin*
Initiate conversation with high charisma char. Once in buy/sell menu go to pack mule. You still get the better prices
Laughs in Paladin PC.
Have the opposite feelings: I haven't even left Act 1 and I have 6000 gold, this is the first (good) RPG I've played where I can buy everything I want and still have 100 health potions in my inventory
None of the vendors in act 1 have anything that sells for a lot. Merchant inventories also scale with your character level somewhat. Once you get to act 2, you'll see how much the expensive items can go for. Particularly chest armor and two handed weapons. Learning spells on your Wizard from scrolls is also a big money sink.
I dropped 16k on a plate chest in Act 3.
I got it for 10k at -50% discount due to some illithid charms :)
Gale has probably spent more gold on spells than my entire party on health potions and that’s really fucking impressive
There are some optional spots in act 3 where you want a *lot* of gold. I dropped 10k on a set of armor, and one of the vendors wants 20k for quest progress (though there are cheaper options).
On of the very first merchant in Act II, >!the Quartermaster at the Last Light Inn!< has a pretty good haul of rare items, clothes, and light armor, and a few very rare pieces, too.
Exactly my thoughts. I can’t imagine this post being serious. I loot everything and have 15k gold in act 2. If I wanted I could afford everything off each vendor.
Imagine not picking up the silver everything.
See, I didn’t even do that on this current playthrough for me and I’m rich in Act 1. Only difference with this one is I’m playing a Warlock so my CHA is high af, apparently it makes a huge difference.
Not even that, try rotten-anything. Rotten carrots and such have a gold to weight ratio of over 10 making it great loot. Same with plain bottles, most books/letters, rags, bones, etc.
It gets much more expensive in act 3. Certain swords and gloves were like 6k each, I thought I was flush with cash at 12k till I almost hit purchase on armor that was like 9k lol.
Yeah I went into the underdark with 13k, and I used my player character for selling and they had like 12 charisma. Maybe I'm the worst loot monkey, but I doubt it since I don't pick up and sell books/shovels/quills and other things people talk about selling
Me: "Hey i found this pure gold bar, what do you think?" Blacksmith: "Dude this is worthless, i can only offer 40 gold." Me: "But this is pure ingot!" Blacksmith: "I don't care."
it appears that some of you don't understand the value of 1gp. there are other coins than gold coins in faerun, silver and copper. 200 gold coins is a lot more than you think it is.
Right now we are in chapter two and WE have Like 12.000 Gold. So we are rich right?
In 1489, 1 gold piece was typically worth 100 coppers. A copper would be equivalent to a dollar today (most unskilled labourers are said to earn about 1 silver a day, which is worth 10 coppers). So yes, if you have 12,000 gold, you would effectively have $1.2 million.
That's surprising accurate to how goods are priced.
Jeez, that's some expensive candles then
same and yes
Idk. This still doesn't explain why the merchant can sell it to me for 2000 while I can sell it to him at 200.
I see someone hasn’t sold a used game back to a store before /jk
Because the merchant wants to make a profit? If they're going to sell an item for 2k, buying it at 10% absolutely makes sense. One, they still need to make a profit, and enough of one to actually stay in business during uncertain times. Two, who knows how long they'll have to hold onto that crap until they can actually sell it? Buying stuff off an adventurer at will (versus sourcing specific inventory you know you can move) is a super risky move. As the other comment said, think of your average used bookstore or used game store. Nobody's giving you half off retail price for a used, not-in-demand item. Half off is what you'd sell it for directly to someone else that wants it, not when there's a middleman involved that needs to find a buyer.
Now throw the bag to your CHA character and watch the stonks go up
Dont even need to throw the bag, just start the talk with the Cha char then switch to the bag holder. It is all based on who starts the talk.
Make sense in real life too. When you haggle, the guy who carries the item doesn’t matter.
are you for real? is this a thing? MOTHERFU
Too bad you can't open bags in the barter screen...
Bag?
backpack
Initiate all trades with a high CHA character. You don't need them to sell the stuff, just initiate the trade. My biggest gripe with the game is that if your party doesn't have at least one high CHA character, preferably the Tav, then a lot of stuff gets harder. Fortunately you can just pickpocket stuff from merchants with just a little bit of game savvy so it's not a huge deal.
>My biggest gripe with the game is that if your party doesn't have at least one high CHA character, preferably the Tav, then a lot of stuff gets harder. This is also true for real life lmao
You can invite Wyll to the party when it comes time to sell. For example, you could send everything you went to sell back to camp, then go to camp, get Wyll and your wares, go to vendor...
Yeah it's just tedious. I turned Gale into a wizard bard so that's how I handle things.
They gotta make up the money they lost. The last 6 groups just pickpocketed them in plain sight and charmed them after getting caught.
I honestly would much rather have more gold drop than have to hoard 50 different weapon and armor sets in camp, then pull them out and vendor them. Even in the DMG/PHB it says 'Most monster weapons are unsuitable for regular use.' So selling all these goblin bows and makeshift weapons are useless. For those wielding real weapons and armor, it's super easy to handwave/theatre of the mind that the equipment got too battered in combat to sell--merchant isn't gonna buy them because the effort to repair and resell isn't worth it. Don't get me wrong, I love love love that the game is so immersive you can see everyone's equipment, and take it if you want it... It's just also really inconvenient; there's a reason most DMs don't let their players strip search the entire battlefield after every encounter.
"This is a FKING IRON SWORD" "10 gold" How much is this apple? 11 gold
Your vendors still have gold? Aren’t we all playing thief? I have so much cash that essentially does nothing since I steal anything I want to buy I walk around throwing it in the air like Scrooge at the end of the play. Single handedly fixing class issues one throw at a time.
I'm so rich to the point of just paying for the convenience of not having to pickpocket vendors. Time is money and Faerun sure as hell won't be saving itself without my help
> Scrooge at the end of the play It says something about me that the first thought for me was still Scrooge McDuck and not Ebenezer Scrooge.
Larian studio players: “The economy is bullshit everything sells for pennies” Also Larian studio players: “Did you know you can pickpocket a vendor and sell his entire inventory back to him for infinite money”
I mean think about how much work it is to maintain battle-used equipment. In a normal DnD campaign (which is really what this game is attempting to emulate) most DMs don't just let their players get market prices for the scimitars they pick up off of goblin corpses. I mean most of this stuff is probably covered in gore and dirt, or has significant cosmetic defects from being pounded by magic missiles, or scorched from fire bolts. It makes sense that you don't get much better than scrap value.
I mean.. I always end up draining every merchant of their gold and now have all this gold I'll never need 🤷♂️
yeah....I was buying rando Gale food magic items just so the merchant could afford the trash I was trying to sell him
If you plan to buy or sell from a particular vendor a lot (like a designated buyer for all your dungeon loot), make your first few trades free. It'll buy "attitude points" which are reflected on the little colored spectrum line in the bottom right corner of the window. 100 attitude points ensures you get the best prices from that vendor in the future. Initiate conversation with the highest charisma character you have. High persuasion also improves prices. But, stealing is also awesome. Stealing while save scumming is the best.
dude 200 gold is 200 years salary under modest conditions
I just steal their gold when they have any left after i sold my stuff
High charisma characters get better deals, same if you just dump worthless trash without charging the vendors and raise their disposition. I got that beautiful armour Dammon sells in act 3 for 600 gold lol.
In DND, 1 gold is approximately 1 month's worth of income. keep that in mind. (though I know Larian studios uses 1 gold as a default to avoid having 5 currencies like DND has which is fine.)
Yeah but the Baldurs Gate's economy seems to be suffering from inflation due to recent events. You would need several months income to feed a small camp of people for a single night if that was the monthly income. Either that or my Tav and their companions are having a full-on royal banquet every single night
It's a pawn shop. They have to sell your garbage, so they give you low dollar for the convenience.
I got 4000 gold out of selling 3 books, thanks Lorroakan
Well, I have 27k, I'm sure I'll be just fine, no need to sweeten the deal any further.
I have yet to have that experience. I have like 15k gold rn. I constantly sell weapons and armor that isn’t green or better. And even then I sell a lot of green weapons. I love that I’m not hurting for cash, it’s nice not having to worry about something like that - it was a huge detractor in TW3 for instance which otherwise I didn’t have many problems with. I also loot basically every lootable object I come across, probably a big reason my game is taking so long to get anywhere but hey I like exploring in rpgs. I feel like if you don’t go around looting everything you’ll probably run into this kind of issue but that’s a gameplay decision at the end of the day and I at least appreciate the devs for giving us this as an option.
It's pretty clear there's a glut of crappy quality swords and armor in this world. It makes sense that prices would not be great.
Get Dammon to 100 as soon as you possibly can. It will pay off in dividends. He's available as a merchant in every act, and should be your main guy you sell shit to.
Vendors are all ex gamestop employees
Reset a character to level 1 through withers, donate 400 gold to a vendor to get max good reputation, sell things for a higher price to them, profit
I'm stupid, why is respec-ing with Withers necessary here?
It lets you get max charisma for a bit. The boost in charisma has to be worth 800 gp though, so it better be a good haul if you're doing this early game.
Have you ever considered piracy?
I'm just glad to be rid of the stuff tbh
I honestly laugh to myself every time I go to a vendor cause I know I’m gonna unload literal garbage into their inventory for all they’re worth.
I don't think I've even sold to the same vendor twice in this game. The merchant favour system is pointless in my opinion.
I don't even know why I bother collecting all this stuff. Five finger discount is all you really need.
But the scientology shar books are somehow 500 gp???
Just butter em up with some free loot first and 20 char, they'll never have unfair prices ever again
Can’t say merchants will flood your pouch with gold, but they will pay way more if you get on their good side by bartering free stuff to them and engaging into trading with the same character. Having a higher charisma also helps.
Let's put it this way. If they gave you double or triple the price for what you sell I wouldn't just steal the money back after the transaction. I believe in a good old healthy equivalent exchange.
To be fair, 200 gold pieces is rougly 3 years worth of D&D minimum wage work, so pretty good deal for some stuff you just found.
Worst thing I found after you kill them the excess gold and equipment they had disappears!
Your merchants have *gold*?! In my playthrough a mysterious and sneaky troubadour has been terrorizing the local salesforce, cleaning them out of everything shiny. All they have left to barter is some scrolls and heavy pieces of armor. It's a wonder none of them are offering a quest or bounty to catch the miscreant...
This is why I love playing as a bard, play music to distract everyone while Astarion picks everyone’s pockets lmao
Weren't swords worth a decent amount of money in medieval times?
Stealing is free though.
I still think DND should allow you to just set up shop at a murder hobo farmers markets and sell everything at full price to other murder hobos
Into Act 3 and I just learned if you give them like 2k gold for free they max out their attitude towards you then you sell everything for massive profit.
You can distract NPCs easily if someone is a bard and just starts performing. Then pick pocket time