Guide:Five finger discount

Pickpocketing is the illicit transfer of items from an NPC's inventory to a party member's through the use of the Sleight of Hand skill, which is in turn based on Dexterity.

“

Hm. Perhaps it would have been more honest to shake them by the ankles.

„

— Minsc, after successfully pickpocketing

Overview

Picking pockets and stealing items in crowded areas can be difficult due to characters in the area having overlapping sight cones and / or or moving around. A method around this is using a party member to start a conversation with the character making this task more difficult. Typically the character turns to face the party member they are in a conversation with, thus turning their sight cone away from the mark intended to pickpocketed or the item to be stolen. This can also be used to hold a character still while attempting to pickpocket them.

Another technique to pickpocket in crowded areas is by being  Invisible first. Invisible characters always succeed with  Stealth checks while this condition is active, making it possible to attempt pickpocketing even in a crowded room. However, invisibility drops immediately after a pickpocket attempt is made (unless using  Greater Invisibility, which has an increasing chance to fail, based on use). If the offending character quickly goes invisible again, or quickly goes to camp, they can avoid being caught.

Note that Greater Invisibility breaks instantly if the pickpocket attempt fails, without the check normally made to maintain it.

An additional technique is firing an  Arrow of Darkness near a character, activating turn-based mode, hiding and then pickpocketing. In some scenarios, it is necessary to pass a Stealth check, but in most cases this allows easier pickpocketing in more crowded areas. This can also be achieved with the  Fog Cloud feature of the  Cloak of Cunning Brume, but the character to be pickpocketed must not be 'hit' with the fog or they become hostile.

To guarantee a minimum Sleight of Hand check of 30, one possible build includes a level 11 rogue – which by its level has  Reliable Talent, guaranteeing a minimum of 10 on the d20 and bypassing critical failures – along with the following:

• +8 from  Expertise
• +6 from Dexterity, using any combination of feats,  The Graceful Cloth,  Nimblefinger Gloves,  Auntie Ethel's Hair, or the Mirror of Loss to reach 22 Dexterity
• +4 from the  Unlucky Thief's Gloves and the  Smuggler's Ring
• +2d4 from both  Guidance and the  Shapeshifter's Boon Ring being used together

Granting a minimum roll of 10 + 8 + 6 + 4 + 2 = 30.

If  Astarion is used, then an additional +1 can be obtained from  Happy.

Pickpocketing DC

“

Caught red-handed. Hopefully, you are a better fighter than you are a pickpocket.

„

— Narrator, warning the player character of their impending battle after failing a sleight-of-hand check, attempting to steal

The DC of pickpocketing any item depends on its weight in kilograms, its price, and the target's Perception skill modifier through the following formula:

$\text{DC}=8+\text{Perception}+\frac{\text{Weight}}{5}+20\cdot \max (0,\min (1,\sqrt{\frac{\text{Price}}{1000}}))$

The result is rounded to the nearest integer. The maximum possible DC is 30, regardless of item weight or price. The table below shows the base DC of pickpocketing gold, not including the target's Perception modifier. For large gold stacks, weight continues to contribute to DC beyond the gold cap, until the maximum of 30 is reached.

Pickpocketing Gold DC

Amount of Gold	Sleight of Hand DC
1-5	9
6-15	10
16-30	11
31-50	12
51-75	13
76-104	14
105-139	15
140-179	16
180-223	17
224-272	18
273-326	19
327-385	20
386-449	21
450-518	22
519-591	23
592-669	24
670-752	25
753-840	26
841-932	27
933-2499	28
2500+	29-30

Roll target

The number displayed in the Pickpocketing UI is not the DC of the check, but the number which must be rolled on the D20 to pass the check. Also, the number displayed may not include all bonuses and can therefore be misleading.