Draft:Theft
Theft covers both the player's pickpocketing command and certain creatures' ability to steal carried items. The two use different skill checks, choose different possessions and award different results. Neither should be confused with a fine or an effect that destroys an item.[1]
Pickpocketing
Use Pickpocket toward an adjacent creature. Thieves' Guild membership improves the chance but is not required. Against a non-guard which has possessions, success requires:[2]
- 5 × Dexterity + 20 × guild rank + A > 20 × monster level + B
A and B are separate random numbers from 0 through 99. Equality fails. Player character level is not a separate term in this check, and the creature's theft immunity, current hostility and awake status are not tested by this command.[2]
| Target or result | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Guardsman, while you have cash | All cash is removed as a fine; the ordinary skill roll is skipped |
| Guardsman, while you have no cash | Arrest; the ordinary skill roll is skipped |
| Another creature with no possessions | Nothing is taken, but it becomes hostile |
| Successful skill roll | Take the first held object or whole stack; gain monster level squared in experience and move alignment 1 point toward Chaos |
| Failed skill roll against a creature with possessions | No item or experience gain, and no additional message, hostility change or penalty from the failed check itself |
The lack of a separate failure penalty does not suspend ordinary time or enemy actions. A hostile creature may still attack while you attempt the theft. A successful pickpocket does not itself wake or anger its victim, but trying again after emptying its possessions explicitly makes it hostile.[2]
You cannot choose which held item to take. Gifts, scavenged objects and stolen property are added to the front of a creature's possessions, so acquiring another object can change what is taken next. A successful theft removes the whole selected stack. It does not disable the creature's innate attack, even if the stolen object looks like its weapon.[3]
Recovered cash is added to your money. Other objects use the ordinary item-acquisition interface; when automatic backpack storage cannot accept one, inventory control handles it. A full backpack does not turn the successful skill roll into a failed theft.[4]
Monster theft
Sneak-thieves and master thieves use the same special theft ability. Some ordinary humans receive it through their thieving ability, and talking to an evil fairy enables it. These creatures do not use the player's Dexterity-and-guild formula.[5]
Ordinary nearby awake monsters get a special-action check on half their pulses; the theft routine then has its own one-in-three check and requires distance below two, including diagonal adjacency. Hostility is not required. Standing on sanctuary suppresses the ordinary special-action dispatch. Pulse timing and other behavior are explained in Monster behavior.[6]
One nonempty accessible inventory slot is selected at random, including slots currently in use. The selection does not search the separate backpack storage or the player's cash balance. The following checks can then stop the theft:[7]
| Protection | Exact condition |
|---|---|
| Theft immunity | Any active theft-immunity contribution prevents this ability from taking an item |
| Player level | Safe when player level is greater than 2 times thief level plus a random number from 0 through 19 |
| Selected object is in use | The attempt fails; it does not choose another object instead |
| Grip check | You hold on when Dexterity is less than thief level times a random number from 0 through 9 |
The grip check is counterintuitive: lower Dexterity can protect the object. Raising Dexterity improves your own pickpocketing, but does not improve this particular defense. Level protection becomes certain at 2 times thief level + 20: player level 24 against an ordinary sneak-thief or 32 against an ordinary master thief. Below that boundary the level check can still prevent an attempt.[8]
On success the thief teleports elsewhere on the same level, takes the entire selected object or stack, and replaces both its normal movement and special action with retreat behavior. This replacement stops further theft through that special action. The object remains in its possessions, rather than being destroyed.[9]
Recovery and protection
Distance protects against the adjacent special, and in-use equipment is excluded from successful taking. Moving valuable unused stacks into separate backpack storage also removes them from this routine's selection, though that is not protection against unrelated backpack loss. Shadow form supplies theft immunity alongside its other protections; normal expiry or cancellation removes that contribution. See Damage and immunity for source and duration rules.[10]
| What happens to the creature | What happens to held property |
|---|---|
| Normal death | Possessions drop whether or not the death is in your line of sight; corpse generation and death experience are separate |
| Successful player pickpocket | The first object or stack is returned through normal item acquisition |
| Susceptible to a fear effect, or ordinary low-HP retreat with possessions | Drops possessions; you still need to collect them |
| Ordinary teleportation | Keeps possessions on the same level |
| Vanishes, including thief guild recognition | No ordinary death drop; carried property is not returned |
Recovery therefore depends on how the encounter ends. A guild member can dismiss an ordinary sneak-thief or master thief by talking, but should recover stolen property first. This recognition response belongs to those thieves' dialogue, not every creature that can steal.[11]
Apportation and other item loss
The apportation spell and a noncursed rod of apportation retrieve items from a selected ground square. They do not take possessions directly from a monster, and do not use the pickpocketing roll. They can help collect property after it has actually been dropped. The cursed rod of lossage instead invokes an item-loss effect on its user; it is not an alternative way to steal from a creature.[12]
The initial evil-fairy conversation destroys one unit of a randomly selected carried item, separately from the theft ability it enables afterward. That destroyed unit is not added to the fairy's loot. Likewise, a guardsman's pickpocketing fine simply removes cash. Theft immunity is not checked by either of these losses.[13]
Strategy
Pickpocketing can obtain a creature's real possessions without killing it. Better Dexterity and guild rank improve the skill check, but neither bypasses a guardsman's special response. Each success shifts alignment toward Chaos, and repeating the command on an empty target can turn an otherwise peaceful encounter into combat. Taking a weapon also leaves innate monster attacks intact.
Against a thief, secure unused valuables before remaining adjacent. Bribery can end hostility while leaving the theft ability active, so paying is not an inventory-protection measure. After a theft, pursue the creature for pickpocketing, a forced drop or normal death; using guild recognition first removes the opportunity. Apportation helps only after the item reaches the floor.
References
- ↑ command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 774–827; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 638–673; effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 647–664.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 774–827.
- ↑ mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 55–109; command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 815–827; mmelee.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 8–51.
- ↑ inv.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 636–695.
- ↑ minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 73; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 205; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 660–666; mtalk.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 466–481.
- ↑ mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 12–76; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 402–417; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 638–673.
- ↑ effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 554–567; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 638–673.
- ↑ mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 638–673; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 73; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 205.
- ↑ mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 654–670; mmove.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 244–254; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 87–95; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 444.
- ↑ effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 554–567; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 638–673; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1114–1132; aux2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 340–350; command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 850–862.
- ↑ mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 97–109; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 134–203; command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 774–827; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1195–1230; mmove.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 24–74; mmove.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 228–254; mtalk.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 238–253.
- ↑ spell.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 367–370; itemf3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 584–590; iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 378; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 547–570.
- ↑ mtalk.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 466–481; effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 647–664; command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 797–812.