Skills/Stealing

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Stealing lifts items from other people's packs, or takes loose items from the world, without paying for them. It's risky, costs karma, and against players needs membership in the Thieves' Guild.

At a glance

Skill cap	100 (Grandmaster)
Use	Use the skill, then target an item or a person next to you
Weight limit	10 stones per theft
Partner skills	Snooping, Hiding, Stealth
Starting gear	20 lockpicks
Stats it trains	Dexterity

How to steal

1. Empty both hands. Otherwise: Both hands must be free to steal.
2. Use the skill: Which item will you attempt to steal? Using it reveals you if you're hidden.
3. Target an item inside someone's pack (open it with Snooping first), or target the person to grab something at random from their backpack.
4. You must be within 1 tile: You must be standing next to an item to steal it.

• Success: You successfully steal the item.
• Failure: You fail to steal the item.

Every attempt costs 50 karma, and you must wait 10 seconds before using another skill.

Your chance

Heavier items are harder: the difficulty is the item's weight × 10, and your chance runs from 0% at difficulty − 22.5 to 100% at difficulty + 27.5. A container's weight includes everything inside it.

Item weight	Stealing 40	Stealing 60	Stealing 80	Stealing 100
1 stone	['100%', '100%', '100%', '100%']
2 stones	['85%', '100%', '100%', '100%']
4 stones	['45%', '85%', '100%', '100%']
6 stones	['5%', '45%', '85%', '100%']
8 stones	['0%', '5%', '45%', '85%']
10 stones	['0%', '0%', '5%', '45%']

Stacks: from a stack you take a random amount, up to your Stealing ÷ 10 ÷ the weight of one item, and the difficulty is based on the weight of what you take.

Getting caught

When a theft fails, you may be caught:

Your Stealing	Chance of being caught on a failed attempt
0	100%
30	80%
60	60%
90	40%
100	33%

If you're caught, everyone within 8 tiles sees You notice (you) trying to steal from (them). and, unless your victim is a fellow guild thief or isn't innocent, you become a criminal.

Even when you succeed, an innocent player you rob (who isn't a guild thief) can attack you freely from then on.

Stolen items can't be traded for 2 minutes. If you die in that time, items still on your corpse go straight back to their owners.

What you can't steal

• Equipped items: You cannot steal items which are equipped.
• Anything over 10 stones, blessed or newbied items, or items fixed in place: You can't steal that.
• From shopkeepers (You can't steal from shopkeepers.) or player vendors (You can't steal from vendors.)
• From corpses, or from anyone you couldn't legally harm
• In safe zones: You may not steal in this area.

The Thieves' Guild

You must be in the Thieves' Guild to steal from other players: You must be in the thieves guild to steal from other players.

• Joining: say join to a thief guildmaster and hand over 500 gold.
• Requirements: at least 60 Stealing, no murders (This guild is for cunning thieves, not oafish cutthroats.), and a character at least 7 days old with 2 days of play time.
• Suspension: a guild thief who has any murder counts can't steal from players: You are currently suspended from the thieves guild.
• Disguise kit: members can say disguise to a thief guildmaster, then hand over 700 gold for a disguise kit.
• You can resign after a week.

Training Stealing

• Every attempt that reaches the skill check is a chance to gain, from 0 to 100.
• Practice on loose items you're allowed to take, or on a friend's backpack with light items, moving to heavier items as you improve.
• Below 10.0 you gain on every attempt, sometimes several tenths at once. Above that, each attempt has a chance to gain 0.1.
• The harder the attempt is for your skill level, the better your chance to gain. Your chance also drops as you get closer to your Stealing cap and to your total skill cap of 700.
• If you've set Stealing to go down (the arrow in your skills list), gains elsewhere can lower it to make room under your total cap. Lock skills you want to keep.
• Reaching 100.0 adds Stealing to the Skills Mastered count on your achievements.
• Gypsies and thief guildmasters will train you for gold: up to a third of their own skill, at most 42.0, for 1 gold per 0.1 points. Ask them (or use their context menu) to train the skill, then drop the gold on them.

Stats: each successful use has about a 3% chance to raise Dexterity by 1 point. Each stat can rise at most once every 10 minutes, and only if it's set to rise.

Suggested path

Stealing	How to train
0 to about 30	Buy it from a gypsy or thief guildmaster.
30 to 60	Steal light items (1 to 3 stones) from a friend.
60	Join the Thieves' Guild.
60 to 100	Move up to heavier items (5 to 10 stones) as your chance rises.

Tips

• Snoop first, then steal the item you want instead of a random one.
• Hide and stealth away after a theft, since every attempt reveals you.
• Watch your karma. Each attempt costs 50.

See also

• Snooping · Hiding · Stealth · Lockpicking · Begging