Pay for a second account. Teach yourself. That's what a lot of people seem to do.

Real answer is that up to about 30 ranks you'll want to steal water from the alchemist shop, and charcoal from the general store.

And that's it. You should be able to steal those two items 2-6 times, and learn OK. You'll get MARK at second level I think, which should help. If you don't have it, ask Kalag about magic. If I run past the beggar I'll steal 1-2 times but the NPCs are so irritating to use I don't bother.

Otherwise, get used to that kidney jab. Stealing sucks. You're going to get caught a lot, it's frustrating, expensive, and not very much fun.

But hey, magic users totally needed more spells, an entirely new research system, and a gath mysanda and a backlash absorber.

Stealing learning is very doable without a second account early on. Steal many times from the same store to maximize what you learn each time you go, and train your agility early on. My thief started with zero ranks post recent shoplifting changes, for reference.

And while the pawnshop is beyond broken, (reset plz) the costs of learning your first 100 ranks is pretty low since you'll get the stocks almost every time.

Let's try not to go down the Guild vs. Guild path. Thanks.

Iristi
DragonRealms Board Monitor

Any questions or comments, please contact me at MOD-Iristi@play.net or Senior Board Monitor Helje at DR-Helje@play.net.

Shoplifting sucks for a lot of reasons, and as it's currently the only expedient way to train thievery (that I know of), training thievery sucks by extension.

For someone just starting, and in Crossing, water from the alchemist, roses from the florist, charcoal from the general store, and once you're over 10 ranks you should consider moving up to bark/meat from the general store. At about 20 you can start branching out into other things like herbs from the cleric shop. At that point you kinda just have to explore for some low value, low weight things to steal. But yeah, it's gonna be a pain. In some ways it's even worse than training Trading, because while running caravans and doing crafting orders take way too long to lock Trading, you at least have other options like commodities pits, financing shops, and - my favorite because it involves interacting with strangers - selling pouches and bundles. The latter are the most fun and engaging ways to train trading, but are also unfortunately hit-or-miss since they rely on systems and people that are outside of your control.

I make the comparison because I think the solution to the training Thievery dilemma is to develop more methods of training for thieves (lower-case t.) Shoplifting shouldn't be the only way. One quick fix would be to just tweak/increase rates of gain from pick-pocketing. Brings the potential for abuse via risk-less pick-pocketing from alts or friends, but there's lots of stuff in the game that can be abused like this already (teaching, gamey/exploitative ways to train Empathy, we all know a few.) Not only that, but Thievery is pretty clearly a non-combat skill, and lots of non-combat skills can also gain experience relatively risk-free anyway. I mean, for comparison sake, how easy is it to lock Outdoorsmanship by just collecting rocks for a few minutes? Why not let people train by practicing pick-pocketing on each other? Are there good reasons? Genuinely interested.

Other solutions would just be feature suggestions and probably not for this thread.

Good advice is given above on what to seriously look into for snagging from shops.

Stealing training used to be a massive pain to train. Even during the days of people standing in front of the bank yelling "Open Pockets". The classes taught by others in the old guildhall were usually interesting because you could ask questions and get them answered right there.

I havent done a lot of steal training since I reacquired Sok, heck a few people know where I stand in that skill so I havent looked into the changes to stealing to close. I will say a few things though...Remember, this is just my personal opinion...

Training stealing is a lesson in patience.

If you do a 'set' steal run, dont use a script made by someone else even if they have exactly what you need. By creating it yourself and making changes to it yourself as needed, you start getting a 'feel' for whats in your range and when its in your range. I dont like the progressive scripts Ive heard about that are available. Do it yourself, its more difficult, yes. But more rewarding with the sense of accomplishment.

Be prepared for fines. They will eventually get brutal.

Be prepared to complain about training this skill for a long time.

Me, I write my own scripts. Survival and combat. This way I know exactly what its doing and why. I currently have no steal runs built that Id use without big changes. To many changes have occurred in the code over the years and it will likely affect how those runs will work. So I will likely build a new one from scratch someday. I think my last single charge of stealing in Muspari brought a fine of 5 or 6 plat. As for complaining about training steal, thats just a given. However, even though I complain about the skill myself, when I created Sok originally I chose this guild for a couple of reasons. The biggest one being the challenge. Being a Dwarf and a Thief, BIG challenge. Add in stealing to the mix, Dwarves sure aint known for their agility. Stealing is a challenge to train. One I fully enjoy working through the challenge.

Being a thief aint easy. Training a Thief aint easy. Listen to the advice in posts above. good advice. Enjoy the challenge.

Sok Masticack Dwarven Thief and Musparan Sandrat Extrodinaire

>dont use a script made by someone else even if they have exactly what you need.

I have never found this to be particularly good advice.

Some people enjoy creating and maintaining complex scripts (like Geniehunter). Either as community services, or just for the personal challenge. Or even to sell (as in, amusingly enough, certain stealing scripts).

But telling someone that to do X they must also learn to create complex scripts first, is a very large hurdle. There's nothing wrong with using the progressive stealing script off the wiki, or buying a script. I've never done either; my stealing was hand typed until I realized an hour or two in class was better than 5 hours stealing and prancing around 300 towns.

The stealing list is long outdated. There have been several major changes in shop inventory and many new shops have been added since the list was created. Not to mention the changes Javac made for shop stealing. Just go through the full epedia list, there's plenty of shops in Crossing alone.

https://elanthipedia.play.net/index.php?title=Special:Ask&offset=0&limit=250&q=%5B%5Bpage+type+is%3A%3Astore%5D%5D+%5B%5BFound+on+map%3A%3ARanikMap1%5D%5D&p=format%3Dul

<< I just cool off and don't steal in that city for a couple days and I'm fine again

I never turn myself in and see failed attempts several times a day. If i remember correctly the highest fine i've ever seen was 60 plats but since the latest thievery updates no higher than 3 plats. I haven't really changed the way i do my runs other than drastically reduce the number of shops i go through. I don't know, i'm pretty sure the 40 plat fines are a thing of the past now.

<< they must also learn to create complex scripts first

I wouldn't say you need complex scripts, unless you want it completely automated. Getting your inventory sorted does take some manual work.

>>>dont use a script made by someone else even if they have exactly what you need.

>>I have never found this to be particularly good advice.

>>Some people enjoy creating and maintaining complex scripts (like Geniehunter). Either as community services, or just for the personal challenge. Or even to sell >>(as in, amusingly enough, certain stealing scripts).

>>But telling someone that to do X they must also learn to create complex scripts first, is a very large hurdle. There's nothing wrong with using the progressive >>stealing script off the wiki, or buying a script. I've never done either; my stealing was hand typed until I realized an hour or two in class was better than 5 >>hours stealing and prancing around 300 towns.

Not trying to make any kind of argument, this is just a simple statement.

You seem to have missed that I clearly stated that its all my personal opinion.

Sok Masticack Dwarven Thief and Musparan Sandrat Extrodinaire

> I don't know, i'm pretty sure the 40 plat fines are a thing of the past now.

>fine upon you of 90 platinum, 5 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze, and 5 copper.

Oh I wish, time to stop training thievery again for a few days.

700~ ranks in P1, crossing and its environs.