1999 called. They want their suggestions back.

No, really, this is a great suggestion. It would be amazing if this were an ambush move. Ambush mug. Attempts to immobilize the target (backstabbing), and attempts to steal from them (thievery). If they drop boxes, you have a chance to get a junkbox (lockpicking) that would only have one trap; however, the trap would never be life threatening. Only junk would be inside.

I vaguely recall some mumbling problems about the fact critters wealth doesn't exist until you loot them, so it's impossible to actually steal from them without creating an entirely new system. Then balance concerns about being able to generate money without having to kill them first, what do you do with the pre-looted critters walking around now if somebody else kills them, etc...

It's a bit of a development can of worms?

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"Warrior Mages don't bother covering up their disasters.
They're proud of them." -Raesh, on history

You could create items for a Steal Critter 'loot table' that would be of value to the critter but not of any real value to players as an interesting alternative to scripting shoplifting every X amount of time to train thievery. You could also make some of these items interesting lore tidbits, giving us more insight into the day to day life and history of the creatures that we slain by the millions. It would probably only make sense to be able to steal from sentient (or previously sentient) critters.

>steal goblin

>Sneaking around behind the goblin you slip a deft hand into it's backpack. Grabbing the first thing that comes to hand you find a greasy lock of hair; presumably a keepsake gifted by this filthy goblin's paramour and almost certainly of great sentimental value.

>steal Elpalzi hunter

>Taking advantage of a momentary distraction, you quickly brush up against the Elpalzi hunter and retrieve a handful of arrowheads.

If you killed the goblin without stealing from it, you wouldn't find these item because it's not in the Critter treasure 'loot' table and you wouldn't have to clean up mountains of extra items dropped.

You'd have to find someone on staff with the time and desire to code up all those stealable items and update the Steal command so it could be used to Steal Critter. It seems instead of making critters actually 'stolen from' it would be easier to set up the Steal command so it would check for a sentient critter in the room you're in, and then run a skillcheck from your thievery skill and stats against the critter's perception skill with modifiers for urban environment, combat engagement range, wounds and a penalty for multiple opponents. If successful reward the thievery experience, spawn the item and messaging appropriate for that critter from the Steal Critter 'loot' table. And then somehow flag that critter as being picked clean and not a good mark for theft (which again would only affect the stealable loot table, not the treasure loot).