» Tue Jun 12, 2012 4:02 pm
Do it at night, obviously. When most of the town is in bed and you don't have to chase them around while crouched up like an idiot. The main reason I bother raising pickpocketing, is for the 3rd tier perk which adds 100 pounds to my carry weight. I fully consider this a wise use of three perks- in the course of getting up to that perk (it's at pickpocketing 50), you will probably level up 3 times. Since you are gaining those 3 levels by pickpocketing, it makes perfect sense to invest them back into pickpocketing immediately, to make your task easier (and to get that extra 100 pounds!).
You'll quickly get your first level up, then invest it in the first tier pickpocketing perk- which is +20% to pickpocketing success.... quite helpful. Once you level up again and get the next tier perk, you invest it in the one that makes pickpocketing sleeping people more successful... yet another very helpful thing, since most of your targets will be sleeping. Then you just grind it on up to pickpocketing 50 and your next level up, for the carry weight perk. Anything after that is pure gravy.
As for actual hands-in-their-pockets tips, use the quicksave button. When you are low-skilled at pickpocketing, you simply must restart from saves after getting caught- because you will be caught one HELL of a lot. It's either that, or spend ten times as long to level it up, because you'll spend most of your time running after being caught, fighting and needlessly killing npc's after getting caught, or spending more time bribing guards to let you go after being caught- than doing what you should be doing. If you can't deal with this minor affront to realism, then don't bother trying to level up pickpocketing... seriously. You'd just lose all your hair.
So, sneak up to your sleeping mark, hit quicksave, then steal one item- usually the small amount of gold most npc's carry is the best thing to snatch first. Then look- are they still sleeping? Good... now get out of their pocket, and hit quicksave again. Each separate item you pilfer gives the mark an opportunity to 'discover' your hand in their pocket. So, if you get careless, and try to grab a whole bunch of items at once without saving between? You probably will get discovered before you finger all the things you should be trying to steal, and then you'll have wasted your time and have to start all over again from your last save. If you save between each item stolen, you'll only have to retry for the last item before you got caught, when you get caught. Note I said when you get caught, not if. You will get caught, so minimize your time wasted/lost by quicksaving all the time between items picked. Is all that saving kinda tedious? Yes. Is frequently getting caught and having to resteal a whole bunch of stuff multiple times even more tedious? Hell yes.
The value of the items you try to steal directly connects to how likely you are to get away with stealing it, or getting caught. Ten gold in their pocketses? Cake. Lockpick or two? Cake. Low value rings or necklaces? A little harder, but not too hard. HIgh value and/or enchanted jewelry? Much more likely to get caught, until you have a lot higher level of pickpocket skill. A big wad of cash, in the pocket of a sleeping vendor or trainer npc? Heh, you WILL get caught, probably 95% of the time, trying to snatch those big purses. Until you are way up in skill. Don't even try it, early on. Weapons and armor? No need, and no point, unless you want to perk up to where you can steal just about anything from anyone, for chuckles. But aside from said chuckles, there is no sensible benefit from wasting all those perk points just in order to be able to pilfer armor and weapons. You don't need to steal anyones heavy gear anyway- if you want it that bad, just kill them first. Takes fewer perks.
Also, once you get a hand in their pocket, check your 'likelihood of success' meter, in the lower right section of the theft interface... it'll tell you how likely you are to succeed. The percentage will vary, depending on the value and difficulty of the item you put your cursor on. Once you've worked up your lockpicking to where that meter says 70% or better for most items, then you will be on a roll and able to steal stuff at a rapid clip, with many fewer detection/reloads.
Best marks are rich people, like the Battle-Borns (love cleaning out those fat heads), the Jarl's household (phat lewts), and Maven and her family (the delicious irony!), among others. But until you get your pickpocket skill up to where you can safely pluck those fancy and expensive baubles the rich go to sleep with, I'd stick to the lesser marks while you're working it up. And of course, while slinking around and breaking into ppl's homes, you'll also be rapidly raising your lockpicking, as well. Don't forget to open all the many chests and strongboxes you find in those homes, and lighten their burdens a good bit. Skillbooks, too. No tellin what goodies you'll find, when ya run yer fingers through grandma's drawers!
PS: don't waste your time trying to pickpocket 'bad guys'. They don't pack much pocket loot, hardly ever get anything off of them. Go for the sleeping civilians. Yer a pickpocket, not a nun.
