Quest Pickpocketing Shortcuts?

[Ellohymn]

I'm at the tail end of the Thieves Guild 'Restoring The Guild To It's Former Glory' series of quests. I've gotten through the whole TG so far without spending perks into pickpocketing. My goal is to NOT spend any perks into pickpocketing so that I don't have to struggle with the idea of wasting perks and what I should and shouldn't make "Legendary".

I'm stuck on pickpocketing Pantea Ateia in Solitude for possibly the last sub-quest I need in order to move forward toward achieving full influence in Solitude and thus finishing the first half of the TG quests and, due to the bug, becoming Grandmaster after I do the main Quest line.

I have the invisibility spell which I pop after muffle. I have boots, bracers, a ring and necklace all with 33 percent better chance of pickpocket success enchantments, and I make sure to take off all my armor. I then save the game thinking that my 147 percent chance of successfully pickpocketing (with 15 percent from invisibility) will be more than adequate to steal an 800g diamond when she's sleeping. I've reloaded more than 40 times and my chances are feeling less and less realistic.

I'm stuck and I have no clue what it will take to get around this worthless attribute that weighs heavily on only one portion of the game. Can anyone help me out? Please do not post obvious comments like "Just spend the one or two points into pickpocketing" NO, the whole point is to not have to do this. I look forward to hearing replies.

Update: I should not that I'm playing on the PS3! - Incase that has any difference with the display or interface of how active effects are shown.

 

[Nighthiker77]

What is the displayed %? It is capped at 90

 

[Ellohymn]

In my active effects it shows all four individual pieces of apparel with their separate enchantments. It doesn't show anywhere that they've actually stacked. Do they not actually stack? And how did you figure out that it's capped at 90?

 

[Nighthiker77]

On the item you look to pickpocket, it should have a % chance

 

[Ellohymn]

It says "0% To Steal" How is that possible? lol ALSO, thanks for that, I would have never noticed that if you hadn't mentioned it.

 

[Nighthiker77]

Also, if this is just for a reputation quest, you can drop it and get a different kind in Solitude to get your last 1. I think you have too much equipped and that might be glitching it out. Drop down to just 2 items and see if that fixes it.

 

[Ellohymn]

Alright, I'll try it! Thanks man! I'll update this same post with the result here in a couple minutes.

Update #1: I took off three pieces just to be safe and it still said 0%. Must be a glitch (I tried reloading an older save too see if something post-interaction had messed it up and nothing) I'll go and quit the quest and try to get another one. Thanks for your help and suggestions!

Update #2: I went back to Delvin and without saying a word to him he just gave me the last Solitude quest for full influence (The one with Erikur). Maybe he secretly knew that the previous quest he gave me was glitched so he gave me a freebee? Thanks again!

 

[ianc1]

I think there is a bug with the pickpocket in 1.9 as I have also had 0% chance to steal which is metioned in the wiki, but I have also had items to steal that are not even on the npc. even reloading a asking for a different job gave me the same problem, but if you just fail the quest it steems to remove the bug for a time.

 

[Ellohymn]

I think you're pretty much right. From what I gathered, it doesn't necessary have to be Solitude jobs that you are working. As long as you have completed the Bedlam job in Solitude and possibly one other, and you're keeping active with your quests in general (you have quests for the TG active at the time), Delvin will automatically offer you the influence job. So, as far as the TG goes, it's not too problematic. But for pickpocketing in general - for those who enjoy doing so anyways, it is a nasty bug for the larger items.

 

[Mohammed Ghazala]

i had the same problem with pickpocketing , so i just didn't do any pickpocket quest ,, you don't have to do pickpocketing ,, so i suggest loading an early save before taking the job and take an other thing instead of pickpocketing quests ,, but if you insist ,, try fortify pickpocketing potion

 

[Mohammed Ghazala]

or search spells and shouts for something that makes the NPC friendly , like vampire seduce or something

 

[Mijito007]

I'm playing on XBox360 and and waited till she went to bed. My pickpocket level is 41 but I have ring, necklace, and boots at 50% pickpocket each. Once she's sleeping I used ice form shout (ice, flesh, statue) and waited till she unfrozen to pickpocket the diamond quickly. She does call out for help but no one comes and I didn't get any bounty. I purposely walked to a Solitude guard and engaged in conversation, no issues.