Some "fixes" in unofficial patch leave me scratchi

Most of the changes in the unofficial patch are quite helpful, but does anybody have a clear idea what the rationale was for nerfing the Shadowing Robes? A +5 prowling bonus may have been a lot, but AFAIK it's the only prowling bonus gear in the game (except a pathetic +1 from some thieves gear which also has pickpocket and backstab bonuses), you don't get all that great a bonus unless you have a fairly strong magickal aptitude, and the nerfed +2 bonus hardly seems to do anything.

I started wondering about this because I'm doing the Thieves Underground quests in Tarant despite not having high thieving skills. I know this should be somewhat hard to do without taking the "just kill them all first and steal their stuff later" approach. But since Virgil's at a high enough level that his lockpicking skill isn't pathetic any more and I've given him a set of auto skeleton keys, the only thing I need is for him to be able to do some of his lockpicking unnoticed by the yokels whose stuff we're pilfering. I thought giving him some prowling bonus gear might do it, but I can't really even tell that the bonus on the Shadowing Robes is doing anything. If I add a point in Prowling I can get to most of the chests unnoticed, but I'd have to add at least two and probably three points in lockpicking too.

(An aside: one approach which does seem to work is laying dynamite outside the place I'm robbing- nobody gets angry, the chest is destroyed, and I just walk over and grab what I want. Since I haven't been learning explosives, though, I'd use up what little dynamite I have quite quickly doing this, and it'd take ten successful tosses of Molotov Cocktails to do the same job. I did go ahead and dynamite the outside of the Panarii Temple, since I wanted to keep the Jewel of Hebe for myself and the priest is standing way too close to the chest for prowling to be an option.)

Any other "fixes" which people think might be worth rolling back?

 

The Prowling bonus granted by Shadow Robes is supposed to be +2 and not +5 so it was a bug.

Some other bug were helpful like the dark helmet or Zan Alurin who did not check for max followers (this one is removed by the patch 1074).

Either you want to use a glitch of the game and take advantage of it, either you want to get rid of bugs, even if they are helpful. I prefer to get rid of glitches...

But I can understand your words.

 

The item_effect.mes file states that Shadowing Robe and Robe of the Chameleon should give +2 to Prowling. Even though that file had many awfully inaccurate item descriptions, I decided to change the bonus according to the description in this case, because, well, +5 was just too much, obviously not intended.

Bottom line, I see the item description as what was originally intended and the actual item bonus as a screw up. That's why it was changed.

 

If you're that concerned with the bonus given by the item, simply change it in the item effect .mes file. Make it 3 or something. Or, leave it at two and make other items add to prowling.

 

He can't easily change it, it's a script counter stored in a proto file.

The item_effect.mes file only contains the item descriptions, not their actual effects. Most of the descriptions are generated on the fly, but the descriptions for items with special (i.e. scripted) effects are stored in this file.

 

Ring of Concealment:
Prowling +2
Worn by Gildor Nightwalk in Stillwater.

Ring of Silence:
Prowling +2
Can be given by Albert Leek after becoming the prowling master;
appears in A.L.'s inventory after Polymorph or Body of [ELEMENT] is cast on him.

Medallion of Silence:
Prowling +2
Locked barrel in the Elven Ruins.

 

Never doubt the Black Tooth.

 

Ah, ok.

Didn't realize the description had always had +2.

Though I'd seen the Medallion of Silence in the Elven Ruins in an earlier save, I hadn't remembered it- I wasn't much in need of prowling bonuses at the time, and after putting it on and seeing how little it did, it and the rest of the enchanted items there got filed away under "forgettable" in my brain.

On top of that, when I went online to check whether any other items had prowling bonuses, I didn't notice that the site I was at didn't list the rings and medallions.

I wouldn't want to take advantage of a glitch, and judging from the other prowling bonus gear which I didn't know about, it certainly sounds like making the bonus match the description was the right move here.

Returning to Tarant, when Virgil's wearing both the Shadowing Robes and the Medallion of Silence, he has just enough prowling skill to lockpick the Zoological Society's chest without being noticed. Case closed; thanks to all for speedy and informative responses.