Sleight of Hand

Sleight of Hand is a Dexterity-based skill.

The higher a creature's Dexterity score, the more likely they are to succeed on Sleight of Hand ability checks to pick locks, pick pockets, and disarm traps.

“

Wield nimble fingers. Steal stuff.

„

— In-game skill description

Proficiency

Characters who are proficient in Sleight of Hand can add their proficiency bonus when making ability checks.

The following backgrounds grant proficiency in Sleight of Hand:

•  Charlatan
•  Urchin

The following classes can choose to select Sleight of Hand as a proficient skill at Level 1:

•  Bard
•  Rogue
•  Ranger - via the Natural Explorer option Urban Tracker

Uses

• Picking locks (requires Thieves' Tools).
• Disarming Traps (requires Trap Disarm Toolkit).
• Pickpocketing from NPCs.
• Stealing items without being noticed (see also Stealth).

Pickpocketing and stealing tips

Picking pockets and stealing items in crowded areas can be difficult due to NPCs in the area having overlapping sight cones or moving around. A trick around this is to use your party members to start conversations with the NPCs that are causing you trouble. Typically the NPC will turn to face the party member they are in a conversation with and thus you can turn their sight cone away from the mark you are intending to pickpocket or the item you wish to steal. This can also be used to hold an NPC still while you attempt to pickpocket them.

Another technique to pickpocket in crowded areas is to go  Invisible first. If you're invisible, you will always successfully  Hide, which will let you attempt to pickpocket even in a crowded room. You will be seen as soon as you pickpocket one item, though, as Invisibility will drop (unless you cast  Greater Invisibility, which just has a chance to drop). However, if you quickly go invisible again, or Go to Camp, the NPC you stole from won't be able to find you to accuse you of stealing. You can use this to slowly clear out the inventory of an NPC in a crowd.

An additional technique is to fire an Arrow of Darkness near an NPC, activating turn-based mode,  Cunning Action: Hide and then begin your pickpocket attempts. In some scenarios, you may need to pass a Stealth Check, but in most cases, this will allow an easy pickpocket in more crowded areas. This can also be achieved with the fog cloud feature of the Cloak of Cunning Brume; just be careful to not touch the NPC with the fog or they will become hostile.

The maximum DC of a pickpocket attempt is 30, so if you build up your Sleight of Hand bonuses high enough, it's possible to make even the most difficult pickpocket attempts always succeed. To do this, get your Sleight of Hand bonus to +8 from Expertise, +6 from Dexterity (using The Graceful Cloth, Feats, and/or various Permanent Bonuses to reach 22 Dexterity), and +4 from Unlucky Thief's Gloves and Smuggler's Ring, for a total bonus of +18 displayed in the character sheet. Then add +2d4 from  Guidance and Shapeshifter's Boon Ring, and be a level 11 Rogue with  Reliable Talent, so you can't roll below 10. This makes the target roll in the pickpocket interface max out at 12 (DC 30 - 18 = 12), which you can't fail because you'll never roll below 10, and you'll get at least +2 on top of that from the d4s.

Pickpocketing Gold DC

Amount of Gold	Sleight of Hand DC
1-5	9
6-15	10
16-30	11
31-50	12
51-75	13
76-104	14
105-139	15
140-179	16
180-223	17
224-272	18
273-326	19
327-385	20
386-449	21
450-518	22
519-591	23
592-669	24
670-752	25
753-840	26
841-932	27
933-2499	28
2500-7499	29
7500-12,499	30
12,500-17,499	31*
17,500-22,499	32*
22,500+	33*

*The DC of Pickpocketing NPCs is affected by the NPCs Wisdom Ability score modifier.

Related items

+1 to Skill Checks

Gloves of Power

Knock Knuckle Gloves

Dark Displacement Gloves

Nimblefinger Gloves

Winkling Gloves

+2 to Skill checks

Smuggler's Ring

Unlucky Thief's Gloves

+1d4 to All Skill Checks

Shapeshifter's Boon Ring while Shapeshifted or Disguised

Advantage on Skill Checks

• Gloves of Thievery

Advantage on All Dexterity Checks

• The Graceful Cloth

Related spells

•  Astral Knowledge - Grants Proficiency in all Skills of a chosen Ability.
•  Cat's Grace - Grants Advantage on all Dexterity Checks.
•  Guidance - Grants a +1d4 bonus on all Skill Checks.
•  Hex (Dexterity) - Grants Disadvantage on all Dexterity Checks.
•  Knowledge of the Ages: Dexterity - Grants Proficiency in all Dexterity Skills.
• Bardic Inspiration - Grants a +1d6/+1d8/+1d10 bonus on all Skill Checks.