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Sleight of Hand

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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.

Proficiency[edit | edit source]

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:

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

Uses[edit | edit source]

Pickpocketing and stealing tips[edit | edit source]

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 Invisible first. If you're invisible, you will always successfully Hide 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 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 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 Guidance and Shapeshifter's Boon Ring, and be a level 11 Rogue with Reliable Talent 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[edit | edit source]

+1 to Skill Checks[edit | edit source]

+2 to Skill checks[edit | edit source]

+1d4 to All Skill Checks[edit | edit source]

Advantage on Skill Checks[edit | edit source]

Advantage on All Dexterity Checks[edit | edit source]

Related spells[edit | edit source]