I recently download Daggerfall from the Elder Scrolls pages, and first thing I made was a Burglar character. I tried to make a few before I posted, and all of them began to fall apart right after Privateer's Hold, which is not very good as far as I can tell. I have currently an Argonian Burglar, and before I scrap him, I want to get advice from expert Elder Scroll players. So, any tips for stealing and not getting caught in five seconds?

The best method of thievery is catburglary: break into a shop at night and empty the merchandise into your wagon. Shoplifting is not advised, as it is nearly impossible to pull off (an error in the success formula, I'd say, as it really shouldn't be nearly impossible for someone even with perfect stats). Pickpocketing is pointless, really, as the best you'll get is a few pieces of gold. Robbing a household doesn't get much more than clothing, and also you generally get the guards called no matter what.

Of course, you can try whatever you want so long as the guards don't nab you. It's OK if they call the gaurds--so long as you get away without being asked to surrender, then they'll never know it was you and you get away with the crime!

Don't worry about killing everything in privateer's hold. If you can't sneak past it, run past it. You'll do better in dungeons when you get a better weapon.

Heh indeed the guards have amnesia.

When you have a high enough lockpick skill, you can manage to break into Palaces rather easily and steal from the numerous crates they hold. In these crates can be paintings of high value. You may also have the chance of getting a painting of real topless women. :hubbahubba:

Back then, you could get away with topless women if you were an indie developper. Now if Daggerfall was published by Disney. that'd be a different story.

I always have a lot of fun playing Burglars or Acrobats. Khajiit as a race though.

As the others mentioned, the best ways to thieve are to enter shops when they're locked, and to steal from palaces.

Other general burglar tips at http://tesguides.com/tes2/index.htm. Look at the Pre-made classes section.

• Use a bow often and shoot unaware enemies for a free chance at a backstab.
  
• Your movement speed affects your stealth; when you're sneaking up on an enemy try to move slowly.
  
• Join the Mage's Guild, always. Their services are EXTREMELY useful to anyone.
  
• Try to skill up in Illusion enough to cast Improved Invisibility. Use it religiously.
  
• Pickpocket a critter in a dungeon to get a Thieve's Guild invite. Never pickpocket townsfolk.
  
• Your HP is low and your armor selection is limited to none so try to train in Dodging when you can to help survive fights.
  
• Don't worry about lockpicking, as long as your luck is decent you should be able to handle most locks right out of the gate. (Especially as a burglar)
  
• Failing that, it's easy to stumble upon a magic item that can cast Open.
  
• As a thief class, be prepared to level up faster than usual and fight tougher enemies.

Make a custom class. That way you can pick the skills, and gain max 30 HP per level up if you wish. You can also name it Burglar if you want.

Stealth and Critical Strike go up without no effort, and Backstab starts going up when Stealth gives you opportunities to strike their backs. All three are kinda unimportant skills though, but they sure fit your role. I would also NOT pick plate as forbidden armour type, since nothing looks cooler than your Burglar in a black khajiit suit and Adamantium armor!
I use Lockpicking regularly with my Weapon Master who cannot use any magic. At 25 or so, and LUCK near 80, I succeed almost every time. Pick it as minor though. Dodging is a must, and you gotta train it in your guild, too.

I would advise adding illusion that will even up the odds in some difficult situations and

ALWAYS HAVE A OPEN LOCK SPELL

even the cheapest ones can open any door in the cities it will be critical to use when your cat burgaling lock picking svcks and never really works in any elder scrolls game.

Actualy, I found that lockpicking is quite possible in Morrowind. Havn't played Oblivion or arena though.

I have advice on lockpicking.


Oblivion arguably has the best implementation of it. Well, I think it's the best, at any rate.

In Daggerfall, lockpicking is pointless except for roleplay. Like he said, Open opens everything that can be opened, regardless of its strength. If you don't want the spell you can still bash the door down with enough time and hits.

But you're a burglar, right? You want to be a character who knows his way around locks. It's also nice to be able to get into any quest objective house simply by showing up. I did some experiments in an attempt to train lockpicking. It's a pain in the butt. To train the skill, you gain experience from 1 attempt on each lock while visiting an area. An area is defined as a town, interior cell, exterior land cell, or dungeon (usually accompanied by the "You are entering..." message at the top of the screen. Successive attempts on the same lock while in the same area have no effect on the skill and won't yield different results, either. It doesn't matter if you succeed or fail; the experience awarded appears to be the same. The maximum speed at which you can train lockpicking is to buy a ship. You can zoom back and forth between your ship and town to make a rapid string of attempts on a lock.

Recently I wrote a simple autohotkey bot that does this, but it was less because I intended to use lockpicking and more because... I just like watching my bots


I recommend using the trainers to bring lockpicking all the way up to 51% early in the game, so that every lock you attempt will count towards achieving a high level of skill. if you are Thieves Guild, you can stop in towns along the way to a quest objective and use the trainers. When a skill increases, a silent timer starts counting down six hours before that skill can increase again (you can still gain experience in it towards the increase, though). Trainers can be used in a twelve-hour cycle, so that you can train and then rest nine hours, and you will be able to train again.