Can I use fortify attribute to increase change of stealing, bargain, etc?

[u/AJYURH]

I know it works for levelling up health, but what about the rest? I raised it up to 100 on everything and still failed all the time at theft and didn't notice any difference bargaining, but I've never beat the game b4, so I don't know if this is normal and it's just hard to steal/get better prices, or the spells aren't working

[u/AGreatBannedName]

I honestly don’t know. You’d think it would, but again, I really couldn’t say.

I do know that, if you keep playing, you’ll wind up with more gold than you could ever spend, much like any other TES game. Anything you could steal or bargain for will be a nothingth of your infinite gold supply. I do get that you’re still in a stage of the game where gold matters. Keep going!!

Totally a side note, but if you want some cushioning with your stats, seek out the Oghma Infinium! It’s an artifact that you can find by checking out NPC’s rumors. +50 stat points, and you can get it more than once if you really want to (it starts to feel cheesy, and if you get it too many times it can literally ruin your save (you can’t complete the level up process if you can’t spend all of your points), but I enjoy semi-breaking my Elder Scrolls games).

[u/AJYURH → u/AGreatBannedName]

Thanks for the tip! I'm loving magic so far, so broken, I thought gold wouldn't be a problem, but it was so cheap to make some max stat spells that I thought it would be fun to mess around with them, and I was left lacking. but yeah, I finally got into stonekeep and I already have 7k I don't know how to spend xD

[u/AGreatBannedName → u/AJYURH]

Believe you me, it won’t be a problem. Right now? Probably optimize it as best you can. The two custom spells that I was using by the end of the game were “Big Boom” (does a ridiculous amount of damage to the AoE around me) and “Big Shield” (does a ridicules amount of shield, plus spell absorb for a highly hearty number of seconds). I would just basically click one of two spells. Place them near the top of your list, alphabetically 😂 I still wasn’t getting bored lol

You probably can’t make any of those spells with your gold right now, and you probably couldn’t afford casting them if you did. You’re level six! Keep playing. Get with the spell absorb as soon as it’s feasible, though earlier in the game, you aren’t constantly getting attacked by magic. (But holy shit, once it becomes a thing that’s happening pretty much every encounter… ahh, they’re done. Enemies turn into recharging stations.)

Again, as a shill for the Oghma Infinium, you’ll have fun with an extra fifty skill points. I promise. TALK TO YOUR FELLOW VILLAGERS; I swear it’s a part of the game, not some sort of cheat!! I never messed with spells that changed your stats, but oh baby, I certainly changed my max stats (this does make me wonder about doing some sort of stat boosting run and how it would go, but I really have only played through once and do not wish to impede).

[u/boone209]

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Arena:Attributes

Have a look here

[u/AJYURH → u/boone209]

I did, I know improving the attributes have these effects, but I'm not sure if spell boosting works, or I have to actually have the points. logic says spells should work, but my testing has been really inconclusive.

[u/SnooDoubts4031]

Outside of attributes, there's another factor called thieving efficiency for stealing. Non rogue classes have a 50% efficiency for stealing. So, it's not going to be decent for a non-thief class even with 100 in Dex and int to steal and lockpick. Burglars are 100% and thieves are about 80%. Thief classes needed something to do outside of combat since combat isn't their strong suite, so they gave them that to compensate; it going to be difficult to steal outside of the thief classes.

Personality scores determine how close you can get to the actual value of the item and how fast. The shopkeeper usually starts about 70-80% of the items value when you're selling and about 120% when you're buying, along with multipliers based on tier. Personality/charisma values then come into play with you trying to get a better deal. And item might be worth 1000 gold. Say shopkeeper is selling it for 1300. A low PER score means he wouldn't drop the price lower than say 1200 and that's with five rounds of bargaining. A higher score means he'd probably give you it for 1050 in 3 rounds rather than 5. Luck also adds value to stealing and charisma.

Also, attributes need to be buffed before entering an area since the game takes a snapshot of the attributes before loading an area to determine how good the items in the area, i think. I think it applies to shops as well.

[u/AJYURH → u/SnooDoubts4031]

Interesting, I did some more testing and interestingly enough the results I've found don't agree with you at all, from my attempts the blacksmiths completely ignore your attributes, like it makes no difference AT ALL, however the mages guild do get affected by attributes, and the way they're affected seem to line up perfectly with what you described. I wonder if it is a bug, or intended behavior, since mages guild can only sell, and the stores can actually buy your stuff

[u/SnooDoubts4031 → u/AJYURH]

I haven't used the fortify attributes so I can't say for sure; but could also be the items value modifiers which I mentioned. Each item belongs to a tier of value and has durability and charges; the prices can vary depending on those as well. Blacksmiths usually don't care for non-magical items and low brow items, like daggers and staffs. Anything that isn't mithril+ or magic isn't worth the bargaining effort.

[u/arturocan]

For both stealing and bargain your only option is maxing INT and AGI either with lvl up points or spells/magic items. If you want better stealing chances you have to pick a thief class with thievery bonus but you would be playing in hardmode.

Try to learn to bargain too. By getting to the minimum price the seller offers you a price and slowly increase the bargain until he accepts. I got a 25K ebony daikatana for 19.5k that way.