Baldur's Gate 3's latest community debate: is it cheating to pickpocket your own money back in RPGs?

The Baldur's Gate 3 community has gathered round a cheat sheet prepared by one player advocating for newcomers to "unlearn what video games have taught you" in preparation for Larian's latest, unbelievably reactive RPG. The post is a fun read about the logic of CRPGs, but I'm honestly most interested in a side debate that's broken out over one question: is it cheating to buy something and then pickpocket your money right back? 

Post author MaralDesa notes that while many "games have taught you 'this does not work,'" Baldur's Gate 3 comes from a line of RPGs that embrace absurd and unlikely methods and outcomes. In particular, they point out that you can "buy an expensive item, then pickpocket your money back." This isn't an unprecedented move for games like this, but this particular bit of skullduggery is still clearly controversial. 

To the surprise of no one, plenty of players wholly embrace this sticky-fingered self-refund. Redditor lemoncake90 says that "during my first [Divinity: Original Sin 2] gameplay, my mind was blown with the amount of possibilities! Now, in every Larian game, I'm already looking for different ways to do absolutely everything, especially stealing from all the merchants I just bought from."

Oppositely, folks like Choubidouu have drawn a firm line against this. "Probably the only thing I don't like about DOS2, and I'll not like either in Baldur's Gate 3," they say. "It just feels like a cheat to me, abusing the AI stupidity." 

Stealing from NPCs, no matter the circumstances, obviously isn't cheating in the literal sense. It's something you can do within the established rules and systems of Baldur's Gate 3, so it's technically legit. The subject of debate is whether it's a cheesy, unhealthily game-breaking strategy. Will it ruin your immersion or the game's economy? Will the weight of your misdeeds keep you up at night? Plenty of lawful players reckon it's not worth it. 

"It feels like cheating," echoes Shpaan. "It's one thing to roleplay a rogue and stealth around a house in the middle of the night looting everything. It's another thing entirely to walk around a person you just finished talking to and pickpocket. I did it exactly once in DOS2 and it felt so immersion-breaking I never did it again." Kalsir agrees that it feels "way too 'gamey,'" and some others feel the same. 

"Stealing your money back has been a viable strategy in almost every Elder Scrolls game, too. I really don't recommend it, either in Skyrim or in Baldur's Gate, because it completely destroys the economy," warns MrTastix. "You'll end up having way more money than you rightly know what to do with, nothing to really spend it on, and when you do find something you'll be able to purchase it without any meaningful barrier because you can just steal the money back." They add that they actually like having the option, but "explicitly don't recommend doing it at least on a first playthrough." 

The reasoning behind both arguments is interesting to unpack. Some aspiring thieves reckon stealing your own money back is perfectly reasonable because you'll need to make build sacrifices to lean into successful thieving, and in the end you'll be able to "solve problems with money instead of weapons, or with stolen weapons instead of muscles," as Gorny1 puts it.

Shpaan offers a counterpoint regarding immersion: "You wouldn't even attempt something like that IRL because no sane thief would risk that kind of move." And I would have to question the planning abilities of a thief who'd immediately steal from a merchant they just bought from, but there is an argument to be made that maybe this thief is just that good. 

TheBG argues that because Baldur's Gate 3 is a world of magic, there could be legitimate explanations for this kind of phenomenon: "Was it you and your party? Was it your rival trying to frame you? Was it the local thieves guild following you because you look rich and stealing the money you spend because shop owners aren't as strong as you? Is the owner just scared you'll kill him if you say anything so he just plays dumb?"

We'll never reach a logical conclusion here because the issue isn't rooted in logic. It's a question of morals and emotions more than anything, which is really just an extension of the roleplaying that Larian specializes in. How do you see your character? Would they do something like this? There's also the question of the circumstances. What if you learn that a particular merchant is lining their pockets with the labor of unpaid or abused workers? Would you steal from them like a sort of Robin Hood, but not from morally upstanding merchants? 

That being said, I've seen thievery destroy too many RPG economies before, so personally I'm with the righteous crowd on this one. Jatsu says it best in my eyes: "I can’t do this in games, it just makes me feel dirty, makes me feel like I have to reload a save." 

Baldur's Gate 3 writer warns we have no idea "just how horny this game is," and that's after we learned about the bear sex.