hello all, new to DAO, having played BG1 and 2, i learned to only come to the forums when i was stuck, so that i wouldn't read too many spoilers. But, i probably should have this time. I got banned from Lothering without even meeting Leilana. So I picked up Zevran to lock pick, but hes terrible, He's at level 11 i think, and has Deft hands skill, but gets only maybe 1 out of 10. So my questions are, Will he get better?, at what level/stats?, and will i really miss anything important in the chests, like really good weapons? oh, by the way I'm a human noble warrior, usually with Alistar, Morrigan, and Zevran, but occasionally I trade out Zevran for Sten. Thanks!
you have to actually buy the higher levels of lock picking for him to get better. you can always go back to the majority of the areas to unlock missed chests. i cannot honestly remember what i got out of the chests. i know that some character specific gifts are in them.
I never really used Zevram, but it's possible the game considers him to be more of an assassin than a trap-springer. That means when he gains a level, you should manually choose skills and talents for him rather than letting the game decide for you. There isn't any reason why he shouldn't be able to do all of the rogue stuff well. SWC
stanolis: Lothering gets overrun and completely destroyed (and therefore unavailable) after you complete one of the parts of the Main Quest (Dalish camp, Mountaintop, Orzamar, or the Tower), remember? ANd for a good lock-picker (and trapspringer, too), you need a cunning score of 31+, and 4 levels of the manipulation line (It's the thid line of the Rogue skillset, just above stealth). Yes, Cunning of 31+ is necessary, as cunning directly controls the level of trap/lock you can handle (the skill adds to this by 10 points, otherwise you'd need a score of 70+). the exp gained shows the level of the trap. Confirmed.
