thank yas! ^_^
with a good skill item you should be able to get most locks, too. there are only a few exceptionally hard ones (locked door in Von1 and locked chests in Servants of the Overlord and one of the Demonweb quests immediately come to mind, but there are a few more). the rest are pretty much mostly in the 20-30 DC range, so you may burn a couple of picks to get them, but you should be able to pick most locks you may want to open. s'why most people don't mind dumping it a bit. let's see... 6 ranks + dex modifier (+2 base +3 more if counting a +6 stat item for a total of at least +5) +4 from GH +15 from skill item +7 from picks (+5 picks grant a +7 to the skill check) = a BARE MINIMUM of 33 +d20 with absolutely basic equipment when you go to open a lock... so you could open up to a 53 DC lock. and that's not including shipbuffs either. with nothing more than 6 ranks, a +6 dex item, a +15 OL item, and GH casted on you (which, with your UMD, you should be able to do yourself!) this is not even including other bonuses that you may have... exceptional dex skills items you may acquire (greensteel?) items which may grant more than +15 to skill (for example, epic Utility Vest grants +20). and exceptional/insightful bonuses to dex that go above a simple +6 item. PLUS the +1 to all skills you get for each epic level. for example... my bard (well, one of my bards >.>) at 26th level... with 4 trained ranks in OL... if i pull out all the stops and really push for it i hit a +58 (meaning i could crack up to a 78 DC lock if i was willing to burn picks on it)... FOUR RANKS.... XD
(technically i could go even higher if i'd remembered to sing inspire excellence and had another bard sing inspire competence for me. need moar caffeine >.> )
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