Stealing Odds

FOr the life of me, I can not find what determines the odds of stealing! Does anyone know?

I put the steal materia on Barret and noticed it takes him FOREVER to steal an ether from one of the ostrich-looking thigns on the plains in the beginning of the game. However, I've never tested it out with anyone else so I'm not exactly sure if it's jsut harder to steal from this enemy, or that Barret sucks at stealing. Which is it?

Is it Dexterity or agility that takes into account, or does everyone have the same odds?

Master it?
give it to an expert
like Yuffie

I believe it's dexterity that does the trick. Dexterity is the attribute that's known as 'speed' in the later games; more of that makes for a nimbler theif. At the start, Barret's a little slower than the others due to his enormous bulk. Cloud or Tifa make better thieves, until you can recruit Yuffie.

I've never seen any algorithms that determine stealing rates, but I have read that at least one item in particular is easier to steal at low Dexterity (for the record, there is not an additional statistic called Agility). Whether or not this is true, I have yet to test myself. In any case, this would not be true all the time, but does suggest a correlation between Steal and Dexterity. Thus, it seems possible that higher dexterity would have some sort of a positive effect on Steal. When you get the Sneak Glove, that obviously increases your chances, but that won't happen for quite some time.

However, initial Dexterity is not so different that one character should have an enormous advantage over another. While it might be easier to steal with another character, it probably won't make a massive difference in your case. Sometimes, it just takes awhile to steal an item.

Mastering the Steal materia has no effect on your rates of thievery; you're already rewarded with a new materia anyway. Using Yuffie, or any other character, has no bonus in and of itself.

What's funny is that Barret only has one point different of dexterity at level.. 17?

Also, I think some enemies are harder to steal from, even if they have the same item.. because that ostrich was hard to steal from while the flyin dragon thingies in the train graveyard were easy. It is true that the Steal materia increases dexterity by 2 though.

There's another monster in the train graveyard... I forget its name, it's a one-eyed demon riding some kind of chariot. Eligor? Something like that.
Anyway, it's carrying the Striking Staff, a weapon for Aeris which usually isn't available until you reach the Gold Saucer. It's well worth stealing, but takes flippin' ages, usually. Just like trying to steal Tifa's Grand Glove from the Madouges in the Mythril Mine.

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Originally Posted by Gwelenguchenkus

FOr the life of me, I can not find what determines the odds of stealing! Does anyone know?

I put the steal materia on Barret and noticed it takes him FOREVER to steal an ether from one of the ostrich-looking thigns on the plains in the beginning of the game. However, I've never tested it out with anyone else so I'm not exactly sure if it's jsut harder to steal from this enemy, or that Barret sucks at stealing. Which is it?

Is it Dexterity or agility that takes into account, or does everyone have the same odds?

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give the job to Yuffie. i'll make it worth your while :D .

If he's fighting at the same place as noted in the original post (Levrikons, the ostrich-like monsters, are found in the grasslands area near the Chocobo ranch), then he can't have Yuffie yet. In any case, Yuffie really won't make that great a difference.