Wizardry 8 changing classes

Ok, after several trial starts i think i have found a party i will take all the way to the end this time. It is a human lord, human samari, human monk, elf bishop, hobbit ninja and a hobbit rogue. The hobbit ninja has been using nothing but a bow the entire game and i plan on switching him to a ranger once his critical hits reaches 100, currently around 60. The rogue has been using nothing but a sling and throwing bombs so far, i plan on making her a ninja when her pick pockets skill gets up to 100. Every one is around level 10 and currently in trinton. My question is how high do you need to get the pick pocket skill before you can start to successfully shoplift things, the rogue does a pretty good job at pickpocketing people but gets caught every time she tries to shoplift, the pick pockets skill is currently around 50. Is it even worth shoplifting? i assume their will come a point when i will have more money than i can spend anyway. Should i switch my Rouge to a ninja now or is their any benefit it to pump her pick pocket's skill higher?

On a side note if anyone is wondering about the game running on vista, it is rock stable and looks great.

Thanks, Rick.

If you're playing the last patch (v1.2.4), pickpocket has been badly nerfed. Failure is bad; repeated success is bad. I wouldn't make any development plans based on pickpocket.

Keep in mind that a ranger's critical hit with bows is based on his ranged combat skill, even if he's got a critical hit stat.

A ranger needs the senses skill. This gives you the eagle eye skill. mmmmm
My rogue gets a sword and a dagger. I have seen my rogue hit for 200 during a round. I give him the black sword, fang. Just the best.
And pickpocket I don't use. I have not found it that useful.
Also a ninja fairie is the only type to have. They can use the cane of corpus, the best weapon in the game.
Good adventuring.

A Mook fighter with a giant sword is pretty handy to have. I don't think there is another way of dealing out more damage per blow than that.
A Bishop if properly trained can cut your need for other magiccasters down if you are going for might mostly and their having access to all spells means that they can get up to 600 spell points in all realms from Fire to Divine which is useful for long battles.
They tend to be more usefull though when you are not playing a full party, which i personlly never do. I can't handle the slow level up.
I am currently playing a party of 2 consisting of Bishop and Fighter, both Human.

Well i did switch my rogue to a ninja at level up. level 11. My original ninja will be switching to ranger very shortly. i think once his criticals reach 75. i have been raising sences on both these characters at every level so they are already pretty high. and both have a pretty good ranged skill at this point so hopefully they will do ok as the game progreses.

Rick.