I'm not down with how bad steal sucks now. There was a time when a city ties thief could go into Galadon and rob the merchants blind, when everybody had something more than 1000 copper, and when blackjack lasted somewhere longer than two ticks.

I had steal, deft touch, and warning skill and I still failed on merchants WAY more often than not.

I'll play an orc.

Steal isn't too bad. This is actually my 4th thief since the changes to steal, and it takes some getting used to. True, you can't expect to have millions in the bank anymore by cleaning out the shopkeepers after a reboot, but you can get close to that by knowing where to sell things instead. For the most part, forget about stealing from shopkeepers until you are closer to hero, and just rob players mercilessly.

PC's are where all the good loot is these days anyway.

And I never saw any pc in my range with better than "has some weight to it." Sure, there are heroes with "bursting at the seams" but I'm an Imperial and a city ties thief. I can't get donations a million copper in donations by selling runes for 1500. Hell, to get where I got I sold haste potions over and over for 5k in copper. That's a limited potion that I would sell, wait for it to crumble on the shoppy, and then go back and get it again.

I don't have the patience for that ####.

To get your donations up, buy a mercenary, give him a backpack, and go someplace where you can kill creatures with a lot of decently-valued equipment. Fill the merc's backpack and your own, head back to the palace and donate, then repeat. I was able to get a couple of million in donations using this method without too much effort, although you will need to explore to find the best places to go.

I know it is too late for this character, but I think you gave up way too early at level 30. There are many, many opportunities for a city-ties Imperial thief to rake in the riches since most of the time, enemies bring the good loot to you and they never even notice it missing until it is far too late.