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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6983552" data-attributes="member: 4937">Sure.  Good, question.In a nutshell, it's because this feat does only one thing well - enable shoplifting - and almost nothing else.  Whereas those other spells do many things well, but do not do shoplifting any better or perhaps worse than a skilled person exercising mundane skill.The Reserve Feat enables you to teleport items into your hand as a supernatural ability.  That means no spell components.  That means instantaneous travel.  That means that you have an undetectable means of taking any object you can see.  Objects smaller than your hand don't have any give away - any 'tell' - at all.   The poor shop keeper is absolutely over matched.  The amount of 'Spot' skill he'd have to have to notice you pulling a trick like that is beyond what is reasonable for a low level character.   Any defenses he might employ don't stand a chance.   In that situation, human nature would take over.   Have you ever wondered why given that something like terrorism causes much fewer deaths than say heart attacks, the existence of terrorism changes human behavior more than the existence of heart attacks?   It's because one thing that humans innately dislike more than just about anything else is being taken advantage of, abused, by another human being.  If shopkeepers know that the live in a universe where some people can steal from them with impunity, they'll never display their wares publicly.  The way people shop will change completely.  Merchandise will be locked in cabinets and people will describe what they want, and the shopkeeper will display it to them.   Or maybe they'll themselves adopt magical solutions and display illusionary goods.   Whatever, there will be no bazaars.By comparison, Mage Hand and Unseen Servant and the like are not a particularly big threat.   Mage Hand is a spell.  To cast it you must speak loudly and clearly, and make certain motions.  Even if the person doesn't know what you are doing, in a society with magic they'll recognize you are casting a spell and take whatever action social custom deems proper - likely, casting a spell in public without obtaining permission is the equivalent of taking a gun out, cocking it and waving it around.   People will freak - and rightly so.  Even if you conceal the spellcasting or have an object you can invoke, Mage Hand only moves objects slowly - 15 feet per 6 seconds.  It takes a whole second to drag that apple 2 1/2 feet.  This is something an observant shop keeper has a reasonable chance of noticing.  It doesn't take legendary sharp eyes to notice things like that, just ordinary ability.  It's not noticeably superior to the application of mundane pilfering skills, and actually it's probably inferior - the Mage Hand is not quicker than the eye.Similar things apply to Unseen Servant.  Although the Unseen Servant is vastly superior to the Mage Hand for pilfering goods - not the least because it can act without your attention, supervision, or any obvious direct connection to you - it's still not a particularly good thief.  It can't attempt any skillful action.   If the Unseen Servant tries to filch apples, the DC of spotting the action is 10.  A street urchin with basic sleight of hand skills is a worse problem in this regard than this 3rd level Wizard (or 4th level sorcerer).  Of course, the Wizard could try to turn invisible to filch the apples, but if he does he'll find that Bazaars actually defend against invisible creatures.  A crowded bazaar is very difficult to negotiate when you are invisible.  And as soon as someone bumps into you, in a world where they know about invisible creatures, they're going to rightly panic and you'll find yourself in a very difficult place indeed.  The point is though, the Reserve Feat only does one thing well - filch unattended things.   The spells in question though let you manipulate things at a distance, which has far more applications.</blockquote>

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