I got to thinking about your argument about save/reloading at stores and you make alot of sense. There really is too much luck involved and the inventories are too small anyway.The luck issue is one of the main reasons I dislike Arcomage so much.
I have changed my personal rules to allow save/reloading at shops and guilds to get the item(s) I need.
I just started a new party (default KTCS) using the ORIGINAL MM7 skill table. I didn't even edit out the stealing skill from the thief as I usually do when I play with a thief as I never use it anyway.
THanx for pointing this out to me and I'll see how this party works out.