The Scribing system is set up in a way that allows new skills to be made for existing skill lines, so how might this system handle "Criminal Act" Scribing skills?
To clarify, there are no "Criminal Act" Grimoires in the Gold Road Chapter; however, there is a very real possibility of Grimoires being made for skill lines known to have Criminal Act skills, such as Vampire, Werewolf, and some Necromancer skill lines. But, Scribing also allows new skills to be made for skill lines which have never had Active Abilities. So, would Grimoires for skill lines such as Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, or Legerdemain be considered Criminal Act skills? It's hard to imagine Active Skills from those skill lines not being labeled Criminal Acts, as stealing, murdering people (especially via the Blade of Woe), and fencing/laundering are all considered illegal.
It would be pretty cool to get a Grimoire for some of these skill lines. I'd imagine a Dark Brotherhood Grimoire would involve using the Blade of Woe in combat, perhaps as a projectile or as a melee attack. Maybe a Thieves Guild or Legerdemain Grimoire would involve generating (or "stealing") Gold from slain enemies, distracting Guards and Witnesses, or applying some sort of stealth or detection radius reduction. If Classes ever get Grimoires, I'd bet Necromancer may get another undead summon, perhaps a melee zombie or something. Then, I can imagine one idea for a Vampire Grimoire may be a gap closer with bat visual effects, similar to Mist Form. And, I can imagine a few ideas for Werewolf Grimoires, like a biting attack or a ground AoE themed after The Hunting Grounds. The idea is that these skill lines can have new skills made for them in the form of Grimoires, and they may innately be Criminal Acts due to their theming after their parent skill line.
How about the means to obtain said Grimoires? We know we can buy Grimoires from various vendors for Gold, but would they actually sell "Criminal Act" Grimoires? If more Grimoires were added in later updates, would these NPCs still sell them, or would we need to find NPCs in the new content who would sell the newer Grimoires? It's humorous to imagine "illegal" spells being sold to the player, but it's not out of the picture.
Maybe there would be an NPC specifically designed to sell certain kinds of Grimoires — imagine a member of the Dark Brotherhood who can sell the player Grimoires for the Dark Brotherhood skill line, or a member of the Thieves Guild who sells Thieves Guild Grimoires and maybe also Legerdemain Grimoires. Maybe we need to find a notorious vampire character who can teach the player how to use a Vampire Grimoire, or a werewolf who can teach the player about Werewolf Grimoires. Or, how about someone who sells all of these "Criminal Act" Grimoires in one place? If that's the case, then it'd just be easier to have one vendor sell all types of Grimoires, regardless of whether they're Criminal Acts or not.
Anyway, that's just my speculation about the future of the Scribing system. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Scribing system progresses!
PC/NA — Lone Werewolf, the Templar Khajiit Werewolf
Werewolf Should be Allowed to Sneak
Please give us Werewolf
Skill Styles (for customizing our fur color),
Grimoires/Scribing skills (to fill in the holes in our builds), and
Companions (to transform with).