Mechanics and other Skills Questions

[DaNiMaL]

So from what ive gathered around the net for what skills needed is the following:

 

Atleast one person with high mechanics, min of 3 athetlics on each character, survival is optional, stealth is optional and lore is optional.

 

Now my question is tho is how high do you need mechanics at? Somone mentioned theres an item that gives +2 to mechanics, I read on the wiki that a trap needs 12 mechanics to disarm. Is 12 mechanics the highest you need for each type (traps , locks, and secrets)?

 

Also from what lil research I did, Ive come to conclude that you only need 8 in Lore for the lvl 5 scrolls, this true?

 

As for athetlics you only go higher than 3 if you want to save yourself gold on items that allow you to climb walls and such.

 

As far as suvival I dont think putting points into that is worth it vs the other skills. You dont need suvival at all to use potions unlike lore for scrolls.

 

People say its only worth putting a few points of Stealth for front liners and high stealth for rogue. But how much stealth is high for rogue? 8? 10? 12?

 

Part of the reason im looking for this information is because id like to make my rogue with mechanics and stealth but as you all know theres limited skill points available, so far the highest i can get is 10 mechanics, 8 stealth , 3 maybe 4 atlethics dont remember. 

 

Also Note, if one person has high stealth but no mechanics, he will not spot traps while being in the front scouting. So thats why I considered putting mechanics on my tank instead with some stealth but still need to know the max mechanics needed. Because say its 13 mechanics, then i wouldnt be able to get stealth at all. And I would hate to think its 15 since its the max, but then that would require ALL my points and i need atleast 3 in athletics.

 

thx in advance for any info.

 

[lionspaw]

I dump any leftover points into stealth for everyone. It's useful for positioning your party. 

[Lasci]

~10-12? I'm not sure. I just had Kana dump most if not all of his points into it.

 

Athletics can stay at about three, yeah. Occasionally (but not often) you have the option of avoiding difficult or many fights by using the athletics options.

 

Stealth is basically only good for sneaking up on the enemy and getting off a shot or two early. 

 

Mechanics can just be put on any of your adventurers or NPC's. The range of trap spotting is pretty forgiving. Set your auto pause to stop your party and pause the game whenever a trap is spotted.

 

If it matters, survival and lore (eventually, by Twin Elms, ~10) are used for a variety of dialogue options.

[sterrius]

From what i got and im going. 

Main char -> I spend on lore, athetics and survival more or less even but with a focus on lore.   This unlock conversation skills. 
My other chars i got one for each skill.   

The fact is unless you're a rogue or chyper its not worth going mechanics on your main char. You will spend tons of points to get it to lv10.   SO better go for lore instead as 10 points should be enough for all checks and lv5 scrolls. 

You get 66 points in skill the entire game. (6 each lv from 2 to 12). 

 

To get from 0 to 12 you need 78 points.  
from 1 to 12   = 66
From 2 to 12 = 55 

If you spend 6 points in athetics (0 to 3)   you have 60
Lets say i have lore and survival 0.  I can get both to lv7  and still have 4 points left! 


To bad this game dont have a talent to give more skill points.  Some classes can surely use one or two talents without much problems. 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2015 by sterrius

[Infares]

Survival is extremely good for tanks, as is Athletics. The first two points into Athletics are worth 80% reduced combat fatigue, the 3rd point only bumps it by 10% rather than the 40% per point of the first two, so I'd say your Lore/Mechanics characters can stop there safely until they start hitting diminishing returns on their point costs. Runoff points should go into Survival, Athletics, or Stealth (IMO, in that order). 

High Stealth can be very useful for a Rogue if you get Backstab and the Invisibility ability. You can sneak around a fight, blunderbuss one enemy to death instantly, invis up, run up on a second, blunderbuss him too once you're reloaded, then use your Escape move to bounce behind your tank after he runs up, basically instagib two priority targets before the fight even starts, 3 if you do it with a high-stealth Blunderbuss Cipher as well, giving him a huge chunk of Focus to burn in the fight.

[Lasci]

Backstab and Escape are both pretty bad compared to other talents and abilities.

 

I almost never found survival useful. The best consumable buffs don't last long. Lore is more useful for using cheap spells. I only used consumables in my PotD run with Obsidian NPC's on the very hardest battles.

[DaNiMaL]

Backstab and Escape are both pretty bad compared to other talents and abilities.

 

I almost never found survival useful. The best consumable buffs don't last long. Lore is more useful for using cheap spells. I only used consumables in my PotD run with Obsidian NPC's on the very hardest battles.

 

I figured as much, thats why I wont bother with survival cause you can craft/buy potions and they are instant regardless of survival. What I had planned out was 3 athletics, dump rest into stealth/lore for my party. But what im trying to figure out is how high mechanics should be on the one character dosnt matter if its MC or not to see if I can have it on my rogue or not. As far as dialogue variety, not too concerned with survival/lore options for that, ill have other options from other things and thats good enough for me. And i agree about backstab and escape(aslong as your not putting him/her in harms way).

[Crucis]

The system that PoE uses is subtly different from DnD (3rd or 4th Ed) that it can cause some confusion among past players of the BG and/or IWD series. It certainly has for me.  I think that I've made my share of mistakes when it's come to picking skills, assiging character attributes, and so on.

 

From what I'm reading here and on the wiki, maxing out Athletics at 3 does seem to be the way to go.  There doesn't seem to be any  significant advantage to going beyond 3 that I can see.

 

I think that Stealth is a skill that you usually can't go wrong with, as long as you enjoy a stealthy play style (which I do). 

 

Having a couple of points in various skills is probably useful for the PC when it comes to dialog options.  Of course, if you do this for your PC, you may find that it slows your progress on a class critical skill like Mechanics or Lore, since getting to higher values in any skill certainly eats up a lot of those skill points along the way.

 

Also, be aware that any skill points that you don't spend when leveling up are saved for the next time you level up. I suspect that some people may not realize this.

[Infares]

Backstab and Escape are both pretty bad compared to other talents and abilities.

 

I almost never found survival useful. The best consumable buffs don't last long. Lore is more useful for using cheap spells. I only used consumables in my PotD run with Obsidian NPC's on the very hardest battles.

I just like the idea of point blank blunderbussing people in their gastrointestinal cavities.