What skills are most useful for party members?

[superluccix]

When leveling up party members, which skills are the most useful? Since only the Main Character can benefit from the dialogue options resulting from the skills, the skills are only half as useful to the other members.

 

At first I was thinking maybe I would just have each member maxmize a particular skill, to have somebody excel in each individual stat, but I dont know if thats the best option.

 

Heres my guess for each skills usefulness, but please correct me if Im wrong.

 

Mechanical - Only 1 person should maximize this, because you only need 1 person to unlock/find traps and chests.

 

Survival - Useful for all members because it affects combat. Longer durations on items is always a good thing, will always be useful.

 

Lore - Sadly I havent used any scrolls yet because I dont seem to need to, so I dont know exactly how they work in combat, but I would imagine this is something that you would only need 1 person to maximize, since I doubt you would need to have multiple people using scrolls, when 1 person can just use them all. (But I never have used a scroll so not totally sure)

 

Athletics - On first glance this seems useful, since you fight more battles without worrying as much about fatigue. But when I think about it more, its kinda useless since you can just rest at the inn for free and heal up. Yeah that takes time, but I prefer to have tangible benefits that help me overcome something that I would not otherwise be able to. Fatigue can be mitigated by taking the time to rest, which to me makes Athletics worthless.

 

Stealth - You would probably have 1 person using this and Mechanical, so they can stealth past enemies while unlocking w/e. Only reason I could see more than 1 person using this is if you needed your entire group to stealth past something, which to me doesnt seem too likely to occur.

 

So basically from what I understand, Survival is pretty much the only skill that can be used effectively on every member in the party.

 

Correct me if Im wrong, since I probably missed something

[Tigranes]

Minimally, you only need 1 mechanics specialist, and then nothing else. But everything else has its benefits. 

 

Athletics is good to bring up to 3-4 for everybody to avoid fatigue. (You could just rest all the time, but if you're doing that, then a lot of the difficulty and mechanics will be irrelevant for you anyway.)

 

Stealth and Lore are situational. It can be important to have a couple of characters capable of using scrolls - they add a lot to your firepower, e.g. scrolls of paralysis, revival, fan of flames early on. Stealth again can be useful if you're the type to actually try and sneak past enemy groups, or if you want all of them to sneak close enough to open with a ranged volley. 

 

Survival is actually only about as effective for everyone as those other ones, since the benefit it provides isn't huge. 

[Serdan]

Mechanics: You can set 1 trap per party member and this skill affects the accuracy.

Survival: Nothing to add.

Lore: There are some pretty awesome scrolls. A decent level on 2-3 peeps makes sense.

Athletics: At least 3 points on everyone for the -90% fatigue gain. Have one char with a higher score for scripted events.

Stealth: This is kinda meh. Maybe 4-5 points on one character for scouting. You can get +2 boots too.

[superluccix]

Mechanics: You can set 1 trap per party member and this skill affects the accuracy.

Survival: Nothing to add.

Lore: There are some pretty awesome scrolls. A decent level on 2-3 peeps makes sense.

Athletics: At least 3 points on everyone for the -90% fatigue gain. Have one char with a higher score for scripted events.

Stealth: This is kinda meh. Maybe 4-5 points on one character for scouting. You can get +2 boots too.

 

Just curious about that bold part. When you say scripted events, you mean those events where I can click a dialogue option using the Athletics skill? Not sure if I am misinterpreting what you said, because if I didnt, then I thought the only dialogue related events involved your Main Character.

 

Or did you mean like, a multiple chain fight encounter or something.

[Daemonjax]

Lore is really nice on your main tank.

 

Or... Basically anyone who doesn't have anything very useful to do in combat... so I guess that'd go for some off-tank classes like Paladins... and Rangers, too, obviously.  And monks prior to building rage... er, wounds.  I wouldn't get have lore on any spellcasting class, unless for RP reasons -- which is a bit strange.

 

Survival is the least important, imo... but it may have some RP value... no idea. Even at level 4, 20% increased consumable duration doesn't seem worth the points unless you started at level 2+.  I'd like a mod to double the duration bonus.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Daemonjax

[Serdan]

 

Mechanics: You can set 1 trap per party member and this skill affects the accuracy.

Survival: Nothing to add.

Lore: There are some pretty awesome scrolls. A decent level on 2-3 peeps makes sense.

Athletics: At least 3 points on everyone for the -90% fatigue gain. Have one char with a higher score for scripted events.

Stealth: This is kinda meh. Maybe 4-5 points on one character for scouting. You can get +2 boots too.

 

Just curious about that bold part. When you say scripted events, you mean those events where I can click a dialogue option using the Athletics skill? Not sure if I am misinterpreting what you said, because if I didnt, then I thought the only dialogue related events involved your Main Character.

 

Or did you mean like, a multiple chain fight encounter or something.

 

The story scroll thingies. You can usually decide which char should perform the task. There's an example where might is used in the first ruins.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Serdan

[Crucis]

When leveling up party members, which skills are the most useful? Since only the Main Character can benefit from the dialogue options resulting from the skills, the skills are only half as useful to the other members.

 

At first I was thinking maybe I would just have each member maxmize a particular skill, to have somebody excel in each individual stat, but I dont know if thats the best option.

 

Heres my guess for each skills usefulness, but please correct me if Im wrong.

 

Mechanical - Only 1 person should maximize this, because you only need 1 person to unlock/find traps and chests.

 

Survival - Useful for all members because it affects combat. Longer durations on items is always a good thing, will always be useful.

 

Lore - Sadly I havent used any scrolls yet because I dont seem to need to, so I dont know exactly how they work in combat, but I would imagine this is something that you would only need 1 person to maximize, since I doubt you would need to have multiple people using scrolls, when 1 person can just use them all. (But I never have used a scroll so not totally sure)

 

Athletics - On first glance this seems useful, since you fight more battles without worrying as much about fatigue. But when I think about it more, its kinda useless since you can just rest at the inn for free and heal up. Yeah that takes time, but I prefer to have tangible benefits that help me overcome something that I would not otherwise be able to. Fatigue can be mitigated by taking the time to rest, which to me makes Athletics worthless.

 

Stealth - You would probably have 1 person using this and Mechanical, so they can stealth past enemies while unlocking w/e. Only reason I could see more than 1 person using this is if you needed your entire group to stealth past something, which to me doesnt seem too likely to occur.

 

So basically from what I understand, Survival is pretty much the only skill that can be used effectively on every member in the party.

 

Correct me if Im wrong, since I probably missed something

 

 

You don't want to be having to run to the nearest inn after every single or every other battle just because your characters are out of shape and can't manage a few battles without taking a nap that often.  Like others have said, about 3 points in Athletics is sufficient to solve this. 

 

As for Stealth, I actually think that it's worth having everyone have around 3 points in, because it'll let you get at least moderately close-ish to an enemy.  Close enough that most, if not all, of your party will be in range for their ranged weapons, though you may have to be careful that your squishier backliners don't step in front of your front line tank, due to range differences in their ranged weapons, if you have the entire party fire off a volley.

 

 

As for Survival, I barely touched those out of combat food buffs in my first run through the game, so I'm somewhat tempted so say that they're hardly critical.  OTOH, I don't doubt that they can be useful.  I'm going to try to use them more on my second run.

[wanderon]

I agree with the concept of getting everyone up to about 3 on stealth for better positioning and in case you want the party to sneak past an enemy (where this is an option)

[Rosveen]

About Athletics checks, you can't always choose the character involved. Some seem to involve the whole group, like getting across a chasm, thorn wall etc. It was usually my main with 0 Athletics failing, but on one occasion two of my characters were injured in the process (I assume the check was slightly higher here).

[b0rsuk]

Stealth is quite good for melee party members. You sneak right into melee range.

 

Lore is good on low micromanagement characters, such as Rangers, Chanters or Fighters with small shield. A ranger can use Jolting Touch or Fan of Flames to get rid of several enemies harassing him. Lore is quite bad for most classes where it thematically fits, like Priests, Wizards, Ciphers, Druids because they already have stuff to do. It saves parties without dedicated support casters (Wizard, Druid, Priest). But if you're a person complaining about wizards running out of spells, by all means take Lore.

 

Mechanics boosts accuracy of priest Seals, because they count as traps. So if you have Mechanics on a single character only, let it be the priest.

 

Athletics lets you rest at Dracogen Inn or Celestial Sapling Inn and explore distant areas with resting bonuses. No, I don't think you can always choose the character involved. When you're climbing a cliff the character who climbs first can help the others.

But when you have your entire party jump over a river, squeeze through thorns or dodge falling rocks, anyone can get hurt.

 

Edited April 17, 2015 by b0rsuk

[Achilles]

A lot of my arguments have been elsewhere in this thread so I'll try to be brief.

 

(In order of importance)

 

Athletics - everyone wants to have 2, preferably 3, points here. Combat fatigue is a thing, but there is a general fatigue too. Nothing sucks worse than a tired wizard whose spells aren't going to hit because he has a fatigue penalty applied. There are a couple of party-based scripted interactions where anyone without at least 3 is going to take a hit. For the others, you only need one person who has invested here with some dedication.

 

Mechanics - others have correctly pointed out that you only need one person with a lot of points here if your only concern is disabling traps. What I do is hire a rogue very early on (like right after meeting Aloth), and make him my dedicated trap monkey. Once I meet segani he goes back to Caed Nua. What's important to remember is that trap accuracy is based on mechanics, and since each party member can only have one active trap at a time, it's helpful to have a couple of people with 5 or more points (which assumes that you're laying traps as well as disabling them). Over the course of the game you will find 3 or 4 scrolls that will give you a temporary boost to Mechanics. I save these for the situations where Durance or Aloth can't quite get it, but I don't need the 12 points that my hireling rogue brings to the table either.

 

Lore - Durance doesn't need more than 8. Aloth and Kana get maxed. The best scroll in the game requires 10 points and I make sure that both of these guys have multiple copies on hand. I also try to keep this maxed on my pc as well. Not because he uses scrolls, but because there are some dialog options that require it. Your results may vary.

 

Survival - food buffs are nice. 4 points means that a 5 minute buff is now a 6 minute buff. Not sure I need to say anything more

 

Stealth - useful for positioning...which means I only prioritize this with my archers.

 

I hope this helps

[RedSocialKnight]

Re: mechanics -- nine is not enough for the late game traps, so whoever pumps this should pump it exclusively.

[Achilles]

My end game Durance has Stealth 6, Athletics 4, Lore 8, and Mechanics 7. With scrolls he has Mechanics 10 (11 with tools). With resting bonuses, he has Mechanics 12 (and doesn't need tools).

 

You don't need to pump Mechanics exclusively.

[Mungri]

About Athletics checks, you can't always choose the character involved. Some seem to involve the whole group, like getting across a chasm, thorn wall etc. It was usually my main with 0 Athletics failing, but on one occasion two of my characters were injured in the process (I assume the check was slightly higher here).

 

Without trying to be toon spoilery, all you need for that chasm part is 4 athletics on each character. Id definitely put this much on each anyway to not have to rest all the time.

[Crucis]

Stealth is quite good for melee party members. You sneak right into melee range.

 

Lore is good on low micromanagement characters, such as Rangers, Chanters or Fighters with small shield. A ranger can use Jolting Touch or Fan of Flames to get rid of several enemies harassing him. Lore is quite bad for most classes where it thematically fits, like Priests, Wizards, Ciphers, Druids because they already have stuff to do. It saves parties without dedicated support casters (Wizard, Druid, Priest). But if you're a person complaining about wizards running out of spells, by all means take Lore.

 

Mechanics boosts accuracy of priest Seals, because they count as traps. So if you have Mechanics on a single character only, let it be the priest.

 

Athletics lets you rest at Dracogen Inn or Celestial Sapling Inn and explore distant areas with resting bonuses. No, I don't think you can always choose the character involved. When you're climbing a cliff the character who climbs first can help the others.

But when you have your entire party jump over a river, squeeze through thorns or dodge falling rocks, anyone can get hurt.

 

 

1. Why does small shield matter?  Are there some hidden modifiers that affect shield using characters' skills?

 

2. Are you able to fully cast a spell while under Stealth without offering the enemy a chance to interrupt?

 

3. Where's the Dracogen Inn?  The name doesn't seem familiar.

 

4. Athletics really is useful if for nothing more than making sure that every character in your party is "in shape" and won't wilt into serious fatigue after only a small handful of battles.  I've recently picked up Kana and he started with 0 points in Athletics, and he gets fatigued much too quickly for my taste.  So it seems to me that at least 3 points in Athletics is fairly important if you don't want to have to waste camping supplies or run back to an inn unnecessarily.

 

5. There is something about having non-casters with some Lore to allow them to cast some spells in combat.  I tend to be rather cautious with Aloth when it comes to exposing him so that he can case certain spells, like those with cone-based AoE's, rather than circular ones (like Fireball).  But someone like Kana or Pallegine who's more than sturdy enough to be on the front lines and cast something like the 1st level flame spell is a different thing altogether.  They may not even have any one between them and their targets.

 

 

 

 

[Vadász]

This thread might help, i asked those same questions a while ago.

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/76662-how-many-skillpoints-in-each-skill-possible-spoilers/?do=findComment&comment=1648179