What are the most important passive and active skills?

[Stardusk78]

It seems like Mechanics is king again but I don't want to force myself to play a class/classes that have Mechanics bonuses. Survival? Alchemy? what else is important? Any ideas?

[Hazmy]

The good thing is that now skills are shared in party so you can focus on a specific skill with each party member ( what I am doing ).

Mechanics is king absolutely. From my experience based on how often you get dialogues and the frequency of their usefullness in order :

 

[ These 4 are absolutely king on exploring the map, all of them equally important ]
- Mechanics

- Athetics

- Survival

- Sneak ( Yes, sneaking got quite important with the new events )

 

- Bluff

- Sleight of Hand

- Intimidate

- Insight

 

Ofc you can see I play somewhat shady character, but I still feel these are the most used ones, not just in gameplay but in INTERACTIONS.

 

PS : [ I would answer but not being able to post more than 4 times a day cripples me hard x) ]

Edited May 9, 2018 by Hazmy

[Stardusk78]

The good thing is that now skills are shared in party so you can focus on a specific skill with each party member ( what I am doing ).

 

Mechanics is king absolutely. From my experience based on how often you get dialogues and the frequency of their usefullness in order :

 

[ These 4 are absolutely king on exploring the map, all of them equally important ]

- Mechanics

- Athetics

- Survival

- Sneak ( Yes, sneaking got quite important with the new events )

 

- Bluff

- Sleight of Hand

- Intimidate

- Insight

 

Ofc you can see I play somewhat shady character, but I still feel these are the most used ones, not just in gameplay but in INTERACTIONS.

Problem is I do not want to play a Rogue/Cipher on my first playthrough just to have high mechanics. I was thinking going Beastmaster (Stalker/Shifter) high survival/maybe stealth? Who could take the mechanics slot though? kind of a pain.

[omgFIREBALLS]

@Hazmy: Have you seen stealth doing something combat couldn't, or is it "only" for avoiding fights or starting them from a better position? Real-time, dialogue, scripted, anything goes.

[Hazmy]

Everything can be solved by combat of course   Stealth is mostly for scouting areas on the world map and avoiding tough situations.

My favourite part is that stealth allows yes....stealthy approach to quests and I really recommend it. I overall just recommend using skills for more than you think you would use them, as Deadfire utilizes them SO WELL.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Hazmy

[Stardusk78]

Everything can be solved by combat of course   Stealth is mostly for scouting areas on the world map and avoiding tough situations.

 

My favourite part is that stealth allows yes....stealthy approach to quests and I really recommend it. I overall just recommend using skills for more than you think you would use them, as Deadfire utilizes them SO WELL.

I just hope I can get someone else from Eder for mechanics.

[Voss]

Mechanics and insight definitely. Athletics and survival have come up multiple times, and I've seen metaphysics several times (but remained out of reach on starter island, due to the need to get other skills up).

 

One thing I don't like about this system is the apparent need to monotask characters. Yeah, extra ranks can contribute a bit, but you really want to make sure you have experts in the big stuff.

 

Changing party members without regard to skills may break your ability to accomplish tasks.

[Maxzero]

Mechanics is easy.

 

Either select the Hunter background or Old Valia Culture and Artist background (also gives Insight). Start with 1 and 1 point each level is good. Mechanics is probably the most impactful skill in the game.

 

Keep in mind while your party members stats support you they do not support at a 1 to 1 rate. For example a 7 rank in a teammate will give you a +4 bonus. Athletics is nice to prevent the odd injury but resting is super easy.

 

For the passives:

 

All 3 of the speech skills (especially Intimidate and Diplomacy) are important. So is Insight. May advice would be to focus on one speech skill (either Diplomacy or Intimidate) plus Insight. Watch the skill checks you are getting. If you have a total of skill level of say 11 Diplomacy  (8 base +3 party support) and are only getting difficulty 7 skill checks stop putting points into it and put some into Intimidate or Insight. If you have a party member maxing them as well it allows you to free up a lot of points.

 

For example if you are maxing Diplomacy you should have 3 teamates maxing Bluff, Intimidate and Insight while one works on Survival.

 

You want at least 2 good options for speech because no one option covers most conversations.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Maxzero

[AgentNoun]

Problem is I do not want to play a Rogue/Cipher on my first playthrough just to have high mechanics. I was thinking going Beastmaster (Stalker/Shifter) high survival/maybe stealth? Who could take the mechanics slot though? kind of a pain.

Eder can be a Rogue, and you can recruit a Cipher. There's no reason your Watcher needs to have all of the useful skills unless you're soloing.