Missing combat expertise?

[Droopy The Dog]

Still learning the ropes so forgive me if I'm misunderstanding something here, but I seem to be missing a skill expertise for Combat in a char preset I tried to make.

I tried making a desert naga/errant knightdauntless pioneer, during char creation it showed up Combat with a +3 as I expected, but once I started playing my Combat expertise was back down to zero and I no longer have the option to boost it with LP. Is this a bug or am I missing some mechanic?

[[ER] Raven]

Hi Droopy, to create a preset, you can follow these steps:
a) Select your organization, species, class, background, and starting kit, then set your attributes and appearance.
b) Click on the scroll icon in the Quick Start section. If everything is done correctly, your character will appear there.
c) To update an existing preset, click on the scroll icon of the preset, not on the preset as this would load the old preset.

You can also start the game without creating one at step a. In both cases, a Desert Naga Knight Errant character will begin with at least +3 combat. I've tried several combinations and can confirm that what you see in Character Creation is what you get. You can increase your Combat to +4 by investing a point in combat and to +5 by choosing a background like a squire. After character creation, you can further invest LP in combat. But skill ranks can never exceed your character level.

Additionally, a character can start with no combat by clicking on the down arrow in Attributes and Skills, forsaking combat as a skill—forever, unless you meet a trainer later. Forsaken skills are easy to recognize because instead of their name they display the word forsaken in gray. Finally, forsaking a skill means discarding any bonuses it had from archetypes and not even trainers can restore those.

I hope this answers all your questions.

[Droopy The Dog]

Ah, didn't know about the forsaking option, guess I must have clicked down one too many times and the grey text warning was too subtle for me in the rush.

Re-did character creation and it all works as expected now. Thanks for the help!

[robthegameguy]

Hi there, I created a character but am not seeing combat in my list of skills, and I need it for one of my starting cards.
I have LP, but nowhere to click combat. What am I missing?
Thanks in advance.

[[ER] Raven]

Originally posted by robthegameguy:

Hi there, I created a character but am not seeing combat in my list of skills, and I need it for one of my starting cards.
I have LP, but nowhere to click combat. What am I missing?
Thanks in advance.

Hi Rob, many character combinations don’t include combat as a skill. If yours does, make sure you didn’t accidentally remove it (forsake it) by clicking the downward arrow next to it during character creation.

[robthegameguy]

Is there a way I can get it as I level up, or no way at all to add new skills?

[[ER] Raven]

Originally posted by robthegameguy:

Is there a way I can get it as I level up, or no way at all to add new skills?

Yes, there are NPC trainers who can teach you certain skills, as well as some properties with libraries where you can learn new skills, including combat. Trainers are paid in farthings, while in libraries, you can spend a higher rate of LP (2 or 3) to learn new skills.

[robthegameguy]

Awesome, thanks for the tip! Will keep an eye out for trainers and libraries :)

[Casul Gamer]

Trainers are only if you have the DLCs btw. With the properties, it seems each one has a different set of skills you are able to learn (you can't learn every skill in the game). They also have different costs in farthings. Some are free, but you still have to pay to build the library.

[robthegameguy]

How do you build a library?

[Casul Gamer]

Originally posted by robthegameguy:

How do you build a library?

There are properties you can purchase and then when you enter there's an option to build a library. The locations of some of them might be in your journal. One is in a southern city. I think it's called Misthold or something similar. Then there's around 5 other properties. Also, not all skills can be learned in libraries and each library has a different set of options.