Which skills to get?

[Kargor]

Well, I've played a little into the game, and I'm now in Harbor Town. Even took the sneaky route into it as I read about that and looked it up on Youtube.
I intend to go Mage, if that matters.

Now, the thing is that there seem to be a whole lot of quests that require me to pay people -- and unless I've missed a fountain of gold, I don't have that kind of money. The beginners "guide" (which seems to avoid giving actual advice) says you can avoid this with the various skills, which makes sense, but then again -- it appears learning those skills costs both gold and "learning points" so I can't just learn all of them.

Are there any recommendations as to which skills are actually useful in the long run? Or guides that give some actual advice, rather than just telling me that I need to conserve potions?

[The Pantsless Knight]

Pickpocket and Open locks is generally a good idea to earn yourself some money and items.

[76561198021547909]

You can play honest and have enough money as well.

I have legally taken items and are not short on money.

Good general skills are:
- Alchemy : create own potions. It has another benefit. You will find a special herb with the name crown something, there are about 20 in the whole game world. With that herb and right recipe. You can create a potion to increase player stats permenantly!
- Open chest skill

Personally I play as battlemage with a shield and sword. Easiest way to play. A friend played as melee fighter. That is the hardest way to play....
My sword skill is only one dot. But I invested heavy on fireball and mana.

[lionhart]

Don't bother with Sneak and Acrobatics because you can find magic rings that will give you those skills for free.

Smithing and Prospecting are only useful if you are going to focus on swordfighting.

Lockpicking up to level 2 is worth it. There are a lot of locked chests in the game and you can get a lot of valuble items and gold out of them. There are only a few level 3 chests in the game and you can use Open Lock scrolls on those.

Personally I think Pickpocketing is a waste of learning points -- you don't get anything especially valuable from pickpocketing -- but some people seem to like it.

Don't put any points into archery or crossbows unless you intend to get them all the way up to level 10. Those skills seem to be bugged, and you don't get any benefit from them until level 10.