How many skills can you max with a character?

[Seven ate you]

I heard that SP you get per level pretty much equals to how many skills you can have maxxed. I just don't want to put too many skills on one guy.

[Gillsing]

That's not entirely true, as there are skill books that give one permanent level to the skill, plus trinkets that give a +1-3 levels on top of that, though those levels do not unlock perks for the skill. And for the dialogue skills there are early perks that give +2 bonus levels to the skill. Oh, and for the dialogue skills and Leadership there are weapons that add a level. So if you manage to get a lot of these bonuses for a skill you can get away with only paying half the number of skill points. Or 10 skill points instead of 44, when it comes to Smart 'A', by stacking early +2 perk with late +2 trinket and +1 weapon, and a +1 skill book, for a total bonus of 6 levels.

To learn when/where you get all those skill books you may have to consult a list. Same thing for which trinkets are available for which skills. Alarm Disarm and Brute Force don't even have trinkets. So maxing each skill costs roughly 24 to 44 skill points, depending on if you find the skill book or a trinket in time or not. and with 49 levels after the first 12 skill points at level 1, that means roughly one skill per skill point/level, and then you get some leftover points at level 45.

Unless you spent the leftovers on stuff like Weaponsmithing 2 for the Tinkerer perk (+1 AP in light armor), or Perception 3 for Tactical Positioning (+25% damage when attacking from behind). Or for the dedicated gunners and snipers: 30 skill points for Submachine Guns 6 for the Whack-a-Mole perk for 15% lower penalty for hitting people behind cover, which works for other weapons and not just for Submachine Guns. Well, I guess it might not be worth it, but if that Ranger has skill points to spend, and wants to spend their AP shooting instead of moving to flank, then it might be worth it?

[Amanoob105]

Although this is a little out of date it still works as a good baseline.

44 SP to max out one skill.

INT 10 = 5 SP per level; 200 SP by level 40. You can roughly max out 4 and a half skills.
INT 8 or 9 = 4 SP per level; 160 SP by level 40. You can roughly max out 3 and a half skills.
IINT 4, 5, 6, or 7 = 3 SP per level; 120 SP by level 40. You can max out 2 and a half skills.
NT 1, 2, or 3 = 2 SP per level; 80 SP by level 40. You can max out almost 2 skills.

The max level is 50 and you get an Attribute point every tenth level.

Just keep in mind this does 'not' account for anything out in the world that can put up your skills or add any extra exp such as skill books, trinkets, shrines and so on.

A lot of squads (at least with the starting four) will make one person a 'skill monkey' that while not as good in combat makes up for it be being able to "do all the things". Or at least do most of them until you can start adding in recruits (max of three extras, but they can be mixed and matched more or less as needed) to fill in the blanks of what skills are missing.

[Seven ate you]

Originally posted by Gillsing:

That's not entirely true, as there are skill books that give one permanent level to the skill, plus trinkets that give a +1-3 levels on top of that, though those levels do not unlock perks for the skill. And for the dialogue skills there are early perks that give +2 bonus levels to the skill. Oh, and for the dialogue skills and Leadership there are weapons that add a level. So if you manage to get a lot of these bonuses for a skill you can get away with only paying half the number of skill points. Or 10 skill points instead of 44, when it comes to Smart 'A', by stacking early +2 perk with late +2 trinket and +1 weapon, and a +1 skill book, for a total bonus of 6 levels.

To learn when/where you get all those skill books you may have to consult a list. Same thing for which trinkets are available for which skills. Alarm Disarm and Brute Force don't even have trinkets. So maxing each skill costs roughly 24 to 44 skill points, depending on if you find the skill book or a trinket in time or not. and with 49 levels after the first 12 skill points at level 1, that means roughly one skill per skill point/level, and then you get some leftover points at level 45.

Unless you spent the leftovers on stuff like Weaponsmithing 2 for the Tinkerer perk (+1 AP in light armor), or Perception 3 for Tactical Positioning (+25% damage when attacking from behind). Or for the dedicated gunners and snipers: 30 skill points for Submachine Guns 6 for the Whack-a-Mole perk for 15% lower penalty for hitting people behind cover, which works for other weapons and not just for Submachine Guns. Well, I guess it might not be worth it, but if that Ranger has skill points to spend, and wants to spend their AP shooting instead of moving to flank, then it might be worth it?

So what perks are worth going out of your way for?

The bladed one that gives you 2 extra AP for 25% HP seems good for a sniper.

[Gillsing]

I guess it is? I haven't used it, and synth gunslingers have sniper range for their firearms, whatever those are. So it might not be safe to sit at less than 25% of MaxCon just to get +2 AP.

In my mind that perk might work best as a 'free' 2 AP use of a Master Medic Pack after having less than 25% MaxCon left after having taken damage since last turn. For someone wearing heavy armor and using Field Medic for self-healing while getting +1 Armor from the Self Defense perk from Bladed Weapons 3. Some special types of damage like Bleeding and On Fire do quite some damage over time even when bullets bounce on all that Armor.

Maybe Charge! would be worth 10 skill points into Blunt Weapons? +0.5 Combat Speed in the first turn could mean reaching a good position when combat starts. An already super fast Ranger could probably reach any position on the battlefield while enemies are frozen in turn-based mode. And a not-so-fast Ranger would be less likely to suffer so much from it. I don't use it myself though, because my heavy armor Ranger is practically invulnerable, so there's no need to rush.

[SnapSlav]

Originally posted by t.tv/sevenateyou:

I heard that SP you get per level pretty much equals to how many skills you can have maxxed. I just don't want to put too many skills on one guy.

That's just a short-hand rule of thumb that some guides have used. It's a helpful rule to go by, but it is by NO MEANS absolute. I tend to push my smaller teams to have roughly 1-3 "more" skills than the SP they earn per level, and I'm able to afford them very easily. But then, I know what I'm doing...

Originally posted by t.tv/sevenateyou:

So what perks are worth going out of your way for?

The bladed one that gives you 2 extra AP for 25% HP seems good for a sniper.

Very few Perks are particularly good, and most have requirements, so that makes them even less useful. Generally speaking, the most universally-appealing Perks are the free 2 levels in speech skills Perks (one per character), Hardened, Turtle, and Tinkerer. This leaves room for your characters to get "benefits" from whatever other Perks they can unlock.

The Adrenaline Rush Perk you mentioned is a pretty great Perk for a sniper, and Deadeye is a practically-essential Perk for sniper as well. You can go overboard and stack AP Perks, Quirks, Trinkets, and stat builds, to get a sniper with 18+ AP (3 shots per turn) if you so choose. Overkill, for sure, but possible!

Tactical Positioning is a situationally-useful damage enhancing Perk, but it rarely activates, so it's not a must-have. There is a series of Perks that enhance Energy Weapon non-conductive damage, but it basically puts a tiny bandaid on a larger wound, and that's 3 Perks, so they're not great, either.

Perks that add Armor Penetration to your attacks are great, so Samurai (for dedicated Bladed characters), Full Metal Jacket, and Bullet-Ridden are really great for these effects.

If you wish to build a tank, Gillsing is a huge advocate for stacking EVERY source of AC to create a nigh-invulnerable damage sponge (just keep them AWAY from lasers), so that's Hardened, Reinforced Plating, and Self Defense, combined with the Thich Skinned Quirk.

Sniper Rifles and Assasult Rifles both have a series of Perks which decrease the accuracy penalty they suffer from enemies being nearby, but the easier (and cheaper) solution is to just... take a few steps back, then take out the nearby foe, thus freeing up your "Under Pressure" teammates to fire with full accuracy without necessitating those Perks. So it's advisable to avoid those Perks entirely.

Basically, the core 4-5 Perks will do you solid for most of the game. Other Perks offer mostly convenience. Handy Man is a HUGE convenience, but really only a convenience.

[Cloudy]

Theoretically you can max out every stat if you import your old characters as veterans between each new game.

[SnapSlav]

Originally posted by Major Jerry:

Theoretically you can max out every stat if you import your old characters as veterans between each new game.

I mean, it's not a theory. Between Skill Books and Skill Statues, you absolutely CAN maximize EVERY non-combat Skill on a SINGLE character, let alone all 4 rangers! The Ascetic Quirk pushes this even further by making it easily possible to max every CLASSIC Attribute, as well.

VERY time-consuming, however.