How many skills to start with?

[Sleeper]

Main chracter has 4 - sniper, smart ass, lock pick and toaster repair. Remaining party members have 3/4 skills spread across. Not sure if I should ad/commit another skill class to 5 for wach recruit. I like having a small a party (prob 5 max, don't like micro managing 7 is just too much)with many specilaised skills. Only concern is having jack of all trades and master of none party members.

What is the optimal number of skills per character?

[Frank Wisdom]

Honestly there aren't any optimal skills per character because it always depends how you create them.

If you don't plan on bringing any other peripheral characters on your team (though you should recruit as many as you can then leave them at the Citadel in order to either cash in or get merit i.e. XP for their recruitment) then I suggest you get specialists that can each deal with something specific. I'd also suggest getting the quirk delayed gratification for your whole squad (or at least 3 out of 4) with an intelligence of 4. I'd make sure to have at least one character with 8 intelligence out of your 4 recruits.

Also, keep in mind you get +1 attribute points every 10 levels (10, 20, 30). delayed gratification is quite worth the wait as after level 10 with 4 intelligence your crew will have 4 skill points per level to spend. Also note that a level 20 character with a total of 10 intelligence (8 at creation then 2 intelligence for the extra attribute points by level 20) can get up to 6 points per level (which equates to one skill level from 6-9). This will make for a quite capable team

Also you should try to pair skills logically, i.e. have someone who is your "thief" get both lockpicking and safecracking with ideally alarm disarming for example. Some perks require two different skills to unlock so you should go through the list and plan ahead if you're looking to optimize (such as cyber scrounger for example which requires 2 levels in computers an 2 in alarm disarming).

An example of my team is as follows.

I have a Brawler who specializes in explosives (which compensates for his lack of ranged weapons) with perception, mechanics and Smartass (you should ideally have one party member for each conversation specialty! Make sure to get the perks (Know-It-All, affable or intimidating) that give you 2 extra points early on. It will really help you save on skill points and allow you to unlock most conversation rewards early. Get each skill at least up to 7 with or without items to boost those skills up).

I have a Sniper who specializes in surgery, medic an Kissass (with a base intelligence of 8 and now 10 by level 20). Because of a surprise departure I had to reorganize my team and so she also is a weaponsmithing specialist to boot (she gets 6 skill points each level now so she has no problem specializing while still being versatile).

I've got two handgun specialists, one with computers, toaster repair & leadership while the other is my safecracking, lockpicking alarm disarming specialist.

I play with a full party though and have adapted my team accordingly, but at its core, my recruit team was designed to be self sufficient. It's quite easy playing on Ranger difficulty so with a party of 4 it might generate a modest challenge. I love having narrative characters though to add to the immersion and I don't find managing them tedious at all. Anyways I hope this helped you out a bit. I know it's a roundabout way of answering your question but I felt it needed a thorough answer.

[red255]

I didn't answer because I was confused. The game is designed for a team of 9, your 4 main rangers and 3 NPC.

Not sure about 'micromanaging' you want to use a skill you click on the thing and click on the skill and your Character with the highest skill will attempt the skill check.

[Stuurminator]

Generally speaking, your character can max out as many skills as they have skill points per level, with a little bit of gravy. Thus, a character with 4 INT can max out three skills over the course of the game, plus a couple of levels into first aid and surgery.

If you have Toaster Repair and a high party charisma score, you can probably afford to max out another skill, because you'll get more skill books, trinkets, experience points, and '+1 skill point' shrines.

[Sleeper]

Thanks for the response guys, I'm 10 hours in and loving it. This is what a RPG should be.
What what've noticed when coming across skills usage at the moment is differnce between two extremes, either I'm lock picking and bashing down structures at 27% prabability or between 90-100%. Most of my toons are now at level 4-5 in each skills. Also now getting new NPCs with same skills as existing recruits, is there a way to reset skills?

[Frank Wisdom]

Originally posted by Sleeper:

Thanks for the response guys, I'm 10 hours in and loving it. This is what a RPG should be.
What what've noticed when coming across skills usage at the moment is differnce between two extremes, either I'm lock picking and bashing down structures at 27% prabability or between 90-100%. Most of my toons are now at level 4-5 in each skills. Also now getting new NPCs with same skills as existing recruits, is there a way to reset skills?

Unfortuantely no, from a roleplaying perspective that wouln't really make sense, nor would it make for a satsifying challenge. In fact, being able to reroll would kind of defeat the purpose of creating and customizing your own recruits as well as assuming the consequences of your actions. I felt the same way once I started playing but sometimes it helps to have more than one surgeon or two characters with the same skill, as long as it isn't overkill. Also remember that some skills are really worth investing in simply for the benefits of the perks they unlock... Keep that in mind ;)

[CaptainBipto]

You do not have to max out certain skills, if you use the appropriate trinkets for your characters. The a$$ skills for example you can get the +2 perk, then +1 for the trinket. So you only have to level that to 7. If there are perks that you want. Then of course you need to level that skill, to the appropriate level. Remember to use the books that give +1 skill rank, to go from 9-10. As that saves you a lot of points.

Here is a link to a Wasteland 2 site, some of the information needs updating. Also added the save game editor link. Incase you wanted to re-adjust your rangers skills.

Wasteland 2 Portal[wasteland.gamepedia.com]

Wasteland 2 DC Editor[www.mybyteideas.com]

[CaptainBipto]

Originally posted by Frank Wisdom:

An example of my team is as follows.

I have a Brawler who specializes in explosives (which compensates for his lack of ranged weapons) with perception, mechanics and Smartass (you should ideally have one party member for each conversation specialty! Make sure to get the perks (Know-It-All, affable or intimidating) that give you 2 extra points early on. It will really help you save on skill points and allow you to unlock most conversation rewards early. Get each skill at least up to 7 with or without items to boost those skills up).

I have a Sniper who specializes in surgery, medic an Kissass (with a base intelligence of 8 and now 10 by level 20). Because of a surprise departure I had to reorganize my team and so she also is a weaponsmithing specialist to boot (she gets 6 skill points each level now so she has no problem specializing while still being versatile).

I've got two handgun specialists, one with computers, toaster repair & leadership while the other is my safecracking, lockpicking alarm disarming specialist.

For my sniper I went for Two Pump Chump, maxed out sniper rifles asap. Now she has two sniper rifles, one for counter sniping and the other for precision shots. Both are modded accordingly for their role. I open up with a headshot, which is a guaranteed hit and kill. Then get four more guaranteed hits and kills in the next two turns of combat. If I am facing robots then I just go for disabling shots on weapons and movement. Then my other rangers just out manuever and outrange them. She also goes for Lockpicking and Safecracking, and hope to get the Cat Burglar trinket for her.

I was thinking of handguns on a Two Pump Chump build, try and get as many AP as I can. To fire off as many Precision shots per turn as I can.

My Energy Weapon character has Way of the Squeezins, Robotocist and Tactical Positioning. I did originaly envision to have this character as a heavy weapons and demolitions character. Due to the bonus AP and damage bonuses, then get the minigun or The 3. Then get combat shooting for the later part of the game. Instead I went for the Energy Weapons perks, then getting all boozed up and shooting targets from the rear.

My Opportunist character, is a close quarters type attacking from the flanks and rear. Weilding a sword and a shotgun, with the Tactical Positioning, Ghost and Quick Reflexes perks. Due to the quirks damage penalty to targets over 35% con, attacking targets from the rear seems an opportunist way of thinking. Inverted Four Leaf Clover is the trinket I am aiming to get for this one.

My Psycopath character is my mechanic, weaponsmith and demolitions expert. Possibly getting Toaster Repair. Then get the Toolkit and Dowsing Rod trinkets for this character.