Civil skills poll

[KalkiKrosah]

In regards to the 7 civil skills in the game, how would you rank each skill in terms of usefulness/necessity. Those skills are:

Barter, Persuasion, Loremaster, Sneaking, Lucky Charm, Telekinesis & Thievery

Explain your reasoning why you rank them where you do, who you usually have master that skill and what other skills/perks you pair with it so that new comers to this game have a more informed understanding of the civil skills found in the game and how best to use them.

[Qiox]

I'll put it this way...

In a solo run I invest 4 in Lucky charm and 3 in Thievery and count on gear to buff those up.

In a duo run I invest one char maxed in Lucky Charm and the other maxed in Thievery.

In a party of 4 I have 1 with Lucky Charm, 1 with Thievery, 1 with Loremaster, 1 with Persuasion.

I would never put a point into Barter, Sneaking or Telekinesis.

[PastyOrange]

1. Persuasion - Game is very heavy with story and dialogue, and persuasion just adds to the conversation plus it can get you out of sticky situations or maybe some extra gold from a quest.
2. Thievery - There are quite a few doors and chests that can't be opened by simply destroying them and stealing from a few NPCs can be very helpful.
3. Barter or Loremaster - Loremaster is obviously necessary to identify loot, but if you have barter, you can always buy equally valuable armor from vendors. I'd say Loremaster ranks higher purely because the loot is free and loremaster can help examine enemy resistances/weaknesses, etc.
4. Sneaking - Being able to get in an advantageous spot can almost make or break a fight or maybe you just want to walk around and avoid the fight. Sneaking can be used in tandem with theivery as well when pickpocketing NPCs.
5. Lucky Charm or Telekinesis - I wouldn't spend points on these because gear will usually grant you a point in either one and you'll have the small benefit they provide. I've found that lucky charm bonuses aren't worth losing out on other civil abilities and telekensis is only good for moving barrels out of the way.

Those are just my personal rankings based on my experiences. There are probably arguments to be made stating that Lucky Charm ranks above everything, honestly.

[HumbleLinux]

It's hard to say, because it depends of your Role Play.
If you're interested in gaining the most "material" value out of the skills, consider the following order of importance from highest to lowest:

1. Thievery.
- You're going to make a fortune out of this. It's fun to buy up all equipment out of a vendor with char with highest barter, then steal all of the money from the vendor back. Vendor freaks out, you allow them to search you and they find nothing, because you only have gold and that's not marked as stolen. Essentially Thievery is shopping for free and more.
2. Persuasion
- Many situations require it and you can get most XP or other benefits by persuading the NPC before slaughtering them anyway - because you can
For Avatar number 1 skill
3. Barter
- Complements Thievery
4. Loremaster
You can identify everything on the go
5. Sneaking
- Not as important because you can sneak with skill 0, higher skill makes it usable in more situations
6. Lucky charm
- Basically useless if you have thievery, but then again depend on your RolePlay
7. Telekinesis
Can't seem to find much of a use other than saving time (waiting for the char to walk to the item)
Might be more important if you throw barrels a lot

[Qiox]

I am utterly shocked to see two people who don't think Lucky Charm is worth it. It is easy to get up to rank 7 by character level 10 and that triggers very often. Pretty much every room with several containers will trigger once or twice. And it most often gives the best possible quality gear you can find at your level.

By end game pretty much 80% of all gear you are using will be stuff found via Lucky Charm.

Contrast that with Barter, which is totally insignificant compared to the amount of wealth you accumulate by selling off the gear you don't use, that you found via Lucky Charm.

[HumbleLinux]

Originally posted by Qiox:

Lucky Charm is worth it.

Fair point. Thing is I didn't use it, so centered my game around the skills I use. It all boils down how you want to play it, really. Sometimes making the game harder for you causes you to enjoy it more.
However, now that I know what you said, I will make sure to use Lucky Charm in my next playthrough, or possible respec just for fun. Seems worth it.

[zacharyb]

1. Persuasion - Main Character, it's useful for many things, such as for certain quests and especially roleplaying.

2. Thievery - Preferably on an Undead Character because of their Skeletal Finger being a free unlimited lockpick. Can get you so much loot and money plus useful for certain quests and getting to certain areas.

3. Lucky Charm - If you open up everything and anything you have a really good chance of getting good loot.

4. Loremaster - Normally get it on an elf because of their built in Racial. Only way to discover a gears stats and whatnot, also useful to have a couple points in for combat purposes.

5. Barter - Helps save some gold, nice pair up with Thievery, but it should be a party wide ability like Loremaster.

Sneaking and Telekinesis are rarely useful, imo anyways.

[Fallaner, the Writer Eternal]

In no particular order, these are the ones I tend to have learned:

Persuasion: Usually on my main character, for more dialogue options. Though to date, i've never really succeeded on a persuasion attempt because I never quite focus on it...

Thievery: Useful to open all thoes annoying doors and chests (and I recently learned you can rob merchant's blind and that's hilarious). I ALWAYS put this on an undead for infinite lockpicks. ...In my most recent game... that's my main character. (Also Fane... but my main character got it)

Lucky Charm: I'll be honest, I have never gotten quite the benefit other people have off it, but to date I've never really focused on it. I tend to put this on just... whoever. No real focus for anyone specific or any specific role.

Loremaster: Being able to identify everything yourself is really useful, imo. Usually, if a party member starts with a point in loremaster... I just continue to pump loremaster on them instead of retraining them.

Telekinesis: This one... is mostly a flavor thing. I just rather like it.

When it comes to civil skills, i've never really put a ton of thought into them.

[Qiox]

Originally posted by Fallaner:

Lucky Charm: I'll be honest, I have never gotten quite the benefit other people have off it, but to date I've never really focused on it. I tend to put this on just... whoever. No real focus for anyone specific or any specific role.

It does not matter who you give it to. They don't have to be the one openning containers. Just get it up to a 6 on one char and that's all it takes. Easy to do when you grab the +2 amulet just outside Wreckers Cave.

[xanraal]

In order for me:

1. Persuasion. Good for xp, you can then kill afterwards for more if you like. Also opens up a lot of pathways and options, side quests etc. Great to have, still not really neccesary i feel although for me i still rate number 1. Not sure how Fallaner fails to pass persuasion checks. I never miss. You just need to pump one character and lots of belts and neclklaces have persuasion on them.

2. Thievery. Pretty obvious one. Never pay for skillbooks or gear again! I spend very little time on thievery. I don't find the need to have lots of gold although i still end up with quite a lot. Whenever i need something i just pickpocket it. Oh and ofc all those locked doors and chests, saves hunting around for the key.

3. Loremaster. I think it's very helpful to examine your enemy. Takes all the guesswork out.

4. Lucky Charm. Lucky Charm is just groovy to have imo. Lots of nice goodies.

5. Telekinesis. Just for fun really and those hard to reach loot areas.

Barter and Sneakery i don't bother with. Not worth a point over any of the other skills to me personally.

[KalkiKrosah]

1. Thievery - Its a must, especially for the early game. Picking locks literally opens doors (and chests) for you that you would otherwise have to fight to access or have been unable to access at all. You can also loot shopkeepers for skill books and equipment. Higher skill in thievery equates to opening locks with a higher skill level while also nabbing you more stuff through stealing. I generally put it on an undead character since that is one of the main benefits for an undead party member. It does synergize with sneaking a bit.

2. Lucky Charm - Its a no effort skill that randomly gives you loot you wouldn't have found otherwise. The higher your lucky charm skill, the higher the frequency and the better the quality. Sometimes it can be an easy upgrade to your equipment, otherwise it is just adding to your gold pouch to be used in other ways. As to who gets the skill, It doesn't matter who gets this skill in my eyes. But if you put it on your starter character you can potentially find upwards of 500 gold before leaving the tutorial area; enough gold to buy a skillbook right when you leave the boat.

3. Loremaster - Identifying your loot to see what stats it gives is helpful but the real benefit is seeing the stats on enemies so you know how to fight them more efficiently. The prebuilt mage class and the elves start with a point in this so that's usually who I elect to have a point in Loremaster. As a side note you can have certain shopkeepers identify gear for you, but it will cost you. The option to do this is at the bottom right corner of the shopping menu.

4. Barter - It really only comes into play when you are trading. You pay less gold for more stuff, allowing you to save more gold to acquire more stuff later and possibly sooner. Gold is really important in the earlier half of the game but by the time you reach chapter 3 your wallet is so overflowing with gold that it no longer becomes an issue, at which point you can respec out of it into something more useful. Humans naturally start with a point in this so that is who usually gets a point in this for me. Otherwise it goes on my packmule, aka the person with the highest strength.

5. Persuasion - Allows you to talk your way out of situations and possibly talk your way into more money all while delving deeper into the story line and lore of the game. For someone who plays the game for the experience this is a must have. It works even better if you pair it with the pet pal perk because some of the animals have speech checks too. Lizards start with a point in it but your lead character is the one who benefits the most from persuasion. Persuasion also works well with bartering making shopkeepers like you and give you a discount on top of your bartering discount.

6. Sneaking - It doesn't make you any quicker in moving around while sneaking (like I thought it might) instead it makes the sight cones of enemies smaller. That's it. Very underwhelming in my eyes. Dwarves start with a point in this and it helps positioning in setting up a fight, which allows them to creep a little bit closer to the front lines to tank enemy aggro for the team. I almost never invest any points into this perk because skills like cloak and dagger and tactical retreat allow you to position before fights better and quicker than sneaking ever could.

7. Telekinesis - It allows you to grab and move stuff at an extended range regardless of weight. It's a niche skill. There is a gimmicky build where you can load up an unbreakable chest and toss it into an enemy for a heavy burst of damage. Aiming it is tough to do but it works. Outside of this use it really does not come into play very much at all. I guess dwarves can use it with their sneaking to reach high shelves just outside of an enemies sight cone.

[Green Raven]

Thievery
Loremaster
Barter
Lucky Charm
Sneaking
Telekinisis

Persuasion depends on how you want to play the game