I have some questions about skills and abilities

[e11]

I just watched Major Slack's video about character creation and I have a better understanding of the system, but I'd still like to ask:

*Can I really let a party member handle all of the talking? My instinct in RPG's is always to make the main character a smooth talker.

*Can I switch out the skills I put in the selected skills slots?

*Is Telekinesis a combat thing or primarily for moving stuff around in the world?

*Would you agree that Warfare and Geomancer make a good combo for an armored frontline fighter?

*What is the maximum level of abilities and skills?

[Stabbey]

Originally posted by e11:

I just watched Major Slack's video about character creation and I have a better understanding of the system, but I'd still like to ask:

*Can I really let a party member handle all of the talking? My instinct in RPG's is always to make the main character a smooth talker.

You can often let a party member handle talking, but if you have a lead character, presumably you are controlling them while wandering the world. Some conversations automatically trigger for the nearest party member to a person. If that is not your talking person, you might not be able to get another chance at the conversation.

*Can I switch out the skills I put in the selected skills slots?

Yes. You have a book containing your known skills - you keep those forever. But you need to have a skill in a memory slot to use it. (This is not Vancian magic, you get infinite uses on skills.)

You only have so many memory slots. You need to decide what skills you want memorized at this time. You gain one slot per point in Memory past 10, and gain 1 free slot every other level.

*Is Telekinesis a combat thing or primarily for moving stuff around in the world?

Moving stuff around in the world. That said, there is a gimmicky combat build based around stuffing as much stuff into a container as possible and using TK to use that container to bludgeon enemies to death.

*Would you agree that Warfare and Geomancer make a good combo for an armored frontline fighter?

Sure, that works to help keep your physical armor up, but you probably don't need many points into Geo. Oily Carapace is a good Warfare + Geo skill that converts nearby oil puddles into physical armour and removes Slowed.

Frontline fighters might have weaker magical armor, though.

That's where Hydrosophist comes in with Frost Armor. Hydro also has a strong crafted skill with Warfare: Cleanse Wounds. It's a strong, melee-range heal.

*What is the maximum level of abilities and skills?

Attributes start at a base of 10 and cap at 40 (so 30 points).
Combat Abilities cap at 10 points, Civil Abilities cap at 5 points.

You can exceed the cap with bonuses from gear.

[e11]

Thank you very much. Would you say TK is useful at all?

[JaSzczur]

Originally posted by e11:

Thank you very much. Would you say TK is useful at all?

Not really, unless you want to know the meme combat build with dropping a 20 ton chest on top of somebody's head. If you're playing without a single Strength character, then one point can be okay to move some things, but otherwise they can do all the heavy lifting.

[Godwoken Dovahkiin]

Originally posted by e11:

Thank you very much. Would you say TK is useful at all?

It is for speedrunning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CazVJ_tj5I

[Greb]

You can let one party member be your persuade / barter type sure, but there might be times when other characters get picked in dialogue, I.E when you've stolen something and an NPC goes crazy asking everyone to turn out their pockets, and they speak to your character with 0 persuasion leading to the town going hostile, etc. This is easily avoided by running away before they can speak to you or simply not causing trouble in the first place, etc.

There's not that many skill check dialogues that really matter in this game either, feels like most of the time using it lets you skip fights (and thus XP)

Skills are memorised via your skill book. You click them to add and remove, simple as that, then drag them onto your hotbar to use them. This is something you'll probably end up doing a lot during your time in the game, so it's worth unchecking an option in the gameplay menu that says something like "remove unmemorised skills from the hotbar" which means they won't vanish from your perfectly positioned hotbar when you remove them, useful in conjunction with items like the Purging Wand or certain skills that add further skills, like Spread Your Wings.

Telekinesis can be used offensively but it's generally only useful early game when things like a reinforced crate will kill everything in one hit, its main purpose is out of combat for solving puzzles, forming barriers, and manipulating the game world. It's more useful than Strength is for moving objects since it can move them faster, further and from greater distances, it also lets you stack objects higher if that's your thing too. It's also useful in stealth, even low stealth characters, since you can rob a location from a distance easily with sufficiently high levels.

Most combinations work well together. I'm not really a build master or anything, but I always recommend at least Polymorph 2, Scoundrel 1 and / or Huntsman 1 on everyone simply for access to the teleports, always useful in combat and out. Experiment, take abilities you like using and roll with it. Geomancer has nice physical armour recovery skills, as does Polymorph. Combining these with Shields Up! on a tank warrior is perfectly viable, etc.