Party skill bonuses - Help please

[x Princess Leliana x]

From the wiki

"Party Skill BonusesEdit
If the player character has a sufficient level in a party skill, a bonus will be awarded. If the party's highest skill is not from the player character, the member who has the highest level in that skill will determine the party skill base value, while the player character's level will grant level bonuses according to the chart:

Skill Level Bonus
0-1 (+0)
2-4 (+1)
5-7 (+2)
8-9 (+3)
10 (+4)
This means that party skills can obtain a maximum level of 14 when the player character is trained up to level 10."

Can someone explain this to me? I thought that party skills just added together, eg if i have 2 companions with trainer 5, and a pc with trainer 4, id have a total of trainer 14. But according to this the maximum you can ever get is 14. So there is no point levelling party members in a skill your PC is going to be 10 in, is that true? Or does it just mean that a pc with level 10 in a skill will add 14 total to the party, with all the other members added together too.

[Berserk Knight]

Trainer is a personal skill. It just happens to affect the party.

For actual party skills, yes, companions don't need to put points into skills that you're going to put 10 points into.

With 2 exceptions.
1. Healing skills, since if you're the only medic and you get knocked out, the healing is going to be really slow. If there's a backup medic that stays out of combat, then they can help you heal up faster.
2. If said companion is going to be your vassal later.

[Včelí medvídek]

Even as ti is strange, you apply bonus to yourself (hence if PC has 10, you apply +4 bonus to it as well and it is only situation where it is maxed to 14. No values on other memebr matter at such situation)

rest in post above.

Trainer is NOT party skill. Actually it is only special skill that affects party and where each party member use his full number because skill itself is personal.

As side note - there are mods that changes those skill rules. For example in Viking Conquest even if leadership is leader skill (hence only party leader skill should apply) the bonus is actually SUM of all party members

[x Princess Leliana x]

So, what's the point of levelling up party skills for companions then? Should I only ever give them skills I myself am not going to level?

[Včelí medvídek]

Originally posted by x Leliana x:

So, what's the point of levelling up party skills for companions then? Should I only ever give them skills I myself am not going to level?

General answer for this is yes, but you can note exceptions described in first post.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

Generally as back-ups. But if you're going all in on Party Skills, you probably are sacrificing a lot of combat strength, so you should focus your companions on combat to compensate.

8 10 PD companions with 6+ PD bows will wreck an enemy's face off, while your mook shield holds them back. (and they'll probably have 10 IF and PS as well).