This game seems to punish you for specializing in skills

[Family Guy Gaming]

So this isn't necessarily a criticism, just something I really wish that was made clear at the beginning of the game.

So me being dumb, put a lot of points into empathy and suggestion, being used to other RPGs where you're supposed to specialize in 2-3 skills. I pass every one of those checks easily.

This is a problem though. For example, in the task to turn the Church into a nightclub, there is a heroic perception check which is pretty much impossible for me to pass without save-scumming. I spoke to the kids, but that only gave me a whopping 1 point towards the check, still leaving me at 3%

So that task is basically unfinishable now to me because of that one perception check.

So far the quest has involved a suggestion check, a physical instrument check, and a perception check. What are the odds that someone is proficient in every one of those skills? And there doesn't seem to be any other paths to finish the quest besides doing that one perception check. Am I missing something? Can somebody confirm that it's better to spread your points out rather than to specialize in a few things?

I also had this problem with Titus's logic check where it didn't seem there was any way to get past it and finish the task besides doing that one check.

[Sisyphus]

You're not meant to spend them, builds don't mean anything in a traditional sense. You can choose a few skills to sort of specialise in but really skill points exist to unlock checks.

[Du-Vu]

You don't need to pass every check to progress. You're pretty much supposed to make it to the end with some locked checks and quests you didn't finish for RP reasons. If a check is absolutely necessary to progress, you can stack bonuses from clues in the environment or from other checks that will offset a low score in that skill. You can beat the game with any set of skills, and the way the game is written the dialogue and description you'll see will change through the passive checks you unlock along the way.

You are meant to specialize to an extent, and you're not dumb for choosing Empathy and Suggestion. Those two do come up a lot. But like ^ said, rather than spreading out your skill points, it's best to hold them in reserve and spend them when you need to unlock a failed check. Make use of clothes and drugs on checks you want to pass. You can always leave and do something else if you're out of points to unlock a check, and again, you don't need to pass them all.

[dwarfpcfan]

The game does reward specialization in a few skills: perception, inland empire and shivers as these three skills are the real "can opener"/"mystery" solver skills. Passing the harder checks of these three skills gives A LOT of information you might not get until much later.

Fortunately the thought cabinets make specialization in those skills trivial, by the end of the game I was walking around with perception 8, inland empire 7 and shivers 7 yet still managed to have most of my other skills at 5+

the key is unlocking a few of the experience boosting though cabinets quickly as these will really pay off in the long run to give you extra experience.