Skills and how far to take them

[buddydude]

I haven't been able to find an answer satisfying enough, but am I to believe that none of the weapons and armor skills are worth developing anywhere past the level that allows you to wear/use them without penalty or give you the combo strikes? After the terrific job the developers did releasing an unfinished game and then charging everyone another fistfull of money for a working version (CE), they actually allow you to believe that developing your weapon skills to level 50 will make you hit harder, so you waste 10,000,000 ADV points when there is actually no point cause they don't bother saying a bloody thing about it in the manual or cap the skills at a maximum level where to develope them further would be useless?
Are there other skills the same way? Like scout or the thieving skills? Have I wasted points putting scout to level 7 cause the highest level you need to spot any loose bricks or buttons is 2 or something?

[...]

[swcarter]

I haven't been able to find an answer satisfying enough, but am I to believe that none of the weapons and armor skills are worth developing anywhere past the level that allows you to wear/use them without penalty or give you the combo strikes?

That's right. Extra points in those skills won't help you any.

SWC

[Claudius]

I always wondered if high scout would real enemies on the minimap??? I know you don't need very high to get all the loose bricks.

The locks continue to get harder for thief skills. Eventually you have enough for the highest level lock and you don't need more. Especially less if you use crystal of time. Steal gets a little better with more levels but it sucks at any level. Backstab gets better but there is no learning bonus so it never gets good at reasonable adv pt (for how often you use it).

[Queen_Articuno]

I always wondered if high scout would real enemies on the minimap??? I know you don't need very high to get all the loose bricks.

The locks continue to get harder for thief skills. Eventually you have enough for the highest level lock and you don't need more. Especially less if you use crystal of time. Steal gets a little better with more levels but it sucks at any level. Backstab gets better but there is no learning bonus so it never gets good at reasonable adv pt (for how often you use it).

Actually, Claudius, Scout does make enemies appear on the minimap. It does the same for treasure chests and non-monster NPC's They show up as red, yellow, and purple dots, respectively.

[dcinroc]

For Armor, the max level needed is 12 (Deathlord Plate and Mythnir Armor).

I believe that 12 is also the max needed to handle any weapon in the game (melee or ranged). I think the Death Blade and either Necrotic or Nether Battle Bow requires a 12. Not sure about Polearms, but the Winged Avenger may also need a 12.

I am pretty sure that 10 is the max needed for Magic Weaponry.

1 point is sufficient for Lt Duel weapons. 3 Lt + 1 Med Duel weapons for medium .

I think that 12 in Disarm Traps/Pick Locks will give you a 99% with any trap/lock. But I have never gone past 10 ranks.

DON'T EVER waste a Heraldry on Bargaining, because 5 ranks of bargaining plus a decent Honor stat (30 or so) will allow you to buy for less than you sell.

I think the Scout skill tops out in effectiveness around rank 4 or 5...but not entirely sure, since I always use a Crystal of Vision anyway.

Athletics will, as far as I can tell, continue to improve your underwater stamina...but who cares? 4 ranks is enough.

Basically, if you are a magic oriented character, then put almost all your adv points into magic skills (20+ ranks of Arcane with 10+ ranks of Spellfire will fry about anything pretty quickly). If you are warrior type, then concentrate on stats, especially Str, Dex, Ag, and Vit.

[dragon kiler]

i dissagree

claudia is right. more scout levels mean you can see your enemies on the minimap further away from you.
but to detect buttons, yeah, it is only level 2 needed.