Skills' diminishing return: when does that occur?

[Draksen]

Hello all

Just a quick and quite simple question: for skills, wich is the absolute maximum points you invest in them?
When does some kind of "diminishing return" occur?
When does investing points in them becomes useless?

I personally estimate it at 6. Though, I am level 17 so far, but I noticed that with my "main skill" at 4-5 I am already doing gread, even against tough ennemies (if in a solid party).
Is the skill cap at 10? (I read something about it, can you confirm it please)

Thanks for replies and comments.
regards,
Draksen

 

[Nabutso]

10 is infact the skill cap, i also feel that after a skill is past level 6 you dont need to upgrade it anymore... simply because it takes alot of leveling to get your man stats high enough to raise it again!

 

[Momaw]

Depends on the skill and character build, no?

Some limits are very subjective, like Surgery;  what percentage of casualties is acceptable? Depends on what kind of party you've got going on and how you raise the troops.  Troops like Knights don't die too terribly much, while low-enders like Vaegir Veterans need all the help they can get.  Are you Training? If you are, a high-end troop isn't as valuable since you have a zero-risk/low-cost option to get more...  Or if you're a solo character, Surgery is totally useless even at 1 point.

Other limits are very easily definable:  for Power Draw, there's no point in having more than 8 points, because bonus damage maxes out at the power draw requirement plus four;  since the War Bow is the most powerful bow, and it has a Pdraw requirement of four...

For weapon proficiencies,  most of them (to me) feel "mature" at 200 points.  Crossbows are deadly accurate as low as 60ish points, and anything more is just a very slight increase in reloading speed. Or if you're lancing, polearms proficiency is pretty much optional.  But 200 points is generally the point where one/two-handed weapons, throwing, handbows, and polearms (on foot) feel fluid enough to consider not improving anymore.  Again, very subjective, and also somewhat dependant on the weapon in question.

*shrug*

 

[Archonsod]

Other limits are very easily definable:  for Power Draw, there's no point in having more than 8 points, because bonus damage maxes out at the power draw requirement plus four;  since the War Bow is the most powerful bow, and it has a Pdraw requirement of four...

I'm not sure if it still maxes out at that point to be honest, or how accuracy is affected (req +4 = no penalty, presumably >4 might end up giving a bonus).

 

[Mondorius]

Other limits are very easily definable:  for Power Draw, there's no point in having more than 8 points, because bonus damage maxes out at the power draw requirement plus four;  since the War Bow is the most powerful bow, and it has a Pdraw requirement of four...

I'm not sure if it still maxes out at that point to be honest, or how accuracy is affected (req +4 = no penalty, presumably >4 might end up giving a bonus).

There's definetely still a bonus for having power draw higher than 8. While the Req +4 "convention" is usually true, if you zoom, you will see the reticule gets smaller with req +5. But beyond +5 it starts being questionnable..

As for surgery, I believe you can never have enough.. this is, IMHO, the most important skill unless you're soloing. Of course, you can dump it on heroes, depending on your character build, you may not have the points to spare into INT.

Anyways... Most skills don't really have dimishing returns per se, all of them give you the exact same return no matter how many points you put in them.. but depending on the kind of character you're playing, some skills/stats will become less and less useful at some point... Example, power strike at 10 is most certainly overdoing it, unless you fight bare handed 

 

[Keeper]

10 is infact the skill cap...

Nope. You can always screw around in the data folder you know. 15 is the safe cap for riding I think.

 

[Draksen]

10 is infact the skill cap...

Nope. You can always screw around in the data folder you know. 15 is the safe cap for riding I think.

you mean editing by hand the file.... = cheating ?

But 10 is the cap for the unmodded, uncheated, unedited "native" version of the game, right?

 

[Keeper]

10 is infact the skill cap...

Nope. You can always screw around in the data folder you know. 15 is the safe cap for riding I think.

you mean editing by hand the file.... = cheating ?

But 10 is the cap for the unmodded, uncheated, unedited "native" version of the game, right?

True.

 

[Mondorius]

Unless a mod changes the cap, no, you can't even cheat your way over 10. Not in Native anyway...

 

[Draksen]

Let's slightly come back to the original question of "diminishing return" of skills, if you dont mind 

ok, so 10 is the cap for all skills.
I guess that when you plan a character, you always think about 4-6 skills which are "top priority" (cause they are the real essence of your character, for example PD, HA, Riding for a horse-archer... obvious)...
other skills being simply less important or more "utilitary".

I read somewhere that level 63 is the maximum level for a character. At that level you will have at least 63+INT skills, which is enough to max out all your "top priority" skills and have a comfortable pool of "utilitary" skills.
So, (and this is my temporary conclusion, please comment that one please if you disagree) the game allows you to "max out" your character if you have chosen a clear path and if you havent wasted your skill points in useless skills...

 

[allthesedamnnamesaretaken]

You'll need like 45-50 levels just to max out your combat skills (30str, 30agi). That doesn't leave much room for utilitary skills like surgery. By the time you reach level 30 it already takes forever to gain a level in native. Having utilitary skills on your player character actually slows down leveling. The more non-combat skills you have, the less you're likely to killl in combat and the slower you will level. I always turn my character into a combat powerhouse and leave my intelligence at 6. Let Marnid and Borcha handle the party skills. Who needs smarts when you can do 70 damage in 1 swing?

 

[Momaw]

Actually, assuming the stat itself doesn't cap out earlier, the maximum potential skill points a character could have would be (startingInt * 2) + 124.  You get points for levelling UP, not for merely being a level,  so max-level-63 is 62 level-ups.  Common mistake in RPG mathematics.  62 levelups, 2 skill points per levelup.

However this would be fairly pointless because there are only 6 skills goverened by Intelligence.  You'll hit the stat/3 limitation on all your non-Int skills pretty quickly, and have nothing left to spend skill points on.

Better in my mind to pick two stats as your majors.  Either int+cha for a leader, or str+dex for a fighter. If you're a fighter and want party skills,  just give them to M or B.  Or if you're a leader and want to help fight, just pick up a crossbow, they have almost no character requirements.  Get your majors up to 7 or 8, and then take up the slack wherever.

*shrug*

Who needs smarts when you can do 70 damage in 1 swing?

Solo fighting isn't especially interesting after a while. Building a party of ass-kickers and fighting as a team is what the game is about.  At least to me. 

 

[EmoGrass]

i agree, the game isn't fun without having a big team of vaiger kicking bastards ..i meen how is it fun to solo when you could have over 80 people with you