Which skills should I level at the beginning?

[fuze]

Given that in the mid/late game the progress slows down alot, which skills are essential & how many focus points should I devote to such skills?

I do pole + bow + riding so I tend to put most focus points there

I don't care for trading much. Should I care for steward skill & leadership or just hire companions that have those?

 

[Tuco]

Depends on what you want to do of course. I think getting a hold of a bow and a horse should be the #1 thing for just about any general approach, so investing focus/attribute points in those stats is important.

 

[bearmans]

I basically think it doesn't matter. You can get by with any attribute spread, just don't put all your focus points in too few baskets (this will slow down your leveling overall). Combat skills like melee skills, bow, and athletics make a big difference for yourself in combat, but even those are fairly optional. I've yet to ever feel like, "boy, I wish that I had X".

Plus, even if you invest heavily into combat skills/vigor/control it still becomes impossibly slow around 150 skill and you probably won't get much higher than that without heavy, deliberate grinding.

 

[fuze]

So basically spread it evenly dont focus too much on a single skill?

When starting a new campaign I always picked options that gave the most skill points in a single or 2 skills, i guess i was doing it wrong.

 

[bearmans]

So basically spread it evenly dont focus too much on a single skill?

When starting a new campaign I always picked options that gave the most skill points in a single or 2 skills, i guess i was doing it wrong.

Yeah, unfortunately as it stands you don't benefit much from heavily specializing. Later on you do need to have a lot of focus points and attributes in an area to be able to progress them, but again you probably won't ever get to that point. IMO things should work on a more exponential curve so that it becomes more interesting to specialize, but that's not how it works right now.

 

[fuze]

That explains why it was progressing other skills so slow, thanks.

I'll try even it out for the new playthrough

 

[Owen Wulfson]

I find that you need to decide in the beginning if you want to fight on horse or on foot - I prefer foot slogging myself since a horse in a siege is a bit batty and athletics gives better boosts for a foot trooper army.

Don't spread yourself out too much, but consider the bare necessities. I would advise any player to be able to get their trade skill to 50 for either workshop or caravan wage cuts. Higher trade helps a lot, but I find trading a right bore! You don't need Leadership until late game (leading armies), and boosting charm a bit is actually useful when you start adventuring because it increases the relation boost whenever you help someone.

Big one is to not waste time with Blacksmithing unless you're going to benefit a lot from it. If you're just using a bow and a one-handed sword, ignore Blacksmithing because you will only use one weapon type that can be smithed and you can more than survive with what is lying around. But if you're using one-handed weapons, polearms and javelins (i.e. fighting like a Hoplite) then being a Blacksmith could be worth it since you'll be using three types of weapons that can be smithed. Blacksmithing can be profitable, but that's more of a way to break even after all the trouble. Still, it's a great combo if you're trying to raise Atheltics/Riding due to the same use of Endurance.

Atheltics + Smith = Spartan Blacksmith (which is funny since that a Helot's job)

Top skill for anyone is Stewardship, since the player benefits so much from it and it's very easy to level. It is a pretty good player skill as it increases the size of your army, boosts settlements and even allows for more companions (when that damn perks work). You don't need it that high to be effective and it syncs well if you plan to make your char the party engineer (which you should if you're going imperial).

It's no longer worth it to my mind to be the party doctor so pick up an npc with that skill unless you want to level up to at least the first medic perks at 25 for that +10 to health. In fact, consider temporarily making yourself the party surgeon from time to time when you have wounded troops until you level medic that high. For health you should level polearm, two-handed & one-handed to at least 25 (easy enough with decent vigor and no focus points), just for the plus to health unless you plan to use a damage perk for a main weapon pairing. Having +20 health in the beginning is not inconsequential and worth the risk of over-leveling. (Example: 3 (Two-H)+3(Polearm)+4(Atheltics)+10(Medic)=20)

I make Cunning my dump stat. Tactics is only useful for resolving auto-battles and some unnecessary perks (save the one at 25 for a small cavalry bonus). You can find a good scout, and roguery just isn't worth it in my mind.

 

[ppga]

Part of the problem is the way the levelling system works. If you're only levelling a few skills it's harder to gain as many levels or as quickly and therefore attribute and focus points.

It's kind of silly that you spend a lot of time off your horse to raise athletics enough to gain a level, or switch weapon classes around to raise them in order to help gain levels, but there it is.

Which is why endurance is a good stat to raise, it affects riding, athletics and smithing.

Don't underestimate smithing atm either. It's quick and painless skill points and money, especially when you unlock some of the components to make weapons that give silly gold and xp (the more they sell for the more xp you get form them). And despite the requirement levels, a lvl 1 smith can forge and gets the same benefits from forging a high skill weapon as a level 250 smith. Plus you get two perks that give you attribute/focus points.

Also don't forget that the more focus and attribute points you do put in the farther past your learning cap you can go. Using my smithing as an example, with end 7 (one of those from a smithing perk) and 5 focus points in smithing my learning cap is 210 but my smithing 278 and I'm still earning xp although only at an 0.65 rate.

So at the cost of 5 focus points I gained several levels (more earlier than later obviously) and therefore focus points, plus two attribute points (or one attribute point plus two focus if you choose a different perk). And the extra attribute points (I chose 1 end and 1 vig) helped raise caps on 5 other skills. Overall I'd say it's a good investment skill/level wise, especially early, and that's not even counting the actual smithing/refining aspect of things.

 

[fuze]

thanks a lot guys. For some reason I thought that perks like extra hp from 2 handed weapon would only work if you wielded 2 handed weapon, if it works regardless of the weapon you carry then it makes sense to level it to that point at least.

 

[Owen Wulfson]

thanks a lot guys. For some reason I thought that perks like extra hp from 2 handed weapon would only work if you wielded 2 handed weapon, if it works regardless of the weapon you carry then it makes sense to level it to that point at least.

But remember, if you can get to (for example) 20 in two handed just from your points in Vigor alone then you can easily make it to 25 just by continuously using a two-handed weapon as going over the learning limit at such an early stage is not a great impediment. I was able to get to two-handed skill 25 without inputting focus points just by running around a Battanian arena with a large axe.

 

[fuze]

if you go over the threshold can u still learn the perk without spending focus point?

 

[Owen Wulfson]

if you go over the threshold can u still learn the perk without spending focus point?

Yes, there's a bit of a mathematical impediment but it's hardly noticeable until past skill lvl 30. It becomes bigger for unfocused skills the more you level, but even at higher levels just getting a skill like two-handed to 25 shouldn't be an issue. I do admit it's a bit power-gamey, but no harm in optimizing.

Leveling something in the arena is the slowest way to go about it, but it's accessible at early levels, makes money and doesn't pass in-game time (if that matters to you). But for two-handed weapons, running around chopping looters alongside your troops should get you up the skill ranks very fast.

 

[fuze]

cool, thanks

 

[light6486]

Depends on what you want, but these are easy to level:
Steward - just by keeping max food variety and put some focus points, easiest leveling I believe, I remember having 200+ many times.
Smithing - extremely easy leveling currently because of javelins and 2h swords what costs 67k-110k.
Trade - kinda easy leveling if you trading a lot you'll get to 100 very fast.
Charm - easy to level by being merciful and letting all lords go.
Riding - I find it very easy to level in every campaign, you are very mobile and can run down fleeing for easy exp, not only in riding but weapons skills too. And horse archery of course is very easy and effective.
Bow, Crossbow - easy to level because you can keep distance and take no damage in return.(most of the time)

These are skills what usually end up at 1-50 even if I play a whole week on 1 character:
Medicine, Engineering, Scouting, Tactics, Roguery, Athletics, Throwing.
also leadership is hard to level in early-mid game.

 

[Beau Vine]

Weapons: there are so many fun ones that no matter what you choose, you'll want to try the others. But also committing to one tree pays off, so I'd reccommend switching on different playthroughs.
That said, I like runing bow>polearm>sword because they all have fun use, and spears felt harder to use at first (before I found the glorious [Coachable] tag and the holy X-key of Antioch).

Leadership and Tactics: it'll take a LOT of time to level these out of range of first couple of points. And tactics is currently... of iffy use unless you're incapacitated, but that's because before 1.2 it was arguably too strong. Assign Quartermaster to yourself, and you'll raise Leadership passively. Parties seem to be problematic to some atm, but after reaching higher clan rank, you can keep them on a short leash. Important to put points into eventually, but at least with my playstyle I get perks here waaaay before I have any use for them.

Smithing: if you're gonna go that route, put one - but I'd advise putting it waaaaay off into the build, because it's neigh useless before you can buy all the hardwood. You can make a lot of money or a little money in a pinch before that - but you'll have to stay static a lot. Can play nicely with ie infantry character or if you're otherwise injured a lot and need to stay in city anyway.

Trading: can't comment, because I always end up doing traders, and yet 1 point already seems too much, but then there's the town-buying thing. Whatever you do will be good - you can be efficient trader with 0-1 points in it, and it can win you the game if you manage to actually max it out.

Athletics - at least one. Probably needs a lot of points if you plan on doing infantry fighter, otherwise can be quickly trained in 1-group bandit camps.

Bow - so good. In 1.3 beta it seems it finally been nerfed and that skills affect spread - previously they hit centre of reticle (adjusted for distance) every friggin time.

Crossbow - wonderful weapon. For your vlandian recruits. Note that the perk allowing use of every x-bow is still inactive. Still want to play with it, but again - you can do so ie at siege first. Wouldn't reccommend if you gotta ask.

Charm - it'll be patched-in any day, currently very uneven. Doesn't affect quest conversations, but is a big deal with nobles and rep, when you get a monit you get X rep, you get a small bonus to it ie +2,24 and not +2. And since you lose rep for various war acts, it'll always be worth rebuilding in some contested areas for better resupply of recruits (with high rep you get access to higher seeds of recruits of that NPC + the'll give you fighters even if they are at war with your faction). Each time you siege a city for example: -5 rep. Same goes for raiding (even if you're just a part of an army - buy can leave and rejoin), and I suspect we don't get info when our companions do it, or there's other factors that'll lower your rep somewhere.

 

[Nakh]

Last starts I'm always have same set of skills, this is sad, but this is unavoidable if I want to play as lord/king after a while.

Charm + Leadership + Trade + maximum attributes in Social
Tactics + Cunning as second highest attribute
Some Raiding + some Athletics + single attribute point in Endurance
Some One-Handed + some Bow focus points and rest attributes left on minimum

Early on I level up my Riding and Bow skill for free on looters, while working on my trade skill. One-handed and Athletics leveled little bit in tournaments in cities I visit while trading.

 

[Apocal]

if you go over the threshold can u still learn the perk without spending focus point?

For awhile, yes. At some point you hit the hard-cap though.

 

[Pejot]

Depends on your playstyle. If You prefer fighting a lot and don't want to bother with controling army focus on preferred weapon skills and horse/athletics. If want to be more commander type than focus on leadership, stewardship and tactics.
If you're more into trading and managing fiefs focus on trade and stewardship.
I think there's no must have skills or any point in making jack of all trades char. There's plenty of ways to fight battles and earn money. Fighting/ commander char doesn't need trade. Commander char needs only basic fighting skills cause you'll have men to do your job.
Played a couple of campaigns and I think You should just focus on what best fits your playstyle and don't bother with anything you wouldn't actually use (even for perks when they start working).
Better party size boost are from Clan tier and kingdom policies and stewardship bonus can be from companion/family member. It's important for commander type cause even one unit more can make a difference. All of those "best builds" I saw are pointless cause if something is not interesting for You the game will change into grind instead of fun.

 

[Ouroboros]

I can only say one thing for absolute certain in this game.

You want 5 focus points into athletics ASAP. And at least 1-2 attributes or skills there during character creation.
I kid you not, athletics is friggin joke atm. Your character, even with starting focus in athletics, is so slow you can't even run and kite looters with a bow or use movement to survive a fight where you are closed in on. All AI troops have like... dunno... idiotic amounts of athletics while your character runs like a 94 year old relapsed heroin addict with severe muscle atrophy.

MAX ATHLETICS AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AS EARLY AS YOU CAN