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Magness · 01-07-2006, 12:06 PM

Gorluk, given your party mix, diplomacy is going to be your primary talking skill. I'm guessing that your Pally is your normal party talker.

If you had a bard or a rogue as the party talker, I'd say that investing in all 3 talking skills would be useful. There are at least 2 places in the game where a strong Intimidate will be useful. There's at least a couple places IIRC where Bluff works. And diplomacy seems to be useful oftne enough.

Knowledge Arcane and Alchemy? ABSOLUTELY!!! Knowledge Arcana is the skill that allows you to identify items without having to cast an Identify spell or paying for identifications.

And there are at least 2-3 times throughout the game where a strong Alchemy skill will be beneficial.

Disable Device, Open Locks, and Search? Well, opinions differ on this. Search seems very useful, since it's nice to know where the traps are without wasting spell slots on Find Traps spells. I personally prefer to have a strong rogue in all of my parties because I like the roleplaying value of finding/disabling traps and opening locks. That said, I recognize that IWD2 doesn't put a very high premium on these skills and there are precious few traps that a healthy tank won't just shrug off. That said, I hope that your wizzy has a max'd INT, cuz you should be able to get plenty of skill points/level to spread around. If your wizzy/rogue isn't trying to be stealthy, I'd try to put some points into search, open locks, and disable device every level or 2, as well as the arcane skills.

Also, don't take your 2nd rogue level too quickly (if you haven't already). If you can delay it for 5-6 levels, when you take the 2nd rogue level, you'll be able to put a LOT of SP into the rogue skills. OTOH, if you take that 2nd rogue level too soon, you'll be limited in the number of SP you'll be allowed to put into the rogue skills.

Pickpocket? With a Wizzy X/Rogue 2? Don't bother.

01-07-2006, 12:06 PM	#6
Magness Quintesson Join Date: January 7, 2001 Location: Manchester, NH, USA Posts: 1,025	Gorluk, given your party mix, diplomacy is going to be your primary talking skill. I'm guessing that your Pally is your normal party talker. If you had a bard or a rogue as the party talker, I'd say that investing in all 3 talking skills would be useful. There are at least 2 places in the game where a strong Intimidate will be useful. There's at least a couple places IIRC where Bluff works. And diplomacy seems to be useful oftne enough. Knowledge Arcane and Alchemy? ABSOLUTELY!!! Knowledge Arcana is the skill that allows you to identify items without having to cast an Identify spell or paying for identifications. And there are at least 2-3 times throughout the game where a strong Alchemy skill will be beneficial. Disable Device, Open Locks, and Search? Well, opinions differ on this. Search seems very useful, since it's nice to know where the traps are without wasting spell slots on Find Traps spells. I personally prefer to have a strong rogue in all of my parties because I like the roleplaying value of finding/disabling traps and opening locks. That said, I recognize that IWD2 doesn't put a very high premium on these skills and there are precious few traps that a healthy tank won't just shrug off. That said, I hope that your wizzy has a max'd INT, cuz you should be able to get plenty of skill points/level to spread around. If your wizzy/rogue isn't trying to be stealthy, I'd try to put some points into search, open locks, and disable device every level or 2, as well as the arcane skills. Also, don't take your 2nd rogue level too quickly (if you haven't already). If you can delay it for 5-6 levels, when you take the 2nd rogue level, you'll be able to put a LOT of SP into the rogue skills. OTOH, if you take that 2nd rogue level too soon, you'll be limited in the number of SP you'll be allowed to put into the rogue skills. Pickpocket? With a Wizzy X/Rogue 2? Don't bother.