Risen Some questions

Lockpicking and Pickpocketing are both definitely worth it, especially Pickpocketing.

Gut animals is a judgment call, you don't really need it, but it's only 5 LPs and 100 gold anyways.
 
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You'll need at least 1 level of it to complete some quests. You won't get the unlock spell until much later, and the scrolls aren't very plentiful. I'm playing as a Mage, and I learned level 2 Lockpicking with no regrets.
 
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Lockpicking is absolutely worth it. Gutting animals? I dunno, it does create some extra income, but that is dwarfed by what you can get from lockpicking and there are no "special" vendors who pay more for trophies. Then again, it is only 5 LP.

I got it myself but only because I was role playing a "ranger" type. Don't forget that if you get gut animals you will have to buy special tools if you also want to remove teeth, tusks, and claws. You can purchase these tools from Doug in the bandit camp, for instance.

There IS a magic spell called "open locks" that will open ANY lock. You can buy scrolls of it or cast it naturally as a rune. If you want to compromise and maybe buy 2 levels of lockpicking and then saving the most difficult chests/doors for your open lock spell, I could see that. Then again, you have to weigh the money you'll be spending on the scrolls versus a simple 5 LP investment.
 
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I'm playing through as a (semi) pure mage this time, and said Yes to Lockpicking and Alchemy, and No to pickpocket and gut animals.

Since you can train your mage to cast spells purely from the rune, you won't need to scribe tons of scrolls, and gutting animals at that point is largely redundant. I never had a need for picking pockets, since my focus wasn't as a thief style character (it does have it's uses, but I think as a mage it is a waste of LP). You won't be able to use magic (well) to pick locks until the later chapters, so getting that skill to 3 asap is a good thing. You can get it to 2 in chapter 1 (and in chapter 2 almost immediately get it to 3).
 
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Have to agree there JDR.

Had they made it a first tier Rune, at least you'd have to expend resources of some type to use it. As it is, you find a ring, and put it on/take it off at will. Basically a free skill, which can get you tons of resources for almost zero input.
 
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Well, I guess they figured giving up a ring slot to have the skill would be some type of sacrifice. However, its pretty easy to simply hot-key the sneak ring when you need it, then swap back the original ring (also could be hotkeyed) when you're done.
 
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There should have been more than one level for the Sneak skill to justify the ring imo. For example, it would have been cool if they had placed a limitation on how close you could sneak to someone, and then added a 2nd level that would remove that limitation.

To be honest though, I really don't like the idea of being able to obtain sneak and acrobatics with a ring, and I would have preferred those rings didn't exist at all.
 
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I think Alchemy to level 3 is important, especially for a mage and it's easily obtainable in Ch 1.
 
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ErikDenRaude said:
- Gut animals - worth it?
Click to expand...

In my opinion - nope. I'm still in chapter 1 and got over 9,000 gold. I do have the ability to gut animals (got it very early in the game) but most of my 9K gold "fortune" has been made from regular loot. I literally have hundreds of furs, claws and all that animal stuff in my inventory but there hasn't been a need to sell it yet. If you want to focus on maxing your character instead of your fortune then I'd say it's not worth it. Those LP are better spent elsewhere.
 
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One comment regarding money: if you plan on going the Mage route, save up and don't squander it. Training your skills up at the start of Chapter 2 is a serious drain on LP and gold. True, it is a big power shift in that you gain quite a bit more than you had in Chapter 1, but it costs you to get there.
 
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I'm lucky to have 900 gold, never mind 9k. HOW did you get so much?
 
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Speaking of gold, here's a funny story….

I was doing the basic training in the monastery today, and I got knocked on my ass the first time I tried to fight Aric in the arena.

So I'm just lying there as Aric walks away, and suddenly Scordo, who is sitting near the fire outside the arena, walks over to me and takes half my f*cking gold!
 
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JDR13 said:
So I'm just lying there as Aric walks away, and suddenly Scordo, who is sitting near the fire outside the arena, walks over to me and takes half my f*cking gold!
Click to expand...

:evilgrin: "Well deserved!, said bandit Omega, "That's what happens to people who choose the wrong faction!" :p
 
There's a neat trick to all that, but I'm not telling!! :)
 
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