Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Please Clarify Ability, Max Skills and Skill Level

Hello and thanks for reading.

Though I've invested more than a few hours in D:OS, it's all been via the short intro and then lengthy exploration of the town of Cyseal...twice (I restarted). This is to say that I have no leveling and skill acquisition experience (the few skill points I've earned in town I've yet to allocate).

So, please help me get this straight:

- Having a maximum of, for example, seven Geomancer skills at ability level three means you can only know seven of that ability's skills, regardless of spell level (e.g., you could know three L1 spells and four L2 spells or one L1 spell, one L2 spell and five L3 spells, etc...any combination adding up to seven).

- This maximum skill/spell restriction means you'll very likely have to erase/unlearn some skills to make room for others. And then find another skill book if you want to learn an earlier spell you had but deleted for whatever reason.

- You can actually learn skills/spells that exceed your level, but at a certain point an action point penalty will begin to apply. So, an L3 Geomancer can learn spells up to skill level twelve without penalty (provided he finds and can afford the skill book)...and he can even cast spells beyond level twelve, but an AP penalty will be applied (and this increases the higher you go beyond your no-penalty skill level range).

Is that the only penalty for casting well above your level or is damage or fail chance impacted (or are these solely governed by your weapon, attribute score (INT, in the case of mage abilities), etc.)?

- This "use above your level, but at a penalty" appears to also apply to gear, like weapons.

So, am I right that the above system discourages experimentation? You can, for example, buy a Geomancer spell to try it, but you may have to erase an existing one to make room for it, and if you don't prefer it, you'll have to find a skill book for the one you had again.

Also, does skill strength scale? For example, could a level 1 Geomancer skill be usable for the entire game because it "keeps up" with your character as he/she levels (or gets better equipment, etc.)? Or will you want to replace early skills with ones gained at later levels because they'll always be more powerful?

If it works as above, I find this a little disappointing. I can certainly understand restricting the number of skills/spells you have active at any one time, so you don't have all-the-time access to your full repertoire. But it seems unfortunate to have to choose whether or not to keep or delete a skill/spell the usefulness of which may be quite circumstantial because it's taking up a valuable skill slot (like, say, a protection from poison spell...great against poison users, but useless when facing all fire damage foes).

EDIT: I just saw that reaching ability level five removes the max. skills limit, which is excellent. Of course, the earliest you could reach ability level five, assuming you invest just one point at character creation, but then invest every earned point from then on into that one skill...is level 11. That level of ability point concentration isn't terribly realistic. Leveling two abilities to L5 would require reaching L15. In other words, you'll be pretty far along before you're in a position to have unlimited skills for your chosen abilities. Of course, you could accelerate things some with the "All Skilled Up" feat...

Any clarity you can bring to how maximum skill limits and skill power/damage work would be very much appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Geezer