I would suggest that we should decide freely where to put the first three Ability points. Instead of having them separated into two combat ability points and one civil ability point.
So we can choose to put all three points anyway we like.
Civil abilities are not that valuable or attractive for some builds.
As a build focused on fighting i dont see much need for most of civil abilities.
I agree that the civil abilities aren't very attractive. I would never pick a civil ability over a combat ability. This is exactly why I like the separation of Combat and Civil points.
When a game makes me pick between useful stats and frills, I avoid the frills (e.g. Pet Pal). The separation on Civil/Combat allows you to enjoy the frills without weakening your build, which I like.
I feel the real issue here is that the Civil abilities should feel more appealing.
My opinion on the civil skills:
Bartering can be effective if a team has 1 guy stacking Bartering who does all of the buying and selling, but organizing this to full effect in multiplayer is a real micro-managing pain.
Telekinesis can sometimes let you reach an item in a bit more convenient manner and lift heavier things (E.g. Finess/Int class lifting heavier paintings), which is nice I guess but never feels essential. Parties always have Teleport from gloves so any really clutch out-of-range items can always be pulled with that, making Telekinesis have very little use.
Sneak is a great skill if you plan to use it, but certainly not necessary. Useful for melee characters who want to get first-attacks. Could be useful for skipping fights too.
Thievery - the merger of lockpicking and pickpocketing - is actually a great skill.
It's very efficient for pick-pocketing the best items off of each new NPC you encounter, and having multiple people with it doubles the amount of value you can take. With 1 or 2 high-level thieves your party never has cash troubles. Although, the return diminishes as vendors run out of useful goods, but you can have 1 thief hold off until the inventory refresh.
The lockpicking portion is nice, I guess, but one can usually just break open chests. There's only occasionally one you cannot.
This one does have a tendency to get people caught-in-the-act with an irritating fight on our hands afterwards though.
Lucky Charm doesn't feel like it's working. I see the shamrock but then there's nothing of apparent value in the container.
This is an irritating one for a party too as 1 player stacking it will want to open every chest but the rest of the party will want to open things too.
Loremaster is an okay 1-pointer for identifying new drops when not in town.
I've never noticed any additional information gained on enemy NPCs from it. I usually just find 1 or 2 different pieces of gear for Loremaster to get the full effect and just never bother with actual point investments.
Useless for more than 1 person to have this.
Persuasion, I haven't used much, but theoretically is convenient when you get caught performing a crime and can just talk your way out of it. I imagine for mistakes and quest/story convenience this is nice, but like every other civil ability it feels non-essential.
