Hmm, that sounds more promising. I'll be maining Lohse next go-round, so she'll start out with a point in Bartering because she's human. I guess that puts her on an even footing with my current custom elf avatar, who got a free point from a quest due to Corpse Eater. On my current playthrough, I've also got a belt that gives me +1 to Barter, so it sounds like I'll be good putting points only in Persuasion from now on.
As for civic skills on my next playthrough, I'll have to give that more thought. I'm running a full party now, so I've had no issues with other skills. I'm using Fane for lockpicking since he doesn't need picks, Beast for Loremaster and Ifan for Lucky Charm. Loremaster and Lucky Charm would seem to go together, since a lot of the stuff you find needs to be identified. I'm not doing much pickpocketing on my current playthrough. I find it tiresome because the tooltips block my view, plus I'm getting a ton of drops because of Lucky Charm, most of which I sell, so I'm not hurting for money. In a 2-person party, I can see that Lucky Charm and Loremaster would probably have to go by the wayside; there are too many doors that need to be lockpicked and that's not conducive to running back to the Lady Vengeance to respec like you can do with chests.
