Skill points: To Use or Not To Use?

[PureChaos]

One of the things I love about RPGs is starting of as a weak character and progressing to becoming a complete powerhouse. In some games when you level up your stats go up and you learn new spells and stuff at certain levels but in other games give you skill points (or whatever the points are called in some games) which you can put wherever you want and customize your move set.

Thing is, there's usually a level requirement to putting points on moves to prevent you becoming too powerful too quickly so if you find you have skill points remaining but none of the moves your interesting in can be increased, do you use the points on a skill you most likely won't use or do you wait and save the points for later?

For me, I hate putting points in an area I won't us. When I played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, I tried out the sorcerer lady but most of her spells sucked to the point where I didn't use any skill points until she was around level 6. Sure, I could have upgraded the fire spell, it would have made things slightly easier, but I knew that once I got the spell I wanted (a lightning ball of doom) I wouldn't be using the fire spell any more so the points I used on it would have been wasted. I ended up saving all the points and putting all the ones I could into the lightning ball and it was so awesome it was the only spell I ever needed to use.

What about you?

 

[Magnatek]

That's what I've been finding in Torchlight II. The current active skills as I level up don't seem to interest me, so I've been investing in the starting skill and two passive skills. Even with those three, I'll still be sitting on at least four points when I get the ability to level them up next. So, for now, I choose "Not to use" as I continue to bash skeletons and spiders inwards, I suppose.

 

[Ando85]

Yeah I am extremely anal about distributing skill points in RPGs. If I'm going to spend potentially dozens of hours on a character I want to not have any of those skill points wasted on some ability I wouldn't ever use. A lot of the time the difference is trivial, but it still bothers me. This is especially on games that there is no way to respec. I do a lot of research first and plan out what I am going to do ahead of time.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I find myself in the same boat a lot of the time. In both Torchlight 2 and Skyrim, I tend to stock points up until I can actually use them on what I want instead of just using them as I get them. In Skyrim I actully ended up with a ton of extra Dragon Soul points sitting unused not just because you kill so many dragons, but because I had already upgraded the few shouts I actually used to max and didn't want to waste the points on shouts I had no interest in using. I guess I was saving them for a theoretical next wave of shouts that didn't end up existing. heh

 

[PureChaos]

Good to know I'm not the only person that does it. Thought there would be one person that would say doing research or saving before spending points so you can load the game if the spell sucks and put it somewhere else is cheating and that you should stick with your decisions, even if you chose unwisely.

 

[Padwolf]

I'm like that with Dragon Quest 8. I checked game guides so I could know which skill would be most useful throughout the game. I hate putting points in one area and then never using them.

 

[Shadowstar38]

Every game needs to have a skill point redistridution station.

EVERY...FUCKING...GAME!

Thats the only reason I feel same using my points in Boarderlands 2 all willy nilly. If I think the power sucks, I get a redo.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I liked the Fallout: NV system. You get a ton of points and a perk every other level. SO MUCH DELIBERATION!

Mash points into Speech and never level all the useful combat skills at all. Awesome