Alchemy - One recipe is gained for each ten points in this skill. The last recipe gained at skill level 100 is always for potions of gain attributes. The keystroke shift-r brings up the recipe list. Ingredients can be potions and herbs. The available recipes are always for: blindness, booze, cure poison, deafness, extra healing, gain attributes, insight, longevity, poison and youth. The order is random except for gain attributes. Alertness - Very helpful for evading bolt spells and undiscovered traps. Appraising - Opinions vary. Cursed items can be rated as good, a nasty surprise. Archery - Obvious benefits. Athletics - Nice +8 bonus to speed at 100. Very powerful combination with Raven birthsign. Backstabbing - Very powerful when combined with invisibility. Bridge Building - If you must build a bridge it is obviously essential. Climbing - Manual omits the fact that this must be at 100 to enter the Rift. Training with Yergius makes this much easier to achieve. Concentration - Critical for wizards and necromancers. Get this to 100 ASAP. Cooking - Useful for preserving the corpse of orb guardians. Courage - Nice to have, some ignore it entirely when going for an ultra ending. Detect Item Status - Nice but not necessary. Detect Traps - Very important unless you can recharge wands of trap detection indefinitely. There are several heavily trapped areas in the game. Very useful for detecting trapped doors as well. 'A'pply this skill towards any door whose trapped vs untrapped status is unknown. Disarm Traps - Nowhere near as important as Detect Traps. Once detected, traps are easily avoided. Dodge - Very nice DV +10 at skill level 100. Find Weakness - Very nice increase to critical hits. First Aid - All PCs have this. Can restore (some) recently lost hit points, but perhaps more importantly, can be used every turn to fight sickness. This can be a life saver. First Aid also works for poisoning. Apply the skill every time the game generates the message about "poison coursing through your veins!" Fletchery - Wait until skill level is high, ideally 100, to use it. Food Preservation - Important for all, essential for necromancers. Gardening - For farmers, of course. Gemology - Gems are found and some identified solely depending on this skill. Without it, gems will not be found when mining. Exploitable. Haggling - Somewhat useful for all, essential for merchants. Healing - Very important for all PCs. Get it if you aren't born with it. Herbalism - Very useful for all PCs. Willpower, Toughness and Dexterity all go to ~25 with herbs. All herbs picked without this skill will be cursed. Law - Marginal. By the time this skill informs you of the criminal nature of some act, the PC has already committed it! Does inform of lawful acts. Listening - All PCs have this. High skill level may train perception. Trains naturally, don't waste level advances on this. Literacy - Essential for spellcasters, most of whom are born with high levels anyway. Less important than it used to be, since reading scrolls does not require high literacy. Metallurgy - Essential for weaponsmiths. Mining - High level in Mining helps stop pickaxes from breaking. Music - Essential for bards, of course. Very high levels are needed for good effectivity. Necromancy - Necromancers, of course. Get this to 100 as soon as convenient. Do not believe the manual about very slow regeneration of mana. Using the skill trains the mana attribute. Pick Locks - Useful for thieves. Must have thieves' picks. Pick Pockets - Useful for all. Occasionally a truly outstanding object can be pickpocketed. Proving the PC a successful pickpocket allows entrance to the Thieves Guild, a means to receive very useful training. Smithing - Useful for all PCs, the specialty of weaponsmiths. Stealth - Useful for all PCs. Survival - Useful for all PCs, especially trolls and rangers. All PCs born in the month of the Falcon receive this. Swimming - Nearly essential for all PCs in later gammas that include rivers (at least those without a means of casting Frost Bolt). Tactics - Useful for all PCs, increases modifiers from the tactics settings. Two Weapon Combat - Useful for all PCs. Two words: Needle. Sting. Ventriloquism - Opinions vary. A means of confusing monsters. Woodcraft - Nearly essential if the PC is going to chop trees.0.4.1 Guaranteed ways of acquiring skills
The following skills can be taught, or trained by Yrrigs and Yergius, providing alignment restrictions are met (see section 0.2.1).
Backstabbing - Bart Bridge Building - Yrrigs Climbing - Yergius Courage - the Old Barbarian Detect Traps - Yergius Disarm Traps - Yergius Healing - Jharod Healing - Kranf Niest Herbalism - Guth'Alak Law - Tywat Pare Literacy - Thrundarr Pick Locks - Yergius Pick Pockets - Yergius Smithing - Glod Stealth - Yergius Swimming - Blup Tactics - Bart Two Weapon Combat - Bart0.4.2 Non-guaranteed ways of acquiring skills
Potions of education can grant a new random skill or increase proficiency in an existing random skill. Skills can also be wished for; the exceptions are Alertness and Healing.