Avernum 4 - buying vs. training skills?

[khelvan]

Hello, I have been reading about "waiting" to buy skills that can be trained. But I'm not sure if this advice means that I should not be skilling up when I level up until I meet the trainer, or I should wait as long as possible to buy from a trainer because I can then maximize the return on my investment.

 

In other words, is the cost from a trainer constant, thus I only save on skills if I wait to buy from the trainer?

 

Thanks!

[Ceiling Durkheim]

Trainers will only sell you the first 3 levels of any skill. If you're inclined toward waiting, it would mean avoiding buying levels in the skill in question until you meet the trainer. For a lot of skills this isn't really feasible, though, since it would mean waiting to train important skills until the mid-late game.

[Randomizer]

Once you train for a skill with skill points than it limits training from a trainer. A trainer will only give you up to the first 3 levels so you would be wasting skill points on levels that you could get with money.

 

For fighters it usually pays to use skill points for your main fighting skill because it will be a while before you can reach a trainer. However for other skills like arcane lore, nature lore, spellcraft, parry, and a few others it pays to wait for the trainers.

[Erebus the Black]

I'm not a true power gamer like others (although I am a completionist of sorts) so this might not be the best course of action.

For all the trinary skills (such as luck and "lore" skills) you can probably wait on investing until you buy the skill, but you'll have to keep a long list of where everything you couldn't open is (such as hidden cashes).

The real problem, from a completionist point of view, is the spell books.

Some spells in the game have 2 spell books where you can learn spells from without paying, and all spell trainers can train you 3 levels. There is a bug in the game where if you learn a spell from a book first you can only train it at the trainer's up to level 4, however if you buy all 3 levels from the trainer first you can level it up to level 5, and spells at the end game become extremely expensive to the point of bankruptcy.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Originally Posted By: Erasmus

spells at the end game become extremely expensive to the point of bankruptcy.

Maybe, but you needn't buy them, levelling up does very little in A 4-6.Once you get level 1 there is no need to further pursue the spells.

[Erebus the Black]

Completionist