Skills chat, Pros and cons Options

[Discobiscut]

Ok we are getting really close
And I still have absolutly no idea what skills I will be using.
These are my personal choices to select from (in descending order of preference);
Hand to hand, acrobatics, athletics, sneak, security, Block(if it works with H2H), Marksman, Speechcraft, Mercantile. And as you see 9 so have to kill 2

Have we got a definative answer (ie from dev)
whether Block ("Parry melee attacks with shields and weapons. Successful blocks reduce damage") and Hand to Hand ("Attack without weapons to damage and fatigue opponents).
will work together?

Has anyone ever actually had Speechcraft as a skill and is it worth while. With the new RAI being such an amazing thing I can image that there is the possiblity of lots of interactions on varying levels with charecters. Any word on possible perks for this skill.
I guess the same question could be asked for Mercantile, though I have heard one perk is the ability to own shops.

I consider Acrobatics and Athletics manditory for the way I play. I want to go faster and jump higher.
Both of these are speed governed.

Security and Sneak are two musts for my style of play and I know about some of the benifits of them.
I wonder if Hand to hand has a special sneak attack?

Is there a point to trying to have your main skills to include a range of governing attributes?

I admit every time I read about how the skill points are distributed to raise the attributes my head swims abit. Raise you primary skills 10points is 1point to attribute or something.

And in that vain if you don't have a offensive in your primary you don't get the "perks", but it still raises just the same but slower. So I am thinking that if say Short Blade isn't something you really care about the perks in but still use it is something that will go up quick as you will be using it all the time.
Now Marksman is a skill I think the perks are going to be way cool in so I guess if I had to have an offensive skill that would be it.

Thoughts please

[Frugal]

I've gotta say thank goodness for the difficulty slider, I'd never have any fun if it was a challenge all the time. The powerful mintour is fun occationally, but I don't want ever task to be a struggle no matter how powerful your skills become.

This post has been edited by Frugal: Mar 21 2006, 09:23 PM