My critical analysis of the skills

[Higher Game]

Alchemy is insane. I didn't even have a full adamantium set, but 15 alchemy let me give +3's to all my armor and reduce the enemy hit chance to 3%, from every enemy. Only magic could touch me, and I had all of my potions reserved for that, since nothing else was a threat, at all. The funny thing is, I only put maybe 2 levels worth of points into alchemy, since I got +5 from training, +2 from the book, and I think +2 or +3 from the brewer's ring. For such a small investment, it's so powerful for the armor alone, let alone the potions.

None of the other skills come close. The weapon skills give relatively little extra power and accuracy, being useful very early, before +hit equipment can be found. They're still decent fallbacks since few of the other skills are truly compelling.

The lockpicking skill is obsoleted by junk axes and hammers used to force doors down. Only the experience from the doors can be called a bonus, and that is very negligible.

Skullduggery isn't so great because few traps are truly dangerous (if they are even seen in the first place). Health recovers, disease is cured by magic or a priest, and poison only threatens those who are badly hurt in the first place.

The armor skills don't matter much, since damage reduction is so negligible compared avoidance, especially when +x bonuses are factored in.

The passive skills give so little benefit for their cost.

Find hidden doesn't seem to find much except weak traps, almost never any treasure. Mercantile is very questionable, since gold is easy to come by when it's actually able to reach a decent level. In general, there's little point to relying on merchants over other skills, though they're far, far more useful than in the vast majority of RPGs.

The magic skills advance TOO EARLY. Like alchemy, it's just too much, too powerful, too fast. I could easily get level 30+ in weapons for a fighter, yet I wouldn't consider having to go that high with a mage. I probably would anyway, since they're a fallback compared to most other skills, but it shouldn't be that way.

Shielding is a fair skill, not costing much to become competent, but not giving insane benefits. The thing is, I don't see a reason why to get more than 1 shielding point, for the reason mentioned above that damage reduction is so underpowered.

Lore is profoundly worthless, and should have in-game effects beyond identifying items! Having high lore should mean knowing ancient languages, and be able to decipher otherwise useless goblin scrollbooks. Non-proficient mages should have to get the expensive human translations, just for an example. As it is now, it's not useful at all.

Move silently and hide in shadows are absolutely ridiculous. You would think goblins would have trained dogs or something to smell out intruders. Or better yet, vision better than 300/300. Though I respect thief type builds, these abilities now are too good.

Dodge is perhaps a bit weak. It's only noticeable at higher levels, while other skills yield immediate benefits.

Also, I think the game should pause with a dialog box whenever a trap is discovered, since it's sometimes hard to notice until it's too late.

[realmzmaster]

I cannot agree with find hidden. I found quite a bit of treasure when this skill was high enough especially in one specific cave. I had a gem dandy time!

I cannot agree with lore. Many times I was able identify items saving me the expense of having the merchant do it. Lore may take on more importance in Book II regarding quests.

I agree that at lower levels weapon and armor skills make a difference.

I love cartography skill. I like the way the map got more detailed as I found books, trainers or put a skill point into it.

I agree with Alchemy. This was fun I had two Brewers (+3 each). The effects stacked to +6 (BW may want to change that!) plus the training and the few skill points I put in. It was fun inbuing weapons and making potions.

[Randomizer]

Find hidden is the complement to perception. Having high perception in a spellcaster reduces its usefulness.

Alchemy is easy to abuse if you get the brewmaster rings and training since you can equipment swap as needed.

[Higher Game]

The thing is, by the time one can actually acquire items that require lore to identify, the lore spell is nearly always accessible. The sole exception I can think of is getting the mithril long sword before reaching Blackwater for the trainers. But once the trainers are found, the lore spell is far superior to any other method. The cure disease and healing spells also make the survival spell useless. Survival should help you find alchemy ingredients, or even use raw herbs to better effect than potions, to hedge against alchemy being so powerful as it is.

Maybe requiring some heavy armor skill as well as alchemy to work on equipment would be best, like a double skill check.