Cartography Skill Table For Book I:
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7 points is really all you need to have a comfortable, accurate map.
Just 1 point is all you need for the cartography to start working. You'll see a lot of brown traces where the walls and trees are. Not extraordinarily helpful, but it's better than running blind.
I recommend to anyone starting at lvl1 to put at least 1 point in cartography, so you're not running blind.
In Book I, I used to always put 4 points in Cartography starting out. Book II is a little more challenging so I had to start off with just 1 point cartography, which was annoying, but I got through okay.
If I remember right: the shipwrecked cartographer in Aridell will teach you his trade if you retrieve his sextant, which takes a little travel (though not too much at all, if I remember correctly), but if you do that first thing and avoid any fighting if possible: maybe you can get by with 1 point cartography without suffering too long.
(But... then there's the issue of money... at level 1... .)
The "maybe" is because I don't remember how easy it is to keep from fighting anyone and also, at that level, how tough it is to to deal with them at lvl1. Never went there at lvl1 before, and I was always able to take them all out when I did. (Perhaps lvl3.)
Also I don't quite remember if the sextant is in a chest or not. I think it's in a chest. Somebody else please verify this?
