Is spot hidden worthless?

[Outlandish]

I decided to try a mage and since I was going high perception for that I figured I might as well throw in spot hidden to find all the stuffs there are to find my first time through. I never got very far in book 2 so I have no real idea what to expect but after 4 levels, with 9 in spot hidden and 20something perception, I've found just one candecium dust. I'm trying to hit just about every tile and certainly any suspicious looking dead ends, working my way along walls, etc.

Is there just not much hidden in the beginning of the game, or does the skill need to be quite high to use or am I somehow missing stuff despite trying to be oh so careful? Does the range of the skill improve as skill rank goes up or do you have to land on just the right tile to find an item?

[Randomizer]

There are a few things hidden in the game like traps in the mine and candecium dust, but with high perception you don't really need spot hidden. I found that I do need to go back to Weeping Mountain much later in the game.

[SpottedShroom]

I'm not a big fan. The main purpose of it is to detect traps before you set them off, but it's probably better to suffer the effects of the traps and save the skill points for something else. The hidden items thing is a nice bonus, but there aren't too many of them in this game (6, all in Weeping Mountain, versus 33 in Book II).

[IJBall]

I'm not a big fan. The main purpose of it is to detect traps before you set them off, but it's probably better to suffer the effects of the traps and save the skill points for something else. The hidden items thing is a nice bonus, but there aren't too many of them in this game (6, all in Weeping Mountain, versus 33 in Book II).

Spot Hidden was actually important in Book I, IIRC, but has seemed to be of less importance and necessity with every succeeding game, for whatever reason...

[SharpXe]

only single place i actually used spot hidden is forest dungeon - but... with 50 per and 10 spot hidden i was unable to detect traps and was forced to just trapkill, 10 skill points wasted...