Note that no penalties are applied if you are mounted but not moving.

Each of a characters skills can be increased from level 0 to level 10.

A characters level of a skill cannot surpass one third of their level in its base attribute (except through the use of Books ).

For example, Tactics has Intelligence as its base attribute; if Intelligence is level 9, Tactics cannot surpass level 3.

For players, initial skill levels are dictated by your characters background and may exceed this limitation.

The level of a party skill is chosen from the party member who has the highest level in that skill, regardless whether it is the player or a companion.

If the player has a party skill trained to level 2 or higher, a bonus may be awarded (see below).

However, in the case of Trainer, the whole party benefits from bonus experience.

Therefore multiple companions with Trainer can be used to give a greater advantage to the party.

If the partys highest skill is not from the player character, the member who has the highest level in that skill will determine the party skill base value, while the player characters level will grant level bonuses according to the chart.

Once this level of skill is achieved, other members of the party with the same skill only serve a backup role in case the party leader falls below the health threshhold for their skills to be active.

To assign a players characters skill points use the Character screen.

Maximum of 100 more damage.

Power Draw also adds 14 to each hit with the bow, until four levels beyond the bows minimum Power Draw requirement; for example, if the bows Power Draw requirement is 2, then a skill level of 2 will add 28, while a skill level of 6 will add 84, while any level beyond 6 will still add 84.

Finally, higher Power Draw makes powerful bows easier to use by improving your accuracy and the time you can keep your aim steady while the bow is drawn, though this cannot overcome having a low proficiency with bows.

Beyond this limit, you cannot increase weapon proficiencies by investing points into them.

Weapon proficiencies can also be increased with practice, even beyond the limit set by Weapon Mastery, but the rate of increase will slow down as you get further from the limit.

It also increases your shields effective size versus ranged attacks and improves how quickly you can block with a shield.

Extremely high shield skill may cause you to catch arrows that would have otherwise missed you and defend others standing close to you from arrow fire.

This skill also improves a units overland speed on the map if they are not mounted, improving the average speed of the party they are part of.

Encumberance has a much larger effect than this skill is able to overcome at higher weight levels, meaning completely unarmored Looters can still outrun an extremely heavily armed and armored man or woman on foot even if he or she has 10 points in this skill.

Even at 10, this skill will not allow a Sumpter Horse to outrun a Courser or a War Horse to outmaneuver a Sarranid Horse.

This skill also improves a units overland speed on the map if they are mounted on a horse, improving the average speed of the party they are part of.

Couched lance damage is directly affected by this skill, provided the horse ridden is actually fast enough to allow for it.

Acceleration and deceleration are also benefitted by this skill, allowing a horse to reach top speed or stop in less than three steps at higher levels.

Mount And Blade Starting Skills