Question regarding Ash and exp

[igomadness]

So, I was reading the discussion related to how your total number of skill points dictating the cost of raising new skills.

https://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php? ... nce_system

It seems to me that the reskilling ability from Ash is possibly useful for controlling the order in which you gain skills. Allowing you to reduce the overall xp cost.

So, first off, I was wondering if anyone had any other links that explain the math for skill gain in more depth.

Secondly, lets say you wanted to make a really dodgy stabber, say

10 short blades
7 shields
14 stabbing
27 dodging
27 stealth

What in which order would you raise skills to hit those skills with the least amount of xp required? I assume that you would want to max out the 27 skills first before getting the lower skills? I realize this might be impractical to actually achieve, but just trying to understand the theory.

[KoboldLord]

The modifier for having skill already built up is trivial. It's more of a "Huh, that's interesting" type of thing than a "This should influence your plans" thing, since the xp flowing into your character grows at a faster pace than the cost of skill points goes up, simply because as you go down the monsters give more xp.

For your dodgy stabber, you should pick up low levels of all the skills you want first, because low levels are cheap to get regardless of what point in the game you're at and they'll get you the most benefit for your effort. Focus on particular skills only when no alternatives are offering greater advantages, and only continue to focus on that skill as long as it continues to pay off to do so.

[FlyingPants]

more like put everything in air magic and get tornado castable.

[Galefury]

more like put everything in air magic and get tornado castable.

This. Can someone please nerf Tornado?

Also I don't think the order in which you gain skills matters for the total cost. The penalty is not about skill levels, but about accumulated skill points. And those will always add up to the same with the same final skills. If you want to get to 200000 skill points, at some point you will need to train a skill point while you have 50000, and at some point you will have to train a skill point while you have 100000, etc. Which skill that point goes into doesn't matter, and in the end it adds up to the same exp cost. Aptitudes influence skill point cost per skill level, not exp per skill point IIRC (this may be wrong). Also skill points are very small units and aren't displayed, so you cant really abuse them.