Discussion Main / UselessUsefulNonCombatAbilities

I removed the Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines example:

* Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: While you don't get EXP for beating normal enemies and may get more/just as much for avoiding fights, quests and the main plot still railroad you into enemy and boss encounters, especially in the more action-heavy latter half, meaning EXP spent on diplomacy and stealth skills is wasted.

Because it's just not true. The social skills are extremely useful because they open up additional dialogue options that gain you additional XP and make quests easier. There are sidequests that can only be accomplished with social skills. Persuade is really essential, and Seduce makes it much easier to feed. Intimidate, admittedly, is not really very useful, since it overlaps so much with Persuade, and is generally more expensive. Haggle is an ambiguous case, because if you are playing a character who relies heavily on guns, you desperately need a high Haggle score to keep ammo costs down; otherwise, there is more than enough money throughout the game that you would only benefit from Haggle at all at the very beginning. Stealth is also very useful in combat, because it lets you deal with large numbers of enemies one at a time, often through one-shot stealth kills, who would otherwise dog-pile and kill you. There are at least one or two quests that give additional XP for not killing anyone, where stealth is absolutely essential. On a personal level, this troper has never played through the game with a character who did not have at least reasonably good Persuade and Seduce scores, and either the Obfuscate discipline or a high Stealth score (or both).

Er, the Fallout example has a mistake. First Aid doesn't require a first aid kit to use. The first aid kit just increases the effectiveness.