Attribute point spending

Increasing Attributes - In addition to learning more skills to expand your strategic options, you can also spend attribute points to gain ranks in the attributes linked to those skills so they are more powerful.

To spend your attribute points, go to the Skills and Attributes panel by pressing "K", clicking the roll-out menu tab in the bottom left corner of the screen and selecting "Skills", or if you are in a town or outpost, double-clicking the Skill Bar. (Before the October 25, 2006 update, the attribute points used to be assigned via the Hero Panel, accessible by pressing "H".)

Take a look at how many unspent attribute points you have (listed as "Attribute Points:"). Just below that, it lists all the attributes that you can put ranks into. If you want to increase an attribute by a rank simply click on the right most "arrow", which is pointing upwards, next to that attribute's name; the number displayed on that arrow before you clicked it will be deducted from your unspent attribute points, and your number of ranks in that attribute will increase by one.

Repeat this as you see fit, increasing any attributes you think you may want to use skills from and keeping an eye on your unspent attribute points; if, for example, you only have 5 attribute points left but it costs 6 to move to the next rank in one of your attributes you will have to make a choice between refunding a rank from a different attribute or foregoing getting that extra rank. Make note that while it's often better to specialize on 3-4 attributes rather than spread your points out over 5+ attributes, specializing in only one or two may not be ideal because of the attribute point cost scale.

First, let's see how points are spent:

One attribute
As you can see from the table above, attribute spending starts at a 1:1 ratio, and gradually gets more expensive as rank becomes higher. Point costs are linear up to rank 7; progression between ranks 8 and 12 becomes increasingly expensive (i.e. going from rank 0 to 1 costs one point, whereas going from rank 11 to 12 costs twenty). The bottom row of the table displays the cumulative cost of attaining a rank from 0. For example, bringing an attribute to rank 12 from rank 0 would cost 97 points total.

Examples of efficient attribute point use: