Dragon Quest 8 Skills

Solution 1:

In addition to the abilities unlocked, throwing more points into a single skill allows you to acquire the trait bonuses sooner. For example, you get progressively bigger bonuses to sword attacks at 4, 22 and 66 points in Sword Skills. Likewise, dumping into Courage will net you 3/4 MP spellcasting and 1/2 MP spellcasting at 56 and 90 points, respectively.

So, if you want to focus on a certain play style (i.e. spellcaster) or weapon type, it is advantageous to specialize.

Solution 2:

On my playthrough, I had enough skill points to end up with high scores in 2-3 skills per character. I suspect that trying to evenly balance four skills is going to spread you thin, leaving you a bunch of abilities that you can't use (due to having the wrong weapon equipped) and denying you the most powerful abilities.

Another consideration is that several of the most powerful weapons are mutually exclusive (since you have to use one up in the alchemy pot to get another), so if you're interested in the most powerful party possible, you might want to avoid specializing in the following skill pairs:

• spears and boomerangs
• axes and hammers