Why are my Ranger skills all over the place for brand new character?

[Legacy_strangersinspace]

               I realize this is an old game, but I just picked it up and started playing.  I'm an Elf/Ranger and I dumped all my skill points into about 5 skills and distributed the points evenly at character creation (four points in each, as I recall).  However, when I actually begin the game, when I look at the skills tab I have numbers all over the place (ranging from -1 to around 7).  Pretty much every skill has some non-zero value that I didn't assign.  Some of them are even negative values.  There's probably some logical explanation for this but it certainly isn't an obvious one.... is this a bug or something???  I even started completely over with character creation, and the same strange thing happened AGAIN.  What's going on?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lightfoot8]

               Are you taking into account the way your stats( Str, con, dex...) are effecting your skills?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Lightfoot8, 13 août 2013 - 01:59 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               

Lightfoot8 wrote...

Are you taking into account the way your stats( Str, con, dex...) are effecting your skills?

That's what I would check first, too. 

Also, remove your armor (and shield if you have one equipped) and recheck skills like Hide, Move Silently and Tumble (I think Set Trap also IIRC) and note the difference,  There is an armor check penalty associated with anything but padded, leather, robes and basic clothing.  Armor is especially important if planning to dual-wield as a ranger.

If your INT is 8 9 or less, Spellcraft, Lore, Appraise and Search will also be negative unless you allocated some ranks to offset the difference.

Most skills can be increased easily by drinking potions, specifically Cat's Grace (DEX), Owl's Wisdom (WIS) and Fox's Cunning (INT) for a few examples.  Rangers do get Cat's Grace spell by default but not until level 8 at earliest.

edit: corrected... oops
               
               

               

                     Modifié par HipMaestro, 14 août 2013 - 01:44 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               

HipMaestro wrote...

If your INT is 8 or less, Spellcraft, Lore, Appraise and Search will also be negative unless you allocated some ranks to offset the difference.

Spellcraft won't be, it requires training to even appear.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_strangersinspace]

               Ok, I simply didn't realize that the ability points automatically adjusted what skill levels you have.  Makes sense now.  Thanks!