The skills in Stoneshard, like many of the other mechanics in the new RPG, are pretty important. The game relies on letting the player build out their skills with a unique system that lets you pick how you progress through the process of learning new skills. Any new skills in Stoneshard are learned not through trainers, but through skill books gathered from various sources.
The skills in Stoneshard are each linked to their own unique skill book, and each tree for your character has a pathway they can travel down to develop their skills through use. And no, you cannot improve your skills by reading the same type of skill books over and over. Each skill book read must be for a new skill that teaches a new attack or technique.
You can gain skills in Stoneshard from books from many different sources. You can speak to merchants, plunder dungeons, or just get lucky on a loot drop. Be sure to explore thoroughly to find all of the books hidden in the game world.
Some characters in the game start with particular abilities as well, with each class character having their own starting skillsets. For example, Jonna and Dirwin start with the Athletics ability tree, and Jorgrim and Arna start with the Combat Mastery. If you want to trade between classes to try different builds or playstyles out, make sure to have multiple saves going in the game.
If you want to learn more about this interesting new game, check out some of our other guides. We have explained cooking in Stoneshard for one thing. If you want to know how to expand your inventory, we can show you that too. Stoneshard also has a pretty interesting class system, if you need a primer on that.