Step 6: Invest Experience Points

Each species has its own number of XP that can be used. Typically this is around 100 XP. XP can be invested in upgrading characteristics, purchasing ranks in specific skills, or purchasing talents (from your specialization talent tree).

Probably the biggest thing to be aware of here is that this is the only time in the game (with one minor exception) where you can upgrade your characteristics. Once you start the game, your characteristics are locked. Remember that the characteristics each play out into a number of the skills, so points invested here impact numerous skills.

For characteristic upgrades, you will pay 10XP times the skill level that you are moving to. So, if you are upgrading your Intellect characteristic from 2 to 3, that would cost 30 XP. Moving it from 2 to 4 would cost 70 – 30 to move from 2 to 3, then 40 to move from 3 to 4.

I believe that the beginner game characters had all of their XP invested in characteristic upgrades rather than purchasing skill levels. Some of the species and specializations provide extra ranks in particular skills.