Skills are bought from trainers using Learning Points and, in most cases, Ore. With both resources scarce early, it pays to spend them on the handful of skills that improve combat the most or that start paying for themselves. Here are the priorities, what they cost, and why each is worth the points.
Priority skills
One-Handed Weapons is the first thing to learn. It smooths out your attacks and opens up parrying, ripostes, and combos, which is the difference between trading blows and controlling a fight. 
Scatty, found around the Old Camp arena, teaches it. Reaching the Trained level is plenty for the early game; pushing all the way to Master is a long-term project, not an opening-hours purchase.
Acrobatics is the next pick. It lengthens your dodge roll and halves fall damage, both of which keep you alive while exploring rough terrain. It is a single one-time purchase from 
Buster, on the upper ledge of the New Camp dwelling cave.
Rune Magic rounds out the core three for anyone interested in casting. It lets you use Mana-fuelled offensive and utility spells, and is learned once from 
Torrez in the Old Camp after you finish The Price of Magic quest. At only 5 Learning Points it is cheap for what it unlocks.
| Skill | Cost | Trainer | Why learn it |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-Handed Weapons (Trained) | Learning Points + Ore | Scatty (Old Camp arena) | Smoother attacks plus parry, riposte, and combos; the core melee skill |
| Acrobatics | 10 LP + 60 Ore | Buster (New Camp dwelling cave) | Longer dodge roll and fall damage cut by 50% |
| Rune Magic | 5 LP | Torrez (Old Camp, after The Price of Magic) | Unlocks Mana-cost spells for damage and utility |
| Hunting skills | varies (see below) |  Drax (north of Old Camp) or  Cavalorn | Extracts sellable trophies from kills for steady income |
These rankings reflect early-game impressions, so weight them toward what your build actually needs. A pure melee character can safely skip Rune Magic for now and put those points elsewhere.
Hunting and skinning skills
Each hunting skill lets you harvest a specific trophy (skins, teeth, claws) from the matching creature, which you then sell or use in crafting. They run a little expensive for what they return early on, but a single skill keeps paying out every time you kill the right animal, so they are an investment rather than a sink. Drax (north of the Old Camp) teaches them, though he wants a beer before he will talk shop.
Take Skull Armor is the best value because it costs nothing in Ore: deliver 
the Bestiary of Khorinis I to Cavalorn on the path between the Old and New Camps and answer all of his questions correctly. You can get the bestiary free by stealing it from Jan's hut outside the New Camp entrance, or buy it from 
Fisk for 5 Ore; picking it up starts the Beasts of Khorinis I quest.
| Hunting skill | Cost | Why learn it |
|---|---|---|
| Take Skull Armor | Free (Cavalorn / Bestiary of Khorinis I) | Best value; no Ore spent, learned by completing Cavalorn's questions |
| Remove Teeth | 1 LP + 175 Ore | Teeth from  Scavengers and Wolves, later  Snappers and Shadowbeasts |
| Remove Fur | 1 LP + 250 Ore | Skins from Wolves and Shadowbeasts; also yields the  Wolf's Skin used to craft the Scavenger mount's saddle |
| Skin Reptiles | Learning Points + Ore | Skins from  Lizards and  Lurkers; best saved until you are better leveled and geared |
| Remove Claws | 1 LP + 150 Ore | Claws from Lizards and Lurkers; weak early since Lizard claws sell for only 1 Ore each |
Watch what each trophy is actually worth before committing. Lizard claws fetch just 1 Ore apiece, so Remove Claws does little for your purse until you are hunting more valuable Lurkers.