Learning is a good skill, but should not be increased as fast as most others. It will only increase experience from monsters, not quests, so to waste to much in it may hamper your ability to raise other important skills. Later on in the game learning gives a high return as monsters are worth more experience. Once you have chosen either light or dark, then you should seriously consider raising learning as high as possible. As for merchant, only the cleric should should devote any serious training into it until later on in the game, as he is the only one that can grand master it. However all your characters should learn it slowly, raising it to their highest possible to cut down training costs. I have found that most skills should be given more points then are need to raise it to that characters highest level. It is a waste of points until all skills are maxed out. All of a characters skills are important for that character to funstion properly, (except, maybe the ranger).

With the knight your two most important skills are the sword and platemail. Remember that the knight is a heavy melee character and can not raise the bow beyond expert. Armsmaster should be third on his list of importance and than body building as he needs as many hit points as he can get. Bow is still important, but do not put more than it takes to raise it to expert. (I never noticed the melee bug, but I think I know how to get around it. Attack from a distance first and let the monsters con to you. They will stop moving forward just outside the range you described. If they will not come and are doing massive damage to you, move close enough to barely hit them with melee weapon, but no closer.) The shield is a very important skill for the knight, but if you want to do massive damage than you should wield to powerful swords (I was once doing two-hundred each hit). The best swords are rarly two-handed. Still, max out the shield. If one of your swords brake you might as well start using the shield until it can be repaired.

The cleric is your second best fighter. The sorcerer and druid, though with high enough skills can do forty damage, the cleric can do over eighty. This character will do a lot of fighting if you want to survive, so again max out all weapona dn armor skills, especially mace. With this the claric can stun opponents, slowing their next attack, and doing serious damage. Also, grand master all your magic. The grandmaster body spell heals all you party by a good amount at one third the spell point cost of any healling light or dark magic. I will also give you a higher body resisstance with the spell as well as strengthening other curatives that are not found in light or dark. Do not make the mistake of thinking the power of light and dark will replace the lower magics.

Never devote all training into one school of magic. Many creatures are immune to sertain magic, and the sorcerer or druid would be useless against them. Bring all of the up to max skill. Fire is the best for attacking, but each school has it's focus. Air is where you find invisibility, which is eccential for the the path of light. It also has fly which makes the game much easier, and makes new treasures available that you couldn't get other wise. Also remember that the Grandmaster Air spell Starburst is more powerful than any fire spell. Water is fast movement with townportal and lloyds beacan, both very handy later on in the game. It also has enchant Item, which will be an easy way to make money when your priest has grandmastered merchant skill (by something for value, enchant it to a higher value, and sell it.) Earth is important as it has the stone to flesh spell. This is the simplest way to cure a stoned effect (only others are a grandmaster potion or Divine intervention Light spell). Earth also has some powerful attack spells. But remember not to raise them beyond max level, because you do need to save points for light or dark as well. I also noticed that you did not mention the staff for sorcerer or dagger for druid. This is a mistake, for all characters require a melee attack, and these particular ones can be quite deadly (dagger can do tripple damage and staff can stun). You may not think it nessaccary as they as magical characters, but some creatures can drain spell points, and it is a waste of blue potions if they have no other attack. Also, raise all their available armor skills to max.

To answer your last question I will say that perception is one of the most important skills and should be develeped to max as soon as possible. Remember that it not only shows you where hidden things are, it also gives you a chance to avoid trap damage. I have had times were the only one of my party to survive a trap was the one that had a high enough perception skill.

One last word. I have told you to max out all your skills. There will come a point in the game when you have all your character's skills maxed out, and still have skill points. At this point you should increase the skills that you think you use the most. Here are my suggestions. Knight: Sword and Armsmaster

Cleric: All Magic (especially body and spirit)

Sorcerer: All Magic (but go less on Light or Dark - they're to expensive)

Druid: Alchemy (to increase potion strength) and Magic (Remember that the druid can also learn Body, Mind, and Spirit as well as the elememtal schools.)

Glad I could help. Shem.