LAST EDITED ON Feb-24-02 AT 02:56 AM (Pacific)Even though I've read the manual, I forgot about the Expert skills, too, until I saw Urq having one. Until then, I've distributed my bonus points almost equally for every attribute to have good all-rounders rather than "blind on one eye" experts.
I think resulting damage/resistance is not only a function of your Magic and Realm skill and Powercast/Ironwill, but also of your level against the opponent's level. Al-Sedexus, for example, has a Water realm resistance of "only" 80, but my Level 19/20 spellcasters casting dehydrate at powerlevel 7 only do damage ranging from 0-5 hitpoints. Lower levelled monsters with the same resistance are affected much more by these spells.
I've noticed a significant shifting in the effectiveness of spellcasters/fighters as the game progresses. In the monastery about 90% of all kills can be attributed to spellcasters/bard, as my fighters would hit and penetrate the monsters once in 10 attacks, whereas the spells always find their target and the monsters aren't resistant to magic. Later on, the only spells worth casting are protective and enhancing spells, as monsters virtually grow immune to magic - as does your party with Magic Screen and Element and Soul Shield cast at level 7. Only your fighters have a chance breaking through this draw.
Therefore the physical expert skills are more effective than magical expert skills. Eagle Eye is superb if you don't rush in for close combat immediately and rather rely on ranged combat. It's quite effective for my Ninja and Rangers probably as well. Snakespeed is a blade with two sides, though, since you'll often lose one round of combat if your character defends before the opponent is approaching. I'm too lazy to buy bullet stones all the time (and don't want to carry a 1000 with me due to their weight) so most of the time my snakespeeded monk is without missiles and loses the first round of attack.
Besides, the way is the goal and for (mainly) fighting characters attributes like strength, vitality, speed and dexterity are more important than intelligence and piety.
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I thought also that they kicked in at just the right time, in that I had just maxed out (or was near maxing) some of the skills, so having another choice is/was great. Ok, enough blather 