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In Wizardry 8, it seems that spellbook skills (Wizardry, Divinity, Alchemy, Psionics), take a lot longer to increase than realm skills (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Mental, Divine), even with the same controlling attributes.
The realm skills rely on Intelligence and Piety as controlling attributes, so they will be the same, in terms of skill ups, for the same character.
The spellbook skills all have different controlling attributes. Wizardry: Intelligence. Divinity: Piety. Alchemy: Dexterity and Intelligence. Psionics: Senses and Intelligence.
For an average Bishop, it will go like this: Wizardry>Alchemy (strengthened by mixing potions) >Psionics>Divinity.
Raising Divinity to 100 skill seems like a chore, with 100 Piety being unnecessary.
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RChu1982: Raising Divinity to 100 skill seems like a chore, with 100 Piety being unnecessary.
It's a lot easier once you learn Heal All. If you auto-recast Heal All, the game will repeatedly cast it at Power Level 1, giving you plenty of skill check increases. Plus, there's that convenient flame in Arnika that you can use to damage your characters. So, damage your party with the flame, use Heal All PL8 (that is, auto-recast), and when you run low on Divine SP, sleep.

Furthermore, you really only need to raise your Divinity into the 80s. It is very likely that your Divine Magic will be high, allowing you to learn Restoration and Death Wish at this point, and the remaining spell, Falling Stars, isn't worth learning if you have good enough Alchemy to learn Earthwuake.

Also, and this is especially true if you happen to have a good Power Cast, you don't really need the high levels of Restoration. Restoration, at PL4 and 5, is still incredibly powerful, and using it at too high a power level results in wasted healing.
I consider the Arnika-flame cheese, and I won't do that.
Besides, I have Divinity at 99 skill now. I might as well increase it by casting Armorplate/Magic Screen at every rest, and casting Bless in round 1 at every Monastery combat, even if the enemy is weak/especially if the enemy is strong.
It's mostly a hard-hat mentality: Having two Bishops with two maxed spellbooks, and 6 maxed realms, before reaching Arnika.
Note that this is a tandem operation: Getting 6 characters' melee, ranged, and magic skills increased simultaneously is no easy task, but that's what challenges are all about.
Perhaps, I spoke poorly. What I was really trying to get at, is that the difficulty of maxing said skills is not the same.
Take most non casters (Fighter, Rogue, Bard, Gadgeteer, hybrids interested in fighting first). They are going to have good Strength and Dexterity, meaning that their weapon skills are going to severely outpace the generic Close and Ranged Combat skills.
This is the opposite with casters, who tend to prioritize Intelligence and Senses. Their generic Close and Ranged Combat skills will severely outpace their individual weapon skills.
There seems to be a parity here.

There is no comparison between the following:

Look at the time it takes to max spellbook skills (Wizardry, Divinity, Psionics, Alchemy), vs. the time it takes to max the individual realm skills (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Mental, Divine). There is a tremendous difference.

Even with the same, or similar, controlling attributes, the realm skills will max first.

This is because they are on a different sliding scale.

For all casters and hybrids (excluding the Bishop), there is only one spellbook skill to work on, while there are 5 or 6 realm skills to work on.

Therefore, for balance, the realm skills will max much faster than the spellbook skill will. This works out fairly.

However, for the Bishop, you will max out your realms much faster than the spellbook skills, forcing you to carefully pick spells that will benefit only one spellbook (skill increases only benefit the highest spellbook skill, even if maxed).