Here's my treatise on training points (shamelessly stolen from a post I made elsewhere):
Skill points aren't something you need to worry about min/maxing: every skill in the list can be acquired without skill points (well except certain class skills, but they only become available at new levels, when you get a fresh batch of points anyway).
In general the following skills are popular targets for skill points:
Class Skills: Skills like Meditate and Dodge won't start increasing until you spend at least one training point in them, so spending that first point on them is probably the most important use of skill points.
Research: This one is big for Int casters, because Research is a pain to raise without points and you can use points to raise it above 20 (unlike other tradeskills, which cap at 20)
Tradeskills: If you plan to do a tradeskill (eg. Tailoring), you can save yourself some time and money by using points for the first 20 skill ranks (vs. buying and combining stuff repeatedly, which is how you have to raise tradeskills above 20).
Languages: If you ever want to learn (say) Elder Dragon (there's no real in-game reason, it's just for fun) then you can get started by spending a single training point on it. Without that you have to find someone else who knows Elder Dragon and get them to talk to you in-game for awhile until you get a skill rank in it.
Sense Heading: Many people bind this skill to a movement key, so it gets hit constantly and skills up as a result. If you don't do that this skill is a pain to level up, so many people like to use skill points on it.
Swimming: If you don't want to swim in circles for awhile skill points can save you some time.
Weapon Skills: If you use (for instance) a one-hand slashing weapon to level up for awhile, then suddenly one day you find a cool piercing weapon, using that weapon will be painful for awhile. This is because you will have a low Piercing skill and thus will rarely hit anything. If you keep all of your weapon skills close to max this isn't a problem, but if you let one lag behind and later want to improve it skill points can be handy.
I might be forgetting a few, but the main idea is that optimally you want to save them for the skills that have the biggest time/plat cost to raise without the points. But even if you don't use your points optimally, it's really not a huge deal: swimming just takes some time swimming in circles, tradeskills aren't all that expensive for the first 20 points, etc. Just don't miss the first point in new class skills, or you won't get to (say) Meditate for a whole level.
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