So Xtisme you have a magic wielding, dragon armour wearing character?
Cool.
I really have to start looking into the crafting aspect of the game. Too busy rushing headlong into disaster at the moment.
I really do enjoy stealing everything that I can get my hands on though.
[QUOTE=Lochdale]
So Xtisme you have a magic wielding, dragon armour wearing character?
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, though the bow is my primary weapon. I use shouts and healing primarily on the magic side. The dragon armor is really good though. I used to have the pack mule in dragon plate, but the daedric stuff is just insane (though it doesn’t help her all that much…she still cringes down in fights with any of the big stuff, despite me double enchanting her stuff with more hit ponts, fire/frost/magic resistance and a bunch of other things). If there was a daedric light armor I’d probably be out scrounging for more hearts for a set for myself. The bow though…it’s really nasty even without enchants on it. With all the bonus points I get for archery from enchants and gear, plus my skill level and perks I can generally one shot anything in the game except higher level dragons and boss mobs…and I’ve even one shot killed the boss mobs from stealth when I’ve gotten a critical hit.
I’d say the crafting stuff is only if you want to optimize your character. For folks who enjoy getting their ass kicked and being challenged I’d say steer away from this aspect, as it will make your character into a near god. When I take away my gear and just go out with normal stuff my guy isn’t nearly as effective (the other day just on a lark I went out with a long bow, iron arrows and regular leather armor).
Hopefully the DLCs will put enough into the game to make for some real challenge for high level characters. The funny thing is that when I get ambushed or fail in an initial attack my guy, even with all his god like perks, abilities and gear, can still be killed. I ran into a pack of forsaken along with one of those witch hag thingies and one of the insane high level ones and ended up dying just last night because I missed several shots (trying to avoid hitting my pack mule) and there were more of them than I thought. They basically swarmed me under, so it still happens.
Sure, I do as well. I especially like pickpocketing people. But my favorite thing is still sneaking around and sniping people from the shadows. It goes back to various MMORPG games I’ve played in the past, plus the Fallout games, but there is just something about sneaking up on an enemy, getting them in your sights and then smacking them down from range. Nothing else like it, IMHO.
-XT
Sounds like a good character. Good thing there isn’t multi-player!
Is it still worth throwing some training into archery? I have high destructionand alteration and have an Elven Bow that I improved and add a bit of poison to. I do enjoy the sneaking and the sniping.
I’m finding that with my follower I can take Dragons (so far) just by dual casting and keeping them stunned. I usually just sell the scales though as I’m always low on cash.
Haven’t bothered with the Guardian Stones other than the Mage Stone as it seems like a lot of effort.
I haven’t tried any of them yet (I was waiting until Steam put out their mod integration thingy first), but here are some housing mods for the game on Nexus if anyone is interested. If any of you do use them (or any other mod), I’d appreciate it if you’d say how they work and what you like or don’t like.
-XT
[QUOTE=Lochdale]
Is it still worth throwing some training into archery? I have high destructionand alteration and have an Elven Bow that I improved and add a bit of poison to. I do enjoy the sneaking and the sniping.
[/QUOTE]
It depends on what you are going for. If you enjoy using the bow then I’d definitely put some points into archery perks (the one that slows time is especially useful, IMHO). The cool thing about this game is that you can change directions mid-stream if you want and still get to your new destination eventually. For instance, my character started off as a one handed melee fighter with the other hand used for destruction, but I changed up in the early teens and am now a killing machine. Did I waste perks in stuff I now don’t use? Absolutely. But that’s the fun of learning the game, IMHO, and I’m not looking to optimize every aspect of the game. Heck, as it is my guy is seriously badass, and that’s with tons of perk points in stuff I never even use (and no perk points in stuff that I do, such as light armor or even lock picking).
If you are a clothe caster and don’t intend to wear even light armor then certainly sell them. If you think you will use light armor though keep the scales and sell the bones (though they are excellent heavy armor for your follower until you max out smithing and can make the daedric stuff). My own follower actually can’t hold her own against the higher level dragons…they eat her lunch if I don’t support or heal her, even wearing daedric plate, with a daedric shield and sword.
-XT
I’m trying to do a slightly different character, and I’m running smack into issues with the design of the magic system.
He uses the bound swords and bows, and I’d intended for him to use cloth (with the Mage Armor perk). However, the duration of the _skin spells (stoneskin, oakskin, etc.) is all very short. Plus, if you’ve got the bound bow out, you can’t recast the skin spell without sheathing the bow… which means you’ve got to recast the bow. The maximum duration of the skin spells appears to be one minute, so that’s a lot of casting and recasting- and if you don’t do it, you’ve basically got no armor.
I’m hoping that once the toolkit is released, I’ll be able to make the bound weaponry permanent (until sheathed) and the _skin spells toggleable (but with a continuous magicka drain, or something, to balance it out).
There are perks for the alterationi spells that let you dual cast mage armor for more time. IIRC, when I dual cast ebony flesh it lasts for 3 minutes vs. 1 minute for a one handed cast.
Can you expound on this? I’m a level 40-something that uses fireball or ice storm in my left hand and a powerful one-hander (either Mace of Molag Bal or the Nightingale sword); I think I’m doing OK, but I’m always looking for ways to improve, so your experience would be helpful.
I do alright with archery, but I don’t like using 2-handed weapons because it makes casting during combat a bit tedious.
The vampire girl in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary will also often have a Daedric Heart for sale.
Are you still using Lydia or some other early character? I understand that they don’t necessarily increase in strength with you properly, so you might try a character found later, or use a console command:
It’s not so much that archery is overpowered and more that everything is overpowered. The enemies don’t have anything like the same sort of scaling that the player does. Destruction, two-hand, shield & one-hand, sneak attacks, you name it, any route has you slaughtering enemies with little to no risk by the time you get the character fully developed.
My first character was a battle-mage style, going destruction & two-hand in heavy armor, and even spreading out into conflicting branches like that, by the time I got to Skuldafn I had the choice of either blowing up the trios of draugr deathlords all at once with fireballs, or just cleaving them down with stamina-leeching greatsword power sweeps. Both methods had them permanently stunlocked and even if they weren’t, they couldn’t deal much damage to me through the armor, even at the top difficulty setting.
I think you’d have to ignore enchanting and smithing completely to give the enemies a fair chance. Those are what really break the power curve.
While you’re doing the disable/enable, loot everything from your follower and hit them with a removeallitems too. It’ll strip their default equipment and solve the problem where they’ll use their fallback hunting bow instead of whatever monster bow you’ve given them.
But yeah, “rebooting” your low-level follower, or simply getting a new one from a place you only visit late in the game, makes a huge difference in their strength. I went from someone even lower level than Lydia to a someone from a khajit caravan that I had managed to avoid all game long. In the exact same equipment, it went from the first follower folding under a couple restless draugr to the beefy new catguy soloing downed dragons - if I wanted him to or not. I had to hit my own follower with fus-ro-dah to get Odahviing in the right place 
Something I noticed when going back through Irkngthand to take out some leftover Falmers and pick up some heavy loot that I had to drop, is that the Falmer’s are WAY more vigilant to me trying to sneak around them by myself than compared to when I was accompanied by the other 2 Nightengales.
The three of us easily slipped by close enough to grope them the first time and now that I’ve gone back in the same armor/gear I can’t get nearly as close before they’re all all over me. The only thing that changed in between was that I went up a level or two while brewing/smithing. So I’m not sure if it is evidence that they do level up with you or that main quest stats may be rigged for scripted effect or something.
Re: the map on console. I held right bumper and was able to rotate it to more of an overhead view. Thanks for the PC tip, Apex Rogers.
My follower and some of the other NPCs have started getting stuck and slowly rotating in place instead of just standing around like they used to. I use a shout to get my follower unstuck, but it doesn’t work so well on other NPCs. Mostly an annoyance, but does anyone have any advice (XBox 360)?
[QUOTE=Der Trihs]
The vampire girl in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary will also often have a Daedric Heart for sale.
[/QUOTE]
Too late for that for me, unless she is at the new Sanctuary in Dawnstar. It’s moot now anyway, since I have a full set of daedric plate for the pack mule, sword, shield and a bow for both me and her.
Yes, I’ve had her from the start. I know if I change her up with someone else they will be better, but really the only thing I have her for is to carry stuff. And I’m sort of used to her.
[QUOTE=Raza]
Can you expound on this? I’m a level 40-something that uses fireball or ice storm in my left hand and a powerful one-hander (either Mace of Molag Bal or the Nightingale sword); I think I’m doing OK, but I’m always looking for ways to improve, so your experience would be helpful.
[/QUOTE]
Sure. I started off, as I said, as a one handed melee and off hand destruction (basically I was using the flame thrower spell until I got fireball). But I was getting the shit kicked out of me early on, so when I found a bow (I think I was around 13th level or so) I started using that along with stealth. It was a bit rough at first, but I put points into archery perks and once I got the slow time perk, as well as the bonus damage perks I started to really be able to control the fights. I could start hitting mobs from long range once I got the hang of using the bow (the slow time thing really helps, especially if the mobs are moving). Now I can basically burn through just about anything in the game long before it can take a serious swing at me. Most mobs are one shot deals, even the mid to high level mobs. About the only thing I can’t one or two shot now is the elder dragons…and even there, if I crit, you are talking about maybe 3-4 good hits and they are dead.
I guess it’s all in what you enjoy. To me the fun comes in setting up the shot and controlling the battlefield. I have never found the bow tedious because it’s constant action as I bend time and ration stamina, having to watch both the enemy and the pack mule (and the damn horse if I’m out in the world), and judge where my shots will do the most good without killing my own allies. I was finding swinging a sword and casting a spell off hand frustrating and tedious, which is why I switched. But like I said, it’s one of those things that people are different over. On a message board my son goes on they seem to despise the bow as to OP and broken, but I don’t see it that way.
-XT
Man, is Lydia a passive aggressive pain in the butt or what? “Good morning, my Thane. You are the sun to me, my Thane. My life for you, my Thane.”
That’s very nice of you to say. Think you could carry these shoes for me?
“:rolleyes:I’m sworn to support you, my thane.”
Now I have to tip toe around my own house to keep this weirdo quiet. What’s the best way to um, arrange for the entertaining demise of a follower? The more creative, the better. I have the “Fus!” Dragon Shout that knocks people back and am planning to go visit the Greybeards on the mountaintop soon…
The Ebony Blade gets stronger when you kill friends and allies with it. No points for creativity but she can live her last moments content in the knowledge that her death serves a greater cause. Me.
Interesting…I was also thinking of enchanting a helmet with a health drain spell and giving it to her to wear, if that’s possible.
Don’t think you can enchant negative effects on apparel, unlike Oblivion - where assassinating someone was as easy as placing a fire-enchanted hood into someone’s inventory and waiting. Enchanting (and magic…much to my chagrin) as a whole is a lot less versatile that Oblivion, while at the same time being far more powerful. My current enchanted Daedric Sword is far more deadly than any unique item I’ve found so far.
You can already break the game pretty easily with crafting (backstab is a favourite), so perhaps it’s for the best.
No, I always liked that ability. I bet someone figures out how to mod some version of it into Skyrim though.
And I did go back to the farm, and the farming couple were both dead in their house.
For your pleasure: - YouTube