So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[Frag]

It's very easy to play a magic user, Thenryb, mostly because it's stupidly overpowered. With only a small amount of effort one can reach -100% magic costs for two schools at a time and perma-stagger / fear / paralyze nigh-on-anything.

[Treesh]

I still have a couple of miscellaneous quests (bounty) to turn in to the Whiterun steward, who is now deposed and missing from the game.

After I overran Whiterun, I still had quests to turn into the steward there. He was hiding out in Solitude, either in the palace there or else the bard's college. I don't remember exactly which place because I just followed the quest pointer on that one for the turn in.

---

It's very easy to play a magic user, Thenryb, mostly because it's stupidly overpowered. With only a small amount of effort one can reach -100% magic costs for two schools at a time and perma-stagger / fear / paralyze nigh-on-anything.

There is still the process of getting to that point to contend with. I hated my Breton mages, but the Altmer gal has been nothing but fun. That extra bit of magicka from the start made all the difference. It does no good to say "This will be fun when you're bigger" if it's such an annoyance when little that you don't want to play it. With that being said, give it a try. All you have to lose is a tiny bit of time to see if it's a playstyle that appeals to you or not.

[Thenryb]

It's very easy to play a magic user, Thenryb, mostly because it's stupidly overpowered. With only a small amount of effort one can reach -100% magic costs for two schools at a time and perma-stagger / fear / paralyze nigh-on-anything.

There is still the process of getting to that point to contend with. I hated my Breton mages, but the Altmer gal has been nothing but fun. That extra bit of magicka from the start made all the difference. It does no good to say "This will be fun when you're bigger" if it's such an annoyance when little that you don't want to play it. With that being said, give it a try. All you have to lose is a tiny bit of time to see if it's a playstyle that appeals to you or not.

Hmm. Interesting point, Treesh. Earlier, I tried a Breton mage and left her in Bleak Falls Barrow. I would conjure her little familiar and she had almost no magic left for her weak spells. I also raised a zombie but was dead from another drugar before I could get her shield equipped. Most of this is tactical misjudgments but I did find her lack of inherent magic surprising. Anyway, I returned to my archer/assassin shortly thereafter
I was doing some of this just to skill up conjuring but it also appears that a battlemage is well advised to skill up blocking (ugh) so she can do some shield bashing like Kandrathe described. Or maybe just forget the shield and play as a spellsword. I may need to read a good guide if I want to try that stuff. Perhaps dialing down the difficulty would help, also.

[Crusader]

Just finished the main quest but was a bit disappointed. I expected a followup quest to wrap up business (visit key characters, receive piles of treasure, etc) when there came none. the final area was interesting however (good music!).

Now I'm going to finish achievements. I'm at 66%.

[kandrathe]

Just finished the main quest but was a bit disappointed. I expected a followup quest to wrap up business (visit key characters, receive piles of treasure, etc) when there came none. the final area was interesting however (good music!).

Now I'm going to finish achievements. I'm at 66%.

Well, you could always hang out in heaven for awhile, and feast at their tables.

---

The process you described for becoming guildmaster no longer works. My character did all of those things and not only does not get an offer of an armor upgrade from Tonilla (a key part of the quest) but Brynholff is "too busy, lass" to talk.

I probably got past that point with Tonilla before the 1.2 patch. I believe I joined, got to the point of getting the initial armor, and then went back to whatever else I was doing at that time.

[Thenryb]

Just finished the main quest but was a bit disappointed. I expected a followup quest to wrap up business (visit key characters, receive piles of treasure, etc) when there came none. the final area was interesting however (good music!).

Now I'm going to finish achievements. I'm at 66%.

I have not been concerned with achievements but out of curiosity checked to see how many I have and the answer is none. I have not been playing in offline mode, when I check Steam it says I have no connection. The game launches just fine, but it does not track achievements. I started a new character and made it a point to launch the game specifically by hitting the play button in my steam library. The character got two achivements (escaping the barrow and hitting the standing stone) but none after that as I lost my "steam connection".

[Drasca]

it also appears that a battlemage is well advised to skill up blocking (ugh) so she can do some shield bashing like Kandrathe described. Or maybe just forget the shield and play as a spellsword. I may need to read a good guide if I want to try that stuff. Perhaps dialing down the difficulty would help, also.

You don't necessarily have to use blocking, but this is a case where good keyboard layout (re-mapping those keys), and use of favorites and mapped favorite keys (go to favorites, and hit 1-8 to make them quick actions), makes a lot of difference.

I actively switch between spells, weapons, shields and potions.

For example, my 1 and 2 keys are sword and shield respectively. 3 is health potion. 4 is my bow. 5-7 are spells (usually destruction, summon, invisibility. 8 is another weapon). I like to actively switch out weapons as I'm sneaking, sniping, backstabbing, and sprinting in and out of combat. I'm definitely no 'pure' mage, I'm a nightblade, a mage-assassin type.

My pure mage friend like dual-casting, destruction magic in either hand, then swapping a restoration spell, heal or ward, in the other, and spamming lots and lots of spells everywhere. He's quite literally having a blast.

[kandrathe]

I patched to 1.3 yesterday. My Nerd Nord skills are back. I no longer fear men in black dresses.

I found the former steward of Whiterun, and all the other deposed people sitting in the basement of the Blue Palace. Boy, they were grumpy. I was able to turn in some dangling quests.

I still cannot buy a house in Windhelm. I've also stumbled upon Namira and Peryite's quests. I was not so keen on the cannibalism.

I've heard there is a mod for the PC that allows you to murder the children. Sicko's!

[Treesh]

I've heard there is a mod for the PC that allows you to murder the children. Sicko's!

That was out in the first week actually. =) I don't necessarily want to murder them. I just want that little girl that keeps talking about how she's not afraid of me to just shut it.

How odd that you can't buy the house in Windhelm though. Did you choose a side in the civil war yet? If you sided with the stormcloaks, you have to finish one of the quests for them. If you sided with the empire, you have to defeat all of the stormcloaks first before you can buy the house.

[kandrathe]

I've heard there is a mod for the PC that allows you to murder the children. Sicko's!

That was out in the first week actually. =) I don't necessarily want to murder them. I just want that little girl that keeps talking about how she's not afraid of me to just shut it.

How odd that you can't buy the house in Windhelm though. Did you choose a side in the civil war yet? If you sided with the stormcloaks, you have to finish one of the quests for them. If you sided with the empire, you have to defeat all of the stormcloaks first before you can buy the house.

Yeah, I finished the civil war on the side of the Stormcloaks. "Blood on the Ice" hasn't triggered in Windhelm for me, so no murder, no mess, no house.

[Thenryb]

. I've also stumbled upon Namira and Peryite's quests. I was not so keen on the cannibalism.

It seems like those Deadric quests are even more bizarre than in Oblivion. I am probably just not enough of a Elder Scrolls lore nerd to appreciate them. Boethia's is another crappy one. Once you get the quest you either do it, sacrificing a stupid trusting follower for some mail my character would not use or it remains in your quest log.(It made me wish I had played along with Sven in the beginning. It would have been fun to sacrifice him.) I ended up hiring the Dark Elf at Huntsman for this purpose. This game needs an option like WOW where you can remove from your log quests you do not wish to do.

[kandrathe]

This game needs an option like WOW where you can remove from your log quests you do not wish to do.

>nod<

It would be nice for miscellaneous 1 step quests at least, but more complicated for for multiple step quests.

For Boethiah, I saved game, then tried to kill all the followers hoping that was deceptive enough.

[kandrathe]

Just finished the main quest but was a bit disappointed. I expected a followup quest to wrap up business (visit key characters, receive piles of treasure, etc) when there came none. the final area was interesting however (good music!).

Now I'm going to finish achievements. I'm at 66%.

I have not been concerned with achievements but out of curiosity checked to see how many I have and the answer is none. I have not been playing in offline mode, when I check Steam it says I have no connection. The game launches just fine, but it does not track achievements. I started a new character and made it a point to launch the game specifically by hitting the play button in my steam library. The character got two achievements (escaping the barrow and hitting the standing stone) but none after that as I lost my "steam connection".

I'm three notes from "a friend" short of getting all the shouts. I'll probably get them, then retire.

The last two, completed my mask collection, so I went to Labrinthian to get the ninth mask (which was kind of a let down. -- where is the epic battle? ) I had a weird glitch during that crusade, everyone hated me for a little while and would attack me on sight. But, when I got back home, everything had smoothed over, and the guard's were telling me about their bad knees again.

[Thenryb]

Just finished the main quest but was a bit disappointed. I expected a followup quest to wrap up business (visit key characters, receive piles of treasure, etc) when there came none. the final area was interesting however (good music!).

Now I'm going to finish achievements. I'm at 66%.

I have not been concerned with achievements but out of curiosity checked to see how many I have and the answer is none. I have not been playing in offline mode, when I check Steam it says I have no connection. The game launches just fine, but it does not track achievements. I started a new character and made it a point to launch the game specifically by hitting the play button in my steam library. The character got two achievements (escaping the barrow and hitting the standing stone) but none after that as I lost my "steam connection".

I'm three notes from "a friend" short of getting all the shouts. I'll probably get them, then retire.

The last two, completed my mask collection, so I went to Labrinthian to get the ninth mask (which was kind of a let down. -- where is the epic battle? ) I had a weird glitch during that crusade, everyone hated me for a little while and would attack me on sight. But, when I got back home, everything had smoothed over, and the guard's were telling me about their bad knees again.

I guess to get achievements you need to actually launch the game through steam by clicking on the "play" icon when you open your steam games library. I began by just launching with the exe. After the 1.2 patch I launched using the SKSE loader. After 1.3 I went back to using the exe. That is when I discovered that in spite of defeating Alduin twice, I had zero achievements. I have since been launching the game from within Steam and have now have about half the achievements. Actually, I think the whole concept is rather silly but I am doing it to have something to do in the game besides choosing a side or doing the endless Dark Brotherhood or Companion quest lines.

[kandrathe]

Actually, I think the whole concept is rather silly but I am doing it to have something to do in the game besides choosing a side or doing the endless Dark Brotherhood or Companion quest lines.

Yes. It is silly, but now that I have that done, I can just do whatever I want with my characters. I've started my pure mage, and have no interest in doing anything out of character for her. Currently I'm focused on Destruction for offense and Alteration skills for mage armor.

[Thenryb]

Actually, I think the whole concept is rather silly but I am doing it to have something to do in the game besides choosing a side or doing the endless Dark Brotherhood or Companion quest lines.

Yes. It is silly, but now that I have that done, I can just do whatever I want with my characters. I've started my pure mage, and have no interest in doing anything out of character for her. Currently I'm focused on Destruction for offense and Alteration skills for mage armor.

After I declared the achievements to be silly I then set about to get them. I had actually gotten most of them but Steam did not award them probably because I was launching the game through SKSE. I now have all but 1. For some reason, Steam will not acknowledge the Hail Sithis achievement even though I have completed it with various characters at least three times. I even got the Master Criminal achievement, although it hardly seems like someone who manages to get caught that many times can be called a "master criminal".

[kandrathe]

I'm working on a stealthy bow wielder, but at the higher levels bow damage drops off compared to one/two handed weapons. In the low 30's now, and having to supplement with dagger sneak attacks (which are cool... x15 damage for back stabs). I'm thinking of perhaps adding necromancy for added crowd control.

[Drasca]

Funny enough, Illusion is best for crowd control-- but I do love the necromancy / archer combination. That's my second character. Its fun raising the dead for literal meat shields and lobbing pointy sticks at the enemy while they're distracted.

[Treesh]

Well, I found an interesting little bug. My Eth finally got married, to a man and she has the housecarl (also a man) in Markarth. I told the husband to live in Markarth and normally the two guys get along fine until I throw items down in the bedroom. The first time, it was hubby's first homecooked meal that I threw down, heard "That's mine!" and "Not if I get it first", saw the two men race walking with weapons drawn to the meal on the nightstand. The housecarl got there first so the hubby started wailing away on him with a two handed axe, but the housecarl wasn't getting wounded. Occasionally, he would be staggered but didn't actually take any damage. Do a reload, put the pie on the table in the main room, the guys were behaving themselves. I noticed I picked up a statue of Dibella somewhere so I decided to put it on a ledge in the bedroom to show it off. Well, I heard the same bickering, saw the same foot race, but this time it was the hubby that got there first so the housecarl started wailing on the hubby this time, still no damage, but some staggering. Silly, silly game. =)

[Thenryb]

Well, I found an interesting little bug. My Eth finally got married, to a man and she has the housecarl (also a man) in Markarth. I told the husband to live in Markarth and normally the two guys get along fine until I throw items down in the bedroom. The first time, it was hubby's first homecooked meal that I threw down, heard "That's mine!" and "Not if I get it first", saw the two men race walking with weapons drawn to the meal on the nightstand. The housecarl got there first so the hubby started wailing away on him with a two handed axe, but the housecarl wasn't getting wounded. Occasionally, he would be staggered but didn't actually take any damage. Do a reload, put the pie on the table in the main room, the guys were behaving themselves. I noticed I picked up a statue of Dibella somewhere so I decided to put it on a ledge in the bedroom to show it off. Well, I heard the same bickering, saw the same foot race, but this time it was the hubby that got there first so the housecarl started wailing on the hubby this time, still no damage, but some staggering. Silly, silly game. =)

That is hilarious (at least by Bethesda standards). I had no idea that spouses and housecarls reacted to one another under any circumstances. I may have to see if Aela and Lydia will fight over something. If Bethesda can script that sort of encounter, I wonder why it will not inject a little more depth in the dialogue between the PC and companions or spouses. Of course, I know nothing about how this sort of thing is done, but Bioware manages to create games where the PC can develop some sort of relationship with followers.