Skyrim Questions

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

Another thing I've noticed is the chilling reality of this fantasy game. No .. not the over-sized weapons or the scanty female armor ... but infidelity! My poor hero married Camilla and every time I go into my own house, her former beau, the elven archer, is in there, cursing me for "everything I've done"

In addition, the kids you adopt harass you for money and never do their chores!

I have noticed some very good wisdom coming from some of the NPCs .. was rather surprised.

Anyway, the game is still huge and ... I'm not sure I'll ever finish it.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

So, my last session with Skyrim, apparently my cloud did not sinc with my persistent game upon my last play session and now, no more horse armor. I find this weird because ... I didn't have a horse armor mod to begin with - that I can remember installing - and, I can't find a mod to provide said armor. I can't even find the armor NPC that I see in youtube videos.

And all my past saved games don't sinc up either ... so each game I load up, I still get the little note, cloud can not sinc with game, some items may be lost. Ideas?

[msterswrdsmn]

Are you using steam?

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... ?t=3144438

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

Thank you much, mster!

[msterswrdsmn]

Glad to help. I'm guessing that worked for you?

[Xarge VI]

My suggestion is that the first thing you do is raise your pick pocket to 100, then set out on a crusade to have all of Skyrim embrace nudism. You will be hated for it but they will fear you.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

My suggestion is that the first thing you do is raise your pick pocket to 100, then set out on a crusade to have all of Skyrim embrace nudism. You will be hated for it but they will fear you.

What?

[msterswrdsmn]

Heh. Raising your pickpocket ranks to 100 and investing in the 100 point perk allows you to steal the clothes/armor right off peoples back. Its amusing, but not terribly helpful considering the investment you need to make to get it.

Though, if your about to fight someone with a character that isn't good at direct confrontations, the 70 point perk that allows you to steal their weapons works wonders.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

Hey, curious if anyone has used J'zargo as a follower and what they thought of him. I just switched from Lydia, who I've kept as a follower for this time around, to J'zargo, since Lydia maxes out at level 50 and my char is approaching level 60.

[Tashalar]

I used Markus from the Inn in Riften, pretty much all the way through. He's a Destruction badass.

[mf_hansen]

Apparently the Lioness of Riften cannot die, that should count for something if you like exploits. J'zhargo has no max level cap on the other hand, so that's also nice. Aela the Huntress can become invincible if you start a certain quest with her but never complete it.

See the bottom of this page. Some of them may be boring conversation partners of course, but that's a subjective opinion. I tend to use Mjoll as a meat-shield, but mostly go about it alone.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

Ahh, thanks mf!

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

I can report this, for any others who are interested. After my surgery I started Skyrim all over again with a brand new Dunmer sneak. While I love Lydia, she just isn't very stealthy ... if you go with a sneaky character, J'zargo is very easy to stay in stealth with. Especially with muffled boots.

[Tashalar]

Actually, if you don't hit the mercenary during the fights, they usually live forever. The mage I have has lived foreeeeever, he just does the NPC-crouching thing for a few seconds (and if you hit them during that time, they -will- die - but that's what quicksaves are for!).

Also, that page is just outright Wrong. Markus (I think that's his name anyway, I've had Serana with me for a while while I get the Vampire Master achievement) Is a fantastic and really strong Destruction mage. He's quite stealthy too, and you just give them good equipment and they're good to go.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

I don't think I've met Markus. With my Nord warrior, I just used Lydia and got Nordman up to level 55 or so. Found out later that Lydia stops leveling at 50, and while she was still effective and generally pleasant, I found her breaking my stealth all the time with my Dunmer. And since I like the Khajiit accent, I decided to give J'zargo a try.

Yes, saves are paramount, with any character/follower. Especially for perfectionist players like myself.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

Another question. My Dunmer is level 60 now, mainly an archer sneak, maxed in smithing and almost maxed in alchemy as well. Just starting to train a bit in alteration magic, but I am curious if anyone has advice on the Magika/Health/Stamina spread. Thus far I've put most in health and only enough in magika to cast a fear spell to get into the college, and about 6 points in stamina - but I am toying with putting more points in magika ... as I almost never die anymore - not sure I really need more health - especially with my high alchemy skills. Potions for the win!

Thus far my spread is

Magika - 130 - Health - 530, and Stamina 220.

[msterswrdsmn]

It depends on your playstyle, really. If you're playing a character that rarely gets hurt much, you don't need a ton of health. Conversely, if you're playing a melee fighter or something similar where you're ALWAYS getting hit, you're probably going to need more health.

I've got 2 main characters I play: One is a mage-knight sort of build with a balanced spread between health, magic, and stamina. The other is a sniper, who uses a ton of magic and stamina, but doesn't have much health. He just doesn't need it.

If you're planning on putting points into magic schools...yeah, you're probably going to want a bit more magick.

Edit: Probably should give a bit of a better explaination

Alternation spells suck up a ton of magic. Moreso if you overcharge them. Even the lower level ones. MOST of the spells give armor bonuses...which might be overkill with max smithing and a ton of HP. Alteration really becomes useful after...what, 30-40 points or so? When you can start investing in passive feats such as spell resistance, which stacks with other forms of elemental/magic resistance.

You can do some dickish moves with it later on, like drowning people after hitting them with paralysis, but alteration is mostly a defensive school.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

I think I have decided that Skyrim is a bit too easy. I have never seen a difficulty bar when starting a new game, anyone know if there is one?

[msterswrdsmn]

Its under the game options under the start/escape menu. I think by default, its set on "adept".

[Black Wendigo]

Also the difficulty setting can be changed on the fly any time while you are playing.

[Arther Goodmane]

There are too many posts for any sane person to read in one go, so I'll just write about what I tend to do in Skyrim (Vanilla).

(spoiler) If you're interested in making a sneaky assassin/thief type character, you might have taken the "thief" stone marker. Don't, it's not necessary. I find the best stone to use is actually the warrior stone. I found that if you're in sneak mode, it goes up anyway at a ridiculous rate. The stallion is even better, with extra carrying capacity.

Don't bother investing in lockpicking if you're character is a thief, every single one of my characters can pick just about anything. It's just a matter of figuring out how the mechanic works. Anything up to master level difficulty is totally doable with little to no points in lockpicking, though there are perks there I might not be aware of. Same for pick pocketing...you make just as much coin by looting dungeons.

I put in at least 1 perk into Restoration and Illusion, regardless of build. To use heal spell and clairvoyance.

Wear an Amulet of Mara and talk to the pretty girls.

But, for me at least, the game is not about how far you can level or how effective your build is. I find that a tad boring. None of my characters have reached level 30. I have at least like 9 or so characters I created and I am STILL discovering new things about Skyrim. In the end, any build will work. Some better than others, but they will all work.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

Its under the game options under the start/escape menu. I think by default, its set on "adept".

[furryn]

Now that I have a computer that can run some of these high end games, I'm giving Skyrim another go and I have a few questions.

1. Does giving your follower new armor/weapons really help or are their stats/abilities already set?

2. I hear a great deal about playing only to level 30 or building up to the 80s and that many of the followers cap out at lower levels ... how am I going to know which follower to employ, other than being defeated often in combat?

3. Is there any benefit of having more than one home? (it sounds rather confusing, actually, to have more than one, never knowing where you stored your gear)

4. Because I'm not a great builder, I often get into these games and build my character, only to find out that if I didn't maximize their builds, I can't complete the game. I have a Nord, axe and board, heavy armor fighter who is gung ho in blacksmithing - is that going to cut it? All the videos I see on Youtube shows archers and mages.

1. YES. It most definitely does.

2. There is caps for some. I can't recall the highest caps, but there are mods for removing all/some

3. I like being invested in one place, when i am done fitting it out however, and i find myself with 100k+ septims, i can't help but buy and outfit a new place. As stated by others, the hearthfire homes have different benefits. - I would definitely recommend investing in one of these, It is much more worthwhile than the other homes. (Even though i love the one in Windhelm, and the one in Riften)

4. well, if you are looking to do EVERYTHING in the game with one character. you'll find out at some point that the order in which you do the quests can matter a bit about your character.

But at the end of the day, this usually happens to me:
- Builds mage/sneak/fighter char, starting out strictly sticking to that concept
- Sooner or later runs in to some challenge that is easier to accomplish if you use one of the others.
- Sooner or later runs in to some challenge that is easier to accomplish if you use the third.
- Still uses them.

A bit of the beauty about Skyrim is also that you can have a character that is heavily invested in sneaking/archery/blades/lightarmor
then decide you want to do heavyarmour/destruction. It'll be a bit hard at first, but it will definitely be possible. Explore your options, and find out in the game what works for you