Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!

lrdgck

Technically I should agree, but it's too fun to watch you squirm.

Saigyouji

Quoting the readme for the Melee component, since the main page is terrible at describing stuff:

One-Handed
Stances are introduced:  Duelist, Shield, Spellsword, and Dual Wield
* The Duelist Stance - When the off-hand is empty, get +20% attack speed, +5% critical, +5% parry/deflect.
* The Shield Stance - When holding a shield, get a 5% chance to reflect damage back.
* The Spellsword Stance: With a spell in your off-hand you have a 4% chance to disorient enemies, making them fall, and enemies have a 4% miss chance. Magicka regenerates 10% faster.
* The Staff Stance - When holding a staff, all magic is 10% stronger. (Time for mages to be mages!)
* The Dual Wield Stance - Largely the same as vanilla, but speed bonuses stack with other perks.
All one-handed weapons get 1/2 power attack damage & 1/2 stamina use
Daggers, Swords, War Axes, and Maces get a bonus to added critical damage equal to 50%, 40%, 30%, and 20% of the One-Handed skill level, respectively

One-handed perks Perks
* Fighting Stance lvl1 - 25% less stamina used for power attacks, and +10% damage. The Duelist, Spellsword, and Shield Stances are unlocked.
* Fighting Stance lvl2 - 50% less stamina used for power attacks
* Dagger & Sword Training - Daggers & Swords +20% damage. Take -15% damage and -50% criticals from them.
* War Axe Training - War Axes +20% damage. Take -15% damage and -50% criticals from them.
* Light Mace Training - One-handed Maces +20% damage. Take -15% damage and -50% criticals from them.
* Bonebreaker - tops out at 50% armor ignored, but only uses 2 perks
* Bladesman - increases sword and dagger attack speed, lvl 1 is +10% and lvl2 is +20%
* Opportunist - increases all 1-handed critical hit chances by 7%
* Savage Strike - +50% critical hit chance with standing power attacks
* Dual Savagery - +33% critical hit chance with dual wielding power attacks
* Master Bladesman - 15% chance to attack incredibly fast
* Expert Bone Breaker - 15% chance to attack incredibly fast
* Hack & Slash Virtuoso - 15% chance to attack incredibly fast
(note: these fast attacks are at lvl 90 and replace the 3rd level of the specialized perks)

Two-Handed
All Two-Handed weapons get +20% power attack damage, and +20% stagger.
Sneaking with a two-handed weapon is more difficult.
Greatswords, Battle Axes, and Warhammers get a bonus to added critical damage equal to 50%, 40%, and 30% of the Two-Handed skill level, respectively

Two-Handed Perks
* Champion's Stance lvl1 - 25% less stamina used for power attacks, +20% damage with 2-handers
* Champion's Stance lvl2 - 50% less stamina used for power attacks
* Greatsword Training - Greatswords do +30% damage. Take -15% damage and -50% criticals from them.
* Battle Axe Training - Battle axes +30% damage. Take -15% damage and -50% criticals from them.
* Warhammer Training - Warhammers do +30% damage. Take -15% damage and -50% criticals from them.
* Internal Bleeding - Warhammers get a 30% chance to cause a small bleed but for 5 minutes
* Skull Crusher - only 2 levels and caps at 85% armor ignored, lvl1 also adds 10% attack speed
* Deep wounds - lvl1 adds 10% attack speed and lvl2 adds 10% more, for a total of 20% faster attacks
* Crippling Blow - Greatswords get a 15% chance to immobilize for 2secs.
* Limb Splitter - lvl1 also adds 10% attack speed, last lvl bleed effect is 3x longer and 3x stronger
* Gusher - Battle Axes get a 15% chance to cause a gushing wound dealing enormous damage for a few moments.
* Supplanter - Power attacks with two-handed weapons do +50% damage.
(note: Internal Bleeding, Crippling Blow, and Gusher are lvl 40)

NOTE:  "50% less criticals" means: original enemy critical chance is 10%, with perk it is 5%

Nova

Grr.

You also walk around with your bow permanently strung, so...

Nova

Anyway! I installed the mod, so let's see what's changed.

Gah. The first thing I notice is that the Smithing tree has been completely redone. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be such a bad thing, but I had eight perks sunk into that tree, and now one perk counts for three. Plus, I have to sink two more perks into Smithing if I ever want to make Legendary weapons again. Gah.

My Archery tree has also been messed up, but it'll only take one perk to get back up, so whatever.

My One-Handed tree has also been rearranged, and now two of my perks fit things I don't care about (a perk that deals extra damage with maces, and a perk that has to do with the dagger-and-sword combo), but I can deal with that.

Light Armour has also been rearranged, but it's less awful- now I have one perk in the Spellsword category, and one in Know Your Enemy that allows you to deal more damage against enemies in light armour.

I guess this also means we're going to have to go train Heavy Armour so we can take a rank in that later too. Bleh.

Sneak, Illusion and Restoration have been unchanged. Enchanting has had more perks added to it, but I still have all the perks I had before (except now my Fire/Ice damage enchantments will be slightly weaker), and there's a new perk I can take twice which will up my magic resistance, which is incredibly nice.

Overall, if this were a new character, this mod would be an excellent change just in terms of its perks. As it is, I have no problem with most of the perk trees, but I'm mostly annoyed by how it's changed my Smithing, Archery and One-Handed perks.

However, I have a mod installed that lets me exchange Dragon Souls for perks, so we'll be able to build those perks back up later. So whatever.

lrdgck

Perhaps you could run some save editor.

Nova

I could, but it'd feel like cheating.

In other news: Fuck vampires.

lrdgck

Well, I'd look at it as if the mod cheated you out of your perks, so it'd be fair. Also:

Fuck vampires.

I've heard the plot of Twilight is kind of about that, isn't it? (Heh heh heh *SNORT!*)

Nova

Well, I'd look at it as if the mod cheated you out of your perks, so it'd be fair.

Yeah, but it's not like I didn't already have 100 Smithing. All it took was me turning the skill Legendary, and suddenly I have all 8 perk points back- and Level 15 Smithing, which is the downside, but it's not like I can't get it back to 100 with minimal effort.

I've heard the plot of Twilight is kind of about that, isn't it?

And Laurel K. Hamilton's stuff, and Anne Rice.

Nova

Spoiler:

Anyway! Dawnguard!

We head down to Riften and head off to Fort Dawnguard.

We meet this dude along the path, who's planning to join up too. He's pretty cool.

We head inside to talk to Isran, who's in charge of recruiting, and witness an argument between him and Vigilant Tolan, a Vigilant of Stendarr. Apparently, the Vigilants are being targeted by vampires, and Isran is bitter towards them for not helping him to rebuild the Dawnguard earlier.

Hanging around for a sec, we see Isran talk to Agmaer. He's a bit condescending at first, due to Agmaer's lack of experience, but he hands Agmaer a crossbow and teaches him how to use it. I like both of them already.

Anyway, we're off to Dimhollow cave, to deal with some vampires there.

But, of course, Tolan is dead by the time we get there

Anyway, by various dialogues between the vampires in the cave, it's made pretty clear that they're looking for something.

I kill various levels of incredibly difficult vampires, contracting vampirism twice in the process, before I make it to a strange cavern with yet another lame puzzle in it.

This is Selana. And yes. That is an Elder Scroll on her back. Why can't I equip mine like that?

Anyway, we escort Selana back to her father's mansion, all the way up near Solitude. There, her father offers us a choice; accept his "blessing" as a Vampire Lord, or be forever banished from his castle. He won't kill us this time out of thanks for bringing Selana back, but he makes it clear that won't extend forever.

We head back to Fort Dawnguard, where vampires are attacking, fuck.

Isran tells us we need to go recruit two people; Sorine Jurard, who's an excellent mechanic/engineer with a focus on the Dwemer, and Gunmar, who is able to train animals quite effectively.

We recruit them easily enough (Sorine just asks for a Dwemer Gyro, which there are 7 of in her satchel nearby, and Gunmar asks us to help him kill a bear). Then, it's back to Fort Dawnguard.

There, Isran forces the three of us to stand in a ray of sunlight to prove we're not vampires. Paranoid; that's actually good.

What's less good is the way the quest bugs out after that. No matter what I do, I can't get the gates to lower. Eventually, I'm forced to shoot Isran from hiding, then use the console to turn everyone non-hostile, bleh.

Anyway, Isran takes me to Serana, who's showed up for some reason.

This is what Serana looks like, if you're curious.

No kidding.

Oh great, a prophecy. Fuck.

D'awww.

Anyway, Serana asks us to trust her, so we go along with her and try to get the other members of the Dawnguard on side.

Isran was easy enough to convince by accepting responsibility for her actions.

Serana apparently has the Elder Scroll on her. She wants us to read it- but, of course, neither of us can. The only people who can are members of the Cult of the Moth Priest or whatever.

Luckily, Isran knows where one might be, so Serana and I set off!

The process is pretty simple. We head to the College of Winterhold and ask the librarian where one might be. He tells us to head for Dragon's Bridge, so we head there, where we're told to go south. Then, we find the Moth Priest's caravan ambushed and the guy missing. We read the vampire's note, then go to the requisite dungeon and rescue him. Nothing new here.

We report in to Isran before we speak to the Moth Priest. He reads the Elder Scroll for us.

Woo, a magic bow. I have fifty, which one do you want?

Well, we still have the Dragon Scroll (There ain't no way I'm giving it up).

Afterwards, Serana speaks up, and tells us that she needs to find her mother, who may have the other Elder Scroll on her. Unfortunately... she's probably in Castle Volhikar.

That's it for this update though; it's 4AM.

Nova

So! Stats and stuff.

We are currently at Level 48.

Our relevant skills are:

Restoration: 53
Enchanting: 100
Smithing: 15 (Legendary 1)
One-Handed: 90
Archery: 70
Light Armour: 82 (Boosted to 137)
Sneak: 83
Lockpicking: 64
Pickpocketing: 27
Speech: 59
Alchemy: 33
Illusion: 92

Magicka: 300
Health: 360
Stamina: 110 

ClockworkUniverse

He gave us a blank Lexicon and a key to Blackreach, then told us we'd have to go there and fill the Lexicon with knowledge if we wanted to get the Elder Scroll.

We did so

Okay, I know your post got deleted so you had to summarize, but really? glossing over one of the coolest parts of the game?

Nova

Yes.

I wrote it up in lavish description three times.

Enough is enough. My hands were goddamned sore.

ClockworkUniverse

Yeah, fair enough. That's really depressing though :c

Nova

Indeed. I even went to all the trouble of summoning Vulthuryol to show everyone :c

Incidentally, Vulthuryol was the toughest dragon in the game so far. He had 2788 health, only slightly less than Alduin's 2960, but I couldn't sit back and peg him with arrows like I could Alduin, and I was dealing only like 15 damage a hit.