Skyrim

ClockworkUniverse

The fourth option is the one that makes it hard.

Waltzy

Yeah, but this is my first time and I wanted to actually see the quests~. Besides, the Night Mother is pretty neato.

I'll never forgive her for letting my beloved Lucien Lachance die in Oblivion though. :<

ClockworkUniverse

Yeah, it is a pretty cool questline. But I'd imagine the other questline from taking the fourth option is cool, too.

Argh, I should get back to writing my journal/liveblog thing.

All Nines

Lucien Lachance wasn't that cool, was he? I mean, when I played Oblivion as a member of the Dark Brotherhood/mass murdering maniac, as soon as he tried to leave, I killed him.

Waltzy

Aww, but he so was! He sounded cool and was awesomely suave and ooh I hated Arquen. So much.

In Skyrim when I found that bar selling the drinks named after him I bought them all.

All Nines

He seemed pretty cool, relatively. Just not cool enough for me to pass up that chance.

Then again, I tried to kill the rest of the Dark Brotherhood anyway, I think.

Crimson

My first playthrough started! Here's my character:



A few questions though:

• Dual Wielding or Sword and Board?
• How many skills can you reasonably expect to max out, perk-wise, in a playthrough?
• Any recommended perks?
• Any recommended mod?
• Anything else I should know that would help? 
  

ClockworkUniverse

-Dual Wielding

-I think maxing out every skill gets you 81 perks.

-Depends entirely on your build

-Haven't modded yet, myself

-Do the main quest early if you want the good shouts. And get a decent distance in it if you want shouts at all.

Elbeem

I just got this game, so I've skipped most of the thread to avoid huge spoilers, but I had to state my amazement at the fact that my character is almost level 20 after having done nothing but Pick Pocketing, home invasions, and crafting in the starting town and Whiterun.

I suppose I've done some fighting during random travel encounters as well as killing animals for their pelts, but the bulk of my experience seems to be from sneaking around and picking people's pockets.

In short, I absolutely love this game already and I haven't done a single quest.

edit: I imagine I would be at least level 30 by now from Speech skill gains if I had any idea where to sell my stolen items.

ClockworkUniverse

To sell stolen items, go to Riften and join the thieves guild.

And be careful about gaining 20 levels from sneaking and pickpocketing. The scaling system is less strict than Oblivion's, so the game should still be playable, but...well, you might want to train up your combat skills a bit.

Nyktos

Maxing out every skill gets you to level 81, but you don't get a perk at level 1, so the max you can get is eighty perks. Each skill has about ten to twenty perks, so how many you can get all the perks in depends on which skills you pick. That said, most skills have at least one or two perks that are useless, or will be useless to your build.

Elbeem

Thanks for the tip on Riften.

Eh, I've been contemplating just keeping this character as a professional thief, and starting a new Fighter/Mage style character when I want to do serious questing. So far her archery is pretty decent from the hunting I've been doing, and her high sneak combined with the 3x bow damage perk means that I kill nearly everything I get the drop on in 2 or 3 hits without ever being detected.

I probably will train up One Handed weapons once I get that 15x damage for Daggers sneak perk, though. That's going to be too tempting to pass up.

I'd also like to create a character that's basically just a traveling merchant/crafter with little combat experience. The fact that you can potentially get to high levels doing so makes this game awesome, in my opinion.

ClockworkUniverse

You should be able to manage, then. I thought you had pretty much no combat training.

Elbeem

Mainly just the archery from hunting animals and picking off random bad guys while traveling at night. It's not nearly as high as my thievery skills, but it seems to be enough to get me by for now.

ClockworkUniverse

Sneaking will get you pretty far a lot of the time, especially once you get yourself a pair of muffle boots.

You might have to worry about a few boss-ish enemies, but good strategy generally works for them.

Elbeem

Is there any way to pay off my Whiterun bounty without having all my stolen items confiscated?

ClockworkUniverse

Hide them somewhere first. Or sell them to the thieves guild.

Elbeem

Ah, so they only take what's in your inventory then? I panicked and save-scummed before investigating fully (since nearly every piece of equipment I was wearing was stolen).

That will work. Thanks!

Nyktos

For the long term, there's a perk that lets you bribe guards.

Elbeem

I think I know the one you're talking about. If I recall right, I'll need to get my Speech up a good deal before I can pick that one up, though.

ClockworkUniverse

Protip: if you have 100 arrows to buy or sell, do it one at a time if you want a high speech skill.

All Nines

Hm. That's good to know, actually. Hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

Elbeem

Argh, really? I think I just assumed that selling large stacks of stuff would benefit me more due to it being a high gold transaction.

Now I must fight the urge not to weep at the thought of all the stacks of stuff I didn't sell individually.

ClockworkUniverse

^I think higher value items are worth more points toward the skill, but any given transaction is treated as if you'd sold one of the item.

Nyktos

Well, that's...dumb. I always sold arrows as stacks out of convenience, not that I care overmuch about my Speech skill.

Icalasari

There is one quest in Windhelm which raises your sneak to 40

So a thief character should do that one asap as they get more benefit the less sneak they have

All Nines

:<

Elbeem

Blargh.

Icalasari

I only found out about it myself when my Sneak was reasonably high

The quest giver's also a marriage candidate (the only female Argonian you can marry)

Nyktos

UESP claims the reward for her quest is just training in Light Armour and Lockpicking.