[dnewhous]

I have played Marrowind: Game of the Year Edition on the Xbox for a couple of hours- enough to get an idea of how it work although I haven't gotten very far.

I now want to restart and generate my character (custom) with more thought (this is generally how I approach RPGs).

I have a few questions

1) Where are all the ranged weapons? I want a fighter who uses both swords and ranged weapons but I haven't found any ranged weapons (I want a compound bow!) in the shops in Barmalla (or whatever it is) or in the town you start in or in the first dungeon you go to. I imagine the game makes subtle adjustments based on character class and skills. I gave myself long sword as a major skill on first generation and marksman as a minor skill. If I gave myself marksman as a major skill would more ranged weapons show up in the game?

2) What are some cool things that speechcraft will let you do that you can't do without it? I want some game highlights, not a vague answer. I gave myself speechcraft as a minor skill the first time. There were a couple of...sentients living in shacks in the town you start in that didn't say anything to me so I tried pursuade-admire on them. It didn't work. I suppose that you need to choose speechcraft as a major skill or it doesn't do you any good. So I tentatively intend to drop the skill from my character altogether. But I want to hear some people chime in on it.

3) Armorer. Can you ever do anything besides repair armor with this skill? Like make armor? And how much of the skill do you need for it to be usable? I mean, as the game goes on not as you start out. I haven't tried using it yet becuase I haven't bough the equipment I need to use it, getting my equipment fixed at a shop was cheap. Also, I intend to be strictly a heavy armor user. You can find steel armor very early in the game (the shop in the Fighter's Guild in Barmalla or whatever it is called) and it is cheaper than the best medium weight armor in the same town (which was made out of some funny substance that looked yellowish). So it's heavy armor only for me. Is heavy armor easier to repair than medium armor? What sort of things make an armor (or weapon) harder to repair? And, could I make do wielding heavy armor and 2 handed swords with armorer as a minor skill instead of a major skill?
I figure I need to choose armorer as a skill because if I'm deep in a dungeon I may want to fix myself up before tackling the big nasty at the end.

4) Does heavy armor make stealth harder to use? I haven't given myself stealth but I am curious about the subtlety of the game engine. I think heavy armor should make stealth unusable but I don't know if they made the game that way. I did not give my character stealth the first time.

5) Strategy guide - Does the strategy guide address the issues I have brought up in my post? I would get it if I thought it had all the specifics I want. I would probably have to mail order it.