| God, I must be the world's worst in erring on the side of caution when it comes to saving my game - 700+ in my current game and I'm just now starting the MQ. (Once I amass about 125, I go into Explorer and delete the first 100 of them, saving only special ones like the one before joining House Redoran, in case if I want to go back and try Hlaalu, I don't have to go thru the Mage's guild yet again.)
My advice:
Never, ever, ever overwrite a prior save - they're easy enough to delete later to free up space on your HD
Like UncleS says, save before enchanting
Save before talking to people you come across in the countryside, because they're gonna give you a quest. Listen to them and, if you decide you don't want it, reload and avoid talking to them. I don't know if it negatively affects your reputation to turn a deaf ear to a plea for help but it certainly looks bad in your journal - "Man asked me to rescue his kidnapped wife. Told him I couldn't be bothered."
Save before sleeping to level up and after leveling up
Save before entering a shrine
After clearing out the people in the shrine, save before picking up the item that triggers the Dremora Lord. Since the weapon he drops is randomized, keep killing him over and over again until he gives you what you want. Save whenever he drops anything interesting (but not what you're looking for) - if he refuses to give up, say, that Daedric Shortsword even after killing him 50 or 60 times, you can choose a nice consolation prize. (BTW, this also seems to work on the Dremora you meet on the stairs leading down into the main shrine room, which is why I suggest saving before entering, but that is much more time-consuming.)
It's a good idea, when returning from a quest, to save before talking to the person who gave it to you. I once spent a hour backtracking to look for something I figured I must have missed when I merely hadn't chosen the correct dialog option. If you have the quest item and your journal isn't updating while talking to the person, try other dialog choices.
And, like Scratchy says, don't sweat it if you mess up an enchantment - you'll eventually find plenty of Grand Soul Gems and Golden Saints to go in them and have the 75000GP for that constant effect Strength +30 tower shield.
Check all the bandit caves along the coast all the way from Seyda Neen to Gnissis - you should come up with a few GSGs.
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free_fall
... and when I look at you I think, if I were a psychopath and we were standing on an extremely high cliff above a pounding surf that would drown out your scream ... well ... you know ...
Last edited by free_fall; 12-01-2002 at 05:39 PM.
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