Plz Critique My New Char

Garthdawg · Post by **Garthdawg** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:04 am

I just got Bloodmoon and Tribunal (actually bought the GOTYE, already having the collector's editon), and there's still plenty of quests I haven't done from the original.

But I decided that I want a new toon. I don't want to go around training up my misc skills really high. I should be able to do everything I want with my minor/major skills so that it feels more RP'ish

This is what I came up with. Below I will give reasons why I chose what I did, so you can give me advice on where I went wrong.

Pierre
Male Breton
Specialization: Magic
FA: Endurance, Luck
Class: Reaper
Major: Long Sword, Heavy Armor, Enchant, Alchemy, Mercantile
Minor: Spear, Medium Armor, Light Armor, Marksman, Hand to Hand
Born under The Atronach

Breton for the 50% resist magicka. That's a great CE that'd be very difficult to craft. Plus with the Savior's Curais, you're immune to magic.

The Atronach is for 50 points of magic absorbtion, making you even tougher to kill with magic. The fortified and stunted magicka don't really matter.

Luck because it has no multiplier. Endurance to get extra HP as fast as possible. I would level endurance skills first.

Skills I definitely wanted are:
Enchant - I don't need any of the school's of magic because b/c I can cast almost anything from a ring/amulet. I plan on making a lot of illusion rings to also cover speechcraft and sneak. Enchant also covers unlocking, getting rid of traps, getting to high places.
Alchemy - Great for battle, easy way to make money early, fun, don't need enchantments for everything
Mercantile - No way to replace this skill. Training is MUCH cheaper.
1 Weapon - Longsword because it seems to have the best late-game artifacts
1 Armor - Heavy because it's the highest rating.

I really felt that those were the only skills my character needed. This is where I really need help. I chose spear to boost my endurance early, medium because I like wearing all sorts of armor, so I'd be more inclined to put on cooler looking medium armor, esp from the expansions. Light is for Boots of Blinding speed, Savior's curais, summoned armor, and maybe glass. I think unarmed outfits (besides robes, which you can wear over armor) look stupid. So I just picked up unique stuff. Marksman can be fun, as well as H2H. And both give me alternate ways of killing stuff.

So, what would you suggest? I think Enchant, Alchemy and Mercantile, 1 armor and 1 weapon is all that you need in order to cover all functions in the game. What would you suggest?

blake · Post by **blake** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:22 am

add acrobatics and athletics they are great fun, especially acroabtics

Illistil · Post by **Illistil** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:31 am

ya acrobatics is really fun, especially if ur playing on xbox. i just got the pc version and its harder to press jump a lot unlike on xbox and i figured it was unrealistic jumping all the time anyways

marksman is the best, i highly suggest u get it, especially with the dwarven shock darts which are in my opinion the best weapon in the game (very fast, ranged, tremendous damage, one handed, easily replaceable). I don't really like the enchant skill because then you will have to keep equiping and unequiping rings/amulets and not have your best constance effect ones on all the time. i only consider wearing one time of armor though, but whatever suits you right

Dark Master · Post by **Dark Master** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 12:24 pm

I wouldn't use a Breton, sure he's got that impressive magicka resistance, but the orc is the most criminally underused and underrated race, they still get magicka resistance, start with higher endurance, and have base bonus to weapon skills. I'd also have your character specialise in combat and not magicka, but other than that he looks very cool.

DM

beornica · Post by **beornica** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:01 pm

I know you picked all three armors as skills because you're not sure what you want to use yet -
but to be perfectly honest, I really would pick only one. By the time you figure out what you want to use, you'll have lots of money, and you can train up the skill to use that one. I recommend light armor. Glass. Yummy.

Garthdawg · Post by **Garthdawg** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:29 pm

So it sounds like I should get rid of Medium Armor and Light or Heavy and replace them with acro and athletics. I thought that maybe alchemy and enchant would take care of jumping and running needs, but maybe you're right. I've already played through in glass, so I'm thinking heavy, but what's cool in Bloodmoon/Tribunal? Anyone know what type of armor the stuff in that really cool knights mod is, the one with like 8 sets of really pretty armor for both genders?

Orc is a really good idea. I don't need the magicka boost or the shield, and the endurance and strength would really help.

I forgot to mention why I picked magic as a specialization. The highest attainable level is 77.5 = 5*((100-15)+(100-30))/10, which assumes your minor and major skills are minimized at 15 and 30 respectively. Thus I try to pick the specialization that I have the least skills in so that I can level up the most (which is fun). It makes the beginning a little harder, but I think the hitpoints help out in the end. Maybe I'm wrong.

Dark Master · Post by **Dark Master** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:38 pm

The armour you're talking about is the armour of Arkay right? All of it is heavy, if it is the one you mean.

Garthdawg · Post by **Garthdawg** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:55 pm

I tried searching for Arkay and it didn't come up. I'm pretty sure I found a link to the website here. There are about 10 sets of armor, and a style of each for both men and women. They each have a set of quests associated with getting them. Supposeldy you can only run one at a time. I remember one set of armor was for the keepers of the elder scrolls who wear bright green armor. Some dragon group was in really nice black, with golden emblems. The armor's really shiny and looks amazing.

beornica · Post by **beornica** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:56 pm

Ohhh, I was wondering why you you picked such all over the place skills!
There are some refreshing changes for armour in bloodmoon and tribunal. They're not really super duper excellent armours, but it gets a little tiring anyway when your armour is so good that nothing at all can hurt you.
In tribunal, there's adamantium armor, royal guard, and Her Hand armour (Amalexia's guards) I personally haven't found a full set of Adamantium yet, but apparently you can mine it somewhere in the undercity (there I go with KOTOR) and have whatever you want made for you.
I *believe* it's medium, Royal Guard is medium, and Her Hand is heavy. Very beautiful armour, that.
In bloodmoon, there wolf, bear, snow wolf and snowbear (same thing, just white and magical) and there's loverly loverly ice armour you can have made, which, like adamantium, you have to gather your own materials for in order to have it specially made. I believe it's heavy, and it's very very nice. I wonder how it enchants? Does anybody know?

Garthdawg · Post by **Garthdawg** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 2:04 pm

With the Official plug-in I think you can buy most adamantium pieces from normal Morrowind vendors.

Those others sound cool. I even kinda like the Dark Brotherhood armor that I got the first time I rested. Except the helmet looks dumb. But then again, I can get really annoyed by carrying so much. I guess that's why I made my monk. All he carries is his robe, a mace, and some throwing items. BoBS optional.

All this armor is exciting. I really don't know if I should drop them. But what I kinda realized when I made this char is that:

If I pick Alchemy, Enchant and Mercantile and abuse them, the only other skills I need are combat. So I picked every armor style and a few fighting styles. I think spear is kinda funny autobestattack off. You have to run back and forth to smite people. And it looks really cool from side view.

So let's say I go with heavy. Is it worthwhile to keep light for BoBS?

I'm thinking that I should get rid of H2H. It's really easy to level, but I don't think it'd be very good later on. Not sure though.

Sean The Owner · Post by **Sean The Owner** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 2:15 pm

[QUOTE=beornica]
In bloodmoon, there wolf, bear, snow wolf and snowbear (same thing, just white and magical) and there's loverly loverly ice armour you can have made, which, like adamantium, you have to gather your own materials for in order to have it specially made. I believe it's heavy, and it's very very nice. I wonder how it enchants? Does anybody know?[/QUOTE]
the stalhrim armor in bloodmoon is actually medium armor, but i agree with you that it is very nice, the stalhrim weapons are wicked too.

and by the way your character sounds wicked, i would suggest orc too if you want the extra endurance.

Garthdawg · Post by **Garthdawg** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:36 pm

Let's say you're making a character and you've already decided this much:

Breton or Orc
Atronach
Endurance and Luck
Skills: Mercantile, Enchant, Alchemy

How would you finish that template? You'd need major/minor skills and a specialization.

BTW, the argument that you'll just end up wearing 1 set of armor at the end could be applied to weapons as well. Once you get 100 in 1 weapon, what incentive do you have to raise another (beside marksman)? Not much, just like you'd have little incentive to raise your light armor skill if the only light you wore was Boots of Blinding Speed.

beornica · Post by **beornica** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:51 pm

[QUOTE=Garthdawg]

BTW, the argument that you'll just end up wearing 1 set of armor at the end could be applied to weapons as well. Once you get 100 in 1 weapon, what incentive do you have to raise another (beside marksman)? Not much, just like you'd have little incentive to raise your light armor skill if the only light you wore was Boots of Blinding Speed.[/QUOTE]
Hmmm, not entirely true. Right now I'm carrying a halberd, two short blades (keening and soul drinker) and the daedric crescent (long sword) but that's way into the game where it doesn't matter what your skills are, since you've had the chance to work your miscellaneous all the way up, anyhow.

As for "finishing your template", here's what I would do.
mercantile
enchant
alchemy
athletics
heavy armour
marksman
acrobatics
speechcraft
security (unless you plan on enchanting something with open 100 pts very early on)
mysticism
restoration (much easier to have the spells than carry around tons of potions, especially when you're using heavy armour)
conjuration (I just just learned how fun this can be, and I highly recommend it)
plus, of course, the melee weapon of your choice. But, of course, even if you are an orc and are very very strong, heavy armor and all those arrows, bolts or throwing knives use up a lot of your strength, so I'd recommend a lighter weapon, such as a short blade. plus you can carry more around for if one breaks.

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 4:00 pm

[QUOTE=Garthdawg]I tried searching for Arkay and it didn't come up. I'm pretty sure I found a link to the website here. There are about 10 sets of armor, and a style of each for both men and women. They each have a set of quests associated with getting them. Supposeldy you can only run one at a time. I remember one set of armor was for the keepers of the elder scrolls who wear bright green armor. Some dragon group was in really nice black, with golden emblems. The armor's really shiny and looks amazing.[/QUOTE]

The site you want is Jeremy's Knights of Tamriel. Unfortunately, it's down at the moment, having exceeded its bandwidth etc, but will probably be back in an hour or two. Arkay, Akatosh, Dibella, and others: all tough but with fascinating armor among the rewards. Nicely designed buildings and quests, too.

Garthdawg · Post by **Garthdawg** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 4:22 pm

[QUOTE=beornica]
As for "finishing your template", here's what I would do.
mercantile
enchant
alchemy
athletics
heavy armour
marksman
acrobatics
speechcraft
security (unless you plan on enchanting something with open 100 pts very early on)
mysticism
restoration (much easier to have the spells than carry around tons of potions, especially when you're using heavy armour)
conjuration (I just just learned how fun this can be, and I highly recommend it)
plus, of course, the melee weapon of your choice. But, of course, even if you are an orc and are very very strong, heavy armor and all those arrows, bolts or throwing knives use up a lot of your strength, so I'd recommend a lighter weapon, such as a short blade. plus you can carry more around for if one breaks.[/QUOTE]

Hmm... so you seem pretty concerned with strength. As in I won't be able to carry everything I want to. From what I remember, most homemade potions weigh .1 Enchanted rings and amulets also weigh .1 Potions don't take battle time to use, and enchantments are still quicker than casting, even though you still have to raise your hands. But I'd think that your main fighting weapon should be what you'd give the most space to in your inventory. Well, are short swords quick enough to offset the difference in damage compared to long swords?

I was planning on levelling a lot before doing most of the quests, first taking a beating from stuff to bump my endurance. Then I'd max alchemy. From that and sales from random adventures, I should be able to afford some decent enchantments. I don't know if I could get a level 100 unlock that early, but getting to 100 in security was a pain when I was an assassin. I trained it for the most part. However, I wasn't smart enough to grab the lock spell and do it myself.

Actually, what I need to remember is that skills don't matter in the late game. The only thing that does matter at the beginning is CE. (What's the best CE start anyway? I figured Breton/Atronach) I should try to level as fast as possible and then I can train whatever, except for medium and armorer. Has anyone gotten 100 in all stats? Now I'm lost in my own words.

For fastest levelling, how about
Alchemy
H2H
Short Blade
Acro
Merc
Speechcraft
1 armor
and a bunch of weapons?

But then is that super cheezy to try to level as fast as possible and not really have a role?

beornica · Post by **beornica** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 10:00 pm

ooo, you know what you need, too? Sneak. Since you really can't sneak at all until you're about 40 in your sneak skill. Sorry, am I sounding too thiefy with my "keep it light" and "have all the thief skills"? It's just that I tend to collect things. I think most of us here do. You find a legendary item, you tend to put it in your pocket and tote it around for a while. Anyway, it just drives me nuts when you're carrying a lot - so much that you travel at a crawl, being so burdened down.
Maybe, too, I think you should keep the other stuff light because I like to always carry around a few armorer's hammers with me. They sure have come in handy quite a few times, and for that reason I ALWAYS have armorer as a minor skill.

JesterKing · Post by **JesterKing** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:11 am

i noticed your character majors in magic, but you have few to none magic skills... if you, as beornica suggests, go with theivery, go with stealth, if combat, go with that. Make your governing attribute fit your skills, and make your skills match up with the type of character you want... and dont go with all 3 armor skills... later in the game i train up all of my armor skills so i can competently wear the most asthetically pleasing combos... and as functionality is all that matters in the beginning, and you can get hella rich hella fast anyways for training... i would go with light armor as major and maybe heavy armor as a minor skill, CONJURATION AS MAJOR! sneak, minor... (thinking of what i use most as i go along) i would say long blade for major, because as useful as it is to have a light blade (beornica is right, your inventory fills up SO DANG FAST with junk that you 'might need' and that 'could come in handy'... even if i strip down to bare essentials I have 400 + stuff...) the long blades do so much more damage that it balances out its weight. sneak... minor that you shoudl train up, as it doesnt come in as useful when you first start out and rats can kill you... but then i am not much of a theif... everybody says alchemy is a big thing... i dont agree, enchanting is more my thing. i mean when you can enchant something to do somehting that will recharge and wiehgs less (eg exquisit ring at 0.3) and now i am just rambling and im sure thats enough of that unorganized thought for anyone. oh and yes it is cheesy to train up at the beginning, and do acrobatics, its faster to jump around than to run. haha.

Garthdawg · Post by **Garthdawg** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 7:46 am

So.... just for kicks last night I picked Medium, Armorer and Mercantile as major skills and a whole bunch of other combat and stealth skills. The only relevant thing I did was make sure that I had at least one misc endurance and one misc personality skill. And I specialize in magic when I don't have many skills in it so that I can level up more. Sure, it makes the beginning a little harder, but not so much that it's not doable. And when you can easily steal master alchemy tools, even a mere 20 in alchemy is enough to make a bunch of poitons.

Anyway, I went and stole some alchemy stuff and maxed alchemy in about 20 minutes, selling whatever I could make for more ingredients. Then I walked around selling potions to whoever would buy, making about 40k. Then I trained endurance like mad, got 100 endurance and 85 heavy, and fairly decent levels in other things (around 45 since I didn't know where better trainers were, at the time). And that was all in about 2 hours of real time. Is that too cheezy? I'll be maxed way too fast. And it's not because training is too cheap, because I could easily go sell more potions. I was thinking that next I'd get Mercantile (to save money on later training) and then probably work on strength and speed. I'm thinking I'll just try to get 100 in every stat. My luck's at 62 at level 13.

I feel like a jackass, sorry. This happens everytime I start a new character. I always end up throwing it away and doing something dumb.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 7:48 am

Anyway, I went and stole some alchemy stuff and maxed alchemy in about 20 minutes,

How do you mean this? To get alchemy to 100, you need plenty of ingredients, and a lot of effort making potions. I've never heard of anybody doing it in 20 minutes--though if anyone did, I suspect it would take some of the fun out of the game.

Garthdawg · Post by **Garthdawg** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 8:01 am

Go to someone who sells alchemy ingredients that are cheap, mix for an effect and refresh in their inventory. For example, go to Ajira (the mage's guild kitty) and get small kwama eggs and crab meat. Or you could go to the dude in Wolverine Hall in the imperial shrine and buy saltrice, chokeweed and/or marshmerrow. Anyway, the trick is to sell it back to them. It will add to their basic inventory and actually become their new level. So you keep buying and selling the same stuff, but the quantities get larger every time you sell back. Eventually you can buy about 3000 of each ingredient. Open your alchemy set, and just make potions as fast as you can click. Since alchemy wasn't a skill I chose, I didn't care if I leveled. If you need more ingredients, trade potions for more ingredients.