New Player Confused

[Claudius]

Edit: sheesh sorry everyone I put this in oblivion on accident!! I will switch it over to morrowind. Anyone can delete this if they have the power (from the oblivion board).


Hi I'm a new player and am kind of confused. I have tried to do searches but everything is so diluted. I do a search on sneak and I get all kind of threads but nothing about sneak!!!

Anyhow I'm trying to build a character that will be fun for me to play. I like to do a variety of things. I have questions about stealing, magic, and combat.

Question 1) Magic - I dont understand this very well. You only get a limited amount of magicka points and then you are out. Spells have a chance to fail all the while you might be getting eaten by something bad. Even when you do cast a spell the ability doesn't level very fast I feel. Example I hit level 10 without training core 10 skills and my magic skill restoration still hadn't leveled. The exception I found was alchemy. By buying crab and egg you can level alchemy like mad and earn crazy money but it kind of spoils the game?

Question 2) Combat - I think I understand this one. Earn gold to buy good things/find them. Train up weapon and armor (one or more). Kill things. I guess theres no question other than what else makes you good at combat? Kind of tied to 1 as I could think maybe magic but you run out of magic and can't cast and chop at same time anyhow.

Question 3) Stealth - I get frustrated looking for something to steal. I'm sure there are great things if you have the patience to look everywhere.

Sneak - I try to use this in shops to get them to not see me so I can take expensive things. It only works if I am totally out of the room and never when I am barely out of eyeshot. ALSO IT NEVER LEVELS UP. NOT 1/100 OF THE METER HAS GONE UP THE WHOLE LEVEL 10 AND I HAVE IT AS MAJOR SKILL. Plus it is useless in combat. Even if you totally sneak someone its a useless advantage. Initiative isn't a big deal.

Security - is this good class skill or should it be misc skill and trained to about 20 to get easy locks open screw hard ones?

Speech - Usually seems counterproductive. A big money suck bribing the ones you failed to admire to get them to like you and get a good price again? But bribing seems good

Question 4 What skills are good?

Magic - I like all of these but wouldn't choose them as maj/min because I don't seem to use them enough to level (magicka doesn't regenerate unless sleep)

Combat - I like one weapon, Heavy Armor (best protection), Block, Athletics, Armorer (miscellaneous skill train to 20)

Stealth - I like: Mercantile (yes please), Security (but doesn't level fast), Speech (is this really necessary???), Light armor (to lighten the load), Short blade (use as a light backup weapon) I suppose there are some places where insane acrobat or levitate get you some loot.

Question 5 I think these skills are bad but maybe I am just new?

Magic - none are bad. all good even unarmored helps if your armor breaks at a critical time. More magic skill is good to have more options but as I have already said I don't understand how you level this besides training or cheesing with cantrips and sleeping. My idea is to use potions and enchanting (paid) to get the magic I need with some basic level for utility spells (mark recall restore attribute healing etc)

Combat - Armorer is pretty lame. Just train to 20 and always carry 10 hammers on each mission. If it doesn't work just keep hammering away and use lots of hammers to get job done. more than 2 types of weapons or two types of armor seems pretty dumb. Athletics speeds the game up but no combat advantage I see.

Stealth - Sneak seems horrible considering I can't get it to level it doesn't advance and surprise is no help in combat. I will admit sneak is psychologically fun!! See combat for rule against too many types of armor/weapons. Hand to Hand seems absolutely horrible unless you want to role play cain from kung fu. marksman is fine except fishy to shoot arrows from point blank.

This is a hard game the only way I got to level 10 was gold bonanza from alchemy. I would like to learn to play the game role playing wise but I don't want to get killed or never advance in level!!!!

Please help!

Thank you,

claudius

[Siberys]

Question 1) Magic - I dont understand this very well. You only get a limited amount of magicka points and then you are out. Spells have a chance to fail all the while you might be getting eaten by something bad. Even when you do cast a spell the ability doesn't level very fast I feel. Example I hit level 10 without training core 10 skills and my magic skill restoration still hadn't leveled. The exception I found was alchemy. By buying crab and egg you can level alchemy like mad and earn crazy money but it kind of spoils the game?

Spells and spellcasting never has a failchance. It has an effectiveness penalty for heavy armor and other things, but you will always successfully cast the spell.

As for that compared to alchemy, I do agree that the system is majorly imbalanced like that. I recently started a custom battlemage type character and got alchemy up to 90 and during the same time I haven't gotten destruction up past 40 or 50 right now.

There may be mods to this however, maybe not so much on faster leveling of destruction, but slower leveling on alchemy. I believe there's mods that make it so you have a harder chance of harvesting ingredients, which obviously makes it harder to level even if it levels just as fast. But anyways, I would search for some mods out there for that kind of thing, lest of course you're using the Xbox 360 version, which I can't help ya there.

Question 2) Combat - I think I understand this one. Earn gold to buy good things/find them. Train up weapon and armor (one or more). Kill things. I guess theres no question other than what else makes you good at combat? Kind of tied to 1 as I could think maybe magic but you run out of magic and can't cast and chop at same time anyhow.

Two easier ways to level combat, one is to buy the training. You only can be trained five times per level, but it's still worth it most of the time anyways. Another way if you really just want a crash course, sign up for the arena, and then just hack your way through your opponents. Kind of dumb and pointless for a "guild" in the game, but it also makes you money at the same time as you kill your enemy.

Sneak - I try to use this in shops to get them to not see me so I can take expensive things. It only works if I am totally out of the room and never when I am barely out of eyeshot. ALSO IT NEVER LEVELS UP. NOT 1/100 OF THE METER HAS GONE UP THE WHOLE LEVEL 10 AND I HAVE IT AS MAJOR SKILL. Plus it is useless in combat. Even if you totally sneak someone its a useless advantage. Initiative isn't a big deal.

I would invest in a simple item that provides a constant chameleon effect. Sneak only levels when you aren't noticed (which is dumb considering many people learn better from mistakes rather than successfully performing an action, thus being noticed should level sneak as well). But anyways, get a chameleon magic item, just go to any random town and sneak till your heart is content. It's more worthwhile to simply sneak than it is to sneak and try to steal something.

As dumb as this sounds for a game, sneak isn't useful at all in the game until it's at least expert and close to master level (Level 80 range).

Security - is this good class skill or should it be misc skill and trained to about 20 to get easy locks open screw hard ones?

No. Not at all. Security is a nice skill, but not worth it as a major skill. You're good for now in the level of the skill, and I suggest that you instead go after the Shrine of the Nocturnal (You can find the quest details here on gamebanshee). Do that quest and your reward is a skeleton key which boosts your security by 40 points. Then you'll only need one or two lockpicks for the rest of the game as it's almost impossible to destroy locks beyond that point.

Speech - Usually seems counterproductive. A big money suck bribing the ones you failed to admire to get them to like you and get a good price again? But bribing seems good

Speechcraft is indeed the least useful skill in the entirety of the game. It's much easier to simply bribe, and more effective and worth the cost.

Question 4 What skills are good?

Depends on what you mean by good, fast leveling or worthwhile and longlasting.

Fast leveling- Armorer, Conjuration, Alchemy, Alteration, Restoration, Mysticism, Illusion, Block, and athletics (yes, as slow as it levels you will be doing a LOT of walking and possible swimming)

Long Lasting- One or two weapon skills, heavy and light armor, hand to hand, destruction, Marksman, Mercantile, Sneak, and Block.

Combat - Armorer is pretty lame. Just train to 20 and always carry 10 hammers on each mission. If it doesn't work just keep hammering away and use lots of hammers to get job done. more than 2 types of weapons or two types of armor seems pretty dumb. Athletics speeds the game up but no combat advantage I see.

Indeed, a rather lame skill, but also useful in the long run, especially for magic items once you're able to repair them.


Hopefully this gives you some ideas for the game and such.