2641

I hope I’m not spreading my guy too thin - I also went with a Khajit theif, but I’m using summoning/conjure as my primary means of doing damage with a little investment in one-handed (this allows me to quickly cast spells with the off hand or go dual-wield if I feel the urge).

2642

Depending on the difficulty you’re on, you can either very easily go too thin or it is practically impossible. I’ve been deliberately raising a balanced critter and, while it has been occasionally trying (like the part of the game where everybody outpaced my stupid Flame Atronach and I had to run around poles in circles to let him fling poo at targets until they died so that I could level that crapping skill), it will never be impossible. I, however, am on whatever the default difficulty is. I am led to understand that if you have ratcheted that up, you might have a harder time of things.

2643

The 0% shout bonus is just a description error. It actually gives 20%.

2644

I’d been cruising along with my very stealthy, very accurate archer guy, and all of a sudden, at level 28, I have twice run into bad guys who were almost too much for me (in once case, they were.) For the first time since the beginning levels, I had to decide that I could not clear out a fort and I needed to come back to it later - I ran into a group of mages that simply overwhelmed me with either ice or lightening bolts that killed me in about 3 attacks. In the other case, I was in a cave I ran across near this fort, taking out draugers or however you spell those guys, and came in the room with a boss with a name, and his minions. Minions were no problem, but even with Lydia raising hell with a fire staff I gave her, and a flame antronauch (sp) he was getting to me and killing me in 2 or 3 swipes. I did manage to reload a couple of times and kill him, but it was close even then.

So much for worrying that I’d out classed everyone in the world! ;)

2645

I could swear it said 20% though before I went on vacation. Maybe just senility …

2646

Does it stack with the amulet?

2647

I wish the shouts had more info, damage for instance. I had second level Marked for Death and only realized I did damage because I accidentally sucked a random fox dry. Giant beside him would have been a better target but I guess he would have only shrugged it off.

2648

Seriously? If I clear Morthal’s lair before getting the quest to do so, the entire thing resets when I pick up the quest. That sucks. Definitely a disincentive to random exploration.

2649

Yeah, I had the same thing happen to me. Oh well, more XP i guess.

2650

She gave me a lecture about leaving stuff lying around and how I should be more careful because not everyone was as honest as her.

Then she asked for help with her magic and turned me into a cow.

2651

I think getting sick while a werewolf is a bug. You are supposed to be immune to disease. It is super rare to get one while a werewolf when compared to not being one. It is the main reason my characters are all werewolves.

2652

Well. Put in some serious hours of gameplay. I leveled to 7 before starting over. My latest character just reached level 25. A high-Elf pure mage dumping pionts in both Magic and Health. I’m focusing on Destruction and Restoration, with a minor in Enchanting.

Anyway, like my experience in the FO3 series, if I trudged through the first few levels, the game world really opens up. I’m serisouly enjoying the game. Especially now that I trained my mind to not subconsiously hit the VAT key.

I’ve avoided joining either the Stormcloaks or Empire so far. I was about to join Stormcloaks until I found it that it was the “Nords’ way or the Highway” with them. They turned a blind eye to the racist treatment of dark elves, my distant cousins, in their own city.

I’m just not hip on joining the Empire either. They remind me too much of the legates in FO3:NV.

I’ve abandoned escorting companions. I like to bite off more than I can chew in terms of combat, and they just seem to get in the way, and die. Then I feel guilty. At level 4, I decide to clear a camp of giants and mammoths. Success! Except Lydia died with a bunch of gear I gave her, and couldn’t find her body. Hoping she was just knocked out, I fast traveled every wher hoping she would catch up. No such luck. Had to reload.

I bought the house in Whiterun. I wish my pad had a Enchanting Table. I have to either walk up the Jarl’s castle or make a run to the my chambers in the mage college.

Which reminds me, I just finished becoming the Arch-Mage of the college. Wow. They just handed me a college.

My favorite quest line so far was the one where I got the Sanguine Rose Staff.

The absolute WORSE quest was the one were you had to reforge the necklace. The last boss battle, SERIOUSLY NOT WORTH THE NECKLACE!

Started on the quest to wipe out the Dark Brotherhood.

The thing that got me so far, in terms of lack of documentation… at level 25, last night, I just found out how to unlock my shouts. I’ve killed like a dozen dragons, I have like 8 actual shouts ( quite a few with 2 words), but never knew how to use them. Interface kept saying I need dragon souls. HELLO! I’ve killed like a dozen dragons! So all this time, I’ve been only using the first shout I learned, ‘Unrelenting Force’. I never knew I had to hit the ‘R’ key to actually spend dragon souls to unlock shouts. Hours and hours, and level 25 before I get to use my other shouts. Sheesh.

Is there a way to hot key 1-9 to spells for each hand. I like the dual casting, but I don’t like the switching using the Favorites quick key. It’s becoming tedious.

2653

And people wonder why I moved to Solitude with all my crap.

For the record, you can get one in that house (the Solitude one). It’s also the most expensive house in the game, so I’d recommend that if you’re tagging chievos you go ahead and go all the way up to 100,000 before you buy it.

2654

FWIW, the house in Riften can also be equipped with both an Alchemy table and Enchanting table. Nearest forge is a block down the street, where you can see Balimund work miracles with steel. Just be sure to bring real fire salts, though - the forge knows the difference.

2655

Riften is the one place I haven’t been to yet. Figures that would be the cheaper place to get an enchanting table.

I don’t think that any of the houses have forges, tanning racks, workbenches, grindstones, or smelters, do they?

2656

I have a complaint about that house. The alchemy table doesn’t have a pouch on it, and the enchanting table doesn’t have a container near by. I still use my whiterun house because of that.

It would be nice to have a moving service though. I have a lot of stuff stashed in my whiterun house.

2657

I can certainly confirm there is no moving service. See the spoiler thread for details. I can tell you for sure that it takes about two hours to cover the ground at walking pace using the fastest possible route between the two locations and assuming that you keep your encounters to a minimum and don’t accidentally flush out a blood dragon you left hanging around there at some point in the distant past (which I not only had to kill at a snail’s pace because it kept getting distracted and flying off to fight a bear, but I also didn’t get a soul for because when I finally brought him down he was way the hell away from me). I can also confirm that the cart man won’t take you anywhere if you’re overweight, I assume because he accesses the Fast Travel procedure, which has a snare in it that keeps you from doing that when you’re overburdened.

For boxes, I honestly forgot about the Alchemist’s Pouch on the table in Whiterun after I emptied it and just went to using the chest on top of the bookshelf to keep all my potions. And ingredients. And extra books. That’s the other reason I decided to move to what should physically be the largest house. Now I keep all of my enchantment mats (and some heads, because I’ll be damned if I’m picking them up again, as they’ve already bugged on me once and insisted that they were quest items again when they weren’t and added their considerable weight to my encumbrance - fortunately, by the time I got back home, that bug cleared itself) in the barrel by the weapon rack in the downstairs. Ingredients and potions are in the two barrels in what I assume is supposed to be the larder (the room that opens out to the big fire I guess you cook over, but absolutely cannot use to ever make a weapon ever). Unenchanted items that I don’t have the stones for yet (because I have to get that skill to 100) go in the back-left bag on top of the shelf in the larder, food and other garbage goes in the front bag, and extra books that I can’t fit in my shelves go in the back-right bag.

The most annoying bit is that I don’t have a place close to a door where I can put my crafting materials, but since I 100ed my Smithing that’s probably a non-issue going forward. Those are all in the safe in my bedroom for the time being, and all of my enchanted material that I don’t want to throw in the garbage for whatever reason is in the chest at the foot of the bed.

2658

Buying the Riften house is… interesting. You have to do the Jarl’s quest(s) and enough other misc quests for the people in and around The Rift to get the Jarl to offer you the ability to buy property. And then you talk to her steward, who tells you the house is 8,000 cash. But…

hax?

…you can actually buy the house for 5,000 - no more expensive than the starter house in Whiterun. Just stash enough “extra” cash in the chest next to the steward to bring you down to 5K and change, and select “I’ll take it” from the dialog options, and she’ll sell you the house with a $3,000 discount without comment. (If you’re carrying less than 5000, you don’t get the “I’ll take it” dialog option.) Then, retrieve your tens of thousands of additional gold that you just placed in the chest next to the steward and stagger out under the massive weight of your copious riches.

And no, to my knowledge there’s no house that includes a forge. Unfortunately I think the Whiterun starter house is the best bet for aspiring blacksmiths, but that’s still at least two load screens inserted into your smithing process. (Is it sad I’ve started to measure time and distance in Skyrim by number of load screens? Because I really am that sick of them.)

2659

My favorite house is the Markarth one. The alchemy table has a pouch behind it and a few barrels in the room for other storage. The enchanting room, while it has no storage units in the room itself, has a dresser just outside the door which is sufficiently close for storing my enchanting supplies.

The house itself is pretty small, but has loads of storage. I like that I don’t have to run all over the house to find where all my stuff is stored. There are four full bookcases (which I’ve filled up already so it’s still not enough. ;)

Finally, I like the dwemer style, but of course that’s personal preference.

The only drawback to it is that it’s pretty far away from the blacksmith/smelting facilities, though not as far as say, the enchanting table if you choose to live in Whiterun. ;)

2660

I suspect it’s bugged but if you equip that necklace first you can equip a second one , makes it slightly more useful .