2801

At least NPCs do seem to equip enchanted rings/necklaces that are most useful to them. I gave Lydia a bunch of rings and she used the one that increased Heavy Armor skill, and the necklace that increased Block.

2802

Followers have base armor, weapons, bow and arrows. They will switch to better gear when you place it in their inventory. Trial & error works but you get errors on occasion because your follower will not take into account incantations on the gear, nor their skills.

Which means that Lydia will equip the plain two-handed axe over enchanted one-handed sword that would be better for her, because the base damage of two-handed weapons is usually higher than the one-handed weapons.

In Lydia’s case, you can go into pickpocket mode when she is not your companion to see her armor. You can also pickpocket it, which reduced the weight that she’s carrying because the base armor counts again her weight limit even if she’s not wearing it.

2803

First there is enough content in this game for a couple of different play throughs. But in any case your leveling is going to slow down as you raise your skills. In the early game it easy to level your character because all your skills are low and easy to increase, which in turn rapidly levels you. But as you increase your skills they become harder to level, which in turn slows the rate at which you can raise your character level.

Of course if you are smithing, enchanting, and making potions with wild abandon your are going to level fast. I did this with my first character and found that her combat skills fell behind her non-combat skills and character level, which made fighting a pain.

AF

2804

That’s not right. It’s not the “base Stat”, you never see the base Stat. It’s whatever weapon does more straight damage for them. If you level one handed, and take its perk’s, very quickly a steel mace will have a higher number under Damage than a steel warhammer, for you. The same applies to npcs. Since most people get Lydia so early, she’s still low enough leveled that hasn’t happened yet. Since npc leveling is broken, if you stick with her and don’t fix her level, then yes, she’ll do what you describe. It’s not that way with anyone you get later, or if you fix her.
I am using the riften housecarl, for instance, who is identicle to Lydia, I just got her later. I give her everything to carry, and she always uses one-handed and shield.

2805

How is NPC leveling broken? Is it simply that they don’t?

2806

If I understand correctly, their level is set when you first encounter them (even if they don’t join you at that point), but then they never gain any more. Using console commands, I could see that even after having Lydia follow me for a good 30+ levels, she still had pretty pitiful stats and skills (something like 156 health, 31 1-handed, 29 two-handed, etc.)

2807

Enemy archers are soooooo powerful in this game. Granted, I am made of paper and tear easily, being a stealthy archer mage, but still, I can survive a couple of melee hits before dying. But whenever archers get me, it’s always a one hit kill.

It happens so often, the last few levels I’ve started investing in health instead of Magicka. Now I’m up to 190 health, but I still get one-hit killed by archers. I wonder what I need to get my health up to in order to survive just one arrow from bandit marauders, for example?

2808

Try moving before they shoot you. Armor helps, as does Health of course.

Are you playing on some high level difficulty? I don’t remember it being that difficult as an archer.

2809

Yeah, archers can mess you up. Like Razgon says, keep moving. A shield helps once you get your blocking skill up, but other than that just watch your knees.

Sorry.

2810

Yeah, playing on the default difficulty. (Master, for me).

I do try to move a lot when archers are shooting at me, and I manage to avoid most arrows, but if even one connects, it’s time to reload, so I’m trying to get something going so that I can survive one hit, at least. That way I can at least drink some potions during a fight if I get hit and survive.

I do use light armor on my whole body. I think my armor rating is 75. Obviously I don’t use a shield though, since I’m usually using a bow myself. Most of the time I’m shooting from shadows and I try not to get spotted, but once I do get spotted by archers, it’s usually game over unless I get really lucky with dodging.

2811

If you’re a mage aren’t there like, spells for that? Ward or whatever?

2812

I think you need to constantly hold up Ward. I mean, I need to cast it in order for it to work, and then I can’t be doing anything else, like running or shooting back.

2813

You’re correct that wards are channeled (you hold down the button to sustain them), but IIRC those are intended to block enemy spells, and aren’t too effective against physical damage. I’d recommend investing in the Alteration tree a bit and working the Oakflesh, Stoneflesh, etc spells into your rotation to boost your armor rating against physical damage.

2814

Ok, that sounds good. At least that will get my armor rating up to 85. I’m assuming it’s the same as Oblivion in that 85 Armor Rating is the cap, right? I used all kinds of armor spells in Oblivion for sooooo long until about 125 hours into the game I finally found out that the armor rating was capped, and I didn’t need to cast those spells at all.

2815

The armor rating isn’t quite the same as the flat percentage it was in Oblivion. It caps at 80% damage reduction, but you have to get the displayed total armor rating to something like over 500 to reach that point. More details here.

2816

Oh, no, the armor rating in Skyrim caps at like 537 or something bizarre like that. It’s over 500 at least. As a caster in light armor or robes, you won’t get anywhere near the armor cap, but increasing your armor through spells like Stoneflesh will hopefully save you from being one-shotted by enemy archers.

2817

So, I’ve got a general question. I’ve brought my two-handed crazy Nord up to level 32, and I’m wondering about the scaling.

I’m planning on not doing the Mage, Dark Brotherhood, Thieves or Imperial quest lines with this character, because I want to restart as a pure Mage to do those. I’m planning on finishing off the main story line, and I’ve already done the Companions and am finishing up the anti-imperial rebellion line with this character.

I’ve also purposefully not taken any quests on the western side of the map, and have only visited the western cities for quests that require it… I’m saving all that content for my Mage playthrough.

Now, I’m wondering- because of the way the game scales, would I be missing out on awesome creatures that appear if I end the game around level 40? I’m assuming my Mage won’t get past level 40 by the time I’m done with those quest lines. What level would you guys suggest I finish off on?

(PS- Fuck I hate scaling)

2818

Mostly things just get harder. You get harder dragons.

2819

Your plan sounds almost exactly like mine. We’re both doing three big quest lines. I’m skipping most of the west and some of the central part of the map.

I think I’m currently at level 41 at 60+ hours. I still have a third of the main quest, and a boatload of locations to clear in the two regions I want to max out (Whitehold and Riften). But if you make sure to visit a lot of dungeons and maybe grind up a spare skill, you should level just fine like I am.

2820

I haven’t played past 36, I left my last character there because she had done everything it made sense for her to do. My first character stopped at 25, and I don’t think my third will get much higher than that either. I hope I’m not missing out on anything too awesome at the high levels, but it seemed to get easier as I leveled rather than harder.