1661

Is that true? I’m at level 18 and, as an archer, she often wades in and takes on bad guys as I plink away from afar, and so far she’s never seemed to get into much trouble.

1662

Funniest NPC death so far:

I was challenged to a fist fight by a stable master somewhere, and I took him up on the offer. I beat the crap out of him, and while he’s on all fours at the end of the fight (it wasn’t a fight to the death), my horse runs up and stomps him in the head, killing him outright.

1663

Lydia managed to kill me in similar fashion with a gate one time…

1664

Horses in Skyrim are bad asses, really. They charge into battle and do a number on bad guys. Well, except dragons. I’ve lost several to dragons.

My funniest Lydia moment was in a fight where I was sniping with my bow, and she kept wading in with her two-hander. I’d fire, accidentally one-shot her, reload, and the same thing would happen. It was pretty hilarious. I finally just let her kill the bad guys.

1665

I’ve only seen a companion die once, and that was because I hit her in the middle of a fight. Reports on other boards claim that companions will not die unless you deliver the killing blow, but I’m not sure about that. I did have to reload last night after my companion disappeared in a dungeon. No sign of a body, but she was really worked up about a guy on a higher level and the only way up there was through one of those swinging blade traps, so I assume that did something to her.

1666

They can die if something continues to damage them after they go into the submission pose, so yeah, something like a blade or flame trap can finish them off.

1667

I have to be careful with fireballs around my tank (Uthgerd the Unsociable). She’s doing much better since I equipped her with a sword of health-draining and made her use a shield though. She’d just run forward with a 2-hander before and take a couple hits before going down. Now she keeps people busy while I either fireball the rest of the dudes coming to kill us or gang up one one guy with my sword.

1668

I never bring any companions with me, due to their incessant jackassery.

Also, props to Swype for recognizing the word jackassery.

1669

just a thing I read in the big strat guide and I’ve seen people answer wrongly in the past.

Levelling up in skills does NOT depend on amount of times you perform an activity. Ever. It depends on the magnitude alone.

That means that swinging a heavy hammer and dualwielding daggers levels up at around the same rate, as they do similar dps.

That means that you can sell all your items at once, as what counts is the total amount of money you make by selling / spend by buying

That means that in higher difficulties, armor skills should level up faster because you get more damage done.

etc etc etc.

1670

Why do I gain literally 1 level of illusion per cast of Muffle? Why do I never, ever get a point in Alteration despite my hundreds of mid-travel boredom casts of Magelight at mammoths and trees and such? Is that just a bug?

1671

What is the magnitude of summoning a light?

1672

Alteration only seems to go up if you use the spell in conjunction with combat. It doesn’t have to be during combat; I can cast Stoneskin ahead of time, start a fight, and then see the skill gain.

Alteration is actually my fastest-growing skill, already up at 61 now even though my Destruction is languishing in the mid-40s, primarily just from casting *skin spells before every fight.

1673

Well, who knows? I mean, I surmise that the magic armour spells level Alteration by damage absorbed… which means they’re totally useless on the higher level difficulties as everything I’m fighting one-shots me when I get within spitting distance. Wouldn’t it then make sense that Muffle should level per unit of time successfully sneaked? I don’t really care that I have to level Alteration at the trainer, it makes my monies precious…

1674

I was doing the same but I never saw any growth when I wasn’t getting hit… I’ll just be more diligent I guess.

1675

Illusion trumps all of them, trust me :)

Muffle is just plain ridiculous for skill growth.

1676

I’ve found the detect life spell is awesome for leveling up alteration. I can’t be sure but I think increasing number of people you are able to detect also helps.

1677

Skills that are meant for combat only level up if used in actual combat situations. I’ve noticed repeatedly that if I see a monster that isn’t hostile yet, Conjure a sword, and then walk forward until combat starts, I sometimes immediately gain a level in Conjuration when the monster turns towards me. Once I enter combat, the summoning “counts” and that’s when I get experience.

I suspect that the amount of skill experience you get for casting a spell depends on the (original, unmodified) magicka cost of the spell. After switching Destruction casting from Fireball to the drastically more expensive Expert-level spells, suddenly my Destruction leveled up much faster.

1678

That works pretty well except that it’s both quite high up in the tree (50 iirc) and has a huge mana cost for non-mages.

1679

I often wonder how overkill is factored in. Do I get more skill from a dual-cast incinerate than a firebolt when either one would be a killing-blow?

I am also very curious about how mana-regen works. I need to craft some gear sets specifically for testing regen mechanics.

1680

In the Skyrim Essential Guide I found this:

Levels: Most Followers automatically level up when you do, so there’s no need to worry about a Follower ‘falling behind’ if you go off
and adventure on your own, or want to work with someone else for a while.

Can someone tell me what the truth is?