[X] My Assistant

[Shortstraw]

Just making sure you are firing at the little glass lenses at the top.

[fistandantilus4....]

Yup.

[Dr.Rockso]

Reviving this.

[Draco18s]

First, get waypoints to all the holds. Easiest way to do this(and with the fewest cats) is to use the horse carriage available outside most towns. Its an investment you likely won't regret.

Haven't done it yet, at least not in a "LETS GO EVERYWHERE" splurge.

Second is to get a follower. If you're lucky they will take the heat for you, if your not at least they are doing extra damage. They also make decent mules.

How/where?

Third, and you probably already know this, is save often and in multiple slots.

Of course

Fourth, pick an armor skill and stick to it. Armor, like weapon type, is a skill you don't want to diversify in(at least in the early and mid games).

I know. But it's hard to be like "I'm gonna be heavy armor!" at the start of the game where it doesn't give you any.

Now I don't know if you're playing as a thief or assassin, but I would suggest not to neglect their questlines. The theives guild especially is a nice money maker in the early game, and not very difficult. As an argonian you start with a bonus to lockpicking and sneak that lend themselves well to these quests. And despite their names, the main questlines of these guilds don't necessarily require much stealth at all.

Was going to look into Thief, at least.

Stay the F away from giants. You may have killed a dragon but these guys will turn you into a smear. If you REALLY want to lop off their toes while a low level, you can use the cowardly bridge tactic: Run under a bridge arch and fire arrows at em until you go cross eyed. You'll get em'. Eventually.

Ice wraiths are glass cannons. Stock up on frost resist.

You can never have too much carry weight.

Consider dual wielding. Sure you can't block, but you can tear through enemies with dual power attacks.

Dungeon delve! No cats in caves. They can have chaurus, though.

Duly noted.

My suggestion is to remember to sneak when you go somewhere

-edit- oh, and sneaking around in towns is best, because every time someone looses sight of you it you get a tick on your skill (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yeah, I know. But it's slow as fuck. >..<

Edit, oh yeah, stats etc.

Level 9 (half way to 10)
Destruction 20
Restoration 24 (1 skill point)
Heavy Armor 26 (1 skill point)
Block 26
One-handed 32 (2 skill points)
Sneak 26 (1 skill point)
Lockpicking 29 (2 skill points)
Smithing 18 (1 skill point)

All my armor is steel, except shield which is iron. Total 96 armor.

Ancient Nord Bow + Arrows
Scimitar

And I was wrong, I don't have Healing Hands, I have Healing. My mistake.

[_Pax._]

How/where?

Lydia. She's given to you by the Jarl of Whiterun. You know, after the first dragon kill, when you're sent back to report that kill to him? and he makes you Thane of Whiterun?

I know. But it's hard to be like "I'm gonna be heavy armor!" at the start of the game where it doesn't give you any.

There's a complete set available in Riverwood (the very first not-burning-and-rubbled town you arrive at). Granted, you have to trespass into others' homes for it, but it's there.

And before that, in Helgen (the town that you almost get beheaded in) you can pick up multiple Iron or Banded Iron shields, as well as at least one Iron Helm, during your escape.

Was going to look into Thief, at least.

Then you should be sneaking everywhere outside of towns and villages. And I do mean, everywhere.

Yeah, I know. But it's slow as fuck. >..<

Which would you prefer? Slow, or dead ...? Besides, once you've snuck around long enough, you can start to learn the overall patterns of Skyrim - and know when to run, and when to drop into a crouch and sneak.

Also: if you're going to be a stealthy sneaker type, LIGHT ARMOR, not heavy. Heavy armor penalises your Sneaking, and slows you down more when you DO sneak.


EDIT TO ADD: And just as an FYI on the side? My newest playthrough is an Argonian Mage. He's not wearing armor, he's wearing robes (hey, modestly better magicka regen and slightly better destruction spells? Sign me up!). He's all of level 5, and I just finished (barely - almost died to whatsisface Gauldur at the end, had to chug a gallon or two of potions!) the Saarthal excavations, first major quest in the Mage Guild chain. Cleared Bleak Falls no problem, got that family-sword quest in Whiterun done, did the dragon/tower thing. Probably going to take a break and do some bounty-hunting for a while, build up some cash and levels, buy Breezehome and decorate it, the usual early-game "get established" routine.

[Dr.Rockso]

Haven't done it yet, at least not in a "LETS GO EVERYWHERE" splurge.

How/where?

If you've killed the dragon for Whiterun, you should already have Lydia. Look for her in the Whiterun throne room. Don't store anything too valuable on her in case she dies/glitches.

I know. But it's hard to be like "I'm gonna be heavy armor!" at the start of the game where it doesn't give you any.

You must have missed it. They give you the option for both, but IIRC the light armor is much more apparent. Either way, which one are you going for?

Was going to look into Thief, at least.

Riften's your town, if you want to get started. For the radiant quests, I'd suggest Bedlam.

Yeah, I know. But it's slow as fuck. >..<

I've found having a drawn bow actually speeds up your sneaking. Not by that much mind you, but every bit helps.

[Dr.Rockso]

Also: if you're going to be a stealthy sneaker type, LIGHT ARMOR, not heavy. Heavy armor penalises your Sneaking, and slows you down more when you DO sneak.

True, however there are options here. One of the later heavy armor perks negates the weight of worn armor, thus preventing it from effecting sneaking. Also, there is the Steed Stone effect which increases your carry weight and also negates worn armor weight. Lastly theres Boethiahs armor, Ebony Mail, which while great heavy sneaking armor sadly is only available at level 30+ after a quest.

[fistandantilus4....]

When you get some more levels on you, you can get the Stealth spell which helps with the sneaking. Pick every lock you get the chance to, and if you have the time, every pocket. I'll admit, I was a cheap bastard and for a while would save the game every time I went to pick a pocket if it was worth the time (And it usually was). Just reloaded if I got caught. My Pick pockets got very high very quickly, and I picked up the Deep Pockets skill (if I'm remembering the name correctly), which lets you carry more gear.

You can also practice a lot of those skills at once, and break into the potions stores in the night. Steal their supplies, eat a bunch to learn their properties, then start brewing your own potions so that you can do things like create healing and stamina draughts, potions for heavy lifting, and invisibility. It's cheap and useful.

And agreed on Riften. It's a fun town for getting into trouble, getting some money, and some new quests, especially for a thief.

[Draco18s]

Lydia. She's given to you by the Jarl of Whiterun. You know, after the first dragon kill, when you're sent back to report that kill to him? and he makes you Thane of Whiterun?

Yeah, I remember that, but I never ended up with her following me. Probably one of those things where no one mentioned that I had to talk to her to actually have her, or something and I managed to skip over it by accident.

[DMiller]

The instructions for the game are a little lacking. The above advice from others is really what I have to say too, so +1 to all of them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

One question I haven't seen yet, what platform are you playing on? If you are on PS3 there is no downloadable content yet so any advice regarding Dawnguard is null and void.

Have you checked out http://www.uesp.net/ yet? They are full of helpful information. I use them a lot for assistance.

[Draco18s]

One question I haven't seen yet, what platform are you playing on? If you are on PS3 there is no downloadable content yet so any advice regarding Dawnguard is null and void.

PC, but I'm not going to pay $30 for an expansion to a game that I paid $30 for.

[_Pax._]

PC, but I'm not going to pay $30 for an expansion to a game that I paid $30 for.

.... and why not?

Heck, I pre-ordered Skyrim, for the full $60. Then, the very day Dawnguard was available, plunked aother $30 down on it. And you know what? Dawnguard adds enoughcontent, it's worth MORE than teh $30 pricetag, IMO. Not only the Dawnguard-or-Vampire quest chain (which includes an opportunity to get a summonable ghost-horse), not only the new weapons (dragonbone weapons, crossbows, Auriel's Bow, Harkon's Sword), not only the fun opportunity to own THREE Elder Scrolls at once (!!) ... but also the Aetherium quest line, culminating in a choice of three very special items (I especially like the circlet - having TWO guardianstones at once is just too awesome to pass up, IMO). Plus new potions, magical ammunition for those crossbows, a hireable/purchasable "armored war troll" companion, an awesome-looking "Ancient Falmer Armor" set to collect, up-rated gear for higher level Falmer (Honed falmer weapons; Heavy falmer armors); new enemies (Gargoyles; Chauus Hunters (that fly)), a whole new Thu'um, and an encounter with two "water dragons" at the same time (that was a b!tch of a fight, haha!) ...

... yeah. Worth every penny.




On a separate subtopic: since you're playing the PC version, let me recommend a few mods that make the game easier to play (but not easier to "win"):

• Detailed Mine Markers - appends what sort of ore you can get from a mine, to the mine's name on the map. Extremely useful for smiths!
• Dungeon Quest Awareness - explore without worrying about whether or not a given location is part of a primary quest. The name of each location has a note appended to it, saying if it's part of any quest(s). Very useful for exploring.
• Smeltdown - almost all armor and weapons can be broken down into raw materials. It always irritated me that I could have a stack of 100 iron daggers, and I couldn't just melt them all down for their iron content. With this, you can! (Incidentally allows easier Smith skill levelling, in that you can stretch some materials further - with the iron to make 8 iron daggers, you can then melt them down into enough to make 4 more, then melt dose down into enough to make 2 more, and finally melt them down into enough to make 1 more. 8 iron -> 15 skill-ups (thoughyou'll need more leather strips, naturally).
• Sol's Secret Stash - summonable chest to dump your loot into, mid-dungeon. I got tired of constantly cashing, relay-running, etc to haul all the loot out of a dungeon ... and believe me, when I was done with a location, there wasn't anything worth HALF a clipped coin left, that could possibly be pried from the floor or walls. I did a LOT of "you are carrying too much" slow-pace plodding through securely cleared-out and depopulated dungeons. BOOOOOOOOring! So now I use this (yes, I admit: very cheat-y) spell, instead. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Draco18s]

Yeah. Totally didn't understand a world of that.

[DuckEggBlue Omeg...]

I know this may sound stupid, but did you try adjusting the difficulty?

The two main things I remember disliking about Skyrim were that smiths and enchanters don't provide those services, and the theives guild being mafia thug flavoured rather than stealthy Robin Hood types.

But otherwise I really enjoyed it.

[StealthSigma]

• Sol's Secret Stash - summonable chest to dump your loot into, mid-dungeon. I got tired of constantly cashing, relay-running, etc to haul all the loot out of a dungeon ... and believe me, when I was done with a location, there wasn't anything worth HALF a clipped coin left, that could possibly be pried from the floor or walls. I did a LOT of "you are carrying too much" slow-pace plodding through securely cleared-out and depopulated dungeons. BOOOOOOOOring! So now I use this (yes, I admit: very cheat-y) spell, instead. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Long_Haul

[_Pax._]

Yeah. Totally didn't understand a world of that.

The first half is in plain English, extolling Dawnguard's bang-for-your-buck based on how much content it adds.

The second half is a straightforward list of mods I recommend - also in plain English. You know, the whole Steam Workshop thing? If you're signed in to Steam via the Web, those links should take you right to the page for each mod, so you can Subscribe to it (and each is then automatically downloaded and activated, the next time you start up Skyrim).

...

What's not to understand?

[_Pax._]

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Long_Haul

Yeah, I love that Perk.

[StealthSigma]

Yeah, I love that Perk.

I dislike your mod because it can be done anywhere. If it were restricted to say outdoors areas and towns I would have a lot less problem with it. In that sense, it becomes a mod that eliminates pointless grind of fast traveling from dungeon entrance to town over and over. It's basically a pointless exercise that doesn't cause any additional danger to the PC but rather just wastes time.

The mod as it exists makes encumbrance a non-factor since you just dump all your gear where you are when you hit encumbrance. I feel that needing to cart your illgotten loot outside to stash it is a suitable trade off avoid encumbrance while dungeon crawling. Though I could see permitting the spell in a dungeon if you could check for no active traps or living hostiles.

[taeksosin]

Anybody have a list of mods that they consider indispensable? I'm looking to FINALLY start playing this (after having gotten it at Christmas) when I'm tired of Tribes, and I really just can't stand vanilla anything from Bethesda. Prettyifying mods are fine, but I'm mainly interested in things that make gameplay better, fixes stupid design decisions, etc. Sure, I can go look at top X lists and what not, but, well...lazy. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[X-Kalibur]

Anybody have a list of mods that they consider indispensable? I'm looking to FINALLY start playing this (after having gotten it at Christmas) when I'm tired of Tribes, and I really just can't stand vanilla anything from Bethesda. Prettyifying mods are fine, but I'm mainly interested in things that make gameplay better, fixes stupid design decisions, etc. Sure, I can go look at top X lists and what not, but, well...lazy. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I don't know about indispensable, but I have a short mod list that I find makes the game MUCH more fun. Especially since it balances out the combat and makes magic more useful at higher levels. In vanilla skyrim, nothing comes close to dual wielding. Not that it stopped me from going to town with a nord using heavy armor and and a 2her, but light armor and dual wielding is just all around BETTER without mods.

Looking in my Nexus mod manager (all my mods are from Skyrim Nexus) I have...

A Quality World Map (yay for roads on my map!)
ACE (re-balances smithing, combat styles, armor, combat itself, really look into it, also, archery - has long and light bows)
Apachii Sky hair (more, good looking hair styles)
Armored Circlets (I get tired of looking at helmets)
ASIS (makes the NPCs fight smarter amongst a host of other properties)
Apocalypse Spell Package (adds a host of extra magic spells that are fun, unique, and not game breaking)
CBBE (I like my female models to look better)
Immersive Armor
Empowered Magic (rebalances the magic trees, makes magic scale on skill like weapons)
Artifact Overhaul (I don't know about you, but I got mad when none of the daedric artifacts or rare gear was actually worth using over self enchanted weapons. This helps fix that, making them side-grades to uber crafting/enchanting).
Wearable Lanterns (for those people that get mods to make it REALLY freaking dark, but don't want to give up their shield or other weapon to have some light. Or just play a Khajiit for Night Eye, wusses =P )

Also, the HD pack.

[VykosDarkSoul]

Level 9 (half way to 10)
Destruction 20
Restoration 24 (1 skill point)
Heavy Armor 26 (1 skill point)
Block 26
One-handed 32 (2 skill points)
Sneak 26 (1 skill point)
Lockpicking 29 (2 skill points)
Smithing 18 (1 skill point)

All my armor is steel, except shield which is iron. Total 96 armor.

Ancient Nord Bow + Arrows
Scimitar

Hmm..dont forget that when your running around you can spam resto or illusion spells, etc..so long as its not an attack spell you should be safe

[X-Kalibur]

Hmm..dont forget that when your running around you can spam resto or illusion spells, etc..so long as its not an attack spell you should be safe

Not really. Restoration only increases if you're healing damage (or doing damage with some cases) and illusion has to have a target... save for maybe clairvoyance? I don't know if it increases skill or not. Alteration and Conjuration spells will only increase your skill if used in combat, sadly. But they are easy to spam in combat and increase much more quickly than restoration or destruction.

[StealthSigma]

Not really. Restoration only increases if you're healing damage (or doing damage with some cases) and illusion has to have a target... save for maybe clairvoyance? I don't know if it increases skill or not. Alteration and Conjuration spells will only increase your skill if used in combat, sadly. But they are easy to spam in combat and increase much more quickly than restoration or destruction.

Muffle. Self Targeted, gives skill.

You can also dualcast flames and heals on yourself. That levels restoration and destruction at the same time.

[VykosDarkSoul]

Muffle. Self Targeted, gives skill.

You can also dualcast flames and heals on yourself. That levels restoration and destruction at the same time.

damn lunch, you beat me to it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

also, its not to hard to run off a lil cliff every now and again (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Muffle and Clairvo were my big things, and then when you hit 75 (i think) Illusion you can buy invis, which for the most part means win.

[X-Kalibur]

Muffle. Self Targeted, gives skill.

You can also dualcast flames and heals on yourself. That levels restoration and destruction at the same time.

I always forget about muffle. I'm curious as to how you're casting flames on yourself. Are you talking about fireball? Or is there something silly like aiming straight down with flames hurts you?