Skyrim V: Skyrim

[Avilan the Grey]

I am doing that, but I guess I haven't run across enough of them. I've only been in Riverwood and Whiterun.

On the road between the tutorial dungeon and Riverwood there is what? 40 plants and several mushrooms to pick.

[Morty]

So I suppose that means I just haven't been looking around carefully enough. I'll keep that in mind.

[Avilan the Grey]

So I suppose that means I just haven't been looking around carefully enough. I'll keep that in mind.

My point is that unless you are looking for specific ingredients you virtually stumble over them. Almost anything can be picked. All flowers you see, all mushrooms, all bugs... Click away.

[nhbdy]

also if you want to level alchemy get giant's toes, lots and lots of giant's toes, they make expensive potions and thus level you more quickly, buy em at every opportunity and slay a few camps (once you can that is, no need to start a skyrim space program)

[Volthawk]

also if you want to level alchemy get giant's toes, lots and lots of giant's toes, they make expensive potions and thus level you more quickly, buy em at every opportunity and slay a few camps (once you can that is, no need to start a skyrim space program)

Just find camps where you can use the terrain to your advantage. I know there's one with a cliff overlooking it. Up on the cliff, you can blast them with whatever ranged method takes your fancy without risking going flying.

[Avilan the Grey]

Just find camps where you can use the terrain to your advantage. I know there's one with a cliff overlooking it. Up on the cliff, you can blast them with whatever ranged method takes your fancy without risking going flying.

There is also at least one bandit fortress you can (after emptying it of course) let them chase you to and then climb up on the wall.

[Triaxx]

Fort Greywall. It's near one of the main quest missions, and it's decidedly hard to miss. There are also some good spots on rocks where nothing can get you.

On Orc mages: Librarian probably, but probably also a certain Let's Play. And if not, go watch it now: Chapter 1
Chapter 2

[Grue Bait]

For giants, if you've got a bow, you can lure any of the ones west of Whiterun (on the plains) to Western Watchtower, that broken one, and hide just inside the tower. They'll charge up the ramp, but they can't fit through the door.

[Tergon]

Or just lure other enemies into the Giant's path. Dragons are obviously the most entertaining, so head to Bonestrewn Crest as there's a couple of camps nearby as a good starting point. If the dragons won't cooperate, the place is lousy with bears and saber cats, so throw a few of those at the big fellas. And, failing that, go poke a bandit camp and run for the nearest Giants. Plus there's no shortage of insurmountable knee-high walls that the Giants have to run around but you can go through, if you favour the snipe-and-dash approach. It's definitely one of the most player-friendly zones to kill a giant in.

[Beowulf DW]

Or just lure other enemies into the Giant's path. Dragons are obviously the most entertaining, so head to Bonestrewn Crest as there's a couple of camps nearby as a good starting point. If the dragons won't cooperate, the place is lousy with bears and saber cats, so throw a few of those at the big fellas. And, failing that, go poke a bandit camp and run for the nearest Giants. Plus there's no shortage of insurmountable knee-high walls that the Giants have to run around but you can go through, if you favour the snipe-and-dash approach. It's definitely one of the most player-friendly zones to kill a giant in.

Mounted archery works especially well on the plains of Whiterun hold.

[Morty]

One thing I noticed is that your magic skills advance when you have a long-term spell from a given school up. This pleases me, because it means it's no longer a chore to develop magic skills other than Destruction. Now I just need some Illusion spells to consistently use so I can develop it too.
In other news, it seems that I diverted from the main quest a bit too soon. I keep running into enemies who chew me up...

[Avilan the Grey]

...Damn it.

I AM pathetic. I have been trying to start a new game since last saturday, and I keep playing through the keep, and then restart because I want a different character.

I JUST CAN'T DECIDE. It is now 1:10 PM of the NEXT saturday and i have so far no idea.

EDIT:
Well, I now have started five characters I will be running parallel.

Argonian Male - Silent-Wind - Either archer or assassin. Have not decided.

Breton Male - Alaric - Summoner, Dr Doom vibe (will insist on Heavy Armor boots and gloves. Even when wearing mage robes.

Nord Female - Ingegard - Archer or Assassin, have not decided.

High Elf Female - Elaninde - Mage of some sort. Maybe Necromancer.

Redguard Female - Nani - Heavy armor melee fighter.

[Triaxx]

Argonians are exceptional thieves/assassins. Except there's not as many options for water based shenanigans as there were in Oblivion.

[Grue Bait]

Breton Male - Alaric - Summoner, Dr Doom vibe (will insist on Heavy Armor boots and gloves. Even when wearing mage robes.

A dragon mask would make this perfect.

[Avilan the Grey]

A dragon mask would make this perfect.

Agreed.

Now I have already shifted focus on a few things:

Silent-Wind will be a hunter / thief, no magic at all, and probably join the Companions and the Thieves.

Alaric is the same as described. Probably pure mage and only do the College.

Ingegard will be a 2-handed heavy fighter. Companions is given, but also probably the Bard's college. Just because.

Elaninde will be an mage / thief, with priority on mage.

Nani will probably be dropped entirely. Basically it depends on if I enjoy sword and board more than 2-hander which one of the warrior-women that will be dropped.

One of these will also join the dark brotherhood. Either Alaric, Elaninde or Silent-Wind. I have not decided yet.
Also... speaking of Elaninde: having Rage at the start made the tutorial dungeon laughably easy.

[Grue Bait]

Agreed.

Any idea which one? Morokei?

ION, crossbows are a bit OP. The enhanced dwarven crossbow has a few points on my Dragonbone bow, plus it ignores 50% of armor. Not that I'm complaining, but still...

[Avilan the Grey]

Any idea which one? Morokei?

ION, crossbows are a bit OP. The enhanced dwarven crossbow has a few points on my Dragonbone bow, plus it ignores 50% of armor. Not that I'm complaining, but still...

No idea yet. Probably.

I want crossbows.

[Eldan]

I played a first test character on my brother's version of the game (can't get a computer good enough to run it, yet).

He was a Nord unarmed fighter with a handlebar moustache and long, blonde hair. His name was Hogan and he was quite fun.

[Calemyr]

I played a first test character on my brother's version of the game (can't get a computer good enough to run it, yet).

He was a Nord unarmed fighter with a handlebar moustache and long, blonde hair. His name was Hogan and he was quite fun.

Given most of the h2h finishers in the game, that would work very well.

[nhbdy]

Given most of the h2h finishers in the game, that would work very well.

hmm.... and now I have an interest in making the unarmed vampire hunter (Movarth Piquine) from immortal blood ( http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Immortal_Blood ) as a character.... gotta think this through....

[PhallicWarrior]

Starting a new character, based around the "horrible murder with stabby knives from the shadows" archetype. Argonian. Jet black, with dark purple face-paint and yellow eyes. He shall be known as...

Silent-But-Deadly

[Morty]

On the whole, how useful is Light Armour for a warrior who doesn't sneak around too much? Does it have any advantage or should I just stick to Heavy Armour?

[Calemyr]

hmm.... and now I have an interest in making the unarmed vampire hunter (Movarth Piquine) from immortal blood ( http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Immortal_Blood ) as a character.... gotta think this through....

If so, I strongly suggest you consider "Combat Fists" from Steam or "Enchantable Unarmed Strike" from Nexus. They provide weapons that use unarmed animations without models. This means they can be improved and enchanted like normal weapons.

Combat Fists allows you to create 1h fist weapons that count as daggers for all intents and purposes (damage, weight, perks). Using them allows you to gain skill in 1h, benefit from 1h perks, and (I think) benefit from the insane backstab multiplier daggers get. Their damage is fairly mediocre (being daggers), but they're still better than unarmed and you can mix and match with magic. I don't know if you get all the animations this way, however.

Enchantable Unarmed Strike allows you to create 2h fist weapons, but doesn't treat them as actual 2h weapons (no skill gain, no perks). I usually edit the mod to behave as warhammers when I use this one. This one makes both of your hands use the same damage and enchantment, and it's all or nothing (unarmed or not), so you don't have to worry about animations. Additionally, there's a second set of weapons called claws, which use the Khajiit unarmed animation, and an additional dragon-tier weapon for each, which is nice.

The downside of both of them is that they don't use a model, so if you are disarmed you won't be able to find your weapons again. That said, they do benefit from the Heavy Armor Iron Fist perk and the Fortify Unarmed enchantment, and unarmed attacks just have so much more style than the rest of these.

The other mod I like (if you are willing to use ScriptDragon), improves your unarmed damage by 1 each level. Combined with the rest of it, however, it may well be overkill.

If you're playing on console, however, your only real answer is to use the Fortify Recovery alchemy bug to create gloves and rings with high Fortify Unarmed enchantments. There's really nothing quite like punching a dragon to death, is there?

On the whole, how useful is Light Armour for a warrior who doesn't sneak around too much? Does it have any advantage or should I just stick to Heavy Armour?

Both are effective in different ways: You get more defense earlier with heavy, you are more mobile with light, though both of these can be negated by the endgame (reducing effective weight to 0 and capping your defense). You get a reduction in fall damage with heavy, you get an increase to stamina regen with light. You move very slowly in heavy armor, but the best weapons (pre-Dawnguard) are down the Heavy path.

It's a zero sum game, really, it's just a question of which sum suits you better.

I personally favor light armor because Dragonscale looks badass while Dragonbone looks dumbass and Glass weapons and armor have a suitable style for the knight-in-shining-armor look, or simply look awesome if you use a texture replacer that restores the Morrowind coloring for glass.

[Morty]

I see. Thanks. Looks like my plan to play lightly a armoured Nord focusing on two handed weapons will work.

[Tergon]

hmm.... and now I have an interest in making the unarmed vampire hunter (Movarth Piquine) from immortal blood ( http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Immortal_Blood ) as a character.... gotta think this through....

He's already a character. You fight his vampired self near Morthal. If you make another one you might cause Tamriel to implode. BEWARE.

On the whole, how useful is Light Armour for a warrior who doesn't sneak around too much? Does it have any advantage or should I just stick to Heavy Armour?

It's actually quite good. If you get the smithing perks, it can reach the armour cap without too much difficulty, making it pretty much as effective as Heavy Armour, and then there's the level 100 perk to dodge 10% of all physical attacks on top of that. But long before you reach that level, the primary advantage is that you move faster, you save weight in your inventory, and most importantly, your stamina regenerates much faster. That's a big priority for a fighter.
Really, if you're going one-handed and shield, you don't need the defence rating from heavy armour. So I'd actually say light armour is the superior choice for a sword-and-boarder. Heavy armour is better for those who use two-handed weapons and need the defence boost. Dual-weilders can go either way, depending on your style.

[Androgeus]

He's already a character. You fight his vampired self near Morthal. If you make another one you might cause Tamriel to implode. BEWARE.

pfft Tamriel can handle completely different and contradictory events happening at the same time, see Warp in the West.

[nhbdy]

-snipped a lot of stuff about mods-

If you're playing on console, however, your only real answer is to use the Fortify Recovery alchemy bug to create gloves and rings with high Fortify Unarmed enchantments. There's really nothing quite like punching a dragon to death, is there?

Yeah I am on console, what is this fortify recovery bug? In general I am opposed to exploiting the game, but I think it may be necessary to do so to maintain a viable damage, especially since I was planning on going light armor with that character (fits the style presented in the book better as he once states the importance of keeping his balance in a fight)

Also does anyone know how unarmed attacks are treated with regards to stealth? (ie. which perks effect them and which do not)

@Tergon
yeah more interested in creating a character based off of his description from that book than making him....

[Avilan the Grey]

Starting a new character, based around the "horrible murder with stabby knives from the shadows" archetype. Argonian. Jet black, with dark purple face-paint and yellow eyes. He shall be known as...

Silent-But-Deadly

He is also, behind his back, known to everyone ELSE as "Fartjoke-who-walks" (Sorry, had to!)

[Calemyr]

Yeah I am on console, what is this fortify recovery bug? In general I am opposed to exploiting the game, but I think it may be necessary to do so to maintain a viable damage, especially since I was planning on going light armor with that character (fits the style presented in the book better as he once states the importance of keeping his balance in a fight)

Also does anyone know how unarmed attacks are treated with regards to stealth? (ie. which perks effect them and which do not)

Unarmed attacks are not considered at all in the vanilla game, near as I know.

Warning: This exploit can literally destroy the balance of the game if you don't control yourself.

The cause: All Fortify effects have the same base id, which is conveniently the id for Fortify Restoration Potion effect. As a result, Fortify Restoration effects will be applied to other effects as well.

1) Gather as much salt, river betty (fish), and cyrodilic spadetail (fish) as you can. Salt is pretty easy to find if you keep an eye open, fish can be tricky. Also collect blue butterfly wings and snowberries.

2) Collect/craft as many concurrent Fortify Alchemy items as you can get (head, amulet, ring, glove). Equip them.

3) Craft a potion using the ingredients from 1). Just one.

4) Drink potion. Unequip alchemy gear. Leave menu.

5) Re-enter menu, re-equip alchemy gear. Why? Because this applies the boost from your potion to the effectiveness of your equipment. The new numbers are just window dressing until you do this.

6) Cycle through steps 3-5 until you have your alchemy up to the level you want.

7) Combine blue butterfly wings and snowberries to create Fortify Enchanting potions.

8) Use potions from 7) to create unnaturally powerful gear.

You can get this up to insane levels quite quickly if your starting alchemy is any good.

Fun applications for console users:
1) Fortify Health rings for companions. Effective immortality!
2) Fortify Unarmed rings for yourself. Kill dragons with one punch!
3) Fortify Smithing potions (Blisterwort and Glowing Mushroom). Temper weapons to one-shot Alduin himself.
4) Fortify Barter potions to max out speech in a couple transactions.

[nhbdy]

Unarmed attacks are not considered at all in the vanilla game, near as I know.

Warning: This exploit can literally destroy the balance of the game if you don't control yourself.

The cause: All Fortify effects have the same base id, which is conveniently the id for Fortify Restoration Potion effect. As a result, Fortify Restoration effects will be applied to other effects as well.

1) Gather as much salt, river betty (fish), and cyrodilic spadetail (fish) as you can. Salt is pretty easy to find if you keep an eye open, fish can be tricky. Also collect blue butterfly wings and snowberries.

2) Collect/craft as many concurrent Fortify Alchemy items as you can get (head, amulet, ring, glove). Equip them.

3) Craft a potion using the ingredients from 1). Just one.

4) Drink potion. Unequip alchemy gear. Leave menu.

5) Re-enter menu, re-equip alchemy gear. Why? Because this applies the boost from your potion to the effectiveness of your equipment. The new numbers are just window dressing until you do this.

6) Cycle through steps 3-5 until you have your alchemy up to the level you want.

7) Combine blue butterfly wings and snowberries to create Fortify Enchanting potions.

8) Use potions from 7) to create unnaturally powerful gear.

You can get this up to insane levels quite quickly if your starting alchemy is any good.

Fun applications for console users:
1) Fortify Health rings for companions. Effective immortality!
2) Fortify Unarmed rings for yourself. Kill dragons with one punch!
3) Fortify Smithing potions (Blisterwort and Glowing Mushroom). Temper weapons to one-shot Alduin himself.
4) Fortify Barter potions to max out speech in a couple transactions.

hmm... yeah that's a bit absurd, almost reminds me of a pun-pun setup where something gives infinite of everything, not an option... this build sounds like it wouldn't be worth the effort.