The Elder Scrolls XV: This is my Thu'um Stick

[Resileaf]

Non-dragonborn can beat dragons easily enough, they just cant keep them permanently dead. I do wish they had showcased why this is in any way meaningful though, given that we seem to be the only one actually going out and killing dragons anyway.

The difference between non-dragonborn and dragonborn killing dragons doesn't really matter in the timeline of Skyrim because Alduin is only going around raising dragons that were buried. Those that fall during their attacks are probably on his to-do list, but he's got other things to do, and by the time he could do it, you've beaten him.

[Keltest]

The difference between non-dragonborn and dragonborn killing dragons doesn't really matter in the timeline of Skyrim because Alduin is only going around raising dragons that were buried. Those that fall during their attacks are probably on his to-do list, but he's got other things to do, and by the time he could do it, you've beaten him.

That's what I mean though. Delphine talks about how were the ultimate dragonslayers, and to a point she's correct in as much as shouts are a huge advantage. But the actual eating of their souls is otherwise entirely irrelevant, because Alduin doesn't go around resurrecting dragons killed without us anyway, and outside the shouts we have no special ability to hurt dragons that a band of humans with crossbows doesn't also have.

[LibraryOgre]

Non-dragonborn can beat dragons easily enough, they just cant keep them permanently dead. I do wish they had showcased why this is in any way meaningful though, given that we seem to be the only one actually going out and killing dragons anyway.

A random encounter with a party of Dragon-hunting Nords? Maybe a few encounters with them... young ones, eager to find out if they're also Dragonborn. Older ones, maybe seeking Sovngarde. Experienced ones, with dragonbone/scale weapons and equipment.

[halfeye]

It seems to me that dragons spawn in at random anyway, there doesn't seem to be an actual limit on the number that can be killed. There are a few named ones that are unique, but the rest seem to just pop up every now and then, with no particular cause and no limit that I've yet come across.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Non-dragonborn can beat dragons easily enough, they just cant keep them permanently dead. I do wish they had showcased why this is in any way meaningful though, given that we seem to be the only one actually going out and killing dragons anyway.

They do bring up that the Blades have a long history of dragonslaying. It's just that as of Skyrim most of them are dead.

[Vinyadan]

Ebony Warrior? Bah! In my days, we just had a lucky, irritable, ungrateful elf... and I can tell you, nobody was asking how to spare him!

[Aeson]

In my days, we just had a lucky, irritable, ungrateful elf...

And Umbra.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

And Umbra.

Umbra must feed!

[veti]

And Umbra.

I don't recall Umbra being particularly challenging at high level. Lots of ways to deal with him, and by level 20 you have plenty of options.

That blasted elf, on the other hand...

[Resileaf]

That's what I mean though. Delphine talks about how were the ultimate dragonslayers, and to a point she's correct in as much as shouts are a huge advantage. But the actual eating of their souls is otherwise entirely irrelevant, because Alduin doesn't go around resurrecting dragons killed without us anyway, and outside the shouts we have no special ability to hurt dragons that a band of humans with crossbows doesn't also have.

To be fair, all she has about the Dragonborn and dragons are stories and to a certain point, myths. If she heard that Dragonborns were the ultimate dragon slayers, she'd have no reason not to believe it.

[Aeson]

I don't recall Umbra being particularly challenging at high level. Lots of ways to deal with him, and by level 20 you have plenty of options.

That blasted elf, on the other hand...

On the one hand, no, Umbra wasn't a particularly difficult fight at high level in Morrowind unless you'd done something silly, like leveled ten or fifteen times off Speechcraft and Mercantile without developing any actual combat skills or investing in a big stack of spellcasting items or something else like that. On the other hand, Umbra was still a fight you were meant to take at a relatively high level for the base game. Gaenor, by contrast, is a high-level challenge for an area which was already mostly meant for characters who were high level by the standards of the base game.

[Vinyadan]

Umbra must feed!

I was rather taken aback by the Oblivion version. In particular, I didn't like the idea of the sword having directed the actions of the original Umbra. I guess it's possible that Clavicus Vile edited the sword in the meantime, or created a new artifact inspired by it (Oblivion Umbra is one-handed, for example).

[Keltest]

I was rather taken aback by the Oblivion version. In particular, I didn't like the idea of the sword having directed the actions of the original Umbra. I guess it's possible that Clavicus Vile edited the sword in the meantime, or created a new artifact inspired by it (Oblivion Umbra is one-handed, for example).

They wrote a couple books about it, actually. Evidently, the Umbra entity was part of Clavicus Vile (because the guy is apparently pretty free with his own self by daedric standards) and was actually used to suppress the maddening effects of the sword.

[Vinyadan]

They wrote a couple books about it, actually. Evidently, the Umbra entity was part of Clavicus Vile (because the guy is apparently pretty free with his own self by daedric standards) and was actually used to suppress the maddening effects of the sword.

Interesting, I'll have to look into the book (The Infernal City, right?), assuming I have the time. But I still don't think that Umbra needed to be more than what he was in Morrowind. I think he already was very cool, and he also represented a question hanging on the future of the PC, who still is in his prime when he meets Umbra.

That blasted elf, on the other hand...

See, this is why you should always carry so much sujamma, that you need sujamma to be able to carry all your sujamma!

[LibraryOgre]

On the "Non-Dragonborn can kill dragons", apparently, Dragons have the Dragonskin power, which means they take half damage from everyone except the dragonborn.

[Resileaf]

On the "Non-Dragonborn can kill dragons", apparently, Dragons have the Dragonskin power, which means they take half damage from everyone except the dragonborn.

Huh, I never noticed that. Have to say that whenever I fight dragons alongside NPCs, they tend to do much more damage than me.

But that might just be strength in numbers.

[LibraryOgre]

Huh, I never noticed that. Have to say that whenever I fight dragons alongside NPCs, they tend to do much more damage than me.

But that might just be strength in numbers.

In my case, a lot of it comes down to them being better archers than I can ever hope to be.

[DigoDragon]

Huh, I never noticed that. Have to say that whenever I fight dragons alongside NPCs, they tend to do much more damage than me.
But that might just be strength in numbers.

For me it's that NPCs go charging into the dragon's breath weapon to melee while I'm hiding behind some rocks aiming an arrow. >.>

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Interesting, I'll have to look into the book (The Infernal City, right?)

Correct; 'The Infernal City' and 'Lord of Souls'. They're surprisingly decent books too.

[Spore]

On the "Non-Dragonborn can kill dragons", apparently, Dragons have the Dragonskin power, which means they take half damage from everyone except the dragonborn.

The question is, if that power is canon (ie. story relevant) or just a thing to make the player stand out in between a dozen soldiers taking down the dragon. I enjoy the dragonborn as some sort of dragon hunting specialist, but for other characters I actually never start the dragon questline because I don't want a sneaky khajiit thief to suddenly become a dragonslayer.

Thus any actual dragonborn PC of mine would be a Nord focussing in the race's strengths (twohanded, light armor, smithing) with a side skill tree that actually helps in hunting dragons (archery, lightning enchantments to drain the magicka of the dragon, maybe a bit of speech to actually explain why everyone just defaults to him solving any given problem).

[DigoDragon]

because I don't want a sneaky khajiit thief to suddenly become a dragonslayer.

My dragonslaying sneaky khajiit thief hisses in your general direction. XD

It's all good. I like playing a character that seems out of place fighting dragons tho.

[Vinyadan]

The question is, if that power is canon (ie. story relevant) or just a thing to make the player stand out in between a dozen soldiers taking down the dragon. I enjoy the dragonborn as some sort of dragon hunting specialist, but for other characters I actually never start the dragon questline because I don't want a sneaky khajiit thief to suddenly become a dragonslayer.

Thus any actual dragonborn PC of mine would be a Nord focussing in the race's strengths (twohanded, light armor, smithing) with a side skill tree that actually helps in hunting dragons (archery, lightning enchantments to drain the magicka of the dragon, maybe a bit of speech to actually explain why everyone just defaults to him solving any given problem).

See, it's a pity that Skyrim only lets you kill dragons in such theatrical ways. If we look at Tolkien (Turin and Bilbo) and old stories like Sigurd's, people who directly stood up to dragons were destroyed or dominated by them, while even warrior heroes had to sneak around and prepare ambushes.

[LibraryOgre]

My dragonslaying sneaky khajiit thief hisses in your general direction. XD

It's all good. I like playing a character that seems out of place fighting dragons tho.

No matter how mighty the dragon, 20-30 poisoned arrows in his hide will give him a bad day.

[Aeson]

Huh, I never noticed that. Have to say that whenever I fight dragons alongside NPCs, they tend to do much more damage than me.

But that might just be strength in numbers.

Could also be a difficulty settings thing - if I recall correctly, the difficulty settings apply multipliers to how much damage you deal and receive but don't directly affect NPC damage output against NPCs and monsters. I could be confusing it with how it worked in the older games, though.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

The question is, if that power is canon (ie. story relevant) or just a thing to make the player stand out in between a dozen soldiers taking down the dragon.

If it makes a difference, ESO has dragons in it now (a fact that still makes me feel quite sour), and they are MUCH, MUCH tougher than Skyrim-dragons-without-mods. They're designed so that small armies of players can all fight them at once and it still takes a while to bring them down usually. And the ESO protagonist is not Dragonborn.

...though some of that in-game ESO difficulty might be because story-wise Elsweyr trained their defenders by sending them up against skeletons and Naga instead of something actually dangerous.

My dragonslaying sneaky khajiit thief hisses in your general direction. XD

As does mine. He found the idea that the ultimate Nord ideal was a sneaky Khajiit to be very amusing!

[Spore]

...though some of that in-game ESO difficulty might be because story-wise Elsweyr trained their defenders by sending them up against skeletons and Naga instead of something actually dangerous.

I feel a decked out character in ESO is pretty impressive. They are very skilled summoners, warriors, paladins etc. But I feel their canonical 'power level' is somewhat all over the place.

One time they fight a daedra summoner (in the intro dungeon even) and against hordes of daedra. The next second they try to prevent a bunch of sea elves summon up a storm. Where they are disrupted by mudcrabs. Because of course they are.

See, it's a pity that Skyrim only lets you kill dragons in such theatrical ways. If we look at Tolkien (Turin and Bilbo) and old stories like Sigurd's, people who directly stood up to dragons were destroyed or dominated by them, while even warrior heroes had to sneak around and prepare ambushes.

I mean the spectacle of fighting dragons headon and winning is what pulled A LOOOOOT of people towards the series. So yea, that is complaining on a high level imho. But I understand. Dragons imho should have lairs too and not be idiots who provoke the surrounding area. Lairs in which you could ambush them, where their breath weapon isnt just an easy side dodge but their ability to fly is limited.

Skyrim's dragons always felt like "random encounters" with them spawning outside draw distance and flying over. Epic the first 20 times but it becomes boring after a while (w/o mods of course).

Could also be a difficulty settings thing - if I recall correctly, the difficulty settings apply multipliers to how much damage you deal and receive but don't directly affect NPC damage output against NPCs and monsters. I could be confusing it with how it worked in the older games, though.

Difficulty reduces damage taken by NPCs (followers and summons too) so the fights become lopsided towards NPCs suddenly tanking a dragon breath.

It just works.

[Caelestion]

Isn't that literally what all the unnamed dragons were - random monsters that you were far more likely to encounter if you fast-travelled a lot?

[Man_Over_Game]

Sad news today.

The CCG, The Elder Scrolls Legends, has confirmed its death today. While they'll be maintaining the servers for players to continue playing throughout the year, they have stated there will be no more content in the future.

I'd guess it's because they made some bad mechanical choices in the last few sets (Solitaire isn't a good PvP mechanic), and it cost them everything.

[DigoDragon]

Isn't that literally what all the unnamed dragons were - random monsters that you were far more likely to encounter if you fast-travelled a lot?

I used to fast travel to Riverwood any time I needed more dragon parts for smithing in Skyrim. Egads the reliability was silly.

In my latest play through without touching fast travel, I've had only one dragon encounter in Riverwood.

[DigoDragon]

Speaking of dragon encounters, I started playing through the Dragonborn DLC. I got to the quest where you need to head up to the dragon wall and learn the Bend Will shout. Yeah, I learned not to go traveling around the island at night.

I got lost. Oops. Oh but it got better!

After figuring out where I went wrong, I made a series of jumps over a mountain to scale over to the wall on the other side. And triggered the boss Drauger fight. At the same time as the dragon fight.

My world was reduced to Fus Roh and Fire. XD

I got lucky when the dragon got stuck in the mountainside and refused to fight anymore. Uh... thanks, Bethesda? ^^