Faction advancement in Morrowind isn't as hard as you're making it sound. Each group has a long list of favored skills. You just need one at a highest level and then two others at medium level to advance. Example:
To get the Protctor rank you need one skill at 40 and 2 others at 10 (plus Strength at 30 and Endurance at 30): axe, long blade, blunt weapon, heavy armor, armorer, block.
It's not hard, maybe, but annoying. I remember that while playing a priest-type Dunmer, I had to spend a lot of money on training Long Blade because otherwise I was one skill short of advancing in House Redoran. Another character of mine, an Argonian spear fighter in medium armor, couldn't really advance in Fighters' Guild at all because neither Spear nor Medium Armor are associated skills there.
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My FFRP characters. Avatar by Kid Kris. Sigatars by Gulaghar, Kid Kris, Zefir and billtodamax, respectively.
Personally, I think that the Jack of All Stats thing is dumb.
Granted, magic in skyrim is actually my Last Choice. I've tried having devoted mage characters and destruction magic is too... not exactly useless, but it definitely isn't "omg, yes, must use destruction magic for all of my needs!"
That might just be because spells don't scale though. (Anyone have a favorite mod for that? I use the Simple Skyrim Spell Scaling Solution, but that only fixes half of a problem, IMO.)
My last devoted mage character ended up switching to a Bound Bow and sneaking as soon as they were able, because actually casting destruction magic just didn't deal enough damage.
The Skyrim: Bear and Skyrim: Dovahbear videos just showed up in my recommended videos on Youtube. Now I want to play an awakened sword and shield using bear in Pathfinder.
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Avatar by the incomparable Herpestidae.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flickerdart
Fortunately, a Monk 1/Warblade 19 uses Iron Heart Surge to end the Monk character class, and the day is saved.
I use Balanced Magic to both boost destruction's damage as well as lessening the cost. It also alters the Alteration tree to boost both duration and reduce costs, including a change to the normal boost duration perk to make it reduce costs instead. Stability Remains the same though.
Downside is that it restores the Armor Penalty to magic. Of course since my wizards are all cloth guys, it doesn't bother me.
The Skyrim: Bear and Skyrim: Dovahbear videos just showed up in my recommended videos on Youtube. Now I want to play an awakened sword and shield using bear in Pathfinder.
*blinks*
*heads in direction of youtube*
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"Not trusting me might be the smartest decision you made since getting off of your horse."
One mod I'm definetly going to install if I play Morrowind again is one that makes magic work like in Daggerfall or Skyrim, which is to say that your skill reduces the Magicka cost, and I'm pretty sure such a mod exists. The spell failure chance was a clunky and annoying system.
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My FFRP characters. Avatar by Kid Kris. Sigatars by Gulaghar, Kid Kris, Zefir and billtodamax, respectively.
I might be wrong, but I believe in Skyrim, the Mage's quest line requires you to cast precisely three spells.
I believe you are correct. I don't recall casting anything other than what you've mentioned when I played through the College questline. Unless "Backstab" counts as a spell.
Really, I think the true prize of the college is getting Jzargo as a follower.
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Truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a DM with a sense of humour.
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No pretty sure he thinks he's Digo Dragon.
Custom Avatar by SnowHawk- My OC Pegasus, Ellie Sprocket.
I might be wrong, but I believe in Skyrim, the Mage's quest line requires you to cast precisely three spells. A Lesser Ward in your first lesson, a fire spell or something to knock down a wall in Sarthal, and either ice or fire to realign a Dwemer machine when looking for the Staff of Magnus. Those are all the absolute weakest spells you can cast, but they're enough to make it to Archmage level.
Less than three
The ward spell isn't necessary use the shield "spellbreaker" instead.
In saarthal it's possible to use a shout instead of a spell. (i had to, since i suffered from CTD)
Leaves the last one, can't remember if there even was a third one...
There's also the bridge at the entrance; unless you can persuade your way over the bridge, which most low-level mages definitely can't, you're required to cast a spell to prove you can actually get across.
Yeah, there's still an easy way around it, or you can just use a scroll or a staff, but that's still infinitely better than Oblivion's setup. You were required to cast a spell in exactly ONE quest in the entire questline (that being Vahtacen's Secret), and it literally handed you the scrolls you would need just in case you didn't know the spells already. And considering one of those spells was Drain Mana, which (let's face it) nobody ever learned because it was useless as all tits, using the scrolls was by far the easier option.
Skyrim asks you to pass the bridge exam (while offering you a way around it), it asks you to cast a ward (while offering you a way around it), it asks you to knock down a wall (while offering you a way around it), and it asks you to throw fire and ice at an Elder Scroll (which you have to do). To its credit, that's far more than Oblivion ever did, and using magic is ALWAYS the easier and smarter option. To its detriment, that means that the highest-level spell you might be asked to cast in the entire game is Summon Flame Atronach, and that's only if you pick those dialogue options to make it so.
Basically it's pretty crappy, is what I'm saying.
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...but of course that's just my opinion.
If you don't go to the college until partway through the main quest, you need only shout, so Flames and Frostbite are all you need. And everyone starts with Flames.
Add the fact that the 'magic anamolies' are very resistant to magic, but weak to physical damage...
It's also necessary to cast fire and frostbite to get through Labyrinthian.
Oblivion had a side quest you were lead to while entering the mages guild, which required the casting of a shock spell.
Drain Magicka was really like the most awfully useless effect in Oblivion. Not that it's much better in Skyrim.
Mind you I still think that Skyrim does the Mages' Guild better than the Thieves' Guild. As I believe I detailed earlier in this thread, even if you fail the "Plant the Stolen Ring" quest, you're invited into the Guild anyway. Then, from entering the sewers onwards, you can fight your way through every single quest in the Thieves' Guild, from brawling protection money out of Riften merchants, right to smacking down the Spirits of the Nightingales at the end. Even in the penultimate quest, the battle in the cave with the giant statue specifically requires you to be able to win a stand-up fight with a very powerful opponent, and you can't sneak your way out of it.
At no point, not one, are you required to actually use a single stealth skill at any point during your tenure as a member of the Thieves' Guild, from the day you join until the day you become its leader. But considering that, as mentioned, you do have to win at least one instance of direct combat against a dangerous melee opponent, you DO need to make use of combat or magic skills. So being a Thief is less important to the Guild of Thieves than being a Fighter.
Even if the only spells you cast in the Mages' Guild questline are flames and frostbite, you still have to learn the latter by finding and reading the book, and actually casting the spell. At some point, you have to do something magicky if you want to become Archmage. But Guildmaster of the Guild of Thieves? Stealth and commiting acts of robbery are apparently an irrelevant skillset for you here.
In other news, the Adventures of a Highlander in Skyrim have taken a turn for the grim. Connor McCloud is now in his twenties, but using a two-handed weapon and wearing no armour is taking its toll in the "I have zero goddamn defensive capability" department. Apparently the various enemies did not recieve the memo that he is, in fact, a Highlander, and the Bandit Thugs and Plunderers are becoming problematic since they can kill me with an arrow or two. I'm finding myself heavily dependent on shouts, particularly Slow Time or Whirlwind Sprint, just to get close enough to force them to pull out a dagger. On the plus side, it's helping me to level my Restoration very quickly because of all the healing that I'm forced to do. And I'm having great fun now that I've given Faendal some nice Elven Armour and he's arrowing those nasty bandits right back, being a highly effective distraction for me. He's only killed me a couple of times by shooting me in the back and I'm pretty sure he didn't mean it.
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...but of course that's just my opinion.
Like I've said before, not being required to actually use the skills associated with the guild is only half of the problem with Skyrim's factions. The other half is the fact that it's just too fast. You join a guild and before you know it, you've its leader. In Morrowind and even Oblivion, it took a while, because you need to get your skills pretty high in Morrowind and do many quests in both games.
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My FFRP characters. Avatar by Kid Kris. Sigatars by Gulaghar, Kid Kris, Zefir and billtodamax, respectively.
Tergon: For your highlander, a custom mod might be in order. One of the perks in the Restoration tree, Avoid Death. You might alter it to be a one-hundred percent chance, and repeatable. That might solve a lot of your problems.
Repeatable, guaranteed healing every time health drops down? So basically I'd be invincible?
Nice thought, but honestly, at that point I might as well just turn on God Mode. There'd be no challenge to the game! :P Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm happy with no mods at the moment. I'm enjoying the difficulty and having to try to outsmart tougher opponents to make them vulnerable to me.
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...but of course that's just my opinion.
"Were they meant to explode? Because they exploded."
That was a fun quest. Second only in my favour to the one that involves you getting turned into a cow.
Both of those were good. The explody quest was particularly funny because one of the skeletons I hit sent bone shrapnel through a wall and it hit my follower, causing her to run into the room yelling "What the hell, hero?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tergon
So being a Thief is less important to the Guild of Thieves than being a Fighter.
This makes sense from the early standpoint of when you first reach Riften and the folks tell you that the guild is nothing but a gang of thugs and cut-throats. However, yes it is disappointing that you don't have the ability to weed them out and make professionals out of the better ones.
Heck, I would have personally loved to have the option where the Theives guild can be molded into a professional spy network for the Empire or a vigilantte organization to keep the peace in Skyrim. That sounds infinitely more interesting to me than "Theives guild".
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The critics rave about Digo Dragon:
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Succubus
Truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a DM with a sense of humour.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soras Teva Gee
No pretty sure he thinks he's Digo Dragon.
Custom Avatar by SnowHawk- My OC Pegasus, Ellie Sprocket.
Ah, the thieves guild. Now that is fun. I remember being delighted when I got to it's final mission or so and discovered that the Falmer really are blind. Stealthed my way through the entire place without being discovered once, even though I had to pass straight in front of numerous Falmer in every chamber.
And then came the moment when I discovered that Chaurus Reapers do, in fact, have eyes.
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"Not trusting me might be the smartest decision you made since getting off of your horse."
Failing that, try to Fus Ro Dah them across the room until you can kill one. If you can't take down the caster or Nepos, get one of the manservants and steal his key so that you can get out of the house if necessary, give yourself some room to move. It all depends on what your fighting style is, though. Are you a fighter, an archer, or a mage?
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...but of course that's just my opinion.
Part of my trouble is that I'm level 11 or something. I have Fus. I have light armor, 2 melee weapons (skyforged sword and dagger), and a hunting bow, All improved as well as I can with 20 smithing and the steel perk. At master difficulty, it takes me 3-4 double power attacks to knock over a single minion. Nepos himself can casually incinerate me right through my power attacks, thanks to mage armour.
Spoiler
I want to go into Cidna mine early so I can actually kill that rat-bastard Madanach with the nerf spoon they give you
One solution is to wait three levels, do A Night to Remember and drop a Dremora in their faces. Or five hundred gold will hire you a companion from the inn.
If you're on PC, Cerwiden is an awesome follower who can heal you. She's on Nexus.
Then yeah, your best bet is backup. Go get Lydia and arm her up. If you have any scrolls of summoning, pull those out too: every hit your minions take is one you don't have to. Then just hit hard. Beware, Nepos and the door girl can both raise the other two as zombies, so give the casters priority unless you wanna kill the meatshields twice, or unless you plan to grab a key off the corpse and then run outside.
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...but of course that's just my opinion.
Stuck on stupid Nepos. I'm doing him on Master difficulty, and he and his gang of forsworn goat-humpers are gaffling me but good. Any recommendations?
Incite him to throw the first punch and then get him to follow you to some guards? Guards are usually pretty good at helping you so long as you didn't start the fight.
__________________ The Arbiters - A Comical Conspiracy Comic
The critics rave about Digo Dragon:
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Succubus
Truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a DM with a sense of humour.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soras Teva Gee
No pretty sure he thinks he's Digo Dragon.
Custom Avatar by SnowHawk- My OC Pegasus, Ellie Sprocket.
Well, I knocked Nepos over, thankfully, and now have completed Cidhna mine as well. First, training Nepos and his posse to guards won't do anything, the Markarth guards will quite happily watch you get curbstomped by Nepos and his gang of Forsworn.
So, instead I tried NineThePuma's recommendation of killing him first, but I discovered that you need to let him blab to get the quest credit. So, finally, I got him halfway through the conversation, then stabbed him in the face-region once he gave up the confession, but before he could tell his pack of derps to kill me. Then to my lasting amusement, the Markarth guard barged in and arrested me, whereupon the rest of Nepos' Forsworn git mob quietly let me be arrested. I paid my 40 gold fine for giving Nepos a case of steel poisoning, and went on my merry way. Victory.
I love the guards in Skyrim. They just seem to have a sense of humor about it.
"Oh, you whacked the guy? Well, all I know is this stab mark matches your weapon, but I didn't see you kill him, so that'll be 40g and then you're on your way. Thank you, and have a nice murder spree."
Particularly funny if you A) got the dual gut stab kill move and B) are wielding Daedric Swords that litterally no one else in existence has access to, including actual summoned Daedra.
I love the guards in Skyrim. They just seem to have a sense of humor about it.
"Oh, you whacked the guy? Well, all I know is this stab mark matches your weapon, but I didn't see you kill him, so that'll be 40g and then you're on your way. Thank you, and have a nice murder spree."
Particularly funny if you A) got the dual gut stab kill move and B) are wielding Daedric Swords that litterally no one else in existence has access to, including actual summoned Daedra.
...Can you blame the guard for not wanting to fight you so long as he has plausible deniability?
The Guards do seem to look for the easy way out. Earlier, I shouted someone off a high point in Markarth and they died in a splattery way, and a guard came up to me. Apparently hitting someone with a shout means I need to pay 40 gold as punishment, but since it was the ground who killed them, no fuss there.
When I explained I was a Thane, he let me go. I sort of suspect it was more that he just wanted any possible excuse to get away from me before I got angry.
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...but of course that's just my opinion.
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