Ok I am new to the genre, I have to give you that, as Skyrim is the first game that I have tried out in a while that is not a shooter, RTS, or sandbox builder. That, however is no excuse as to why I am constantly being assigned to quests that is pretty much unbeatable just because that last guy has a crapload of HP and I have not. Sometime I can kill them but only after expending all my potions and that totally goes against my syle of play. Mind you these are sidequests, I am not even rushing through the main storyline. I am level 20 and I already have about 5 or so quests on my journal that I cannot complete due to this utter nonsense. What the hell am I doing wrong?
what type of character are you playing as? Warrior, Mage, or Thief?
Some tips on 'em:
Warrior: Blocking is very important to survive longer battles. When you find yourself overwhelmed, use fus ro dah to blast your opponents away, or at the very least stun them for a while. Also can be used Nordic Battlecry or just a charged attack. Gives you a moment to think, or just to regenerate stamina and health. I also reccomend learning the school of alteration (spell of interest: Stoneskin, gives you a lot of extra armor for a reasonably long time)
Mage: While dealing with bosses, the school of conjuration might be more useful than the school of destruction. Since your spawned guardian attacks with melee attacks (mostly) bosses will usually attack them instead of you (good thing, because they can take the punishment, and you have little health). You'll propably find yourself running out of magicka quickly after throwing some fireballs around, so I recommend a spell staff (don't cost magicka to cast, but requires a soul gem every now and then to recharge). Just keep backing up when fighting strong melee bosses and you're out of conjured creatures. or fus ro dah again
Thief (haven't actually played this class but I'll try): Stealth and positioning is everything. Try to make sure the boss doesn't see you (invisibility, good sneaking) and good sneak attacks with perks on sneak can give you more than 5 times the damage. Before launching your sneak attack, poison your weapon for more damage or even a stun (works only for one hit). or fus ro dah again
If you're struggling against undead bosses, I'm pretty sure I've found a lot of 'turn undead' magic scrolls lying around in dungeons (cause undead to flee). Might want to look for those too.
I am not playing any specific type of character, I mostly use melee though and try to get my lockpicking and pickpocket as high as I can.
The most common mistake that a lot of Skyrim players make is their choice of skills and leveling.
You can play as any race, choose any stones or join/start any quests and guilds and you still would be able to defeat any enemies you meet. However, if you do not have a balanced character in the first 30 levels, you will find yourself weak and disadvantageous to common enemies like restless draugr, not to mention bosses.
To explain, you should know by now that you increase your level by increasing your skills such as lock picking and pick-pocketing. As your character levels up, the enemies in the world also increase their stats till they hit a capped level. This is irregardless of whatever skill you was concentrating on.
So if you reach your first 20 levels by stacking on the lock-picking, sneak and other non-direct combat skills, you will undoubtedly find yourself at a loss in times of direct combat as your other skills and stats remain low and similar of a starting character.
If your character progression and skills are balanced though, there won't be a problem. Skyrim is one of the more easy RPGs. In the event where you still want to continue using the same under-skilled character, just use alchemy, blessings/active effects and enchanting to get around it.
Do some guild work in the guild of your choice (or the one that best compliments your abilities) and rake in some nice gear.
You mentioned wanting good pickpocket and sneak. Thieves' guild has some nice gear to compliment AND has, in my opinion, the best quests in the game. (They aren't the usual go to Draugr place to get the Noun of Verbing).
If you want good fighting gear, the Companions have some. Plus, they're more conveniently located. (In Whiterun as opposed to Riften).
The reason I suggest guild quests are because most loot in Skyrim is leveled.This means going out to high level places will be a waste of your time. There are very few set or unique items in Skyrim, and fewer still are worth getting. (One of the good ones you get... through the Theives' Guild!)
To put the cherry on top, do some daedric quests. All of them are intresting in some way and have nice payouts. (Do Sheogorath's and Sanguine's for a good laugh) Since you want to focus on Sneaking, getting Boethia's Ebony Mail will protect you well and give nice enchantments to benefit the skills you want IRL.
Also focus on alchemy, smithing and enchanting. Once you are capable of having 100%+ damage for one / two handed or archery or even free magic, combat will be smooth sailing. When smithing make sure to make an armor set that increases the effectiveness when you use the workbench (alchemy is useful for this as well as it enhances this effect).
I have a... very specific playstyle (such as getting the buffs / skills from dragonborn dlc that helps with enchanting and alchemy). I'm a headstrong magic user (destruction magic is extremely underpowered with ridiculous magicka costs, enchanting is mandatory for me) so I compensated with mods (though I did play vanilla for a very long time).
You can level up pickpocketing easily by (save first and often) placing money on someone and then pickpocketing it back (again, save often in case of a fail). You can level alchemy up easily up until a certain point (51?) for free. I used the whiterun lady. I paid for 5 levels of alchemy and stole my money back each level. Once I leveled up again I repeated this process. After the price jump for leveling skills via money I had to make money through my leveling of smithing and enchanting to pay for the alchemy. Trust me, leveling alchemy the traditional way is not fun.
I know too much about this game now to deviate from my own playstyle. I even play on legendary only and once I get to 100 smithing, enchanting, and alchemy suddenly it got easy.
Yes I am displeased because the game isn't going my way, I admit that. That doesn't mean I don't have a point however. At the moment I am struggling with a bandit chief which has at least four times as much health as I do, can attack and block twice as fast and with perfect accuracy, and can behead me when I am only at half health if I expose myself for only a mere moment. This is at Adept difficulty. Obviously there is something wrong here and all I am trying to do is find out what.
Anyway I am starting a new character to focus exclusively on the combat skills. I also remember there is a frost troll on the way to the Greybeards on the mountains that I am not sure how to deal with. At the moment I am trying to make money to buy some good gear by chopping wood in Whiterun. I really hope this works, I don't want to quit a game that can potentially keep me busy for hours just because of one issue.
I'm a big Elder Scrolls fan but I lost interest half way through Skyrim because of what the OP is talking about. Elder Scrolls used to be good for letting you do what you want and make any character you want. Oblivion and Skyrim went a different direction and kinda force you down a certain path if you want to fight anything and not die or be there spamming potions for an hour. It's supposed to be streamlined but I saw it as limiting my RPG experience.
It's been a while since I played it but one thing I recall that really annoyed me was the crafting system. It's way too easy and it gives you mountains of items/money and makes the rest of the game too easy. It's also very limited in what you can actually make so again it's forcing you down a path.
It's a fun game for sure but it's more of an open world combat game than a true RPG. I know that will bother some people but that's how it felt to me.
Yes I am displeased because the game isn't going my way, I admit that. That doesn't mean I don't have a point however. At the moment I am struggling with a bandit chief which has at least four times as much health as I do, can attack and block twice as fast and with perfect accuracy, and can behead me when I am only at half health if I expose myself for only a mere moment. This is at Adept difficulty. Obviously there is something wrong here and all I am trying to do is find out what.
Anyway I am starting a new character to focus exclusively on the combat skills. I also remember there is a frost troll on the way to the Greybeards on the mountains that I am not sure how to deal with. At the moment I am trying to make money to buy some good gear by chopping wood in Whiterun. I really hope this works, I don't want to quit a game that can potentially keep me busy for hours just because of one issue.
Frost troll is weak against fire. Just burn him so that he cannot regen health.
Bandit chiefs are always a pain at low levels. Try to take advantage of your environment and light oil spots on fire to deal extra damage.
In short, mages are pretty useful.
This is pretty conflicting advice. While mages can take better advantage of the enviornment and have the coolest attacks, the costs are stupid high and they overall do far less damage than you could with a sword with a nice enchantment.
Then again, battlemages are pretty sweet.
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Pointing out fallacies to undermine an argument is also a fallacy...
With a good destruction staff the magicka costs are no problem. Then you just need someone in between you and the enemies. If only there was a school of magic for that.
Perhaps the spells do less damage than an enchanted weapon but the range and splash damage of spells are absolutely not to be overlooked, both when fighting ranged and melee enemies.
True, but staffs I find are hard to come by and good staffs all the more. You need to have soul trap equipped all the time to get good mileage out of 'em.
Personally, I wish they had brought back the magic menu so you didn't have to constantly reequip. What was wrong with the old system?
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Pointing out fallacies to undermine an argument is also a fallacy...
Dont think this is skyrim's problem. The RPG aspect of skyrim is certainly present, more so than Oblivion, in my opinion. If anything, Oblivion was the game that sent you down a path right from the start. You literally had to choose your class, which caused only certain skills to progress your leveling up, in the first mission of the game, unlike in Skyrim, where every skill contributes to leveling up so players can choose their class throughout the game.
Perhaps the RPG still wasn't the best aspect of Skyrim, but a main point why everyone loves it so much is its immersion, atmosphere and storytelling. Heck, people still aren't decided if the Stormcloaks were to be trusted or not.
What eventually got me off skyrim was that as you're nearing the end, everything just becomes too easy, ironically (I did finish the game though, I'm not one for quitting right before the end). It seems the only way Skyrim is increasing its difficulty over time and levels is to make enemies just have more health and stronger attacks. This does not make fights necessarily harder, but just more tedious. I enjoyed the bossfight where you had to fight some ghost who constantly shifted across the battlefield and made illusions of himself, so you need to pick out the real one. It's a little variation to the usual 'throw fireballs at things until they stop moving' combat that skyrim has with most of its other bosses.
Still, Skyrim's totally great, and when I think about it, it just marvels me how the game's industry has come so far in 30 years. From blocky air-hockey to awesome dragon-fighting. It's epic!
Oblivion and Skyrim both let you do whatever you want after the tutorial scenes/level. I think both are about equal in the RPG department.
Oblivion was loved for it's immersion, atmosphere and storytelling too. I'm not talking about that part of the games because I have no beef with it. Bethesda takes great care with their world and culture.
For me I wasn't even nearing the end when I got to that point. I like to put off main story stuff as long as possible so my game got easy pretty early on. The game rewards you heavily if you take the time to explore. That may sound like a good feature but if things are so abundant you appreciate them less.
Pros and Cons aside Skyrim is a benchmark in gaming for sure.
Enjoying Skyrim is like a walk in the park, enjoy the scenery look at the people and stuff.
Oh wait, you're asking about the gameplay and how to beat those things over there, well in that case just specialize on one thing instead of general specialization really, and make sure it's an offensive skill.
I am not playing any specific type of character, I mostly use melee though and try to get my lockpicking and pickpocket as high as I can.
There's your problem. you should be distributing your skill points evenly.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
3DS FC: 0533-4659-6367
Message me yours if you want to trade in Animal Crossing: New Leaf or just need some friends to play with. I can also do Pokemon trades in Pokemon X(or Y), but I don't have any good stuff, and the only good stuff I have is not for trade so...send me requests anyway.
Quote of the Day:"It's Occam's Shuriken: when the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas."
Obtain one of the immortal companions and let them tank for you, so your HP isn't as much of a concern.
No sure if you're being literal here, but companions aren't immortal.
In general, I'd say you have to simply pick your battles. There are certain areas I wouldn't bother with at lower levels - the falmer and dwemer ruins, for example. Pump points early into HP and the skill of your primary weapon and armour - as a first time player you can worry about pickpocket and other skills later.
I am not playing any specific type of character, I mostly use melee though and try to get my lockpicking and pickpocket as high as I can.
You can play as any race, choose any stones or join/start any quests and guilds and you still would be able to defeat any enemies you meet. However, if you do not have a balanced character in the first 30 levels, you will find yourself weak and disadvantageous to common enemies like restless draugr, not to mention bosses.
To explain, you should know by now that you increase your level by increasing your skills such as lock picking and pick-pocketing. As your character levels up, the enemies in the world also increase their stats till they hit a capped level. This is irregardless of whatever skill you was concentrating on.
So if you reach your first 20 levels by stacking on the lock-picking, sneak and other non-direct combat skills, you will undoubtedly find yourself at a loss in times of direct combat as your other skills and stats remain low and similar of a starting character.
If your character progression and skills are balanced though, there won't be a problem. Skyrim is one of the more easy RPGs. In the event where you still want to continue using the same under-skilled character, just use alchemy, blessings/active effects and enchanting to get around it.
You mentioned wanting good pickpocket and sneak. Thieves' guild has some nice gear to compliment AND has, in my opinion, the best quests in the game. (They aren't the usual go to Draugr place to get the Noun of Verbing).
If you want good fighting gear, the Companions have some. Plus, they're more conveniently located. (In Whiterun as opposed to Riften).
The reason I suggest guild quests are because most loot in Skyrim is leveled.This means going out to high level places will be a waste of your time. There are very few set or unique items in Skyrim, and fewer still are worth getting. (One of the good ones you get... through the Theives' Guild!)
To put the cherry on top, do some daedric quests. All of them are intresting in some way and have nice payouts. (Do Sheogorath's and Sanguine's for a good laugh) Since you want to focus on Sneaking, getting Boethia's Ebony Mail will protect you well and give nice enchantments to benefit the skills you want IRL.
I have a... very specific playstyle (such as getting the buffs / skills from dragonborn dlc that helps with enchanting and alchemy). I'm a headstrong magic user (destruction magic is extremely underpowered with ridiculous magicka costs, enchanting is mandatory for me) so I compensated with mods (though I did play vanilla for a very long time).
You can level up pickpocketing easily by (save first and often) placing money on someone and then pickpocketing it back (again, save often in case of a fail). You can level alchemy up easily up until a certain point (51?) for free. I used the whiterun lady. I paid for 5 levels of alchemy and stole my money back each level. Once I leveled up again I repeated this process. After the price jump for leveling skills via money I had to make money through my leveling of smithing and enchanting to pay for the alchemy. Trust me, leveling alchemy the traditional way is not fun.
I know too much about this game now to deviate from my own playstyle. I even play on legendary only and once I get to 100 smithing, enchanting, and alchemy suddenly it got easy.
I swear I don't have 400+ hours into Skyrim.
This is a very helpful post . Listen mate.
Yes I am displeased because the game isn't going my way, I admit that. That doesn't mean I don't have a point however. At the moment I am struggling with a bandit chief which has at least four times as much health as I do, can attack and block twice as fast and with perfect accuracy, and can behead me when I am only at half health if I expose myself for only a mere moment. This is at Adept difficulty. Obviously there is something wrong here and all I am trying to do is find out what.
Anyway I am starting a new character to focus exclusively on the combat skills. I also remember there is a frost troll on the way to the Greybeards on the mountains that I am not sure how to deal with. At the moment I am trying to make money to buy some good gear by chopping wood in Whiterun. I really hope this works, I don't want to quit a game that can potentially keep me busy for hours just because of one issue.
It's been a while since I played it but one thing I recall that really annoyed me was the crafting system. It's way too easy and it gives you mountains of items/money and makes the rest of the game too easy. It's also very limited in what you can actually make so again it's forcing you down a path.
It's a fun game for sure but it's more of an open world combat game than a true RPG. I know that will bother some people but that's how it felt to me.
Bandit chiefs are always a pain at low levels. Try to take advantage of your environment and light oil spots on fire to deal extra damage.
In short, mages are pretty useful.
This is pretty conflicting advice. While mages can take better advantage of the enviornment and have the coolest attacks, the costs are stupid high and they overall do far less damage than you could with a sword with a nice enchantment.
Then again, battlemages are pretty sweet.
True, but staffs I find are hard to come by and good staffs all the more. You need to have soul trap equipped all the time to get good mileage out of 'em.
Personally, I wish they had brought back the magic menu so you didn't have to constantly reequip. What was wrong with the old system?
Oblivion and Skyrim both let you do whatever you want after the tutorial scenes/level. I think both are about equal in the RPG department.
Oblivion was loved for it's immersion, atmosphere and storytelling too. I'm not talking about that part of the games because I have no beef with it. Bethesda takes great care with their world and culture.
For me I wasn't even nearing the end when I got to that point. I like to put off main story stuff as long as possible so my game got easy pretty early on. The game rewards you heavily if you take the time to explore. That may sound like a good feature but if things are so abundant you appreciate them less.
Pros and Cons aside Skyrim is a benchmark in gaming for sure.
Oh wait, you're asking about the gameplay and how to beat those things over there, well in that case just specialize on one thing instead of general specialization really, and make sure it's an offensive skill.
There's your problem. you should be distributing your skill points evenly.
3DS FC: 0533-4659-6367
Message me yours if you want to trade in Animal Crossing: New Leaf or just need some friends to play with. I can also do Pokemon trades in Pokemon X(or Y), but I don't have any good stuff, and the only good stuff I have is not for trade so...send me requests anyway.
Quote of the Day:"It's Occam's Shuriken: when the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas."
No sure if you're being literal here, but companions aren't immortal.
In general, I'd say you have to simply pick your battles. There are certain areas I wouldn't bother with at lower levels - the falmer and dwemer ruins, for example. Pump points early into HP and the skill of your primary weapon and armour - as a first time player you can worry about pickpocket and other skills later.
Essential then- Immortal is just a term that I thought would be more easily understood for a new player.