SKYRIM: Let's kill some Dragons!

[xthetenth]

Spoiler

I seem to recall indications that the Imperials consider another war incredibly likely. Why not take the brunt of the attack on Skyrim? They could also try to parley for a cold war in secret. The Nords aren't exactly keen on the Thalmor, after all.

[Xon]

If the Empire let Skyrim go and they took up Talos worship, the Thalmor would just invade anyway. And probably finish off the Empire before trying to move onto Skyrim.
Spoiler

The Thalmor want to destroy all Talos worship, and want to actually erase humanity as a possibility of existing because they ultimately view the creation of the world as evil.

The races of Mer and the races of humanity have very different views of the Creation of Nirn.

[Eulogy]

Okay, this has to be said.

DO NOT
Spoiler

Go hunt the Elder Scroll in the Alftand ruins without a metric asston of carry shit potions and a very strong follower who is pimped out with equipment that is enchanted with carry more shit.

Alftand ruins is a very very long dungeon and there is loot like the Taliban has human rights violations, and some of it is heavy. And when you're done you won't want to go back there ever again.

Also, the Thalmoor is going to invade again, anyway, sooner or later, . Why not fight them on your terms this time?

[charlemagne]

Why not wanting to go back? There's several very convenient lifts that can be fast travelled to, plus it's one of the nicest dungeons in game IMO.

[FaxModem1]

I've been fighting a lot of bandits, assassins, Stormcloak troops and so on. When near death, a lot of them say the words, "NO! Not like this..."

Pausing my assault to let them surrender and run away is apparently the wrong move, as they'll stand back up again and turn to attack me. Luckily, an arrow was drawn for them just in case, but I'm still starting to feel monstrous after killing a few dozen people begging for their lives.

[White Haven]

Yeah, it'd be nice if people surrendering would, yaknow, surrender, or at least go away. Apparently there are no killable NPCs in Skyrim who have anything approaching a sense of honor.

[Rahvin]

Yeah, it'd be nice if people surrendering would, yaknow, surrender, or at least go away. Apparently there are no killable NPCs in Skyrim who have anything approaching a sense of honor.

Which is more than ample justification to kill them. And steal their souls, trapping them in the Black Star to give power to my weapons.

[xthetenth]

I've found that they give up on the surrendering thing if you close in with a drawn weapon. You know, better to die fighting and all.

[Chardok]

WARNING: DO NOT INSTALL PATCH 1.2


Unless you want everything in the game to lose all resistances to everything. (Killing flame atronachs with fireball = lol.

[Sriad]

So... I started an archer and used the
Spoiler

Earn 500ish gold, get Faendal to follower status and ask him to follow; every time you pay him to skill-up the gold will appear in his inventory and can be taken back (he must really love Camilla to be that grateful. )

with Faendal to powerlevel it to 50 skill at level 7... and hilarity ensued.

[UCBooties]

I have been playing pure mage since the sneak mage build I was trying out wasn't really going anywhere. Anyway, I am trying to get my Enchanting up to 100 for broken free destruction magic. I have a question about Azura's Star which I'm hoping to use to get my Enchant skill up. I have read a few places online that Azura's Star can be used to soul trap Bandits and other humanoids but I have not been able to do so in my game. Did they patch that out or does it only work if you don't complete the quest and purify the Star?

[Rahvin]

I have been playing pure mage since the sneak mage build I was trying out wasn't really going anywhere. Anyway, I am trying to get my Enchanting up to 100 for broken free destruction magic. I have a question about Azura's Star which I'm hoping to use to get my Enchant skill up. I have read a few places online that Azura's Star can be used to soul trap Bandits and other humanoids but I have not been able to do so in my game. Did they patch that out or does it only work if you don't complete the quest and purify the Star?

There are two ways to complete the quest.

1) return the broken star to Azura's priestess, the Dunmer who gives you the quest in the first place. She'll repair it, and it will be a permanent Grand Soul Gem. No bandit or other humanoid souls, but it will trap any monster/animal soul you want.

2) return the broken star to the mage to "complete" the work of the guy who damaged it in the first place. You do a little extra work, going inside the Star to kill the mage and a few (3?) Daedra, and the Star becomes the Black Star, a permanent Black soul gem. This works exactly like the normal Star int hat it will trap any monseter or animal soul, but it can also trap humanoid sould like Bandits...which are always Grand in quality, so best for recharging/enchanting.

You can level Enchanting much more quickly with either one, but particularly the Black Star, because it will trap any soul in the game (except dragons, they always seem to resist Trap Soul). Enchant a weapon with Soul Trap on a 1-second duration, and go killing. Every kill, recharge the weapon with the Star. Kill, charge. Kill, charge. Every time you charge your weapon raises your skill a bit.

BTW, since the Black Star option involves killing Daedra, you can get three Daedra Hearts for free out of the bargain. Nice for making some Daedric weapons or armor...

[charlemagne]

You can either purify the star or visit a mage dude instead that helps you turn it into the black azura's star, it then can hold (only) humanoid souls. The quest actually gives you the option, deliver it to azura's shrine OR visit the other dude.

[UCBooties]

Interesting, the quest objective glitched for me and only gave me the marker for the mage so I went back to him the first time I tried the quest. Then I went back and reloaded because I wanted the Priestess as a follower and finished the quest with her. I did not realize choosing one side or the other changed the final item. Thank you for the clarification.

[Rahvin]

You can either purify the star or visit a mage dude instead that helps you turn it into the black azura's star, it then can hold (only) humanoid souls. The quest actually gives you the option, deliver it to azura's shrine OR visit the other dude.

It says it will "only" hold humanoid souls.

It actually holds any soul. Don;t know if that's intended or a bug, but that's how it is. And I doubt you'll find a more plentiful source of Grand souls than bandits and other humanoids and an infinite Black soul gem...

[Rahvin]

Interesting, the quest objective glitched for me and only gave me the marker for the mage so I went back to him the first time I tried the quest. Then I went back and reloaded because I wanted the Priestess as a follower and finished the quest with her. I did not realize choosing one side or the other changed the final item. Thank you for the clarification.

Yes, I forgot to mention - no priestess follower if you choose the Black Star.

[UCBooties]

I think I've done too much since finishing that quest to bother going back and reloading but I appreciate knowing for future playthroughs. Thanks again.

[Rahvin]

I'm on my third character, and this time I'm trying an assassin-type. Daggers, bows, sneaking, maybe some Illusion magic.

I've already power-leveled Smithing so that I have fairly decent equipment, and I joined the Dark Brotherhood (for the murdering quests and the awesome set of gear). I intend to join the Thieves Guild soon for possible trainers and more stealthy fun.

I'm finding that my sneaky 1-shot dagger-stabbing doesn't do much in the way of raising my 1-handed or archery skills, however. And Sneak seems to level very, very slowly (yes, I'm using the Thief Stone). Dragons are a little rough (compared to my heavy-armor 2-handed-weapons warrior who 4-shots Ancient Dragons and takes very little damage in return) since I typically need to stay at range and pelt them with lots and lots and LOTS of arrows...and sneaking seems to be impossible.

Anybody have any advice for a bloodthirsty stealth-based character?

[Chardok]

I have about 30 hours on this run and guess how many ranom dragons I've encountered?


0




10/10

[Vendetta]

Have you done the first plot dragon?

They don't appear until that.

Then just fast travel to towns, wherein the dragons will ignore you because all horses must die.

[Chardok]

Have you done the first plot dragon?

They don't appear until that.

Then just fast travel to towns, wherein the dragons will ignore you because all horses must die.

I have killed the first dragon, encountered one random pre 1.2, did not patch to 1.2, have seen zero since. Also I killed the dragon at Shearpoint. (Yeah, I embellished a bit on the zero thing - fuck off. I still haven't seen a dragon since level 9, and I'm 24. )

[Darth Quorthon]

I Just finished the main quest, found it overall to be more satisfying than Oblivion, although the final battle felt a little less epic to me that the final battle in Oblivion. But that could just be me.

I thought it was cool that we could finally dual-wield, but I found the "no blocking" to be too much of a liability and went to the sword/shield combo. Shield bash ftw. I also thought the side quests were a bit more engaging than Oblivion's which, seemed to have too much of the "go here, kill this guy, come back" formula. Nevertheless they started feeling tedious after awhile and I powered my way through the main quest so that I wouldn't have yet another unfinished game sitting on my desk.

I might load the game back up from time to time to do some side quests, but for now it's more or less shelved until some DLC/expansion comes out.

During my playthrough, I found that random dragon attacks came at some pretty inopportune times, like when Spoiler

I handed all my gear over to Delphine before I headed into the Thalmor party. No sooner had I said "I'm ready" that Delphine yelled "en gaurde!" and drew her weapon. I had to hide like a coward until the city guards and Delphine took the dragon down.

[Eulogy]

Which is overall better for the future of Tamriel: joining the Stormcloaks, or the Empire?

Also, it's stupid not being able to fletch your own arrows.

[xthetenth]

Which is overall better for the future of Tamriel: joining the Stormcloaks, or the Empire?

If you could be sure, it wouldn't be interesting, now would it? I'm very glad that I find myself having to really think it over like I had to think the best path through in New Vegas.

It's not a binary choice, it really helps to have some overriding strategic goal (mine was "fuck those Thalmor assholes") you can try and figure out who will be the best to help you accomplish that.

[Lord of the Abyss]

I'm on my third character, and this time I'm trying an assassin-type. Daggers, bows, sneaking, maybe some Illusion magic.

I've already power-leveled Smithing so that I have fairly decent equipment, and I joined the Dark Brotherhood (for the murdering quests and the awesome set of gear). I intend to join the Thieves Guild soon for possible trainers and more stealthy fun.

I'm finding that my sneaky 1-shot dagger-stabbing doesn't do much in the way of raising my 1-handed or archery skills, however. And Sneak seems to level very, very slowly (yes, I'm using the Thief Stone).

What I find helps in leveling Sneak (without grinding/using an exploit) is sneak attacking with arrows. It's a lot easier at lower sneak values to get off an arrow from stealth than a backstab. My stealthy guys tend to creep a lot through dungeons, filling draugr and bandits with arrows before they see me. Sometimes to the point of stealth killing an entire room before they figure out where I am.