by Malfeasinator » Wed Aug 19, 2015 5:46 pm
I've been playing Skyrim again as a character that I've never quite been able to pull off in the past, that I really want to try out.
The very first time I played Skyrim, I had a very successful Breton with mad magic resistance and absorbz and overpowered crafting going on. I had healing spells free due to enchantments, healing healed Stamina from a perk, one armed and heavy armor were rocking out and I had the perk that made worn armor weigh nothing, as well as Muffle and Waterbreathing enchantments. I basically never had to use the favorites menu, because I could just sprint basically forever and never needed to switch out weapons or tactics because a one-handed War Axe was good enough to get the job done. I think I was doing over 300 damage per hit. I kept myself a Werewolf just to keep the disease immunity.
It was ridiculous. Good fun, being doom's herald, but there was no challenge to anything. Run up in there and wipe everything out with brutal efficiency; that was the only plan. I got the drop on most things because I was fast and silent, and I could wait for a dragon to land and be there to dole out the pain in no time.
Breaking away from that playing style has been hard. I'm too used to doing my routine of enchantment grinding. I had an idea from a character build that I did for Fallout 3 - the character that could survive and thrive with nothing. In F3, it wasn't so hard if you got the right perks going on. Unarmed combat was insanely useful for sparing ammo as it was, (drop a Super Mutant Behemoth with Paralyzing Palm sometime - you'll thank me), and with enough damage resistance from perks, it was like you were always wearing combat armor.
In Skyrim it doesn't go so well. Oblivion had an Unarmed fighting skill, Morrowind had an Unarmored skill, but Skyrim doesn't have such things. You need a perk to make heavy armor help unarmed attacks, or enchantments to make you do more damage.
Naturally magic would be the next best choice, since physically it's just not very feasible to do what you have to do with nothing. I don't like using Destruction, well, mostly I don't like to just play keep away with spells. I want to feel more hands on.
I've been messing around with Illusion and Conjuration. Conjuration is pretty sweet, especially when you get to the Dremora Lords, plus you can summon weapons from thin air that are actually pretty powerful. Illusion is great for not being seen or heard, which actually help you build up Sneak really well, and you can manipulate enemies in interesting ways. I dual charged a fear-type effect and used it on a Dwarven Centurion. It ran from me. IT ran from ME. It had nowhere to go, though, so I whaled on it with the Glass Dagger I had at the time until it collapsed in a heap.
Being "one with nothing" is still hard with magic to sneak around and instant buddies to summon. So, I've come up with the compromise of actually using a ... companion. I've also decided, from playing around with the Werewolf perks, that being a Werewolf can be fun (lasted 36 in-game days at one stretch before I got bored and used "wait" to make it wear off). I also think the Werewolf thing has good flavor for being a way to survive on your own as well as having a secret weapon. I tried the Vampire Lord thing but I wasn't very impressed. This is coming from a huge "Legacy of Kain" fan.
My companion of choice is the apprentice to the Telvanni wizard; Talvas. Dude is a wrecking ball. I'm not even using hyperbole there. If vampires attack, he will be deadlier to the good guys than the vampires, because he likes to use spells that explode... and they kind of take it personally. He also summons stuff - fire or frost atronachs.
So my playing style is something of a compromise right now. I'm thinking my playing style is going to devolve into Riggs and Murtah or Bad Boys or something where we are reckless as shit but damn, we get the job done. I have to make it through the Black Books to get the perks there and get the Dremora Butler dude and make sure I don't kill my follower, and I'll be alright.