Skyrim Help

[SkeletalRaider]

Let me start this with:I am not any good at RPGs...I've just recently started my second character on Skyrim....and I've not gotten far enough yet to lock in any mindset of "this is how I'm going to play"

I need some advice on how to make my life a little easier when playing this game. What should I be looking at doing or not doing in general to make this game a better overall experience?

Ranged attacks better???
Certain race/class that is better?

Overall help to make me enjoy the game a little more...
Any suggestions are appreciated! I really want to like this game-it's beautiful but I'm so bad at it that I don't want to keep playing.

[bafroom]

i went with a magic character and got the impact perk (i think that's it, it stuns people) as quick as i could. once you've got that, it makes the whole game easier since you can stop enemies in their tracks (including dragons). get that and a few levels of powering yourself up, and you walk around skyrim like a total badass.

[You S4W Nothing]

I started out being a sneaky archer taking most guys without being seen and used dual one handed weapons up close a little magic from time to time to switch things up. Now I have most skills at 100 so I like to mix things up to keep things interesting but still use my bow a lot as my weapon of choice (just got a new bow from the dawnguard expansion that is pretty fucking sweet). Combat is totally up to how you want to play they are all good, but I would recommend doing a combination of ranged and close combat as both are needed at one point or another.

Two skills I highly recommend working on early is Smithing and Enchanting as you're able to make some really powerful equipment. These skills are actually fairly easy to level and can make you a nice bit of gold once you get started.
For leveling smithing you want to buy up all the iron ingots you can find and just make a metric shit ton of daggers it's that simple, in the beginning you may want to hold off until you have a little extra gold.
Now enchanting first thing you want to find a weapon with soul trap so you don't have to keep casting it, once you have you're weapon you then start buying all the cheap soul gems you can find (sound familiar) after going around killing stuff with you're soul trap weapon taking souls head over to a enchanting table with the metric shit ton of daggers you made earlier and turn them into a enchanted metric shit ton of daggers. Certain enchantments are worth more gold than others so experiment a little so see what gets you most money.

[Wendig1630]

FYI Smithing with was fixed so that the value of the item determines the amount of xp earned. Jewelery is now the best way to level the skill. Though your still gonna want to craft lots of daggers for enchanting.

What you want to do is find the "Transmute Ore" spell book in Halted Steam Camp just outside White run to the north west. With that spell you can turn iron ore to silver and silver to gold. This will also help level up your alteration skill which has the excellent resist magic perks. After smelting the ore into ingots you want to craft the most valuable jewelery you can. If you don't have any gems just craft gold rings they have a value of 110 gold.

For enchanting the best enchantments are Banish Deadra, Absorb Health, and Turn Undead. Just keep enchanting your smithed daggers with these spells and you'll level up quick.

One thing to also remember is that there is an armor cap in the game of 567. With enchanting(fortify smithing) and enchanting and smithing potions, you can reach the cap with any armor in the game. My current character is well past the cap with only the elven smithing perk and a smithing skill below 50.

[ChewySmokey]

Guys, you forgot the easiest thing of all about boosting smithing; leather bracers. Chances are, you'll be doing a shit ton of hunting, so put that leather to good use by spamming leather bracers (2 leather strips and 1 leather). They can be enchanted too, I just don't see the need to waste perfectly good iron on daggers when you could smith more valuable weapons and armour with them (that and just about every single goddamn NPC you kill will most certainly have a dagger on 'em, so there you go).

Personally, I always go with Khajiit for 2 reasons:
1. race special power, night eye, means you don't ever need torches and you can use it as often as you like.
2. claws, +10 damage when unarmed, it's a lot handier than you might think, especially when you start to come across the undead that know the disarm shout.
To me, starting race skill tree bonuses mean nothing.

Lizard people; useless. Their healing power can only be used once per day (like most of the other races), but what makes these guys extra useless is the ability to breath underwater. It sounds great until you try to use it to evade bad guys, because unless you're running from a giant(s) or mammoth(s), your pursuer(s) will still be able to shoot you and will continue to chase you through the water.

For me, I've never been interested in magic, I've always kept a healthy balance of archery and close quarters fighting, though it doesn't hurt to know Alteration spells like Stone Flesh to bolster your armour rating before a big fight. I always have 2 one-handed weapons and build that skill out because the bonuses for duel wielding are insane (I think there's a perk that lets you swing faster and increases the damage output by 50%), match that to the Elemental Fury shout (I think you can get that one early on), aka "spaztic flailing for effect" thume, and you're like Ip Man on steroids. I always seem to alternate between enchanted bows and regular ones, but I've found the Forsworn bow to be the most deadly in the early stages of the game, it also has better melee (that sissy push your character does with the bow). I always carry a shield, usually enchanted and also a 2 handed weapon for when I want to feel manly.

For enchanting boosting, I would go with what is already suggested, but there is one offensive enchantment that has proven to save me so much grief that I cannot stress it's importance enough; Paralysis. HOLY SHIT. When I found out about it I almost cried. Your enchantment level and the strength of the soul stone effect the efficiency of the enchanted weapon, but I say "fuck that", just set it to chance for 1 sec paralysis because you can get the most use out of the weapon before recharge, and if your hit paralysises them, 1 second or not, they still have to spend an additional painstaking 5-7 seconds getting back up on their feet, so you can really put a good beating into them. I don't use it all that often other than on a bow (because Elemental Fury does not work with enchanted weapons) and I tend to drain even the 1 second enchantments quickly, but you give Lydia (or whomever your current pack-mule is) a paralysis weapon and you will see a world of difference with how useful they can be when they charge head-long into the enemy. I've had times where I think we're fucked only to have Lydia run in and start knocking bitches on their asses! Ever seen a giant fall over or even a mammoth? It's awesome. I have yet to try the actual spell, but I assume it is just as awesome.

I don't play the console version anymore, just the PC version, so I can't say much about crossbows and mounted combat... yet. Are horses still really really useless, slow and feeble?

[bafroom]

i don't mean to assume, but you say you're not really into rpg's, so just know that if you don't want to do all of this smithing, enchanting, grinding stuff, it's not strictly necessary. i did very little of it (though i enchanted enough to make a few decent weapons) and still enjoyed the game.


and destruction magic is the shiznit. i hear it gets limiting if you're trying to max out your character, but assuming you're not looking to put 300+ hours into the game, it seems f'n awesome. armor is for pussies.

[Wendig1630]

Too much Smithing + Enchanting can also make the game very boring. Taking almost no damage and killing giants with a couple of swings takes all the fun out it. There's plenty of good equipment you can get in the game just from completing quest or finding in dungeons.

Restoration is another good skill for all play styles and not just for healing. The perk that makes healing spells also restore stamina is really helpful for warriors and archers. There's also perks that make fighting undead easier(great if you have Dawnguard) or for Vampires actually make all active effects 25% stronger.

Destruction doesn't just affect your spell casting; it also affects enchanted weapons. The perks that increase spell damage also affect enchantment damage.

[paulb]

Now there's some good advice in this thread hey.
I was just thinking about starting another character too