RatcatcherOfKvatch

Only the player "always has magic". Most NPC's don't. It's not quite as rare as the ability to Shout, but every player has that ability as well, so you can't read "high-magic fantasy world" into the fact that every PC has magic. You're special that way, whether you want to be or not. You do seem to start with some rather powerful spells. "Healing" is so powerful it makes you a "Restoration expert" the moment your hands are untied. Even priests can't heal as quickly and completely as you can -- the temples are full of wounded. Only some magic-using enemies seem to have a heal spell, making Healing seem even more rare than Shouting. But there's little ol' you, stitching yourself up in a miraculous display of extraordinarily rare talent before you've even seen your first merchant.

The difference between a deep cheek laceration versus a mandibular fracture makes a differential in pain tolerance academic. A "glass jaw" is a huge liability in a fist fight -- or any other kind of fight if one punch can end it. Women who could fight often "looked like men" -- they were heavy-set, had heavy facial features, and pretty much looked like they could win a bar fight. There are some laws of physics having to do with force, mass, acceleration, and time for which form must follow function. For a woman to be able to take a punch she has to be built a certain way. Short of ducking the best defense against mandibular fractures is a thick jaw. As for why there are so many more delicate women than men, the root cause of all biological differences is evolution. Historically the women who were successful at having children who would survive to have children excelled at things other than being able to take a punch. Whether or not evolution was "fair" or "politically correct" it happened. In a game you can make everyone equal and still make women look like supermodels. In the real world they have to look their part. George RR Martin gave us the believably attractive Brienne, a character in whom he manages to balance the mythology of delicate-boned equality with the structurally-reinforced reality of what it would really take. She can be attractive, but she cannot in any way be delicate. Magic healing, though, which every fantasy world has, throws all the other gender roles out the window. Without infant mortality the compromise for time forced by the overlap of fertility and productivity in young adulthood is mitigated. Furthermore if "powerful wizards" (which every fantasy world has) can extend their lives why couldn't women either in or with an in to this elite group either restore as needed or preserve indefinitely their own fertility? No woman you talk to ever seems to worry about it, none of the women at the College look older than 30, and you know Mirabelle is way older than that. If you can live, say, 400 years and restore your fertility at the century mark with the wave of a wand if you have the talent the world isn't so much divided into haves and have-nots by sex but by this ability. (Hags seem to need to age as part of their evolution into hagravens, but the less said about them the better.) The "disrespected" Restoration School would, in any sane universe, be quite the opposite, and poor Colette Marance would be constantly hounded by high-society types looking for fertility treatments, the Fountain of Youth, or maybe just specialized medical care beyond the skill of the Priests of the Divines. But Colette got the memo: magical life-extension isn't for the "little people". The true elite is a wizards only club, right? And with so few patients Colette is left to complain about lack of respect ... so if you want to look for inequality in your fantasy world I think I'd know where to start.

It's called a bug. You get them for free. Act now and they might even throw in a Blue Screen of Death at no extra charge ...

I typically go to the fridge. Dying sucks, need my comfort food. (har har) Sovngarde for the Dragonborn, surely, unless you made alternate arrangements with Hircine or wind up soul trapped (ugh, you don't want that, trust me.)

The different levels of genre-awareness for the word "thief" that leads to this misunderstanding among the Avanchnzel explorers always makes me laugh: "Another locked door. Why didn't we bring a thief?" "We are thieves, you fool. We're here to steal the Lexicon." "And yet none of us can pick a damn lock." Cracks me up every time. Breya knows her gaming! A "Thief" is a character who can pick locks, not just any old NPC who steals stuff!

Triple-tapping hotkeys drives me nuts, but that's the fastest way I've found to do it. X-X-S puts spell "X" on RH and shield "S" on left. Good luck not going slowly insane.

Don't open your movie with exposition. Make us like your character(s) first or we won't care about stuff like this.

Talking slaughterfish! Wait ... that might be a stonerfish ...

I put a Dragon Priest Mask on mine and it started moving around. I was like, "Whoa, I thought I killed you, dude." Waking up with one of those in bed with you would be like one of those Burger King commercials. Without the free food.

It's the choice between slim hope and no hope. The Thalmor, by virtue of having its agents roaming all over the Empire executing people at will, has already defeated the Empire. If they win in Skyrim their agents retain access to all the territory, people, and important places in Skyrim, to either co-opt as would inevitably happen as almost did at the College of Winterhold or purge as would most likely happen to the Greybeards at High Hrothgar. Anyone in Imperial territory with any exceptional quality that might be a threat to the Thalmor, be it martial skill or charisma, can be "disappeared" as easily as Thorald Greymane, and the Empire will do nothing. The 'Cloaks have the freedom to organize resistance without all their leaders and best people disappearing. The part about Thorald was pretty important. It's too bad you didn't read it.

Where biological reproduction and selection pressures exist there will be evolution. Where genes are tinkered with, whether by God or Man, the pace of natural evolution is a rounding error.

"If everyone is telling you that Ulfric is a monsterous racist and the Stormcloaks a bag of phalluses, then they should act like it." The reason I switched sides (Imperial to 'Cloak) was because all the stories about Ulfric were overblown nonsense, while the most serious discrimination I could find anywhere was the genocide against Talos worshippers, something that can only be rectified by going 'Cloak and kicking ass. If the designers wanted the 'Cloaks to be less sympathetic they'd need to be more racist, this is true. Let's look at the strikes against the 'Cloaks: Segregation: Only in Windhelm, except for Khajiit (who are discriminated against by everyone). Genocide: None. Ethnic Cleansing: The original Forsworn dispossession took place "a thousand years ago" (Bothela) so you can't really blame the 'Cloaks for restoring a generations-old status quo. The Forsworn might as well be Greeks reclaiming Constantinople ("not Istanbul") from Turkey. Were such a thing to happen Turkey's attempt to re-reclaim Istanbul (not ... well, you get it) wouldn't be proof of racism; any nation would do this. The Forsworn conflict says nothing about the Stormcloaks. Glass Ceiling: All political power comes from heredity or right of conquest on both sides. Whether or not nepotism is racism everybody does it. Merchants are merchants whatever their race; in fact in Windhelm, Nordville Central, non-Nord merchants outnumber Nords. Military service appears incidentally segregated, but dig a little deeper and you find that any race may join the 'Cloaks, and in fact, "You refuse to help the Stormcloaks," is a charge leveled against one of the major Dunmer merchants in Windhelm. ("It's not our fight," is her response.) There is an extra "racial loyalty oath" administered by Galmar before a non-Nord is allowed to enlist, but once enlisted non-Nords are treated as equals.* Freedom of Speech: Ambarys Rendar is rather openly pro-Empire, and his Cornerclub is a nexus of pro-Empire dissent. Even if you count the Imperial decor as "hidden" the Bosmer Blades agent finds his way to the club, and do you think he's toasting Galmar in there? Rendar is not persecuted or singled out for his dissent. Score one for the Stormcloaks. Equality Before the Law: Well we all know about this one. Dunmer need to form a Neighborhood Watch because the Nord Police sure aren't going to protect or serve. (If you commit a crime against a non-Nord the guards will still arrest you.*) By historic Earth standards the 'Cloaks are pretty well-behaved; none of their crimes rise to the level of classics like slavery, genocide, or ethnic cleansing. Compare that to the Imperials, who sit passively while genocide (and political assassination under the gentlemanly guise of genocide) takes place right under their noses while they shrug. It's no contest. If Bethesda wanted to give us a real moral dilemma they needed to dirty up the 'Cloaks a little more. If we're meant to find our way to the Stormcloaks after Morrowind and Oblivion taught us how wonderful the Empire is they succeeded. * The "Dragonborn Exception" argument makes a good point. "They let me do it," isn't the best proof, so here's an asterisk for you.

"If only there were a way at the High Hrothgar negotiations, to throw in an option to eliminate the Thalmor from Skyrim as common ground between both the Empire and Stormcloaks to stop the war entirely, using said dossier as evedence." This. "I've assumed that everyone who sides with the Stormcloaks has never read a mod description or the dossier on Ulfric." What a foolish assumption. You've obviously not thought the issue through. The Stormcloaks are the best choice because they are the only choice; the Empire stands no chance. Imperial supporters presume a Day of Reckoning, a Secret Plan to Defeat the Thalmor at some nebulous future date of Imperial resurgence that will never come, as the Empire has already surrendered to the Thalmor and will only continue to get weaker over time thanks to their foolish decision to allow themselves to be infiltrated and compromised. Ulfric's plan to attack the Thalmor abroad after driving them from his homeland (with a little help from the Dragonborn) may have little hope of succeeding, but the Empire's plan to continue to allow themselves to be systematically undermined, to have their best people kidnapped, tortured, and killed, means they have no hope whatsoever. How many successful rebel leaders have started out as "Uncooperative Assets" of some interested power only to be underestimated? Quite a few. How many empires have stood while their most powerful enemies prowled their streets with paramilitary agents posing as religious police unchecked by any authority and with practically unlimited powers of detention, interrogation, and assassination? None that I know of. Ironically it would take a rebel leader within the Empire to overthrow it and kick out the Thalmor to actually give the Empire a fighting chance. So long as the Thalmor have a license to kill anywhere in Empire territory the Empire is doomed. At least under the Stormcloaks Skyrim can stand and fight, and with the clock ticking on the Dominion's other conquests such as Hammerfell the sooner the better. Finally there's the issue of the about-face of the Thalmor toward the Stormcloaks. Have you noticed that despite the uncontested power to undermine the Empire the Thalmor are as of the Dragonborn's arrival focused exclusively on the Stormcloaks? They don't even staff their office in Solitude. They can sense the Empire becoming irrelevant. The Thalmor chose, above many other prime targets, to kidnap Thorald in the largely independent Whiterun Hold, a pretty big risk. That choice was made much more recently than the penning of Ulfric's musty old Dossier, and it tells a whole new story: Thorald was perceived as dangerous for his tactical and/or strategic significance to the Stormcloaks, not for any religious infractions actual or alleged. The Thalmor are scared to death of the Stormcloaks. Why kidnap and torture a suspected 'Cloak despite a wide selection of choice Imperial targets if your primary threat is the Empire? The worm has already started to turn and the Thalmor sense it; if they didn't they'd be kidnapping Brina Merilis or framing Ambarys Rendar, not wasting time on Thorald Greymane. This puts the final piece of the puzzle into place: the Thalmor always take Stormcloak prisoners, never Imperial. The Thalmor, agents of chaos whose masters went to great lengths to secure for them the power to undermine and assassinate anywhere in Empire territory, are doing everything they can to help the Empire in Skyrim. Talk about the dog that doesn't bark. They say all those Stormcloak prisoners are headed to the rack because they've committed the heresy of Talos worship, but we know in Thorald's case it was because they [incorrectly] suspected he was devoting his martial skills to the Stormcloaks. How many more of those Hemskirs the Thalmor claim they've caught are really Thoralds? If Ulfric really were the patsy he was thought to be when the Dossier was written why are the Thalmor putting all their weight against the Stormcloak Rebellion? If the Empire wins the Thalmor win. If the 'Cloaks win every asset in Skyrim from High Hrothgar to the College of Winterhold to the Shrine of Talos in Solitude and the College full of propagandists who will promptly spin Talos into a Thalmor defeat suddenly goes hostile. For the Thalmor a 'Cloak victory is a disaster. The Thalmor seem not only to know it but to fear it. Provided the wisdom to see it, the Dragonborn has the unique opportunity to make that fear come true.

I have 3 permadeath-survivors (one is Master-difficulty so I guess that one doesn't count; make it 2 on Legendary) who have all completed (at least) one major questline each. They're saved for now in the Hall of Fame; playing them got boring, but they're still alive so they get their own save slots. Anyway all of them have divided their builds roughly into pre-crafting and post-crafting. Post-crafting, that is Alchemy, Enchanting, and Smithing maxxed out and you carrying the best possible gear, your build beyond that doesn't really matter all that much. You want stealth? Build it. You want to be an archer? Build it. You want to clear a dungeon with a super-powered-up Shock Cloak? Brew it. You can change your "build" just by changing clothes. There are a few "essential perks" like Impact, but mostly you just dress the part and that's what you are. Pre-crafting my favorite build is stealth healer. Seriously, you almost can't die when you can hide, and you almost can't lose when you can heal. Healers being mages they also conjure, and storm atronachs are available very early if you have the money for the one expensive component you need to make the staff. Throw in a dog and you've got an unbeatable team -- just don't be overconfident or you're one Reaper bite away from a Ralof Reunion. For best results don't touch any skill not directly related to stealth-healing. That means NO SELLING! Use Kolskegger and Transmute and make your money as a "miner" instead (transmuting ore is more like mining bitcoins than having a real job, but it gets you the money without unwanted speech leveling.) Stealth healers are sort-of mages; Impact is a really good thing to have against dragons, mammoths, big Dwemer machinery of the deadly kind, that sort of thing. Bows and crossbows are also quite nice, especially for first strikes and poisoning. Why limit yourself? "Stealth healer", it's right there in the name ... After the Cidhna Mine quest, which must be run stripped of gear, is a good time to transition to the high-end equipment game. You can squeak out a little more adventuring without being vulnerable to a 1-hit-kill -- barely -- if you do the Avanchnzel Lexicon thing. Even Lexiconned Dwemer armor from a mediocre smith isn't much protection, so don't ride this option too long.

@LordGaron: re: "Clothes Dryer Sock Phenomenon" You, sir, have a way with words. I got a good laugh out of that. :)

Disclosure: I didn't write the first half of this joke. Q: How many Jarls does it take to change a lightbulb? A: Two. One holds the goat horn while the other ... wait, that's what happens before they change the light bulb.

If you consider growing your own to be an exploit you can pick tons of blue mountain flower and wheat. The stuff's everywhere. The potion it makes is clean of negative side effects and includes a fortify health component with the restore part, just the thing to give you that little extra chance to avoid the 1-hit KO.

You've got a point about the other two, but "barely-functional killing machine" doesn't begin to do justice to the CoC. She could not only close an Oblivion gate by herself, she could do so very quickly -- the Bruma mission suggests she had become an expert on the gates. She's also the only one who can turn sigil stones into useful equipment. My Oblivion character spent most of her career in the brown shirt / silk dress outfit (which I think the publican of the Wawnet Inn wears) and not a single point of light or heavy armor -- just armor effects from sigil stones. Even if Ann Marie eventually gets a brain wipe Sheo at least lets her live out her normal lifespan before overwriting her personality. You don't do a Fallout-3-style fade-to-black when you complete Shiveing Isles. The only evidence I have for her personality is the way Martin talks to her. Especially when she brings him the Blood of the Daedra artifact (where you do a Daedric quest then give up the token) he seems to show her a lot of respect. (She's also of course the one who convinces him to get it in gear in the first place.) She deals with Ancotar's invisibility puzzle. She cracks the code at Vahtacen (the player is confronted with an easy puzzle, but "in-character" it has stymied two experts for weeks.) She does a lot of stuff like that, and she seems to be treated with polite respect by people in power even as lesser nobles treat her with a snobbery that smacks of jealousy. I can't really argue about the Daggerfall and Morrowind characters having a lot on the ball, but the CoC obviously did as well.

Hah hah, I absolutely loved Neloth. Hilarious! To me most Altmer are Fascist d**kheads while Dunmer as a group are the most consistently "normal" people anywhere. I have no trouble telling them apart. That doesn't mean I'm reflexively anti-Altmer. Faralda I think understands the Thalmor better than anyone else at the College after ... you know, everything goes wrong and you become Archmage. I'm just saying if you pick a name out at random and its owner is Altmer there's a really good chance you've picked a Fascist d**khead. I always figured Rieklings for some kind of evolutionary dead-end somewhere between falmer and goblin. Their hostility made me completely unconcerned with how many lives it cost them. The blacksmith was a hypocritical jerk, but most thieves are. You don't get ahead in that profession by permitting as much theft as you perpetrate. The Oblivion Gates to the Oblivion Crates are the Black Books. I've found at least 2 so far that have containers on their final platform, where you return to after you've cleared a Book if you open it again. I ran a bunch of tests and the containers seemed to be safe. You can even stash stuff in them, travel to Skyrim for over 30 days, then return to Solstheim and your stuff will still be there. It's a great place to stash your Ancient Nord Pickaxe.

Only mages can truly protect people from dragons. You can stun a dragon with a shock spell so fast it never gets a chance to bite or breathe on anyone. You can do this at a remarkably low level (if you don't run out of potions) -- all it takes is 40 skill points and 4 perks. To do it without potions and not run out of energy takes a lot more skill in many more disciplines, but you're the only one who can even do it at all. To make matters even better pulling out a bow and using a paralysis-poisoned arrow is a choice for a mage. Your options are maximal. Shield-bash that ward-happy necro? Paralyze poison? Paralyze spell? Impact-Stun? Heal allies? Conjure your allies so you can go it alone? Fortify a Flame Cloak or throw ice storms through walls, floors, and ceilings? You have all kinds of options, options no other class has. I may not be a "Pure Mage" but I'd never give up being an impure one. Like all good magicians I know a whole lot of tricks.

There are really only 2 RPG personality types: Question: What kind of loot do you pick up? 1. Only light stuff that weighs nothing (or very little). I make my money by clearing as much ground as possible. 2. Everything I can get my hands on that I can sell. I spend most of my time safely hauling and selling loot, squeezing every last drop of reward from the tiniest sliver of risk. 3. I am above such petty concerns as "looting". Answers: 1. You are Pac Man. Wakka wakka wins the wace. Pwiceless artifact or wusty nail, if it weighs it stays. Dwop it and keep on wakkin'. 2. You are Lamont Sanford. So long as people are giving you money for truckloads of junk, might as well keep on truckin'. 3. You are way overpowered. Seriously, just start a new game already. Your vow of poverty isn't fooling anyone. (Why did I say there are only 2 types? Because all 3's pass through stage 1 or 2 at some point ...) 4. "But ... Pac-Man clears every level of loot before proceeding to the next, so he's really Lamont with a bigger truck. Your analogies suck!" You are a MST3k Reject. Lighten up! Edit: broken link. The Streetbeater might as well be the universal Leitmotif of all RPG heroes everywhere. Listen for it when your pockets are half full and the vendors half out of coin ... "Just a few more vendors to go" ... listen for it and you'll hear it ...

If you're forbidding yourself from using Alteration your only real choice is Kajiit. They can carry a shield and still see in the dark.

The last time it happened to me I was wearing vampire armor. I wore it because, being very poor and ill-equipped, it was better than what I had. I didn't realize it would turn everyone except my follower hostile. You said you're not wearing faction armor so that's probably not why you're being attacked, but I thought I'd mention it. Check what you're wearing just in case. Reading your description more closely I see that you're only attacked in 'Cloak territory. Falkreath is Imperial (very Imperial -- Helgen, where the Imperials almost take your head, is part of Falkreath Hold.) Is there any chance you've sided Imperial and your faction mod is picking up on that?

"Run for your lives" and the equivalent vampire module don't work all that well. "Impact" (the Destruction perk) is actually the single safest way to stop a dragon from killing townspeople. Lightning bolt in particular has the speed to shut down a dragon before it makes too big a mess of the hapless villagers.

Wow, what a coincidence that I was just recently exploring that mountain, wondering if anything were up there. Nope, it's barren and empty -- and perfect. It commands all of Whiterun Hold west of Bleakwind Basin and east of Gjukar's Monument. By "commands" I mean that you can hit any of the locations that surround it as easily as if it were Grand Central Station. There aren't any bears or other nasty creatures that spawn in the area, it's just a big transit hub right in the middle of many of the places of interest in Whiterun. If you had a house up there, with some roads, it would have an amazing level of access to everything from mammoths to Sleeping Tree sap to half a dozen quest dungeons and even a shrine of Zenithar for trading. The Khajiit merchants walk right past the south face on their rounds between Whiterun and Markarth, so you could even say merchants make house calls. It's so perfect a place for a house you could almost build a city up there.