invertedpanda

I've played that build before myself, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I didn't do the block, though. I used ward spells as my shield for every spellsword/paladin styhle character I played, and that worked out surprisingly well. Swapping out block for either Alteration or Smithing makes it a strong build. Or, you could do neither and focus more on Restoration, allowing you to really utilize some of the nicer perks. With enough reduction cost to restoration (especially with the dual enchanting perk), you can cast ward spells without a care in the world.

Thus far I've found a couple decent places to do my smithing besides in town. Orc strongholds, for one. Another is one of the many bandit forts.

I may venture into towns later on in my game life, but I want to see how far I can get going this route. I've already found 2 quests I didn't even KNOW about just by roaming.

So far, so good. Level 10, and I've stuck to just non-walled towns and small villages/mining villages. Avoiding the main quest has made the game interesting; I don't get my shouts, but I'm having a lot of fun roaming the countryside exacting justice as I see fit. I took Drelas' Cottage (and used the mod that makes it a player home) for Enchanting/Alchemy/Storage, but the hard part is smithing. I'm thinking of finding an Orc Stronghold to befriend for that. I try and limit my town interactions right now to smithing and selling. I'm not doing any quests for towns as of yet. Once the CK comes out I can't wait for people to start adding player homes outside of towns that are fully furnished. It does get tough wandering the wilderness, just because sometimes early on you can find some challenging foes. I encountered a group of frost trolls that I had to kite for 15 minutes.

For actual music creation, there isn't much out there that's free. For recording/mixing, Audacity is free, and works "ok". I myself have used a variety of programs, but eventually settled on Propellerhead's Reason, which I use to record, mix, etc. all my music. It's seriously a great piece of powerful software if you're into making music. I started using it making Industrial, and eventually started making Neoclassical and blues. Sadly, it's not free.

Has anybody ever played a character that avoided towns (or at least the major ones) as much as possible? I was thinking of doing a ranger build that tries to be as self reliant as possible, avoiding towns unless absolutely necessary. The build would be an archer that does all his own mining, smithing, enchanting, alchemy, etc. The plan is to not even go to Whiterun, and avoid the main quest completely. I'd also avoid fast-travel, and just roam the countryside looking for cool stuff to do. I'm thinking I'd only allow myself to go into towns to sell the fruits of my labor and buy supplies, and typically only the smaller towns. The only difficulty I see is with smithing/alchemy/enchanting - I'd basically have to do all my crafting at whatever bandit-hole I can find and clear out first. That's one thing I miss about Morrowind; you could at least do alchemy anywhere.

One word: Wabbajack. My poison master build is insanely powerful (ever since I hit 25). I can one hit near anything, if I even need to hit (thank goodness for reverse pickpocket). The suckiest part, though, is fighting undead, given their immunity to poison. I'm doing pretty well now at level 38, but before I hit that level, I made liberal use of wabbajack

Thanks - was wondering if there was such a mod out there, hadn't taken the time to search for one until you gave me a name. Should be a fun build to play; just gotta get my alteration up enough for it!

... And damn, you were right. Freaking wonderful. With all my damned bills I'm SOL, so no more Skyrim.

I had considered that, but it just seems so unlikely, as it's still fairly new (1 year old) and I don't typically push it.

It ends up going wonky on my girlfriend's save, too. Just to verify, I let her save load and sit for a bit. Within 10 seconds it was like this: http://www.classicwfl.com/storage/skyrimgraphics.jpg It was completely locked up. Nothing I could do but do a hard reset.

I just sat down to play Skyrim. I loaded up my save, and the graphics went all sorts of funky. Then, a few seconds later, my entire machine locks up. I reboot, try again. Same issue. Double check to make sure my girlfriend hasn't added/removed any mods - check (she plays on my machine). I try to load again, this time moving a bit. I managed to get moved, but the graphics corruption (tearing, transparent textures, missing menu items) is there still, and after a bit it starts stuttering. I update my graphics card drivers - no fix there. I check my girlfriends' save; She's in Whiterun, and everything is fine except for a few torn textures and a giant needle sticking out of her arm (a texture bug, obviously). No stuttering on hers, though. My character is outside the Dawnstar Sanctuary. I backup my game files, and update to the beta patch. No fix. 242 hours put into this game with little to no problem, now it's become unplayable. Nothing has changed since the last time it was played - no settings, no software installed on my machine even. Here's my DXDiag:

Once I get tired of playing my Poison Master, I will start my new build... A conjurer who's only direct way of dealing damage is through the telekinesis spell. Seriously, with all the crap lying around in Skyrim, surely it's feasible! This one I'm less than serious about, seeing as how damage will most likely be minimal, but I think it could prove amusing. Right now I'm thinking conjuration, alteration (duh), restoration, enchanting. Possibly heavy armor and crafting, just for giggles, seeing as how with only 4 focused skills I will be maxing them out rather quick. Has anybody considered this sort of build?

Agreed. The progression of the Mages College was rather lame. I miss Morrowind's Mage's Guild. There was a lot more to it. The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild are much more complete (although the Thieves Guild is rather dull). While the Mage's College was epic in a sense, it was just absurd, and the characters ENCOURAGE you to rush through it all. It's a shame when you can become the head of the college by level 15.

When I lost half my progress due to my girlfriend accidentally overwriting my save, I decided to try a different path with my poison master build... Mostly because I didn't want to grind through the Thieves Guild again. I decided that the Bribe perk was relatively easy to nab, and I would just forgo alteration in favor of it. So, I get it, and go about my business. I ended up getting caught in a murder, and the guards approach me. Apparently, even with the perk, I can't bribe the guards. Has anybody actually USED the bribery perk? What about other speech perks? Did I bork my build?

Cicero. The entire progression of his character was great.. And yes, I killed him. If you haven't, read all the volumes of his journal. Great stuff.

Cicero. His dialog was BRILLIANT.

I myself make sure to use as much + to sneak gear early on with my new build. I also only wear clothes; no armor, and the only weapons at my disposal are poisons and my daggers (I may start using a sword when I go through the end-game stuff). I rarely get involved in combat; usually it's either sneak-sneak-sneak-reverse-pickpocket-poison or sneak-sneak-sneak-stab. Using bow is significantly easier, but I've been enjoying the challenge of daggers.

Be wary and always do a second save of your character if you let other people play Skyrim on your machine. I just need to vent a bit before my girlfriend gets off work. Last night I went to bed early. I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to play (yes, she plays, and no, she doesn't look like a troll :P) Skyrim, and she declined at that point, so I didn't feel the need to make a second save (I usually just rely on my quicksaves). I went to bed, and didn't think anything about it. I wake up at 2 AM to get a drink, and see her playing. I say, "I thought you didn't want to play?", and made sure she saved my character (she said yes). Well, I finally sit down to play tonight; I've been working on a poison master build, and was at level 31, having completed the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests. I load up her save, make sure she's got it saved outside of quicksave, then go to load my character.. ..Only to find the last save was 16 levels ago, before I finished either guilds' quests. AUGH! It's a good thing I love her, otherwise I might be more upset. Sure, it's just a game, but it has been a nice diversion from my work and the upcoming recording of my new album. I'm not really sure I want to re-build this character. If I do, I'm going to start from level 1, just because it's hard to pick back up where I left off not 100% sure what I was doing and what needed to be done in the build. Anybody got any good suggestions for new builds? Thus far I've done 2 pure mages, a battle mage, a ranger, an illusionist/thief, and a paladin.

I actually really enjoyed the DB quests, especially the last few. I felt the characters in the DB were also much more interesting than most. The Thieves' Guild quests were a little frustrating; a lot of grinding to get the guild back up to snuff. The main story, especially near the end, was "interesting", but not near as good as the DB.

Worst dragon attack I experienced was one that attacked the Solitude stables after I had handed all my gear to be smuggled in for the main quest. All I had on me was wabbajack... which, sadly, doesn't seem to work on dragons.

Hah. My poison master uses daggers but doesn't have smithing, so I'm going to have to start naming all my daggers along those lines.. "GIve me your money (fine)", "Do the dishes (fine)", "How do you feel now? (fine)". I'm thinking of going sans-clothes once I hit level 50. By then I'll have every perk I could possibly want on this new character and will have maxed out most of what I need.

Recently, I've taken to dealing with petulant guards. If anybody sasses me (for Pete's sake, I'm head of the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, the Dragonborn, AND Thane of Whiterun & Solitude), I follow them. I'll keep following them until they are alone, and then slit their throat. Or drop a poison in their pocket. There are only so many times you can hear "It's locked for a reason" before snapping. Of course, they always say it RIGHT before it unlocks. Never an hour before it unlocks when I sit and stare at it.

I recently decide to build a character focused around poisons, and have gotten him to 31 thus far with ease. Here's some notes on the build: Skills you'll be focusing on: 1 handed (or bow). Alchemy Pickpocket Sneak Alteration Enchanting Early on, you won't be doing much pickpocketing aside from just trying to level the skill. You'll want to get the ability to reverse-pickpocket poisons as soon as you can (I've used this a number of times to soften up an enemy, it works great). If you're in a combat area/dungeon, SNEAK! Always sneak. Enchant as much gear as you can with sneak bonuses. Your sneak will end up being significantly higher than your other skills, so keep that in mind (you'll probably want to level them to within 10-15 points of your sneak skill if yo get too far behind). With one handed, early on, I'd just recommend focusing on the main damage increasing perk. You can dual wield if you want to, but once you're sneak skill is high enough, you won't really be using it THAT much, and the perks aren't necessary. Later on pick up the boosts to power attacks if you feel so inclined. I haven't yet. Your first 10 levels you should boost your health. After that, feel free to pump as much as you want in stamina/magicka, tossing some into health every couple of levels. As far as perks go, there's a bit of wiggle room depending on play style. Your primary perks will be your base boost to damage/quality; always get those. Get your standard boost to poison and beneficial perks. You can also get the 2x usage of poison applied to weapons perk, as that can be useful in a pinch. Get 25% bonus to skill enchantments, and whatever the perk is that increases power of soul gems. Alteration you can hold off on, but at least get the Novice and Apprentice perks. Later on get the Mage Armor and spell cost reduction perks. Get your sneak backstab perks. Those will be VERY useful. I myself just use a single dagger, occasionally dual-wielding a dagger with soul trap. Regarding gameplay, just play like a squishy dagger-wielding thief early on. I recommend you complete the Thieves Guild ASAP, and then the Dark Brotherhood. After that, it's all up to you. Both will give you some nice resources and great gameplay for this type of character (especially the Dark Brotherhood). Dragon combat may be a little difficult if you went the dagger route, so I'd recommend getting a staff of chain lightning ASAP to help bring them down. Once you get your alchemy skill up high enough you should keep yourself loaded with the best poison you can make (I recommend enchanting yourself a nice set of +alchemy gear), plus paralysis and invisibility. I'm currently creating poisons with ~75 points of damage. Combine that with the double usage poison perk, 15x damage from sneak attack, and the fact that you can soften them up with reverse pickpocket, you can kill just about anybody in game without even getting hit.

So far, so good. Early on you're really rather tame. I spent my early levels working on my alchemy, enchanting, sneak, and pickpocket skills; first 10 levels I boosted health, and got my novice level perks for everything. I'm playing on Adept difficulty, by the way. The build really doesn't flesh out until you get your sneak up; enchanting helps, as does joining the Dark Brotherhood (to get better sneak gear early on). Going armorless has proven to be pretty easy thus far, but I wish Skyrim had more interesting clothing. I ended up using the console to give me the alternate textured College Robes. I've never played a pickpocket character in any of the TES games before, and I am really enjoying it right now. Given how many times I've played the main quest and other faction quests, sometimes I get bored and decide to go on a pickpocket spree :) I haven't gotten my reverse-pickpocket-poison perk yet, but when I do, I can't freaking wait. I think the largest downside is that sneak attack with melee is almost useless outside of D.B. quests. Occasionally I find people to sneak up on, but it's not NEAR as easy as it is with a bow, where you can sneak attack nearly every foe in the game.