YouOnlyGetOneChance

I'm most dissapointed in the very generic choice in items. Character development generally breaks down to skills/stats/item choices in an rpg. Since they elected to remove stats, that leaves skills and item choices. I like the seamlessness of the skills and find the perks interesting (although the similarity of 1 handed and 2 handed trees is a bit dissapointing), the lack of really interesting item choices is dissapointing.

Well, final update for milly, (busy weekend with family in town for the holidays). I decided to make a run at the companion quest line, and run with it. Unfortunately (and I knew it when I got the mission) I was sent to a cave that was full of necromancers who liked to shoot firebolts and lightning bolts and I had ~15% resistances from potions. Milly made a valiant effort, but ultimately fell to the onslaught. Next up will be a sword/board character as I want to do the companions questline and feel that a sheild will of course help with dealing with the magic damage that I'll innevitably face. Originally I was thinking I'd play an orc, their oh s*** button is nice, but they don't have a built in resistance to anything. So, my options (and I'd love input from anyone interested/bored): Dunmer Advantages: Fire Damage Aura - This is a pretty big deal early in the game, which is where I expect the most issues. It also is a nice addition to damage for a sword/board character who is going to be focusing on survival and long fights 50% fire resistance - Resistances are my biggest issue without using enchanting Disadvantages: No built in skills for what I want to do, which means my combat skills will be lower relative to my character level Orc Advantages: Skill points in heavy armor, blocking, one handed, and smithing Really good 'oh s***' racial ability Disadvantages: No built in resistances Redguard Advantages: 50% poison resistance, I view this is not as valuable as elemental resistances because it's not burst damage typically like the elemental damage you face. Adrenaline rush, good for running and damage. But, not really a survivability mechanism however it will allow for chain sheild bashing. One handed, blocking, and smithing skill points Disadvantages: no armor skill, hurts survivability That's all I'm listing for the time being. I plan on playing a similar game to what was in the OP (no fast travel, no enchanting, no power leveling trade skills or combat skills, master difficulty, and no dieing). I'm open to playing other races as long as they aren't breton's since that I already have a Breton character I play regularly.

My first/main playthrough is battle mage who uses restoration/destruction and a sword in one hand. I used elven armor through most the game and have now used crafted dragon scale armor with one of the dragon priest hoods. I like armor more just because I don't have to have another buff to cast. I did find that as I get up in levels (I'm at 46 now) I switched over to almost entirely resto magic and wards instead of destruction magic since the damage isn't that high and I'm not dual casting for the perk that stuns with destro magic.

You're right, but to do so on masters difficulty without dieing doesn't seem possible. Perhaps it is with some builds such as a conjurer because you are able to stay out of combat, or with extreme abuse/maxing of trade skills. But, I'd rather limit other areas than potion/food use.

December 16th Shimmermist Cave has been cleared, but not without dire losses. It appears I need to work on my aim, as Sven took an arrow in the back while tanking two Falmer for me and did not get back up. After looting his equipment I continued on into the dungeon and ran into 3 Chaurus'. Their ranged poison attack proved to be far too much and I quickly retreated back to white run to make more food and potions and find a new follower. After beating the hell out of her in a fist fight, Uthgerd the Unbroken agreed to join me for another push into the Shimmermist Caves. So, Uthgerd signed up I rested at the Bannered Mare and took off back to Shimmermist cavern first thing in the morning. Thankfully, Uthgerd was able to handle the poison damage from the Chaurus' much better than myself and my non existant poison resistance (I did check Arcadias Cauldron and Belethor's General Goods for poison resistance potions, but was unable to find any). After pushing past the Chaurus' we raided their nests for eggs both for their alchemy potential and the hopes of killing of as many babies as we possibly could, the world will be better off with a few hundred less Chaurus hatchlings. Pushing on we came up to a massive Dwemer Door, beyond stood a Falmer Chieften. After sneaking in and drilling him with 3 steel arrows, the chieften activated a Dwemer monstrosity forcing me and Uthgerd to flee in terror. Fortunately the Falmer Chieften chased us into the tunnels in a rage and leaving the Dwemer monstrosity stuck in the door. We quickly dispatched the Chieften (with the help of a few potions), and began to pummel the Dwemer monstrosity with arrows. Unfortunately disaster struck one more time as Uthgerd in a desperate rage (perhaps this was why she was rejected by the companions after killed a practice partner) charged the Dwemer Monster and was caught in the crossfire. As the battle cleared Milly stood battered but victorious, and while the death toll was larger than expected some good would come of this. Searching through the pockets of Uthgerd, Milly found her house key and also decided to make use of the plate armor that Uthgerd would no longer be needing. After searching through the final chamber of the Shimmermist Caves, Milly set off for Jorrvaskr to report back to the Companions and perhaps take a load off in front of Uthergerds Hearth. With any luck, there won't be any family or friends sniffing around and Milly will be able to stop paying for lodgings at the Bannered Mare. So, in summary: Shimmermist Caves cleared, the Dwemer Guardian was scary and resistances are a problem 2 Followers dead, Sven and Uthgerd did not make it home Milly is the proud "owner" of a house in Whiterun Milly is level 12 with all perks (as many as skills allow) invested in heavy armor, 2 handers, and smithing.

So, Although I've yet to finish the main quest I struggle with a constant desire to start new characters. Combine this with a love for the thrill of risk in a game and I decided to give dead means dead game play a shot. For starters I'm going to lay out a little bit of ground work on basic principles I'm playing with. General Guidelines: 1. Of course, if I die I'm done. 2. No loading saves for any reasons besides crashes (although I've been having far fewer of these recently between the patch and running the 4gb launcher) 3. No power leveling. I'm going to play the game and let my skills fall where they do. 4. No fast travel (this will be a tough one for me, but I think I can hold to it. I honestly thing this will be tougher than sticking to the first rule though) 5. Master difficulty all the way through Trade Skill Guidelines: I'm going to only craft steel weapons/armor (This is largely because I like crafting, but don't want to abuse the high end equipment, and partly because I think the steel equipment simply looks more appropriate). This means I'll be spending a grand total of 1-2 perks in smithing for steel weapons and perhaps the perk that allows me to upgrade magical weapons so that I can make better use of treasure that I find. I will craft only with what I find and what I can buy from stores in the normal course of the game. What this means is that I won't travel to towns, or rest/sleep in order to restock stores. This goes hand in hand with the no power leveling. I won't be using enchanting for the time being. Partly because it makes finding things more interesting and partly because the idea of using enchanting without power leveling is crazy. I will of course happily use any enchanted gear I find in dungeons along the way, and likely pick up the perk to upgrade them. Build and Strategy: This is still masters difficulty, and I only get one shot at this, so I don't plan to go into this blind/without a plan. A lot of the viability of this lies in the steel perk and maintaining a reasonably low level. The steel perk doubles the effectiveness of improvements to steel armor/weapons, so to get legendary equipment I need 96 points in blacksmithing. Since I eventually want to get the magical perk for smithing (requires 60 points), this means with 60% increase to blacksmithing gear/potions I can upgrade armor and weapons to legendary. Now, this of course isn't as strong as if I had 100 blacksmithing (theres varying quality of legendary), but increasing blacksmithing beyond ~60 will only increase our armor/damage while also raising the level of our opponents and the amount of spell damage they put out, which without enchanting I will have a harder time of dealing with. Beyond this, I'll be using alchemy and food (Cabbage/Apple soup heals 15 stamina and 10 hp, per weight it's as good as the potions you can make at low levels) because when you don't want to die, potions are great. The main use of alchemy is of course health and stamina potions. I'll use some resistance/heavy armor/2 hander/etc. potions, but because I don't intend to invest any points into alchemy I expect I'll find better ones than I can make for use in the really tough fights. Combat wise I'll be using 2 handed weapons, heavy armor, and some archery (although no perks will go here until I have the others maxed). Again, I'll be limiting ourselfs to avoid unnecessary levels to keep magic damage down. Additionally though I will go for 30 points in alteration for the 10% spell resistance buff, to get the next level would require 60 points and is further down the tree than I'd like to level. So, I'll be outfit in legendary steel armor/weapons, or as high as I can upgrade whatever magical equipment I find (preferably with fire/lighting resistances), will have 50% frost resistance, and 10% resistance to all spells, and all the relevant heavy armor/2 handed perks. Link to ign's character builder page: http://www.ign.com/builds/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim?d=000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000101000000100000000010000100005111111100000000050111113 All extra perks past 31 (assuming I'm alive) will likely be dumped into archery and alternate weapon specialties for 2 handers. Update: As of now Milly is level 10 with 1 perk in smithing (at about 30 points), 2 in heavy armor, and 3 in two handed weapons. Areas Cleared Halted Stream Camp: Bandit Leader White River Watch: Bandit Leader Milly is currently wearing 2 Hand Steel Sword Full Nordic Steel Plate Orcish Bow Companion: Sven 2 Handed Steel Sword Full Steel Nordic Plate Upcoming quests: Initial Companions quests (will be dumping sven as a follower shortly) Bleak Fall Barrows once I am comfortable releasing dragons into the world. So far, the bandit chiefs have been handled relatively easily. I was knocked to about 30-40% life by the mage/bandit chief in halted stream camp, but it was largely do to my follower being in my way. Update December 16th Summary, more details in the post below. Shimmermist Caves cleared, the Dwemer Guardian was scary and resistances are a problem 2 Followers dead, Sven and Uthgerd did not make it home Milly is the proud "owner" of a house in Whiterun Milly is level 12 with all perks (as many as skills allow) invested in heavy armor, 2 handers, and smithing.