Anyone tried not levelling up?

[Creosote999]

Just wondered if there are any game breaking quests that require a certain level, any show-stoppers? The nag message to level up may be one for me, is there a console command to shut that off?

 

Strikes me that skills will improve, but of course without the perks from levelling, and I think most of the Daedric quests may be unobtainable. The levelling system at the moment doesnt work for me anyway, and the perks are too powerful. One upside is it would make a real point to the rewards from quests such as the Nightingale armor, its prob level scalled, but would be better than hide.

 

Just thought I'd ask if anyone has tried it before embarking on it to find its unplayable.

[BrknSoul]

Dungeons are level-locked when you first enter them, but some Dungeons have a lower and upper limit. For example, a Dungeon could have a level limit of 1-10. If you enter at level 5, the Dungeon will lock at level 5. If you enter the same Dungeon (for the first time) at level 15, the Dungeon will lock at level 10.

 

As you progress, Dungeons will get harder. For example, at level 1, you could enter a Dungeon that has a level limit of 10-20 and the mobs inside will mop the floor with you.

 

Just curious, in what way does the levelling system not work? Also, if you feel some perks are too powerful, you could either not choose them, or simply increase the game difficulty.

Edited November 28, 2011 by BrknSoul

[NephilimNexus]

Actually, deliberately not leveling up is a valid strategy.

 

If you max every skill to 100 then you end up level 81. The problem with that is that game scales encounters to your level, and frankly no one is actually going to use 81 levels worth of skills. If you're a mage, then you've got about three or four magic branches, plus enchanting, and you're done. If you're a tank then you need heavy armor, smithing and two handed weapons. Done! Thief? Sneak, pickpocket, lockpick, maybe bows or one handed. Point being, that there are perfectly valid character builds that you can finish the entire game with that use five skill trees or less. This, in turn, means that your perfectly valid "top end" character will probably peak at around level 40 or so.

 

Which brings us back to scaled encounters. If you're level 40 and have maxed out your tank with 100 in heavy armor, smithing, and two-handed then you should be able to go toe-to-toe with other level 40 creatures. But if your tank has, against all logic, maxed every skill and hit level 81 then now he's facing level 81 foes with the exact same skill levels. Meaning that your lockpicking and pickpocket skills are of absolutely no use when that ancient dragon comes swooping down on you - all that matters is your armor protection and your damage output with your battleaxe. Any skills you may have other than that are effectively irrelevant to your ability to survive against that dragon because you're not going to actually be using them.

 

I could do that same argument again with a mage. Your mage has maxed one handed when that dragon attacks? That's nice, but what does that have to do with your DPS when dual-casting fireballs? Nothing at all, except the extra levels gives to you and your opponents. Are a few extra hit points really worth it at that point? For a thief/assassin, all those magic trees (beyond maybe an invisibility spell) are just playing into the hands of enemies who will be gaining a lot more from their extra levels than you will be from yours (after your real skills are maxed). And so on.

 

A better system (are you listening, Bethesda?) would be to truly scale encounters based on something deeper than a simple character level number. Spawn tougher armor on foes when the player has higher weapon skills. Give them better weapons when your armor goes up. More enemy mages to fight against your magic user, and deadlier traps & more alert guards for the thief. In other words, tailoring the encounters to match the character's actual skills, not just their level, and - this is the important part - ignoring the skills that make no difference in combat, such pickpocket & lockpicking.

[XunAmarox]

Unfortunately, I didn't level up unintentionally for what would have been like 50 levels, but.... I actually wanted to level up. xD...

 

And... the Daedric Artifacts require certain levels, I know that much.

Edited November 28, 2011 by XunAmarox

[Creosote999]

The problem, for me, to answer your question Brknsoul, is that I didnt realise the prks were so powerful. I naturally climbed the skill trees for all those nice sounding perks, I mean thats why they are there! But I ended up with a L42 char with 1300+ AC, 500+ HPs and Stamina, 220 weapons, and I had prob played less than 20% of the game. Of course I could have then switched the difficulty higher but that seems so artificial having played it on the default of Adept. If the perks are there I want them! Hard to just ignore part of the game because you know its imbalanced. Hence my idea of a L1 char.

I am less anti the levelling system per se and more that the game tried to make you feel you are making progress through levels by perks, but the perks imbalance the game.

 

Anyway, I have started a new game with intent of playing as far as poss at L1 and of course quickly found that not being able to look at my skills due to having a level up is rather restrictive. Is there any way to look at ones skills without taking the Lecel up?

[Wolves425]

playing this game without leveling up would become very boring at least if you do it from hte start and play only with a lvl 1 character.

when you level up you gain perks, and the perks is part of what makes this game fun. You can ofc gain perks trough the console instead of leveling up, but it wount be the same.

 

deliberately stopping to lvl up at a certain point could prove to be different like its said a couple post above me here.