Sacrificing Lydia

[Lord Garon]

Just recently started playing Skyrim in earnest. It's kicking my butt on Adept. I think I'm missing something, but can't find any good advice other than power-gaming skills. I'm not even sure which skills to raise.

 

Got thru Bleak Barrows with the archer guy follower. Barely. Seemed hard for an initial quest. I wound up with Lydia after the Watchtower dragon fight. But, I want to be a mage, so I went directly to the College and my initial quest there is exploring the excavation site.

 

Had a HARD time with the Deathlord. Running away, I accidentally found a place he couldn't hit me. Blasted him with magic cause he has that Disarm shout. About a half-hour later, it was dead.

 

Got to the Eye of Magnus chamber and was stuck. I died constantly. Lydia died whenever the Jyrk-guy conjured a Storm Atronach. I finally ran out and locked Lydia behind the iron gates with the Jyrk. "Sorry, sweetie, now you know what kind of a guy your Thane really is. Waa Ha Ha Ha!!!!" Again, she would die if there was an atronach. But her damage output was too low, and she couldn't kill Jyrk. I tried to help her through the bars and finally figured out I could conjure my own atronach on Lydia's side of the gate. After 10 or 15 flame atronachs, they and Lydia finally got the Jyrk.

 

I can't even complete the work I get; fought through the trash in a mine only to get 1-shotted by the Orc boss. I had 200 health, about 130 or so armor rating, and have no idea how much of his damage is thwarted by blocking with my shield. But the guy is getting at least 200 damage points per hit through. I thought he had some mystical weapon. Nope, unimproved war hammer, 28 damage. (Yeah, I TGM'd him just to see what kind of a weapon he had.)

 

I'm missing something. I searched around for hints and all I find are ways to power-raise skills, like, smithing to 100 by eradicating all the deer and wolves in Whiterun and "forging" leather goods. Is that how you have to play this game? There is a LITTLE immersion in Skyrim, at least; I actually "felt bad" about locking poor Lydia in with the Jyrk-guy. I would rather play the game with teamwork, not exploiting/sacrificing followers.

 

Help me. Help poor Lydia regain her respect for the Thane of Whiterun. Forget the magic. Lydia was keeping this bandit busy as I flamed him from behind. At 8 points per second damage, I'd guess he had about 800-1000 heath as slow as my flame made it go down. I ran out of 180 magicka and had barely heated the guy up.

 

I assume that quests will only only get more difficult, but I can't even get through the first ones. Is there anything I can do other than exploit skills progression? Are defensive skills/perks really worth it when a bad guy can 1-shot you? What skills/perks actually matter?

 

I know this may be a dead horse issue by now, but I'm new to Skyrim and can't find "good advice", just exploits. Thx, Lydia will appreciate it.

[BrettM]

I don't think you want to try power leveling by raising crafting skills. Having 100 Smithing does not raise your combat skill levels, and those are what you need to survive and win. The level of the foes in each new quest is determined by your level, so all you would do is make things more difficult for yourself by having a higher level without the skills that should go with that level.

 

I don't know how much good advice I can give you, since I have a similar problem at lower levels. Sometimes I get so disgusted after trying forever to take out a boss that I set the level down to Apprentice just to get it over with. Call me a bad player if you like. I'm working on my third character now. First was a scout type -- stealth archery plus sword-and-board. Second was a mage, which seems more difficult to get started than any other type of character. Third is on the heavy-armor, two-handed path. All have gotten soundly trashed at times in simple quests, much less the more complex ones.

 

About the only thing I've learned for sure is that certain quests are best avoided until I start pushing level 25-30. The College of Winterhold main quest would be one of those. It does seem to start getting easier at that point, as you've started gaining some power in whatever skill lines you're using, have improved your armor and weapons somewhat, etc. If you find a certain quest too tough, then the best thing to do is to leave it and go do other things for a few levels. Travel to a new town, do some side quests there, etc.

Edited March 28, 2012 by BrettM

[Brandy1123]

A Novice mage does not make a good spelunker. Don't power level if you are having problems dealing dammage. Your game play will be short lived. You need to build your skills and perks. Give yourself about 10 levels fighting in an around Whiterun. It has the lowest chance for you to encounter a bad boss level critter and still offers some encounters. if it bores you to tears, then just explore the open expanse. Find locations and let them be marked on your map, but don't enter them. You'll gain experience using your spells, gain gold, equipment, perks and a more powerful character. Also, you'll be marking locations so when a quest does spawn, you'll have a quick travel point near where your destination is.

 

Lydia already hates you. She hates everything. All she does is rob you of your consumables and complain about your burdens. I think she was told by her parents to goto the College and she didn't know which one. Now, she's just angry. I think she found and steals from your hidden stash of valuables in your house too. I saw her in the mead house living it up on more then a Housecarls wage. :D

[RedRavyn]

I've been playing on Adept level since day one (this is my sixth playthrough). I always do Bleak Falls Barrow as my first "big quest", without a follower (I hate followers, anyway), and generally have few problems, there. You didn't say what sort of character build you're using, but I think that if you're attempting to play a "pure mage" that might be one of your problems. The novice-level spells are pretty pathetic against some of the opponents you can meet in those Nordic ruins. You really need to get some apprentice-level spells from Farengar in Dragonsreach at the earliest opportunity. I usually play an archer-destruction mage specializing in Stealth. This has gotten me through almost every situation, especially since I usually use the most powerful one-handed weapon I can find for in-fighting. The key, I think, is to have as well-rounded a character as you can create, so you can be survivable in most situations.

 

Mages seem to begin to come into their own only when you get around 225-250 magicka and have an array of spells to use against various opponents, as well as spells like "Fast Healing" and "Stoneskin". I've found that it's usually best to delay the Winterhold College questline until you get around level 20, or so, and keep doing other quests between your various responsibilities, so you'll be around level 30 when you get around to the latter parts of the questline. Note -- this is 20 legitimate levels. As has been mentioned, power-leveling using smithing, enchanting, or alchemy will only hurt you in the long run. You need to have combat skills commensurate with your level, because your opponents level up with you, and if you've been power-leveling their survivability will far outstrip your own.

[ChihaTanka]

Lydia already hates you. She hates everything. All she does is rob you of your consumables and complain about your burdens. I think she was told by her parents to goto the College and she didn't know which one. Now, she's just angry. I think she found and steals from your hidden stash of valuables in your house too. I saw her in the mead house living it up on more then a Housecarls wage.

 

 

That made me smile. Thanks :)

[Lord Garon]

 

...

 

Lydia already hates you. She hates everything. All she does is rob you of your consumables and complain about your burdens. I think she was told by her parents to goto the College and she didn't know which one. Now, she's just angry. I think she found and steals from your hidden stash of valuables in your house too. I saw her in the mead house living it up on more then a Housecarls wage. :D

 

"I'm sworn to carry your burdens." Carry them off to the meadery, you mean. I get it now.

 

Well, I decided my full-blown mage was too weak by level 20 or so. Not enough perks, or I chose the wrong ones, to match up with the melee strength of the leveled bad guys. Got a battle-mage now and am training, not exploiting, combat skills as much as I can afford each level. Big difference; thanks to all for the advice. I like to role play TES games but you fall too far behind in Skyrim. "Natural" leveling from things like speechcraft, lock picking, and stuff like that is just a delayed death sentence. Five trainings a level isn't too bad, but its getting expensive. With 2.501 zillion health potions hot-keyed up, I've made it through the initial quests again without exploits (other than the BIG exploit of knowing what's coming). But, did some new Companion quests without dying; a first! Who could have guessed that a shield would be so useful in combat? :facepalm:

 

Still a newb, though. Any hints on valuable magic skills/perks would be appreciated.

[netson]

LOL maxed enchanting wont make you weak actually you can get up by getting enchant to 100 with 5/5(enchants 2x stronger) perk and fortify health enchants/skill enchants and double enchant perks. having all of this you can get more than 60% magic resist and more than 200 extra hp as with you can get free magic skills.

[BrettM]

Read So You Want to be a Mage. This helped me TREMENDOUSLY when I made my try at a mage character.

 

Mages seem tougher to get going than martial characters. By the time I got to Riverwood, it was clear to me that I needed leather armor, a bow, and a sword for backup. Stealth archery mostly carried me until I got Destruction up enough to do some real damage. When forced to melee, I used spells as much as possible, but pulled out the sword when things got tight.

 

Trust me, it does get better eventually, as you get access to the projectile spells and the magicka to use them. I never use the sword any more. As a full-blown shock mage with Dual Cast and Impact, I have little to fear from anything in the game now and can stun-lock any dragon. Mages seem to go from vastly underpowered at the start to vastly overpowered at higher levels.

[RedRavyn]

@ netson: And the first time you get munched by a dragon or punted by a giant you'll have second thoughts about that 60% magic resistance which will avail you diddly squat. Trust me. The veteran players of this game will just about all disagree with you that concentrating upon Enchanting (or Alchemy or Smithing), while neglecting your "survival" skills is a Bad Thing in the long-run, and most of them have learned this through experience. Enjoy your newbie character with that 100 Enchant while you can. Things will get a LOT tougher for you later on when your character matures and finds that his enemies are dealing out two to three times as much damage as you can.

[Lord Garon]

Read So You Want to be a Mage. This helped me TREMENDOUSLY when I made my try at a mage character.

 

...

 

The Guide was very informative, thanks for the link. You know, figuring out what works and doesn't work was part of the fun in Morrowind and Oblivion. I don't know what it is, exactly, in Skyrim that makes it so much more... frustrating. Sure enough, I had picked a lot of "useless/gimp" perks and schools of magic. They SEEMED like good choices at the time but there is no real feedback in the game to tell you WHAT is going wrong. Just WHACK - tiny sliver of health left... try to hit hot-key in time... too late; you're just a rag doll listening to Lydia threatening the bad guys, "I'll kill you if I have to." Uh, Lydia dearest, I appreciate your compassion and restraint, but we're in a dungeon which you had a "bad feeling" about and eight unrepentant felons are pummeling us with lightning bolts, arrows, and 2-handed weapons. Let me give you an important safety tip here; YOU HAVE TO KILL THEM! THERE'S NO CHOICE INVOLVED! FORGET YOUR HOUSECARL COURT ETIQUETTE AND WAIL ON THEM! Okay, just wanted to make sure we're on the same page.