Some simple questions

[farhanbaig]

Had some newb questions:

 

1.What are Soul Gems for ? Only for recharging your weapon enchants ? Think there's something more to them cause you can get your enchants recharged at shops for a low price.

 

2.Do you need to carry multiple Torches, or one never "runs out" ?

 

3.There are 4 different tools for alchemy (e.g Pestle and Mortal), what difference does it make if you use just one, rather than carrying all 4 ? Do you get options to make better potions if your carrying all 4 ? They are 10kg each so was just wondering if i need carry them.

 

4.I got some enchanted arrows, 3 to be exact, from the night mothers tomb. They're pretty nice but like i said, there only 3 ! What use is that ? Know i can withdraw arrows from dead bodies after using them but that does not always work and i would quickly loose those 3 shots. Any way (without exploting) that i can make more of the SAME arrows that i already own ?

 

5. Is there a way to apply poisions to ALL of your arrows ? At the moment i can only apply my "next shot", kinda annoying.

 

Any help would be much appriciated.

[Sarya]

1. The soul gems can be used for enchanting items as well. You'll need an altar though. Complete mage guild recommendation quests for that.

 

2. No.

 

3. The alchemy equipment does make a difference, but for simply having an ability to make potions you only need a mortar and a pestle. The other items mostly increase parameters of the created potions, like duration of effect. Don't remember which effect each one has.

 

4. You can't recollect enchanted arrows. You can't enchant your own (unless you find a mod for that, there is one I believe).

 

5. No. Unless there's a mod for that, but I've never seen any.

[Malchik]

1. Soul gems are used to trap souls and as Sarya says with filled gems you can enchant your own items. If you have the Frostcrag spire add on you have an altar of enchanting otherwise you must do the mages guild quests until you can get into the Arcane Uni (where there is an altar). If you do the Daedric quests you'll get a reusable soul gem. You can convert empty grand soul gems to black soul gems and will discover how during mages guild quests. You need to be able to do this if you plan to do all the daedric quests. Black soul gems will trap human souls.

 

2. Torches do run out but it is easier to buy a light spell and then enchant an item with light. It will be brighter overall and never runs out.

 

3. As Sarya says the alchemical apparatus affects quality, duration etc. of the potion. This is not only affected by the number of pieces you have but by their quality. They come as Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Master types. Your chance of acquiring them is dependent on level and luck (or cheating). Alchemy is the skill that increases most rapidly in the game AFAIK and it is easy to become master. This is useful as then you can make potions without having to combine ingredients. The quality of potions goes up with your skill as well as the equipment. And the quality will also affect the price at which you can sell the potion. As making potions is an excellent way of making a lot of money quickly this makes the desirabilty of maximising skill and getting good equipment apparent. A word of caution however - the weight of a potion is related to the heaviest ingredient used in the manufacture. But it is calculated from the first potion of that kind you prepare each time you improve your capability. E.g. At expert level you can make a potion of Restore Fatigue from a blackberry or a watermelon. If you make the one with the watermelon first, every restore fatigue potion you make in future will weigh 5 units no matter what ingredient you use. If you make the blackberry first each will weigh 0.1 unit. This resets every time you improve too, so an expert with novice equipment will find it resets when he or she acquires the first piece of apprentice equipment etc. Just take things slowly and you should be fine. I learned the hard way when all my new restore health potions went from 0.1 to 2. I used to carry 50 which made a hell of a differencce.

 

4. As you level up increasing numbers of bandits use enchanted arrows. There are a few lying around in game if you know where to look (I posted a thread on it ages ago). A good way to get quite a lot is to do the Mehrunes Razor add on. Later in the game Rockmilk Cave is also a pretty fair source of high level arrows. Sarya is right in saying you can never collect enchanted arrows from corpses.

 

5. Sarya says it as it is. But getting an enchanted bow is as good. The best easily accessible IIRC is sold by the Dark Brotherhood Khajiit. You need to be a member of the DB to access it.

 

Hope this helps.

[farhanbaig]

First want to say thank you to both of you, been much help, honostly !

Had some confusions though:

 

1. How do you fill soul gems ?

 

2. I do have all official add-ons but still am to figure out where i can do Daedric quests, have not encountered those anywhere.

 

3.Can i only enchant weapons with light or even armor ? And once enchanted can it be "turned off" ? The light effect hurts the eyes when you are already in a bright area.

 

4.Do you recommend i max out my alchemy asap ? I have it as one of my major skills and if i choose to do so, i'll increase my overall level making creatures in the game world increase too, but ill still have the same fighting skills as before, cause i only leveled using alchemy... or thats not how it works ?

 

5.Whats an IIRC ? And ive already "cleansed" the DB sancturary, and if i remember correctly i killed a khajit. Any other way to get that bow ?

[LoginToDownload]

1: Kill a target who has Soul Trap cast on them. Different creatures have different "Souls", and you need a large enough gem to fit the creature's soul. You can put smaller souls in larger gems, though. NPCs all have Grand (the highest level) souls, but can only be captured in Black Soul Gems.

 

2: You might find various shrines to individual Daedra Lords, usually with three worshippers apiece, scattered throughout Cyrodiil. Talk to the head-worshipper to get instructions for that shrine. Most of the shrines have a minimum level for attempting their quest. A completely full map of Cyrodiil, including shrine-locations, can be found here.

[macmert]

1. you will need a spell called soul trap... You will cast it on a creature (non human) and kill the creature while the spell lasts, so you need to damage the creature first then cast the spell then kill it to capture its soul, the trick is lesser gems can capture lesser souls like goblins and scamps... so you cant fill in a lesser soul gem with a xivilati (spelling??? :D) and if you have only great or grand soul gems dont capture lesser souls cause it is one use and that lesser soul will fill a greater gem, a waste of gem...

 

2. Ask around about Deadric shrines, I am not sure if there is a questline to follow, maybe ask the white mage in the imperial city (forgot his name sorry) he can give you info on three shrines...

 

3. Yes you can enchant items with light, armor, attribute and skill boosts, fire damage and such... but if you enchant an armor with light, it will have a permenant effect so as long as you wear it you will shine like the sun and will be a sitting duck in every dungeon :D, damage based enchantments are different thou, if you enchant a weapon to inflict, say, fire damage, each hit consumes some charge... I guess you know this already :D, so my advice is to go for a night vision spell or enchantment and do it on a hood or something so you can take it off when you dont want the effect... otherwise if you cast it on an armor, when you want to turn the lights off you will be killed in an instant cause you dont wear your armor :D quite simple right...

 

4. Yea it works just like you say, I dont think choosing alchemy as a major is a good idea, my assassin also has it as major and I rarely use it... but to poison your weapons and boosting attributes is a big plus, especially at the beginning of the game it can save your life... I rarely use other poisons like drain health or such, I try to use paralyse, damage health and elemental damage so try to raise your skill but not that much :D

 

5. No you cant poison all your weapons, you can enchant your weapons to inflict damage... If you want a bow like that, try some dungeon dives to loot one, or find a fresh bow and go to frostcraig spire, I guess it has an altar of enchantment, you can enchant it there...

 

Hope it helps...

[farhanbaig]

Thanks mac and login. Effort much appriciated. Two more questions though :P

 

1.Where do i learn the soul trap spell, dont remember seeing it in my spell list, dont think you have it from the beginning like Lesser Heal.

 

2.Night vision and light are two different enchants ? If so, will night vision would be better cause it will not have a radius and will only give light to ME, correct ?

 

3.Do you learn new enchants as you level or gotta buy them like spells ?

[Malchik]

1. You can buy a soul trap spell as any other, it's not uncommon. You can also get weapons with soul trap enchantments.

 

2. Night vision bleaches colour from everything and would not I imagine be something you would want as a permanent enchantment. The brightness of a light spell will vary depending on the gem used. A petty soul gem should not make the scene too bright.

 

3. Enchantments are cast from spells you know. However one enhance attribute spell will enable you to enchance ALL attributes and the same goes for enhance skills. Remember though that you can only enchant from a spell you can cast. You may have a chameleon spell available to an Apprentice in your list. If you are a novice you cannot cast the spell and so cannot use it in an enchantment.

 

Re the bow the khajiit sold in the DB sanctuary, if you finish the DB quests a new salesperson will arrive after a few days and I believe has the same inventory.

 

As for alchemy as a major skill, I don't for just the reason you said. That having been said the game does not start to get difficult until level 9/10.

 

IIRC is a standard abbreviation meaning 'if I remember correctly'.

 

Cheers

[farhanbaig]

Much clear now. Thanks ya'll for taking the time to post :D