birthsign choice... "the lady"

iolodavanki · Post by **iolodavanki** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 10:29 am

To me it seems that "the lady" is head and shoulder above the rest... Am I missing the point or is "the lady" totally the best...?

Also, what class would you think is the best one to play??

I play a nightblade right now and I have a lot of fun with the sneaking and stealing. Perhaps it will get boring in the long run... Mages are usually the best in the wong run in fantasy games, but I want to play a warrior... The Nords have great tatoos in their faces and stuff... Any thoughts?

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 10:40 am

Atronach beats it, hands down, from a power gaming perspective. But the Lady is definitely the runner-up.

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 10:51 am

I'm running a Nord mercenary as one of my characters, who uses the Lady sign. Works well. Of course, now he's beginning to hit the magical opponents, and there he's finding that brawn won't let him achieve an easy victory. So he's channeled some of his hard-earned cash reserves (pearl fishing, rewards, alchemy, etc) into buying training, and practicing magic skills (which are minor skills for him--he realized their importance relatively late in his career).

My Breton mage has the opposite problem. He's trained heavily in light armor and short blades, making his initial levels a severe test. But he's got tons of magicka and hardly ever fails a spell cast.

Ares2382 · Post by **Ares2382** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 12:55 pm

I think for a Breton Mage "the Apprentice" would be the best, as it gives the biggest boost to your magicka. My starting magicka with 60 int was almost 200, at lvl 5 it was 300, this allows you to make some very powerful spells that normally you wouldn't be able to cast because of lack of magicka. and since Bretons are magick resistance, the weakness to magicka won't be such a big deal.

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 1:55 pm

I think for a Breton Mage "the Apprentice" would be the best, as it gives the biggest boost to your magicka.

Actually, it doesn't. Apprentice gives you a 1.5x boost, and a 50% weakness to magic. Atronarch gives 2.0x boost, 50% spell absorb, at the price of no natural mana regen (easy to work around, though).

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 2:44 pm

Originally posted by cjdevito
I think for a Breton Mage "the Apprentice" would be the best, as it gives the biggest boost to your magicka.

Actually, it doesn't. Apprentice gives you a 1.5x boost, and a 50% weakness to magic. Atronarch gives 2.0x boost, 50% spell absorb, at the price of no natural mana regen (easy to work around, though).

Well, yes--but I won't summon something to kill, in order to gain experience and magicka. Deep inside my DNA there is a roleplaying switch set permanantly to "on."

flash95 · Post by **flash95** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 3:07 pm

here kitty kitty ......

SMACK!

You have captured a soul....

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 3:31 pm

io, almost any sign can be power gamed,

lady is nice cause of personality, but the masque of clavicus vile makes up for that COMPLETELY....

lord, for example, is great with regen health, and with dragonbone armor can drop the weakness to fire...

appretice, you should choose breton, and get used to weaaring the funky looking saviors hide armor, with those alien looking flanges in the back...

but avoid the thief ones, since constant effect chameo can over exceed the birth sign advantages......

lady is not really the best choice, join mages guild and train with skinks the secret master of speechcraft, with 100 speechcraft and high personality everyone starts out with 70 % disposition to like you anyway...

i did not have to hit a single trev councillar to make arch mage....

and steal the masque of clavicus vile....

cj is right...atronach is by far the best... if you dont like summon to recharge and will not download cj"s wonderful plugin to create restore mana items....

just do everything via enchanted items...

but really, if you are willing to spend for secret master of mystacism, and get it as a major skill, when you reach 100 willpower you are basically immune to magic anyway...the high mana is nice, tho...

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 3:42 pm

Couple things, UU:

lady is nice cause of personality,

Actually, the lady is nice for two reasons. One, 50 extra stat points. Not a lot for someone who does 3x5 level ups, but for folks who don't milk the system and get an average of ~7/level, that's seven levels worth of stat points. Two, the high initial endurance means higher hit point gains in the early levels.

download cj"s wonderful plugin to create restore mana items

Not mine. Only mod I've made enables vampire PC faces during character creation and sets indoril to always be heavy.

lord, for example, is great with regen health

I haven't tried lord yet, and I'm beginning wonder if I should. Is the health regen equivalent to a constant effect restore health enchantment, or is it weaker then that?

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 8:38 pm

oopssss..

sorry, forgot about the endurance, and i completely agree the extra end is great...and its advantage to leveling up and hit points is a completly valid point...

JAKER did the plug in, and i got confused with you since we have been lurking the same constant effect jump thread...

dont know about the regen ability of lord, have never seen it...

with breton or red guard, and if you pick str and willpower as primary attributes, could make for akiller combo, eh???

Loredweller · Post by **Loredweller** » Thu Jun 13, 2002 1:15 am

Originally posted by fable

Well, yes--but I won't summon something to kill, in order to gain experience and magicka. Deep inside my DNA there is a roleplaying switch set permanantly to "on."

Haven't you heard a rumor about a mage who summons creatures to get their souls? It's up to your character, of course, but developers definitely have meant it such way

Regards,
L.

Crosswind · Post by **Crosswind** » Thu Jun 13, 2002 7:00 am

Fable, I'm playing a level 15 breton atronarch...

And I haven't summoned a ghost to give me mana yet.

I took alchemy as a primary skill, and my first 7 or 8 level ups came from it. I now have 100 alchemy (never trained it), and my potions (with caldera's equipment) restore about 300 mana apiece.

I started out and made restore fatigue potions until I had some money, and then went and bought frost salts to make mana potions. Like 9 levels, a zillion fights and a boatload of equipment later, I'm still only 3/4 of the way through my original stash of restore magicka potions.

Alchemy is hands down the most under-rated skill in this game.

I played an atronarch mainly because I dont' bloody like resting. Rest is too cheesable in 99% of RPGs (resting after/before every fight=boo!)...

another thing that helps is to make yourself 3 spells as soon as you can.

1.) Fire damage for 25 points to 1 target

2.) Cold damage for 35 or 40 points to 1 target

3.) Shock damage for 50 points to 1 target

Make the first two to deal with 90% of things and to help with immunes, and the 3rd to deal with single big enemies.

It helps conserve mana, because you can pick exactly how much damage you need to do, and what type, so with practice you can pick off enemies with the minimum amount of mana.

-Cross

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jun 13, 2002 8:18 am

Reasonable suggestion, @Crosswind--I'll think about 'em when I make yet-another character. What were the major, minor and miscellaneous skills you gave your breton atronach?

Crosswind · Post by **Crosswind** » Thu Jun 13, 2002 1:45 pm

I gave him essentially every single magic skill, unarmored and speechcraft. I roleplay him as a kind of ruthless aristocrat who would prefer to get his way through manipulation rather than conflict.

His major skills, as I recall (one or two of these might be minor, and vice versa):

Alchemy, Destruction, Conjuration, Alteration, Illusion

Mysticism, Enchant, Restoration, Unarmored, Speechcraft

Now, note that because I'm roleplaying an aristocrat rather than an adventurer, I did take the strider to balmora and do alchemy for a bit until I could afford to make my own magicka potions and create the 3 aforementioned spells.

I chose atronach because running out of mana mid-battle stinks. With 116 int (91 and the necromancer's amulet), I have something like 451 mana. With absolutly no relevant disadvantages (I wouldn't be sleeping to recover mana anyways), 50% magic resist, 75% spell absorb (the necromancer's amulet again), and the ability to get 100% spell absorb (Staff of Magnus!). At a very low level, still using those spells. =)

-Cross