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Character Critique...
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 12:29 pm
by lifeishell91
Ok, here she is...
Race: Altmer/Dunmer
Specialization: Magic
Name: Vyvara Araneae
Sign: The Artronach
Main Attributes: Intelligence, Luck
Custom Class: Golden/Dark Goddess
Major Skills
Alteration
Destruction
Illusion
Conjuration
Unarmored
Minor Skills
Alchemy
Athletics
Mysticim
Enchant
Restoration
I am going to try and complete as much as possible within the game using all Magic Skills, and Athletics, meaning I can't use any weapons. I am going to forbid myself from using any weapons at all and limit myself to spells and powerful enchantments, whether I create them myself or pay someone to do so. I am trying to make the game not only harder for me, but because I LOVE magic, that is all I am going to use, beside Athletics of course.
I am considering to switch Athletics with something that cannot level so quickly, what do you think?
Edit: I fixed the double Enchant in the Minor skills.
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 12:56 pm
by Wrath-Of-Egg
I was hoping for ''Have Fun'' choise..
But i think ''Um.. something'' is close to that..
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 2:54 pm
by Ares2382
Well I just speaking from my experience. I tried a pure mage that avoided using any weapons. But it's extremly hard early on with Atronach sign. You can't rest to get your magicka back, nor are you able to make good potions of restore magicka. You will most likely run out of magicka quickly and then you would have a hard time restoring it.
That being said, once you get up in levels, you will be able to stop using a weapon and kill things with spell alone. So I would suggest you drop Alchemy for a weapon. The reason I say to drop Alchemy rather then something else, is because of how easy it is to raise that skill. This way you can use a weapon in the early part of the game when you run out of magicka and once you get to about lvl 10 you can stop using weapon and rely just on your spells.
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:04 pm
by Alien_Newborn
It might be a good idea to also have Hand-to-hand as a skill (or at least as something you do frequently) because it is true that, until you can make or afford restore magicka potions, the game is pretty hard with the Atronach.
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:35 pm
by moltovir
Do a search for Atronach and I'm sure you'll find at least 3 ways to quickly recover your magicka, like the potions in the mages guild supply chest, the drain intelligence trick or the imperial shrine one.
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:45 pm
by Ares2382
Yeah mages guild have potions, BUT they have a limited amount of them, and unless you feel like resting for a day every 5 minutes it's not a good way to get your restore magicka. Restoring your magicka to full through Imperial or Telvanni shrines is another way, BUT you're not always near one and you might not always have Almsivi or Divine Intervention spells available.
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 4:30 pm
by fable
Perhaps I'm missing something, but why do you have Enchant down twice for your minors?
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 4:47 pm
by techoluvr
thats gonna be really hard. i have a problem with just beating the game. and you are gonna go totall mage. whoo
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 5:21 pm
by jopperm2
Enchant should certainly be a major skill since it is hard to increase and your use of magic items will depend on it.
I would put all of the skills that you use a lot lower so that you level faster. Though that could case a problem with enemies getting stronger.
I would do this..
Major:
Enchant
Conjuration
Illusion
Alteration
Unamored
Minor:
Destruction
Alchemy
Athletics
Restoration
Mysticism
Intelligence and Luck is fine, but you may want to use Willpower instead of one of those.. Depends on what spells you like to use. Luck is great thouhg and I always include it. Atronach is a great choice. Don't worry about running out of magic, just join the mages guild ASAP and do lots of mission that pit you against other mages, always gather potion ingredients and steal the master Alchemy equipment asap from Caldera Mages guild.. Just don't get caught with them. Then you will constantly make restore magica potions and take the ones in the guild chests. I would suggest a Dunmer, not Altmer.. The powers that the Dunmer gets will help you againd physical attacks, plus fire damage is very common when going up against mages. You should try to fight mages whenever you can, because you have 50% spell absorpsion, making you much harder for them. You should also cary some resist magicka or reflect potions/magic items to make you almost immune to magic. Bon Chance.
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 5:18 am
by moltovir
Quick Ways to restore Magicka:
1) Make restore magicka potions
2) Buy them
3) Gather them from the supply chests. 5 guilds * 10 potions = 50 potions every 14 days.
4) You don't have to be near a shrine to use the shrine trick. Cast a mark, use Divine Intervention ("you might not always have Almsivi or Divine Intervention spells available" : just buy the spell, you'll have it always available), pick the "Restore Attributes" blessing and recal. If you're on pc, the excellent mod "MultiMark" might help, it lets you mark, and recall to, 12 different places of your choice.
5) Same as 4, but with Almsivi Intervention.
6) Find and attack a scrib. You will absorb its Paralyze spell.
7) Summon an Ancestral Ghost and absorb his spells.
8) Trick 7 but with any other spellcasting enemy.
9) Get the Mace of Molag Bal and kill rats and scribs.
10) Make a Drain Intelligence 100 points for 1 second on self spell and cast it when you're out of magicka.
11) Cheat
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 5:21 am
by Wrath-Of-Egg
12. Downlaod some magicka recovery plugins
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 5:23 am
by moltovir
13) Most of those plugins are scripted not to work with Atronach
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:21 am
by lifeishell91
Perhaps I'm missing something, but why do you have Enchant down twice for your minors?
Oops. sorry, that was meant to be Mysticim.
12. Downlaod some magicka recovery plugins
I use Xbox
Well I just speaking from my experience. I tried a pure mage that avoided using any weapons. But it's extremly hard early on with Atronach sign. You can't rest to get your magicka back, nor are you able to make good potions of restore magicka. You will most likely run out of magicka quickly and then you would have a hard time restoring it.
That being said, once you get up in levels, you will be able to stop using a weapon and kill things with spell alone. So I would suggest you drop Alchemy for a weapon. The reason I say to drop Alchemy rather then something else, is because of how easy it is to raise that skill. This way you can use a weapon in the early part of the game when you run out of magicka and once you get to about lvl 10 you can stop using weapon and rely just on your spells.
Very good advice, but not very accurate in my case. I started this character yesterday, and I was very happy with it. I managed to kill any annoying smugglers or outlaws (as in the people in that little cave just NE of Seyda Neen, or Fjol at the end of the bridge near Hla Oad) very easily, and much more easily than if I had used a weapon

Odd, huh?
But then after about 3 hours of the game, I accidently
DELETED the save game.

ARGH! But, I think that I should replace Athletics with Shortblade, or Longblade, and only use that bound weapon spell, instead of normal weapons, which is still part of my original plan....
I would suggest a Dunmer, not Altmer.. The powers that the Dunmer gets will help you against physical attacks, plus fire damage is very common when going up against mages.
This is what made me not regret losing my save game, I decided to use a Dunmer instead of Altmer because I love the thought of being dark and errie etc. but then agin, I LOVED the major Magicka boost, with an Altmer (also, I think the Altmer are very attractive) I would start with 270 Magicka, but with a Dunmer I would start with 150+-.
Very hard descion...
10) Make a Drain Intelligence 100 points for 1 second on self spell and cast it when you're out of magicka.
Of I choose a Dunmer, or Altmer for that matter, I think I will most definitly use this trick, but this would take a certain amount of Magicka which I might not have at that moment, but maybe I could enchant something with this trick?
thats gonna be really hard. I have a problem with just beating the game. and you are gonna go total mage. whoo
I was trying to make the game harder for me, which I want to do since I have done it so many times that has become too easy for me.
Restoring your magicka to full through Imperial or Telvanni shrines is another way,
Odd, but I never noticed this.
Thank you all for your comments and I will take them all into consideration for my character, I will start my character either after or on X-mas day unless someone comes up with another superb idea.
Thanx!
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:39 am
by Ares2382
[QUOTE=moltovir]Quick Ways to restore Magicka:
1) Make restore magicka potions
2) Buy them
3) Gather them from the supply chests. 5 guilds * 10 potions = 50 potions every 14 days.
4) You don't have to be near a shrine to use the shrine trick. Cast a mark, use Divine Intervention ("you might not always have Almsivi or Divine Intervention spells available" : just buy the spell, you'll have it always available), pick the "Restore Attributes" blessing and recal. If you're on pc, the excellent mod "MultiMark" might help, it lets you mark, and recall to, 12 different places of your choice.
5) Same as 4, but with Almsivi Intervention.
6) Find and attack a scrib. You will absorb its Paralyze spell.
7) Summon an Ancestral Ghost and absorb his spells.
8) Trick 7 but with any other spellcasting enemy.
9) Get the Mace of Molag Bal and kill rats and scribs.
10) Make a Drain Intelligence 100 points for 1 second on self spell and cast it when you're out of magicka.
11) Cheat[/QUOTE]
1) Can't do this in early on, but later this is good.
2) Again early on you can't buy good ones cause you got no money, unless you cheat to get money, or you happen to get jumped and kill one of those stupid assassins and sell their armor.
3) That's fine if you join the Mages Guild, but who wants to be assossiated with those guys? House Telvanni all the way(Yes I know you can join both, but that's unethical

)
4) Sure except you don't always have enough money to do a mark spell. But you can enchant something to cast that. It's just not fun early on you'll run out of mana fairly quickly if you go adventuring in the wild and you will do this too much. It gets annoying.
5) See 4
6) Sure, but do you really wanna go scrib hunting?
7) Again doing this too much gets annoying, plus his spells don't restore much
8) Again annoying if done too much
9) He said weapons are a no-no
10) Well you need mana to cast a spell, so if you run out this won't help
11) No comment

Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:41 am
by lifeishell91
The new and (hopefully) improved characteress:
Race: Altmer/Dunmer <-I still haven't decided
Specialization: Magic
Name: Vyvara Araneae
Sign: The Artronach
Main Attributes: Intelligence, Luck<-I am sticking with Intelligence
Custom Class: Golden/Dark Goddess<-Depends on the Race
Major Skills
Alteration
Destruction
Illusion
Conjuration
Unarmored
Minor Skills
Alchemy<-I am keeping this in order to create powerful Restore Magicka potions in the future
Longblade<-I decided Longblade
Mysticim
Enchant
Restoration
Ok, Ares2382 said that I should drop Alchemy while jopperm2 said I should use it. I decided that I would use it because it will be the only manual resource of magicka once I have hundreds of Magicka, since all the others only restore a little part. Also, it will be my resource for spells that take alot of my Magicka, like, Levitation.
I decided to use Longblade because, well, it seems cooler

And I decided that since most of my skills are actually supportd by Willpower, I should rather have Int. since it will be harder to raise that attribute, like Luck.
jopperm2, I noticed that you decided to switch Enchant with Destruction, but I ignored that since, I
LOVE Destruction, and also I will be needing it more than Enchant at first.
9) Get the Mace of Molag Bal and kill rats and scribs.
I thought this was a very good idea for restoring my Magicka, but I realised that I am
NOT using weapons, thanx anyway moltovir.
I still haven't decided between Altmer or Dunmer, since I realised once my Int is maxed out, the Altmer will have 600-+ Magicka whereas the Dunmer would have 300-+, which is a very big difference, does anyone have anymore reasons for which one I should choose?
Any new comments?
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:36 am
by Wrath-Of-Egg
Altmers are annoying... Dunmer's aren't so annoying...
Dunmers fit lot better in Morrowind.. For reason or another...
Less mana.. so it will be harder... wasn't that thing wich you sought?
Female Dunmers dont sound like your granny...
Still drop longsword for shortblade... yes you will find good longswords.. but best weapon is dagger.. but you will get that from morag tong.. this thing is based on math... other people have done it.. one blow from that weapon can deal about 750 damage.. has been while since i saw post wich had this thing... i could be wrong..
If i remember right bound dagger is easier to cast than bound longsword.. +you will get bound dagger at beginning of the game..
Dunmers have good shortblade skill bonus..
Yes Altmers are chalenging.. but who want's to take extra damage from spells..
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:37 am
by jopperm2
On the Dun/Altmer issue..
If you decide to take Dunmer you will be resistant to fire and have a power that makes you very hard to hit with a weapon. Very good at first. The ancestor guargian will be very useful for you since you have Atronach because once you get some more magic resistance you will basically be forcing enemies to engage you.
If you choose Altmer you will have a lot more magicka so you can cast more and bigger spells.. I once had a high level altmer/apprentice sign that casted a spell I called Battle Ready. It was a combination full suit of conjured armor, plus stat buffs, and resistances. e could easily take out any non-spellcaster, but was very vulnerable to Magicka. I eventually got a CE resist magicka amulet that helped with that though.
My opinion is that Dunmer is a better pick.. Also, since you are on XBox and you metioned you like the ALtmer's appearance keep this in mind, you have more faces to choose from if you take Dunmer.
PS> Your Long Blade will not be that bad anyway if you take Dunmer and a bound one has a plus to it anyway IIRC, so you may want to use that slot for something else.. Speachcraft or Mercantile perhaps. I would also leave Enchant major and destruction minor becasue like you said, you will use destructoin a lot and it is very easy to level up just like a weapon skill. Enchant is hard to level up and you can't do much with it at low levels.
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 12:22 pm
by dragon wench
If you want to be a mage character entirely reliant on spells... I would go for the Altmer. Restoring magicka with the Atronach, as Moltovir noted is no problem. And, not far into the game you can find, buy, make amulets of Divine Intervention, Mark/Recall, which means you don't have to use magicka to restore your supply (also handy if you are totally out of magicka and have no potions).
As far as being vulnerable to magicka, this can be quite easily overcome if you decide to make things a little easier. For one, the Atronach, will go a long way to protecting you.
Also... highlight below..
You can get your mitts on:
the Robe of Drake's Pride which provides CE: Fortify Intelligence 10 points, Resist Fire 25%, Reflect 25%,
the Mentor's Ring which gives 10 points to intelligence and willpower (increased willpower provides greater resistance to magic),
The Necromancer's Amulet which gives you: resist normal weapons 25%, fortify intelligence 25 points, restore health 1 point, spell absorption 25 points,
Cuirass of the Saviour's Hide which provides 60% resistance to magicka.
Of course, some of these items may be difficult to acquire early in the game.. ...
I have a Dunmer character at level 50 who is mostly a stealth/magic user type, and she is lots of fun. I also have a secondary character, an Altmer born under the Atronach... and I really enjoy playing her, IMO that is a great choice when you want something a bit more challenging.
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 3:14 pm
by lifeishell91
Altmers are annoying... Dunmer's aren't so annoying...
Dunmers fit lot better in Morrowind.. For reason or another...
Female Dunmers dont sound like your granny...
How are Altmer annoying?
I do agree, Dunmer do fit better in Vvardenfall/Morrowind...
No, I don't think Female Altmers sound like my grandmother...
Still drop longsword for shortblade... yes you will find good longswords.. but best weapon is dagger.. but you will get that from morag tong.. this thing is based on math... other people have done it.. one blow from that weapon can deal about 750 damage.. has been while since i saw post wich had this thing... i could be wrong..
Ummm, I am trying to
NOT, as in,
NOT GOING TO use weapons so it is irrelevant whether or not the dagger deals 750 damage, but thanx for pointing that out annyway.
If i remember right bound dagger is easier to cast than bound longsword.. +you will get bound dagger at beginning of the game..
Dunmers have good shortblade skill bonus..
True, true....very good points...
Less mana.. so it will be harder... wasn't that thing wich you sought?
Yes Altmers are chalenging.. but who want's to take extra damage from spells..
These two issues you pointed out contradict each other...so...what?
Thanx for the info Wrath-Of-Egg!

Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 3:26 pm
by lifeishell91
On the Dun/Altmer issue..
If you decide to take Dunmer you will be resistant to fire and have a power that makes you very hard to hit with a weapon. Very good at first. The ancestor guargian will be very useful for you since you have Atronach because once you get some more magic resistance you will basically be forcing enemies to engage you.
If you choose Altmer you will have a lot more magicka so you can cast more and bigger spells.. I once had a high level altmer/apprentice sign that casted a spell I called Battle Ready. It was a combination full suit of conjured armor, plus stat buffs, and resistances. He could easily take out any non-spellcaster, but was very vulnerable to Magicka. I eventually got a CE resist magicka amulet that helped with that though.
VERY good points, I think that the most important point her for each race is that the Dunmer are not so vulnerable to magic or fighters, and for the Altmer, they hae a huge supply of magic which will most definitly help with any engagement in battle, so I think I have decided on Altmer, I think that once I am at lvl. 50 with this character, I will not regret having chossing Altmer, because the characters Magicka is the only way she is going to survive at all.
My opinion is that Dunmer is a better pick.. Also, since you are on XBox and you metioned you like the ALtmer's appearance keep this in mind, you have more faces to choose from if you take Dunmer.
True, but it doesn't mean there are some nice appearences, anyway, I hqve already chosen what face and hair I will have for the character and I am very pleased with that descion.
PS> Your Long Blade will not be that bad anyway if you take Dunmer and a bound one has a plus to it anyway IIRC, so you may want to use that slot for something else.. Speachcraft or Mercantile perhaps. I would also leave Enchant major and destruction minor becasue like you said, you will use destructoin a lot and it is very easy to level up just like a weapon skill. Enchant is hard to level up and you can't do much with it at low levels.
Since I am such a silly and *twisted* girl, I have decided not to use weapoons,
AT ALL so no bound spells, because it would still be using a weapon, just conjured by magic...
Thank you too for the info jopperm2!