Elder Scrolls V in the works - direct sequel to Oblivion

[Krauter]

Has anyone become either a vampire or werewolf? Which do you prefer?

[kiwi_2005]

Was a werewolf, hardly use him as I would forget I had that ability and just swing the axe instead I got rid of the curse at the end of the companions quests. Never been a vampire don't think I would want to either vampire is not a good look for a Nord warrior we fight with weapons not with our teeth!

[Krauter]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

Was a werewolf, hardly use him as I would forget I had that ability and just swing the axe instead I got rid of the curse at the end of the companions quests. Never been a vampire don't think I would want to either vampire is not a good look for a Nord warrior we fight with weapons not with our teeth!

Aye, currently a werewolf also, but I think I'm going to cure myself of it as I just don't use it that often. Character is more of a sneak based attacker so I think the vampire perks would work quite nicely.

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by Krauter

Aye, currently a werewolf also, but I think I'm going to cure myself of it as I just don't use it that often. Character is more of a sneak based attacker so I think the vampire perks would work quite nicely.

Have been both. The werewolf is great due to the fact that there is no need to maintain yourself. You are not subject to forced transformations as you were in Bloodmoon, and you are a big furry ball of death in your beast mode. The only real drawbacks are the fact that you no longer get to use the Well Rested and Lover's Comfort mini-perks, and that you are vulnerable to silver and daedric weapons in beast mode. Frankly, it is a small price to pay.

Being a vampire is more complicated. You will need to feed in order to manage your vampirism. You grow stronger the longer you don't feed, but if you progress to stage 4 vampirism virtually all NPCs will attack you on sight, making it impossible to complete quests. Sunlight will not drain your health, but you will suffer some hefty penalties to your magicka, health and stamina reserves. None of them will regenerate in sunlight either, making it very difficult to travel during the day. You will have a 25% weakness to fire, making it difficult to fight most dragons at night, and rendering dragon combat during the day as paramount to suicide. On the plus side, you get a 25% bonus to sneak, illusion spell effectiveness and frost resistance.

Overall, playing as the werewolf is easier. You can use it or ignore it as you see fit. If you are a sneaky character, playing as a vampire will work well for you if you are prepared to do some management and plan your battles out to compensate for your weaknesses. As a notorious micro-manager in games and a guy who thinks that War in the Pacific is fun, I actually prefer playing as a vampire. It adds another layer of complexity to the game that I find enjoyable.

[Krauter]

Thanks Takeda! I found playing as a werewolf a little to easy and not in the spirit of my character so I dropped that. That and I played as a vampire in ESIV and didn't find it too bad. We'll see how it goes. From what it seems vampirism is easier to cure and can be contracted more then once.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

Came across an interesting quest, they could be anywhere right no arrow pointing to where each one is so this is a dungeon crawl. Oh goodie.

<"unusual gems" quest pic>

I don't think I've found any of these in a dungeon yet. All the ones I have seen were on display in the inhabited dwellings of various notable NPCs, I think most of the time you only have access to them if you have completed a particular quest or are in the process of carrying one out which is what gives you access to the different locations.

At least one of them comes as part of the purchased decorations for a property you can buy in one of the holds. Some of them are in the possession of people you may or may not become friendly with, and becoming friendly with them is what gives you access. Or I guess you could steal them if you know where they are, but I haven't played that type of character.

I don't know why I picked up one of them again, I knew from my last character that I had to start the Thieves Guild thing just to get on ID on it and I didn't really want to do that this time around. And as the mouse is hovering over it my brain is saying "don't take it don't take it don't take it" but my finger had a mind of its own, I guess. Now with one stuck in my inventory anyway I just pick them up when I find them, altho I don't think I will be able to collect them all since I'm pretty sure I may never have access to all of them given the different requirements involved.

As of this weekend I've completed my goal to become Thane of every hold except Eastmarch, I will take care of that in the course of playing out the Civil War questline when I get to it. I wasn't going to do it but one of the benefits of getting myself sorted with Enchanting and Smithing was that I made so much money selling off all the stuff I crafted that I had a serious excess of coin, lol. Plenty enough to buy the house in Solitude and get it fully decorated and after that it was like well pfffffffffffft I might as well start making a habit of this. It *is* nice to have different places to unload loot instead of having to drop it or find someone to buy it or else hoof it all the way back to Whiterun. And there are some halfway decent mods out there that buff out the properties, adding storage and crafting stations which makes it really nice.

Sadly the housecarls all seem to have the same basic attitude. I haven't had any of them except Lydia as a follower so I don't know if the others are any better on adventures but at home it's just the same old same old in a (sometimes) different voice. I shall have to decide which two of them are annoying enough to join Lydia as Blade recruits later on. Probably the ones from houses where I can't avoid them, the ones in the larger homes with multiple stories and entrances are probably safe.

Oh and I got Thu'umed twice! In two different dungeon quests, by the boss draugr at the end of each. Those leveled bosses are getting pretty nasty. It is very disconcerting to go through an entire dungeon taking out draugr after pathetic low-level draugr with one flaming arrow each, most of them sneak attacks and sometimes on draugr who haven't even gotten up to fight you yet - and then have the main guy at the end not want to die so easily.

Unrelenting Force both times and I got a nice little cinema clip of myself being tossed back on my butt. Joke was on the draugr, though, because when they Thu'umed me it was in response to me Thu'uming them only my Thu'um was Marked For Death, so neener neener.

[Ducimus]

The biggest perk of being a werewolf, imo is,

a.) Don't have to worry about vampires. For some reason, i hate fighting vampires. Childhood fear i guess, but i see vampires, i shy away. As a werewolf, i tear right into them.

b.) Being a werewolf is alot like having that grey cowl from Oblivion. Anything you do while a werewolf, (assuming nobody see's you wolf out), isn't counted toward your crime/bounty. This is particurally helpful during one quest in ehh maracath i think it is.

c.) No more concerns about brain rot, rockjoint, crotch rot, etc etc

edit:

Oh yeah, i was digging around the ESM file with skyedit. It looks like your SUPPOSED to have night eye as werewolf, (kinda like how a vampire does), but it isn't working for some reason.

[frau kaleun]

Werewolf by default since I've completed the main Companions questline. I've never really used it with this character, except one quest where I was trying to lift a curse that caused another werewolf to lose control and do very bad things and get caught. Had a choice at the end to either hunt down or help the other werewolf. I chose to help him and since he was in beast form I changed too... we took out everyone that had to be dealt with and then suddenly HE attacked ME. I'm not sure what happened unless he reverted to some thing where NPCs are automatically hostile to the beast form when they see it... which was stupid because he was also in beast form at the time. Looked it up and he wasn't supposed to turn hostile as part of the quest, so... Anyhoo I reloaded and stayed in human form and it all turned out okay.

My previous character only turned once, and that was by accident. I went into a mine on the side of a mountain and followed it through to the exit, which turned out to be the top of the mountain and a dragon lair. I hit one of the hot keys meaning to equip a particular shout but hit the next key over by mistake and equipped the Beast Form instead. Hit 'Z' expecting to breathe fire and did the werewolf thing instead. I didn't even remember assigning a hot key to Beast Form. Surprise!

Well what can I say you play the cards you're dealt and as it turned out the Beast made pretty short work of the Dragon.

[Krauter]

Aye I enjoyed just completely crushing my foes with the werewolf form, but I have to say, taking on a bunch of quests, going out into the wilderness til I'm stage 4 and then stealth killing everything in my path is pretty fun too. That and the DB gives me a free source of.. sustenance so I don't find it too hard being a vampire.

[Ducimus]

[Dowly]

Haha, being a werewolf can be pretty cool. Tho, it is a bit overpowered at times,
especially the shout thingy.

I remember one fight with some bandit boss or something, I died constantly in
human form, then switched to werewolf, growled at him and he just whimpered
in the corner waiting for me to go and kill him.

[frau kaleun]

Does anyone know if it's still possible to do the Season Unending bit (negotiate the truce) if you've already played through the Battle of Whiterun as a Stormcloak and Balgruuf has been replaced as Jarl?

Some places say "talk to the Jarl" about capturing a dragon in Dragonsreach which makes it sound like it doesn't matter but some places specify that Balgruuf is the one that precipates the truce quest which means the war would still have to be undecided not only for Skyrim in general but for Whiterun in particular.

I want to qualify for Thane of Eastmarch which I'm sure requires you to have gone past Whiterun in the Civil War questline on the Stormcloak side but I also want to negotiate the truce. I guess I can put off joining the Civil War effort until later.

Also on a side note HOW THE HELL DO YOU GET A *BEAR* IN YOUR HOUSE WHEN YOU LIVE INSIDE A WALLED CITY LIKE SOLITUDE? I mean it's not like someone released a cub into the sewers and then it grew up and climbed out your loo.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Does anyone know if it's still possible to do the Season Unending bit (negotiate the truce) if you've already played through the Battle of Whiterun as a Stormcloak and Balgruuf has been replaced as Jarl?:

According to the associated page on http://www.uesp.net/, it doesn't look like it. From the sounds of things, the best way to get, and get through, the season unending quest is to not started any of the civil war quest lines.





Massive spoiler regarding this quest:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Season_Unending

[Drewcifer]

anyone playing on the beta update? I just downloaded it but I have heard its much better optimized for PC, and that most of the quest bugs and glitches are fixed.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I don't think I've found any of these in a dungeon yet. All the ones I have seen were on display in the inhabited dwellings of various notable NPCs, I think most of the time you only have access to them if you have completed a particular quest or are in the process of carrying one out which is what gives you access to the different locations.

At least one of them comes as part of the purchased decorations for a property you can buy in one of the holds. Some of them are in the possession of people you may or may not become friendly with, and becoming friendly with them is what gives you access. Or I guess you could steal them if you know where they are, but I haven't played that type of character.

I don't know why I picked up one of them again, I knew from my last character that I had to start the Thieves Guild thing just to get on ID on it and I didn't really want to do that this time around. And as the mouse is hovering over it my brain is saying "don't take it don't take it don't take it" but my finger had a mind of its own, I guess. Now with one stuck in my inventory anyway I just pick them up when I find them, altho I don't think I will be able to collect them all since I'm pretty sure I may never have access to all of them given the different requirements involved.

I don't think I found my one in a dungeon either I'm sure I found it in a house early in the game and didn't think much of it, then when I started doing side quests for the Thieves guild I had an option from one of the quest givers if they wanted to buy the stone which she didn't want it and stated they aren't worth much unless I get all of them and told me to go see someone forget now. I hope they aren't in dungeons cause that would mean I will have to backtrack and redo the dungeons I completed just to find the bloody stones I might of missed! Well I did say this game needs more hardcore mode and now im complaining....