Now this is to be taken with a total grain of salt, but in my experience 250 hit points is a hell of a lot for what I assume is essentially a thief build with some destruction magic on the side. My suggestion is to either pour more into your stamina or magicka, depending on which you want. If you want to go with the melee (I assume you are dual-wield--that's what my thieves always are), then you need to kill things fast which means you want a heavy dose of dual-wield power attacks. Your best defense will be a great offense, and a deep stamina pool with the appropriate perks will keep you spinning and swinging all day.

If you want to go more with destruction, then pour it into the magicka, but be advised that unless you get the Silent Casting perk (which, unfortunately requires a 50 in Illusion with the prerequisite perks as well) your magic attacks will be very noisy and will greatly hinder, if not eliminate your ability to sneak up on your enemies. Unlike using bows, which cause your enemy to begin to look for you, casting will immediately give your position away to the enemy. This means larger, more protracted fights with multiple enemies--a no-no for sneaky-type characters.

Well it's not really a thief build per se.. Currently when I fight it's, enter sneak and shoot them with bow. If they survive, go to melee which is sword + destruction spell + dragon shout and sick Lydia on them. If things get hairy then I cast Ethereal Shout and wait for Lydia to revive and then sneak off to a corner to plink them with arrows.

The main reason why I put so much into Health was because while I was doing the first companion quest with Farkas (think that's his name) I was constantly getting stuck in 1 on 5 situations and needed the health to survive.

Okay, so if that is the way you want to go, I would say that your magicka could use some love. 100 points is pretty puny, even for a non-dedicated magic user with perks. Once that magicka goes, you've essentially got a useless hand and have cut your damage potential in half.

So get it up to around 150~200?

With 200 you could shoot all day, unless you want to go to the master level spells, which doesn't sound like it would fit with your playing style. I'd say 150 with good One-Handed skill will serve you well.

Perfect, honestly I'm not too hot on magic since I hear its a little overpowered, but I do enjoy casting summons and healing and all that.

See, that's interesting because I get the "snooty" vibe in Solitude but not really in Windhelm. Is there an anti-Dunmer vibe in Windhelm? In some quarters, yeah, that's obvious... but I don't get the overall feeling there that I'm being looked down on in general by the people I interact with (in high and low places alike).

From what I've read, the race you choose for your character has no bearing on interactions with NPCs, the game is not coded to have them "recognize" you as Nord or Dunmer or Imperial and react differently based on that. So I guess "snooty" is in the eye of the beholder. :haha:

My interactions overall with overt Imperial supporters and overt Stormcloak supporters definitely tip the scales in favor of the Stormcloaks for me. Especially since I spend so much time in Whiterun and the most vocal Imperial supporters there come off like total dicks IMO and the Stormcloak supporters are much friendlier and seem more worthy of my sympathy and respect.

On the subject of recognizing race, I believe it does, since either in the quest to become Thane of Whiterun the Jarl said he was surprised a Dunmer was the Dovakhiin (or maybe it was his wizard :hmmm:)

Anyways, I don't mind most people in Windhelm, just some people (drunken idiot that yells in the gray quarters) I don't like. I also don't like how it. snows. all. (ALL) the. time. in Windhelm. Personally, the city I enjoy the most is Whiterun, seconded by Riften and Markarth. Since Whiterun is predominantly pro-Imperial, yet still neutral I enjoy it. That and theres no freaking snow :)

In Solitude I can't really say if I find them "snooty" since I haven't spent a whole lot of time there, maybe a whole 20 minutes to assassinate a bride and the head of an Imperial security organ. Snooty people don't help their case when they're being assassinated :haha: (yet the bride was pretty nice...)

It's not that they don't recognize you as Nord or Dunmer or whatever, it's just that it doesn't matter with regard to how you are treated by them in a way that makes choosing one race over another an advantage in general interactions. They may comment on your race but it doesn't affect gameplay except in terms of random, inconsequential dialogue. At least that's what I read somewhere. :hmmm:

Oh, in terms of how people treat you overall, Whiterun is the best I've found. I don't really care for Riften and Markarth, mostly because they seem to be controlled by powerful and corrupt individuals and/or factions that must be appeased in order to make substantial progress in either location.

Next time you're in town, pay a visit to Radiant Raiment - it's an apparel shop on the right just after you enter the city gates and pass the execution platform. Talk to the proprietor, Endarie. Yeah she's an Altmer but she could dial it down a notch when what I'm wearing and carrying is worth more than her entire shop, contents included.

I have to say in my previous character I ended up with a lot of high value stuff (for non-armor apparel, anyway) in my inventory that I was looking to sell and I made a special point of going to Solitude, using/activating everything I had that gave me an advantage in bartering and haggling, and taking every last septim she had while still having plenty left over that she couldn't afford to buy. :smug:

Ah that makes sense then. Still, I'm glad to see it NPCs recognize your race and dialogue changes a little bit.


True, Riften I like simply because it's in the Rift and I love hunting there, Markarth because the architectures pretty cool (but it's a pain in the ass to get to, I don't use fast travel all that much).

:rotfl2: I'll make sure to stop by :har: Maybe pay her a visit in the dead of night and take a five finger discount on some of her wares.

And then go back the next day like a normal customer and sell it back to her at a 100% profit. And please let me know if you manage to pull it off so I can enjoy a good long gloat. ;)

In other news, I did manage to reset the Dawnstar quest that got stuck - went back there to pick up a bunch of dragon scales and bones that I couldn't lug home the first time around and when I went to the inn the priest was back there again. But it still showed up in my journal as partially completed, so I just talked to the priest to start the thing over and finished it properly this time around.

Then I headed back toward the spot where I'd left my dragonswag and took a short detour to investigate a seemingly innocuous small ruin... and wouldn't you know it, another dragon shows up. I don't know if he'd been fighting with something else or if my Magigolo just pounded him really good while he was flying over, but it only took one shout to ground him and he landed some yards off facing off to my right with about 1/2 health left on the bar. Charged into his side with a poisoned blade and that was all she wrote.

But then I'm thinking... great, I've got all this loot from the nightmare quest, plus a bunch of dragonswag to pick up, and now MORE valuable but heavy dragonswag on top of that. Then, miracle of miracles - who do you think wanders up to comment on the dragon killing they just witnessed from afar? The roving Khajiit caravan traders. Oh well hello my good sir what do you have for sale and would you like to buy these fine remnants of the carcass you see before you? Why yes I believe you would. :woot:

Will do, also just wondering, which "side" did you pick in regards to the Greybeards and the Blades?

My current character is not that far along yet in the Main Quest - but my previous one had already gotten to the top of the Throat of the World and I don't think I could do Paarthurnax any harm unless something happens to drastically change my opinion of him. He was kind to me and unless he becomes hostile or is proven to be deceitful, the Blades can bite me where he's concerned. I see them as useful in getting information and providing some protection... for now. But I won't kill him for them just because he's a dragon.

It's a shame that both the Blades were marked as essential. I would have slaughtered them both for their ludicrous command.

Yeah, see the thing about me is... I *like*dragons. I mean in RL, it's my Chinese horoscope sign, so I am one, and I've always been drawn to them anyway.

And in the game I feel like the Dovahkiin and the dragons are "kin" somehow, and I imagine that taking in all those dragon souls only intensifies that relationship, so I kind of imagine that eventually he/she will still kill them if necessary in defense of self and others or as a means to that end but maybe sheds a little tear over the necessity of being on hostile terms with such potentially noble creatures. Especially after meeting Paarthurnax.

That was quite something, when I first got to the top of TTTW and saw a dragon I attacked it with a shout immediately because I really didn't realize at first. I mean I suspected the leader of the Greybeards might turn out to be a dragon but I didn't know if that was him, or if he was going to be hostile to me and it would turn out to be a big boss challenge of some kind. So that whole experience, the way it turned out, was just delightful and very moving. No way I'm killing him... I would rather have the support of the Greybeards than the Blades in the long run. What are the Blades gonna do? Help me kill dragons? I'm already doing that without their help, thank you very much.





Edit: I just had a brilliant idea. I'm going to recruit Lydia for the Blades. This may make Delphine and Esbern stop speaking to me earlier than scheduled, but that's a small price to pay for not having her 1) spend most of her time poking around in my bedroom and 2) constantly get up and down from the same chair in my bedroom to greet me and ask me if I need anything when all I did was come in there to drop or pick up gear and change clothes. Seriously... SHUT UP LYDIA.

OTOH, there's this:


http://nooooooooooooooo.com/vader.jpg