Spoiler My Second Playthrough - Pure Mage

[MushroomGenius]

Hey guys, I finished the main questline (along with Civil War, Thieves, College, DB) on my Khajiit Sneak/Assassin-type and found that while fun, it lacked a bit of a challenge (I stopped at level 64 or so). I play on Adept, and yeah, I could have ramped the difficulty up, but I wanted to play the game on the default setting as Bethesda had designed it.

Anyway, I'm typically most drawn to Mage-types. I really wanted to play a Mage character from the outset, but found that because I play on the 360, the lack of hotkeys (more than two anyway) really took away from the gameplay experience. At the time, I found it such a hassle to always have to bring up my favorites menu to switch between spells. I also wanted to play as a true, robe wearing magick user, not one of those ridiculous Daedric Armor wearing behemoths.

So I started this journey over the weekend and I'm really enjoying it, more so than sneaking about and launching arrows at unsuspecting foes. The challenge with 0 armor (aside from Oakflesh, etc) is so much more enjoyable, I'm finding myself having to strategize killing some of the simplest enemies that I once took for granted, like cave bears for instance.

I still get frustrated at the clunkiness of having to pause combat while pulling up my favorites menu to switch spells, it greatly takes away from the excitement of battle, but I guess it makes it easier at the same time. I really wish that Bethesda would include support for the Xbox Text Messaging peripheral, that way I would be able to hotkey more skills or various loadouts.

I did have a couple of questions though:

1) On this playthrough, I avoided talking to Jarl Balgruuf as I'm still debating whether to actually make this Altmer the Dovahkiin. Since I haven't progressed the main story other than making it to Riverwood and then stopping in at Whiterun, will Dragons not spawn at all?

2) Since I refuse to start the main questline, I cannot become Thane of Whiterun, will this prevent me from attaining Thane status in other Holds also? It seems that the only Hold with Thane-status directly attached to the main questline is Whiterun, but I figured I'd ask if anyone else knew for certain.

Edit:

Playing with the following base set of restrictions so far:

-- Fast travel only via carriage
-- No horse
-- Zero armor rating (made a mistake with the Morokei mask though, didn't realize it was "Light")
-- No bows or any type of weapon (aside from conjured/bound)
-- Smithing only for jewelry
-- No stealing (outside of questlines)
-- No Thieves Guild
-- No Dark Brotherhood
-- Use only followers I previously never used in other playthroughs (developed this rule just recently)
-- No "powerleveling" of skills

 

[Hack 'n' Slash Devotee]

Hi MushroomGenius,
I'm on my 3rd playthrough (Khajiit Assassin would ya believe it!?) and haven't started the dragon quests. Level 13 and no dragons so far!

 

[M'aiqaelF]

i just started a mage and I really like it too....sometimes my game freezes for a few seconds when bringing up the favorites menu but other than that it's not that bad since my primary attack is dual fireballs, but my guy is also a conjurer but the atronachs and zombies stick around for a while

 

[BSE]

The favorites menu part of battle doesnt bother me at all with my mage character, mainly because I only have the spells I use often and a couple extras, and if you know what you need before you go into your menu, it only takes a second or two to equip it.

 

[M'aiqaelF]

it's not a bad menu but I think there are better ways they could go about it....like the wheel thingie in Mass Effect

 

[Gemini Sierra]

the menu lag is often due to an autosave for menu opening. check your setting in game

 

[M'aiqaelF]

aha....i'll have to check that out! I may need to delete some of the save files that could be slowing things down

 

[MushroomGenius]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Just to update... I still haven't talk to Jarl Balgruuf though I did finally visit Dragonsreach so I could use the Enchanting Table. Irileth, irritatingly, questions me every time I enter Dragonsreach, but I just cancel her dialogue so I don't tell her about why I'm there. She continues to follow me, sword drawn, but doesn't aggro at all.

I've just finished the College quest lines to acquire the Archmage robes. I'm at around level 26 now, was still using Novice Robes of Destruction, so I'm relieved to finally have better Magicka regen.

I've decided to limit myself a bit, still staying with only Robes, Hood/Circlet, Boots, and Gloves, nothing with an armor rating higher than 0. Since my character is a "pure" Mage, the only items she smiths is jewelry. All ingots/ores other than iron/silver/gold, get sold to the NPC. I picked up a Dragonbone from the skeletal dragon in Labyrinthian, will be selling that also.

The Frost Atronach has been a savior for me. He makes a great tank and definitely helps when strategizing how to tackle particular enemies or groups of them. I've been using Faendal as a follower, he's doing well, but I want to switch him out for someone I haven't used before.

I was hoping that I could maintain a "None" favorite weapon on my stats screen, but I had to equip my Bound Sword to fight/train as part of the Companions questline. I'm hoping that I don't get stuck with Nettlebane in their either on the Gildergreen quest.

Didn't realize that using the Bound Sword increases your 1H skill. I was hoping it would improve Conjuration, but I think just the act of casting the spell in battle increases the Conjuration, but actually swinging and doing damage increases the 1H. I'll have to double check later.

 

[BSE]

Casting a bound weapon increases the Conjuration skill, but it must be cast with enemies present to count. Doing damage with the weapon increases the weapon skill it applies to (Sword - 1H, Battleaxe - 2H, Bow - Archery).

 

[kirak95197]

1) On this playthrough, I avoided talking to Jarl Balgruuf as I'm still debating whether to actually make this Altmer the Dovahkiin. Since I haven't progressed the main story other than making it to Riverwood and then stopping in at Whiterun, will Dragons not spawn at all?

Yes dragons still spawn. I'm not sure if the chance to find one differs but I have fought one (And killed because of Uthgerdt) on my level 8 Khajit Assassin. You probably won't find one near Whiterun because of the quest but I don't know. I fought one near Solitude, on my level 8.

 

[MushroomGenius]

Casting a bound weapon increases the Conjuration skill, but it must be cast with enemies present to count. Doing damage with the weapon increases the weapon skill it applies to (Sword - 1H, Battleaxe - 2H, Bow - Archery).

Yeah, wish I knew that before I took some swings with it. I haven't checked since a couple days ago, but I suspect the Staff of Magnus is probably what's listed as a favorite now.

Yes dragons still spawn. I'm not sure if the chance to find one differs but I have fought one (And killed because of Uthgerdt) on my level 8 Khajit Assassin. You probably won't find one near Whiterun because of the quest but I don't know. I fought one near Solitude, on my level 8.

Weird, I rarely fast travel anymore, and I haven't seen a single dragon aside from the Skeletal one (and Alduin in Helgen of course) I mentioned previously. I've walked from Helgen -> Riverwood -> Whiterun -> Windhelm -> Winterhold, then branched off out of Winterhold to do all of the Mage College quests. No dragons spotted. I have come across a few dragon mounds and they remain in their "dormant" state, with the convex-shaped mound.

You're certain that you haven't completed the "Before the Storm" quest? In Pt 2, you talk to Jarl Balgruuf. I'm doing my best to avoid starting the quest that requires me to meet Irileth at one of the Watchtowers. When you enter DragonsReach, you should still get approached by Irileth telling you that the "Jarl is not expecting visitors".

 

[Gemini Sierra]

In that journey from Whiterun to Windhelm, did you go through the area with the steam vents and hot water springs? the area south of Windhelm? There's a dragon lair in there. Although, looking at the map you might have gone a more direct route, possibly past Shearpoint, which is a dragon lair. Another one that I can remember is almost south of Saarthal(sp?) and up in the mountains near the Shrine of Azura.

So, I'd say you can find dragons, though maybe not so many random encounters.

 

[MushroomGenius]

The dragon mounds that I ran across are just the ones in open areas, not the ones specifically featured on the maps with an icon. Apparently, these mounds go through various stages of evolution, for lack of a better word, from dormant (convex), deserted (concave, no dragon), awakened (concave, dragon resting), and resurrected (Alduin there in the process of resurrecting the dragon buried there - really cool looking it you've encountered that, seen this just once).

All dragon mounds that I've run into have been in the dormant state, like this:

Never went up the mountain to Shearpoint, it wasn't much of a priority sincethe Krosis mask isn't very helpful to my pure Mage. I'm currently using the Morokei mask for it's 100% magicka regen, I failed to notice that it was considered light armor until I saw my light armor skill level up. I'll have to find or enchant a decent circlet or hood to get back on track.

I'm currently working on achieving Thane status in Solitude, using the ArchMage quarters as my "home". I've switched up my follower from Faendal to Stenvar (Nord/Windhelm/2H/Heavy). Stenvar's a more interesting tag-along. Better commentary so far, not to mention he's pretty wicked with a nice 2H.

 

[Necromis]

Ok, to help clarify, if you don't do the whiterun dragon quest you won't see any dragons or be able to fight them. When you go to a dragon location displayed on your map there will be a random enemy there based on your level.

If you want to avoid the main quest and stop her from talking to you at the same time just answer her question, she wil encourage you to talk to the jarl is all. Just don't go talk to him.

 

[MushroomGenius]

Update:

Okay, I've found that I'm at an impasse. I was hoping that I could finish up the Civil War questline without touching the Main Quest. I realize that I'm stuck now.

I progressed the Civil War quest into "Message to Whiterun" which requires me to deliver Ulfric's Axe to Balgruuf. I went ahead and tried, but Balgruuf gives me this dialogue about "Ulfric will have to wait, I have this dragon problem to deal with!" Made me laugh, but took the wind out of my sails.

It was nice that I had the dialogue option to at least try to give him the axe, but I'm stuck now.

I guess I'll go around doing other minor quests for the time being: Wolf Queen, Companions. Also want to get an Orc follower.

 

[Necromis]

Does it let you do the dragon rising quest line instead? At least that way you can advance the main quest past the whiterun Jarl and then get back onto the civil war quest.

 

[MushroomGenius]

Does it let you do the dragon rising quest line instead? At least that way you can advance the main quest past the whiterun Jarl and then get back onto the civil war quest.

Yeah, I'm not "stuck" in that I cannot advance the game as Bethesda intended. I'm just not allowed to advance the game within my own constraints. I wanted to see how far I could get without releasing the Dragons over Skyrim. I wanted to see if it was possible to do everything BUT the Main Quest, it's not.

The idea of an Altmer Dovahkiin is just too ironic.

The Main Quest is still on "Before the Storm".

 

[Necromis]

Ah, but you might be able to. First talk to him and get thru the point that he askes you go to investigate the dragon, but don't actually do it. See if while your quest is under *her* if it lets you give him the axe.

 

[MushroomGenius]

I'll see when I next log in. If I am able to accept "Dragon Rising", and thankfully also get rid of this 25 weight DragonStone that I've been lugging around the last 28 levels, I think I'll have to just avoid the Western Watchtower like the plague.

I'll post an update when I find out. Thanks.

 

[kirak95197]

Yeah, wish I knew that before I took some swings with it. I haven't checked since a couple days ago, but I suspect the Staff of Magnus is probably what's listed as a favorite now.



Weird, I rarely fast travel anymore, and I haven't seen a single dragon aside from the Skeletal one (and Alduin in Helgen of course) I mentioned previously. I've walked from Helgen -> Riverwood -> Whiterun -> Windhelm -> Winterhold, then branched off out of Winterhold to do all of the Mage College quests. No dragons spotted. I have come across a few dragon mounds and they remain in their "dormant" state, with the convex-shaped mound.

You're certain that you haven't completed the "Before the Storm" quest? In Pt 2, you talk to Jarl Balgruuf. I'm doing my best to avoid starting the quest that requires me to meet Irileth at one of the Watchtowers. When you enter DragonsReach, you should still get approached by Irileth telling you that the "Jarl is not expecting visitors".

I'm positive, I haven't even entered Whiterun yet on my Assassin.