Is my character screwed up?

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Mesmus

Member
I recently started playing and at first i was interested in only doing melee combat but that got boring and now i have started leveling up archery and magic as well and putting points into health stamina and magicka and put perks in seperate trees.

I wanna be able to use melee magic and archery in combat but i think i might have screwed up my character for not focusing on one?
 

AS88

Well-Known Member
Staff member
First off, welcome :)

If this is your first character, don't worry about it. Have fun getting used to the synergy between skills and roaming around, then start thinking more about your character's identity. One of the biggest mistakes people make with Skyrim is not giving everything a chance, and sticking rigidly to one style of gameplay or another. Try a bit of everything, specialise next time.
 

Mesmus

Member
To be honest i really cant be bothered starting all over again with another character unless i can start it off with boosts or something...

So to be effective i have to specialize in one thing?
 

Lucid

Well-Known Member
So to be effective i have to specialize in one thing?

You would want to specialize in 1-3 skills to be most effective in them as a low level character. That doesn't mean that you will be ineffective with a more scattered approach, it will just take longer to get really good at any of them. There's nothing wrong with a "jack of all trades" for your first character. Again, it's not the most effective, but it's still fun and will help you learn your favored play-style and skillset.
 

AS88

Well-Known Member
Staff member
You don't have to, but if your character has perks in more than five or six skills, you'll probably find that as you level up more, you'll become weaker and not really very good at anything in particular. This depends on the difficulty you plan on as well - you'll notice it a lot more on expert or higher than you would on the lower levels.

In terms of boosts, certain races start off with higher skills in certain categories, but these can be quickly negated by just levelling them naturally.
 

Mesmus

Member
But if i am being like a jack of all trades kinda guy wouldnt that make me more versatile also? What if a monster is immune to magic but deadly up close, i will have some archery experience to take him out or something.

And do people really start new characters all the way from the dragon attack in helgen? If you already have a character do you get boosts or something?
 

Tyer032392

Active Member
But if i am being like a jack of all trades kinda guy wouldnt that make me more versatile also? What if a monster is immune to magic but deadly up close, i will have some archery experience to take him out or something.

There is a lot you have to take into consideration, mainly with health, magic, and stamina. When you level up, you can level these up, but if you go for 1/1/1 than you will be outdone very easily past level 15 when the enemies start getting tough. Dragons in particular are very powerful opponents early off, and by investing in something that will put you at a disadvantage, than you will quickly tire and bore of your first character. It is better to specialize in one type of character like an archer, warriors, or mage.

Archers are perfect for taking units out at range, and arguably the most fun of the types, and also is helpful for assassins as well. They specialize in sneak, archery, light armor, and enchanting for the best results.

Warriors can consist of two variants, either the two handed or one handed. The two handed warrior specializes in two handed, heavy armor, and enchanting to get the most out of his build. The one handed warriors combines good armor with good blocking to be a near unstopable tank that can also deal out good damage. Both classes also specialize in the heavy armor perk tree to have the best heavy armor available.

Mages are perhaps the most versatile of the groups. You can be a warrior mage specializing in destruction magic to overwhelm your opponents, or you can be a conjurer to conjure mystical beings to do the battle for you. Than you can be the master wizard type that specializes in all the magic trees to have the most robust of the builds.

Normally, a robust character might be good early on, but after ten or so levels, you will learn that it was actually a mistake. Also, all enemies are weak to magic, just some more than others.

And do people really start new characters all the way from the dragon attack in helgen? If you already have a character do you get boosts or something?

Yes, people do this all the time, me included, after a while, it isn't all that bad. You do not keep all the boosts and have to regain them all over again.
 

JoeReese

Well-Known Member
I'm at #9 I think, maybe 10. :D

What you have going for you is that, even if you tried to put all your perks into one particular skill, say one-handed, you will most likely not be able to fit every perk in because your skill won't be leveled enough to accept it yet. This helps "force" you to spread your perks around. I have found that I naturally tend to do one or two handed, light or heavy armor, and archery, in order to keep them roughly even. If I have perks that none of those trees are able to accept yet, then I drop them into alchemy and enchanting, or sometimes conjuration, destruction, etc., depending on what my style is.
 

Mesmus

Member
Thanks for the help so far and got a few more questions...

The most points i have spent into are the enchanting tree. I only have about 2 in archery 2 in two handed and about 3 in destruction. At this point is my character too late to pursue one way of the combat trees? I was thinking of continuing as either archer or magic.
 

BG5150

Member
I always try to play a hybrid character first time through a game. It lets you use many facets of the game play.
 

wrighty

Thalmor 3rd Emissary
Thanks for the help so far and got a few more questions...

The most points i have spent into are the enchanting tree. I only have about 2 in archery 2 in two handed and about 3 in destruction. At this point is my character too late to pursue one way of the combat trees? I was thinking of continuing as either archer or magic.
Not at all and if you buy the dragonborn dlc which is cheap now and well worth the full price you can actually re-do all of your perks at a certain point.
 

Satorus

Member
Welcome to the forums, and welcome to Skyrim.

Starting a new character isnt as bad as you think. Like others on here I have half a dozen myself. Some of my characters dont even follow the Dragonborn questline. I literally escape from Helgen and never go to Riverwood.

As far as "boosts" go, there is one you can do to get a head start though I dont recommend it. As you are escaping Helgen you can choose to go with the Imperial guy or you can go with the Blonde Nord. If you go with the Blonde guy there is a part where you kill some imperials and loot a key. The blonde guy will sit at the door and keep telling you to open it. Go into sneak mode and keep hitting him with a weapon. He will never die or ever attack you back. You can get your sneak skill to 100 this way and gain a bunch of levels.

The downside to this is that the enemies you face will also be that much harder.

Also, if you are playing on the PC version of the game there are all sorts of commands you can enter to change things. Im playing on a PS3 myself so we do not get any mods or commands.

Happy hunting and dont be afraid to try a new character. It really makes it seem like a whole new game.
 

WarriorMage

Hey! Someone stole my sweet roll!
And do people really start new characters all the way from the dragon attack in helgen? If you already have a character do you get boosts or something?

I have two that I've started from the beginning. One is a good Nord (never steals or pickpockets, won't join the Thieves Guild, or Dark Brotherhood) and the other (Breton) is bad and is a werewolf. It allows me to explore all the facets of the game while keeping true to my characters' personalities. To make things more interesting, my "bad girl" ONLY uses magic. And to keep from getting bored I play them on alternate sessions.

At first I was just going to make a separate save of the Nord (kind of an evil twin thing) but it's been kind of fun developing the Breton. Later I may even give "dead is dead" a shot.

And welcome to the boards. Have fun.
 

ColleenG

When in doubt, follow the fox.
It always seems to me there's just not enough perk points to go around and I have to make choices I just don't want to make. But, you've just started so you're still good.

I like bringing my smithing up to 100, smithing dragonbone armor and weapons, then going legendary with it and applying those perk points to somewhere else. Using skills even without perks makes those skills better--for example, sneak around a lot, and your sneak skill will get up to 75 or 80. When you go legendary in smithing (or whatever) you can fill the sneak perk tree and suddenly your game changes dramatically.

Mostly, you just play around trying different styles. And, with Dragonborn, you can rearrange your perks indefinitely if you want to change things up.
 

The Wanderer

Young Heritic
I don't think I ever have used a character who only stuck to one fighting style. A melee fighter can be devastating, but a fighter who uses multiple styles... That's a game changer for sure.
 

LotusEater

I brake for blue butterflies
Personally, I don't see 'archer' as a class of it's own. The way I see it, the three core-type builds are Warrior, Mage and Thief. All three could and should use archery to one degree or another. It's friggin' Skyrim and there are dragons... grab a bow no matter what style you play, be it a hunting bow, a daedric bow or a bound bow.

If you've invested heavily into archery and enchanting already, then you are good. Those are both skills that would benefit any build.

Playing Fallout lately... no bows. :sadface:
 

LotusEater

I brake for blue butterflies
And as far as the Health/Stamina/Magicka thing, don't sweat that either. You are gonna want to spread them out a little anyway. Having low Stamina sucks. Having low health keeps you in one-hit kill range, not good. Low Magicka isn't a huge deal with Cost Reduction enchantments.

So I would just call whatever you have now good and start dumping into whatever you want from here on out. Even then it isn't a big deal since you are already pursuing enchanting. Everything can be fortified, even if it's just until you hit that magic number, whatever that may be.
 

Mesmus

Member
I do have the legendary skyrim pack i think thats 3 DLCs?

Anyway, i did feel the need to cheat abit. Simply because there is no fun (well for me anyway) in having such a restricted carry space. Went into console and made that infinite.

And well, im thinking i will just stick to this character so i can explore the storyline of the game and perhaps make one for fiddling around.

But how much fun would be taken out of the game if i used console commands to cheat? I started with one but i im getting the itch to use more.
 

LotusEater

I brake for blue butterflies
I do have the legendary skyrim pack i think thats 3 DLCs?

Anyway, i did feel the need to cheat abit. Simply because there is no fun (well for me anyway) in having such a restricted carry space. Went into console and made that infinite.

And well, im thinking i will just stick to this character so i can explore the storyline of the game and perhaps make one for fiddling around.

But how much fun would be taken out of the game if i used console commands to cheat? I started with one but i im getting the itch to use more.



With infinite carry space you are asking for infinite freeze-ups. Just saying.
 
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