BytorTheBeserker
Member
I have done every single quest in Skyrim, but I have never had a single character past level 40. I want the glory, experience, and satisfaction that comes with a long term character. I have owned the game for over a year, and spent several days of my life playing it. Yet here I sit a year later and I might as well have just started today for all I have to show for it.
If this is something you have experienced, you are far from alone. If you follow this guide, I PROMISE you will beat this desire to re-roll.
Step 1: Accept that you will never create the "perfect" character.
Since we are stuck with our character for a long time, we want them to be perfect, and we can fall into the illusion that if we play the game over and over we will eventually discover and create this perfect character, and furthermore we will also discover the perfect order to play through the quest lines.
In Super Mario Brothers, you play as Mario. Mario on the surface is not the most attractive hero, he is a plumber, non-athletic, and a bit goofy. However, in that game he is the only option, thus you accept Mario and grow to like him (I know about Luigi, but work with me on this).
In Skyrim we are given nearly unlimited options from which to create our hero. The more options we are given, the less likely we are to be satisfied with our choice. No matter what we create their was probably another option that we would've thought looked better or played better.
So the first lesson is to understand that the heart of this addiction is this hopeless quest for perfection. Abandon this doomed quest NOW. When we create a long term character, we create a long-term relationship. Relationships are about accepting someone in spite of their imperfections. The running idea in this guide is to narrow down Skyrim's massive choices into a more manageable smaller SET of choices.
Step 2: Statistical Perfection is not the goal either.
Achieving statistical perfection IS POSSIBLE. If you want a character that just destroys absolutely everything in its path. These are the steps:
-Maximize the crafting skills (Alchemy, Enchanting, and Smithing).
-Create potions that fortify Enchanting and Smithing
-Drink and stack the Fortify Smithing potions until your creating weapons and armor with insane stats
-Repeat for insane enchantments.
However, if statistical perfection was the goal we would simply manipulate this trick and call it a day. The fact is that most of us are looking for a rewarding challenge. We don't want to be overpowered. What we want is a decent challenge and a fighting chance. Being overpowered is boring, and being underpowered just sucks. If you understand how the above trick works, you can avoid abusing the synergy of these skills to create a massively overpowered character.
Step 3: Choose an Archetype.
An archetype in this case means choosing between a character that is: Mage, Thief, or Warrior. Understand that we are not going to fill all of the perk trees. We are just choosing our character's bread and butter. The game-play question is "What do I like to do the most?" The role-play question might be "What did my character do before he came to Skyrim?"
Step 4: Choose a Core.
The core to me is basically 2 or 3 perk trees that will compose our character's primary offense and defense. We focus heavily on these trees because they ensure us that we always have a decent offense and defense, they keep us viable.
Warrior Cores:
Nimble Warrior: One Handed, Blocking, Light Armor
Tanking Warrior: Two-Handed, Heavy Armor
Thief Cores:
Assassin: Archery, One Handed, Sneak
Mystic Archer: Archery, Illusion
Sniper: Archery, Sneak
Mage Cores:
Direct: Destruction, Restoration
Indirect: Conjuration, Illusion
You might come up with another core, these are just examples off the top of my head. The questions here are: "How do I do damage?" and "How do I avoid damage?"
Choosing the core gives you a role-playing direction and gameplay viability, but because it only uses a couple of perk trees, you will have plenty of time to decide how to round yourself out. It may or may not also serve to aid you in:
Step 5: Selecting your race.
-Make a list of all the playable races.
-Cross off any of the races you certainty will not play as.
-Look at the presets for every race
-Cross off any races that you find unattractive
-Read some lore
-Decide whether to play standard (Orc Warrior) or oddball (Altmer-Warrior)
-Decide on Male or Female
-If your still not their decided yet, flip a coin for gender and play as an Imperial. You probably just need more play time. The added coinage will allow you to afford trying different styles. Take notes on what you like, and notes on how NPCs act.
Step 6: Building a Face and getting the weight slider just right.
-Setting all textures to the left and all the features to the middle results in a pleasing face for all races
-The middle weight is always safe
-Beast Races are easier to be happy with as you do not have to deal with subjective human beauty
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So now I get to talk about Bytor the Berserker. He is an Orc. I picked the race because I am very visually obsessed, but not good at face gen. With an Orc it's easy because you just give him big fangs, red eyes, and a big beard with facepaint. Between the beard and face paint I didn't have to creat a perfect face because much of it is hidden. The weight slider is all the way to the right because I chose to make him a very traditional Orc. I build him off the Tank core from above. I didn't even have to achieve Mastery in those two perk trees to be a destructive force. I have a bunch of perks stocked away that I can still put wherever I want. His roleplay is also very easy, I can justify any whim I have with "because he is an Orc, and he wanted to." That's a good enough reason for Bytor.
If this is something you have experienced, you are far from alone. If you follow this guide, I PROMISE you will beat this desire to re-roll.
Step 1: Accept that you will never create the "perfect" character.
Since we are stuck with our character for a long time, we want them to be perfect, and we can fall into the illusion that if we play the game over and over we will eventually discover and create this perfect character, and furthermore we will also discover the perfect order to play through the quest lines.
In Super Mario Brothers, you play as Mario. Mario on the surface is not the most attractive hero, he is a plumber, non-athletic, and a bit goofy. However, in that game he is the only option, thus you accept Mario and grow to like him (I know about Luigi, but work with me on this).
In Skyrim we are given nearly unlimited options from which to create our hero. The more options we are given, the less likely we are to be satisfied with our choice. No matter what we create their was probably another option that we would've thought looked better or played better.
So the first lesson is to understand that the heart of this addiction is this hopeless quest for perfection. Abandon this doomed quest NOW. When we create a long term character, we create a long-term relationship. Relationships are about accepting someone in spite of their imperfections. The running idea in this guide is to narrow down Skyrim's massive choices into a more manageable smaller SET of choices.
Step 2: Statistical Perfection is not the goal either.
Achieving statistical perfection IS POSSIBLE. If you want a character that just destroys absolutely everything in its path. These are the steps:
-Maximize the crafting skills (Alchemy, Enchanting, and Smithing).
-Create potions that fortify Enchanting and Smithing
-Drink and stack the Fortify Smithing potions until your creating weapons and armor with insane stats
-Repeat for insane enchantments.
However, if statistical perfection was the goal we would simply manipulate this trick and call it a day. The fact is that most of us are looking for a rewarding challenge. We don't want to be overpowered. What we want is a decent challenge and a fighting chance. Being overpowered is boring, and being underpowered just sucks. If you understand how the above trick works, you can avoid abusing the synergy of these skills to create a massively overpowered character.
Step 3: Choose an Archetype.
An archetype in this case means choosing between a character that is: Mage, Thief, or Warrior. Understand that we are not going to fill all of the perk trees. We are just choosing our character's bread and butter. The game-play question is "What do I like to do the most?" The role-play question might be "What did my character do before he came to Skyrim?"
Step 4: Choose a Core.
The core to me is basically 2 or 3 perk trees that will compose our character's primary offense and defense. We focus heavily on these trees because they ensure us that we always have a decent offense and defense, they keep us viable.
Warrior Cores:
Nimble Warrior: One Handed, Blocking, Light Armor
Tanking Warrior: Two-Handed, Heavy Armor
Thief Cores:
Assassin: Archery, One Handed, Sneak
Mystic Archer: Archery, Illusion
Sniper: Archery, Sneak
Mage Cores:
Direct: Destruction, Restoration
Indirect: Conjuration, Illusion
You might come up with another core, these are just examples off the top of my head. The questions here are: "How do I do damage?" and "How do I avoid damage?"
Choosing the core gives you a role-playing direction and gameplay viability, but because it only uses a couple of perk trees, you will have plenty of time to decide how to round yourself out. It may or may not also serve to aid you in:
Step 5: Selecting your race.
-Make a list of all the playable races.
-Cross off any of the races you certainty will not play as.
-Look at the presets for every race
-Cross off any races that you find unattractive
-Read some lore
-Decide whether to play standard (Orc Warrior) or oddball (Altmer-Warrior)
-Decide on Male or Female
-If your still not their decided yet, flip a coin for gender and play as an Imperial. You probably just need more play time. The added coinage will allow you to afford trying different styles. Take notes on what you like, and notes on how NPCs act.
Step 6: Building a Face and getting the weight slider just right.
-Setting all textures to the left and all the features to the middle results in a pleasing face for all races
-The middle weight is always safe
-Beast Races are easier to be happy with as you do not have to deal with subjective human beauty
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So now I get to talk about Bytor the Berserker. He is an Orc. I picked the race because I am very visually obsessed, but not good at face gen. With an Orc it's easy because you just give him big fangs, red eyes, and a big beard with facepaint. Between the beard and face paint I didn't have to creat a perfect face because much of it is hidden. The weight slider is all the way to the right because I chose to make him a very traditional Orc. I build him off the Tank core from above. I didn't even have to achieve Mastery in those two perk trees to be a destructive force. I have a bunch of perks stocked away that I can still put wherever I want. His roleplay is also very easy, I can justify any whim I have with "because he is an Orc, and he wanted to." That's a good enough reason for Bytor.
