Game: Skyrim

[Buffalobiian]

@Kraco: There's a heavy armour perk that affects weapons? I'm assuming you're talking about having good Glass smithing so your glass weapons are improved heaps?

@Ani: It may be because I have not improved any of my armour at a forge at all. Might actually give that a go.. though I've essentially got no smithing abilities. I always assumed that in this game there are always at least two ways around obtaining something:

1) Find it.
2) Make it.
3) Buy it.

I finally found out why my Shadow Warrior attacks don't always get the sneak bonus when I've got allies nearby..

the key to a successful sneak attack actually is if your target is OUT of combat, so even if you are invisible for a brief time you will not back-stab targets that are let's say in combat with a companion or another NPC. It took me some time to figure out but yeah, if you want to be a stealth user, you have to play solo!

[Animeniax]

Yeah you definitely want to smith your armor to improve it. You can improve your smithing by making leather bracers or iron daggers (the two cheapest items to smith). Then get blacksmith potions (elixirs are best) and use them when creating your own equipment and when upgrading them using the smithing bench.

[Ryllharu]

I finally found out why my Shadow Warrior attacks don't always get the sneak bonus when I've got allies nearby..

"the key to a successful sneak attack actually is if your target is OUT of combat, so even if you are invisible for a brief time you will not back-stab targets that are let's say in combat with a companion or another NPC. It took me some time to figure out but yeah, if you want to be a stealth user, you have to play solo!"

That quote is absolutely not true. It's certainly easier to get sneak attacks when you are solo, but as long as they have never spotted you, it's a backstab. You're hidden until they've seen you, not anyone allied with you. Shadow Warrior doesn't set you to [Hidden], they simply lose you for a second, making it easier to hide. Same as if you ran around a corner. It takes the "white" out of the eye, but it is still a discovered state.

I've had Lydia, Aela, Farkas, or Uthgerd the Unbroken be engaged in combat and I've performed a throat-slice execution while the enemy was blocking. More than once.

[Buffalobiian]

That quote is absolutely not true. It's certainly easier to get sneak attacks when you are solo, but as long as they have never spotted you, it's a backstab. You're hidden until they've seen you, not anyone allied with you. Shadow Warrior doesn't set you to [Hidden], they simply lose you for a second, making it easier to hide. Same as if you ran around a corner. It takes the "white" out of the eye, but it is still a discovered state.

I've had Lydia, Aela, Farkas, or Uthgerd the Unbroken be engaged in combat and I've performed a throat-slice execution while the enemy was blocking. More than once.

I'm guessing you've never played Shadow Warrior like I have.



Success ver.

[Kraco]

@Kraco: There's a heavy armour perk that affects weapons? I'm assuming you're talking about having good Glass smithing so your glass weapons are improved heaps?

The Smithing perk tree is divided in two: light and heavy armor. They connect at the dragon armor. I have only the perks following the light armor "route", up to the dragon armor. However, the only weapon materials on the light armor route are elven and glass. Glass is close to ebony but a little weaker, my intuition tells me. You can improve all manner of materials when your smithing is high enough but to get the best out of any particular material, you need the exact perk. And it matters a lot. Armor or weapon improved to the Legendary status compared to the basic status, where the items always are when you buy or loot them, is incomparable. Fully improved steel sword probably beats an unimproved ebony sword...

Anyway, since I don't have the ebony (or daedric) perk, I can only improve those weapons halfway. That's not enough by far to beat fully improved glass.

I finally initiated Boethia's quest. Actually I felt a bit bad about slaying Illia (I wouldn't have been able to sacrifice her at all if the name had been just a bit different, haha). It's not really fair she had to turn against her group and mother to avoid sacrificing innocents, but was instead sacrificed by the person who helped her stop the deranged coven's fell deeds.

[Buffalobiian]

Hmm... looks like I might have to invest in smithing after all.. as much as I would prefer not to. (unless I can actually find merchants to say "smith this for me")

General question before I actually do so - can items be only improved once?

Not in the sense that I can keep multiplying the benefits, but in the sense that I can improve a piece of equipment slightly while I'm at a low level - and then improve the same item again when I'm at a higher level to have it match my current skill.

[Kraco]

General question before I actually do so - can items be only improved once?

Not in the sense that I can keep multiplying the benefits, but in the sense that I can improve a piece of equipment slightly while I'm at a low level - and then improve the same item again when I'm at a higher level to have it match my current skill.

No and yes. You can keep improving them as many times as you'd like, and normally you should improve them whenever you have raised the skill a bunch or especially when you unlock the perk for the particular material. The one and only drawback of improving a single item multiple times and not only once is that every time a unit of the core material for the weapon/armor is being spent. So, in terms of economy it would be better to improve only every now and then and all your gear at once, after drinking a smithing potion and equipping your smithing boosting items. Although on the other hand if you have plenty of the material, you do gain smithing experience with every action. Some of the better materials require you to have considerable smithing skills to be able to be improved, though. So, don't expect to improve your ebony daggers right off the bat...

Like Ani said, iron daggers and leather bracers are your friends for practice. Iron is everywhere and dirt cheap, and leather, of course, keeps wandering all around the wilds in great numbers.

[Animeniax]

To add to what Kraco said, you also need to improve your enchanting skills both so you can create smithing gear (4 pieces with a max 28% improvement to smithing) and when you enchant your final use equipment. You wear those 4 items and quaff an smithing elixir to get the best upgrading for your final use equipment.

I followed the same smithing perk path as Kraco, which sucks since you can't upgrade the heavy armors as much, but I'd hate to spend many more perk points on smithing.

[Buffalobiian]

Okay.. final question I guess..

Drinking 2 blacksmith potions won't stack will it?

[Animeniax]

No, one supersedes the other. I tried . I think max you can improve smithing with eq/potions is 162%. Add in smithing skill bonuses for best effect.

So I just read that once you join the Dark Brotherhood, you can't leave and kill all the remaining members. That sucks.
I imagine it's the same with the thieves guild. I really want to kill them all.

[Buffalobiian]

Hmm, can't kill as in they're immortal? Or just that you can't leave them and activate a Destroy questline?

[Penner]

Not being able to properly quick-swap between an identical pair of upgraded weapons is something i find INCREDIBLY annoying.

Let's say i'm dual-wielding two upgraded "Steel War Axe (Superior)", and i then set them to key 1 in the favourites menu, and lets say Healing on key 2.. now when i equip healing it switches my left axe to healing, which is all well and good, but its when trying to re-equip the two axes it all goes down the crapper, pressing 1 to equip them again fucks shit up and it de-equips healinh but doesn't equip the second axe, instead it actually removes the axe from favourites entirely and i now have only one axe there.

And this shit only happens with Upgraded weapons, if you use the base ones it works flawlessly... god damnit >_>

[Animeniax]

Hmm, can't kill as in they're immortal? Or just that you can't leave them and activate a Destroy questline?

Can't kill as in they are classified by the game as "essential" so you can't kill them because of the possibility of messing up quest lines. Even after you've finished the main quest line involving them, they are still labelled "essential". In the case of the Brotherhood and thieves guild, I guess it's because you have missions through both groups ad infinitum.

@Penner: that's a pretty minor annoyance considering some of the bugs this game has.

[Archangel]

Is there something in this game about a guy that gets a arrow to the knee? I keep seeing that shit popping up all around the internet.

[Kraco]

Is there something in this game about a guy that gets a arrow to the knee? I keep seeing that shit popping up all around the internet.

Yes. All the guards in Skyrim are former adventurers who got an arrow to the knee.

It seems like I get the soul maybe from half of the dragons. It would be nice to know if there's something systematic about this bug, thus allowing avoiding needless, unrewarding fights.

[Animeniax]

You can always gain exp for using spells/skills in a fight.

After you complete the main story, I think you don't get to fight dragons anymore. Does anyone know if this is true?

Has anyone found all 24 of the Barenziah stones? I'm at 21. Not sure if it's worth it to keep searching for them, as some as in dark dank caves and not in castles.

[Splash!]

After you complete the main story, I think you don't get to fight dragons anymore. Does anyone know if this is true?

No it isn't. They continue to spawn.

[Buffalobiian]

Is there something in this game about a guy that gets a arrow to the knee? I keep seeing that shit popping up all around the internet.

I used to ask questions like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee...
.
.
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[Splash!]

Is there something in this game about a guy that gets a arrow to the knee? I keep seeing that shit popping up all around the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yttRlNGkGSY

Oddly enough, just like it in this video, I haven't actually been able to get an arrow stuck in the knee. It will pretty much get jammed anywhere else though. There was this one time I had a gigantic ice crystal protruding from my ass that just wouldn't go away. I had to turn into a werewolf to fix the glitch.

[Animeniax]

I used to answer this question, but then I took an arrow to the knee...

Did you settle into a cushy town guard job afterwards?

As I asked early, has anyone found all 24 of the Barenziah stones? I'm at 21. Not sure if it's worth it to keep searching for them, as some as in dark dank caves and not in castles.