Did I Munge Another Game?

[dryadsdad]

I munged my first try at this game by improper leveling. OK, that was a trial so I started anew and am worried I munged this one too but a in a different rather mysterious way.

I’ll try not to do spoilers. In the quest where I need to enlist Baures’ help getting book #4, we had a meeting in the designated place which turned into a fight. After defeating the foes, Baures ran up the stairs, past me while I was distracted looting the foes’bodies. After I’d taken all I wanted, Baures was missing from that room or any place else I could find.

I set off to get out of that area to catch up with Baures. I wandered for a long tedious time looking for an exit. I finally encountering a ladder which apparently was my escape but it was secured with a lock rated ‘hard’. I can barely open a very easy lock but tried until I was out of picks. Disgusted and bored due to the long search to only find a dead end, I looked up the console command to open the lock. It worked. I’ve since been back to the motel where Baures lives but can’t find him. Is the game damaged by the missing but not dead Baures or my opening the lock through a cheat?

I’ve tried several Oblivion Gates after the initial one but can’t find a way into the necessary tower despite wandering around for again a long tedious drag. I’ve entered several Nether Tunnels or caves thinking maybe I enter through the basement. In all the Nethers, I wander tediously as well eventually ending up back at the entrance. In one, I jumped into a hole, did the boring, pointless wander ending up back below the hole by choosing another quest and then casting Clairvoyance. The path that spell laid out led back up the hole but I had no way to crawl back out so I was stuck and annoyed again.

I decided on a new path so applied to the Mage Guild. In the sub-quest that involves a well, I failed because I don’t have the level to operate the spell I was given. I don’t want to cheat again so hit upon an idea to shed all my equipment before entering the well. That worked but all my stuff was missing when I emerged from the well.

The game looks great and seems to have mostly settled down from the shuddering I had at the start. I do want to know if this sort of frustration and pointless seeking is the rule for this game rather than my bad luck. For example, I can’t see how I can solve the well issue unless I can cast the spell I was given but lacking the skill means I’m stonewalled pursing the Mage Quest. This *seems* to me to be a game design flaw but how can it be with such a mature game? As to the Oblivions it again seems a design flaw me not being able to find the needed entrances.

Where am I going wrong?

[The Minted Lady]

I highly recommend visiting https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_Wiki for help. Whenever I get stuck on a quest, I check this for what to do next, and also if there are any bugs. It's been super helpful.

[dryadsdad]

I did consult the Wiki which said for me to cast the spell I can't cast. I'm familiar with the Wiki. That's how I got the console command to unlock the 'hard' lock to get away from the area I was in with Baures. It seems silly for me to walk through the game depending on console command cheats.

[★REM★]

Dont worry about it, it vanished after a while on his own anyway before you go out from the sewers.

In my save, he got killed and it's not vital for the game to have him alive or around.

[magne.moe]

I strongly recommend doing an hard save. Escape then select save game then starting more important or dangerous quests.
As for the well its potions of scrolls giving feather and water breathing and quick saving before doing stuff is smart.

[Supernautilus]

One big thing is make sure to save the game often. Use quick save a lot. Create new saves whenever you’re about to start a new mission or something. The game is quirky and being able to reload an earlier save can fix a lot of weird issues.

[dryadsdad]

Thanks for the replies people but I don't see how saves can cause me to cast spell above my ability or find the entrance to one of those towers or find Baures of if me casting the open lock cheat I munged the main quest.

"Dont worry about it, it vanished after a while on his own anyway before you go out from the sewers."

What is 'it' that vanished? Nothing I noted vanished and I"m hours out of the sewers.

[ScripterRon]

You could retrace your steps after the meeting to exit the way you came in. The shorter way is to use the sewer key found on the corpse with volume 4. But that way does require picking a lock at the top of a ladder to exit through a merchant's house.

[Crimson Bort]

Find a base spell for the school of magic you need to get up and keep casting it as you're exploring, or just cheese it by casting till your magics out then waiting for an hour. It's very easy to level up magic skills. Destructions trickier since you need a target and can't just spam the spell. As you level the skill it costs less to cast spells of that type. If you dont have enough magic to cast a certain spell look for equipment that fortifies intelligence or magicka, or cast detect life till mysticism is 25, then you can enchant your own equipment and make your own spells at frostcraig spire. As for finding Baurus, he SHOULD come looking for you eventually. Otherwise just keep waiting an hour at a time at the boarding house. I dont think there's any bug where he will dissapear entirely. I had this issue with the spies quest early on. Couldnt find the second spies and had to just keep waiting at Jearls house hour by hour till they showed up.

For tower entrance if you have high enough acrobatics you can just hop your way to the middle tower, otherwise maybe clairvoyance would help? I can;t remember if it counts the sigil stone as a waypoint for clairvoyance. Otherwise you just have to go through the maze of tunnels. Only tip I can offer there is if you haven't been through a door yet it will just tag it as "Oblivion Tunnel" and if you;ve been to a place before it will have the rooms actual names like "Tunnels of hate" or something like that.

[dryadsdad]

I'm many saves out of the sewers now. My question was more about the missing Baures and me having been trapped as a design element than a solution to where I am now. I'm hours away. I posted after spending another long time in Oblivion looking for a tower entrance and not finding one AGAIN. Spamming a skill is what munged my first game so I'm somewhat leery of repeating it.

I'll emphasize that my concern is if I should give this game up as a bad job. After all, not being able to FIND the entrance to a tower means a good deal of the game is off limit.

What was the point of the mage giving me a spell that I can't cast and that I need 100% to perform the trial? I'd expect the game would trap such an error and only give me a usable spell or auto-increment me to a level where I can use the spell.

I'm continually at dead ends within this game.

[Crimson Bort]

Originally posted by dryadsdad:

I'm many saves out of the sewers now. My question was more about the missing Baures and me having been trapped as a design element than a solution to where I am now. I'm hours away. I posted after spending another long time in Oblivion looking for a tower entrance and not finding one AGAIN. Spamming a skill is what munged my first game so I'm somewhat leery of repeating it.

I'll emphasize that my concern is if I should give this game up as a bad job. After all, not being able to FIND the entrance to a tower means a good deal of the game is off limit.

What was the point of the mage giving me a spell that I can't cast and that I need 100% to perform the trial? I'd expect the game would trap such an error and only give me a usable spell or auto-increment me to a level where I can use the spell.

I'm continually at dead ends within this game.

The only way power levelling a skill can munge your game is if you end up with main skills too low for the level your at, and enemies will seem over powered. So i would say just grind up the one school you need till you can cast the spell, then once your main skills are high enough you can power level without any issues. For Baurus, Don't worry about it. Go do some other stuff for awhile. He'll show up eventually. No point burning through the main quest anyways. Its actually pretty short. Just walk around going into all the ruins and caves you can find. Get some good loot, level up skills, pick up side quests

[dryadsdad]

Thanks, CB. My previous game was ruined just that. I seriously uppped a minor skill making the foes able to one shot me time after time. I'll grind the magic skill.

[Crimson Bort]

Originally posted by dryadsdad:

Thanks, CB. My previous game was ruined just that. I seriously uppped a minor skill making the foes able to one shot me time after time. I'll grind the magic skill.

Yeah I learned that the hard way back in OG Oblivion. Powered up Alchemy and Illusion and all these skills to level up fast, but you shoot yourself in the foot if you don't have any combat skills levelled. Pepper in some luck while you're levelling by the way. I'm lvl 42 now and having this issue of I can only put 4 points into luck when i level, and the rest are wasted. Luck gives everything a small boost, though I'm not sure if will increased dmg dealt beyond 100. Far as I can tell dmg is locked at 100 no matter how much you fortify a skill or attribute. So having 100 strength, and then fortifying it with equipment or spells will increase your carry weight, but not the damage done by strength based weapons. lol sorry for the tangent, hopefully its useful info.

[Waingro]

Baurus can die during that quest I believe. It doesn't break the game, he just won't be around anymore. From what I recall, that is the last actual time Baurus is needed for any specific quest, so you can just carry on and know for next time that Baurus can die after you acquire the book. He probably died in the sewer somewhere. RIP Baurus.

As far as the Mage's Guild quest you're talking about, there's a container nearby that holds a bunch of scrolls of all the required spells you'll need to open the well. You don't need any spellcasting ability to use scrolls.

[Crimson Bort]

Originally posted by Waingro:

Baurus can die during that quest I believe. It doesn't break the game, he just won't be around anymore. From what I recall, that is the last actual time Baurus is needed for any specific quest, so you can just carry on and know for next time that Baurus can die after you acquire the book. He probably died in the sewer somewhere. RIP Baurus.

As far as the Mage's Guild quest you're talking about, there's a container nearby that holds a bunch of scrolls of all the required spells you'll need to open the well. You don't need any spellcasting ability to use scrolls.

Might be wrong, but I THINK you need to finish up that leg of the main quest by talking to Baurus after you get the book in the sewers. I had trouble finding him too, but eventually he just popped up out of nowhere and I was able to move on. Maybe just try going to Jaufree or Martin at the blades castle to trigger the next part?