Is My Build Munged?

[dryadsdad]

I’m concerned I may have munged this build so ask advice if others think I’m all right or have a fatal issue.

I’m doing the mage quest line. I took some advice on how to spam lockpicking because I’m hopeless at it. This did work but also, to my surprise, boosted me from lvl 7 to lvl 12.

After some more time doing miscellaneous things, I got assigned the mage quest to investigate why the guild in Bruma hadn’t messaged guild central for quite a while. As soon as I opened the Bruma mage guild door I was one shot killed by one of the bad guys inside.

Trying over and over yielded the same results stymieing me completely. I reduced the difficulty to novice and tried entering again to almost the same results. The foes inside easily one or two shotted me. There was no way for me to clear the area with things this way.

In desperation I invoked the console command tgm. I got some warning about achievements but I felt I had no choice. This did allow me to finish this phase of the quest line. I toggled tgm off and to see where I was took an arena fight.

The first fight (at novice still) was bizarre. The foe took an enormous amount of killing for me to win but in return I seemed invulnerable to it. Two subsequent matches went like I’d expect a novice setting to work out. The foes were two shotted and I immune to their attacks.

I’d like to some opinion if my build is munged. I see no reason to continue it if there’s another Bruma house waiting for me down the line or if the only setting I can play is novice which I can sleep walk through. I suppose I could Load from where I spammed lockpicking but I’d lose one heck of a lot and would prefer a new build undoing some mistakes I made with this, my first try at a build.

Opinions?

[Supernautilus]

That’s what it sounds like. I mean, it’s easy to make an unbalanced build in this game. And I find balance is the key to success. You can easily Mike something like a squishy offensive mage with no defense. But you’ll have a really hard time leveling such a character.

[ΜΣ†ΛĿ]

Just lower the difficulty and keep playing, Level the more important attributes and then rise the difficulty back up. you can spam power level in town some skills for almost free just to get the levels up and apply the needed attributes. then you can increase the difficulty.

Endurance: Very important - the higher this stat is the better survivability. it increases health, and determines how much extra health you get with each level up, also regens health. this will stop the oneshots.
Willpower: important - this affects magica regeneration speed and maximum Fatigue, It will allow you to spam more spells, and get in more hits and block before running out of resources.
strength: if using blade or blunt
Agility: If using Bow & daggers

In the end you end up jack of all trades anyway with 100 in all attributes and skills at around level 50. there is no reason to re-roll.

[dryadsdad]

I'm on novice now so no possibility of going lower. Novice is tedious since I one or two shot everything and cannot be harmed by foes. I did ignore endurance and willpower so maybe it's best I start anew. I focused on agility and speed. Owell.

[Supernautilus]

Originally posted by dryadsdad:

I'm on novice now so no possibility of going lower. Novice is tedious since I one or two shot everything and cannot be harmed by foes. I did ignore endurance and willpower so maybe it's best I start anew. I focused on agility and speed. Owell.

Speed is good but it might not be wise to make a build around it.

Without knowing what kind of build you’re going for, it’s hard to recommend attributes. But like I said, balance is key.

For example, you want some kind of defense. If you’re not wearing heavy armor, consider using a shield. Or a shield spell. Or shield enchantments on your gear. Or summon a zombie to tank for you.

These are the kinds of considerations I make when building a character.

[dryadsdad]

Yeah, well now I know but then I did a random PC. I had no idea what I was going for so I just thrashed around figuring if things crumbled I could always redo it. The only specific I wanted was a sneak archer. Other than that I just picked randomly from my choices. Now maybe 20 hours in, I find magic interesting but I have no idea how to build a solid magic PC. My pursuit of the mage line was based on my idea that doing a 'mage' quest would boost my magic abilities and knowledge but I don't see it so far.

[Supernautilus]

Originally posted by dryadsdad:

Yeah, well now I know but then I did a random PC. I had no idea what I was going for so I just thrashed around figuring if things crumbled I could always redo it. The only specific I wanted was a sneak archer. Other than that I just picked randomly from my choices. Now maybe 20 hours in, I find magic interesting but I have no idea how to build a solid magic PC. My pursuit of the mage line was based on my idea that doing a 'mage' quest would boost my magic abilities and knowledge but I don't see it so far.

Yeah stealth archers are fun builds but the problem is once you are out of stealth and enemies are in your face, you can easily be overwhelmed. That’s why you always need a backup plan. ;)

[AoD_lexandro]

Originally posted by Supernautilus:

Originally posted by dryadsdad:

Yeah, well now I know but then I did a random PC. I had no idea what I was going for so I just thrashed around figuring if things crumbled I could always redo it. The only specific I wanted was a sneak archer. Other than that I just picked randomly from my choices. Now maybe 20 hours in, I find magic interesting but I have no idea how to build a solid magic PC. My pursuit of the mage line was based on my idea that doing a 'mage' quest would boost my magic abilities and knowledge but I don't see it so far.

Yeah stealth archers are fun builds but the problem is once you are out of stealth and enemies are in your face, you can easily be overwhelmed. That’s why you always need a backup plan. ;)

Or just make a 1-shot enchanted bow. Grand soul gem + bow + 100 "drain health" + 100 "damage health" = everything is 1-shot outside of stealth.

[Albinosaurus]

Originally posted by dryadsdad:

Yeah, well now I know but then I did a random PC. I had no idea what I was going for so I just thrashed around figuring if things crumbled I could always redo it. The only specific I wanted was a sneak archer. Other than that I just picked randomly from my choices. Now maybe 20 hours in, I find magic interesting but I have no idea how to build a solid magic PC. My pursuit of the mage line was based on my idea that doing a 'mage' quest would boost my magic abilities and knowledge but I don't see it so far.

I recommend starting over, tbh. Could you play through and repair that character? Yes. Is it worth it? Unlikely.

I recommend--until you get more familiar with the game--start as Breton, take either the Mage or the Lord birthsign, then for skills pick a weapon skill, an armor skill, 2 spell schools, and avoid taking the "passive" skills like Lockpicking, Alchemy, Speechcraft, Mercantilism, Athletics, or Acrobatics as major skills. I'm not saying "don't use them," but as major skills they will level too fast. The other skills you take are preference.

For your early levels, take at least 3 each of Strength and Stamina, then whatever else you want. This ensures you get enough health and can carry stuff. if you want to be able to cast spells more, Intelligence gives max mana and Willpower gives mana regen. Skip Luck. It's a good min-max stat for people who know what they are doing, but it's not worth it for newer players. Also note that shortswords and daggers now use Agility for damage instead of Strength, which may influence what weapons you want to use based on how you allocate your stats.

At the start of the game, follow the main quest line at least up to the point of Cloud Ruler Temple. From there either continue it or don't, but this will give you access to the "Blades" equipment if you favor using the Blade, Heavy Armor, or Block skills.

Pick up food items to use for Alchemy so you can make Restore Health, Mana, Fatigue potions as well as Feather, Cure Disease, and Water Breathing. Shield is also an extremely potent potion to have. Just don't go too crazy too early in making tons of potions and raising the skill too much. The goal is just to keep a stockpile of useful potions on hand all the time and sell the extras, but don't treat it as a get rich quick scheme or you'll over-level the skill.

It's fine to make some early cash to buy a few spells when you start though. Getting the "Heal Major Wounds" spell early on is helpful. It heals you for 25pts per cast, but is less mana efficient than your starter spell. It is more time efficient, which is useful during battles, so use the weaker spell between fights.

I think these beginner tips should help someone get started and play through most of the game how they want comfortably, but I don't want to give away the whole thing so I'll cut it there for now.

[Albinosaurus]

Originally posted by AoD_lexandro:

Originally posted by Supernautilus:

Yeah stealth archers are fun builds but the problem is once you are out of stealth and enemies are in your face, you can easily be overwhelmed. That’s why you always need a backup plan. ;)

Or just make a 1-shot enchanted bow. Grand soul gem + bow + 100 "drain health" + 100 "damage health" = everything is 1-shot outside of stealth.

Drain Health doesn't stack and is expensive on the enchanting budget. Better to use Absorb Health or Shock damage (least resisted element). Also, I believe you can over-repair the bow to 125% for bonus damage as well.

[AoD_lexandro]

Originally posted by Albinosaurus:

Originally posted by AoD_lexandro:

Or just make a 1-shot enchanted bow. Grand soul gem + bow + 100 "drain health" + 100 "damage health" = everything is 1-shot outside of stealth.

Drain Health doesn't stack and is expensive on the enchanting budget. Better to use Absorb Health or Shock damage (least resisted element). Also, I believe you can over-repair the bow to 125% for bonus damage as well.

Drain Health has zero enchanting costs as its bugged.

[Martian]

You efed up by disabling achievements. That's like the only thing that matters. Those cheevos man

[dryadsdad]

OK, all. Thanks for the advice. I'll take it and build a new PC hopefully one I can build on without it going relatively weak as it advances. @Albinosaurus thx for the specifics.

[xPEDx]

just get a small summon and work on it , punch it and let it hit you , heal and repair, summon again and hit it again and again, use yor destruction fire ball on it , use your dagger on it , and all the time you be building all your used skills on it including destruction blade/blunt light armour restoration and conjuration all at the same time, this will build you fast as mage Or fighter , howeva you equipped.

Edit , Also Summon something before you open the door helps with aggro

[PocketYoda]

I would suggest looking into the stats.. then either choose a direction Mage, Warrior or Thief, i would not suggest warrior solo its very hard at higher levels..

I went thief and haven't had an issue so far.

I also would suggest doing the first Oblivion gate under level 11.

[Miqail]

Mage is easy just, have invisibility, maxed out conjuration and best summon at your current lvl with only those two you can beat the game, if you want to interfere more yourself pick destruction to speed things up. Got aggro no problem invisibility, summons rinse repeat.