Fleur in Skyrim, her own thread, just because. Options

[ghastley]

Rather than pollute other threads with developing my Skyrim character, I'll start a new one.

Fleur, an Orc is following a family tradition by becoming a bear-rider. Her ancestor Uzgash (a daughter of the legendary Gortwog himself) was one, and it's a profession her family approves, unlike some of the others they've had in the past.

She has a white bear to ride, and she's a two-handed fighter, preferring axes. They're the happy medium between the faster swords and the greater damage of hammers. She's current unsure if she likes them enchanted, and needing a supply of soul gems, or just plain.

Her bear is complaining about the armour she's wearing. It's supposed to look like this with plate top, plate boots, and as little as possible in between as detailed in the manual, in my Oblivion mod.

I suspect I'll have to make some for her, although there's a goodish selection of suitable boots. I'm unsure at the moment whether to classify it as Light or Heavy when I do so.

Any advice on the other skills she'd find useful? I'm assuming that Smithing will be one, and enough Alchemy to keep her in health potions, but what else?

[ghastley]

I reloaded Fleur's game again, but using the Bear Riders plug-in in place of her own. She had to go make a new set of her armor at the Lodge forge, but that was no big deal. She has a chest full of ingots, leather etc. at Lakeview Manor in case she wants to craft something new to play with. So she's joined the Riders, and bought another bear from Unna (who's now essential). The one she had from The Bears plugin never respawned when he died, and I never figured out why not.

I noted that she had enough gold to buy Proudspire, so she went off and did the quests in Solitude to let her do that, and she adopted Sophie and Lucia, the Hearthfire orphan beggars, as they were the simplest case. I need them to test the teddy bears that I'll be porting over from Oblivion. Jordis will be a Rider candidate for her game, and I might have her recruit Borghak the Steel-Heart. In Fleur's game, she's wearing all Orcish, so Fleur will have to make her something better, or she won't wear it. That's a useful test. I'm not sure yet if I'll make a higher-level base armor, or improve some Steel Plate past the base Orcish.

Like Pala, she has Mjoll as a follower. Being essential has a lot to do with that choice, and I probably won't have her join the Riders in either game, except once before reloading her back out. Mjoll is in Rider Steel Plate in both games, as it's better than her Banded even before it goes on the workbench.

Fleur has access to the Orc Strongholds that Pala doesn't, so I'm exploring that difference to see how it might affect the mod. Once I'm done with that, she may go back into retirement while I build up a male test character for the other path through the Rider quests. Khajiit/Argonian females are still in my "undecided" pile. I haven't asked the bears' opinion yet.