What works better, what is useless, General skill chat Options

[DoomedOne]

So it's time for us to ask the great question after some good time playing the game. Is it truly balanced? Is it playable from any angle, or can you screw up by pushing skills in the wrong directions? Is there a standard skill set that works for vitually every character? Are certain skills better used by playing the game the same way (for instance, a stealth vampire better than a fighter vampire?)

I think certain skills are useless, being mysticism and security that I can think of. Other skills can be important no matter what the character, like illusion, marksman, restoration. So it seems if I want a knight he has to major in part to stealth. A stealthy character finds more options in the game than dash and hack, but at the same time does earn kills as fast. Mysticism only had 3 or 4 spells, and they all seem useless. Soul trap can be done just as easely without majoring in it and work as well (seeing as how rare grand soul gems are it doesn't matter if you ecounter them anyway) Tlekinesis is fun but useless as you can't do any harm to the monster. Dispel is useless because of how rare enchanted characters are anyway. When you do encounter them they're barely any more difficult.

Security can be done by just learning the game, and it doesn't make it that much easier when you get into higher levels. You'll still be searching for lockpicks at every corner.

Blade ended up being all powerful but I don't think it has anything to do with the joining of long and short, it's just there's a lot of seductive stuff that comes in blades. War hammers have there own seduction but not as powerful.

[Foster]

Well, considering I just started a character with main skills of Mysicism and Speechcraft I've just made one hell of a booboo. It fitted best though with what my character concept was. Actually, maybe Illusion did.

Ah well, anyway.

Security - useless once you hit Level 5, because of the Skeleton Key.
Conjuration - useless for bound armour etc. because generally the stuff you get is better anyway.
Either Blade or Blunt is useless depending on personal preference, as I've found I tend to stay with one weapon class. On the new char. I've picked Blunt, just to try it out.
Speechcraft - Yes, the minigame is easy. And also at high levels everyone's disposition is positive to you as well because of the main quest, and even if not it doesn't matter as you can easily get it cranked up.
Hand to Hand - I have never used this. Ever.
Merchantile - probably I've not got appreciation of this because I did the Hackdirt quest and then levelled...twice for the remainder of the game. So maybe I'm biased, but havn't found it so great.
Marksmanship - Even if you shoot things first, generally you end in Melee and the marksmanship skill goes up slowly.
Sneak - Same as marksmanship. Eventually you're seen. Once you get to the top it's sweet, but whilst you're not and fighting high level peeps, you're in a world of pain. One 6x attack on a dread zombie is really negated quickly by their regeneration.
Athletics/Acrobatics - Are fun. But they also level up pretty much on their own devices and need no real attention.
Block - If you block succesfully, it increases your block. If you fail, you increase your armour skill. What are you going to lose?

My new char has Armourer, Light Armour, Blunt, Speechcraft, Mysticism, Sneak and Marksmanship. But as I've said, that has nothing to do with what's better or worse - it's purely a 'this is the kind of character I want to play and this fits in with it' sort of choice.

This post has been edited by Foster: Apr 25 2006, 07:08 PM