Yeah, the bit of success I've had so far has been with sneak. I'd really prefer melee for physical weapons and projected magic for ranged weapons, but maybe all ranged will work too.

My problem seems simple but I can't solve it. How do I select a perk? Clicking just makes it slide away (ha ha). Pressing Enter does nothing. So how do I tell the system that this is the perk I want to take? At this point in my first game, I have 7 reserved. I haven't been able to apply a single one to my char. TIA.

I just gotta try again from the get go and maybe I'll see what I did wrong. It's not like I'm hurrying to be quickly finished with this game. Like OB, I plan in being in this game for a very long time. My sense too, is that this game is even more complex than OB.

Hmm, I'm not in front of my game at the moment but I remember just left clicking the lowest perk in the constellation and that was it. Have you remapped your left mouse button? Also be aware that each perk has requirements that you need to meet before you can click it. The requirements are listed when you hover over the perk.

I have not remapped anything. Yes, the required level and the needed level in points is apparent. Nothing for me to do but try some more and if I continue to have problems AND I'm sure it's not user error, I may just to a screen video to show others. I do find the UI for perks to be wonderfully decorative but not terribly utilitarian. A simple pull down list would serve me much better. IMO, if I'm having problems, many others of the over 250,000 pre-order persons are too.

I agree with this.

Also, do not rely on a single school of magic. illusion, restoration, conjuration and destruction are all important for combat.

Currently magicka regeneration bonus does not work in combat situations so Id say its better to go with light and heavy armour, enchanted to reduce spellcost.

I got a long ways to go before I''m enchanting anything, but thanks.

This is a bit off topic but what is the base damage of your bows? I'm using bound bow on my mage and it is probably the most damaging single target attack I have, its base damage is 50. There are no arrows though so that is its combined bow+ arrow damage. I ask because my next character will probably be a thief and I am curious if going into conjuration until I get bound bows is the better option.

Let me help you out. First turn the game to easy difficulty. Next start a new game. You said magic what kind of magic would you like to use? Chose two of the following:

Destruction
Illusion
Conjuration
Enchanting
Alteration
Restoration

Afterwards I will help you more. Inbox me if u need lots of help

I'll have to check, but I think it was base damage of 8. I do remember it was very small.

Hmm. I didn't see any way to change the game difficulty slider in Skyrim like in previous games. I'll have to check the Options screen carefully. As to what form of magic, I favor Destruction and Restoration. I think I have enough now to get a good second start. Thanks to all who've contributed to this thread.

Fortify Destruction enchanting (-82% cost: 4pieces) and Destruction skills are very good combo to have Main skills are Fire (run and gun) and Lightning (to snipe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XSKBfn6ZG8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I was around level 7 or 8 when I did that quest. Might help you was playing at master diff.

Thx. I'll take a look.

I have a level 8 Altmer who is a pure mage and so far so good, no problems for me, so I'm not sure what's going on. I've had no problems finding spells either, and I've only been to like two towns, one of them being Riverwood.

Slide - FWIW, I'm in pretty much the same situation as you - you are not alone
I am trying a sneaky mage/thief, and have found that the flame spell (and yes, it took me a long time to figure out how to cast it - i'm new to the series) does very little damage - I can barely kill one enemy, usually.
So my not-very-successful tactic so far has been
a) shoot an arrow, maybe two, from a distance. some damage is better than none, and the fire spell doesn't range as far, and maybe someday my bow skill will increase.
have flame in left hand, heal spell in right, and flame away
c) if it looks like i'm about to die, either quaff some healing potions, or run away.

this got me (barely) through the initial dungeon (barrow's temple, i think it's called?), and I'm now L4, but like you I feel like I should be doing a lot better.
We shall overcome!

PS and the reason i'm not using other spells is because i haven't been able to afford them yet. Something that would either work at range, or slow enemies, would be fantabulous.

I sure didn't find a place to buy spells in Riverwood. Now this could be all me and not the game to blame or bugs, etc. It's been years since I used OB.

When I played Oblivion (previous chapter in this series) I was amazed at how adept the players on this board are. They exist in an utterly different playing plane than I was then or am now. These games are enormously complex and subtle so things and strategies which would never occur to me were, in fact, obvious to many of the participants here. I found that when I asked for help, the answers turned out to be me missing things which were apparent once pointed out to me but which I never would have seen on my own.

Beats me where they get their info. The Skyrim book doesn't say anything about strategy or game play. It doesn't even go into the Options screen. For example, I've seen the difficulty slider in OB but not here and there seems to be one. Now that I know there is one, I can find it, but if I wasn't told about it, it may have been months until I stumbled across it.

I'm gratified to find someone on these boards who isn't just breezing through things croaking dragons with a flick of his wrist while amassing 1,000,000 in gold.

The good news is that it took me three or four starts in OB, but I finally got to the point where I'd not be croaked by an angry mud crab. Eventually I got good enough to really get into the game and thus start greatly enjoying it. I even finished winning in the big final scene. I'm supposing that it'll take at least that much time for me to get good in this one.

Thus I agree with you . We shall prevail but not for a few weeks yet (probably).

so your level is 4... worst case scenario: your skills in marksman, sneak and destruction are still at 15 points.
assuming you startet shooting while unseen and crouched (and don't try this tactic on a giant) AND managed to hit with both arrows, your enemy is dead now. no use for magic here.

Great response, thanks - a virtual high-five to you



Thanks for the feedback, and slide, I certainly don't mean to hijack your thread here, but maybe this applies to both of us....

My destruction is at, I think 27, and I took the first perk in it. Sneak is at 23 or so - I can sneak pretty well.
I do start shooting while unseen and crouched, but it seems like it almost never does any decent damage - i've been using iron arrows so far, though, but that shouldn't be so much of a deal.
I have 1 perk to spend, was going to wait until my restoration got high enough that i could spend it there, but maybe i'll spend it on sneaking instead, i spend almost 100% of my time in sneak mode

Go to System > Setting > then adjust difficulty. Keep in mind you can change it at anytime. So if you have it high and hit a trouble area you can dial it down then back up again after you pass the trouble area. Good Luck!

I'm sure any posts or 'hijacks' will be useful to both of us. Think nothing of it. In fact, I greatly appreciate another non-expert here.

Thx. I must have been there a half a dozen times but overlooked it.

oh, BTW, did you ever figure out how to apply the perk? This took me a good 10 minutes of teeth-gnashing....

Yep. I still am a bit hunt and get thrown to another area, but I did apply one perk. Unfortunately it wasn't too useful but at least I did it.

More to the point of this thread, I decreased the difficulty one notch. It has made a world of difference. I mean, the game is playable for me now.