That's basically 5 levels you could put into something else like more health or more Stamina. Altmer got a huge advantage this time around.

Yeah, I guess the Altmer fans have something they can lord over the other races.

Or as a Breton with high alteration you can have 55% spell resist and 30% spell absorb.. Constant..

Trumph that..

Yeah but for a boss fight, i'd rather have 2x damage and 1/2 damage done for a minute.

A dead enemy can't cast spells at you.

Are there tag skills ala the newer generation of Fallout?

No, every skill is 15 + Racial bonus. There is no choosing of major/tagging skills to be done.

Okay, thanks.

Ditto ^

Doesn't help you much when you are getting stabbed, clawed, mauled and clubbed like you will in probably 90% of the fights. The orc bonus is the only one that is powerful other than the Altmer one but while I am sure it is a cool boss fight power another 50 magicka helps all the time and is almost as good for boss fights etc. The magicka regen is nice, but it is basically a once a day free potion, not that big of a deal IMO.

I don't know if y'all got the answer but the general consensus is that Berserker Rage is Melee only.

The Redditer tried using destruction spells with it active on his Orc and noticed no difference in damage.

Well, that only makes perfect sense.

I found it odd that Altmer were the only race with disadvantage in Oblivion...

hmm... i'm curious. someone who's more into the numbers needs to check this out and let me know.

the skills we use the most will level up quickly.
every skill we level up gives us a % towards leveling up our character.
as the skills get higher in level, it takes more to level them up, and they count less towards leveling up our character.
which means that early on, as we use things like destruction, sneak, 1handed, etc... the easier skills to level up, our character will level up faster since it requires fewer skills to reach that next level.

wont this lead to some sort of leveling inequalities?

say if i plan on using alot of sneak and 1handed, wouldnt i want them to be at higher levels from the start so they're harder to level up, so i don't prematurely over level my character, when it would be smarter to focus on building the other skills we want to raise in those first few levels...

i probably didn't word this all correctly, and i might not have all the info correct, so please enlighten me!

Agree with Altmer comment but will give benefit of the doubt for rest...like how it has been shaken up a bit.

I agree... but some in the earlier pages of this thread were curious.

I have always thought the Dunmer, from lore and feeling make one of the best Nightblades. My first character in Daggerfall was one and I remember a prominent one in Morrowind as well. They are now the best race "naturally" at destruction magic plus Illusion magic, alteration for locks, shield, water breath/walk, alchemy for poisons and bonus for light armor and sneak. My now second character, Gelena Ghostflame, is a Dark Elf and this fits great.

BUT I do not like them losing one handed or archery, they were always one of the most flexible races with bonuses for any focus area.

Looks like redguard fits your skill set with the exception of heavy armor. You get a bonus to archery instead of heavy armor from choosing Orc or Imperial.

90% of the fights?!?! WoW man you have gone out of your way to prove your point. I'll speak for everyone when I say not only are 90% of the fights NOT lacking in the magic area. But having 50 extra magicka is only good for the first 15 levels. Just like any TES. Bretons get resistance and can also use resitance items making them still 25% better at absorbing blocking magick. Take into account on top of that they can absorb spells and stack that with alteration to absorb more and no Witches Liches or Necro's (There are plenty obviously) can touch a breton. Put heavy armor on top of that and boom done best race again.

I don't care about natural defense. At all. It's purposeless. I'll take a glass cannon any day and this time High Elves don't even have a weakness, just benefits. That daily 10x Magicka regen is going to be unbelievable with the regen perk from Restoration; they'll be the magical equivalent of a Redguard under adrenaline rush. I am so going to be able to lay down so much fire and lightning nothing will have a chance to fight back. Altmer are going to be the number one damage output class. I guarantee it.

Playing against the majors will still be the best idea for controlled leveling.

Hmm... I really doubt magic damage output will out match melee damage output... there are way too many melee multipliers for altmers to beat orsimers in that regard. (Im still playing an altmer though.)

Also along those lines, are we even sure it is a 10X magicka regen? Any word on the magnitude of the Altmer, Imperial, or Nord powers?

I think I am being generous when I say 90%. Ridiculous amounts of creatures can't use magic and when you bump into groups that can it is about 1 in 5 that does. And sorry 50 extra magicka is useful levels 1-70, it might only be a 5% boost in the end but it will always come in handy. There are dungeons that might be stacked heavy in magical threats like when you were doing the mage guild ques tline, but oddly I think the bretons ability help you even less there because it is something you can easily predict and prepare for. A lich and a goblin shaman are not around every corner, the vast majority of the time it is just a goblin or a skeleton warrior. And this is all assuming you are screwing up bad enough to get hit by the magic, or it has changed enough where that happens frequently.

lol@people posting as if they've played the full game and know exactly what enemies will appear.

While I see your point, saying "90% of battles" without qualifiers means you are giving the same weight to a fight with a rat as you are giving to a fight with a dragon. If you factor out the enemies that really pose no harm to anyone above level 10 (like most bandits and mid-size to small creatures) the ratio that uses some form of magic increases greatly, and that magic is also harder to predict than melee damage.

But all that aside, I'm making an Altmer since their power gives me more active control over my game, which is most important to me, especially in the first character.

Both powers are probably replicable with relatively equivalent ease in game through enchantments anyway. And although maxing out resist magic is very powerful, it is powerful only because you are taking control away from opponents, which makes the game more boring for me.

I wonder if the khajiit hand to hand bonus stacks with the fists of steel perk, or if the stronger value overrides the weaker value.

It seems counter intuitive since khajiit are light armour/stealth biased, but require heavy armour to capitalise on their racial if they stack together