Hi, I'm new to Skyrim and have a few basic questions:

Can followers ride horses; either share a horse with me or get their own?

If I'm on a horse and my follower is not, and I fast travel to a town, will the follower arrive with me? Will the fast travel require a long foot travel time or a short horse travel time?

Does in-game time and date matter? In other words, if I waste weeks and months on side quests, might I miss some scripted event based on in-game date?

How do I pick a fight with a dragon flying overhead? Twice I've seen one but couldn't manage to hit it with arrows, Firebolts or shouts. A third dragon I saw attacked me immediately, but I'm guessing it was a scripted event (though not on the map), not a random dragon.

Alchemy seems weak. Does it really require random guesswork to combine ingredients to make potions? Or are there ways to learn to make potions (besides eating ingredients and buying the very few recipes available)?

I occasionally find buildings/caves full of bad guys, so I kill them all. Is this messing up side quests because I haven't yet been told to go to those buildings/caves?

Thanks!

Hi, and welcome

followers & horses: they don't ride a horse themselves, unless you use a mod. When will they accompany you again? No idea, since I never use horses, sry.

date & game-time won't matter, regarding quests that you have yet to start....quests start when you trigger certain events (like talking to someone in particular). Even if you "pause" a running quest (by leaving halfway, for example), it will stay active, and continue when you pick it up again, even if that's weeks of ingame-time later.
You can enable or disable quest-markers in your ingame Journal menu...it will only disable the marker on your HUD compass, NOT any running quests.
If you for example are following a person to a location, and he/she's waiting for you at a cave-entrance, you can backoff and go do something else, and come back weeks later, and still find that person waiting for you there, to continue the quest.

You can try to get a dragon's attention, by shouting at it, or by hitting it with arrows or (long-range) spells...sometimes it works, sometimes the dragon will ingnore you and fly away.

Alchemy: you can search for recepies at a http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Skyrim, allthoug that's a bit like cheating. Or you can try to combine ingredients of which you already know the 1st effect, based on guesswork (for example, you can be sure to get more interesting effects from deathbell or nirnroot, because they are interesting plants lol).

If you worry about messing up quests, there is a mod which gives a warning that the quest in question is related to certain other quest-lines....unfortunately, I can't give you a link, because the mod file is currently hidden by the author (probably because he/she's about to update it)....but give it a day or 2, and then search for a mod called "DungeonQuestAwareness".
Some quests though, require you to find a certain item...but without the actual quest started, you may still encounter those items. They usually have a name that sticks out (like the name of the previous owner).
Quest-items can't be dropped from you inventory, and stay there untill you finish the related quest. But in case you worry about the weight of a quest-item: don't let the game fool you, regardless of any weight-number in your inventory, their weight is 0
So just let it stay in your inventory, and when times comes, you will get a message from the game, that you've just fullfilled some quest's requirement (for example, get item X for Person Y at location Z), and you can go and finish the quest quickly...like when you already visited that location, and found the item, but only now meet and talk to the person who wants it.

p.s. I hope you're on PC, otherwise, ignore my mod suggestions.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/index.php is your best source for mods...get the Nexus Mod Manager, it's a breeze to use.

- Not without a mod that allows it.
- I believe that fast-travel automatically brings your follower to you (assuming they're still in follow-mode).
- The situation you're describing wouldn't come up, but some quests are dependent on day/time.
- Some dragons won't attack you. No way to make them if you don't hit them.
- Much like a real alchemist, you'll have to work from established recipes and experimentation. I generally eat an ingredient the first time I pick it up, and then make potions with it. I usually uncover extra effects doing that. Alchemy is actually one of the strongest skills in the game once it's perked.
- Some quests can be influenced by that, but it really depends. Most of the quests that require entrance to a dungeon either send you into a different instances of that dungeon than you would get when you went in without the quest, and some dungeons (especially those related to guild/main storyline quests) won't even be open to you.

Alchemy is far from weak and I enjoy learning the effects of the ingredients.
Sure eating my first spider egg was kind of gross but I guess it was better than svcking on a giants toe.

No. But they will keep up with you. They have a magical way of keeping up with you. Most of the time.
If you fast travel, you, your horse, and your follower will arrive at same time. If you fast travel into a city, horse will be waiting outside the gate, by the stable. In my experience (I haven't tested it thoroughly) getting a horse does not shorten the time elapsed for fast travel. It takes 26 hours to travel from Riften to Markath, full length of the map, I think. It takes about half a day to travel between most cities. You will get used eyeballing the distance and estimating the time it takes. Some people suggest not fast travelling at all to have a better, more immersive experience.

Most of the time it doesn't matter. Everything waits for you. Just once in early game I noticed an exception with the main quest.


The potions you create get stronger gradually as you gain experience in alchemy and level up. You can also make your potions even stronger by taking perks in alchemy tree. You can also wear enchanted items that make your potions stronger also. When you become a level 100 alchemist, the potions you create are ridiculously strong and are much better than things you can buy at the store. Some people don't like alchemy but others really enjoy alchemy.

Vast majority of time no. In very very few cases yes. The game designers created the game so that you have great deal of freedom and do whatever you want. But it's a huge game and sometimes in very few situations you can block progress in a particular story line. When that happens it's considered a bug and developers will fix it. The latest 1.5 update contains 3 or 4 dependency fixes, for example. Some people respond to this by choosing to not do anything that's they have been told to do. I disagree with their approach. I think you will enjoy the game more if you just do whatever you want.

Remember to save periodically, just in case. Not just quicksaves and autosaves but remember to do manual save once in a while.

Eating my first human heart is what I'm worried about.

Thanks for the tips! Now I won't worry about spending all that time selling loot to merchants, and I'll stop trying to fireball the dragons flying way overhead. "Darn dragons, could swoop down at any time!" I'll also give Alchemy another look. I really thought Enchantment would be the stronger alternative. I can always try a different approach on another playthrough. Thanks again.

Alchemy is immensely powerful later on. As you make potions you start to learn the other effects the ingredients have. You can also experiment by mixing different ingredients to see what happens. But the high end potions you can make once you fill in the perk tree and get to 100 are just nasty. Invisibility for a very long time, high damage poisons, lengthy paralysis, increased resistences, ect. My assassin uses them all the time. Part of the fun of Alchemy is in collecting everything you see as you travel. I spent a good many hours out wandering around just looking for specific ingredients, getting excited to find the ones that are rather rare. It's a great way to explore and learn the game world too. Even certain fish in the lakes and rivers have meaning. It's by far my favorite developed skill in the game.

You are surrounded by 3 enemies and dying. You have 3 health point left. You can see the blade coming down on your head. You bring up the inventory. Time stops. You take a deep breath. Then remember your potions. You drink a potion of ultimate healing. Health is now back to 400. You drink your potion of ultimate stamina. You remember you have fortify two-handed potion that doubles your damage. You drink your fortify health to add 100 points to your health while you are at it. You remember your poisons and you apply one to your sword for extra 50 damage. You eat a vegetable soup for a good measure. You remember you have shouts.You Fus Roh Da them and start power attacking continuosly until they are all dead.

You then remember just spent 3000 septims worth of potions. You have mixed feelings. Did I just waste tons of potions because I got careless, you wonder. Well it was all free anyway, because you are an alchemist.

With 300+ hours in Skyrim I have yet to even pick up any form of human flesh. I know it's just a computer game but I just can't bring myself to do it.

I'm so glad that one of the Daedric quests allows you to get two items other wise I would never be able to get the Oblivion Walker achievment.

Enjoy the journey - it's addictive...