So what determines when you retire a character?

I now have 8 characters, and I've been playing my 7th for about 130 hours straight. There are plenty of reasons why I haven't retired 6 of the others, and the 8th is brand new.

My 7th character is Level 36, the highest I've leveled anyone. He's been a blast to play. He was created for the Civil War and now it's over, and I'm just feeling...meh, when I play him. I thought of exploring Lycanthropy with him, since I've never used it before. My other characters are fine for the most part, and were all created for specific quests and playstyles. A Mage for the College, A Thief for the Thieves Guild, an Assassin for the DB, etc.

But I just don't play them. I'm excited for my 8th and newest character, but I feel like my current one should see more action.

How do you determine when it's time to say goodbye to one of your Adventurers?

my characters dont retire. I create a mod for each character i played and placed them at various places so that 'they are still here'. My new character takes on the role of someone else. here is an example:

1. I had a khajiit assassin. I finished with him, he got rich, had a house, got famous in dawnstar. When my new nord comes, i mod my khajiit into the game but placed him dead in the tundras. Therefore when my nord goes over, i can say, dam he is dead.
2. I had a breton once. I am finished with him too, and since he spends a lot of time at the bannered mare, i modded him into the bannered mare for my next character, so my new character can see my previous character in the bannered mare.
3. One of my nords was a stormcloak fighter. When the war is over, he retired as a guard of windhelm. Now every new character i use, i always get to see my stormcloak character in windhelm
Figured i had about 10 characters modded into skyrim already and i turned one into a follower. So basically i am playing 2 characters at once.

That's so awesome. I'm on Xbox 360. If I was playing on PC, I would totally do that with my other characters.

I've only retired one character before, and that was in Oblivion. He was my god character; Master thief, warrior, mage, and assassin. He had completed all missions, quests, mysteries, and saved Nirn from a full Daedric invasion. He had decorated his Castle (Battlehorn) fully, with nearly every surface covered in items from his travels. But most importantly, He was in a position to retire. There was nothing else for him to do.

My opinion on retiring a character is that if his goals in life were accomplished, then he can be retired. If he isn't interested in Lycanthropy, then don't bother. The character's identity defines his behavior.

I retired a Khajiit assassin.
He died after vanquishing his final enemy, succumbing to his wounds after his final battle. He died finishing his whole life quest.

I tend to keep most of My unbugged characters at the level they "retire", or get to a quest I personally do not want to do at the time (Delphine is essential, and unavoidable). I have been spending a lot of time between Homeowners and My Spellsword. The Homeowners are building and filling Hearthfire Homes, I am playing My Spellsword and am finally joining the Companions at level 30.
I did retire most of My characters around level 35, because they focused on a Guild and a few Skills. My characters recently should be playable for quite a while, and were designed to get into the high fiftees and low sixtees in level before capping thier Skills.
I do retire a character because they are just not fun to play anymore, or I have made a bad decision while playing them. I do have a few characters waiting until February 5th to respec with Dragonborn.

This is a great idea, I wish I had a pc.

Woah, you could make a good story out of that. PC just got +1.

When the next TES game comes out.

I have a plan for my characters, and when they've done with the major things I planned for them, they retire (they don't always complete all sidequests and minor things I planned for them, if I've grown tired of them. My first character is the exception, I've taken her out later on to start a questline I never completed.

When I retire them, I unload all their travelling gear and leave them at home dressed in ordinary clothes, and that's it.

I retired RuthAnn Drygoon after accomplishing everything with her. All the guilds/factions. MQ, CW and DLC-Dawnguard

I retired Salessi Darkwater version 1 and version 2 due to file issues. Currently RPing Salessi Darkwater version 3

I have not retired my orc Borgak the Brave yet. So much to do with her but will retire her when I have accomplished what I want with her.

I basicly have goals with characters and how I want to RP them and when that is finished then so are they.

I really like this idea. I think this is what I'm going to do with retired characters. Provided you don't mind me stealing your idea...


I'm definitely feeling this way. I think I'm going to delete a few entirely for specific reasons. The others will be kept, just in case I want to take them out for a spin every now and then.

Not at all. It has seemed like the logical thing to do, when they've done adventuring, they go home, put the sword on the shelf and just relax by the fire with hubby/wifey.

I typed out my eight characters, by Name, Race, Gender, Class, Level, and Factions (Active status or Completed).

I've decided that five of them are absolutely worth keeping around. The other three are...eh. I'm thinking of deleting them entirely. I love Skyrim, and can easily play it until the next TES game. So there's always opportunities to revisit and re-roll the ideas/intentions behind these three.

The three I'm considering for deletion are:

1. Gi'Anna, Female Khajiit Fighter, Level 33, Harbinger of Companions, Main Quest Active.
She was my first character, and as such I made a mess out of her Skills and Perks. Compared to my Level 36 Nord Fighter, she's just not viable. He does it better, has started the Companions, and is also Active in the Main Quest.

2. Maylissa, Female Imperial Cleric, Level 16, Dawnguard.
I uninstalled DG because of my frustration with random vampire attacks. More specifically because it affects EVERY character file. It was fine for her file, because she was created specifically for DG as a vampire (and all Undead) hunter. She hasn't been played since I uninstalled DG, and I'm STILL undecided on reinstalling it.

3. Skeeme, Male Argonian Assassin, Level 17, Dark Brotherhood (Active).
I created this "Argonian scum" for fanfic. I thought I'd try my hand at him as a character, and he just feels so...flat. I love the DB questline and its members so far, but this guy just doesn't feel right for it. I'm thinking a re-roll is in order since I definitely want to play through the DB.

Am I nutty, or does anyone else evaluate their characters this way? I've read that some people re-roll characters dozens of times.

Sorry to rant and rave, but I like to discuss this kind of stuff.

I have some Bad Characters that I can never go through.




I deleted one Because i knew i was never going to play her



1. Lily Stormcloak, Nord, Level 1- This one i designed to be like Ulfric Stormcloaks Little Daughter who she would fight for in the Civil war. Going around Cities going there quests after you seige the Cities, Or just do Quests and be nice to the People already in The Stormcloak Territories.


2. Nial The-Swift-Blade, Khajiit - Level 5, I had no idea what i was doing I was doing an Assassin Khajiit, And I was going to get Married But i really couldn't think of someone and No Beast kids didn't help either...


(Looking to Delete)


1. Gazol Thief-Picker. Theives Guild master quest (In Progress) After getting that Achievement I find no use for him because I already have a character that completed the guild. But I guess ill wait to see if anymore Theif Dlc comes out.

...you may be a genius

When my character's story feels like its come to a close, and that there's no more of it for me to tell. I just get a feeling that its time to move on.

I've had four main characters, one character who was boring to play and that I simply abandoned after a few hours, I guess I could delete that one, and one character who was just a PC test character, to getting used to the controls, try out differents mods and so on (I've just switched from PS3 to PC). But I don't delete them even though I know I won't play them again. I delete most of their saves, though, only save a few JUST IN CASE. (I've also got loads of characters created as ideas or just for fun, not intended to play, but I don't delete those either.)

Up until a few days ago I said I'd never play the same character twice, but now I actually thinking about re-rolling my first character someday, on PC instead of PS3, don't make a mess of her perks, skip a questline that didn't really suit her, make a proper RP from the start this time (I sort of grew into RPing with her, so many of her choices early in the game were somewhat out of character).

But my rule of thumb is, if it's getting boring, it's time for a new character.

I have four characters (3 Xbox 360, 1 PS3), none have retired, although the last created on the Xbox 360 does not get as much of my time as the others. Rork is a challenge to keep alive, and I am usually not interested in something that is going to be frustrating, if he does not toughen up he will be the first ever Elder Scrolls character of mine to retire. And I am never ever creating another Orc character, he was my first and will be my last.