Do you ever feel guilty..... : V

» Fri Oct 05, 2012 4:50 pm

When you stray away from the original concept you had for a character? I started this new character as an stealth assassin type, only using daggers and the occasional bow, never using magic, randomly killing people whenever I felt like it. So far I've stuck with the daggers/bow bit, and the stealth, but I rarely just "randomly" kill people, to afraid to get a massive bounty on my head, or killing off a quest essential NPC. I've also started doing the College of Winterhold quest line

Spoiler

involving the Eye of Magnus that you find in Saarthal. I originally came across it when I was doing the Gauldur(Gaulthur?) quest line that culminates in Reachwater Cave.

It's obviously a mage oriented quest, and while I"m not using magic, it just seems like my character wouldn't be doing it. So far I'm rationalizing it by saying "This guy will do whatever he thinks will net him more over-all power", but it kind of feels more like a cop-out.

So, does anyone else get that guilty feeling sometimes that you're doing your character a disservice by taking them off their planned activities and personal backstory?

» Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:02 pm

I've ruined characters this way.

Most recently when playing Morrowind, I had a thief character that I was really enjoying...he never killed anyone that he didn't have to. Then at some point I decided I wanted to do the Morag Tong questline...so I ran straight into the obscure, out of the way clubhouse where they'd let me join the Morag Tong, joined up, and became a murderer for hire. After a few kill quests I realized there was no reason for my character to do the Morag Tong...any rationalization I could make was as much a cop out as the OP's assassin joining the College of Winterhold.

I was disappointed with myself, and discontinued the character.

» Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:38 pm

Thanks for the story, always interesting(and good, kind of) to see that other people have the same dilemma as me.

On that note, I've decided how I'm going to handle this whole situation, spoilers will follow, so do not read if you have not progressed through the College of winterhold quests:

Spoiler

So, I've decided that I"m going to retrieve the Staff of Magnus, BUT!!1 I'm going to keep it. Apparently my guy has been wanting to join the assassins guild for quite a while, but he's felt certain that he needs some kind of offering to convince them to allow him to join. Just killing people isn't enough in his opinion, certainly not for one of the oldest, and most powerful organizations in the history of Tamriel. So he infiltrated the College of Winterhold with the goal of finding SOMETHING of significant power, and as he ran errands for them, he kept his ears open, and then discovered the location of the Staff of Magnus.

I think that fairly well eliminates my moral dilemma here, and makes him a bit more interesting over-all. I'll never get to see the rest of the quest with this character, but that's just fine. Once I gain access to the Brotherhoods hide-out, I'll store the staff there indefinitely.