im new to the whole rpg thing and this amount of customization is blowing my mind.

so, i know as you level up you get to increase health/magic/stamina and you get an unlock towards one of the other powers.
i have been told not to spread out these unlocks and to concentrate on only a couple areas, will this work best? i want to level up my destruction, heavy armor, one handed weapons, and the bow, possibly enchanting

and how does the lightning ability differ from fire and ice(other than looking cool)? which is the best?

how do i gain spells? i think i bought a spell but when i go to my magic menu it isnt there.



btw, i am a wood elf

o and can someone plz explain "shouts" to me?

dont need to answer the above anymore, im pretty clear on that stuff^^^


EDIT-More Questions!
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after some more playing, im getting a little more confused lol

alright, i have quite a few questions, answers to any would be greatly appreciated!
1. Other than powers and a boost in certain skill levels, what other advantages does one race have over another?

2. Can someone clear up the whole smithing and enchanting process and effects?they sound the same, but im trying to go for a huge amount of magic. which would help the best for that? what about making better (Heavy) armor?

3. 2 handed magic, worth it?

4. best group to join? as in brotherhood, companions etc

5. Would it be better to make armor or buy it? i want good protection (heavy) but also something that improves magic(if its possible, how?)

Thanks again!

Welcome to the fourms.

First of all what you have been told is sometimes true. If you for example specialized in magic then you will have a more powerful mage then if you speciliazed in magic archery and swords. The destruction, heavy armour and swords part would work well together. Archery probally would not be nessasry because you already get the range attacks from your magic spells. The best advice I can give you is dont worry about how you play just do what sounds like fun. Unless you are trying to make the most powerful charecter you can dont worry about how you play.

Onto your second question the diffrence between fire, shock and frost spells is as follows. Fire will cause damage and then drain health. Shock will cause damage then drain magika. Frost will cause damage and then drain stamina. What one is best is up to you. Again I would not worry to much about this unless you are trying to make your charecter as good as possible.

To gain the spells in your magic menu go into your inventory and then to books. You will see books that have the name of the spell you want to learn. The books should look like this Spell tome: "insert spell".

Lastly I dont know how far you are into the main quest so I wont spoil anything. To be basic you will learn to use shouts that will do certain things. Some will allow you to throw enemies back while others will let you slow time or stop an enemy from fighting you. There are many shouts in the game that do diffrent things. You will press a button to make your charecter shout. Holding it will do a more powerful version of the spell if you have learned the better versions. Shouts each have three tiers of power each tier you need to learn. Once you have learned the new tier you can cast the next tier by holding the button down.

To add to that, there are 250 perks in the game, but the maximum you can pick is 80. Also, the game isn't as enjoyable and too easy after level 50-ish (or 60-ish on Master) so you'd get more out of the game by creating multiple characters that use about 50 - 60 perks.

Yes, just like what the above have said, the game setting is limited to lv50-60ish players. Even you are able to max your level at 81, but it is best to play the game by limit the character to lv50ish. This is what many other players are talking about the "soft" cap.

As omg argonian said, I would drop the bow if you are going to use magic, you really only need one type of ranged attack.

This is the way I pick my perks and it probably differs from what other ppl do. I pick my "major" skill's, usually 3 or 4 and those skills get the most perk points and priority over any other skill/craft that my charcter may be useing. Say for your build Distruction, heavy armor & 1h are your major skill's. Enchanting could ( and IMO should) be a minor skill. you could also pick another skill such as restoration for a minor skill.

I will put point's into smithing, but most of my character's I haven't bothered past the bottom perk and arcane smithing. But I also didn't want/use any of the higher lvl armors.

You buy the spell's from various vendor's, including court wizards & general good's stores, you can also find the spell tomes. You can sell the ones that you don't plan on useing or that you find a second book for.

Shout's once you find a word wall you can unlock the shout IF you have a dragon soul by going into your magic menue and down to shout and then follow the instruction's for your platform... to use the shout, The x-box uses right bumper, I think the ps3 also uses the right bumper (R2?), I don't know what the pc uses.

put perks in what ever you want and seems like you will use it, its kinda like specializing with a weapon in a shooter, except much more in depth.

honestly though, i would say don't waste perks on lockpicking skills... not to be one of those guys but they are just a waste of perk points, and you only get so few.

since you seem new to rpgs, i suggest finding a direction, and walking, don't worry about quest as much as exploring, skyrim isn't meant to be played like COD or battlefield, you don't just find a mission and go on it, you explore the world presented to you.

Welcome. You are in for a ride. This will be a great first rpg experience.

I'd go into all the leveling and technique of the game but it seems fellow players covered that area pretty good. I will say this, have fun! Don't make yourself go crazy trying to do anything the "right" way, here's a secret to rpg's, there is no right or correct way to play. Play as a good guy or play as a bad guy, spend the entire game hunting or just do the quests, no matter what it is you do have fun doing it. One thing is for sure, you will never forget your experience. One last piece of advice. Don't follow a guide, don't question what you do, like I said there is no wrong way. Really try to play an RPG as a Role Playing Game, get into your chacracter. You can give him/her a backstory, when making choices try and think like your character, what would they do?

Welcome again and enjoy your journey. After you play this game play it again as someone else or try one of the older elder scrolls games or play fallout. All the games made by Bethesda are some of my favorite. Don't miss out on them.

AS someone else said haveing fun is the most important thing. And this is my biggest tip. Their is NO time limit!!! Do not feel rushed into anything! If you start getting alot of quest's, turn off the marker's that you aren't doing right now!

I tend to turn off every marker but the one I am doing and when I finish that one IF I want to go right into another, I will turn all the marker's back on. See what is close to where I am, then turn the rest back off. If I really am not in the mood to do a Quest I might just explore my way to where ever that char call's home.

In before Steve's post next week. Why does destruction magic svck so much?

Perks are boosts to a skill. They are not required to make your game successful, in fact, you can pick no perks and still achieve success, it will just be harder. Not all Skills have Perks that are needed, for example, you can never pick a lockpicking perk and still open every lock in the game. Even in skills where Perks are very helpful, like 2 Handed, not all 2 Handed Perks are needed for that skill either.

In fact, you can save a perk until later, you do not have to use one at each level up.

Yes, it is better, to focus on a few skills to the exclusion of the others. And, multiple characters, one for each play style, may be the best way to get the most enjoyment out of the game.

To expand on this a little:

It's not that you have to artificially limit yourself in order to stay under the "soft cap". If you don't spend time leveling skills that your character isn't using/perking, then you should never really be able to progress higher than level 50.

wow, thanks for all the info, coming from some other forums where the only reply i would get is "Noob, gtfo", this really helped

Yeah, I know the feeling. This is a great community to get help whenever you need it! Btw, here, have a http://images.uesp.net/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg. Welcome!

I'm glad we could help. Been their done that on other forum's, usually to ask a question for my husband about one of his games.

You may also want to consider trying a little bit of everything at first (getting to low 20s is pretty easy) to give you time to figure out what you like, and then specialize on your second character.

My first character had a sword in one hand and a spell in the other, and sometimes used a shield, and I sneaked and did a ton of things. I ended up realizing I like swinging a sword better then firing a spell, and my second character was far more focused.

@Steve

Lots of good advice here. I played the heck out of Oblivion but when I started Skyrim I hoarded my perks until I had six of them and had a feel for the game before I spent any, so don't feel rushed to spend your perks. On the other hand, don't sweat it too much either because it is really easy (and fun) to start a new character and experiment with different builds. And no matter where you spend your perks, your character will do just fine.

The UESP site has a lot of good info. If you stick to pages discussing skills there are not too many spoilers. Beware reading about quests and such on the UESP if you want to avoid spoilers, however.

My only other advice about the three types of destruction magic (fire/frost/shock) is that there are a lot of creatures in Skyrim that are resistant (or immune) to frost and weak to fire (and a few that are the other way around). There are very few creatures who are either resistant or weak to shock (though there are a couple). So the choice of which to use is situational depending on what you are facing.

Have fun and welcome!

thank you for all the help, but i have even more questions, lol, im a noob

Ask away my friend:) I assure you no question will go unanswered. Some of us have been playing this game from day one and everyday since. If you sat down right now and played Skyrim for 3 weeks without even taking a break you still wouldn't of played as long as many hours as I have, I'm sure many other people here can say the same. The coolest part about that is I still discover cool things everyday.

lvl up will get you someplaces but the perks is where you get the player you want...

love being called a novice when i put in 80 or more hours a week on dumb @ss video games...