Hi everyone,

as much as I am enjoying the great battles in Skyrim, my inventory management during hard battles is chaotic (even using this interface mod). In a certain way this is also due to my play-style: I am playing a Battle Mage, constantly switching between magic, robes and light armor and weapons. I am using Favorites and "Q" including the hotkeys, but still. So summarizing:

1) Example: Health/magic potions: The thing is that I have all different kinds of health positions in my inventory. Some give more, others less, some come with additional effects. When I put one kind on hotkey 1, during the heat of battle he only will use that one up. I′d think it much more practical if he′d switch automatically to other types of potions.

2) Switching between weapons and magic: When I put for example flames on hotkey 1 and hit twice, he will actually put on into the left, the other one into the right hand. However, this doesn′t work with different weapons. So for example I put an orcish dagger on "2" and a dwarven dagger on "3". However, pressing 2 and after 3 will not result in having these 2 weapons in right and left hand. I rather have to do that manually because he always will only put a weapon into my right hand, never into the left (via hotkeys)

Are there some solutions for these problems or maybe some propositions to handle that more intelligently on my part?

greetings lead

We can't change your gameplay style. This is the way you enjoy playing the game. You can minimize things a little by making sure weapons and potions are at least "favorited" in the hotkey menu and then pause combat to switch.

However, from a roleplaying standpoint, would you really drink potions and change robes during the middle of combat??? I can probably count on two hands the number of times I have actually drank potions during combat ... and although I might change weapons frequently (which the hotkeys are fabulous for), I never change clothes during combat.

Overall, though, I sympathize with your plight. At least the user interface was improved with the first couple of patches ... but an additional "right" or 'left" favorites choice in the hotkeys would help a lot of us. Especially since this could be easy to implement from a dev or mods standpoint.

Thanks for your reply. And of course you are right, drinking potions and changing clothes during battles is not authentic. The thing is that at master of expert difficulty it is hard to survive without drinking (or, alternatively, you use a hit and retreat technique - that works).

Actually I managed already some interface improvals that I can recommend, however it depends on your hardware, or rather your mouse: I got a mouse with 5 keys (well 2 mouse buttons + wheel in the middle and two lateral keys). I put the greater power/dragon shout on the mouse wheel, the magic menu (which usually is at P) and the items menu on the 4th and 5th mouse button. That actually helps a lot already. I will continue experimenting with it a little and later post my overall impression.

I just can't imagine it...the way you battle. During the combat, you have to open your inventory constantly. In my point of view, it kinda terribly breaks the combat flow, make it less fluent.

Try using Restoration spell. Especially Fast Healing. Along with Respite perk, you could totally forget those health&stamina potions (even on Master difficulty. Yes, I can prove that).