My apologies if there is already a topic on this. I did a search and did not find anything recent.

Anyway, I'm in the market for a player house to use as my "home base" I already have Breezehome from Whiterun, but sadly it lacks an enchanting table option and I'm getting really (and I'm mean REALLY) tired of Farengar's inane banter. Doesn't that guy ever go to sleep? But I digress.

I also had the Honeyside home in Riften in a previous playthough, but the display racks, plaques and mannequins were seriously glitching out on me. It would be perfect for my purposes, but the place is seriously bugged (on the PS3 version). The racks and plaques were hovering the weapons out way out in front instead of in it's proper place and the mannequins were losing armor enchantments and/or entire armor pieces and they would not clear properly if I wanted to put a different set of armor in.

So basically, I want a home that has an enchanting table and is not bugged to hell. A relatively short walk from the fast travel point would also be a plus, since I tend to be encumbered coming out of dungeons/caves/barrows and the like; The horse gets me to the fast travel spot, but then it's a painfully slow crawl from there when I'm offloading.

Become Arch Mage of Winterhold. There you'll be greatly rewarded

True, but it's a PITA to get in and out of. You FT to the bottom of the entrance ramp to the college, then you have to run/walk all the way to the front, enter to the left and wait for the loading screen. Then you have to do the same with another door. And it doesn't count as a home if you get married. It should, but it doesn't.

I know the OP mentioned problems with Honeyside, but in terms of convenience it's about the same as Whiterun. You have 4 vendors nearby, three of whom buy everything except stolen goods. The other buys nothing but jewelry stuff.

My favorite house is the Markarth house, but in terms of trading/buying/selling, it's the absolute worst. Plus there's only one mannequin.

Hjerim in Windhelm... I detest Windhelm and besides, you have to go all over the place in terms of trading different things.

Proudspire is probably the best middle ground of all of them. Especially if you've reached a certain point in the TG. That lizard carries a good amount of coin and buys everything, including stolen goods; and he's located in the same vicinity as the rest of the shops. So you have up to 6* vendors to trade with and they're all in the same area.

*1. The Lizard
2. Alchemy shop
3. Blacksmith
4. Weapons shop
5. General goods type of shop
6. The snooty dress store

Yes, I started the Winterhold quest, the AM's quarters looks amazing!


I've checked the wiki. Proudspire easily looks like the richest/best player house. It looks like it has it's share of bugs too, at least according to the wiki, but I'm willing to save often and take the risk.

Markarth looks like a great option as well, If Proudspire proves to be too bug-ridden, I may wind up there as a fallback.

As for right now, I'm grinding for dragon scales so I can craft a full set of DS armor but once I get that set improved/enchanted, etc., I will probably slow down on the active looting and trading and land in Vindrel Hall in Markarth.

Thanks for the input!

Solitude

but there's no smelter around.

Really, without the ability to use player-house mods, Breezehome is the best. It doesn't have an Arcane Enchanter, true - but you can fast travel to Dragonsreach easily enough. Just ignore Farengar if he bothers you. And a full smithy is out the front door and down the street less than half a block. As well, there are more places to sell than most other towns: Adrianne - and making sure you don't get them both in the shop together - Ulfberth; right across the road, Elrindir at Drunken Huntsman; up the road is the market, with general goods, alchemist, several minor vendors, the inn; and also Eorlund at Jorrvaskr is handy. Not to mention Riverwood with a blacksmith and general good store down the road - quick fast travel away.

Kill him.

The best non-house home is the old blades Headquarters in Riverwood.

-Alchemy lab and arcane enchanter within a few feet of each other.

-2 chests for storage, and the chest upstairs in the main room is safe but you have to crouch while you use it or the inn owner will attack you for stealing.

-There's 3 sacks in the secret room as well, and they're all safe. Confirmed after going 1-81 on 2 characters who used them.

-The riverwood trader is THE BEST trader once you get the 500 gold investment perk. He gets 10,750 gold to buy with, so you don't need to bother with a dozen different traders with only 750-1k gold each.

-Once in awhile potions and some alchemy ingredients and a coin purse respawns in there.

-There's a smithing spot just down the street from the inn, you could pretty much whirlwind sprint to it.


Only real disadvantage is if you want resting bonuses, you can only get 5% by paying 10 gold to sleep in one of the Inn beds. But if that doesn't matter to you or you're a werewolf (or you don't mind just resting at your normal house), then by all means, Riverwood is THE spot.

Well, doesn't work for someone who's NOT doing the MQ though....

It'd be so much more fun if you could frame him for murder. Kill someone, loot something off their body and plant on Farengar, then tell the Jarl.

True forgot not everyone plays the MQ. To be honest though on my third play through I saved the MQ for late in the game because I hated dealing with dragons, but I eventually broke down and did it JUST for the old blades HQ. It's just too awesome not to use.

Oh I forgot to add that the Sleeping Giant Inn cook/owner (after Delphine leaves) doubles as an alchemist shop. I've gotten daedra hearts/powdered mammoth tusks/and a lot of other ingredients off him. All the other inn keepers just seem to sell salt piles.

@Sanchu.... It's REALLY nice to be playing on the PC version.... because I can just coc into the temple, use setownership on the chests, get the stuff, and NEVER HAVE TO MESS WITH THE REST OF THE CRAP.

No! Not my Farengar! He's one the best characters in the game!

Okay, you win the thread. Literally, I laughed out loud, then had to try to explain to non-game-playing (not to mention non computer-using) husband just WHY I was laughing so hard!

On top of that, you win the ENTIRE internets for your sig. On that note, I think it must be bedtime for me. Cheers!

I agree with Serethil about Breezehome. My second choice is Proudspire Manor in Solitude. One can fast travel to the Blue Palace and the back door to the manor is a straight shot up the path on the right.

Yeah, aside from the fact that you have to be in the MQ to access the secret room, that looks like an awesome place to use as a base.

Hmm, I've had the Proudspire Manor for quite awhile now and haven't experienced any bugs with it yet.

The house in Markarth is the most efficient in my opinion. Quick walk up the stairs from the city gate. Alchemy room is loaded with storage. Display cases all over the house. Easily the most bookshelf space for books. The Markarth fence (Endon) is always around the marketplace area during the day to sell to. There are smelters, tanning racks, etc. at the blacksmith.
Bedroom is also loaded with storage.
2 of the thieves caches are close to the house as well. (The other is at the bottom of the waterfall near the blacksmith).
And it's much cheaper than that overpriced non efficient house in Solitude where you have to walk a mile to get to anything. There are what? 3 barrels for storage on the entire basemant level? And two of them are in the spare room. Just laid out horribly.
And I've only had 1 dragon attack in Markarth ever. And I've probably had this house for over 400 hours now.

I think its more accurate to say that its Delphine's hideout. Not really a Blades HQ. The Blades HQ is in that old temple where you find all the katanas.

For homes, I lean towards Riften and Markarth.

I like Solitude as there is quick access to the basemant, and I have a mod that turns crates and boxes into actual containers I can use so now it has more storage than any other house. Fast Travel to the Blue Palace for a short walk to the place.

I use Breezehome as my distribution hub. After being out and about killing dudes, dragons and raiding dungeons, I always fast travel back to Breezehome to unload and sort through all of my stuff.

Keep all of my ingots, dragon bones/scales and supplies for smithing there as well as my enchanted blacksmithing improving gear.

Take all of my enchanting and alchemy stuff to Vlindrel Hall where I keep my enchanted alchemy gear and the wife.

I load up Proudspire with Gold and jewelry (built my fortune mining gold ore and making and selling jewelry) as this is where I have invested in all vendor shops so I can earn more for my loot.

Keep all of my unique and/or special enchanted weapons and armor like Ebony Mail, Nightingale armor, etc. in Hjerim as well as fun stuff like bugs in jars and those cool skull keys.

Dark Brotherhood hideout I like to keep gear/trophies from people I've killed (kings robes, vittoria vici's wedding gown, etc.) and to just hang with the homies.

Arch Mages Quarters is where I go to get away, meditate and read books.

I dont go to Honeyside too often but its nice to have.

You can store hundreds of items in one barrel. On my last character I must have had 200K worth of nothing but weapons and armor in one of the barrels in Jordis' basemant room. I stored all my alchemy stuff in the one next to it. In the barrel on the right as you come down the stairs, I stored hundreds of miscellaneous items as well. I used the safe upstairs for jewelry items and the chest in the bedroom for my most important weapons and armor.

As for it being "a mile" from all the shops, I have to disagree. I think it takes about 15-20 seconds of real time to go from the front door to the market area. There's also the archers that you can use to get high-end arrows from. And as someone pointed out, you can FT to the Blue Palace and be at your front door in about 10 seconds.

As for dragon attacks, they're rare in Solitude and they always happen outside the front gate, which gives you shelter from attacks from above.

Its only drawback is the price tag. But if one wants there are ways around it. I've never done it because I like the coin I get to have a function, but some don't care; and that's cool too.

As for Markarth, there's one shop downstairs, a near useless market near that; and an alchemy shop that's literally all the way across town. Aesthetically, I think it's by far the best looking house, but it's function is the worst. I tried to base my last character out of there but it was laborious. I always end up in Proudspire.

I just bought the house in WindHelm (I think that's the correct name for the town) I've not moved into it yet but it does have the enchantment table and alchemy table also. A bounes is it's not to far from the forge if your a smith type player and the shops are also close. I've only place one item for display but so far no problems. I'm thinking I will use it as a base for that side of the map.

I play on the PS3. Ever since the most recent patch update I have not experienced any of the housing glitches I had before. The mannequins, book shelves and weapon racks now all behave properly. Try it and see if the problems you had initially have gone away, mine have.