By that I mean, do you say "I'm going to be a sword and shield person and nothing else," or do you allow yourself the ability to alter your build if you feel it fits the story?

For instance, with one character I originally decided I wasn't going to so much pick up a two-handed weapon, let alone use one, but after a near death experience with a Draugr that liked to disarm me, I found myself killing it with an Ancient Nord Greatsword out of sheer desperation. After that, I paid for some training and gradually started trying to learn how to use it in actual combat.

I've also joined the College of Winterhold with characters who were initially opposed to magic when they failed to protect a character or couldn't heal them from not having potions on hand.

There are other examples I can list, but I won't for now. Just curious as to how you go about it.

I don't think it's possible to role play "wrong."

Usually static but ocasionally events in the game change my plans
In Oblivion 1 character was going to be a "pure mage" but one of her spells accidentally hit a guard she was trying to help. He attacked her, she ended up killing him, and it all went downhill from there. She ended up more of a Nightblade type and joined the DB.

Didn't say anything about playing "wrong."

I meant that it's completely up to the player if they hold themselves to a very strict set of rules or allow their character to develop and change based on how events turn out. Although admittedly, game mechanics do seem to favor a more static model, what with not being able to reassign perks, etc

Depends on the character build. My orc berserker was a stubborn old gal, didn't like to do anything aside from her basic battleaxe swinging and heavy armor wearing. My current character, however, is a Khajiit thief who dabbled in Illusion. After seeing how powerful magic is when you focus your abilities on it, she broadened her horizons and maxed out Alteration as well, so she basically sticks to the things that better change those and the world around her to her advantage. That in mind, she has no need for Restoration since she's a loner and Destruction is useful but some misguided Firebolts have alerted enemies to her position soooo that's not good.

So far, I've stuck with my favoritism towards Archery and dual wielding dos daggers or sword main-hand/dagger off-hand, but I feel as though it's perfectly acceptable to go against your initial "I'm only going to use X weapon because that's how it should be" when you encounter a crisis or realization that something else works amazingly. It can be a sort of epiphany for your character that the world isn't exactly how he/she thought and things aren't always black and white.

Point of the story, you can absolutely RP that your character has a moment when their bias towards a combat style (or even the way they socialize) isn't the end-all-be-all answer to life, the universe, and everything.

That said, there are certainly people who will brute force a game mechanic with one setup (say, sword and board) until they get lucky or find a working tactic.

It comes in two forms for me: boundaries and goals. I set boundaries and stay within them regardless, but I don't set many of them. Additionally, I have goals for each of my characters and work to meet them as cleanly as possible. However, in the case of goals I allow myself leeway if I feel a need to deviate. Often this deviation is played out in character due to a personal reaction I have to something in-game. Unfortunately, sometimes I deviate from my goals because the game forces me to do so (or severely penalizes me if I don't). For instance, I had no intention of using smithing or enchanting with my current character, but not doing so leaves me at a huge disadvantage. Until there are mods that make it unnecessary, I'll likely role-play those skills into every character I make.

I personally do not have the time to play multiple characters. Nor do i wish to have to go through the same things over & over again. My role play is progressive. I started wanting to do as much as I could in skyrim. So initially I am a battlemage using destruction & light elven armor only weilding a mace.
After going through what seemed the 2 similar quest chains, (Greybeards & Mages college). I have become disgusted after saving the world & no one seems to have changed or cared, my character has gone off the deep end & joined the DB & TG at about level 40. Just about done with those level 50 & I will have a spiritual awakening & need to take a stand & join the civil war & get some training from the companions. never quite losing my lust for the dark side from here out though. All along slowly doing random adventuring between main quests & using random followers.
this works perfect for me.
I also switch my weapons & armor accordingly for each life style choice.
Elven, then leather and nightingale for DB & TG, Then imperial armor for Civil war & companions (I am a high elf after all).

I set out with a plan, but I'm willing to change it up if i think it will make it more exciting, or more successful. Like I started with a "pure" mage, but then decided to throw some armor on her. I don't mind changing it up, but I don't get too haphazard about it!

Most of my character's evolve somewhat. I have goal's for them, this character is going to do this... He/she will be a..... My thief for example was suposed to do TG and DB with some of the Deadric quests inbetween. Alittle way's into the TG I realized she had been going out of her way not to kill anyone, so her goal's changed and with it the DB and Deadric quests ( or at least not all of them ) got dropped and I will do them with another character. Instead it will be her mission to distroy all the Dragon Priests.

I try to have my characters to behave more or less like us. We must adapt to the circumstances, we sometimes have to change our minds and make decisions we don't really like, etc.

Mostly static unless something good enough in-game or in real life (like change in interests) makes me feel like changing my character's style.

For example, my first character was supposed to be a battlemage using sword and spell, but then I picked up a shield and realised how much more efficient in combat I became, and I also really liked the shield so I switched to sword and shield.

Also, I have a character that was using Light Armour roleplaying as a Penitus Oculatus Agent, but then I played Rome: Total War and got more and more interested with the Legionaries wearing the Lorica Segmentata so I switched to the Heavy Imperial Armour.

People should play however they have the most fun; I don't play too strictly with my characters. There's a lot to learn and I had to fight my preference for magic and do a warrior build. It ended up being more battlemage but I'm really glad I explored the warrior perk trees with One-Handed, Block and Light Armor. I especially enjoyed Block. My magic characters mostly fight from range with spells so there were never any kill animations. I was ok with that but enjoyed a few of all kinds of animations with the new patch. Next time, I'll explore a different perk tree or two and see where it takes me. I really love the Archery too.

My first character started off as a reckless 'make it up as you go along' kinda gal, always rushing in with blind optimism and confidence in her blade, but then she became enamoured with the DB and the Thieves Guild and went from brazen warrior to sneak master. Sorta tricky to pull off an efficient assassination or filch a pretty bauble when you're always charging in like a bull in a china shop. I tried to keep my second character solely on the bow and arrow at first, her being a huntress and all, but she soon learned that you're in need of a much better weapon than a tiny sliver of metal on a stick when there's a saber cat clawing at your face. Nobody wants to drag a greatsword around when they're trying to sidle up to an unsuspecting deer, so a dagger became her back-up. My third girl's a mage and finds nonmagical combat distasteful, but she will occasionally come to fists when she wants to teach someone a lesson without permanently damaging them. Like a certain racist jerk in Windhelm. Ahem. She's pretty inflexible about her 'no pointy things' rule, though, and has yet to break it.

I create the character and then see how it goes. I usually have an idea of what I think they will do, but my characters tend to grow and change quite a bit through the game.

I don't know if people consider my style RPing because I won't do anything ingame that I wouldn't do if faced with the same situations in RL.

On my 1st character he's a warrior type dual wielding Daedric swords and only deviated it slightly to level 2-H and grind Block up to recover perk points I 'wasted'. He destroyed the DB and will not do the TG (although I'm tempted so I can get the Fences ). He only wears heavy armor (Daedric usu and Dragonplate while doing the MQ). He always takes his helmet off when he's in town or around non-hostiles. His Sneak is pretty high, but he doesn't 'backstab' - I mainly sneak on him to prevent being ambushed and check out rooms with multiple hostiles.

On my 2nd character she's an assassin type. I did the DB and TG stuff, but even in the small jobs I rejected a lot of them if I didn't want to victimize the mark. She doesn't pickpocket as a means to make money and only did enough Fishing jobs to level Pickpocket to 100. The only reason I leveled Pickpocket is because I'm contemplating getting Misdirection so I can pickpocket some of the female NPCs clothes so...NVM...I'm a pig and you get where I'm going with this. She dual wields Ebony daggers because they look a little more girly than the Daedric ones. Also, when performing the backstab-throat slash it looks a little more realistic because the spines of the Ebony Daggers look more edge-like than the spines of the Daedric daggers with that hand-shield spine. She always wears light armor (usu Forsworn, but sometimes the Hide set with the bikini-top shawl body piece and always Dragonscale for the MQ.). She wears either Tavern Clothes with a Gold and Emerald Circlet or Noble Clothes with a Gold and Ruby Circlet when she's in town or around non-hostiles. After she completes the MQ she'll add Emperor's Robes into her 'leisure' clothes rotation.

I refuse to do Namira's or Boethiah's quests on either of them and neither of them victimize polite, non-hostile NPCs for 'fun'.

I think that you shouldn't have rules when it comes to roleplaying.......unless you have certain rules in real life and that's your style, I just think you should create a character and act how you saw the character acting as you went through the customization. At the moment I'm on A Nord Descendant of the CoC(I played A Nord character in Oblivion once) and he has the powers which were meant to be for the CoC but Akatosh used his power at the last fight, so he wasn't strong enough for 182 years(you can guess the age). My Nord flees to Morrowind with his family(at the age of 13) to escape the DB who found out about their ancestory, when he was 17 he accidentally found out he could use some unknown magic with his voice and shouted at his family and killed them(by accident) and then he crosses over into Skyrim.....and I stick to 3 rules: 1: never use the Thu'um 2: take down the DB. 3: use whatever means possible to achieve his goals.

See what I did there? just use your imagination and you can do alot of interesting things and really make you think twice about your actions in Skyrim!

Oh, and he is also a skooma adict, 3 bottles A day keeps the shakes away!

I found my stealthy assassin evolve into an expert marksman and psuedo-ranger class.

Good question. I played Oblviion a master of everything. Skyrim, I played 3 archetypes, covering different guilds, and sticking to the chosen skill sets. I found it more fun the second way.

Static.

Unless you're playing as a character who is a jack-of-all-trades type.

First that seems like an illogical restraint to put on yourself.

I think I have a different definition of "role" playing than others. That decision on your part sounds more like a house rule than a role, IMO. I look at "role" playing as if I was acting in a movie. You wouldn't act the part of Spiderman like you were the Hulk, right?

Establish a role or boundaries for your character and try to stay within them. Constantly ask yourself: would (x) do this?

In your experiences have you ever seen a character who would refuse to use a certain type of weapon when they were in a life/death fight?

That's like saying a highly trained MMA fighter wouldn't use a rock/stick if their life depended on it and then afterwards turning around and abandoning their martial arts training because they won a fight using a weapon.

Consider yourself lucky and think of ways to avoid a similar situation. Take the advice of bandits and carry a dagger if you're tired of being disarmed.

That might be the limits of your character.

You can't save everyone. Being better supplied wouldn't help?

If you choose to go into a dungeon with followers and you only bring one or two potions for them and they die...that's on you.

You don't need to learn magic you just need to bring more potions. If you bring a ton of potions but run out before you finish the mission...that's on you too. You just have to fight smarter and conserve your potions there's no need to learn magic.


My characters NEVER have uber armor ratings (my average AR is @85). I NEVER wear full suits of armor either. I NEVER use a shield. I NEVER use enchanted weapons.

Having said all that...I NEVER get engaged in sustained melee either. I'll be crushed. I accept that as the limitation of my character. No matter how many melees I lose I would never become a walking tank. I just try to fight smarter and use skill/technique to replace power.

I don't use companions/followers, besides the fact that they're annoying and get in the way all the time, mainly because I can't heal them.

Those are some of the established/accepted limits on my characters, IMO, it makes the game more fun because it forces me to think my way through some situations. Instead of being a potion popping tank hacking my way through everything.