Whats the best gear a character could concievably get with only like 1-hour of playtime?

So far I got Orcish gear of Delphine and found out that the "felow escapee's" family, when offering you gifts, can offer you magic items at random. So thats an orcish bow and a magic ring or so right in Riverwood.

A level 8 character of mine got an Ebony Sword but that required him to win a fight with a Death Overlord which spawned at Arcwind point. I havnt confirmed it yet but im guessing you always get at least a Deathlord up there and you can even climb that mountains from the back to fight ONLY that last highest level boss. So MAYBE that is a garunteed ebony weapon but I havnt tested it to see if anything weaker (like a Scourge) has a chance to spawn in that last casket.

You could also end up killing Astrid to get her dagger with less than an hour of playtime.

Anyone know anything else I could use?

If you were on pc I would say get a nice witches mod... Other than that... Elven or steel.

If you're planning on going with a stealthy build, laying your mitts on a full set of Shrouded Armour is as easy as stabbing one old lady and one of three helpless victims. Joining the Companions to get your hands on Skyforged Steel is also quite brief, just a single radial mission to start, then Dustman's Cairn.

Yes but Skyforge steel is outclassed by Ebony weapons, which seem to have a good chance of appearing on certain bosses that appear outside of dungeons, like the one I mentioned.

The armor is a good idea. Too bad I need to wait to get the dagger in that case.

Although going to Dustmans also nets you silver...which is crappy against non-undeads but the +20 damage to undead enemies may be what I need to run to Arcwind and kill that boss.

To forge Ebony weapons, you need to have 4 perks sunk into smithing, and a skill of 80, and all you get for that is +2 damage. Skyforged Steel you can forge to superior to base ebony with 22 smithing and 1 perk. Also, you can get the Wolf Armour set if you're a Companion as well, so it's definitely a solid go-to pick for heay armour users.

id agree with this. Plus in my opinion the steel/skyforge steel sword is one of the few types in the game that look like a real sword.

Exploits for archers: Aela has an Elven Bow in her room that you can steal. Faendal can train you to 50 in archery. Fort Amol has Bound Bow spellbook. Super strong archer in 30 minutes.

Im not particularly interested in asthetics. If I was I wouldnt use wolf-armour as I dislike the design.

FORGING ebony isnt something I tend to do. Tested the arcwind point with two characters. Level 3 didnt get an ebony wielding boss but a level 9 did. Bout 2 hours of playtime on them both (different playstyles) and my level 9 didnt have to spend a single perk to get his ebony weapon, making it a better deal than the skyforge.

Granted the trade-off is the danger of taking on a level 40+ boss enemy with a level 9 character. I used wolf-form to do it.

well if you dont do smithing then it is probably worth it. If you do smithing without trying to power level it out(which is alot more tedious now) then elven and skyforge steel are great for the first half of your playthrough. There is also an elven bow in the companions guild hall if you are into archery. Considering you can have Faendal in Riverwood train you to lvl 50 in archery at no cost to you archery builds have it pretty easy.

Steel Plate Armor is decent. Some of the best, most realistic, looking armor too. When I'm not raiding dungeons in my Ebony armor I wear Steel Plate because I love the way it looks.

EDIT: Although, now that I think about it, I'm not sure at which level Steel Plate becomes available.

Smithing level 50, I believe.

The trade off is that you're waiting for level nine to get your ebony weapon and you can finish Dustman's Cairn at like, level four. So it's still a good step up before you grab that Ebony sword.


Level 18 is when you start seeing it on vendors. Some boss bandit types can have it sooner. Of course, you do have to be able to beat them.


You don't NEED to perk steel to forge Skyforged Steel, you can still improve it with nothing more than a steel bar and a grinding stone. It just gets more improvement if you get the perk. My point is that Skyforged is available sooner, and if you're going to take Smithing perks anyway, better than Ebony will be until you've ground a lot of skill.

Ebony Sword: 13 damage
Skyforged Steel Sword: 11 damage

If you're not going to take Smithing, that's your choice, but honestly you're really gimping your potential by not getting it.

If you go to the tavern in Whiterun, and beat up the woman in a brawl (believe her name is Ulfgerth, but not 100% sure), she'll become a follower. Simply take her somewhere isolated and kill her and you've got a full set of steel plate (minus the helmet) in what, 20 - 30 minutes of game time? Pretty good deal if you have no problem killing followers to do it