Hi there,

I started playing this game 2 days ago and I really like it. The problem is that I've been enjoying the main story quests but I don't know where to go to receive the more important (cool) side quests.

I want to play this game as a warrior and I have no idea what perks to choose from because I basically want all of them

There's so much choice in this game and I have no idea where to start.

There's a mage school, a thieves guild but I haven't seen a place where warriors can go.
It's all a bit overwelming. The companions, the empire.. I have no idea where to start and I have no guideline how I should play the game.
I'm even thinking about restarting once I get some information so I can improve my game experience

Did anyone else have this feeling that there is sooo much to do that you don't know where to start? And what did you guys do to fix this problem?

Thanks in advance!

Kind regards, Rennok

well..maybe you should start by doing bounties? Just go to any local inn in major towns or steads and ask the innkeeper if there is any work... you can also ask them about rumours which lead you to various quests too. As for warrior build, stick to the martial perk trees, two handed one handed block heavy armor etc.. and pump your lvls into health and stamina. You could also go off and join the legion or stormcloaks and even the companions...the companions are basically Skyrims fighters guild. But i would hold that off untill you get to know te world etc... so i would recommend doing bounties for now and bashing and cracking bandit/creature/monster skulls and earn some xp...not only in the sense of leveling but of the world you are in too..

What I have always done with these styles of games is start with a test character and do as much as possible so that you get a feel for the game. Don't put all your love into your first character, You might think you want a particular type of character but after playing a bit want the opposite.

If it all seems too much to take in at first, just wonder off into a dungeon. You don't have to take all the quests, you can leave things alone and just do as you please.

http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/dogate_til_fishystick.jpg

Do the Companions if you want a warriors guild.

if you want side quest, you need to talk with many, many npcs when i start a new rpg, i talk with every npc i meet on my way. guards excluded in skyrim, they are only complaining about arrows in the knee....

Best to start with small jobs and even nordic ruins. In those ruins, always look for urns and dead draugr as they always have gold. If you have a good enough pickpocket skill, then pickpocket jarls as they have about 1000 gold each. Do bountys as chiefs and dragons always have about 300 gold and dragons also have bones which are worth a lot.

You best start in the major cities, take a carriage and there will always be some person that starts a side quest. In windhelm go to the graveyard for a detective quest, in markarth just kill the man with a sword when you enter, and in morthal go to the burnt house. Try the mages guild or darkbrotherhood as you get a lot of money. If you do it right, you can snag 20000 gold at the end of the darkbrotherhood!

If you want to be a warrior, stick with that. Don't be tempted with all the other stuff. That's the thing about these games, you can always make a mage or assassin when you feel your warrior has done and seen all you want. Don't try and go everywhere with one character, or worry about mastering loads of skills; pick a build, find a home, do a load of stuff in a few areas, then when you start a new character, even though you may get the 'seen this done that' feeling after going through the first dungeon, just turn south instead of going north next time, and lo and behold, there is new stuff. Don't forget to try your hand at crafting, a bit of smithing for a warrior goes a long way.

I also have another question..

There are misc quests and actual side quests that just turn up in your journal as quests..

Are the misc quests equally important?

In what way 'important'? The misc. ones are generally smaller and don't count as a real 'side quest' in terms is the 'do 10 side quests' achievement, but apart from that...

What I mean by "important" you wont see any cool stuff or events etc?

And you probably wont receive any important items except for a few coins?

The thing about Elder Scrolls games is that they tend to be big and open with lots of content so you can go back, create another character and have a completely different experience the next time you play. The Misc quests can give some very nice rewards and chances to increase your skills but they aren't essential, just added flavour to make you feel you're in a world with people in it beside the characters in the main quest line.

As for the original point of the thread remember that it's a role playing game. Look at the quests you're doing and ask yourself would your character be doing them. Maybe you see your character as urgently focussed on doing the main quest line because it's the greatest danger to Skyrim. Or maybe you see your character as somebody that doesn't abandon ordinary people or figures he needs to gain allies and experience before taking on the end of the world. Bethesda has given you a marvellous sand box to play in so just go and have fun, don't get obsessed with doing every quest with one character.

As for generic advice on being a warrior I'd say the easiest style in Skyrim is the one handed weapons with shields. Shield Bash is enormously powerful in this game. Staggering opponents keeps them from damaging you and, in the case of spell casters and archers, from backing out of your reach. That said two handed weapons with power attacks will finish fights a lot quicker. Often one hit against lightly armored spell casters and bandits. Mainly just chose a style you enjoy.

Only real danger you have, if you've never played a skill based game, is "over levelling" by raising your non-combat skills too fast too soon. Remember, most of the enemies you'll face will increase in level to match you and their skill increases will be exclusively focussed on comabt skills. If you get excited when you discover Alchemy or Persuasion and jump up three or four levels without boosting your combat skills you could be lagging fatally behind.

They aren't too important for now. You should just focus on what you feel is important and then get deeper into the other stuff later. Don't get over your head or you will be more confused. I found these kinds of games quite easy to get into, so I can't understand the feeling entirely. I do know that taking things slow and letting yourself get used to the game is a good idea.

• just have fun....take off cross country and see what you can find and do.....explore

My first TES, Oblivion, had me feeling that way too, I got through the sewers, then stood there just like, so I just walk to there or? I can go anywhere?

My mate lent it me, and didn't say it was free roam, never heard of TES before, and I just assumed from the intro that it was a guided storyline, man was I wrong and yeah, never really had a game that "open" before, I had played open world games before, but nothing as expansive as that (closest was probably GTA SA, a pseudo-RPG of sorts). I didn't even have the box or manual to reference to cos I just got the disc in a sleeve. Perplexed for hours before I finally decided to search something about the game, fell upon the UESP and man, when I started seeing all the things you could do I damn near fell over.

From that moment til now, I have loved TES games.

I always start with exploring the world; that's what the game aims for after all. Visiting towns and cities, checking out rumours and news facts about the world by talking to npcs, taking on interesting quests (small or big, doesn't matter), checking out the wilds while traveling to a quest destination, visiting tombs or caves I encounter along the way, ... That's how I tackle it anyway. I was level 30-ish before I finally visited Mount Hrothgar. I decided to check out all cities and towns, and their corresponding holds, before actually starting the main quest. I haven't taken sides in the civil war yet because while the ideals of the Stormcloaks overlap my character's, I don't really like Ulfric, and the ideals of the Imperial Legion are completely the opposite of my character's.

Just a head's up on that:
1) I'm the type who almost never fast travels (so I can enjoy the random encounters and check out places while on route),
2) I heavily roleplay with my character,
3) some other quests can bug out on you if you just randomly clear places and loot things, because they accidentally also take place on that same spot (e.g. you clear out a fort, and later you take on a "Kill the bandit leader" quest at that same fort. You'll have to wait for 30 in-game days for that fort to reset, unless the place bugs out too and it won't reset anymore. At all.). On that matter, I just thought "[censored] you" at the game and did whatever I wanted, bugs or no bugs. But I'm playing on the computer, so I've got a means to solve most bugs too.
4) Make sure you don't only level non-combat skills, certainly at the beginning. Enemies level with you, so if you only level for example smithing, enchanting or Alchemy, you'll become everyone's biatch. Sometimes it's better to run away from a fight, but always running away will render you quite a weak character. So don't forget about One-handed and/or other offensive skills. Best advice is to start at Riverwood, check out the surroundings, take up some sidequests there, and you'll be good. Don't rush with the main quest, even though all the npcs tell you there's no time to waste (that counts for all the quests really, except for the Companions' radiant quest "Rescue Mission") - they'll wait for you for all eternity anyway. Alduin won't decide to pay you a little visit if you solved every single npc's mundane problem, but didn't even go up the big mountain. He's a chill dragon like that.
5) Be careful not to overdo your leveling either. The game will eventually get way too boring that way. Do it steadily. Also, don't try to go for the most powerful weapons and armor - take those which suit you best. As an example, I'm level 52 and still using the standard Scaled armor instead of Dragonscale. Also, either go for heavy armor, which is stronger but slower and requires more stamina, and thus mainly suited to tank characters, or for light armor, which is meant for fast and sneaky characters.

Alas, the sidequests (which is actually what you asked for lol):
- Mages: College of Winterhold (although you can easily finish it as a warrior too. The game mechanics are bad like that)
- Thieves: Thieves' Guild at Riften
- Warriors: The Companions at Whiterun. There's a twist to it 'though, which can be quite annoying if you don't agree with it. Not agreeing equals not being able to finish the whole questline after all.
- Assassins: Dark Brotherhood via sidequest at either Windhelm (listen to rumours) or Riften (act like a 'righteous' assassin). There's also a small sidequest to destroy this guild, but you'll have to do the little sidequest at Windhelm or Riften first, and during the 'initiation' you'll have to make the decision to do the hidden option. Think it through. It's the only chance you'll get to destroy the guild. (Destroying it isn't worth much 'though, very small quest, little reward compared to joining it, and this guild has one of the best storylines in the game. Destroying it is mostly aimed at the roleplaying bunch who play with 'good' characters (which my character is part of ^^))

- Stormcloaks vs. Imperial Legion: The Imperials are best compared with the Ancient Romans and their empire, while the Stormcloaks are similar to the Germanics. Pick a side which your character (or you if you're not really into RP'ing) suits best. Check the uncountable "Stormcloaks vs. Imperials" (and similarly "Uflric vs.Tullius") threads on the forum to know more about their ideals, background info, etc. Or simply visit the UESP page (skip the quests part) about the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Imperial_Legion and the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Stormcloaks if you don't want to read too much. After joining, you get a last chance to change sides during the "Jagged Crown" quest. I also heard the Stormcloaks only use light armor, while the Imperials also got some heavy armor. Might be interesting to know.


(TL;DR:) I don't think there's more to know really. Just discover the world at your own pace, don't rush through the main quest too much, and be careful with leveling and completing quests.


Ah, and most important: make MULTIPLE SAVES! One before you start (a part of) a quest, one or several during the quest, one right before the end of the quest, and one after you completed the quest bug-free. Bugs are a major attribute of the TES games after all ... You'll need to reload when it happens.

That is usually correct, but some of them lead into proper side quests.

Thanks for all the help doggiedog and all others ofcourse.

I also noticed. I'm now part of the companions AND the thieves guild. So is it possible to do all of their quests? Or is this just a bug?

You can do all the guild questlines in this game.

Oblivion was my 1st TES game and I only played my 1st character for about 15 lvl's, totally changed my mind on what I wanted to do, so with Skyrim I created a test character and did alot of exploreing and a little bit of all the questlines, I really didn't worry about "breaking" a quest with that character, but she did teach me alot about what I wanted to do 1st.

My biggest thing is I don't do alot of random exploreing with character's that are doing specific Questlines. I have a character that doesn't do questlines at all, just explores and "dungeon dives". Amber doesn't have to worry about messing up a questline by going into any ruins or anything. That's not to say that my character's don't explore, they do but usually after the questline they are going to do is done OR becuase I know such and such a cave isn't tied to the questline they are doing they go explore it.

When you lvl up you aren't sure which perk to take, don't, just pick your magic, health or stamina, save the perk til you know how you want to use it.

You want to start out with a warrior... companions, civil war and MQ are all good for that. Or just doing your own thing, RP as a bounty hunter, explore, be a treasure hunter. If you want to follow a Questline for your 1st playthrough, I would do the companions, of course if you want Dragon's do the MQ.

It's just my playstyle but I like to only do one new questline per character. To me that makes the game last longer and each character explores a little. Plus it gives me a chance at really different styles of characters, Though I know alot of ppl like to do everything with one character. Nothing wrong with that either. So my first RP character did MQ and alot of the Dragon priest dungeons, my 2nd did Companions and MQ and some of the Deadric ( the ones that fit that character). My 3rd did TG and some of MQ, just enough to get dragon's. The Battlemage I am doing the DLC with did MQ, cvil war and is getting all the Dragon Priest masks.

I really don't care about getting aceivements or lvl'ing to 81, it's all about RPing to me. If my character wouldn't do a quest morally then he/she doesn't.

Storing your loot might be a problem at the beginning. I did the blood on the ice quest at Windhelm so I could become a squatter at Hjerim & there was no hurry in buying a house. I haven't had anything taken from the one chest in Hjerim while squatting there.