So I have two characters in mind, both based on D&D, of sorts. One is a Cleric type character. Heavy armor, shield, blunt weapon (mace?), restorative magic, perhaps some charm/command spells, conjur/raise dead, etc

The other is a ranger type. I'm thinking dark elf, maybe dual wielding (I know, I know...) or human with bow and arrow + greatsword/broadsword.

Any advice, or anything I should know before about either of these builds? I haven't gotten into the game yet, and am still unfamiliar with the myriad of changes in skills/game mechanics since Oblivion.

Thanks.

Make both? Play one of them one day, and the other the next day?

Try a Bosmer ranger. The Bosmer are the elves that are all about the outdoors.

What skills are you thinking about using for the ranger?

As for the cleric, seriously consider (1) smithing for any serious melee character and (2) block. If you don't use block, but prefer spell + one-handed weapon, then try out the ward spells to boost your defenses. I don't know anything about wards, if they block weapons or just spells or what, but block is a seriously useful skill, so if you give it up, be sure and do something else to shore up your defenses.

That's not really my style. I usually play through one character, then other after I get bored/complete the game.

That's probably the best way to go. Playing two at once might get confusing as far as remembering which quest was going at the moment, and what you were wanting to do next.

I'm not too keen on the bosmer, unless they've become more "badass" in Skyrim...Oblivion pretty much turned me off to them, haha! I would mainly focus on stealth to get around unnoticed, with archery to soften up baddies, then go in for the kill. I'm thinking either dual wield, as in a Drizzt type character, or single blade, no shield, as in an Aragorn/Strider type character. Other skills (speechcraft, ect) are not as important. Alchemy would be good to have, I'd imagine.

For the cleric, block makes sense, if I'm using a shield. Not sure what disabling spells are in the game, but the focus might be restoration, conjuring, and pummeling.

I think I enjoyed playing a ranger type in Skyrim than any other class. Go with that, if it makes you happy.

Thanks. BTW, I stole your scepter from your manor!

I've started modeling my characters after games I enjoy from the past. I made a Dragoon class in Morrowind today that was an attempt to replicate the class as best I could. I'd also like to make a character like Zidane from FF9... however I need the khajit's to have human(ish) looking faces rather than the ones they have to pull it off.

Come back here, you taffer!

Well, if you're going for a D&D/Tolkien type classic ranger, alchemy would be essential. Remember Aragorn used the King's Leaf or whatever the herb was called on Frodo's wound from the Nazgul blade. I've never used light armor, but I'd say sneak, one-handed, archery, light armor, and alchemy would be a wise selection, giving you versatility without spreading out too much. The only downside is that you're giving up three potent defensive skills: smithing, heavy armor and block. If you give up all three of those, I'd say you need to consider some Restoration (possibly not what you want for your character type) or possibly Alteration for the X-skin spells - and again, this might not be the kind of character you want.

Alternatively, you could focus like a monomaniac on improving your stealth and archery skills, and add in some poison-making skills to improve your chances of one-shotting enemies, or at least preventing them finding you until you've turned them into a pincushion - a dead pincushion hopefully. In short, if you take neither magic school, and you give up the three big non-magical defensive skills (block, smithing and heavy armor) then you'll need your ranged offense and sneak to be one hell of a defense for you. Otherwise you might start getting one-shotted. I'd also learn to be patient, especially with groups of enemies, and possibly consider working at night to decrease your enemies' ability to see you.


You could basically choose three or four combat skills: block, one-handed (mace, for the old-school D&D authenticity) and restoration and conjuring, and swap between them as necessary.

Ask one of the more magic-experienced people if wards block non-magical damage from melee weapons and arrows. If they do, then you might not need Block, at least if you have sufficient magic.

EDIT: Also I meant to add this: If you're playing a good cleric, you'll have to think about conjuration. I don't think you can conjure anything except Daedra and the Undead. The Undead of course would be out of the question for any good character, and only suitable for the Evil Priest or Necromancer types, but even with the Daedra it sounds more fitting for mages or evil priests. Good mages can get away with summoning evil otherworldly creatures and forcing them to do their bidding, but if you're looking at an old-school D&D cleric type, who gets his magical power directly from the gods, what good god is going to grant their servants the power to summon evil spirits? Seems like they'd be more likely to send good spirits to aid their servants instead - yet there seems to be none such in TES, at least as potential summonees.

Hah! I loved those games.

I have an evil (>:3) D&D type cleric character, uses restoration, sword and board and necromancy. One thing you should know is mace is BAD for sword and board cleric.
1.) They are slow.

• It is usually block, swing, block, sometimes second block doesn't come up fast enough to block the counter attack or it is bash to stagger, swing, bash.
  
• Compare this to a sword that allows you to block, swing, swing, block, or bash, swing, swing, bash.

2.) They use craploads of stamina

• You will probably not put so much into stamina, like 40/50/10 magicka/health/stamina so that is a big deal
  
• Blocking also uses a fair amount of stamina while absorbing a block, or bashing.

The perks that improve specialized weapons such as hack and slash, bone breaker, and bladesman, are all horrible. The armor reduction of 75% means very little on armor wearing npcs since they have almost no armor skill, bladesman only increases damage calculated from base damage, which is like an additional 2 damage for a daedric sword, the bleeding damage for axes is pathetic and doesn't work on a lot of enemies.

Another thing is get the perk that lets healing spells restore stamina asap, it is awesome. Absorb stamina and absorb magicka is awesome for cleric weapon.

Example cleric gameplay on master difficulty to see if it is something you would enjoy: http://youtu.be/nafPLfNCo8I

Yeah, I thought about your general point about stamina. Not in relation to a mace, but thinking about how he'll spend his leveling-points. My Nord Warrior got by with 2/3rds going to Stamina, 1/3rd into health on average, but if he's gonna have any magic potential, he might need to do 1/3rd each, or maybe even 1/2 magic, 1/4th health. 1/4th stamina. That's a tough call; these multi-class types can be a bit tough. Thieves and warriors can get by with all their points into health and stamina, pure mages can get by with all (or almost all) in magic, but what do you do with mixed magic/melee characters?

Half and half magicka health is what I did, restoration with respite perk restores stamina with healing spells. Use that to restore your stamina until you get a stamina absorb weapon. With stamina absorb on your weapon, you have 0 problems after that.

Didn't you run into weight-maximum problems with only 100 stamina? I get kinda obsessive about loot, at least at early levels. In Oblivion even my warrior at later levels had Feather boots and knew like three different Feather spells to cast so he could haul out as much loot as possible...even though he had full Daedric armor and weapons and had more cash than he knew what to do with, and all the houses, fully furnished.

No, but I made money with enchanting sneak boots, I call them "Sneakers." Also, I use necromancy and stuff corpses full of loot. You can't really do that until you get dead thrall, but if you have a staff of zombies or similiar, that doesn't turn corpses to ash either. Oh, and dremora corpses never turn to ash. Also, full set of elven armor only weighs a few pounds. I also return home and sell/stash everything between dungeons.

Best name I've heard in a long time!