Hello!

I've just recently started Skyrim and my first toon is currently at lvl 25

I'd like one of you, more experienced users, to explain to me, why I should get a house?

I mean, eventually, by doing the College of Winterhold quest line you become Arch Mage which grants you the Arch Mages quarter which basically works as a house. And given the fact that you can 'fast travel' throughout the entire province, then why bother getting a house in the different areas?

Faithfully

There are pretty much only 2 reasons to get a house.
1) There is so many cool items in this game that you really need somewhere to store them all.
2) Your followers that you get as Thane from each city will stay in your home when you're not using them.

If you find you might personally like the decor that could be a reason. If you get married you get the lover's comfort 15% skill bonus by sleeping in the same house with them, although you could just use their house. Some houses have neat features like a secret room in Hjerim, Windhelm.

But in general if you want a house that's built around efficiency like having close storage/alchemy labs/arcane enchanter's, none of the houses really suffice.

Personalization and storage.

I would say buy them all first then decide if it was worth it

I agree. This is why I made my own house out of the riverside shack that a bear usually hides in south of Windhelm. I used the console to put a chest, enchanting table, grinding wheel, alchemy table, and lighting inside the shack. I put a gate on the outside so the bear can't get back in and also a forge on the outside. I can fast travel to the shack and find everything that I need within a few seconds.

Thanks all

Personally I'm kinda keen on the Arch Mages quarters, as it has valid storage, nice features, located as a castle with vendors, trainers etc. Does anyone agree, or do you prefer other houses?

And btw., here's a second follow up: some, the users of Skyrim, talk about making their own house, editing, modding and so on: is that just for PC only, or is that feature available for PS3 as well?

Storage is the biggest factor here hore getting a house. Not everyone will do the college questline, or wont do it right away, so the arch mage's room isnt that viable of an option.


And yes, modding is PC only.

The modding is only available on PC (for now, hopefully that will change).


I'd say keep using the Arch-Mage's quarters as your main place, but don't be afraid to go buy more homes. Breezehome in Whiterun tends to be my main base of operations because of its central location, but I enjoy trying to decorate homes with appropriate themes (Dwemer plates and cups in Markarth's house for example).

Houses are good for personalization, storage and roleplay (for example a thief in Riften, a Nord Stormcloak in Windhelm, etc.)

But yes, the Archmage quarters are great. Only downside is there is no mannequin or weapon racks, and I love to have those around. But the little biosphere in the middle is great, plus there's ample storage, alchemy and enchanting tables.

I like the Archmage's quarters (although it would seem logical to have included several usable bookshelves, it seems to me), but I also find Breezehome convenient for smithing and selling miscellaneous items. I store smithing components in the home's storage, and the shops just up the street are useful for selling potions, non-armor apparel, and the like. From a role-playing point of view, having a house in each city where you can have a housecarl seems reasonable. There's certainly no problem with being able to afford the houses, later in the game.

Yes, forgot about that. Archmage quarters definitely lacks bookshelves.

I get them all because I'm a packrat and store a lot. Once you store too much in any one storage container it kinda' lags when storing and removing things so I need to spread them out. Plus, not all of the houses have mannequins and I like using the replication exploit for unique armors so I can have multiple sets (ie Falmer, Shrouded, Nightingale, et al).

hello!

All the guilds give you somewhere to stay and store a few goods but having your own housing is good for storage and display. All houses have alchemy tables (once you buy the upgrade) and all but the Whiterun house have enchanting tables. Plus you get a housecarl that you can use as a follower if you so desire.

The one thing others haven't mentioned is that, if you are set on being Thane of each city, you'll need housing (in the major towns anyway: Whiterun, Riften, Solitude, Markath and Windhelm - the other four don't have housing although you can have a sanctuary in Dawnstar if you do the DB questline).

Oh, and your manniquiins move around sometimes.... on their own. Spooky.

It's not like Morrowind where you could just occupy a house by offing a home owner. That was common practice in Balmora. You know there was that quest where you had to "teach that guy a lesson" so you had to break in and beat him up, except he never yielded so after about 20 minutes you ended up just offing him and taking over his house. Still you had to always use the entrance that was out of sight of the guards so you wouldn't get busted.

Unfortunately homes in Skyrim all require keys, except those that don't, but the doors are all in sight of regular patrols unless you steal the keys from your followers and off them, if they're not essential.

Exploiting a manequin for unique armor sets? Please, do tell..

1) Put the armor on the mannequin and then take it off while still in the mannequin's menu.
2) Exit the house.
2) Reenter the house and the replicated armor will be on the mannequin.

Two things:
1) The replicated armor will be 'normal'. For example, if you put enchanted/improved armor on the mannequin the replicated stuff will be regular. The original set is unaffected.
2) The mannequin will probably forever glitch out and randomly put the replicated armor back on the mannequin even if you put other types on it for display purposes. I've never lost anything I've put on them, but it gets 'bumped' and isn't displayed (ie it'll have a full set that I displayed in it's inventory and then the stuff I replicated as equipped - or a funky combination of the two.)

Edited for clarity.

Houses are not really necessary, since every guild offers you a place to stay and the Arch Mage's Quarters even have an Alchemy Lab and Enchanting Table and a sick indoor garden to boot, but buying your house and decorating it really makes it yours. For example, Vlindrell Hall, the house in Markarth and main mansion on one of my characters, is decorated with Dwarven Centurion Cores and bugs in pots, and has all my rare or unique weapons (Wabbajack, Sanguine Rose, Mace of Molag Bal, Red Eagle's Bane, Nightinggale Blade, et cetera) and armour (guild armours especially) on weapon plaques and mannequins around the house. Along with your housecarl and your spouse, it really adds a sense of home.

Great responses, I must say.

And thanks for the exploit update. If you have more tricks, I'm all ears.

I'm with those who say personalization. I like being able to customize my house and set everything up. The on big downside I've noticed with houses is that there aren't enough bookshelves! I want to collect every book in Skyrim, yet I only have room in my house for 2 bookcases? I wish we could buy more.

Well, since this thread is about buying a house there's the free house and upgrades exploit.
This video is decent and you get the idea from it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-stEuFAizII

It's best done with the Slow Time shout because then you can do it and run to a container that's not exactly next to him. Otherwise you may be waiting for quite a while for him to roam near a container. You can do this with any house in the game, although Windhelm is the most difficult. In Windhelm you have to wait until the Steward is sleeping on a bed roll in what appears to be the kitchen as that is the only location he gets near that has a container. When using the shout around people the guards will sometimes come up to you and warn you not to do that again, but you can't just tell them "It won't happen again." and keep doing it. Also, sometimes when they warn you it will interrupt the exploit and the money will be taken from your inventory so save often.

I did it because of all the gold I have. If it had no houses would I be sitting on a lot more gold than I already do. I could however play Skyrim without ever settling down and just be a wanderer.

It is nice to have a place to store all the things you may eventually need later, to always find a bed to rest in, to be near some shops, and to do alchemy and enchanting in private.

The decorations you buy for a house generally come with a fair bit of nice stuff. For example, the alchemy lab comes with a bunch of decoratively displayed alchemy ingredients. Net enough that you turn a profit, but still.

I'm trying to buy a house (and become a thane) in every Jarldom I can, for role-play purposes; Krok wants to use his homes and political influence to allow promote the acceptance of Argonians as full equal citizens of Skyrim.

And yeah, more gold than I have any use for.

Place to have your spose live, to store all your valuables, and to just sit and do nothing in game.

Completely depends on my character. With my first high-level character, a thief/assassin, I actually became the Arch-Mage accidentally since the College questline was so short. I was like, "already, wtf, I just thought of doing a little bit?". With that character, I roleplayed that I left the College unseen at one point never to return, and wrote Tolfdir a letter explaining that my magical talent nor passion aren't of Arch-Mages, and put him on charge.

With my pure mage character, however, I like the quarters. I've given it quite a decoration: there's one of about every alcohol drinks in the game (I think... even stuff like Black-Briar Reserve and Firebrand Wine). Also, Dragon Priest masks in one container, general clothes in another, enchanted clothes in third, weapons and armor in the fourth... And a barrel of curiosities, a barrel of ingredients... stuff like that. I also try to collect every Xs in a Jar there. I only have two at the moment even if I have visited the most gaming area. I even have close to 20 Stones of Barenziah but not more of those Bugs in a Jar...

About the space: do the containers never run out of it? I have quite literally s**tloads of stuff in them, and they never seem to run out of space. Therefore I think that buying the houses isn't necessary, at least for an Altmer character who likes to think big of himself in a place called "Arch-Mage's Quarters".