SKYRIM HYPE THREAD: UNDEAD CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE DRAGON'S SOUL

I feel like an idiot. Eorland stopped training me in smithing when I reached 90, so I started crafting manually. I assumed skill ups were heavily based on item quality and getting materials to make glass armor is difficult. Anyway, that's not exactly the case. I did 90-100 just making iron daggers, which cost next to nothing compared to the 4,000g I was spending for each smithing training. Should've done this earlier and used that money to train something like speech or whatever.

Oh... My new armor, which I need to go enchant now: Dragonscale Armor

Unfortunately I can't disenchant shrouded gloves and apply the double backstab damage multiplier to my new gear... I can't make that sacrifice, so my gloves will be mismatched.

That looks sharp! I want that armor.

It is sweet rushing into battle--decent-sized battles with dozens of combatants on both sides--swinging a warhammer madly and dropping enemies in one or two blows. Two-handed weapons weren't so great in Oblivion, but I went ahead and put my chips into two-handed, trusting Bethesda to have made it better in this game, and it is paying off.

Something I'm noticing...there is apparently a kind of trust system whereby if you get on someone's good side (by visiting often?) they don't mind you taking stuff that is lying around in their castle or store. Yes, store :)

author=Max McGee
I feel like picking Expert and Master level locks is too easy, at very low skill levels, largely because the lockpick minigame itself is now possible to be good at...and I am apparently pretty damn good at it, if I'm regularly picking Expert locks with 2-4 picks, Lockpicking ~20-30, and no Lockpicking perks.

Man I am shaking my fist so fucking hard at you right now. I try to get a feel for where the lockpick needs to be by tapping through the lock with some success but fail horribly when it finally comes to finding the right spot where you need the pick to unlock the door.

Loving the imperial guard quests.

author=Craze
ur reading it wron

Magicka regen only stops while casting/channeling. So, if you're holding on to a charged-up Fireball, your magicka regen will stop. After you sheathe (to cancel it) or cast it, your regen will start immediately. Also, if you're continuously casting Sparks or Flames or etc., your magicka will not recharge until you're done casting.

When not holding or casting a spell, your regen rate is in full effect (unless you're afflicted with Witbane).

No, I'm not talking about the full stop of magicka regen during casting/channeling, I'm talking about how the magicka regen slows while in combat...

Example, outside of combat, I summon a Flame Atronach (damn I wish I could marry one of those, so beautiful... am I weird?), it eats up a little of my magicka, and in a SHORT while, it fills back up.

While in combat, I summon the Atronach, it eats up a little of my magicka, and it takes noticeably longer to fill back up, while not doing anything.

Or am I just really high and am imagining things? Quick google search found some posts in forums like "Yeah the magicka regen slows in combat, it would be too OP otherwise", "Yup, the bonus regen from items don't work during combat" etc etc.

Don't know what is actually true, but I'm pretty sure it does slow down during combat.

Smile, you are right about magicka regen. It comes back fastest if you stand still and do nothing. The "shallow end" of the bar also comes back faster than the "deep end", so the regeneration actually accelerates.

I actually really don't like that they added regenerating Health--I personally think that was taking it too far. I *liked* resting to restore Health. w/e. Not a big deal either way.

Murdering Ulfric Stormcloak:

So on the Imperial Legion quest to deliver the axe of Jarl Balgruuf of Whiterun to Ulric, to get Balgruuf on the side of the Empire (yes, you read that right: Nords are fucking weird), when I entered the Palace of Kings I found Ulric alone and thought...hmmm...could I end the war right now? Surprisingly (nay, shockingly?) I was able to slay Ulric almost effortlessly, before he was really able to do anything (I have Bladesman and was fairly lucky with my sword's crits) although I wasn't quite able to escape alive, being very low on healing potions after fighting the incredibly tough boss of the ruins where you get the "Marked For Death" shout. He was a named Draugr Overlord (can't remember the name) and he was amazingly fucking diesel. I'm a little sad that none of my toughest/most memorable fights have actually been against dragons, but man do I digress.

So I want to know...without spoiling the rest/end of this or other questlines...how does the game react/adjust to killing Ulric (ahead of time, assuming you have to kill him later)? I didn't see a "you hath fucked the story" message pop up a la Morrowind but he also really STAYED dead, not just unconscious a la oblivion. Can the "Radiant Story" system actually ADJUST to him being dead? Does someone else take his place?

I'm really fascinated, but I don't want to google it since I don't want any of what happens if you DON'T kill him spoiled for me, since I fully intend NOT to cold-bloodedly murder him anyway--it wouldn't be my character's style.

I have done none of the Stormcloak questline and I suspect only very little of the Imperial Legion questline.

author=Jude

author=Max McGee
By the way, is the double backstab damage multiplier from shrouded gloves CUMULATIVE with Assassin's Blade? i.e. x30 backstab damage with daggers? Because that would be NUTS. Even if it just concatenates it to "just" "x17" that would be fucking crazy.

Yes, it's a 30x multiplier, which is why I can't take them off.

Holy. Shit.

Out of interest I just ran up and shoved some swords into Ulfric's face until he went down. Mob showed up and in the melee Ulfric got back up and starting revenge stabbing me. Looks like he has immunity from death, he just gets knocked unconscious for a few seconds instead.

author=Max McGee
Related question: Has anyone found any Adept, Expert, or Master spells? I have yet to find ANY. Characters range from Level 14-Level 19 at the moment.

I don't believe I have either. Maybe they're only distributed by the Winterhold college. I am not a mage so I haven't done any of that. I've only ever "found" one spell that I hadn't already purchased from the jarls' mages, and that was Detect Life.

Ulfric's not hard even when you get to the showdown with him (which I just did a couple hours ago). That's okay because you have to be tough to survive all the battles leading up to that point.

The hardest enemies I've seen besides dragons & giants are hiding deep in the dungeons. I found a dungeon today that was full of literally hundreds of chaurus eggs and guarded by a big mama chaurus--extremely deadly. The Kyne shout (makes animals stop attacking) was a lifesaver down there!