Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Yewone]

Has anyone succesfully used bound weapons to any degree?

I'm trying to work out the possible advantages of them against your standard tangible weapons. It seems especially difficult considering that they only hang around for 2 minutes at a time. The spell has always seemed a bit limited and useless in elder scrolls games.

At the same time, I love the idea of summoning an ethereal bow.

Im dabbling with them at the moment.. pumped a couple of perk points to level them up. Main issue I have is that I can't see where it tells you what damage they actually cause?

Main advantage is obviously staying true to the mage roots and not having to lug various weapons around with you.. as well as leaving yet more room for various goodies!

[csuzw]

Vendors put massive markup on things/have rubbish pre-owned prices. I'm guessing with higher speech skill and perks the value you see on an item will become more relevant. As it is the item value can only really be used to compare relative value of items. Even if you could make a profit by buying crafting materials and then selling the results back to a vendor you'd still be stuck on the fact vendors have bugger all money.

[CactuarBill]

Yeah the higher your speech skill, the more money you'll get from selling items.

I had a nice necklace which was worth 1000 but got around 400 for it. Just sell loads of random crap to get your speech skill up, what I do.

[Loki]

Main issue I have is that I can see where it tells you what damage they actually cause?

I'm pretty sure I read that if you conjure your bound weapon, then scroll to the bottom of the weapons list, it should appear in there.

[Argh]

Umm, the way in which the game decides what is theft and what isn't is really weird. Why is so much stuff in people's houses, and shops even, free for the taking? As in, it's white and not red text? I was able to quite happily take everything a blacksmith had on display and sell it straight back to him.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Am I missing something really obvious or is the inherent value actually in mining and smelting ore and then flogging that?

I would say the value comes from stealing or picking up ingots free of charge, smithing something to level that skill up and then selling the item to level speech up. Only buy ingots if you really must improve your equipped gear there and then. There seem to be random piles of ingots in various places (a bunch of silver ones I think in the Whiterun Jarl's place IIRC, doubtless others in the backrooms of smithies and in mines).

[Mr Ben]

Umm, the way in which the game decides what is theft and what isn't is really weird. Why is so much stuff in people's houses, and shops even, free for the taking? As in, it's white and not red text? I was able to quite happily take everything a blacksmith had on display and sell it straight back to him.

Its probably due to being best buddies with the guy. It said something along those lines on a loading screen for me once. I've been able to take all the weapons from the Companions building for example as I'm a member. As I was taking a mace one of the npcs commented as he walked past "I hope no-one misses that"

[Cosmic_Guru]

Umm, the way in which the game decides what is theft and what isn't is really weird. Why is so much stuff in people's houses, and shops even, free for the taking? As in, it's white and not red text? I was able to quite happily take everything a blacksmith had on display and sell it straight back to him.

It's about "friendship" or help quest completion. If you are referring to the Whiterun blacksmith you will likely have helped his wife out after the intitial blacksmith tutorial - she asks you to deliver a sword to the Jarl's man. After this you are regarded as a friend and can help yourself to a lot of the stuff lying around - apparently you can also sleep over in their place too. Conversely I don't recall a quest for the alchemist woman and all of her stuff is still marked red for me.

[Talk Show Host]

It's about "friendship" or help quest completion. If you are referring to the Whiterun blacksmith you will likely have helped his wife out after the intitial blacksmith tutorial - she asks you to deliver a sword to the Jarl's man. After this you are regarded as a friend and can help yourself to a lot of the stuff lying around - apparently you can also sleep over in their place too. Conversely I don't recall a quest for the alchemist woman and all of her stuff is still marked red for me.

I can understand "friendship."

But sell it back to him? That's surely a bug.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Its probably due to being best buddies with the guy. It said something along those lines on a loading screen for me once. I've been able to take all the weapons from the Companions building for example as I'm a member. As I was taking a mace one of the npcs commented as he walked past "I hope no-one misses that"

That's always been the case for guilds - join one and you can walk off with armfuls of gear and the mages in particular typically have some tasty high value low weight items lying around.

Me, I've robbed the Companions blind of their weapon exhibits in the locked display cabinets and sold them off to a shady sort in Riften - after all I'm putting my furry ass on the line for them day after day trudging round old forts taking arrows and blades in my face while they lounge around all day drinking mead.

[Yewone]

I'm pretty sure I read that if you conjure your bound weapon, then scroll to the bottom of the weapons list, it should appear in there.

Had a quick check but couldn't see it mentioned.. It does appear under active effects but doesnt state a damage figure.. Hmmm

In other news just solo'd my first Dragon out in the wild. It was an epic fight, went in with my fire resistant boots, expecting it to be a fire breather..., imagine my surprise when the first attack froze me! Okay time for a quick tactic change, quaffed a couple of cold/frost resist spells, then wittled it down with a combo of destruction spells and arrows, all the while playing cat and mouse around a rocky outcrop...

Felt like a total boss when it finally went down! (on my first attempt too). Not bad for a lvl 14 Mage with a lowly armour rating of 34

[Majora]

Does anyone have anything good to say about blocking with a shield? It seems crap to me. I put one perk into it and I don't know if I want to waste anymore. Maybe it does mean you take less damage but it seems marginal and a waste of a hand when you could be holding a spell in there instead. There have been times when I've stood there with my shield up, the enemy has swiped at me, and my health bar absolutely dives. Just can't see the use in it at the moment.

In terms of magic I've been putting a lot of perks into destruction and conjuration and have pretty much ignored illusion. Most of the illusion spells I've seen seem a bit crap. There's one I was tempted to buy where any enemies under level 9 didn't attack for 30 seconds, but then I realised I have no idea what levels the various enemies are (I'm at level 14). I've decided to sell most of my food as well, I don't see what cooking gives that potions and alchemy can't do better. I'm overloaded with potions as it is so I may as well free up inventory space.

[robdood]

I can understand "friendship."

But sell it back to him? That's surely a bug.

I'd say less a bug, and more and oversight (that was noticed, then ignored)

It would be awesome if every item in the game had an'owner history' though, just for that purpose.

[Talk Show Host]

Me, I've robbed the Companions blind of their weapon exhibits in the locked display cabinets and sold them off to a shady sort in Riften - after all I'm putting my furry ass on the line for them day after day trudging round old forts taking arrows and blades in my face while they lounge around all day drinking mead.

I really wish these things couldn't be possible in the game. It just makes the world so silly.

[Talk Show Host]

I'd say less a bug, and more and oversight (that was noticed, then ignored)

It would be awesome if every item in the game had an'owner history' though, just for that purpose.

Yeah, I agree. The thing is that you can this with everyone who has a good relationship with you, so it's not a minor oversight. I wonder if it will get patched.

As for the weapons' history, all the good weapons in Baldur's Gate had histories as I remember.

[Davros sock drawer]

TSH, anything you don't like in this game you say "I wonder if it will get patched?".

You should have it as your sig.

[Talk Show Host]

TSH host, anything you don't like in this game you say "I wonder if it will get patched?".

You should have it as your sig.

No, I save this line for the Football Manager forums.

[robdood]

I actually dislike the way stolen items are treated in ES, its a bit daft you can't sell any stolen items to normal shops.

[Jarik]

While walking to Whiterun, I saw something floating in the air over a field. I investigate & find a (empty) dead giant lying in the middle of a farm with a hammer floating 20 feet in the air above him & still slowly rising. There was no-one else in sight, so I decided to move on as this was either a bug or something I had no idea about or how to deal with.

[Kiwi Cake]

Does anyone have anything good to say about blocking with a shield? It seems crap to me. I put one perk into it and I don't know if I want to waste anymore. Maybe it does mean you take less damage but it seems marginal and a waste of a hand when you could be holding a spell in there instead. There have been times when I've stood there with my shield up, the enemy has swiped at me, and my health bar absolutely dives. Just can't see the use in it at the moment.

As far as I can tell blocking relies on an attack actually making contact with your shield. It seems like your character will raise his or her shield slightly just as an enemy attacks if you have it in the right spot, but I can't confirm that for sure. The potential to be hurt even when blocking is most noticeable with arrows, as you can still be hurt by arrows even with the no arrow damage perk if the arrow hits somewhere the shield isn't covering (or that's what it seems like?).

Certain attacks can break through your shield (power attacks etc.) though there are perks that will slow down time when one is coming so you can shield bash etc. to avoid it. I'm not entirely sure how it works but I'm enjoying using one anyway, as it's nice to be able to stagger people at will using the super shield bash perk.

[Cosmic_Guru]

I actually dislike the way stolen items are treated in ES, its a bit daft you can't sell any stolen items to normal shops.

Raise speech to 90, and you will be able to do this if you wish to.

[Argh]

Having free reign to take guild supplies is one thing, but clearing out a blacksmith's shop cos you took a sword somewhere for his daugher is just stupid. Never mind though, I shall just Playe the Role of someone who would never do such a thing. Shooting the daughter int he arse with a poisoned arrow, though...now that's something I'd do.

[robdood]

I really wish these things couldn't be possible in the game. It just makes the world so silly.

But wasn't guru's example about literally stealing stuff and offloading it to a fence?

[Karzee]

What level of armour rating did you have to go up to until she actually equipped the armour you gave her? She looks like she's wearing steel armour, but I gave her something slightly better than that and she didn't equip it.

I swear I never touched the woman, your Honour.

Joking aside, I haven't studied what she's wearing, in the shadows I just assumed it was leather.

[Guest]

I thought you could sell stolen items in this game?

On that note has anyone else had:

An assassin come after them? I took one down, tough bugger, only for the letter on the corpse to reveal that they were to hunt me down "As I was a thief!"

How did they know, hmmmm.

I also had a load of hired thugs start of me after killing the first dragon, yet I had all those lot with me so we all made short work of em

[Guest]

In fact in Daggerfall you could offload stolen items; it's how I made my fortune! The Caveat with that was if you tried to sell them to the guy you stole them from he'd go "WHAT'l and attack/call the guards.

Best bet was to lock pick a few rivals at night and sell their stuff to one another. Keeping in town the trade flowing

(God knows how they stayed open. Wouldn't it be good if you stole too much shops were forced to close/the local economy would crumble!

I noticed you could invest in shops later. Mmm business empire...)

[Curtis]

Just killed a Dragon but got no soul. Is that normal or bugged?

[Guest]

Just killed a Dragon but got no soul. Is that normal or bugged?

Do you need a found but unlocked shout available to fill...?

[Yasawas]

I thought you could sell stolen items in this game?

You can but only to a fence, not a regular trader.

[Teeohbee]

A far more glaring error in Daggerfall of course was that you could simply loiter (wait) in the shops until they closed and the shop-keep disappeared, then steal everything in the shop unopposed.