Skyrim Thoughts after finishing the main quest

I've been getting the urge to make a new character and try a different playstyle (Argonian assassin/thief), so a few days ago I decided to make a push to finish the main quest and leave my first character in a more or less "finished" state. There's still so, so much more I could do with him, but I've got to scratch the new character itch.

So I took up the reins of the Dragonborn, met Wonder Woman, and fulfilled my destiny, which I'm quite pleased with overall. Now that that's done, I can look back on the experience and consider the game I played.

I finished at somewhere around level 37, didn't max a single skill, and only finished one faction questline (Mages College). I bought two houses, became the thane of three cities, and found most of the daedric quests, even if I didn't do the more evil ones. I played naturally, with no grinding or skill/levelling management, no game-breaking custom gear, and still felt pretty powerful by the end.

The game world feels so much more real than Oblivion's did, if slightly less interesting than Morrowind overall (come on, giant mushroom castles!). NPCs generally reacted to me and each other with a good illusion of depth. The level scaling seemed to work just fine, with weaker enemies staying around to make me feel like I was getting stronger, while tough things were always lurking around dark corners of the world to make me run away screaming like a little girl. I never did find any full glass armor.

Now I figure I've got at least two full game's worth left to explore, and like previous TES games, I imagine I'll get a lot more than that over the next few years. Except for a few cosmetic UI changes, I could probably enjoy a lot of that without any mods, which is simply amazing for a Bethesda game.

If you'll excuse me, my Argonian's going to try slipping across the border into Skyrim to escape those pesky charges of theft that have finally caught up to him.

Good choice on character build. BTW, my playthroughs will be the mirrors of yours. After my Argonian thief/illusionist/assassin is done, I may try out a battlemage or pure mage….

Interesting. I am playing as a lean Breton, assassin type that specializes in destruction magic. I have finished the mage college, and am near the end of the Dark Brotherhood, and will probably take on the thieves guild next. I have had a pretty big itch to create a nord barbarian type of character to fit in with the game's setting a little more, so I think I will save the companion quests for him. I'm surprised you never even found a full set of glass armor, but that's a very good thing! I haven't found any armor myself, though I have come across a few weapons.

Another Assassin mage (Nord specializing in Stealth/Dagger/Ice) following this general outline. I've completed Mage College and have started in on the main quest and probably about level 35 or so now and a thane in 3 cities. I'm now finding a lot of Glass weapons and a few glass armor pieces but don't wear any since its out of character for me. I suspect that glass starts to show up on enemies at level 35 or so.

I too plan on leaving the other guilds/factions for follow up playthroughs at this point.

I found a set of Glass Armor last night, but it seems pretty rare. I don't have gauntlets, boots, helmet, etc. but several glass or better weapons. I'm about level 32, I think...I'm very glad that leveling has slowed down. Of course, I could pump it up quickly using weapon skills, but if you play naturally, leveling slows down massively in the 30's.

crpgnut said:

Of course, I could pump it up quickly using weapon skills

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Really? I found weapon skills to be some of the slowest leveling, given how often you use them they're very slow compared to sneak, pickpocket, smithing, blocking, illusion, enchanting etc.

By lv30 on master diff I had already looted a full set of ebony armor+repeated ebony weapons(TES wiki is wrong or doesn't take into account the difficulty) even though I intended to eventually craft such items myself. I like the leveled world best at lv1-5, iron is prevalent, officers/thalmor carry steel/elven, elite warriors have steel plate and scaled. If you want something different or more exotic you either kill one of the few npcs with hand-placed high-level armor or hunt for the rare materials and raise the smithing skill yourself. The game also throws ridiculous amounts of potions at you, if you're willing to pause and drink up midfight you're invincible, I only use the ones I make myself.

As for the MQ anyone else feel like the final showdown has just been postponed again? I mean the nord tongue mage recites the same words during the final fight that he did during the flashback sequence.

KapitanUnterhosen said:

As for the MQ anyone else feel like the final showdown has just been postponed again? I mean the nord tongue mage recites the same words during the final fight that he did during the flashback sequence.

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Nope, I'm pretty sure it's done for good.

I can't be sure he was reciting the same thing since it's all gibberish but it was also the fact that you don't get to catch his soul and the other characters(including prtnx) go "You didn't catch his soul, is he truly dead? Can he ever truly be killed? *cough dlc cough*" that makes me believe it's not over.

I finished the main quest at level 51 - I'm playing a Nord Warrior.

I'm a Master(100+) Smith, 2-Hand Weapon, Heavy Armor.
I have all dragon born skills, I use no magic except Restoration.

I'm Master of the Mages, Thieves Guild, Companions, Thane of all cities, I own all houses except Windhelm (buggy).

I still have to finish the Dark Brotherhood quest-line.

Best Bethesda game since Daggerfall for me.

Weren't you annoyed by how a nord barbarian becomes master of the mages guild with no spellcasting skills? It felt like the companions questline, part 2.

The CEO of my wife's marketing firm is a lawyer, not a salesman. The CEO of my previous company was a real-estate owner, with zero Communications training, yet it was a phone company. My current CEO has a degree in Pschology, which has zero to do with Oil Refining.

Often, the head of a company/guild isn't necessarily trained in that field. Instead, they're a person who gets things done, or one who kisses ass really well

Funny rationalization, but come on.

You're not declared administrator of the mage's guild day to day operations, you're declared Arch-Mage, the big cahoona of magic.

If you wanna make non-sensical videogame to real world comparisons then at least make ones that apply: having a nord barbarian who can't cast a spell to save his life as arch mage because he was really good at killing magical shit with his sword is the videogame equivalent of having a religiously-ignorant atheist lawyer elected as arch-bishop because he was really good at not fondling children and getting priests off the hook.

The thieves guild and dark brotherhood do a fairly good job of making you feel like you're becoming a master thief/assassin, the design of their quests and gameplay/skills involved actually fit the thief/assassin motif.

The companions guild is already fairly crappy as all that talk of honor and meeting your foes head on has no connection to what you do in quests. You're a dungeon-cleaner and could just as well use the stealth/combat magic that the companions revile so much to clear those quests. Yet dull&dumb dungeon-cleaning quests still aren't too far from what you'd expect of fighters guild quests, it just makes you wonder why they bothered adding all those cultural aspects to the fighter's guild(honor, transformation) if the quest-design isn't going to use them. How are they any different from all the other bounty or dungeon cleaning quests?

That the mage's guild questline consisted of just the same dumb dungeon-cleaning combat quests as the companions', no magical knowledge required, was just shameful. As if role-playing meant choosing to kill a foe with warrior, thief or mage skills.

HiddenX said:

I finished the main quest at level 51 - I'm playing a Nord Warrior.

I'm a Master(100+) Smith, 2-Hand Weapon, Heavy Armor.
I have all dragon born skills, I use no magic except Restoration.

I'm Master of the Mages, Thieves Guild, Companions, Thane of all cities, I own all houses except Windhelm (buggy).

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Interesting, this sounds almost like an exact duplicate character of mine, except I specialized in One-Handed. Though I had Smithing, One-Handed, and Heavy Armor maxed, while only using Restoration. I also have all Dragonborn skills, master of every guild, thane of every city, and own every house. Money making in Skyrim is just as easy as it was in Oblivion, and it's entirely possible to dungeon dive in between quests to purchase every house with ease.

Shamefully, I don't use any home because they're just too far out of the way. Solitude is a prime example of me having to walk quite a ways just for storage. I do, however, use Lund's Hut that is littered with food and live Skeevers from time to time, and much less time consuming to reach.

Master Mage with no magic skills is a bit lame. I would like to see some more consequences in a Bethesda game like:

You are in the Thieves Guild ? -> Then you can't join the Dark Brotherhood and the Mages Guild, because they fight each other.

It would make a replay more interesting - but they have this casual gamer philosophy that you can do everything in one walkthrough.

I tend to agree. I don't think we'll ever see much in the foreseeable future in the way of C&C when it comes to Elder Scrolls games. Bethesda may just go the route of "master of everything" from now on, but I certainly hope not.

I'm also the master buyer, because I've never seen anyone else purchase anything in the whole game

I finished the game some days ago at level 28, playing as a High Elf pure mage: indeed I prefer much more how they handled magic this time!
I haven't capped a single skill (the most advanced is Destruction at 93), I'm Arch Mage, thane of three cities and I just have Breezehome, which is more than enough for collecting stuff .
I have almost all shouts, and I've begun collecting some Daedric artifacts when the urge to final create my Bosmer assassin has come: now I'm stepping through the Thieves Guild, and then Dark Brotherhood of course .
And regarding joining guilds, will we ever see a mod which doesn't allow you to join every faction during one game? It would add a bit of C&C at least: speaking about Thieves/Dark Brotherhood, I think that their objectives are different, 'cause one prefer to avoid killing, just robbing and staying silent, the other cares much more regarding the target to kill, doesn't matter how, apart few cases...

I thought I was going to finish the main quest last night. I got into a big fight with Foozle and defeated him, but then he told me he was immortal and took off. That was a hell of a fight! I probably reloaded 20 times, at least, before finally winning. Anyone who thinks Skyrim is too easy, is correct for 90% of the battles. I'm level 40 and just starting to get Elder Dragons and multi-dragon fights. Foozle was something else entirely. If it wasn't for instant drink potions, I would have croaked forever. I hope our next battle is something different though. I've done the combat thing and won, so I hope the ending isn't just a reprise of the same thing, but with someone standing close by, perhaps reading/speaking from a certain item:

You have a bit of a ways to go yet, c-nut! I enjoyed the ending of that quest.

Cool! Combat is very challenging at high levels for a destruction mage. I may have to boost Conjuration a bit or use Sanguine's Rose, if I get in another battle with Foozle. He was kicking my butt!