Let's talk about those tough enemy mages…

I have no problem with companion A.I.. It's fine for what it is. They shoot far away enemies with a bow if they have one, they take out their melee weapon when the enemy gets close. Works for me.

However, it's not true that the only way a companion can die is from accidentally killing them yourself. A Dwarven Centaurion killed Lydia in my game, and some frost wards placed on the floor killed Ria when she walked over them. I was devastated at both losses. You grow attached to those quiet companions. But yeah, maybe it's a glitch? But they can definitely die, that's for sure.

I would like to be able to tell my companion to follow peacefully and not attack. That way I can get through quests without killing if possible, yet still have the companion around.

And this is why I always use dremora lord instead of any companions. He's strong enough and I can always summon another one when he dies.

Btw can I summon two of them when I reach 100 in conjuration or that only applies to atronachs and reanimated corpses?

Speaking of tough enemies, people are starting to take advantage of insanely powerful weapons through the use of spamming potions and creating special Smithing enchanted armors. Some are getting to the point of killing dragons with a single swipe!

I can understand it's about really advancing Smithing/Enchanting/Alchemy more than intended, but this is all so foreign to me. Doesn't that take the fun out of the game? I couldn't imagine playing without any sort of challenge or threat. At times, I find the game easy enough as it is (but generally, it's fairly tough).

People want to see the limit of what's possible, I suppose. Lots of folks were having trouble playing a mage, so I can see why they would err on the side of power. I'd prefer to stick with nominal roleplaying rather than grindy activities to powergame. To each his own.

If I actually roleplay myself to God status, I'm fine with that. But I'll never grind or meta-game or whatever you want to call it just to raise my skills. If becoming a super powerful person (like in Morrowind) naturally happens, then great, but if not, I'm not pushing it. To me that takes the fun out of it. But to each their own indeed.

I do not wanna become all powerful though.Take D&D and how you become able to take on dragons at later levels yet they say the best levels are like 4th to 12th.Dragons should of been kept extremely hard thru out the game and require the player to actually hire mercenary teams to take them out.Looks and feels epic this way.

Bethesda seem to strive for graphics and really simplify the RPG aspects of an RPG.Could you imagine the magnificent world of Skyrim with a deep system like D&D.I mean just learning how D&D works when I started Baldurs gate was a game in itself.Bethesda just ruin the whole stat loving feel many RPG fans love wit the ever growing in power characters you can become and the world that has to compensate for this.

The old D&D system was not deep, just overly complicated. I played it from the 70s on until the 3e system came out and I was glad to see it go, frankly.

Nicely put Bill. Can't agree more! Wargames suffered from this syndrome as well.

The mages are tough, I cant imagine being pure melee and trying to go toe-to-toe w/ them. I nail them from a distance w/ my bow, hopefully getting a sneak attacks one-shot. Love that "wonk!" sound when you get a sneak attack hit and they drop like a sack of potatoes. When that doesnt kill the tougher ones outright, i'm popping back and forth out of cover and dodging the lightning, pegging them w/ arrows. So fun, really is quite thrilling to be trading ranged attacks w/ a powerful mage!

The AI companions could definitely use some finer controls, I'd like to be able to have them act more defensively at times, or not attack at all. Being an assassin, my whole game is spent sneaking around trying to get sneak attacks, and the companions just love to go bolting off and stirring things up when I'm not necessarily ready.

I'm pretty disenchanted (har!) w/ enchanting in the TES series after Morrowind - I'm fine with having to initially enchant using a soul, that's pretty cool actually. But to not have the item recharge a' la Morrowind magic items is really a pain in the ass. Seriously, I have to refill a magic item w/ souls as well? It's a burdensome system that has practically made me write off magic weapons altogether, I lament the fact that in an otherwise excellent game theyve chosen to stick with it yet again.

I wasn't thrilled when I heard they were bringing back the soul gem system either, but really, it's done very well this time around. For one, soul gems are plentiful. I always seem to be carrying about 10 of them filled with souls. Two, lesser enchantments are often charged to full with just a lesser soul. This makes soul gems, even lower leveled gems, worthwhile to have in the beginning of the game. The game seems to do a great job of keeping you supplied with both the amount and the type of soul gem that you need at any particular time.

Overall I find it really well balanced, and actually fun to do. I actually love recharging my enchanted weapons in this game. I'm glad that it adds to your enchantment skill each time you do it too. That is a nice little detail there. Not sure if it worked like that in Oblivion or not.

One thing I'm glad they did away with is item degradation. Now THAT was annoying. Nothing worse then having your weapons break midway through a dungeon, or having to carry multiple weapons on you just to always have one that is in good condition. That was just tedious. Overall, I surprisingly pretty much agree with every one of their design decisions for Skyrim. Alot of it is just common sense, good ideas that in practice just make the game fun to play. I really have no complaints in the actual game systems department. Even the level scaling is done right, and that's saying something.

I try to charge them and use some resist potions. Overall do okay. One thing I have noticed with companions is that they seem to adapt to your main role. For example I primarily use a 2H weapon (on some occasions a 1H and a spell). Farkas is my main companion and is 2H but most of the time he sits back and uses a bow (I never even gave him one … although since he uses it all the time I ended up giving him a good one). yet other people who have him, and play a mage, say he runs in like a tank.

Well for whatever reason my companions tend to be fairly well behaved so I count my blessings in that regard.

I'd forgotten about the degradation - yeah I always made sure I had hammers on me so I could do some mid-dungeon repairs. That was kind of a pain. I'm going to give enchanting a try because I want to make some nice bows, maybe I'll come to embrace it as well. I dont seem to be swimming in soul gems as you are tho, and I'm going to either need to get a soultrap weapon or something going.

Can we at least get a Boo! on the no mark/recall spells? ='.'=

Originally Posted by xSamhainx
The mages are tough, I cant imagine being pure melee and trying to go toe-to-toe w/ them.

I played an orc melee fighter and it was tough. Lotsa potions. But once you get next to them, heh heh, it's ALL over, usually in one big swing.

If a melee fighter closes with me, I'm toast. I have over 400 magicka but only 150 health. Most fighters can kill me with one power attack. Of course, they have to live past Lydia to get to me and she does her job. I give Lydia magic-resist enchanted gear and then just blast away at her opponents. She takes some damage, but the enemies die. It is vital for a mage to get the stagger effect on destruction spells as soon as possible. Otherwise, we're toast.

Ouch, yeah, Those covens are the only thing giving me trouble (playing on Expert).
I need to stack on some protection soon.

I have taken to leaving Lydia outside a dungeon with a lot of mages, thin their numbers a bit then pick her up so we can mop up the remains.

She just rushes in the middle of a gaggle of mages and their summons and dies way too often…

Other than that I do it like xSamhainx only with lightning (I play a sort of typical Warrior/mage)

An update… I've had enough of Lydia blocking my movements and it's a shame I had to neglect the chain lightning spell just to keep her alive. Finally I've told her to shove off.
Instead I'll now use conjuration "pets". At least when they die I can bring them back up. I've played just a bit without Lydia, so far I had no real problems (which is possibly connected to the fact that my heavy armor skill is on 100 and fully upgraded with perks, plus all armor parts on me have some resistances on magic effects).

I had better luck with archer/mage followers. The high priestess of Azura is really good though she'd be even better if she cast healing spells, too.

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
I had better luck with archer/mage followers. The high priestess of Azura is really good though she'd be even better if she cast healing spells, too.

Janessa (sp?), the dark elf hireling you can pick up in the archer's store/tavern in Whiterun, seems to work fine for my play-style--sneaky archer/mage slayer. If I'm in sneak mode, she tends to hold her ground with me and go for her bow at appropriate times. If she does engage, she pulls the mage's firepower off me just long enough for me to empty poisoned arrows into it until dead. Since I loaded her up with "superior" level elven armor and a wicked flame-bow, she kills things with the bow ALMOST as fast as I do.

I use the sneaky archer wood elf companion from Riverwood (Farendal?) similarly with my archer/sneaker/ backstabber/illusionist. Although, if I want to backstab I have to tell him to stay back since his alerting of enemies screws up my sneak positioning for backstabs.

One pattern that works in closed dungeons where enemies can't run away too far, is to cast fear and then easily sneak up from behind and backstab without screwing up my approach pattern. Kind of cheesey though…