Recent Replaying of Daggerfall

[RK47]

So, finally there's a one-click XP installer out there pre-packaged with DOSBox. Gave it a spin and made a short blade guy focused on agility. Got killed. Hard. I can't count how many times I lost a 1 v 1 fight with anything bigger than a rat. Even with Elven shortsword, I was barely hitting anything. Magic does dick, since mana pool is severely limited. Bears, Tigers, Spiders eat me for breakfast.

I persevered and hit level 3 after doing easy quests and skill ups. Main quest letter came by, and I visited the King of Worm's Burrow as per princess request. Big Mistake. Mummies, killed one, barely, cast teleport to run away FROM THE SECOND ONE. Was outside, resting, awakened by enemies nearby in the middle of snowstorm at night. Killed by crossbow in three hits.

That was it. It was like the game waved a finger to my face and told me I wasn't trying hard enough to win.

"Powergame MOAR, I dare you!", it taunted.

And powergame, I did.

I revamped my guy, Custom Class "Quickblade"

Primary Skill
Long Blade
Critical Strike
Dodging

Secondary
Alteration - Unlocks, Water Breathing, Levitate, Slowfall
Restoration - Heals & Cures
Mysticism - Reduced cost on Teleport

Personality turned to dump stat at 25.
Pumped everything to speed. I was at 80 from the start.
Ebony dagger at character quiz.
Breton, Critical Weakness Paralyze & Disease, Mana 1.75 xINT

MUCH better. The swing speed is insane, with 60 AGI and 100 SPD after 2 level ups & few magic items, it didn't matter if my short blade skill is low, I was cutting every shit up with ease and never encountered mobs who are immune to my weapon material.

So my question is: Is it possible to play Daggerfall without powergaming? I can't see the advantage of light armor. Or having a low speed.

Also, how do you play a pure mage? Mana is such a bitch to spend.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Battlemages kick ass in Daggerfall. Can't really remember how I built mine, but I was slaughtering decent-strength quest mobs with electricity spells by level 3. But yeah, it's more than possible to create a pretty gimped build if you don't know what you're doing.

Should start playing DF again, actually. I pseudo-LPed it before LPs had a name back when I first played, but the endless bugged quests and the mages' guild doing nothing but sending me to someone's house to cast a sleep spell wore me down.

 

[RK47]

I was thinking since mana is a problem, I had to focus fully on 3x INT Mana bonus right?

But where can I buy mana potions from?

Or did you take a pre-made Battlemage build on character generation?

 

[SCO]

One click installer with all of the mods and unofficial patches?



I spent a whole afternoon configuring that.

Where is it?

 

[RK47]

http://theelderscrolls.wiwiland.net/?ti ... llSetup_EN

 

[commie]

http://theelderscrolls.wiwiland.net/?title=Daggerfall_:_DaggerfallSetup_EN

Thanks for the up!

 

[Raapys]

Actually, melee with any sort of character becomes really easy once you figure out the "attack, then immediately step back" routine. You can dodge pretty much nine out of ten attacks this way, somewhat depending on how fast the game is running.

Anyway, it's certainly possible to play a (overpowered) mage in the game. First go for the race with the most mana( Breton? Or maybe high elf, can't remember), then obviously do the 3xInt perk, max intelligence stat, etc. You should also have the spell absorption perk, which helps you regain mana without sleeping. The rest is down to your spell skills and enchantments. Enchantments is what really breaks the mage class completely. You can enchant your spell skills to crazy levels, and each point in these skills decreases the casting cost of spells.

You'll end up with a damage absorption spell running 24/7, making you practically invulnerable. Add the immunity to magic perk and you can just run around spamming AoE spells that basically cost nothing and recharges your own mana if you fire them right next to you.

That said, you will have to go through the ranks in the mage's guild to get to the enchanter, and you'll probably end up using a sword while doing it.

 

[Sceptic]

Re: Recent Replaying of Daggerfall Logs

So my question is: Is it possible to play Daggerfall without powergaming?

Yeah it is, but it is also very, very easy to gimp your character. That doesn't necessarily make the game unwinnable (there have been "pure diplomacy" builds with which people finished the MQ) but it does make the game much harder and it does require complete rethinking of how you play the game. If this isn't your Nth time playing the game, then you do have to create a reasonably balanced character. There are some pretty obvious choices too: if you plan on using magic a lot then you must use 3xINT. This isn't powergaming, it's just common sense. Likewise if you plan on going into melee a lot then you need to push your starting HP past the default (was it 12? it can go up to 40 I think, though that is obviously not doable in a balanced char). Real powergaming is when you start taking advantage of exploits, such as High Elf with Crit Weakness Paralysis. BTW you will probably suffer because you picked Paralysis, though that may not be obvious until you start seeing paralyzing monsters/spells.

 

[SCO]

http://theelderscrolls.wiwiland.net/?title=Daggerfall_:_DaggerfallSetup_EN

Oh it's the whole game. That's dumb. Just the unofficial patches thank you. My procedure is always patch to the latest official version and then zip the game dir.
install the latest unofficial patches and and play. When a new unofficial patches comes out (they always do), delete unzip and install.

 

[Elwro]

Yeah, have fun fighting these huge spiders

 

[Luzur]

or wait until DaggerXL comes out.

 

[RK47]

One thing that bothers me is how slow the random loot scales. Can't seem to get anything better than Dwarven at the moment on another char.

And wtf is up with the shitty rewards off dungeon quests? I just failed a knight of dragons quest raiding an orc fort. I must've slaughtered over 5 dozen monsters in there and when I finally killed the orc commander, I returned to the guild only to be informed that I am to be expelled due to exceeding the 10 days time limit. But hell, finishing it was satisfying after 1 hour+ going round and round the dungeon.

I think I'll just work on the mage guild quests for random magic rewards and rank increases. The other guilds seem to suck so much.

 

[Luzur]

you need to be quick ya know.

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

One thing that bothers me is how slow the random loot scales. Can't seem to get anything better than Dwarven at the moment on another char.

And wtf is up with the shitty rewards off dungeon quests? I just failed a knight of dragons quest raiding an orc fort. I must've slaughtered over 5 dozen monsters in there and when I finally killed the orc commander, I returned to the guild only to be informed that I am to be expelled due to exceeding the 10 days time limit. But hell, finishing it was satisfying after 1 hour+ going round and round the dungeon.

I think I'll just work on the mage guild quests for random magic rewards and rank increases. The other guilds seem to suck so much.

Keep in mind, that part of the 'reward' is getting the location of a dungeon to pilfer. When you add up all the junk, weapons, armor, gold, etc you take out of the dungeon, you usually end up making a good bit of gold. Plus (if you really want to) you can go back and clear it out again later.

 

[Heresiarch]

Also, how do you play a pure mage? Mana is such a bitch to spend.

Once you enchant your magic skills over 140% (I think) you'll become super ridiculous awesomely overpowered. Because all of the said skill spells, even stupidly overpowered ones like "Disintegrate everything around 100 feet with 100% chance" would cost only 5 MP to cast. IMO it's more of a gamebreaking oversight though.

If you want to play as a regular mage, then yeah, it's quite a bitch to play, even more so than Morrowind because there are few magicka potions to drink and they restore little. You really need to rest a ton around which is a pain because of all the mission time limits.

 

[RK47]

Hey guys,

Got a cool story to share.

Was running a dungeon full of those werebeasts and didn't notice I was infected. I arrived at my hometown in werewolf form.

The 4 HP on the stat sheet indicates that 2 week period every month when the bloodlust overcomes the werewolf. Gotta kill some innocents or else 4 HP is all I'm gonna get.

Which led to...

LOL. I love this game. And since I'm an unarmed specialist the werewolf curse is a blessing in disguise.

30% bonus to Unarmed & Critical Strikes. +40 STR , AGI , END. Sweeeet.

Also. LOL-Cloth.

Anyway, question: Does the armor I wear affect me in werewolf form? I can't access my inventory in werewolf form, so I cannot verify this. But the Stat bonus from magic items are still in effect though.

 

[314159]

Looking at this thread is so depressing when I remind of the "sequels" to this game.

Why?

 

[Suchy]

Daggerfall was en extremely dull and boring game. Almost as bad as Might and Magic 6.

 

[denizsi]

As the resident Daggerfall expert, I agree to an extent. But it's still one hell of a game and one of the best FP RT RPS.

 

[Suchy]

It was basically a first person roguelike. I couldn't bear its repetitiveness.

 

[SCO]

Werewolf rapist jesus

 

[RK47]

I don't remember this guy.

 

[DraQ]

So, finally there's a one-click XP installer out there pre-packaged with DOSBox. Gave it a spin and made a short blade guy focused on agility. Got killed. Hard. I can't count how many times I lost a 1 v 1 fight with anything bigger than a rat. Even with Elven shortsword, I was barely hitting anything. Magic does dick, since mana pool is severely limited. Bears, Tigers, Spiders eat me for breakfast.

That's not the Daggerfall I remember.

Killed by crossbow in three hits.

Definitely not the Daggerfall I remember.

I can't see the advantage of light armor.

The advantage of light armor is that it can be worn even if you pick a disadvantage that prohibits you from wearing plate and chain which lets you pick moar advantages.
Still, I'm not sure what's the point of picking this advantage as you can build pretty much any character without it and it's fairly crippling.

The only TES so far that handled armor types gracefully is Reqtified Skyrim.

Or having a low speed.

Why should having low anything be an advantage?

Also, how do you play a pure mage? Mana is such a bitch to spend.

You pick max mana multiplier and magic absorption then spam AoE in melee for free and without getting fried by your own spells?
Or just the former if all the cheese makes you wince.

Looking at this thread is so depressing when I remind of the "sequels" to this game.

Daggerfall was en extremely dull and boring game. Almost as bad as Might and Magic 6.

That's why, all in all, Morrowind is the best TES, even with all the ambitious and awesome stuff Daggerfall had.

Likewise if you plan on going into melee a lot then you need to push your starting HP past the default (was it 12? it can go up to 40 I think, though that is obviously not doable in a balanced char).

Eh, I like my glass cannons.
The faster and more effectively I kill or disable shit, the sooner it can't hurt me anymore.

I just failed a knight of dragons quest raiding an orc fort. I must've slaughtered over 5 dozen monsters in there and when I finally killed the orc commander, I returned to the guild only to be informed that I am to be expelled due to exceeding the 10 days time limit.

Git gud.



Also, one thing I absolutely loved about DF was how fucking rare potions were.

 

[Miner Arobar]

I think some amount of powergaming in Daggerfall is pretty much necessary for enjoying the game. It's not like Morrowind where part of the fun is being a complete nobody sent by another complete nobody at the Mages Guild to do her homework for her. With Daggerfall, your sense of achievement pretty much comes from navigating your way out of the dungeon you're sent in to find the exact puddle of troll's blood your Mages Guild contact wants. Being able to dispatch the local inhabitants with relative ease is just a plus.