Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[DraQ]

So, I'm currently at the point where I eat dragons for breakfast: summon 2 storm atronachs, blast away with lightning snipe until dead, takes less than a minute in most cases.

This has led me to want to reroll as a murderstabby thiefy sneak thing: has anyone had any success running a sneakythief in Requiem? Any hints on how not to constantly die? Using bow to kill most squishies before they close in is all very well but draugr are nearly immune to arrows

Hands to yourself, sneak thief!

It doesn't sound quite effective...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrying_dagger

 

[Lancehead]

So, I'm currently at the point where I eat dragons for breakfast: summon 2 storm atronachs, blast away with lightning snipe until dead, takes less than a minute in most cases.

This has led me to want to reroll as a murderstabby thiefy sneak thing: has anyone had any success running a sneakythief in Requiem? Any hints on how not to constantly die? Using bow to kill most squishies before they close in is all very well but draugr are nearly immune to arrows and there are a shitload of draugr needing to be killed in the thieves guild questline, which makes getting the Nightingale armour kind of a chore for a squishy melee guy. IIRC, draugr are also immune to sneak crits.

I would also like to try dualwielding for once, but the "no blocking" thing is retarded to me. Can anyone recommend a mod that addresses this and fits in with Requiem?

Stealth is very powerful if you can be a bit patient. You can sneak attack undead also. You need to get the Advanced Anatomical Lore perk, but the sneak damage multiplier is a lot less than for humanoids (15x vs. 5x for one-handed weapons and 4x vs. 3x (or 2x, I forget) for bows). There are some areas where you can't really rely on stealth, though, including both fights with Alduin, Blackreach, Soul Cairn, and Apocrypha. The enemies that'd give thieves a tough time are Dwemer automatons (you'd want really powerful shock damage-enchanted weapons), Dragon Priests (depending on the location; dual wielding is effective because of the spike damage), and Invisible Entities (practice your shouting and use Aura Whisper).

 

[Drax]

It doesn't sound quite effective...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrying_dagger

Wikipedia, therefore invalid. And I win.

 

[Zewp]

Not being able to block with two weapons makes sense to me. It sounds like a recipe for a lot of pain.

 

[Eyeball]

Well, it sort of makes sense, are you going to block with ya dick?

In my current game, I can summon an ice demon to stomp orcs in the face. I do not think being able to block sword strikes with an offhand dagger is that much more unrealistic.

How's illusion magic for running a more effective sneakystealthy game? The times I've cast invisibility on myself I've been spotted anyway because of my sneak skill being nonexistent. I suppose it becomes a lot more useful once you level sneak a bit and get a few perks? I wanna see some backstabbing animations here!

 

[Drax]

Meh, I wasn't talking about realism but common sense.
Apparently I was wrong though.

 

[Lhynn]

Meh, I wasn't talking about realism but common sense.
Apparently I was wrong though.

I can grab your first with one hand and punch you with the other just fine. I dont see how using any of two weapons to block is contrived.
In the east using two weapons is considered a defensive style, because it allows to parry and attack.

 

[Dreaad]

Just ran across that NPC in the tower near solitude who wants to become a hagraven. (Interesting NPC's mod). Highly entertaining mini quest, would play again.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

This has led me to want to reroll as a murderstabby thiefy sneak thing: has anyone had any success running a sneakythief in Requiem? Any hints on how not to constantly die? Using bow to kill most squishies before they close in is all very well but draugr are nearly immune to arrows and there are a shitload of draugr needing to be killed in the thieves guild questline, which makes getting the Nightingale armour kind of a chore for a squishy melee guy. IIRC, draugr are also immune to sneak crits.

Silver arrows should do the trick for undeadies.

(the bound bow as well, but without silent casting it's a little attention whore-y for a thief)

 

[RK47]

Good luck with that.
Thieves, like their namesake, should stick with business within city walls.
They're really not trained for this sort of crap. They can take on fellow humanoids, no problem, but once undead and tombs come into picture - you gotta dip into other profession skills like magic or additional merc. Outside your comfort zone, so to speak.

 

[hell bovine]

Well, it sort of makes sense, are you going to block with ya dick?

In my current game, I can summon an ice demon to stomp orcs in the face. I do not think being able to block sword strikes with an offhand dagger is that much more unrealistic.

How's illusion magic for running a more effective sneakystealthy game? The times I've cast invisibility on myself I've been spotted anyway because of my sneak skill being nonexistent. I suppose it becomes a lot more useful once you level sneak a bit and get a few perks? I wanna see some backstabbing animations here!

I think spells like invisibility or muffle are more useful for mages then thieves, because high sneak (or rather perks) make them obsolete. Also, there are boots with muffle enchantments, and invisibility potions are easy to make. Offensive illusion spells are very useful (and fun) from the beginning, and later can be cast without breaking cover (though you need a specific spell for that, can't recall the name). I've never got illusion high enough to try the high-level spells, but the school levels up very quickly.

 

[DraQ]

Meh, I wasn't talking about realism but common sense.

Sense is not common.


You, for example, are not making any.

 

[Drax]

Indeed.

 

[Eyeball]

Speaking of potions: is there really much point to leveling either alchemy or enchanting in Requiem? Potions are too plentiful to really make Brewing your own all that worthwhile and enchanting requires a lot of perk points to be invested before the stuff you enchant yourself is even half as good as the stuff you can loot off minibosses or find in dungeons.

I splurged pretty much all my collected soul gems and reagents to level both to 40something, but I don't really see any real use for either skill. Smithing is quite useful, since it allows you to upgrade your weapons.

 

[Lancehead]

Requiem's custom enchantments, which you gain access to via two perks, are pretty powerful. Enchantment works best when combined with Smithing. Only for weapons, though; unique sets of armour are almost always better than what you can craft and enchant yourself. As for Alchemy, magic resistance potions can be useful in tough fights.

 

[Perkel]

Speaking of potions: is there really much point to leveling either alchemy or enchanting in Requiem? Potions are too plentiful to really make Brewing your own all that worthwhile and enchanting requires a lot of perk points to be invested before the stuff you enchant yourself is even half as good as the stuff you can loot off minibosses or find in dungeons.

I splurged pretty much all my collected soul gems and reagents to level both to 40something, but I don't really see any real use for either skill. Smithing is quite useful, since it allows you to upgrade your weapons.

Enhancement as skill in Requiem is mediacore. I mean it is great for roleplaying but for powergaming it is imo weak. Most of stuff you will find will be way better than half assed eq. you make with 0-75 skill. Only when you put skill points in perks and grind to that 80-90 you will be able to do some eq that will be able to compete with gear you find.

When i roleplay i like to make my own shitty silver longsword with 5 fire damage instead of using some stinky bandit Orcish sword with 20fire damage enhancement ...

 

[Eyeball]

Finished Dragonborn. Some impressions:

- Firstly, the Morrowind-like landscape and architecture was nice to see and traverse. (I wouldn't mind Morrowind transported into this engine just for the visuals facelift.)

- I noticed that npcs are a bit more verbose than in the oc. E.g., asking Raven Rock npcs how they got to settle in Raven Rock nets relatively long stories from them.

- Another similarity to Morrowind are the instances when you have to find out something. E.g., at the start you can ask pretty much every npc about Miraak and they'll point you to either the Earth Shrine or his Temple. Similarly, when you try to recruit someone from Raven Rock as Neloth's steward, you can ask many npcs if they're interested. Some npcs turn out to be helpful and point you in the right direction.

- Speaking of Neloth, he's a proper Telvanni wizard. The best character in oc+dlc by a country mile; in fact, he's really the only npc worth talking about as a 'character'. Some of his dialogue is good; I especially liked the bit when I mentioned being the archmage of College of Winterhold and he replied "maybe someday I'll teach you a trick or two" (to paraphrase).

- Some of the quests were good. The quests to find Deathbrand armour set and the Kagrumez resonance gems didn't have any quest markers. I can't recall any search quests from oc that didn't have quest markers apart from the Stones of Barenziah quest. I also liked the quest where the moneylender in Raven Rock asks you to pay Neloth's new steward's (that you recruit) debt. It was good because it had a meaningful unresolved state (he sends thugs after you) to it if you choose not to pay him or deal with him any other way.

- The main quest itself was decent, especially Apocrypha, though it'd have been better if it was made a lot more difficult to navigate what with constantly altering pathways.

- On an unrelated note, I'm interested in what Bethesda does with Morrowind now after the Red Year. Points to note are, Neloth brings many of the Vvardenfell plant species to Solstheim, he's researching into the heartstones--rock from inside the Red Mountain, and there's an npc outside Tel Mithryn who saved a silt rider.

As for Requiem-Dragonborn mod (made by a different author from the original mod authors), he really overdid many things.

- Original Requiem added Invisible Entities, so this mod also adds them (to Apocrypha) but doesn't stop there and adds another invisible creature called Benthic Daggers and an Enchanted Benthic Daggers variant.

- Daedric shrines (of Azura, Mephala and Boethiah) don't work for criminals, though I guess original Requiem is at fault here because of the way divines shrines are designed.

- An 'easter egg' of a giant in the middle of an open landscape that can't be missed unless you're blind.

Spoiler

(Xarrian, by the way, is one of the authors of the original Requiem.)

- But the biggest stupidity is the scourge items (of Malacath).

Firstly, introducing new weapons in order to make certain enemies strong is a stupid design concept. Secondly, the process of crafting these scourge weapons is overly complicated:

- First, you have to read a book called 'the scourgestones', which is written in a most heavy-handed manner (modders, stay away from writing if you can help it), to start the related quest. The book describes a process to make the items, but if you follow that, you get nothing. You have to read a second book that mentions that there are atronach forge recipes.
- (These recipes are written in daedric font. I don't know if the author thinks he's being clever or whatever by making most of the players to go on the internet to translate the bloody thing.)
- Each weapon requires certain items, one of which comes in seven variants; one of each variant is required to craft any weapon.
- Once you craft a weapon at the atronach forge, it's not usable. You have to take it a normal forge, add some more material, and provided you have a specific hammer in your inventory, you can then craft the final usable version of the weapon.​

Thirdly, you find this on Miraak's body, alongside Malacath's Scourge mace:

Spoiler

Overall, while I think the mod does a decent job transporting much of the Requiem feel, stupidity like the above makes me not recommend it but rather avoid it.

Currently at the point where I've got the tools to craft the Scourge weapons but seriously....eeeeeeugh....fuck, I can't be arsed to go through this contrived "I MODDER I R CLEVUR!" crafting shit to have a shot at defeating Miraak. For fuck's sake, I am a mage and it requires me to have Daedric smithing perk - who the fuck apart from melee fighters has that?

Is it possible to beat Requiem Miraak as a robed caster without crafting these +1 Swords of Gayness?

 

[Eyeball]

Also, are there any mods that allow you to brew potions giving permanent stat upgrades? That would make high level alchemy extremely valuable and make it very worthwhile to look for rare ingredients. As it is, I just sell expensive stuff.

 

[Perkel]

Also, are there any mods that allow you to brew potions giving permanent stat upgrades? That would make high level alchemy extremely valuable and make it very worthwhile to look for rare ingredients. As it is, I just sell expensive stuff.

But alchemy is godly be it either vanilla or Requiem...

I mean creating potion that will heal you fast as hell from basically grass and water and you could stack shit ton of them basically making you invincible. And you can sell potion for money making it best source on money in whole game...

As for mod i didn't hear about any mod like that.

 

[Perkel]

So, I'm currently at the point where I eat dragons for breakfast: summon 2 storm atronachs, blast away with lightning snipe until dead, takes less than a minute in most cases.

This has led me to want to reroll as a murderstabby thiefy sneak thing: has anyone had any success running a sneakythief in Requiem? Any hints on how not to constantly die? Using bow to kill most squishies before they close in is all very well but draugr are nearly immune to arrows and there are a shitload of draugr needing to be killed in the thieves guild questline, which makes getting the Nightingale armour kind of a chore for a squishy melee guy. IIRC, draugr are also immune to sneak crits.

I would also like to try dualwielding for once, but the "no blocking" thing is retarded to me. Can anyone recommend a mod that addresses this and fits in with Requiem?

Thief alone in Requiem is weak.. mix it with alchemy and illusion. Sort of assasin/shadowdencer type of thief and its very viable and fun.

 

[RK47]

Trust me, a full archery thief is viable. As long you don't deal with undead. I was honestly fine with my 90 HP Wood Elf level 6. 25 Archery, carry a spare 2 hander for melee. No poisoning required. No magic.
Finished first thieves guild quest no problem. Everyone dies in one shot, fully drawn bow at close range. Had a funny experience when I cleared a skooma den for the Jarl of Riften, stole a horse, got there just fine. Cleared the whole den easily. Paralysis pot on the leader, smack him around with two hander. Then trek back to Riften... only to die to four wolves. Quickload, died to Frostbite spider lunge.

Well sheet. Guess Command Animals and run while singing Disney song is my only option.
And that's why I kinda like Conjuration. Summon Ghost wolf is such a great decoy. Bound sword is perfect for side weapon. Wood elves start with 110 Mana, more than enough for most basic spells.

 

[Lancehead]

But for undead, you have one handed, and daggers get incredibly powerful once you get both anatomical lore perks. Thieves are weak only against Dwemer automatons because of their tank nature, and sneaking past them isn't always viable.

 

[RK47]

Eh. There are too many encounters in draugr ruins that culminates in a showdown within a caged room vs a Boss.
Doors locked till you win the fight. Even a straight up melee warriors will have issues if they come unprepared and undergeared.
A stealth assassin is just gonna have to reload or pull a stave of Frost Atronach or something.
Just to have a chance at winning.

 

[Perkel]

But for undead, you have one handed, and daggers get incredibly powerful once you get both anatomical lore perks. Thieves are weak only against Dwemer automatons because of their tank nature, and sneaking past them isn't always viable.

"Sneaking past them isn't always viable". More like whole structure of game is not viable for pure thief type since most of things require you to fight with boss. If game was properly designed Dragontablet for example would be actual thing you can steal from borrow instead it is thing that materialize only after you kill hat boss... rendering any sneaking not viable. And that is how most quest are done. "Kill that guy" Pure thief type would avoid any fight and fight only when he must...

 

[Lancehead]

Eh. There are too many encounters in draugr ruins that culminates in a showdown within a caged room vs a Boss.
Doors locked till you win the fight. Even a straight up melee warriors will have issues if they come unprepared and undergeared.
A stealth assassin is just gonna have to reload or pull a stave of Frost Atronach or something.
Just to have a chance at winning.

That's playing the build incorrectly. You rarely encounter ruins where there are no shadows, in the boss room or anywhere else.

But for undead, you have one handed, and daggers get incredibly powerful once you get both anatomical lore perks. Thieves are weak only against Dwemer automatons because of their tank nature, and sneaking past them isn't always viable.

"Sneaking past them isn't always viable". More like whole structure of game is not viable for pure thief type since most of things require you to fight with boss. If game was properly designed Dragontablet for example would be actual thing you can steal from borrow instead it is thing that materialize only after you kill hat boss... rendering any sneaking not viable. And that is how most quest are done. "Kill that guy" Pure thief type would avoid any fight and fight only when he must...

This is TES; it's implicit that a thief build includes sneak attacking (look at how skills are designed). The build is not defined by sneaking past everyone. Even then, there's plenty of content where you can play like Garrett.