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The Elder Scrolls Chapter II Tips & Tricks |
The Elder Scrolls - Chapter II
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* The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II *
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* D A G G E R F A L L *
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FAQ / Hints / Walkthrough
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| Table of Contents |
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i --- Welcome to Daggerfall!
I --- Creating your Character
1. Your race
2. Your class
a. Attributes
b. Skills
c. Advantages and Disadvantages
d. The Difficulty Dagger
e. Reputation
3. Background generating questions
4. Rolling your Stats
5. The Controls, and Customizing Them
6. Escaping the Privateer's Hold
II -- Life in the Illiac Bay
1. Travel
2. Towns and Locations
3. Dialogue
4. Shops and Services
5. Crime and Punishment
III - Items
1. Weapons
2. Armor
3. Materials
4. Miscellaneous items
5. Artifacts
IV -- Magic
1. The Spellmaker
2. Schools and Effects
3. Enchantments
V --- Guilds
1. Membership and Advancement
2. Quests and Reputation
3. The Factions
VI -- Dungeons and Adventure
1. Combat
2. Tips on navigating dungeons
3. The infamous Void
4. Bestiary
5. Diseases
6. Vampirism
7. Lycanthropy
VII - The Main Story
01. Meeting Lady Brisienna
(Part I - The Missing Letter)
02. Morgiah's Letter
03. Cyndassa's Brother
04. Finding the Courier
05. The Lich's Soul
06. The Letter in Orsinium
07. What is the Mantella?
(Part II - Lysandus's Revenge)
08. A Missing Prince
09. The Painting
10. The Underking
11. Seeking Medora
12. Breaking the Curse
13. The Dust of Restful Death
14. Lysandus's Tomb
15. Woodborne Hall
(Part III - Numidium Reborn)
16. The Totem
17. Decisions
18. The Mantellan Crux
(Optional Quests)
19. Blackmail
20. Elysana's Gift
21. A Book for Barenziah
22. The Madness of Nulfaga
23. Mynisera's Letters
24. Elysana's Trap
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|| i - Welcome to Daggerfall! ||
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"Prepare to experience your new obsession!" says the game box, and it could not
have been more correct. You are about to step into one of the largest game
worlds ever created. Hundreds of towns and dungeons, dozens of guilds, and an
infinite number of quests, Daggerfall will give you a whole new understanding
of "massive."
However, suffice it to say that writing a guide for this sort of game is much
different than writing for your typical RPG. Daggerfall, like all other Elder
Scrolls chapters, is completely open ended--you are simply dumped in a world
and left to do with it as you please. Sure, there's a main quest to follow
(which will be covered), but it is always more fun to ditch that story
altogether and go make your own. Join the guilds, raid the dungeons, explore
the various kingdoms of the bay--there's plenty to do.
Also, much of the game content is randomly generated. Monsters, loot, store
shelves, most NPCs are randomly generated; even quests are created from
templates. All of the town and dungeon layouts, however, were procedurally
generated during development--they'll always be the same for every game.
As such and apart from the main quest walkthrough, this guide will be largely
gameplay hints and strategies. I cannot tell you exactly where Object X will
be in that dungeon; but I can tell you what skills are best, which guilds have
the better services, how to make excellent and useful spells, and much, much
more.
Everything you read here is from my playing experience, which is rather
extensive. Any information presented here that came from other sources will
be credited in that section.
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|| I - Creating your Character ||
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The character creation system in Daggerfall is robust. You have more control
over what your character is and is not than in any other RPG. Want a strong,
yet unpopular warrior, who is better than most with axes, excels at archery,
and is deathly afraid of the undead? You can do that. Or what about a
battlemage whose magic is more powerful in darkness, trains in both magic and
the arts of war, excels when fighting humans, and for whatever reason, cannot
bear to touch silvered equipment? You can do that too, and more.
*** 1. YOUR RACE ***
There are eight races in Daggerfall. Your choice of race is largely cosmetic
and has little effect on the game from a stats perspective. Your race
supposedly affects your starting attributes, but so does your class--and
through experimentation it seems that the class overrides any changes made by
your race. As such, it makes little difference what you choose here, so just
pick whichever race appeals to you. There are two exceptions, however: Nords
and High Elves.
You select you race by choosing a home province.
Province: Race:
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High Rock Bretons
Hammerfell Redguards
Skyrim Nords
* Nords are resistant to Frost magic
Morrowind Dark Elves
Sumurset Isle High Elves
* High Elves are immune to Paralysis
Valenwood Wood Elves
Elsweyr Khajiit
Black Marsh Argonians
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The Imperial province has no playable race.
*** 2. YOUR CLASS ***
Now THIS is the meat of character creation. Here is where you'll get to really
customize yourself, by adjusting your starting attributes, selecting all your
class skills, advantages, disadvantages, etc.
When selecting a class, you can choose a premade class or, at the bottom of the
list, choose to create a custom class. Believe me when I tell you that you
should never even bother with the premade classes; why would you want to
anyways, when you can make exactly the character you want with a custom class?
*** 2a. ATTRIBUTES ***
We'll start off with the Attributes. Along the left side of the screen you will
see the eight Primary Attributes for your character. By clicking first on the
score and then on the arrows that appear, you can adjust their starting
value--just remember that if you add to one attribute, you'll have to take from
another.
Attribute: Affects:
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Strength The damage you deal in combat and how much you can carry. Any
character can benefit from a high Strength score. Being able
to carry more loot and equipment is always helpful.
Intelligence How much Magicka you have to cast spells with. Magic-using
characters should always bump up their Intelligence a bit.
Willpower Your ability to resist magic. Having a high score here is very
helpful at higher levels, when enemies are using powerful
magical attacks. Vampire Ancients and Liches can easily blast
you to death with a single spell if you don't have adequate
protection. You could get away with a low Willpower, however, if
you plan on using spells to boost your magic resistance.
Agility Your chance of hitting an opponent and avoiding attacks. Hitting
and not getting hit being the two most important things in
combat, this is clearly a good stat for all characters.
Endurance Your amount of Health, healing rate, and disease and poison
resistance. Having a higher healing rate is nice because you
won't have to rest as long to heal up. However, if all you want
is more health, then don't bother here, but add points to the
"Max Hit Points per Level" box (which we will discuss later).
Personality How positively people react to you. If there's a stat that
doesn't really matter so much, it's this one. Yes, people
will respond better to your questions in dialog, and they might
offer you better prices for goods and services, but let's be
realistic. For one, there are TONS of NPCs in the game; if one
doesn't respond well, the next one will. For two, money is
rarely an issue for ANY Daggerfall character. Just don't bother
with personality; if you want to bump it down 10, 20, or even
30 points in order to boost other stats, you go right ahead.
Speed How fast you move, including attack speed. Moving quickly saves
time and ensures you can outrun your enemies (and, more
importantly, the city guards). Also, a character with a high
speed score can dish out a lot of attacks very quickly; this
is a definite advantage in combat.
Luck Everything you do in a small way. Luck plays a small role in
every calculation the game makes, such as what loot you find.
That said, how you treat your Luck score is up to you; I often
just leave it at 50 and never touch it.
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As you can tell, having higher attributes grants bonuses in certain areas.
However, it is important to note that some of these bonuses increase with every
point of attribute you gain, and some only on increments of 10. For instance,
each point of Strength will add to your weight limit, and every point of
Intelligence will add to your maximum amount of magicka. However, your bonus to
resisting magic will only increase every 10 points above or below 50, and the
same goes for Strength and your damage bonus in combat.
Also, these scores are not set in stone for character generation; when you
actually roll your character later on, your Attribute scores will simply be
within 10 points of these numbers.
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*** 2b. SKILLS ***
Next you will select the skills that are important to your class. There are
35 skills in Daggerfall; you will select 12 of them for your class: 3 Primary
skills, 3 Major skills and 6 Minor skills. The Primaries will start out the
highest (usually in the 30s), followed by the Majors (in the low 20s), and then
finally the Minors (around 14). You can still use and advance in the remaining
skills you did not pick, but they will start out low, improve slowly, and not
contribute to leveling up.
Listed with each skill is the Governing Attribute for that skill. Having a high
governing attribute will give you bonuses when using that skill. Note that your
skill can never be higher than its governing attribute; if they are equal, you
will have to raise that attribute in order for the skill to advance.
Weapon skills: it is important to have at least one melee weapon skill,
but there is rarely any reason to take more than one. Taking Archery or Hand
to Hand to supplement your primary weapon skill can be very useful.
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Axe Axes come in only two varieties: one handed and two handed.
(STR) Makes for a fairly boring weapon skill, but if you like axes,
go for it. Axes are durable and deal decent amounts of damage.
Unfortunately, axes are also less commonly found than the other
weapons.
Blunt Weapon Blunts are the hardiest weapons in the game; you'll rarely have
(STR) your warhammer break on you. On top of that, blunt weapons are
the only weapons that deal full damage to Undead creatures--all
others deal only half damage. That and flails look awesome.
Short Blade The lightest and quickest weapons, short blades are also the
(STR) frailest and deal the least damage. However, they are light
enough that it is easy to carry multiple backup weapons. If your
character prefers to travel light, short blades are for you.
Long Blade Long blades deal the most damage, but are not as durable as axes
(STR) or blunt weapons. They also seem to be the most commonly found
weapons in the game.
Archery Archery can be very powerful, even in the narrow corridors of
(AGI) dungeons. It is also very easy to deal backstabbing attacks
with bows. Because ranged magic attacks can be hard to aim,
archery is often the best way to pick off foes from a distance.
Hand to Hand The art of unarmed combat. Damage is rather low, but your fists
(AGI) never wear out or break, and they can damage any monster, even
if it has a material requirement, such as silver. H2H makes for
a reliable backup weapon.
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Magic Skills: Regardless of class, most adventurers of any mettle tend to
study a little magic. It opens up many abilities that can save your skin or
save you a lot of time and sweat. That said: it is possible to play, enjoy, and
complete the game without any magic whatsoever. We'll have more info on the
magic system later on in the guide.
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Alteration This is the most useful school of magic by far. Water walking
(WIL) and water breathing will make underwater areas--which are
usually quite troublesome--a breeze. Free Action will save your
skin from paralyzing enemies. And finally, alteration also
boasts some protection and resistance spells.
Destruction You blow stuff up with this school; there's not really much else
(WIL) to say. At high levels you can toss around some extremely
powerful stuff with impunity. Personally, I'm not much for
offensive magic, as ranged spells are hard to aim correctly;
but if you see yourself enjoying blasting apart your enemies,
be my guest and devote some time to this school.
Illusion Every stealthy character is made even more stealthy with this
(WIL) school of magic. There aren't many spells for this school, but
illusion spells are incredibly useful.
Mysticism There are two very useful spells in this school. One is Recall,
(WIL) which allows you to teleport back to an "anchor" you set with
the same spell. The other useful spell here is Open--and that
is an VERY useful spell, because Lockpicking is difficult to
train. However, both of these spells are easy enough to pull
off with a low skill level, so taking this school as a class
skill isn't entirely necessary.
Restoration Being able to heal your wounds during combat is going to
(WIL) save your life more times than you'll care to count. Potions
being rather hard to come by, restoration magic is usually the
primary way to heal your wounds when you cannot rest.
Restoration is also home to magical resistance and absorption
spells, as well as fortification spells to boost your
attributes. Every character can benefit from taking this skill.
Thaumaturgy Thaumaturgy would be worthwhile to take for Levitation alone, as
(WIL) it is by far the most useful spell in the game. Also in this
school is Spell Reflection, which can help turn enemy spells
against their masters. While Levitation is simple enough to cast
without a high skill level, Spell reflection is not.
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* A quick note: Guilds have skill requirements to join and advance. This is
most noticeable and problematic for the Mages Guild, as if you don't have
magical skills high enough, you won't be able to join. If you plan on joining
the mages guild, you should place at least one school of magic as a Primary
skill, just so it starts high enough to join the guild as quickly as possible.
Other skills: Let's face it, you won't be able to fill your 12 slots with
weapons and magic, will you?
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Languages Centaurian, daedric, dragonish, giantish, harpy, impish, nymph,
(INT) orcish, and spriggan. Don't get your hopes up--there is no real
conversing with monsters in this game. All the language skills
do is give you a chance that the creature will not attack you,
assumably by talking to it. A hint: Don't have you weapon out
when trying to talk to them; they'll take offense instantly and
attack you. Another hint: Don't bother with these skills at all.
They are pointless. If you don't want the nasty orc to attack
you, just kill it; then you can take its stuff.
Backstabbing Ah, the favored skill of assassins. Anytime you hit someone
(AGI) from behind this skill is checked; and if successful, you can
dish out a lot of damage. For obvious reasons, this one goes
hand in hand with stealth.
Stealth Ah, the OTHER favored skill of sneaky people. It's always to
(AGI) your advantage to get the first strike, especially if it helps
you get a backstab attack on them. Also, NOT attracting the
attention of wandering monsters in a dungeon is always a good
idea.
Lockpicking Ah, the OTHER other... Wait a minute, this skill sucks! Not
(AGI) kidding, this one is the worst. Not only is it amazingly slow
to train but you often only get one attempt per door (exterior
doors only; you can make as many attempts as you want on
interior doors--but the guards will be called immediately on the
second try). It's not that lockpicking in itself is a bad idea,
just that this game does a poor job of implementing it.
Luckily there are other ways through locked doors. You can magic
them open with the Mysticism spell Open, or you can bash them
open with your weapon or fist. Note that even the weakest Open
spell will open any door in any town, and anyone can cast it. As
for bashing, try not to do it in towns--it's noisy and alerts
the guards; as for bashing doors in dungeons, sure it's still
noisy, but who cares?
Suffice it to say that the lockpicking skill sucks and you can
get by far better with the Open spell or a good bashing.
Remember that bashing doors puts some serious wear and tear on
your weapon, so carry a spare or switch to your fists.
Pickpocket Pickpocketing is also useless. You can pickpocket people--and
(AGI) monsters, humorously enough. Of course, you'll only get a few
pieces of gold at best. The other thing Pickpocket governs is
shoplifting, which you should NEVER do. For one, you'll rarely
succeed, even with 100 skill; for two it's much easier and
profitable to just break in at night and swipe the entire
contents of the store. We'll talk more about that in the Crime
section, so stay tuned.
Crit. Strike Each time you hit something in combat, this skill is checked to
(AGI) see if you made a Critical strike--dealing more damage than
usual. The higher the skill, the more often this happens. Anyone
who plans on getting into fights with weapons can benefit from
this skill.
Dodging Dodging helps you avoid attacks in combat, which is most helpful
(SPD) if you don't plan on wearing much armor. You can always do your
own dodging, by just moving out of range when they are about to
attack, but that tactic doesn't always work so well in tight
corridors or when surrounded by enemies. This is a nice skill
to have around.
Climbing You will find climbing very useful, especially if you cannot use
(STR) levitation magic. Arriving to a city at night only to find the
gates shut in your face is not problem if you can just scale the
city walls and hop in. Note that in order to complete the main
story, you must be able to levitate or climb.
Climbing is done by facing a wall as perpendicularly as you can,
and walking into it. Within a few seconds, you should begin to
scale the wall.
Jumping As the name suggests, this skill governs your ability to jump.
(STR) Doesn't sound that glamorous, no, but there are many times
you'll encounter pitfalls in dungeons that you'll either have
to levitate over or jump over (or fall into, of course). Note
that if you cannot levitate, you also must be able to jump well
to complete the main story.
Running Also an easy one, this one helps you run faster. The benefits
(SPD) should be obvious: the faster you can run, the better you can
outrun the city guards (seriously, who else do you run from?).
Certainly not going to kill you to leave this one out, but if
you have a slot you need filled, it's a fine choice.
Swimming I don't really have to explain what this skill does, right?
(END) There are plenty of underwater areas you can encounter in
dungeons, some of them quite extensive. Having a good skill here
can help you survive them, because let me tell you: underwater
areas are dangerous. You'll move very slowly and sink straight
to the bottom if you are carrying too much junk--and by "too
much junk" I mean pretty much anything. So while you are
fighting aqueous monsters and trying to explore the area, your
breath meter will slowly (read: rapidly) deplete until you die.
So having a decent swimming skill is helpful, but then again,
if you have Alteration and can cast water breathing and water
walking, these areas are a walk in the park--er, pond. And to
be honest, even characters with no alteration skill whatsoever
can cast those two spells, provided you made them in the weakest
version possible with the Spellmaker (which we'll get to later).
Etiquette There are two dialog skills, Etiquette and Streetwise. When
& speaking to people, you can choose to speak with a Normal,
Streetwise Polite, or Blunt tone. Polite (Etiquette) is best used with
(PER) well-spoken people such as nobles; Blunt (Streetwise) is best
with the common peasants and unsavory sorts. You can often get
more information out of people if you speak like they do.
These skills also play a role in the legal system. If you are
arrested and plead "not guilty", you will be given the chance to
either debate your innocence or just flat out lie to the judge.
Debating involves Etiquette, lying uses Streetwise. With a good
skill in one of these, you can get off easy.
We'll go into more depth with Dialog and Crime later on.
Mercantile This one will help you in your bartering, ensuring you'll get
(PER) better deals when buying and selling stuff. There'll be lots of
buying and selling in the game, so this could be worthwhile;
could be, if money were ever an issue in this game. No, you
will be hauling in quite a bit of cash without the aid of
mercantile, so you can definitely do without this one.
Medical And finally, we come to medical. This skill helps you heal
(INT) faster so that it takes less time to rest and recover your
health, magicka, and fatigue. Because all quests have time
limits, it can be a bad thing if you spend too much time
resting; a high skill here can cut your naptimes shorter and let
you get on with the adventuring.
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* Leveling up *
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While we're talking about skills, we might as well talk about leveling up.
Daggerfall employs a use-based system; as you practice your skills, you will
get better at them. The more you use a skill, the faster it will improve.
Improving your class skills will contribute to when you level up; when you
level up, you will gain more health and get between 4 and 6 points to add to
your attributes as you see fit.
* When does a skill increase? In order for any one of your skills to increase,
you must meet all of the following criteria:
1. You must have used the skill enough; the amount you have to use to improve
the skill increases exponentially as your skill grows. For instance, it will
take much more practice to raise a skill from 59 to 60 than it did 14 to 15.
Unfortunately, the game does not show your progress toward raising any skill.
2. It must have been at least 6 hours since the last time you raised the skill.
3. Finally, you must have just finished resting or traveling. Your skill will
not increase immediately once you have practiced enough; your character must
have had time to rest and meditate on what they have learned.
* When do you level up? Well, that's a little complicated. The game does not
present any information on how long it will be before you level up, and the
equation itself is a tad involved. Basically, the game tracks your 3 Primary
skills, your top 2 Majors, and your single highest Minor skill. When the
combined value of these skills has changed by 15 points, you level up; the
only exception is that it only takes 2 skill raises to reach level 2.
It is best if you just don't think about it; your skills will increase when
they increase, you will level up when you level up. It is supposed to be a
natural progression, so treat it as such.
*** 2c. Advantages and Disadvantages ***
Here is where you can really make your character interesting. Either by giving
them fun gifts and abilities, or by cursing them with neat restrictions, or a
mixture of both. With the Advantages and Disadvantages, you can make your
character truly unique, so go wild.
Advantages
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Acute Hearing This advantage allows you to hear creatures from farther
away. If you are on a quest to hunt for a particular
critter, then this can help you to locate them, assuming
you know what they sound like. Kinda helpful, but you can
usually hear the creatures from a good distance anyways.
Adrenaline Rush When you get low on health, this will give you a boost to
your speed, chance to hit, damage output, etc. Really,
though, when you get low on health, it's a better idea to
run away and heal than to keep fighting. This advantage
isn't all that advantageous.
Athleticism This one makes you lose less fatigue from taking actions
like running and jumping. Since fatigue does not recover
on its own, and when you run out of fatigue, you pass out
(and usually get eaten), this one could be a good choice;
except that if you are going that long without resting,
you have other issues. A quick nap is more than enough to
recover your fatigue, and Restoration has spells to
recover it very quickly as well. Not a worthwhile choice.
Bonus to Hit Animals, daedra, humanoid, or undead. Make your choice and
you'll be better at hitting those foes. Assassins would be
wise to choose Humanoid here, as all of the assassin
quests involve killing humans. For reference, the variety
of enemies is roughly 25% animal, 8% daedra, 51% humanoid,
and 15% undead. That said, the daedra and undead are the
ones that hurt the most; human enemies, who are a large
portion of the humanoid category, are also dangerous as
they continue to scale somewhat to your level. The best
choice here is Humanoid or Undead.
Immunity Disease, fire, frost, magic, paralysis, poison, or shock.
Pick one, and it will never bother you again. Keep in mind
that being immune to "magic" here refers only to spells
that do not fall into the other categories. Also note that
Immunity, Resistance, Low Tolerance and Critical Weakness
are all mutually exclusive: you cannot take two for the
same type of magic. This is an expensive advantage, for
obvious reasons; the best choice is Paralysis, as it is by
far the most annoying and deadly spell to be under.
Remember that High Elves are already immune to Paralysis.
Increased Magery 1x, 1.5x, 1.75x, 2x, or 3x INT as your maximum amount of
magicka. If you plan on using magic AT ALL, you should
take 3x right now--there is no reason not to. More magicka
means more spells. When you are deep in a dungeon and
cannot rest safely, you'll be glad you have more magicka
to work with.
Rapid Healing In general, in darkness, or in light. This will allow your
character to heal faster when resting. Note that "light"
means outside in the daytime, where "darkness" refers to
everywhere else: nighttime, inside buildings, and, most
importantly, in dungeons. You will be spending the vast
majority of your time in darkness, so there is little
reason to ever take Light or General. Also, this advantage
serves as an excellent substitute for the Medical skill.
Regenerate Health In general, in darkness, in light, or in water. This gifts
your character with slow, constant regeneration of their
health under the specified condition. Again, like Rapid
Healing, in Darkness is your best option; however, taking
this advantage in General can also be beneficial, as it
will also regenerate your health while in towns (where
you can only rest in taverns, certain guilds, or a
purchased house).
Resistance Disease, fire, frost, magic, paralysis, poison, or shock.
This will give you increased protection against the chosen
type of magic. Disease and poison are the least of your
worries, as spells, potions, or a trip to a temple will
take care of any afflictions you encounter--just don't
wait to long; Daggerfall diseases are no joking matter.
Spell Absorption In general, in darkness, or in light. Ah, now this is a
powerful advantage to have. With Spell Absorption, you
have a chance of absorbing enemy spells, converting
them harmlessly into magicka, recovering some of your
reservoir. This certainly helps in dungeons, where it is
often difficult to find a safe place to rest; by absorbing
enemy spells, you can refill your magicka without resting.
Did you know you can be caught in your own
spell's blast radius? Oh yes, and you can easily hurt
yourself very badly if you aren't careful with your area-
based spells. Interestingly enough, with this advantage,
you can absorb your own spell, recovering its magicka;
oh, and it'll still hurt anyone nearby, too. See where I'm
going with this? Walk up to an enemy and cast a fireball
at your feet; you'll hurt him AND you'll reabsorb the
magicka it took to cast the spell, which you can use to
recast that spell again. Repeat until he's toast. Yes,
it's horribly cheap, and you're probably abusing the
system; but if you don't care about that, well, you can
become fairly unstoppable.
There's a downside to this, of course. You see, if you
absorb more magicka than you can contain (that is, going
above your maximum amount of magicka), you overload and
take magicka burn--which hurts a lot, and is often
outright fatal. Yes, absorbing spells can kill you. This
means that if you go up against a powerful spellcasting
enemy, you can overload rather quickly and kill yourself.
This advantage, therefore, requires you to monitor your
magicka to keep from going over.
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Disadvantages: I often find that it is your character's flaws and restrictions
that make him or her worthwhile to play, moreso than their gifts or advantages.
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Critical Weakness Disease, fire, frost, magic, paralysis, poison, or shock.
Make your choice here, and it will be your bane. A safe
choice is disease, as it only increases your chance of
contracting a disease, not the effects of the illness.
High Elves should feel free to pick Paralysis as their
weakness, because they are already immune to it. Hah!
Damage From holy places, or from sunlight. You will take damage
from prolonged exposure in these areas or conditions. The
temples aren't such a problem if you don't plan on joining
one; if you are quick, you can even run in and get cured
of your diseases without taking too much damage. As for
the sunlight... well, this makes it more difficult to
visit the guilds and merchants. Daylight shines from 6:00
to 18:00 (Daggerfall uses a 24 hour clock). Most shops are
open from 9:00 to 20:00. Of course, on an overcast day,
you'll take less damage, and if you run quickly you can
often run from establishment to establishment in order to
make your way about safely in sunlight. But the case
remains that it is more difficult to go shopping when you
take damage from sunlight; you also cannot travel during
the daytime hours, because you are taking damage. Still,
this is a disadvantage that will drastically change your
playing style, making for a very interesting character.
Darkness Magery Lowered ability in light, or unable in light. This in an
interesting one. What this does is either lower your
maximum amount of magicka or remove it entirely when in
light. Again, "light" refers to being outside in daylight,
and that is a small percentage of the game; the vast
majority of the time you will be in darkness. So this can
be a rather safe disadvantage to take.
Forbidden Armor Chain, leather, or plate. Keep this in mind: There is one
type of leather armor, and it sucks. There is one kind of
chain armor, and it also sucks (still better than leather,
of course). Also, only plate armor comes in different
materials. This means that all the best armor in the game
is plate. Furthermore, wearing armor does not inhibit your
sneaking or spellcasting in any way. It's heavy, yes, so
it will slow you down a little and hog some of your weight
allowance, but that's it. In short, there is little reason
not to wear armor.
Restricting yourself from leather or chain will only be
annoying for the absolute beginning of the game;
restricting yourself of plate will haunt you the entire
life of your character--unless you are eschewing armor for
roleplaying purposes.
Forb. Material From lowest to highest: iron, steel, silver, elven,
dwarven, mithril, adamantium, ebony, orcish, daedric.
Pick a material; you cannot use any weapons or armor of
that material. You'll be safe nixing silver or orcish as
they are so rare that you'll rarely find them anyway. Iron
or steel will make things difficult at the beginning.
Forb. Shield Buckler, round, kite, or tower. This should be pretty self
explanatory. You would be safe forbidding yourself from
bucklers or tower shields; the former because it's just
not very protective, and the latter for weight concerns.
Honestly, though, shields aren't all that great in the
first place, as all of the best weapons are two-handed.
Forb. Weaponry Any weapon skill. Considering that you will likely never
try to use any weapon but the ones you have chosen for
your class, you can feel free to limit yourself from any
and all the others. Oddly enough, even though you can
select Hand to Hand for this disadvantage, it doesn't do
anything.
Inability to... Inability to regain spell points. This is a difficult one
to play with. If you take this and still plan on using
magic, you MUST take the Spell Absorption advantage--
because with this you cannot regain magicka when resting!
Light Magery Lowered ability in darkness, or unable in darkness. You
should never, under any circumstance, take this. As said
before, you are going to be in darkness for most of the
game; unless you are deliberately cutting yourself off
from magic altogether, this is a terrible disadvantage.
Low Tolerance Disease, fire, frost, magic, paralysis, poison, or shock.
The lesser version of Critical Weakness. There's not much
else to say than that.
Phobia Of animals, daedra, humanoid, or undead. Take this one
with caution. You will have more trouble hitting and deal
less damage to the chosen creature type. Furthermore, they
will have LESS trouble hitting you, and deal you MORE
damage than usual. That goes for magic as well; your
spells will be less effective against them, and theirs
more against you.
Animals are on the whole the weakest creature type, so
they are a less dangerous choice. Daedra are very powerful
to begin with, so making them more difficult sounds like a
bad idea; however, they are also the least common enemy
you will meet. Choosing Humanoid or Undead is a very
brave, and probably foolish, choice; They are both
powerful and plentiful.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 2d. The Difficulty Dagger ***
So what's the point in choosing disadvantages? Well, you see that bar with the
dagger on it? That is the Difficulty Dagger. Choosing advantages makes it go
up; choosing disadvantages makes it go back down. This is important because you
cannot proceed unless the dagger is somewhere in the middle, out of the red
zones at the top and bottom. That means that there is a limit to the number of
advantages you can give your character--but you can add more advantages if you
also give you character some disadvantages as well.
Now, some advantages and disadvantages move the dagger more than others, all
depending on how great an effect they have on the game. For instance, choosing
Regenerate Health is going to bump the dagger up a lot more than choosing Acute
Hearing. Also, the secondary choices have varying effects as well on the
dagger: Regenerate Health in General moves it more than Regenerate Health in
Darkness. So you will have to choose just what advantages are the most
important to you, and which disadvantages you can stomach to get what you want.
There is one more thing that affects the Difficulty Dagger: the Max Hit Points
per Level box. The more hit points you give yourself per level, the higher the
dagger goes. So if you want a lot of Health, you're going to have to give
yourself some serious disadvantages to make up for that bonus.
[!] Where the Difficulty Dagger lies on the graph also has an effect on your
game. The higher the dagger, the more you have to practice your skills to
improve them; the lower the dagger, the less you have to practice. So if the
dagger is high, your character will advance more slowly than if the dagger was
low.
These are double-edged swords, of course. Naturally, progressing slowly can be
irritating; however, if you progress too quickly, you will begin to meet
stronger monsters before you have had time to collect worthy equipment. As
such, the best place is near the middle of the graph.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 2e. Reputations ***
Finally, the last part of creating your class is to set your reputations with
some of the various factions. There are hundreds of factions in the game; these
are but the largest and most common. You may alter how much these factions like
or dislike you by clicking in the graphs. Just remember that the total must be
equal to zero. If you give 5 points to one, you must take 5 points from
another.
Merchants: These represent all the merchants and shopkeepers in the game.
Naturally, if they like you more, they will give you better deals when buying
of selling items. Of course, money is so rarely a problem in Daggerfall, that
getting better deals may not be all that prudent. Merchants also offer quests,
however, so making them hate you too much may cut off this source of adventure.
Peasants: You will often be interacting with the commoners, especially those
who wander around the towns. You will need to ask directions of them, find out
the services in their town, ask where to find work, etc. If they do not like
you enough, they will often refuse to talk to you altogether. As such, it is
usually a bad idea to make this faction hate you. On the other hand, there
isn't a whole lot to gain by them loving you either.
Scholars: Scholars include the Mages Guild and all Temples, among others. If
you plan on joining either of these guilds, best to make them love you from the
start. If you don't plan on joining either, it won't hurt to bump their opinion
of you down a bit so you can boost another reputation.
Nobility: These guys aren't all that important. Sure, you can get quests from
them, but they often aren't as worthwhile as other sources. Unless you have
roleplaying reasons for supporting the nobles, feel free to make these guys
hate you.
Underworld: The thieves, assassins, and criminals of the Illiac Bay. If you
plan on falling in with these unsavory sorts, it can be to your benefit to get
on their good side early on. As for letting them hate you, well, these
underworld types are known to ambush those who cross them, which could be seen
as a bad thing.
That's it! Your class is finished. Don't forget to give it a name.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 3. Background Generating Questions ***
Now that your class is constructed, the game will ask you 12 questions that
will help flesh out your character. They will range from "what have you been
studying the longest?" and "what god do your worship, if any?" to "What are you
the worst at?" and "Whom do you despise more than usual?"
In general, the effect that each answer you give should be fairly obvious. If
you say you have been spent the most time studying archery, you will begin with
a slightly higher skill in archery. If you say you worship Julianos, then your
reputation with that temple will be a little higher.
There are a few things to look out for:
1. One of the questions you can be asked involves the Emperor giving you an
item; If you can answer "An ebony dagger," do so--even if you don't use short
blades this will sell for a ton of gold. If you do plan on using short blades,
then this is an excellent weapon that will serve you well for a long time.
2. Other than the ebony dagger, or possibly the silver flail, do not bother
with asking for weapons or armor. Answering that the Emperor gave you a full
suit of armor will net you a full suit of IRON armor, the worst plate in the
game. Rest assured that you will be decked out in at least leather, chain, or
iron by the time you exit the starter dungeon; From there, a quick stop at an
Armorer shop and you can buy/steal enough to be adequately protected. Instead,
choose books or gems, things that look like they would sell for a lot. It's
always nice to have more money at the beginning.
3. There is a slight bug involved with choosing "Critical Weakness to Disease"
as a special disadvantage, and also saying that you "have the most trouble
Resisting Diseases." Apparently, these choices conflict with each other, and
the end result is that you are virtually immune to diseases altogether (don't
worry, you can still contract vampirism or lycanthropy, if that is your goal).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 4. Rolling your Stats ***
Now that your class is constructed and your background generated, you will get
to name your character and choose his or her face. Then you will proceed to
rolling your attributes. As noted earlier, the scores you set in your class are
not set in stone; they will vary from those values by up to 10 points. Along
side your attributes you will see the bonus points that you may also distribute
as you wish. If you do not like the scores you see, you may click the "Reroll"
button as much as you wish.
To the side of your attributes you will see other stats that are affected by
those attributes. Each box is situated beside the attribute that affects it.
Dam: Your damage bonus in combat. This increases with every 10 points
of Strength.
Max Enc: Your encumbrance, or how much you can carry. This is equal to
1.5 * your Strength.
Spell Points: You maximum amount of Magicka, which increases with every point
of Intelligence. The base rate is 0.5 * INT, however, this may
change depending on whether you took the Increased Magery
special advantage.
Magic Resist: Your bonus to resisting magic. Increases with every 10 points
of Willpower.
To Hit: Your bonus to your rolls to hit enemies in combat. Increases
with every 10 points of Agility.
Hit Pts: You bonus to the health you gain per level. Increases with
every 10 points of Endurance.
Healing Rate: Your bonus to the amount of health you regain per hour of rest.
Increases with every 10 points of Endurance.
As you can see, most of these bonuses increase only on multiples of 10; so
when distributing your bonus points, it may be wise to go ahead and bump a few
of these attributes up to 60, 70 or whatever, just to get that extra little
bonus to your rolls.
After you set your Attributes, you can move ahead to add some bonus points to
your skills. You will get 6 points each to distribute among each group of
skills: Primary, Major, and Minor.
That's it! Your finished with character creation. Now it's time to watch the
introductory videos and start the game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 5. The Controls, and Customizing Them ***
Now that you're in the game, it's prime time to learn the controls. By default,
the game uses a mouse-based interface. As you move the mouse
towards the edges it will turn from an X into an arrow; clicking will move or
turn your character in that direction. The closer you are to the edge, the
faster you will go. You can also use the arrow keys to move around.
The buttons along the toolbar have the following uses and keyboard buttons:
Portrait: F5, Brings up the character screen where you can view your stats.
Options: ESC, brings up the options menu.
Star: Backspace, Brings up your spell book.
Hand: Changes your interaction mode, which are also easily accessed:
F1 Steal Mode, F2 Grab Mode, F3 Info mode, F4 Dialog Mode.
Bags: F6, Brings up your Inventory.
Swords: A, Readies/puts away your weapon.
Wand: U, Use a magical item.
Legs: T, Change mode of transportation (foot, horse, cart, ship)
Map: M/W, Brings up the local map. Right-click brings up the World Map.
Campfire: R, Brings up the rest menu.
Press ESC and go to Controls to view the various commands and the keys they are
mapped to.
You can also feel free to customize the controls to your liking. You are
welcome to stick with the defaults, of course; however, many people never
realize that the game supports mouse freelook, such that the game plays out
very similarly to any other first person game. This makes it MUCH easier to
look around and control the game.
[!] To activate mouse freelook, press ESC and go to Controls. There, along the
bottom you will see a button for Mouse, click it. Now, just switch the mouse
from Cursor to View.
If you set the mouse to freelook, there are two other keys you need to make
note of in the controls screen. They are:
* Activate Center Object: by pressing this key, you "click" on whatever you
are pointed at. This is used to talk to people, pull levers, loot treasure
piles and bodies, etc. Pretty much everything.
* Toggle Cursor: This will allow you to switch the mouse to a cursor in order
to make clicking on small items easier.
** Combat! **
Once you have you weapon readied, you can attack by holding down the right
mouse button and moving the mouse around; you are effectively swinging your
weapon with the mouse. We'll go into more depth on combat later.
** Magic! **
Casting spells is easy. All you do is open up your spellbook and double click
on the spell you wish to cast. The type of spell determines what you have to do
next: if it affects you, such as a healing spell, then it will cast
immediately. If it is a touch or ranged spell, then you'll have to release the
spell manually by either clicking the left mouse button (cursor mode) or
pressing "Activate Center Object" (view mode). Note that in order to cast a
touch spell, you actually have to be close enough to touch someone.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 6. Escaping the Privateer's Hold ***
Since every character you make will have to escape this first dungeon, it seems
logical to include this here. This is a walkthrough of the easiest way out of
the Privateer's Hold; there is more to the dungeon if you feel like exploring
it, but you'll have to do that on your own.
You begin in a cave with a campfire. Be sure you open up your inventory and
equip any weapons you have. Also, you should save your game right now; the
first dungeon is pretty dangerous, and you probably don't want to have to go
through character creation all over again. To the south is a passage
out of the cave, follow it. You will come to a door. Open it and proceed into
the room.
In here you will find a rat and a treasure pile. Kill one and loot the other,
then proceed up the stairs to the west. This corridor will continue for a
while; at the second corner you will encounter a bat. Immediately after the bat
you will see a door on your left--DO NOT GO IN THERE! In that room is an imp,
which can easily kill you with its shock spells; there is a treasure pile in
there, though, so if you want to take the risk going after it, go ahead, but
you have been warned!
The corridor will continue to wind around, and you will pass a second door;
through that door is only a room with another rat in it. Keep following the
passage until you come to the third door, which leads down some stairs--you
may want to take this little side trip, because down those stairs is a human
enemy; he may hurt you quite a bit, but if you can kill him, he will be well
equipped with a good bit of armor and weapons.
Continue along the corridor until it finally ends at a door. Through that door
you will find a large, U-shaped table with an archer behind it. If you run
up to the table, you will likely be able to hit him a few times and back away
before he can hit you; don't worry, he'll be too stupid to come around the
table to get you. Kill him, because he'll have some good equipment for your
enjoyment. Then take the exit on the north wall.
OK, you are now in a large room with a grand staircase. Above the staircase is
a balcony that you need to get to. There is one obstacle: a skeletal warrior
guards the top of the staircase, and he a very tough enemy to be facing when
you are low level and lightly equipped. You can try your luck at defeating him,
in which case your next move will be to jump or climb onto the throne at the
top of the staircase, and pull the lever next to it; this will make the throne
rise up so that you can reach the balcony.
The far safer method, however, is to bypass the skeletal warrior altogether.
Go around the left side of the staircase, past the bat. There you will see some
mismatched textures on the wall--the telltale sign of a hidden door! Open that
door and continue straight east through the next door. You are now in a very
brown passage that will twist around to the left and lead to some stairs; take
the stairs to the top, and through the door you will find yourself on the
balcony.
Now that you are on the balcony, follow the passage to the south until you
come to the first door on your right. This is the final room! Unfortunately,
it has a rat, a bat, and an imp guarding it. Kill what you can and run past
what you can't; what you are looking for is a stone archway with a skull in it,
along the right wall--that is the exit! For reference, all dungeon exits look
like that.
There! You have escaped, and may now go and explore the world of Daggerfall.
===============================================================================
|| II - Life in the Illiac Bay ||
===============================================================================
Now that you are in the world, it's time to learn how to live in it. This
section will focus on interacting with the world and doing minor things like
travel, dialogue and shopping.
*** 1. Travel ***
Travel is initiated by pressing "W" or by right clicking on the map icon in the
toolbar. This will bring up the world map, where you can see the 50+ kingdoms
that are open to you. By clicking on a kingdom, it will zoom in and you can see
all the individual locations you can travel to. Right clicking will zoom in
further, if you like. You can use the filters on the bottom to show or hide
certain types of locations.
Once you find a place you want to go, click on it to bring up the travel
window. Here you can select how you wish to travel:
1. Speed: Cautiously or Recklessly. This determines your pace; recklessly is
almost twice as fast as cautiously, however, you will only rest minimally on
your journey. As such, you will often arrive in worse shape than you left.
Traveling cautiously is slower; however, you will be fully rested when you
arrive, and you will always arrive during the day (often right at dawn).
Do note that if you are a Vampire or afflicted with the Damage in Sunlight
special disadvantage, traveling cautiously will always make you arrive at
night, often right at sunset. Isn't that thoughtful?
2. Transport: Foot/horse or Ship. This only makes a difference if you are
traveling over a body of water, in which case ship travel is much faster--and
also much more expensive. If you own a ship (yes, you can buy a ship!) then
traveling across water is free. Also, note that owning a horse makes traveling
faster as well.
3. Stop for night at...: Inns or Camp out. Staying at inns will cut down on
your travel time a little, but costs extra. Camping out is free.
You can always see how long your trip will take and how much it will cost at
the bottom of the window.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 2. Towns and Locations ***
As you can see on the travel map, there are thousands of locations; the type of
location is designated by the color of its dot. There are also varying shades
of each color, which will indicate how large the settlement is; darker shaded
locations are smaller, lighter shaded ones are larger.
Gray: Towns. The larger towns are often walled and have more services; their
services are often of higher quality as well. You will have better chances of
finding guilds, temples, and certain shops in the larger towns. Arriving at a
walled city at night can be irritating, as the city gates will be closed; of
course, you can always climb or levitate over the walls if you need to.
Red: Graveyards. These consist of an outdoor cemetery and a single crypt. Most
crypts are very small dungeons of 2 or 3 rooms; they'll have a few monsters
and a little treasure, but usually nothing to get too excited about. If you
rest outside, you will often be disturbed by an enemy of some sort. You can use
this to your advantage; you can rest outside, kill what shows up, take its
stuff, and repeat until you have lots of loot to go sell. This is also an easy
way to practice your skills.
Orange: Dungeons. You will only have one orange dot on your map at the
beginning--the Privateer's Hold. In order to open up new dungeon locations,
you must either find a dungeon map as loot or get a quest involving a dungeon
(and most quests do). Dungeons are always very large and rather difficult to
navigate. More information on dungeons will come later on in the guide.
Blue: Temples. The lighter blue temples have a standard temple, one that you
can join and which offers services. They also tend to have a small set of
houses around the temple. The dark blue temples are small altars with only
a few people and offer no services, nor do they seem to serve any purpose
whatsoever.
Brown: Homes. These are simple estates and farms that serve no purpose.
Black: Witch Covens. These must be discovered by finding a map or getting a
quest to a coven. Of course, if you know where one is supposed to be, you could
try to find it by walking overland through the wilderness. Covens offer quests
and are one path to summoning a Daedric Prince for artifact quests.
If you cannot find a location, you may use the Find function to locate it. You
do not have to type in the entire location name, however, you must start from
the beginning. For example, if you are looking for "The Ruins of Castle Yeomen"
then you cannot enter "ruins of yeomen" or "castle yeomen" into the Find
function. You must start from the beginning.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 3. Dialogue ***
Talking to people is a good way to get information. You can ask them for
directions to a certain guild or merchant, where to find a certain person,
where to find work, or even just a little information on important people and
factions. Most of the time, however, you will be asking them for directions.
In the dialog window, you will see a variety of buttons. The top-left most
specify what sort of question you are trying to ask. The top two switch between
"Tell me about..." which allows you to ask about rumors and general
information, and "Where is..." which will ask for directions. If you select
"Where is...", then the next four buttons determine what you want directions
to; are you asking for directions to a Location, a Person, a Thing, or Work?
1. Locations: All guilds, shops, etc. are Locations. Select first what type of
establishment you are looking for, and then select the name of the shop. Also
on this list are General and Regional; General includes other locations such as
palaces and residences (residences will only be listed if you are on a quest to
find one). If this particular town does not offer the shop or guild that you
are looking for, then you can ask for it under Regional; the person will then
direct you to another town in that kingdom that has that establishment.
2. People: If you are on a quest and need to find a specific person, then you
will find their name here. The NPC will then direct you towards the house or
establishment where that person currently is. Important NPCs are ALWAYS inside
a building of some sort; they never wander around outside.
3. Things: Supposedly, if you were hunting for a specific item for a quest,
you would be able to ask for information about it here. Unfortunately, this
never happens; you are always looking for a person or place, never a thing.
So this will always be blank.
4. Work: Asking for work will direct you towards a merchant or innkeeper who
is currently offering a quest; you will be directed to both the person by name
and the establishment they can be found in. These are all Merchant quests.
(see more information on Quests later).
---
So what happens when you ask someone a question? Well, they'll either:
a. Not know the answer.
b. Know the answer and tell you.
c. Know the answer and not tell you.
For all intensive purposes, a and c are the same thing.
If they do know the answer, then they will either give you a cardinal direction
and a relative distance (Oh, it's not too far to the southeast), or they will
mark its location on your local map. You can ask them multiple times, of
course; if they just give you a direction and you'd rather have them mark your
map, you can try asking them until they give it to you.
If they don't know the answer, just ask someone else!
Your tone has an effect on how people respond to your questions. If you use the
proper tone, you'll have better luck getting an answer out of them. You can
usually tell which tone to use with people based on how they greet you.
1. Polite, which uses your Etiquette skill. This is best used with nobles and
other well-spoken people, as well as people who like you.
2. Blunt, which uses your Streetwise skill. This is best used with peasants
and lower class citizens, as well as people who clearly do not like you.
3. Normal, which uses no skill and is the most basic way of speaking. You can
get most information by just speaking normally, but sometimes it works better
to use one of the other tones.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 4. Shops and Services ***
Ah, shopping! There are a variety of shops in Daggerfall, so it helps to know
the differences between them; the various shops only deal in certain types of
items, and some shops are of higher or lower quality than usual. In this
section, you'll learn how to shop like the pros.
* Quality:
Every shop and guild has a quality attached to it. You will know the quality of
the shop by the description it gives you when you open the door.
1. "Rusty relics..." is the lowest quality shop. They will carry the lowest
quality items; however, the prices will also be the lowest and they will pay
top dollar for your stuff!
2. "Sturdy shelves..." is below average.
3. "...adequate construction" is average. You'll have an average chance of
finding the better items here, and you'll get standard prices for buying and
selling.
4. "...skillfully crafted" is above average.
5. "Incense and soft music..." is the highest quality shop. You'll have the
best chance of finding better items here; however, you will pay more for them,
and they will give you less for your items when selling.
So as you can see, you'll want to remember the Rusty Relics and the Incense
shops. Rusty Relics are best for selling, and Incense are best for buying--or,
stealing! The same rules apply for guilds; the higher quality guilds often pay
more for quests.
---
* Types of Merchants:
There are a variety of shops to choose from, all depending on what sorts of
items you wish to buy or sell.
Merchant: Hours: Merchandise:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alchemist: 7:00-22:00 Ingredients and precious stones.
Armorer: 9:00-19:00 Mostly armor but also some weapons.
Bookstores: 9:00-21:00 Books only. Some are actually libraries.
Clothier: 10:00-19:00 Clothing only.
General Store: 6:00-23:00 Weapons, books, clothing, and jewelry.
Jeweler: 9:00-18:00 Jewelry and precious stones.
Pawn Shop: 9:00-20:00 All except ingredients and clothing.
Weapon Smith: 9:00-20:00 Mostly weapons but also some armor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Weapon smiths and armorers will also repair your weapons and armor for a fee.
General stores are also the only place to get horses and wagons. Having a horse
greatly increases your traveling speed, and you can ride them around town as
well (change your mode of transportation by pressing "T" or clicking on the
legs on the toolbar). Wagons will allow you to carry much more stuff, although
you cannot access them inside dungeons.
*************************************************************************
* IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU NEVER ACQUIRE ADDITIONAL HORSES OR WAGONS! *
*************************************************************************
Did I make that clear enough? You cannot drop or sell horses or wagons, so
you'll be stuck with them forever. Also, this has a tendency to cause the game
to glitch. So just don't do it; one of each is enough.
---
Banks: 8:00-15:00
Here you can do a variety of things. Have I mentioned yet that gold has weight?
Every 400 gold adds one kilogram. Carrying a lot of money can seriously bog
down your encumbrance. Luckily, you can solve this in a way that doesn't
involve you dropping money on the floor--yes, clicking on "Gold" in your
inventory will allow you to drop gold, but you can't pick it back up!
* Your account: You can deposit money into an account at a bank. That money
will be accessible from any other bank in that kingdom; each kingdom has its
own bank, however, so your money will only be accessible from within the kingdom
you deposited it. You may have multiple accounts open, one in each kingdom if
you like. You can keep as much money in your account as you like, and withdraw
it at any time.
* Letters of Credit: Instead of carrying a load of gold around, you can have it
converted into a letter of credit. This small, practically weightless piece of
paper can be worth any gold amount; however, the bank charges a 1% fee when you
make a letter of credit. Still, 1% is a small price to pay for all that freed
up weight that you can use to carry more loot! In order to make a letter of
credit, you must first deposit money into your account. For reference, if you
wish to make a letter of credit such that the gold amount on the letter plus
the 1% fee empties your account completely, divide your account balance by
1.01, and make a letter of credit to that amount (truncated to the nearest
whole number).
You can use letters of credit to pay for items in stores, and if you sell so
much that you cannot carry the gold you would receive, they will give you a
letter of credit instead. However, you cannot use letters of credit to pay for
travel costs or tavern room & board--they only accept cash.
* Loans: If you're hurting for cash, you can take out a loan. The maximum
amount of the loan depends on your legal reputation in that kingdom. You'll
have one year to pay back the loan, with 10% interest. If you don't pay it back
your legal rep will plummet. Of course, each kingdom has its own bank, and
each kingdom has its own legal reputation for you; your rep in one kingdom has
no effect on the other kingdoms of the bay. This means that, if you don't plan
to return to a particular kingdom ever again, by all means feel free to take
out an impressive loan that you never plan to repay!
* Buy House: Yes, you can buy a house! In order to do so, there must be a bank
in the town you wish to purchase property in; you may select the house you want
from the list, however, you do not get to select where it is. You can sleep in
your house and store junk on the floor, but there's not much else to it.
* Buy Ship: Ah, now this is a worthwhile purchase! Buying a ship makes ocean
travel fast and free. Also, you can board your ship from any outside location
by changing your mode of transportation (press "T" or click on the legs on the
toolbar and then select Ship). On your ship, you can rest safely and store
stuff both inside and outside the hold; even the smaller ship has TONS of space
for storage. Changing transportation to ship again will send you back to where
you were previously. All in all, this makes a ship a MUCH better purchase than
a house, as you can access it from anywhere, not just one town.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 5. Crime and Punishment ***
A life of crime can be both enjoyable and rewarding. If done correctly, you can
stuff the entire contents of a store into your wagon and escape without the
guards ever knowing it was you. Furthermore, as the game does not track what
items are stolen and which aren't, you can sell that wagonload right back to
the merchant the next morning and he'll be none the wiser--but you will be all
the richer.
--- Crimes of Theft:
* Pickpocketing:
The simplest crime, pickpocketing is done by putting yourself into Steal mode
(F1) and clicking on any of the townsfolk that wander about. If you are
successful, you will pinch a few gold pieces or other random item; if you fail,
the guards will be called and will try to arrest you. You can also pickpocket
enemies and monsters, which is funny; oddly enough, though, if you pickpocket
anyone outdoors, whether it's a townsperson or monster, or whether your in a
town, cemetery, or outside a dungeon, the guards will come for you. You can
safely pickpocket anyone and anything inside a dungeon to your heart's content,
but anywhere else it's illegal.
* Shoplifting:
First off, never do this. Shoplifting is a terrible idea, and you'll almost
never successfully steal anything in this fashion. In any case, shoplifting is
done almost no different from normal shopping; you go to a store during
business hours, click on a shelf to look at the items, click on what items you
want to swipe, and then click "Steal" instead of "Buy." Shoplifting is
governed by your pickpocketing skill, but even with 100 skill you'll rarely
succeed, so again: don't bother with this method.
* Burglary: If you go poking around homes and some stores, you'll find crates
and dressers and such. Sometimes, when you click on these containers, you'll
get a message to the effect of "This is private property, do you still wish to
open it?" Clicking yes will allow you to pillage the container. Unfortunately,
this almost always alerts the city guards; of course, the contents are usually
worthless, so there's little point in doing this in the first place.
* Breaking and Entering:
If you are caught picking a lock or bashing in a door, OR if you are seen
leaving after breaking into a building, you can be charged with breaking and
entering. You will rarely be caught picking locks or leaving establishments,
however, bashing in doors is extremely noisy--if at all possible, pick the lock
or use an Open spell.
* Trespassing:
If you are still in an establishment when it opens in the morning, the
shopkeeper will discover you and call the guards. It can be difficult to escape
from this, as they will often cluster around the door, blocking your escape.
Best to just keep an eye on the time and get out beforehand.
The best method of thievery is catburglary. Break in at night when the store is
closed. You can pick the lock or use an Open spell; you could also bash in the
door, but that is unadvised as it will usually attract the guards. Once inside,
go to each shelf and empty the contents into your wagon. The next morning, you
can sell all the loot you don't want--even to the very same merchant you stole
it from! See something you want in a store, but can't afford? It'll still be
there that night, provided you haven't left town.
--- Crimes of Violence:
* Assault:
Because assault is attacking without killing, the only people you can assault
are the city guards; all other wandering townsfolk die in one hit. Needless to
say, if you assault a guard, they'll try to arrest you.
* Murder:
They tend to send more guards after you for murder than for other crimes.
Wandering townsfolk only take one hit to kill, no matter what. For obvious
reasons, this is the worst crime and the punishment is usually severe.
Note that you can only attack townsfolk and friendly guards with melee weapons;
hostile guards can be hit with anything, but you cannot hurt innocent people
with arrows or spells.
--- Other Crimes:
* Vagrancy:
Yes, you'll get fined if you try to sleep in towns. If you need to take a
snooze, go find a tavern. Loitering is permissible, but don't accidentally
sleep by pressing the wrong button!
* Criminal Conspiracy:
This one is my favorite. If you've already had a few scrapes with the law and
your legal reputation is very low, then you can be arrested for simply being a
criminal and continuing to exist. This is the city guard's way of saying "Look,
you're a psychopath, and we'd rather arrest you now instead of waiting for the
inevitable crime spree." This is also what you'll be charged with if you are
banished from a town and have the nerve to return. The annoying part about this
one is that the guards have a habit of hunting you down, showing up at
cemeteries and outside dungeons.
---
"I've been caught doing crime, what do I do?"
Relax. Getting away with any crime is fairly easy to do. All you have to do is
get away without the guards arresting you; if you are asked whether you want to
surrender to the city guards, then you've been nabbed and they know who you
are. Otherwise, if you can get away, then you'll be fine!
Unfortunately, the way the game detects whether a guard has caught you is if
they attack you--that is, if you take damage. This means that if you take any
damage while being chased by the guards, the game thinks you've been caught and
pops up with the surrender message. Even taking falling damage from dropping
over the city wall or taking damage from sunlight will trigger the message,
which means you've been recognized and your reputation with the law will drop.
In order to get away with the crime, you must escape without taking any damage.
---
"I surrendered, what happens next?"
You'll go to court and stand before a judge. There, they will tell you what
crime you are being charged for and what your punishment will be if you are
found guilty. Punishments range from fines to imprisonment to banishment. Going
to jail for extended periods of time is a bad thing for a number of reasons:
for one, you'll probably fail whatever quest you are on because you took too
long; for two, your rep with each faction in the game moves one point toward
zero each month, so if you go to jail for too long, you can lose your guild
membership. Banishment means that if you ever return to the town you were
expelled from, the guards will come for you and try to arrest you for Criminal
Conspiracy.
1. Plead "Guilty": Admitting to the crime will usually lessen the sentence.
2. Plead "Not Guilty": will give you the chance to argue your case; choose
Debate to use your Etiquette skill or Lie to use your Streetwise skill. If you
succeed, you'll get off free (you rep will still drop for being arrested).
Members of the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood will find that the guild will
sometimes pay off or threaten the judge to let you go. This chance is based on
your rank within the guild. It pays to have connections!
When you are ejected from court or jail, you will be dumped outside the city
gates with a single point of health (I guess they beat you up whether
you're guilty or not). This leaves you extremely vulnerable, so it's a wise
idea to immediately hit "W" and travel Cautiously to some other location, just
to get your health back. Sometimes rival factions will have assassins waiting
for you, so you'll have to outrun them first. Of course, if you are a vampire
or take damage from sunlight and they dump you out during the day...
well, you're toast.
---
"My rep with the law is really low, how can I make it better?"
For reference, you can check you reputation with the law by pressing "I" or
clicking on the compass in the toolbar. The various legal reputations are:
Revered = Highest
Esteemed
Honored
Admired
Respected
Dependable
Common Citizen = Neutral
Undependable
Scoundrel
Criminal
Villain
Pond Scum
Hated = Lowest
Contrary to most games, going to jail does not erase your criminal record. No,
that was just the punishment; the law will continue to be suspicious of you for
quite a while. There are three ways to improve your legal rep:
1. Time. Every month your reputation with each faction moves one point
towards zero, which is neutral. So if you get into trouble, just stay clean for
long enough and eventually you'll be back to "Common citizen."
2. Move to a different kingdom. Each kingdom keeps their own legal assessment
of you, so if you foul things up in one area, move next door and start with a
clean slate. Also, while you spend your time in a neighboring kingdom, your old
reputation is slowly normalizing. Sometimes it is wise to choose a kingdom you
don't care about and try to contain all your crime in that one area; that way
it doesn't matter if you get caught on your thieving spree, because you were
not in your home kingdom. There are over 50 kingdoms in the game; you can
certainly afford to have one or two hate you.
3. Do certain quests. There are only two quests that can boost your legal rep,
and they are both offered by merchants or innkeepers. The first is if they ask
you to escort them somewhere; often this is because they are trying to escape
the clutches of some other faction. At some point, you may get the chance to
turn them over to that faction, and if that faction is the city guards, then
turning the shmuck over to them will boost your reputation with the law.
The other quest is the one where you are falsely accused of stealing a gem from
a merchant. You'll be "hated" until you can prove your innocence, but
completion of this quest will also boost your legal rep.
===============================================================================
|| II - Items ||
===============================================================================
And now we can get into all the items and loot you'll come across in your
adventures. Here you'll learn what equipment is the best, which materials to
look out for, and also what isn't worth keeping--you only have so much weight
you can carry, best make the most of it! This isn't the most interesting
section to write, being mostly tables and numbers, but we'll get through it.
*** 1. Weapons ***
There's always a good chance that you'll come across a better weapon than your
current one when adventuring. If you "Info" an item in the inventory screen,
you can see its statistics, such as damage output, weight, and condition. The
following table lists the weapons by type and in order of increasing quality.
All statistics of weapons are modified by the material they are made of.
Type: Name: Hands: Base Damage:
-------------------------------------------------
Axe Battleaxe 1 2-12
Waraxe 2 2-16
Blunt Weapon Staff 2 1-8
Mace 1 1-12
Flail 2 2-14
Warhammer 2 3-18
Long Blade Broadsword 1 1-12
Saber 1 3-12
Longsword 1 2-16
Katana 1 3-16
Claymore 2 2-18
Daikatana 2 3-21
Short Blade Dagger 1 1-6
Tanto 1 1-8
Shortsword 1 1-8
Wakizashi 1 1-10
Bow Short Bow 2 4-16
Long Bow 2 4-18
-------------------------------------------------
As you can see, the heavy hitters are the axes, blunts, and long blades;
specifically the two handers. But don't discount the smaller one handed
weapons; you can carry a shield with the smaller weapons, adding to your
protection, and the lighter weapons are also faster. The blows may be smaller,
but they'll be more frequent. Also, they won't eat up your encumbrance as much.
*** 2. Armor ***
There are seven pieces of armor. Armor can be made of Leather, Chain, or Plate;
plate armor also comes in varying materials, which affects its weight and how
protective it is (see the next section). With the exception of the cuirass,
armor makes for the best loot, as it's gold per unit weight ratio is high.
Armor: Protects:
------------------------------
Boots Feet and calves
Greaves Thighs and waist
Cuirass Chest
Gauntlets Hands
L Pauldron Left arm
R Pauldron Right arm
Helm Head
------------------------------
There are four types of shields. Shields may come in varying materials, but the
material has no effect on the protection the shield provides. Shields cannot be
worn if you are using a two handed weapon.
Shield: Weight: Armor bonus:
-----------------------------------
Buckler 1kg +1
Round 2.25kg +2
Kite 3.73kg +3
Tower 6.25kg +4
-----------------------------------
*** 3. Materials ***
Every weapon and armor is made a certain material. This material affects the
damage dealt, protection granted, durability, weight, and the gold value of the
item. For the most part, all properties increase as you go down the list. There
are notable exceptions, of course. Ebony is surprisingly lightweight, along the
lines of leather armor. Silver armor tends to be very rare and very valuable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Damage Armor
Material: Bonus: Bonus: Color:
-------------------------------------
Leather n/a +1
Chain n/a +2
Iron -2 +3 Dark gray
Steel +0 +4 Gray
Silver +0 +4 Silver
Elven +2 +5 Bright silver
Dwarven +4 +6 Gold
Mithril +6 +7 Dark blue
Adamantium +6 +7 Dull black
Ebony +8 +8 Shiny black
Orcish +10 +9 Green
Daedric. +12 +10 Red
-------------------------------------
Do note that there are level requirements for the various materials. You'll
have to be higher level before you begin to see items of the more superior
materials. Also, many monsters can only be hurt by certain materials. For
instance, imps require steel or better, ghosts can only be hurt by silver or
better, and most daedra require at least mithril.
*** 4. Miscellaneous items ***
* Ingredients/Potions: You'll often come across ingredients, especially when
looting spellcasting enemies such as mages and sorcerers. You can use them to
brew potions, provided you are high enough rank in certain guilds to use their
equipment; also, you'll need a recipe, because you cannot just look at an
ingredient and know what properties it carries. You can find recipes as loot,
but honestly, potions aren't all that worthwhile. If you find a potion as loot,
go ahead and keep it if the effect is useful; but don't bother with making your
own. Casting the spells yourself is easier, repeatable, and more effective than
a potion.
That said, many ingredients are worth a lot of gold. Be sure to "info" various
ingredients to learn which ones are worth keeping--really, though, ingredients
are so light weight that it wouldn't kill you to take them all.
* Clothing: Clothing is purely aesthetic. It will not affect anyone's opinion
of you, nor will it offer any protection. It's just there to make your
character look cool--which is a good thing to do! It can be enchanted, however,
and you'll often come across enchanted clothing that can prove to be very
useful.
* Jewelry: Jewelry does not show on your character, so there's no aesthetic
appeal here. Jewelry is best used for its enchantability; because you can equip
a lot of jewelry, you can have a lot of enchantments active on yourself, which
can give you a serious advantage over your enemies. Also, jewelry usually sells
for a lot, so it's always good to grab it when you can.
* Other Items: There are other items you'll come across, such as paintings,
religious items, and the like. None of these items serve a purpose (although
you can "Use" paintings to view them); you can always "info" them to see what
they're worth. The best things to grab are Holy Daggers and Holy Tomes, simply
because they sell for a ton of gold.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 5. Artifacts ***
Artifacts are powerful magical items, weapons, and armor that you can acquire
by either summoning a Daedric Prince or by doing certain quests of a Knightly
Order.
Knightly Artifacts:
High ranking knights can sometimes get a quest to retrieve an artifact. The
artifact you get is randomly selected from the following:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Auriel's Bow A powerful Elven longbow that has been enchanted to
imbue each arrow fired with the spells Lightning, Hand
of Sleep, and Magicka Leech.
Auriel's Shield This powerful shield grants you resistance to fire,
spell reflection, and a magical shielding effect. The
spell reflection alone makes this a very valuable item.
Chrysamere Also called the Paladin's Blade, this claymore will cast
Resist Fire, Spell Reflection, and Heal on command. It
also dishes out a ton of damage.
Lord's Mail Offers superior protection, constant health regeneration
and will cast spells to cure poison and protect you from
enemy spells.
Necromancer's Amulet Grants you constant spell absorption and casts spells of
Regenerate Health and Wisdom.
Staff of Magnus Will regenerate health and absorb spells on command.
Warlock's Ring Grants spell reflection, healing, and boosts your Speed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daedric Artifacts:
These items are remarkably more powerful than the Knightly artifacts--and more
difficult to come by. In order to get one, you must summon a Daedric Prince
for a quest; if you succeed, they will grant you their artifact. There are two
ways to summon a Daedra:
1. Mages Guild or Temples. Member of these factions may eventually gain access
to the guild summoner. Unfortunately, you must be high ranking in the guild,
and you may only summon a daedra on their particular summoning date. Also, each
guild will only summon certain daedra.
2. The other path is to seek out a Witch Coven. These appear as black dots on
the travel map, and are difficult to find; you must either do a quest involving
the coven to find the location or, if you know where it should be, travel
overland through the wilderness until you find them. There are many Witch
Covens throughout the bay, and some of them are even known to reside in certain
towns. The easiest one to find is the Coven on the Bluff, in the kingdom of
Daggerfall. Travel to the Burning Martyr of Kynareth, and then wander directly
south. The Coven is located in the third map pixel south of the temple.
Witches will summon a random Daedra each day for an immense price (100,000+).
If they are not summoning the Daedra you seek on this day, come back tomorrow;
there is one exception: the Glenmoril Witches will only summon Hircine. Once
you cough over the money, you'll get to see the Daedra, and they will offer you
a quest to prove you are worthy of their favor.
And without further adieu:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azura's Star This is a reusable soulgem. Soulgems are used to trap the
(Azura) soul of defeated monsters, granted you cast a soultrap
spell on them first. You can use soulgems to boost the
enchantment power of an item when enchanting it. There was
supposed to be a feature where you could buy and sell
souls, ala a black market of sorts; unfortunately, this
didn't make it into the game; you can buy them or use them
in enchantments, but not sell.
Ebony Blade This is a very dark katana with the ability to leech the
(Mephala) health from its enemies and transfer this power to its
master. It will also cast Silence on command.
Ebony Mail This cuirass grants the wearer resistance to common
(Boethiah) magical effects, resistance to fire, and a shielding
effect.
Hircine's Ring Despite the name, this is a shield, and a useful one at
(Hircine) that. With this item, you may turn into a werewolf and
back again whenever you like. This gives you all the
advantages of being a lycanthrope with none of the
disadvantages.
Mace of Molag Bal This mace has the ability to leech the magicka and
(Molag Bal) strength of its victim and transfer them to its master.
Masque of... The Masque of Clavicus Vile boosts your reputation.
(Clavicus Vile)
Mehrune's Razor Each strike from this dagger carries a chance to instantly
(Mehrunes Dagon) slay its victim. The perfect assassination weapon.
Namira's Ring Each time you are hurt by an enemy, the ring will
(Namira) duplicate that damage on your attacker. The amount is
affected by the type of creature: Animals take none,
Daedra take half, humans and monsters take full, and
undead take double.
Oghma Infinium This interesting book grants the reader with 30 points to
(Hermaeus Mora) add to his or her attributes as they please.
Ring of Khajiiti A favorite among thieves, the ring will make you swift and
(Meridia) invisible on command.
Sanguine Rose This mystical rose will summon forth daedroths to fight
(Sanguine) for you. Be warned, as it only has so many uses before it
wilts and disappears.
Skeleton's Key This magical key will open any lock for you, once a day.
(Nocturnal)
Skull of Corruption This is an interesting one. The skull, when used on an
(Vaernima) enemy, will create a duplicate of that enemy which will
fight for you until the original is destroyed.
Spell Breaker This magical shield is the bane of mages. It has the
(Peryite) ability to silence spellcasters, reflect spells, and
negate paralysis on command.
Volendrung This warhammer paralyses and leeches the health of your
(Malacath) enemies.
Wabbajack A most interesting staff, the wabbajack will turn its
(Sheogorath) victim into another creature. Be warned, however, as you
have no control over what form they will take. You may
turn a lich into a rat, or a bear into a vampire ancient.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
|| IV - Magic ||
===============================================================================
First, a note about premade spells versus those you can make with the
Spellmaker: Custom spells are always better. You can specify exactly what you
want them to do, name them whatever you want, and they often cost less to
purchase and cast than the premade spells. In short, the premade spells exist
to serve one purpose: quests. Some Mages Guild quests require you to cast a
certain spell; custom spells won't cut it, it MUST be the premade spell you can
purchase from the guild. Other than those, you really shouldn't bother with
the canned spells. As such, we'll go into greater detail with the spellmaker
and all the powerful spells you can make with it; there are even some spell
effects you cannot access unless you make the spell yourself!
*** 1. The Spellmaker ***
Mages Guild members have access to the Spellmaker, which you can use to compose
customized spells. Once you find the person who offers this service, it's just
a matter of constructing your arsenal of magics to your liking. Let's look at
the base spellmaking screen. Along the bottom left are:
Max SP: This is the maximum amount of magicka you have.
Money: This is the amount of gold you possess.
Spell Cost: How much the spellmaker is going to charge you to make this spell.
Casting Cost: How much magicka it will cost to cast the spell.
Name: Name the spell anything you like. Be descriptive and witty.
Along the right side are the actual spell mechanisms. The two columns allow you
to specify the delivery and element the spell takes.
Delivery: This determines whom the spell affects.
1. Caster: The spell affects you.
2. Touch: The spell affects a single target, whom you must touch.
3. Single Target at Range: The spell is launched at a distant target and
affects a single subject. These spells are extremely difficult to aim.
4. Area around Caster: The spell bursts from your character in all directions,
affecting everyone nearby. This is useful if you are surrounded by enemies.
5. Area at Range: The spell is launched at a distant target; once it strikes
an enemy or solid object, it detonates and affects anyone caught in the
blast radius--including yourself, if you are too close. This is a much
easier to aim ranged spell, as you do not have to hit them exactly.
Element: Only offensive spells may choose an element. They are, from top to
bottom: fire, frost, poison, shock, and magic. Some enemies are more resistant
or vulnerable to certain elements. For instance, you may wish to create a frost
based spell to combat a fire atronach.
---
By clicking on the gray sparkly button, you may add a spell effect; a spell may
have up to three effects. Each effect may have one or more of the following
components, if applicable. These components are affected by your level.
* Duration: A + B per C levels
Duration determines how long many seconds the spell lasts. A is the base
number of seconds; you will also gain B seconds for every C levels.
* Chance: A + B per C levels
Chance is the probability of success, out of 100%; having a higher chance
will make your spells more reliable. The base chance is A, and you will gain
B points for every C levels.
* Magnitude: A to B + C to D per E levels
Magnitude is how effective the spell is, whether in terms of damage dealt or
health restored. The base amount is between A and B points, plus an
additional amount between C and D for every E levels.
Typically, lower level characters benefit more from spells with higher base
amounts, as they gain little from the leveled portion; conversely, higher level
characters will find that having low base and highly leveled spells will be
very efficient.
Cantrips:
The simplest form of a spell is useful for practice and minor magics. For any
given spell, the simplest form of the components, while still being as
effective as possible, are as follows:
Duration: 1 + 1 per 2 levels
Chance: 1 + 1 per 2 levels
Magnitude: 1 to 2 + 1 to 2 per 2 levels
*** 2. Schools and Effects ***
The following chart will detail each of the effects found in the Spellmaker.
Effect:
(School) Description:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chameleon Normal or True. This allows you to blend in with your
(Illusion) surroundings, making it easier to avoid detection. Unlike
Shadow, this effect will function in both light and
darkness. A Normal chameleon effect will end once you
attack something; a True spell will only end when the
duration ends--making True the only way to go.
Charm This spell makes you more popular with the target. As far
(Thaumaturgy) as I can tell, this doesn't do much of anything at all.
Climbing This effect makes you twice as good at climbing. Climbing
(Alteration?) isn't difficult to do, so this isn't that useful.
Comprehend Languages This supposedly boosts your chances of pacifying a
(Mysticism) creature by using your language skills. It's about as
useless as the language skills themselves
Continuous Damage Health, Fatigue, or Spell Points. This will deal the
(Destruction) spell's magnitude in damage each second of duration.
Needless to say, this is a great offensive spell effect.
Create Item Ah, now this is an immensely useful spell effect. With
(Mysticism) this, you can create a variety of items such as armor,
weapons, arrows, and clothing--and they exist
permanently! The duration only determines how long you
have to wait to cast the spell again, so make it as short
as possible. The material of item you get is determined
by your level and your Luck; you'll often get low quality
but it is absolutely possible to summon yourself some
seriously excellent gear.
This spell effectively rids you of the problems of ever
running out of arrows or having no backup weapon. If you
are ever in need of either, summon yourself one.
Cure Disease, Paralysis, Poison. Pretty self explanatory, you
(Restoration) can rid yourself of one of these maladies. Diseases and
poisons are nothing to be trifled with--they can easily
kill you if you ignore them for too long. Paralysis is
also a deadly spell to be under, as it makes you a
sitting duck while your enemy continues to whack on you.
Damage Health, Fatigue, or Spell Points. The standard offensive
(Destruction) spell. Don't forget to attach the right element to the
spell; it is usually wise to have the same type of spells
in varying elements.
Detect Enemy, Magic, Treasure. While active, this spell will
(Mysticism?) point you toward the nearest target of your choice; a red
triangle will appear on your compass to point you in the
right direction. Note that the spell will point you
toward the target as the ethereal crow flies (that is,
straight to it and through walls) and with no indication
of distance; in a Daggerfall dungeon, this may not be all
that helpful. Also, the effect has a maximum range, so
you'll have to be relatively near the target to pick up
on it anyways.
Disintegrate A successful disintegration spell is insta-kill.
(Destruction) Definitely a powerful spell to have, just make sure you
set a high spell chance, as this effect seems easier to
resist than usual. Area-based disintegration spells are
devastating.
Dispel Daedra, Magic, Undead. The Daedra and Undead versions
(Mysticism) function very similarly to Disintegrate, however they
leave no corpse to loot; also, they are difficult to pull
off. The Magic version will nullify any magical effects
on the subject.
Drain Attribute. This will lower the specified attribute of the
(Destruction) target. This isn't that useful. Even a tactic such as
lowering a spellcaster's Intelligence (to reduce their
amount of Magicka) is accomplished to better effect by
a Silence effect.
Elemental Resistance Fire, Frost, Magicka, Poison, Shock. This will make you
(Alteration) more resistant to the specified type of magic. This is
useful for going up against element-based creatures such
as atronachs. Against spellcasters in general, though,
you'd be better off with Spell Resistance, below.
Fortify Attribute Attribute. This will boost the specified attribute.
(Restoration) Strength is the best choice, so that you can carry more
stuff. Fortify Luck in conjunction with Create Item will
give you a better chance of getting good stuff.
Free Action This effect makes you immune to paralysis. Paralysis
(Alteration) being the most deadly and irritating spell to be under,
the benefit to having this spell should be obvious. Note
that this spell will not CURE paralysis, it will only
prevent you from getting it.
Heal Health, Fatigue, or Attribute. Your basic Restoration
(Restoration) spell, the uses don't need telling. Every character
should have a Heal Health spell for emergencies.
Identify This will allow you to discern the properties of magical
(Mysticism) items you find. The mages guild will identify items for a
fee; however, it can be nice to know whether the magic
cuirass you just found is really worth keeping before
lugging it up the surface.
Invisibility Normal or True. Renders you invisible, making it easier
(Illusion) to sneak around. Normal ends when you attack someone,
True only when the duration ends. Forget Shadow or
Chameleon, Invisibility True is the perfect spell to
avoid detection--accept no substitute. Do note that the
Undead can see right through such spells.
Jumping This spell is supposed to boost your jumping ability. It
(Alteration) actually doesn't do anything at all, so don't bother.
Levitate Allows you to float up, down, and all around. Levitation
(Thaumaturgy) is an extremely useful spell, as it allows you to reach
any area. You can float over city walls, up shafts in
dungeons, over your enemies (while taking potshots at
them, of course), etc.
Light This curious effect conjures a little candle that floats
(Illusion) in front of you, illuminating the area. The candle isn't
that bright, and any benefit it gives is lost by the fact
that you're stuck with this annoying candle floating
around in your face. Sure, dungeons can get dark, but not
dark enough to warrant this irksome sort of magic.
Lock Supposedly, this would allow you to lock doors.
(Mysticism) Unfortunately, I'm convinced it doesn't work, which is
disappointing.
Open This will allow you to open locked doors. It's a good
(Mysticism) idea to have one of these around, as some doors are
magically sealed; you cannot pick or bash them, only
magic will do. Even the weakest Open spell is enough to
crack any town lock.
Pacify Animal, Daedra, Humanoid, or Undead. This effect will
(Thaumaturgy) keep a member of the selected enemy type from attacking
you. Attacking them will immediately cancel the effect,
and they will become hostile. I don't know why you would
ever want to pacify anything; it'll just wear off later
and they'll come after you, and if you kill them you can
take their stuff. Not worthwhile.
Paralyze This useful effect will render the target unable to move.
(Alteration) This makes them both harmless and easier to kill.
Regenerate This is a duration based healing spell. very useful
(Restoration) during combat, as any wounds you suffer can slowly
regenerate.
Shadow Normal or True. This is the lower form of Chameleon,
(Illusion) which only functions in darkness. Seeing, of course, as
most if not all the areas you'll want to be stealthy are
in darkness, this is a decent choice. Of course,
Invisibility True is still better, but this one gets
the job done.
Shield This effect grants you enhanced protection in the form of
(Alteration) extra health. The added health acts as a buffer, such
that any damage you take isn't really hurting you. Of
course, you lose the extra health once the spell ends.
This is a good spell to have around, as you can last a
lot longer in combat.
Silence Removed the target's ability to speak, preventing them
(Mysticism) from using magic. Obviously a great way to render
spellcasters less dangerous, as they won't be able to
blast you, and will have to resort to their undoubtedly
weaker physical attacks.
Slowfall This effect makes you fall slower. This serves two
(Alteration) purposes: one, you won't take any damage from falling too
far; and two, you'll be able to cover more ground when
gliding off a ledge. It's often a good idea to have a
Dispel Magic spell handy, because if you run into a wall,
you'll have to wait for yourself to land before you can
keep going--which can take an irritatingly long time.
Soul Trap If you own a soulgem, you may use this spell to trap the
(Mysticism) soul of a creature; the soul can then be used to boost
the properties of an enchanted item when using the Item
Maker. In order to trap a soul, you must kill the
creature while they are under a soultrap spell--BUT
BEWARE: If you do not have an empty soulgem in your
inventory and cast soultrap on a monster, they will
become immortal! They will not be able to die until the
soultrap spell wears off, as their soul will not have
anywhere to go. That said, an immortal, soultrapped rat
or other weak creature makes a humorous combat dummy.
Spell Absorption This spell functions exactly as the special advantage of
(Restoration) the same name, which I already went into great detail
over. While under this spell, you will have a chance of
absorbing enemy spells; if successful, the spell will be
harmlessly converted into magicka, restoring your
reserves. Remember that if you overload on magicka, you
can die from it.
Spell Reflection Quite possibly the best spell to use against enemy mages
(Thaumaturgy) and other spellcasters, this effect gives you a chance of
reflecting enemy spells right back at them. Instead of
blasting you to bits, they'll blow themselves up instead.
With any luck, you won't have to do any work yourself!
Spell Resistance The superior version of Elemental Resistance; while the
(Restoration) former only protects against certain types of magic,
Spell Resistance will protect you against ANY spell,
regardless of type. Naturally, this makes it a more
expensive spell to cast, but such is the cost of good
protection.
Teleport Buy this spell right now; you will want it for every
(Mysticism) single character you make. Teleport has two functions:
the first is to set an anchor, anywhere you want; the
second is to teleport back to that anchor, from anywhere.
Just remember that each time you teleport, the anchor is
erased--you'll have to set a new anchor before you can
teleport again. Teleportation makes life so much easier;
once you find the object you were searching for in the
bottom of a dungeon, you can easily teleport back up the
surface instead of retracing your steps all the way to
the exit. You could even set the anchor right next to the
person who gave you the quest, so you can report your
success immediately (and save yourself the time it would
have taken to travel). Keep in mind that it is usually a
bad idea to place an anchor inside a building; outside or
in dungeons is fine, but placing an anchor inside a guild
or shop has a tendency to cause the game to glitch.
Transfer Health, Fatigue, or Attribute. This effect allows you to
(Restoration) leech the selected points from the target, and give them
to the caster. This accomplishes two tasks at once,
hurting them and healing yourself. Keep in mind that you
cannot go over your maximum amount.
Water Breathing Because underwater areas can be especially dangerous,
(Alteration) these last two spells are very useful. This one allows
you to breath while underwater; because your breath
doesn't tend to last very long, this is sometimes the
only way to traverse some of the larger water areas.
Water Walking This one allows you to move through water as quickly as
(Alteration) though it were air--effectively negating the need for a
swimming skill. This makes exploration and combat much
easier when underwater.
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(ALTERATION) (ILLUSION) (RESTORATION)
Climbing Chameleon Cure
Elemental Resistance Invisibility Fortify Attribute
Free Action Light Heal
Jumping Shadow Regenerate
Paralyze Spell Absorption
Shield (MYSTICISM) Spell Resistance
Slowfall Comprehend Languages Transfer
Water Breathing Create Item
Water Walking Detect (THAUMATURGY)
Dispel Charm
(DESTRUCTION) Identify Levitate
Continuous Damage Lock Pacify
Damage Open Spell Reflection
Disintegrate Silence
Drain Soul Trap
Teleport
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*** 3. Enchantments ***
High ranking members of the Mages Guild or Temple of Julianos will gain access
to the Item Maker, with which you can enchant your gear with a variety of
effects. Enchantments are very similar to the Advantage/Disadvantage system
during character creation, in that you can add both positive and negative
effects to your items. Positive effects add to the enchantment value, which
must be under a certain limit to be acceptable. That limit is determined by the
item itself and, like the disadvantages, the negative effects can help bring
the enchantment value back down under that threshold.
Let's look at the Item Making screen. At the top you'll find the following:
Item Name: You can rename the item anything you like. Oddly enough,
you can rename an item for free by changing its name here
and clicking Exit.
Current Gold: Your total amount of money.
Total Cost: How much it will cost to enchant the item.
Enchantment Points: Here you can see both the current enchantment value of
your selected effects, as well as the maximum amount the
item can be enchanted with.
The top right buttons will allow you to sort through your inventory and select
an item from the column on the far right. Finally, the two main columns will
list and allow you to add powers and side effects to your item.
Remember that all effects, both positive and negative, ONLY function while you
are wearing the item. If you just have it sitting in your inventory, it will
lie dormant. There are two exceptions to this, which are the effects that
change the weight of the item.
Power: Description:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cast when used Here you may select a premade spell for the item to cast on
command; unfortunately, you cannot select a custom spell.
This is a good way to gain access to spells in schools you
are not very good at.
Cast when held Just like above, except the spell remains active for as
long as you are wearing the item. Giving yourself permanent
spell reflection (Shalidor's Mirror is the spell) or
levitation can be very nice. Remember that your item is
constantly deteriorating while its effect is in use, so
only wear the item when needed.
Cast when strikes As above, except the spell is cast on your enemy each time
you strike them with the item. Obviously, this is for
weapons only. Note that if you enchant a bow with this
power, each arrow will carry the spell. This can easily
make your weapon ridiculously powerful. Just remember to
carry a mundane sidearm, as you don't want to waste your
enchantment on easy critters like rats.
Extra Spell Pts During season, moon phase, or near creature type. Your
maximum amount of magicka will be expanded under the chosen
condition. As far as I can tell, the seasons are the only
ones that work, so don't bother with the other options.
This power is the best way to get more magicka.
Potent vs Undead, Daedra, Humanoid, or Animals. This will make the
weapon more effective when doing battle with the selected
creature type. This can help take down the more powerful
creatures such as undead and daedra.
Regens Health All the time, in sunlight, or in darkness. This functions
exactly as the Regenerate Health advantage, except it is
only in effect while you are wearing the item.
Vampiric Effect At range or when strikes. When Strikes will steal the
enemy's health and give it to you each time you hit them.
Unfortunately, to my knowledge, the At Range power doesn't
work at all. Heal yourself while hurting your enemy? Yes,
thank you, that would be nice.
Increased Weight 25% or 50%. Increases your encumbrance level by the
Allowance selected percentage. Being able to carry more loot is
always a plus!
Repairs Objects The item will slowly repair items in your inventory, one at
a time. The mending is slow, but if you have multiple items
with this power, they can really add up; you can even stack
this power multiple times on a single item! This power can
even repair artifacts.
Keep in mind that enchanted items wear faster than normal,
and if they ever break, they are destroyed completely. Also
note that you cannot repair magical items by taking them to
a blacksmith.
*** This is the ONLY way to repair magical items! ***
Also, in order for this effect to work at all, you'll have
to edit your game files. You see, the developers decided
that this power was unbalanced--too powerful--so they
disabled it. Well, in order to reenable it, all you have to
do is open up the Z.CFG file in your base Dagger directory,
and add the line "magicrepair 1" to it. Because magical
items are destroyed when they break, this can save you the
trouble of having to replace an enchanted item because it
wore out.
Absorbs Spells This acts similar to the Spell Absorption advantage in
character creation. The plus for this power, however, is
that you can easily take it off when you are full; this
will protect you from overloading you magicka.
Enhances Skill Any skill. The chosen skill is boosted while you wear the
item. Note that with this power, your skills can exceed
100 points! It is important to note that, if you have over
100 skill in a school of magic, ALL spells from that school
will cost only 5 points of magicka--no matter how strong
the spell. If you can raise a school above 100 points with
this effect, you will be able to cast spells so powerful
it'll feel like you're cheating.
Feather Weight A favorite of mine, this renders the item nigh weightless.
This is especially good to use on heavy weapons and armor,
as it will free up a lot of your weight allowance. It's
such an inexpensive power, really, that you can't go wrong
by adding it to every item you enchant. This is always in
effect; the weight is changed permanently.
Strengthens Armor This item will improve your armor rating. Each piece of
armor |
