UESP Forums

First, I'm new to the forums, so hi. Secondly, sorry if this has been covered, but I looked and didn't find much.

I've read a lot of beginner tips and I know race doesn't matter a whole lot in terms of skills, but does it make much of a difference in terms of story? And what about gender? I'm a girl gamer myself but it doesn't really matter what gender my character is, I just want whatever is most practical.

Also I know I either want to play a melee warrior or an archer, I'm not a big magic fan in games. Are there any specific comments or advice you guys can give me regarding either of those builds?

And finally, I know part of the appeal of the game is that I can do whatever I want when I want to do it, but is there an optimal order to do the main quest and side quests? The amount of stuff to do has me kind of overwhelmed.

Again, I'm sure a lot of this has been covered, so sorry for being the newb. Thanks in advance.

Nice to see a fellow newbie. Strangely enough the character build your trying to do is the same as mine. Ok to answer your questions: Race doesn't make a difference apart from how some people react to you same as gender. Quests can be done in any order but I recommend doing the companion quests as it'll help with combat skills. Also use the warrior stone as this speeds up all xp learned for combat skills. To generally level up archery and what ever you fight with open the fight with a couple of well placed arrows and then run up to them and bash them to death with your chosen weapon.
Hopes this helps

Orcs are a very powerful and very fun race to play. The Beserker Rage power is perhaps one of the most effective in the game (doubling damage output and halving all damage taken) and they begin with large bonuses in many of the combat skills.

I would recommend mixing melee warrior and archer together - it makes you an overall more versatile and effective warrior. Dragon fights become much easier if you can shoot them when they perch on higher ground, whereas you would have to wait for them to land if you were a pure melee fighter. Many enemies also like to keep their distance from you - being able to bring them down without approaching them is a valuable talent.

New to the forums myself, more of a lurker I hate to say, but I saw this and wanted to throw in my two cents. I play a stealth archer usually with a back up of sword and board. . . Me personally I like the breton racial bonus of 25% resistance to magic. I always forget to use the racial so I find that a passive one works best for me. As an archer you don't seem to get hit much so my armor skill is always low. So anything that gives me that extra boost to defence I like.

Either genders won't block anything to my knowledge, nor will races, it will change how people respond, and only a handful of things are really effected by race choice.



No optimal way for quests, unless your looking for best items versus time, only the two sides of the war and one guild have an opposing quests.



As for characters, two types of defense, armor and magic, unsure if there is any non-magical elemental damage, but never had any hit me worth remembering.

You can save perks for when you want to spend them instead, perks are probably the most important thing to be careful about.

Lastly, keep a string of sequential saves in case things bug out.

The best you can do regarding archery is using it with stealth.

If you want to be a shooter and not a sniper just remember to keep your distance and have plenty of arrows to spend + good armour. If you find yourself surrounded you could always switch to a melee weapon though...

I just started a breton assassin/thief stealth archer. While they don't have bonuses for that it only makes a differnce pretty early on and they are easy to increase.

Thanks for all the tips guys. I'll be starting the game today and I'll try a melee/archer hybrid and see how that works for me.

Oh definitely, I was just saying the racial bonus the breton gives for that build is my preferred. Mages can be mean, and aside from archers they are the only thing you really have to worry about from the start of a fight. Also with the 25% magic resistance it frees up some spots on armor for enchantments; if you go that route.

I agree with this. Even if you don't plan on remaining in stealth, it helps with making initial contact since your enemies aren't reacting to you until you hit one of them. My character was supposed to be an archer, but she ended up being just as capable in close quarters with a blade.


Geonis, your second spoiler is uncalled for. This person is brand new. They don't need to have that in their thread.


Math, race doesn't really matter, gender doesn't really matter, quest order doesn't much matter if you're playing on adept, and while melee will probably in stronger for you in the very early going, archery is also quite dangerous if you're willing to do a little sneaking. If you're not patient like that, focus on melee.

If I start a fight with my bow while I'm sneaking I get the damage bonus (assuming I'm hidden) regardless of what level my Sneak is, right?

My "plan" is to start fights with arrows and then switch to melee when they get close. So how important is sneaking for me? Specifically should I put any perks into Sneak?

If you're going to be starting with a bow, I would put perks into the right side of the tree; for the sneak attack bonus.

Yes, as long as you're hidden you should get the sneak attack bonus.

for sneak I would recommend getting the muffled movement, backstab, deadly aim, and assasins blade, perks first.


also you may want to invest in light armor perks as well

Ok. Thanks for all the help guys.

What about other perks? One-Handed (or Two-Handed) obviously, and Light Armor, and maybe Block. Are the crafting perks worth investing in for this type of build? Smithing/alchemy/enchanting etc?

I'd like my character to be well-rounded, but there are only so many perks to go around =\

It seems you want to be a barbarian type of character. With heavy melee and stuff.

If that's the case then you could just ditch alchemy and enchanting. Also stealth. The bonus with the arrow when you're hidden won't do any significant damage if you don't have a good bow (or a good archery skill).

well it really depends on your preference, you COULD use all three, One handed, two handed, and archery. I am right now actually, 1H for sneak attacks, 2H for melee, and archery for long distance. archery should take up the most perks imo.

also I would go with enchanting, but you could do smithing also, since it doesnt take too many perks.

oh and also, if you plan on becoming a werewolf, youll want to invest in One handed and light armor

a well rounded approach would be to take the archery damage boost along with one handed and light armour, take the sneak damage perks on the right side of the sneak tree to make your first attack count for the most, dont put too much other than eagle eye and the first 4 perk damage boosting into archery and save the rest for 1handed and smithing.

That will make your ranged strikes sting, your first attack (when sneaking) cripple/kill your first target and you can overpower with quick 1handed swords and smithed armour... seems like the most well rounded none magic fighter going.

Well if it was Oblivion, there would be a lot to discuss regarding those issues.But since it is Skyrim,none of that really matters,you don't really need to overthink about this. However i'll try to analyze your choices,as i see you are trying to create an optimal character:

The only differences in quests regarding race and gender i've encountered so far are:
1)To enter the orcish strongholds you will require to do a quest if you are not an orc.
2)During the main quest you will require to sneak into somewhere, and it is easier to do it if you are a high elf.
Race and gender also change a bit of dialogue (you won't obviously hear the line "Be careful, elf" if you are playing a Nord.)

Each race starts higher in different skills,but all of them have +10 in one skill and +5 in five other,so if you plan on reaching the cap level,which is level 81, it really doesn't make a difference,as you will have to hit 100 with all skills.However early game that +10 or +5 can give you a boost.
If you care about the +10 and +5 skill differences, since you are trying to create a warrior character the best choices are Orcs (+10 heavy armor,+5 Block,One-handed,Two-handed,Smithing),Redguards (+10 one-handed, +5 Archery,Block,Smithing) and Nords (+10 Two-Handed, +5 Block,One-handed,Smithing.)

Powers are unique spells that can be used once per day (in game day of course).Abilities are passive effects.

As far as abilities and powers are concerned,for a warrior good choices are:
1)Orcs: Berserker Rage power doubles your damage and reduces damage taken for a minute.
2)Bretons, they have a great 25% resist magic ability and they also have a power that gives them 50% spell absorption for a minute.(this means that if you activate this power,you spells that hit you have a 50% chance of refiling your magicka(even if it's full) instead of damaging you.If a spells still hits you,it does 3/4 damage as you have the 25% resistance.)
3)Argonians, they have the histkin power which gives you tenfold hp regeneration for a minute.
4)Redguards: Adrenaline Rush gives you tenfold stamina regeneration for a minute.

Finally, regarding quest optimization, the order in which you do quests can not be optimized.However, many quests can be completed in more ways than one, so it may be optimal for your character to complete some quests the one way, not the other. (for example if you have to choose between helping two people and the first one rewards you with a mage robe while the second one rewards you with an orcish armor,your character would obviously prefer to help the one that offers the orcish armor.)

Edit:About perks, i would suggest a weapon and armor tree of your choice,block if you use shields,smithing (daedric weapons armor are the best and you rarely find those.By getting perks in smithing,not only can you create them,but you can also upgrade them even more) , enchanting (double enchants are priceless.I guess recovering magic charge for enchanted weapons is also great.) and later on you could also consider speech and lockpicking as they are usefull for all characters and make your life easier.

I hope i was helpful ans sorry for any grammatical errors.

Thanks a bunch guys, so far so good. Finished up everything in Riverwood and I'm heading to Whiterun now.

Your most recent post (besides the one right before this) sounds a lot like my character. I focused on Stealth, Archery, One-Handed, Block and Light Armor. I also had high Alchemy, Speech and Lockpicking, but those were non-perked.


Archery perks:
* Overdraw is nice, but to use it, you do have to draw the bow further back.
* Crit Shot triggers a fair bit. Not necessary, but nice.
* Ranger is pure convenience, as is Eagle Eye. Don't bother with Steady Hand.
* Power Shot, Quick Shot and Bullseye are all awesome, and make a pure archery character possible. Until then, you WILL use your blade to finish stuff off, or you will sneak like crazy.

Stealth perks:
* The base skill is unimportant as long as you sneak on your own.
* The most important skill in stealth is Silence, which unfortunately is a skill of 70, but well worth it. The skills leading up to it are all quite useful.
* Get Backstab and Deadly Aim. Don't bother with Assassin's Blade if you don't plan on wielding a dagger. It's a nice bonus, but only if you're going to be using a dagger.

One-handed perks:
* You are only interested in the base perk, Bladesman, and Fighting Stance. Maybe Dual Savagery, but I was sword and shield.

Block perks:
* Although depending on how often you actually block, I find the skills here nice. I didn't get the middle perk or the final one, but I took pretty much everything else. They're definitely dependent on how much you actually block, though, and you can use a shield just fine without anything but the base perk.
* Elemental Protection is the one perk here I would highlight, since it allows you something you might not otherwise have -- armor against non-physical damage. Your worst bane is a powerful mage. The weak ones die easily, but the strong ones will chew you up. Also works against dragon breath.

Light Armor perks:
* I only started putting points into Light Armor when I realized that (a) hits that got past my shield HURT, and I basically had no useful places to put any perk points until I raised my skills higher. So I started making my armor more useful after working on the other four. If you go dual wielding, you'll need these much sooner.


When I got to really high levels, I had perk points left that wouldn't go anywhere in these trees to any noticeable effect. At that point I blew the ones I had on Speech so the vendors would actually have enough money for me to unload some of my junk to them. That wasn't until after level 50, though. However, you WILL end up splitting your points across four or five trees, so even if you don't use Block, you'll still not progress in the others much faster. Most of the time I leveled, I was looking for if anything had actually unlocked, and often it hadn't. I eventually stopped looking at the skills screen so I could use level-ups for free heals.