Odd Racial Skill Boosts

[Kenny_Biff]

Different game, different bonuses.

[OblivionDuruza]

Yeah, yeah, 200 years have passed, and Skyrim is a different climate/environment. I'm afraid this is probably the extent of reasoning I'm likely to get in this case.

The Eternal Champion was born about a third of that timespan before the events of Oblivion, and the racial integrity of the races involved has not changed incredibly (if you consider different subspecies of Khajiit). Archetypal, they remained the same throughout.

[Anderband]

If these skill boosts are accurate, I must admit I'm a bit disappointed, particularly with the Dunmer stats.

It looks like the Khajiit get a good head start as a pure assassin type player, and Impirials look alot better for combat.

However, if there are indeed no attribute differences in the races, I would think these skill bonuses would be much less important. A +10 archery stat is nice for bosmer, but its the added agility boost that really makes being bosmer the hands down best choice for a markmen in oblivion.

I'm very foggy on how Skyrim's system works though, so I may be missing something

[Chaos the N'wah]

I'd assume the higher skill base would mean earlier access to certain perks (Perks unlock at certain skill levels) along with higher damage from weapon skill

[dkjestrup]

Yeah this would be a shame if it's true. I mean, take Nords. They're supposed to be okay at restoration magic, good with both armor types, block, etc. But if you had given the Nord skills (in skyrim) to the Redguards, maybe swapping one handed to +10 instead of two handed, I wouldn't have been surprised.

If it's about balance, surely they could do it without hurting their racial identities.

And if Nords do have speech, then the reason being it's their homeland doesn't make sense imo. In Morrowind, the Dunmer had no speech bonus, but due to the large number of Dunmer in the game, they often had it easier in speechcraft because the starting disposition of most other Dunmer was higher. Same should be done with the Nords.

And seriously, if Imperials don't have a speech bonus, wtf.

[Argonanza]

Imperials without Speech and Redguards with boosts in Destruction and Alteration..

Not even a million chimpanzees with typewriters could describe the confusion I'm feeling right now.

[enyamerT]

The thing that has always bothered me with Morrowind and Oblivion is that - despite them being sandbox games, where you can go where you want, do what you want, and be any kind of character type you want - you were always railroaded when it came to race. If you didn't want to hamstring your character from the get-go, you were forced to play certain races for certain character types, and frankly I find being coerced into "racial stereotypes" rather aggravating.

[Wolfie]

The thing that has always bothered me with Morrowind and Oblivion is that - despite them being sandbox games, where you can go where you want, do what you want, and be any kind of character type you want - you were always railroaded when it came to race. If you didn't want to hamstring your character from the get-go, you were forced to play certain races for certain character types, and frankly I find being coerced into "racial stereotypes" rather aggravating.

i do not find this... I've played orcs as mages just fine

[BabyKiller209]

The thing that has always bothered me with Morrowind and Oblivion is that - despite them being sandbox games, where you can go where you want, do what you want, and be any kind of character type you want - you were always railroaded when it came to race. If you didn't want to hamstring your character from the get-go, you were forced to play certain races for certain character types, and frankly I find being coerced into "racial stereotypes" rather aggravating.

i do not find this... I've played orcs as mages just fine

It definitely made it harder to play certain characters (especially at low levels), but once you start to flesh out your characters stats it became a non issue.

[MARS]

While those may be explanations, that doesn't quite explain why Redguards suddenly became proficient at Magic. Seeing as Magic is basically outlawed due to the destruction of Yokuda as a result of Magic, it would not be a simple feat to suddenly institute training and scholarship of Magic in the space of less than 200 years, until the entire race became proficient.

Additionally, why were there no regional differences in previous games? That explanation does suit me much either, as it doesn't follow previous examples.

There was one Redguard in Oblivion who worked at a certain Mages Guild (dang, I shoulda searched!) he may have went North and spread magic amongst his students and fellow Redguards....
I'm really interested to find out the logical explanations here...

Travyond states that he had to leave Hammerfell in order to pursue his career and that he is still prejudiced against some schools of magic. Not probable.

[Chaos the N'wah]

The min-max-er in me understands what he's saying, in some cases it was hard to pass up Altmer or Breton when making a pure mage or trying to ignore Berserk or Adrenaline Rush when making a pure warrior. The allure is too greater when you think about the vast magicka pool fueling a lot more damage than a non-magic focused race (When you think of Altmer's +100 magicka [in Oblivion], then think of the base max of 200).

I'm not saying they should change though, racials are a good part of each race's uniqueness. I just play races I wouldn't normally choose on a superficial basis.

[Anderband]

I also notice that the only race with a magicka bonus are altmer

bretons get good mage skill stats, but with no extra magicka from the start it seems that there will be more races that could make for a better pure mage character, especially dunmer, and oddly enough, redgaurds

Argonians seem to be getting a bad hand as far as offensive combat skills

I've always done a Bosmer stealth assassin, but those Khajiit's are looking pretty tempting. I heard someone in another thread mention seeing a white one. If I can make a black one, I'm sold

[FrostyInferno016]

I like the power they gave the Khajiit. It makes using handtohand with them much more appealing.

[OblivionDuruza]

While those may be explanations, that doesn't quite explain why Redguards suddenly became proficient at Magic. Seeing as Magic is basically outlawed due to the destruction of Yokuda as a result of Magic, it would not be a simple feat to suddenly institute training and scholarship of Magic in the space of less than 200 years, until the entire race became proficient.

Additionally, why were there no regional differences in previous games? That explanation does suit me much either, as it doesn't follow previous examples.

There was one Redguard in Oblivion who worked at a certain Mages Guild (dang, I shoulda searched!) he may have went North and spread magic amongst his students and fellow Redguards....
I'm really interested to find out the logical explanations here...

Travyond states that he had to leave Hammerfell in order to pursue his career and that he is still prejudiced against some schools of magic. Not probable.

Exactly what I don't like so much about it:

Also, on the Redguards, the lone Redguard mage character I've ever encountered in TES (in Morrowind and Oblivion), Trayvond says this:

I'm Trayvond the Redguard, Mages Guild Evoker. Surprised? Yes, you don't see many Redguards in the Mages Guild. We don't much like spellcasters in Hammerfell. Wizards steal souls and tamper with minds. If you use magic, you're weak or wicked. My family didn't approve of my vocation, so I had to come to Cyrodiil for my education. I admit... I still have strong prejudices against necromancy, summoning, and illusion. Profaning the remains or souls of the dead is just wrong. And I'm uneasy about tampering with other's minds and trafficking with Daedra.

My progress through the ranks here will be slow. My prejudices against certain types of magic limit my chances for advancement.

I don't think the matter of, inside and outside Hammerfall comes into it, but there could be something else.

[Trelares]

If you look on the older sources redguards clearly had some good connection to magic once, before the killed off their homeland. But why would it resurface now? (the magic skills not their homeland). I even can adapt to the dunmer changes as they maybe needed the more sneak skills during the red year and following conflicts and the change of imperals may be attributed to the now other "imperial" politics.

What people also should consider is that not all race skill bonuses are something that comes from birth, it also has to do with your culutre and what you are trained/learned in your youth.

But what I mostly like is that almost all activate race spells are unique and seem usefull for the full game, only maybe the dunmer spell which does a fix amount of damage instead of some damage related to your level.

[OblivionDuruza]

If this were the case, then I would assume that they've gotten over the sinking of Yokuda, which could be an interesting thing.

[Trelares]

Maybe they got some more information how and why it sank/was destroyed and it wasn't their fault as it seems atleast now.

The other question is how good the altmer magicka bonus is as the bretons lost their bonus and also 25% resistance in turn for a absorb spell, and the altmer lost their weakness, altmer somehow seems superior than breton.

[Fathis]

Khajiit seems to be the best stealth-aligned character type with Bosmer. Dunmer skill boosts are confusing, and Altmer losing their weaknesses makes for terrifying mages (which i totally like, but perhaps not lore-wise).

[Anderband]

I think I've decided to make my stealth character a Khajiit

With the 15 points of claw damage along with a +5 in one handed, it seems like they will be able to hold their own in close combat early in the game, while being able to focus on leveling the archery skill. Unfortunately no bonus for light armor, but for a player who will l likely deal most of the damage from afar and getting sneak attack bonus, shouln't be that big a deal

I have to believe these stats are incomplete and the Altmer have magick weakness. If not, they really are scary

It appears that Redgaurds are the new Dunmer

cant wait!

[SuperNull]

The other question is how good the altmer magicka bonus [...]

I got the idea that every time you level you can chose a +10 bonus to stam/heath/mag.
The +50 magic bonus the Altmer get would be worth 5 levelup stat boosts then. Sounds pretty good to me.