Are Breton's really as good as the hype?

[Will Zurmacht]

I remember when we had this thread a few months ago.

Assuming players go easy on abusing the wait function, passive bonuses are significantly better than greater powers. Breton magic resist is one of the strongest passives, but I still think Altmer +50 magicka and +8% movespeed is the strongest all-around, from the first level onwards. Magicka and speed both have multiple uses for offense and defense.

[ZackyZombify]

My main character is Breton. I didn't choose him for his skills or powers but for my favorite NPC from oblivion was a Breton and also because its the race I thought most looked like me. I never use the power but the magic resistance never hurts

[JVElEven]

Passive powers are, after all, more useful all the time than the active powers, which are more useful in the moment they're used, but quite worthless otherwise.

To be honest, I don't even look at specific races when I choose different playstyles. Partly because always end up playing sneaky conjurer anyways, but also because if I want to play an Altmer two-handed, steel-clad girl I am damn well entitled to doing it! I just create a character, and choose playstyle afterwards.

[Frost Mage]

Passive powers are, after all, more useful all the time than the active powers, which are more useful in the moment they're used, but quite worthless otherwise.

To be honest, I don't even look at specific races when I choose different playstyles. Partly because always end up playing sneaky conjurer anyways, but also because if I want to play an Altmer two-handed, steel-clad girl I am damn well entitled to doing it! I just create a character, and choose playstyle afterwards.

Really? I usually include the race in my mental character sheet, and especially region wide, it's sort of necessary, unless you have a reason for you Altmer to be in Elsweyr.

[Mattbott]

Me too. I almost always find myself thinking of the race at the same time as the 'class'/type of activity they will be good at when i make up new characters (eg "today i will play a dunmer assassin"). Although not all characters are thought up like that

I suppose for those who really like to know the numbers behind their characters , now that the attributes are gone and birthsigns are optional, the racial stuff is far more significant. Your hero's race defines them more so in Skyrim than previous TES games, which is something i hadn't thought of much before and quite interesting imo

[Haravikk]

I usually pick a race based on what I want to be, and with Skyrim partly to see how people react differently; for example I haven't played a Dunmer yet but I'm expecting it'll have an effect on Windhelm, and since I'll be a stealthy illusionist (since stealth in Skyrim pretty much requires invisibility ) being a Dunmer has some added bonuses, but nothing I'm too fussy about, since fire resistance is only useful if you've failed at sneaking, likewise with that fire cloak thing they get.

Still, I will tweak my play-style a bit to try and balance strengths and weaknesses to make the choice of race work for what I want to play as. None of the bonuses are hugely game-changing as you can get pretty much the same thing from other sources, especially if you're happy to level up enchanting. Though on that note I've gotten fed up of trying to sell things on the console games when I can't use mods to make more money available, so enchanting is a low priority for me

[Br3admax]

If you want to roleplay that way that is fine. But to tell someone they can not be an orc mage becasue they level up magic slower. That seems kind of wrong. That's like saying, "Hmmm, orcs can't do magic. Must be too stupid. Better pick a smart race like the Altmer." I like it when races get a boast, don't get me wrong, but when you cripple another just for the sack of gameplay, that is not right. Altmer used to have an intelligence boast, when we had the stats. That was good, but than orcs had an intelligence reduction. That was not.

[Haravikk]

If you want to roleplay that way that is fine. But to tell someone they can not be an orc mage becasue they level up magic slower. That seems kind of wrong. That's like saying, "Hmmm, orcs can't do magic. Must be too stupid. Better pick a smart race like the Altmer." I like it when races get a boast, don't get me wrong, but when you cripple another just for the sack of gameplay, that is not right. Altmer used to have an intelligence boast, when we had the stats. That was good, but than orcs had an intelligence reduction. That was not.

This is why I'd hope that races would get a perk tree of their own; I suppose it would have been a lot of work but it would have meant that they could start off with some minor racial differences, but give you access to some varied bonuses such as the boost to smithing for orcs, full disease resistance for argonians and that kind of thing.

[JVElEven]

Passive powers are, after all, more useful all the time than the active powers, which are more useful in the moment they're used, but quite worthless otherwise.

To be honest, I don't even look at specific races when I choose different playstyles. Partly because always end up playing sneaky conjurer anyways, but also because if I want to play an Altmer two-handed, steel-clad girl I am damn well entitled to doing it! I just create a character, and choose playstyle afterwards.

Really? I usually include the race in my mental character sheet, and especially region wide, it's sort of necessary, unless you have a reason for you Altmer to be in Elsweyr.

That is why i use a little something called imagination. One can always make something up.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Argonians get the coolest reception of any race I've tried so far. People ignorantly tried to imply it was "My Kind" that started the Great War when I was a Dunmer, which is ridiculous because they have no ideological or political affiliation with the Aldmeri Dominion, but at least I wasn't getting called Lizard by the person whose life I literally saved five minutes ago.

[Yaije]

The Breton's strength could be sumed up in one word : cheap.
It's desperately easy to make a strong character with a Breton.

All you need to do is : quickly reach 85% magic resistance, reach the armor cap (80% damage reduce / 567 armor class) and you're pretty much invincible.

You don't need enchant to reach 85% magic resistance :
race bonus : 25%
lord stone : 25%
alteration perk : 20% (10% * 2)

Spoiler:

agent of Mara : 15%
This ability you get when you complete the book of love.

As for armor... well, a combination of smithing and armor skill will do.

It's horridly easy to make a near damage immune anything in skyrim if you know what you're doing. I mean I made an argonian that is FULL immune to any non-physical source of damage (fires, soul gem traps, dragon breath, throat of the world wind... thu'um, etc). but then that's kinda what happens depending on what skills you choose to work with and how far along you advance them.

Though I personally grew fond of bretons from back in Morrowind, the majicka bonus and the 'weaker' stealth skills that I tend to favor allowed me to make a far stronger adventurer (because i could level farther with the same major/minor choices)

[Travalanche]

Bretons have one of the most useful passives in the game alongside Nords and Dunmer, Bretons get 25% resist to all magic and if you add that up its 75% magic resist overall, if you take the 50% from the Nords for only frost, and the 50% for Dunmers fire resist it's a no-brainer.

Your getting 25% more resist than any other race and starting skill levels are pointless after level 5, greater/lesser powers are weaker or equivalent to magic spells in-game so they aren't a big deal either with the exception of a couple which aren't needed anyways.

So no, Breton's aren't as good as they are hyped up to be, at least not as much as in Oblivion in which they were equal to the hype due to 50% resistance.

All in all your just saving like one enchantment slot endgame by rolling a Breton so it's not a big deal but helpful.

[DikaSmausha]

You pretty much just explained it with the last sentence.

[Evil-i]

3 words: "Aged Breton cheese!"

It's impossible to over-hype cheese.

[JVElEven]

Alright, chums, discussions over!

I don't quite get if he thinks they're too hyped or not, but no matter, Evil-i is always right.

[DaedraPuppet]

i never choose a race for its powers, so have never rated them so dont think bretons are over or underrated. They might be popular because they remind me of the aragorn type race, and are humans with elvish leanings, but that's their image and not necessarily down to their powers.

in previous games racial powers have always been unbalanced on purpose (imo) - since we're not playing a mp game there is no reason to make races all the same - if you want to build more challenge into your character by choosing a particular race with a double edged power, you can still balance that with the difficulty gauge and choosing your quests, so racial powers are never game breakers

TES is free to push races in different directions, sometimes pushing harder with some powers. I think there is as much benefit (fun and RP wise) playing a race with no extra gizmos, than one with bells and whistles (i especially like the khaajit and argonians cos their powers have generally been 'natural' ones i can forget about and these powers are probably the only racial ones i still use at higher levels).

it will be interesting to see how the MMO treats races, and i hope it doesnt make them all bland variations

your post made me lol until I cried

[JVElEven]

That man does seem rather too serious for that clapping...