Playing Skyrim without Fighting?

[Tea]

Hello all, Ive been snooping around here a while now - and today I've finally registered

My wife and I have been playing Oblivion together for a couple years now and have put many hours (100+) into our joint character. We love the game, and can not wait to get our hands on Skyrim!

We have run into a problem with Oblivion however - She has trouble with the combat, just can't do it. It gets her discouraged and frustrated. Almost every quest and guild mission we happen upon ends up in a cave/dungeon, which results in me taking over, and her losing intrest - The thieves guild was a lot of fun, but it was so long ago, we can hardly remember it.

I have no trobule playing the game on my own for hours and hours, but I'm sure you married ones know that dosent fly all that often - Playing with my spouse is a lot of fun and I get more time to play !

Skyrim advertises itself as a game that meets just about everyone's interests and play style - So I guess my question is, do you think she could play the game on her own for hours, without ever having to engage in combat? Has anyone else run into this problem in the past?

[SilentPsycho]

Some of the characters I've played in Oblivion were non-combats, or if they did fight, it was very rare. Thieves are quite fun, and if you can roleplay well monks and pacifists are viable. Since there's now cooking/blacksmithing/woodcutting/etc, maybe your wife could do the more roleplaying aspects as well as the thieves parts, while you do the fighting parts.

One example I've played was a pacifistic herbalist, who lived just outside of Anvil. I had her do stuff like harvest plants, make potions, wander down to Anvil, give food to the beggars and the prophet, sell the potions to a merchant, pray at the church, etc. It was quite fun actually, playing a character who didn't rush in headfirst to each fight.

[soda popinski]

I would make a character that uses illusion magic and conjuration, then she can summon a creature and turn invisible while they do the dirty work.

[Lindai]

She will find it worse than Oblivion, what with all these random Dragon encounters.

[Kavatch99]

Well, she can just run like hell from the dragon, right?

[AeraDunmerMoon]

Well, she can just run like hell from the dragon, right?

Indeed, when we were first getting gameplay information, I believe that God Howard mentioned that sometimes one would have to hide or run away and that fighting is not always the feasible option.

[born2beagator]

I would make a character that uses illusion magic and conjuration, then she can summon a creature and turn invisible while they do the dirty work.

Agree 100%. If you maxed out Conjuration and Illusion in oblivion you could conceivably go through the entire game on invisibility spells and summon spells.

[Twilight]

I'm glad I found this thread, because I have been talking for awhile (On another forum and to friends) about how I want my first character to be all about avoiding conflict and leveling only through noncombat type skills. But also leveling ones that if I do enter combat, I can get out of it (Like Illusion, Restoration and Conjuration) without too much hassle.

I think it's totally doable. With skills like Alchemy, Smithing, Enchating, Speechcraft, Mercantile, Illusion, Restoration, Conjuration, Sneak, and Lockpicking. Not to mention what the game offers OUTSIDE of skills, such as mining, cooking and woodcutting. So, you have a decent amount of variability in case she does get bored, she has many things to pick and choose from.

Also, it might be a good idea to play the same character instead of different ones, since she could help level you by raising the noncombat, while you raise the combat. And once you get higher, it would give her a way to be stronger than certain enemies, thus increasing her skill at fighting in general, given she practices. xD

Goodluck whatever you guys decide. ^^;

[Svetlonio]

In theory you could, in practice every game of this kind is designed and centered around combat. It would be like playing the game without magic. No scrolls, potions, enchanted items, nothing. You could, but you would be missing out 80% of the game.

[Hejerrick]

In theory you could, in practice every game of this kind is designed and centered around combat. It would be like playing the game without magic. No scrolls, potions, enchanted items, nothing. You could, but you would be missing out 80% of the game.

Wow wow wow, now I think you're giving magic too much credit. Magic is quite a large part of the game, sure, but so is stealth and swordplay, along with the new dragonshouts. 20% - 30%. Anyway, potions have been made a stealth skill, and legendary weapons and armor bestowed upon you by Daedra Princes are far more than mere enchanted items, allowing a non-magic PC acces to the most exotic parts of Skyrims armory.

[Svetlonio]

uh, I was trying to make an analogy... it doesn't really matter if potions are not magic anymore?

I always wanted to make sneak-type character work, tried a lot of ideas, but in practice it's just a lot easier, natural and satisfying to graduate in warhammers and maul your enemies. Sure you can get along well in cities with sneak and speechcraft, but every dungeon is in essence a tight corridor where you need to kill a bad guy to get to the next bad guy. You need to kill bad guys to get alchemical ingredients, to fill soul gems, to complete every quest that is not "go buy me groceries". Trying to avoid combat alltogether would mean trying to play the sims.

[Mattbott]

how about a conjuror/healer who lives in really good armour?

You would have to be able to soak up the damage and let others kill the beasts (conjured beasts and companions/followers), you would need great buff/healing and armour skills, but would be all constantly improving because you would always be in combat, it's just that you wouldn't be doing the fighting..

it just seems a more convenient way to get there than trying to avoid combat altogether , and might actually be more fun cos the only aspect of the game you aren't using is your weapon skill

[wouter215]

i wonder if a pacifist run is possible? or a kill-the-least-amount-of-npc's run?

[Hejerrick]

I always wanted to make sneak-type character work, tried a lot of ideas, but in practice it's just a lot easier, natural and satisfying to graduate in warhammers and maul your enemies.

Surely that is just a matter of taste. I myself seldom have the patience to be the knife in the dark, but I've rarely run into a situation where it would have been impossible to take the sneaky route with a proper character build.

Sure you can get along well in cities with sneak and speechcraft, but every dungeon is in essence a tight corridor where you need to kill a bad guy to get to the next bad guy. You need to kill bad guys to get alchemical ingredients, to fill soul gems, to complete every quest that is not "go buy me groceries". Trying to avoid combat alltogether would mean trying to play the sims.

I do agree that a pure pacifist character sounds not only like a near impossible task to make, but also like a waste of time, with all the time, care and effort that the developers spent making adventuring a blast, one would be a fool to restrain oneself to playing around with villagers.

[Svetlonio]

Surely that is just a matter of taste. I myself seldom have the patience to be the knife in the dark, but I've rarely run into a situation where it would have been impossible to take the sneaky route with a proper character build.

It's not impossible, but it's cheesy. You very rarely can 1-shot enemies with a sneak attack, and bows or daggers do little damage otherwise, so what happens in practice is that the "support" abilities do all the work. This often lead to ridiculous things in my stealth characters, from what could be considered common "tactics" (you levitate to a spot where you can't be hit, and abuse the fact that enemy flee mechanic is flawed), to things like casting a paralyze spell over and over and stuff the guy with 100 bolts until he falls. Thing is, combat, and therefore the game, is simply harder with sneak characters, the only thing that's easier is stealing earlier on, until spells and enchantments fill that role as well.

[Twilight]

I do agree that a pure pacifist character sounds not only like a near impossible task to make, but also like a waste of time, with all the time, care and effort that the developers spent making adventuring a blast, one would be a fool to restrain oneself to playing around with villagers.

I know for myself I'm going to explore other builds, I'm just intrigued to see how far I can go in the game without combat. (: I did decently in Oblivion and still had loads of fun, but then again, I'm not one who enjoys the rush of combat even when I'm not trying to avoid it. So it depends on the playstyle.

i wonder if a pacifist run is possible? or a kill-the-least-amount-of-npc's run?

I found it fun in both Morrowind and Oblivion, and I'm sure I will find it fun in Skyrim. So yes, it's possible if you are dedicated enough to try and stick to it. ^^;

[Vendetta]

By god if a pacifist run was possible.....
Imagine all the complaining from true ES fans, including me!

[LtAscott]

id say stealth and magic are her best bet, if you can convince her to use conjuration magic she could probably kill a dragon later on in game with 1/2 followers and a summoned atronauch, restoration would be good too to heal her allies and herself and also shield spells, and the glyphs, or a shield/shield and shield spell swap outs, i swear im gunna do a character like that. a shield in each hand and max out bash, block with one while bashing with the other haha i bet it works too

[Hejerrick]

It's not impossible, but it's cheesy. You very rarely can 1-shot enemies with a sneak attack, and bows or daggers do little damage otherwise, so what happens in practice is that the "support" abilities do all the work. This often lead to ridiculous things in my stealth characters, from what could be considered common "tactics" (you levitate to a spot where you can't be hit, and abuse the fact that enemy flee mechanic is flawed), to things like casting a paralyze spell over and over and stuff the guy with 100 bolts until he falls. Thing is, combat, and therefore the game, is simply harder with sneak characters, the only thing that's easier is stealing earlier on, until spells and enchantments fill that role as well.

My stealthies in Oblivion usually played on easy, just because anything harder would remove the immersion and make the game less satisfying

We'll just have to hope that the stealth mechanics are more fleshed out this time around.

[EMarkM]

Thank you for raising this topic. Not only does it fit neatly with an idea that I always try to explore in RPGs about "living in the game" rather than "trying to beat it", but my wife also struggles with some aspects of video games (she had a heart transplant at age 12, which was preceded by a stroke at age nine that left her left hand with no control/fine motor skills at all).

I hope to be able to watch her having fun with Skyrim too, with a low-combat game. Let's see how it rolls...

[Mattbott]

what if you played the monk mage who can stun, paralyse and damage fatigue/strength/speed and then make his escape?

your biggest challenge would be the time/distance from you an incapacitated enemy took to disappear from the active game area once you'd legged it

trouble is, it sounds very much like you will have to kill dragons in Skyrim

[SilentPsycho]

trouble is, it sounds very much like you will have to kill dragons in Skyrim

Depends, you don't always HAVE to play the Main Quest, and in one of the demos Todd mentions that the dragons only start appearing after a certain point in the Main Quest.

[SuperNull]

The info that is up on the Pickpocket page suggests you can get quite far without combat.
Reverse-pickpocket is a perk and the description suggests you use it to kill people. Perhaps every non-essential humanoid is killable with it in Skyrim.....
If you can pickpocket all equipped gear it it means a lot less killing is necessary for quest items.

Also, the gameplay trailer suggests doing something hostile doesn't break your stealth automatically (you may need an Illusion talent for that). You could frenzy a group to kill each other and then just sneak past the last man standing.

I think I will try this. I'll pour all my perk points into Enchanting, Illusion, Alchemy, Lock-picking, Pickpocket and Sneak.
I'll obviously need a bow/knife for creatures without pockets that can not be bypassed, but humanoids live...or drop dead spontaneously


(btw, hi everyone, first post)

[Mattbott]

trouble is, it sounds very much like you will have to kill dragons in Skyrim

Depends, you don't always HAVE to play the Main Quest, and in one of the demos Todd mentions that the dragons only start appearing after a certain point in the Main Quest.

spose it depends on how much game is opened up during the main plot ( like dragon shouts )..

for me the main plot is really important when i am trying to get into the game and get a feel for it - i usually only feel like i can leave the main plot alone once i know the game pretty well , dont know if i could strike forth into a new game and ignore the story, esp TES - tho for some reason i found the Mw story much easier to ignore than the Ob one lol