Forums » Elder Scrolls

Of Crossbows and Vampires

    • 116 posts
    July 31, 2013 4:49 AM EDT

    I had been planning a build in which the Crossbow was the main weapon, and eventually he would become a Vampire Lord and side with Harkon, but I am starting to wonder if that will actually be a viable idea since ammo availability will be very scant.  My original plan was to reverse pickpocket a crossbow and a Dwarven bolt onto members of the Thieves Guild who do archery practice, but that doesn't seem to be working at all... (unless I am missing something).

    I wonder if I should maybe go Dawnguard up until the Soul Cairn for the ability to craft bolts, and maybe upgrade my weapon, and then allow Serana to vamp me for entrance.  At that point, I could decide to completely ignore the Dawnguard except for the forge.

    Any input on viable ways to keep bolts available without doing it that way?  Even spending as long as I can stand waiting on Agmaer to fire them into the crates before the first quest has it's limits!

    • 19 posts
    July 31, 2013 8:08 AM EDT

    Step 1: Raid Castle Dawnguard before picking a side. Get some spare crossbows and all the bolts you can find.

    Step 2: Have relevant archery perks for ammo recovery. Also go into Dwemer ruins for Dwarven bolts.

    Step 3: Join the Volikhar with your repository of bolts.

    Step 4: ???

    Step 5: Profit

    • 116 posts
    July 31, 2013 8:10 AM EDT

    That was the original method I wanted to go with, but based on how quickly my ammo reserve disappears now, I am worried about long-time viability, that's all.  Basically, the question is: Can I make it to 50 without having an ammo issue?

    • 1483 posts
    July 31, 2013 8:43 AM EDT
    Use Calm/Vampiric Seduction/Voice of the Emperor on Dawnguard members and buy the bolts from them. You can get Dawnguard specific spells that way too. I even heard that you can do quests for them that way (crossbow schematics...).
    • 116 posts
    July 31, 2013 8:52 AM EDT

    Hmmmm...

    • 19 posts
    July 31, 2013 8:53 AM EDT

    You can DO that? If you'll excuse me, I have a vampire build to recreate.

    • 80 posts
    July 31, 2013 12:23 PM EDT

    I tried calming them on Xbox but was never able to do their missions. I could buy things and that was it.

    • 1483 posts
    July 31, 2013 1:01 PM EDT

    I hadn't tried doing missions for them, though I suspected the mission part won't work, due to quest stage progression. Buying items is great tool though. Almost eliminates the drawbacks of choosing vampire. The only thing you miss out is Ruunvald quest (you can sell Elder Scrolls to Dexion on PC )

    • 106 posts
    July 31, 2013 1:14 PM EDT
    Damn thanks for the info. It always bugged me that it was hard to use a crossbow if you sided with Harkon. In my opinion you should already know how to craft regular ones and dwarven ones without the use of dawnguard. But the dawnguard makes you find schematics for exploding bolts. I think that would be much better
    • 116 posts
    July 31, 2013 1:53 PM EDT
    So you just can walk into Fort Dawnguard Calm someone and speak with them as normal?