Hey everyone,
Needless to say, characters are the medium through which we experience TES games. How we go about those characters really boils down to skill choices and skill combinations.
I want to ask and discuss:
How many skills do you feel is the "right" amount for a balanced character?
What was the least amount of skills you have used on a character?
What was the most?
Give your reasons and thoughts below! Of course, this also depends on your intended class and purpose, but tell us about some of the best combinations and where you drew the line.
I am currently using 4 (technically 5 with Speech being added into) skills and it feels refreshingly concise and focused. It honestly feels "just right" given the playstyle.
I have used as little as 3.
I have used up to 14 on one character.
*I made this a general discussion in case anyone wanted to compare and contrast with older titles in the ES series and how Skyrim differs*
I usually run 5-8. More than that and some of the skills I choose end up going being neglected, not to mention it likely means I won't be able to grab all the perks I want without my character's level being 65+ or something like that. On the other hand, if I run less than five skills, the resulting character tends to feel a little bare-bones. Sometimes that's what I'm going for, but usually not.
Least number of skills I've ever used with a build is 0. The most I've used is 8 (I think) with a few different characters.
With Oblivion I felt that the forced 7 major skills was too much. In pre-made classes, they would often have conflicting skills like blunt and blade which you couldn't use at the same time, which is why I always made my own classes. Even then I usually felt that 7 skills were too much to juggle and one or two would always fall behind.
In Skyrim the freedom to use whatever I wanted was refreshing and it was nice to have characters using only 3 skills. I find 5 or 6 skills to be the perfect balance usually. I rarely go higher than that. Going lower though is entirely possible and can be very fun, its just not often a possibility if you want to create something unique.
I actually thought seven was a good number given the overall number of skills in Oblivion. Maybe one less, but otherwise it was good. I agree about the pre-made classes using too many weapon skills though. Maybe have a couple that use multiple weapon skills, but otherwise the majority of them should stick with one out of the three melee skills.
How many skills is right just depends on the character. The better you know the specifics of the character, the easier it is to know which perks to take. If you just have "a mage" you might find that the character isn't as grounded, just kinda does stuff, and juggles skills unevenly. But if you're aiming for a necromage, then you can already start trimming away things that will be irrelevant to them. So the only real greenzone is which skills are relevant to the character. Knowing them, you can make pretty much anything work.
The fewest skills I've used on a character is 5, if I remember right. The Fog used up to 9 comfortably, but some were very sparsely perked, but that's the highest I've gone for a structured build (my first, catch-all character might have more skills perked).
Five seems right to me.
Two for attacking, and three for support. This works with any class.
Barbarian: Two-handed, one handed, Block, alchemy, and Light armor
Wizard: Destruction, conjuration, restoration, alteration, and alchemy
Theif: Archery, One handed, sneak, light armor, and alchemy
5 lets you spread out, but still be able to focus on things. Five is good.
How many skills do you feel is the "right" amount for a balanced character?
6. I think this number allows for the best synergy between different skills and the number of different playstyles available for the character. Less and it's too simple, more and it's excessive. To note, that's not saying that simple or excessive are not fun.
What was the least amount of skills you have used on a character?
1 unperked. Sneak. My purely passive no-perks and no-kills playthrough
What was the most?
12. My first character. It... didn't end well
I generally use 5-6, gives me some nice balance between the skills. That's even with the unperked skills.
I just did a playthrough of a pit fighter mod using only light armor and unarmed. Was quite fun, so that'd be the least amount of skills I've used.
The most would have to have been my first character. Can't remember how many skills he used though.
Five-six skills is where I've found my balance, playing on expert, with one perked crafting skill.
Two offensive, one defensive, two-three support skills.
Fewest I've used is four, most is seven.
I'm currently using five, thinking of a sixth. It usually ends up that I have a surplus of perks because I can't afford what I want yet, or don't think it's necessary to spend them.
Eh... I normally use 7 in Skyrim. Three major, three minor, one RP or crafting. I like spreading out and find that anything less than five feels really cramped and once I've mastered them, I haven't done nearly everything I wanted to with the character. I once did a completely Shout-oriented character who stacked Amulets of Talos, so he technically didn't use any, and a character I was playing recently used 13, but I don't know if he could be called "balanced".
I never played Oblivion, but my characters in Morrowind almost always used about 10. You level skills fast, but your actual character level goes up very slowly, so I ended up with tons of skills. My current Legion Battlemage character uses Destruction, Marksman, Long Blade, Heavy Armor, Restoration, Mysticism, Spear, Block, Alchemy, Conjuration. She's perfectly balanced.