Forums » Elder Scrolls

Non-Combat Characters?

    • 45 posts
    October 5, 2015 6:25 PM EDT
    I once played a Khajiit pure thief who literally never engaged in any form of combat—on the rare occasion that he was discovered, he made a run for it, and this made for a very interesting playthrough because I had to make provisions and plan ahead in the event that I needed to make an easy getaway. Have any of you played a non-combat character like this and, if so, how did you get around combat and what interesting stories came of that?
    • 1441 posts
    October 5, 2015 6:29 PM EDT

    I have, using Calm Spells or running

    • 411 posts
    October 6, 2015 12:34 AM EDT
    I once created a skyrim character who is basicly just a civilian npc
    • 184 posts
    October 6, 2015 2:23 AM EDT

    Your Khajiit sounded awesome, Dorian. I have never actually tried this before...

  • T
    • 32 posts
    October 6, 2015 7:36 AM EDT

    I once made a character that pretends to be a servant, but is actually a master sneak. Goals were complete mastery over all crafting skills, speech, sneak, pickpocket, illusion, and restoration. 

    I took a follower of a suitable level, and did "his" quests, while letting him or her do all the work.
    I took out all bandits near Riverwood with Faendal, helped Lydia investigate the dragon menace in Whiterun, helped Uthgerd get into the inner circle of the Companions (then cured myself, because why would I want to be a werewolf :/).
    Then I followed J'zargo, who eventually became the archmage (pickpocketed the gear onto him), helped Cicero return the brotherhood to its former glory, and much more.

    Basically, I made the hero's gear shiny, enchanted, and poisoned, made food and potions for him, and wherever the hero went, he'd find that the ranged fighters were absolutely terrified (illusion), that he or she felt stronger than before (restoration), and that the melee fighters fought with kitchen knives and wooden sticks (pickpocket). The hero foolishly thinks his servant is weak and only good at crafting, but would be helpless without him. 

    It was really fun roleplaying this, especially when I was caught by some bandits, or when my hero had an "accident" and I had to come up with a clever way to dispose of his enemies. (dropped a heavy load of rocks on some bandits to save Faendal, for example)

    You should try it, it's more fun that I've had with most other builds.

    • 184 posts
    October 6, 2015 8:00 AM EDT

    That sounds absolutely amazing. I'm definitely going to try that.

    • 773 posts
    October 6, 2015 8:15 AM EDT
    I'd love to see this fully written up as a guide and posted in the Roleplay group
    • 288 posts
    October 6, 2015 8:29 AM EDT

    Miraak would be a problem. Unless you include Conjuration and start "helping" a dremora lord.

    • 100 posts
    October 6, 2015 9:21 AM EDT
    Thank you, Jeeves.
  • T
    • 32 posts
    October 6, 2015 9:53 AM EDT

    There's no suitable hero for that questline, so I can't follow it anyway. :/

    And if you're thinking about Frea, well, she can't be taken to Apocrypha either, so I just end it there and move on.

    • 1217 posts
    October 6, 2015 10:34 AM EDT

    Gotta agree with Paul. Between you and Dorian, there's a really cool RP guide here.

    • 1483 posts
    October 6, 2015 1:23 PM EDT

    I had once made a character with a goal to have 0 in kill stats and not to use perks. Finished Thieves Guild, College of Winterhold questlines and a few side quests before switching away from Skyrim. Was a lot of fun! 

    Another character was a healer with no followers. She only used Restoration magic to heal but only on occasional allies, never taking any followers or using summons. This had led to some quite amusing situations when I was healing a random Ice Wolf protecting me from bandits 

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    • 32 posts
    October 6, 2015 3:30 PM EDT

    But wouldn't you eventually end up with at least one strong enemy? I mean, if the ice wolf beat all those bandits, you'd still have to get rid of the wolf.

    How did you deal with those situations?

  • T
    • 32 posts
    October 6, 2015 3:50 PM EDT

    I'm a bit new to these forums, so I'm not entirely sure if that was directed at me. Sorry in advance if I'm mistaken.

    I've never written any roleplay guides, but I'd like to try! It would really help me though, if you could tell me what aspect of my character's roleplaying you're interested in.
    "this" doesn't really tell me what grabbed your attention. 

    Oh, and thanks for the nice comment. 

    • 773 posts
    October 6, 2015 5:12 PM EDT

    OK, what I was meaning was the concept of playing what is, in effect, a pacifist character. I don't think we have a guide to that in our Roleplay Group.

    The sort of thing that I'd be interested to read would be how to get started with the character, which followers to pick up, which quests you did (and did not do), which perks and skills you went with.

    If you look in the Role-play Group (you'll need to join it first to add content) there are various examples of guides. That should give you an idea of the sort of thing we mean by 'guide'

    Hope that helps and I eagerly look forward to your guide 

  • Mr.
    • 763 posts
    October 6, 2015 7:04 PM EDT

     Not really, never tried it. I just can't see it working for me in Skyrim, such a violent land with a violent culture. It is intrinsic to all my characters that at one point in their life history, they'll have to kill, be killed or kill to protect something or someone they hold dear.

     And who knows, maybe if I do end up doing it, it'll be like Dishonored: Since my no kill, ghost playthrough, I haven't been able to play the story doing any killing again, because I feel so bad. Though I do play separate missions to go all maniacal, just to see the awesomeness of the game's possibilities.

  • T
    • 32 posts
    October 8, 2015 4:44 AM EDT

    I've checked them all out, I'll try make something nice. 

  • T
    • 32 posts
    October 8, 2015 5:07 AM EDT

    Found a suitable hero; Arniel Gane. 

    If anyone would be interested in a dimension made of books, it's him, right?
    And after completing his quests, you can summon him anywhere; including the final match against Miraak. So... protector of knowledge even after his death?

    • 45 posts
    October 8, 2015 9:37 PM EDT
    Whoa now. Hang on. You can't one-up me on my own discussion. That's not allowed. :p That does sound incredible, though.
    • 71 posts
    October 14, 2015 9:07 AM EDT

    Have you ever watched the show Merlin? This sounds almost exactly like the scenario depicted in that show, and also like a lot of fun!