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Daggerfall Character Guide v1.0

Written by Erik Scheets



I. What This Guide Covers

II. Character Races and Classes

III. Skills

IV. Starting Out

V. What Do I Need to be Successful?

VI. Final Thoughts



I. What This Guide Covers


This guide is intended to explain your character and how it can affect the
way you interact with the game. This guide will NOT have a walkthrough for
the main quest or any other quests. My intention is to inform the player
about what to expect while playing the game and improving their characters.


II. Character Races and Classes


There are 8 races to choose from in the game.

Skyrim - Nords *Resistant to Frost
Elsweyr - Khajiits
Hammerfall - Redguards
High Rock - Bretons *Resistant to Magic
Black Marsh - Argonians
Valenwood - Wood Elves
Summerset Isle - High Elves *Immune to paralyzation
Morrowind - Dark Elves

90% of the time, unless I choose the Knight character, I pick High Elf for my
race. Getting paralyzed and killed by a lowly spider is no fun. If you are
newer to the game, I recommend choosing a High Elf. Once you get comfortable
to the game, try out the others. It's a shame that there is no race that has
innate resistance to Shock, as it's one of the more common types of offensive
spells used against you. It's worth pointing out that in regards to Bretons,
the resistance to Magic does not mean that you are resistance to all types of
magic. It only applies to magic-based spells, such as Sleep, Paralysis, and
so forth. Fireball, Shock, Ice Storm, and so on are elemental based and so
having a resistance to Magic will not help you against these types of spells.

There are 18 premade classes in the game, plus the option to create your own
custom class.

Fighter-type classes

Warrior
Knight
Archer
Ranger
Barbarian
Monk

These classes are based around weapon skills, have higher hit points than the
other classes, and have little to no magic potential.

Some thoughts on each class:

Warrior - You have weapon skills in all of your Primary and Major skill slots.
One one hand, this gives you a lot of options when choosing weaponary, but on
the other hand levels will be hard to gain because you need to have plenty of
different weapons on hand and switch among them often. You will have access
to all types of armor, though. This and the fact that you have high hit
points means that survivability in dungeons should be relatively high.
Joining the Fighter's Guild is a must, and possibly a Knightly Order if you
want to get some free armor with every rank.

Primary Skills: Axe, Long Blade, Blunt Weapon
Major Skills: Hand to Hand, Archery, Short Blade
Minor Skills: Climbing, Running, Dodging, Jumping, Swimming, Medical


Knight - You get Immunity to Paralyzation with this class, so if you intend to
be a Knight, pick a race other than High Elf. A Knight is a more noble
version of the Warrior. The Etiquette skill might be handy when speaking to
Nobles. Other than that, it's pretty similar to a Warrior. Make sure to live
up to your namesake and join a Knightly Order.

Primary Skills: Long Blade, Etiquette, Blunt Weapon
Major Skills: Axe, Archery, Short Blade
Minor Skills: Dodging, Medical, Hand to Hand, Jumping, Swimming, Climbing


Archer - This basically a Warrior that is specialized in Archery. I've never
been too fond of Archery as my primary weapons skill. In dungeons, it's not
always easy to attack from a distance; enemies tend to close fast in such
close quarters. Anyway, with a good bow and some distance, an Archer can do
some serious damage thanks to the Expertise in Bows advantage. Don't neglect
your other weapon skills, as you will need back up when the enemy gets close.
The high Dodging skill with help with close up enemies too.

Primary Skills: Archery, Hand to Hand, Dodging
Major Skills: Axe, Blunt Weapon, Critical Strike
Minor Skills: Long Blade, Short Blade, Climbing, Jumping, Running, Swimming


Ranger - This is another variation of the Warrior class, although it does not
have a specific specialization. Swimming and Climbing are bumped up to the
Primary and Major Skills to make this a "nature orientated" class. This one
has one of the highest hit points per level among the figher classes.

Primary Skills: Long Blade, Axe, Climbing
Major Skills: Swimming, Archery, Critical Strike
Minor Skills: Blunt Weapon, Short Blade, Hand to Hand, Running, Dodging,
Spriggan


Barbarian - Yet another class based in nature. Barbarians have the most hit
points per level. The Major skills aren't too attractive, since Swimming isn't
that essential. Having Running as a Major skill means that you can gain
levels rather quickly if you run everywhere you go (which most players do).
You get immunity to poison, so Assassins will be less of an annoyance.

Primary Skills: Long Blade, Blunt Weapon, Axe
Major Skills: Jumping, Running, Swimming
Minor Skills: Medical, Climbing, Dodging, Critical Strike, Archery, Giantish


Monk - Probably the hardest fighter class to play. You can't use armor or
shields, but you will have a high Dodging skill to offset some of that. You
can hit any creature in the game, even ones needing high level material
weapons to hit, with Hand to Hand. I'd say you should bring up your Speed
attribute so you can attack faster and possibly your Strength as well when you
gain levels. If you wish to stay in character, forget about developing your
weapons skills in your Minor slots and stick with Hand to Hand.

Primary Skills: Hand to Hand, Critical Strike, Dodging
Major Skills: Medical, Swimming, Blunt Weapon
Minor Skills: Axe, Archery, Long Blade, Short Blade, Jumping, Climbing


Magic based classes

Mage
Spellswoed
Battlemage
Sorceror
Nightblade
Healer

These classes are based on around magic skills. They typically have lower hit
points, but given time to develop their magic skills, they can pack a punch.

Some thoughts on each class:

Mage - They have all six schools of magic in their Primary and Major slots.
This makes gaining levels extremely easy, as I will point out later. I would
have preferred to have Destruction in a Primary slot to make combat a bit
easier, but Mysticism is probably the most handy magic skill so it's a decent
trade off. You will have really low hit points and no access to the better
types of armor, so either get a Shield spell or keep a distance and sling
spells. The language skills in the Minor slots are rather useless, but at
least you are given some weapon skills to fall back on. Joining the Mage's
Guild is a must obviously.

Primary Skills: Mysticism, Alteration, Thaumaturgy
Major Skills: Destruction, Illusion, Restoration
Minor Skills: Medical, Short Blade, Blunt Weapon, Dragonish, Daedric, Dodging


Spellsword - Pretty much a Figher/Mage character. You get combat skills in
your Primary slots and magic skills in your Major slots. I'm not a fan of
Illusion, but at least Destruction is in a Major slot to help with offense.
Work on improving your Mysticism skill. You won't have access to plate armor,
so be careful in close combat. This is one of the easier classes to win the
main quest with because of the access to magic and combat skills.

Primary Skills: Axe, Long Blade, Blunt Weapon
Major Skills: Destruction, Illusion, Alteration
Minor Skills: Restoration, Thaumaturgy, Mysticism, Short Blade, Hand to Hand
Archery


Battlemage - Similar to the Spellsword, but your specialty is Destruction, and
you have a larger spell point pool to work with. Sling spells at enemies at a
distance, because you only get to wear leather armor. Again, definately try
to improve your Mysticism skill.

Primary Skills: Destruction, Long Blade, Axe
Major Skills: Thaumaturgy, Alteration, Hand to Hand
Minor Skills: Restoration, Mysticism, Illusion, Archery, Short Blade, Blunt
Weapon


Sorceror - The most useless class in the game. Sure you get 3x Int in spell
points, but you cannot regenerate spells points. Instead, you get spell
absorption as an advantage. Too bad it rarely works, even if you have no spell
points. Plus, early in the game there are very few creatures that fire spells
at you. Don't bother with this class.

Primary Skills: Mysticism, Alteration, Thaumaturgy
Major Skills: Destruction, Illusion, Restoration
Minor Skills: Medical, Short Blade, Blunt Weapon, Dragonish, Daedric, Dodging


Nightblade - This one is a Mage/Thief hybrid. The Nightblade will be harder to
play than the Spellsword, because you get less hit points and less of a focus
on weapon skills. The magic skills you do get are non-offensive. Illusion may
be handy here, as the Invisibility skill greatly helps your Stealth and
Backstabbing skills. Consider building up your Destruction skill, work on
being very stealthy, and don't neglect your Short Blade or Critical Strike
skills.

Primary Skills: Illusion, Stealth, Dodging
Major Skills: Thaumaturgy, Short Blade, Lockpicking
Minor Skills: Alteration, Critical Strike, Mercantile, Destruction, Restoration
Backstabbing


Healer - A very defensive character. Many people consider this among the best
classes to be, but I'm not sure why. You get fast healing with a high medical
skill and Rapid Healing advantage, and a specialization in Restoration means
cheap healing spells. Lack of Destruction means that you will have to fall on
weapon skills to attack, but those are in your Minor slots. You'll need some
type of Shield spell to help survive combat situations. This class is good for
joining temples though.

Primary Skills: Restoration, Medical, Dodging
Major Skills: Thaumaturgy, Alteration, Mysticism
Minor Skills: Illusion, Streetwise, Etiquette, Short Blade, Hand to Hand, Blunt
Weapon


Thieving based classes

Acrobat
Thief
Burglar
Rogue
Bard
Assassin

These class are based on thief skills. They have low hit points, but if they
are sufficiently stealthy, they can strike before the enemy knows what hit
them.