Skyrim and the Ring of Power
Since the Winter holidays, I've been playing Skyrim with some absurd frequency. It's an amazing, immersive game that does the whole "D&D" thing so well it makes Diablo look like Rogue. This whole time, I've only played the one character I started with. As he's started to edge up toward level 50, he's begun to top out on some of his most used skills.
Last night, however, I'm afraid I may have jumped the shark. For those who don't play this game, suffice to say that I may have made the game too easy: you'll probably want to skip the rest of this little essay.
After I had become the archmage at the college of wizards, I began to obsessively use my archmage robes and the Morokai mask in most situations, only switching to my armor when combat came in too close or with too many opponents. My character is a Nord, so he is naturally good in hand-to-hand combat, but my playing style has been to sneak everywhere with firebolts loaded in both hands. Wearing the archmage robes and the dragon priest mask, I was able to lob out twice as many shots before running out of magic juice, so my preference wasn't a surprise.
I had come to a place in the game where I was a much stronger opponent than nearly anything I encountered. What made me such a badass was the "Impact" perk, that made every double-cast destruction spell stagger the target. Since a staggering opponent doesn't run at you or fire arrows or cast spells, double-casting a low-cost spell like firebolts would stop and, eventually, kill any single opponent. Dragons and deathlords alike fell before me and I rejoiced at the sounds of lamentations from their women.
Then I realized that there were better magic robes I could be wearing: those that regenerated magic potential faster, or further decreased the cost of casting spells. Before I spent my hard stolen coin on incrementally better threads, I stumbled over a better idea.
I had read about a particular exploit, but it required me to accumulate a significant collection of alchemical reagents. Once this was done, I spent a few hours (real time) making increasingly powerful potions until I was able to enchant anything to ridiculous levels. My goal was to create a ring that was at least twice as good as my fancy robes, so I could wear my armor all the time, but not suffer with slow regeneration.
Success! Now, I have a plain silver ring that effectively eliminates the cost of casting any destruction spell. I can cast Thunderbolts or Incinerate repeatedly, without touching my magicka. Then I took it one step further: I created a necklace that regenerates my magicka so fast, all magic is now effectively free. Not only do I no longer have to worry about picking a spell with the best balance of power vs. cost, I don't have to carry around any magicka potions anymore!
In my first test with the ring of power, I cleared a room with ten high-level draugers in about thirty seconds -- while still in the adjacent hallway. Some of the corpses were piled around the door frame, while the rest had been blown back against the furthest wall. It was glorious.
But now the cat's out of the bag, so to speak: I could use the same trick to create a set of lightweight armor far stronger than anything available in the game, allowing me to carry nearly unlimited quantity of loot, easily pick any lock, and defeat any opponent without even using a weapon... but I probably won't. Over time, I'll probably build another set of armor, and I'll probably "enhance" it more than normally allowed, but if there's no danger, the game loses some of its flavor.
We just downloaded "Dragonborn" last week, and I'm loving the new encounters and new environment. After my session last night, we added "Hearthfire". I'm looking forward to exploring these add-ons and building my own castle. I don't think there is necessarily any potential that I'll lose interest right away, even with my fancy rings. If anything I may have just eliminated one of the sources of persistent irritation I have: keeping up with and carrying around enough potions to keep me going through the biggest fights!
Last night, however, I'm afraid I may have jumped the shark. For those who don't play this game, suffice to say that I may have made the game too easy: you'll probably want to skip the rest of this little essay.
After I had become the archmage at the college of wizards, I began to obsessively use my archmage robes and the Morokai mask in most situations, only switching to my armor when combat came in too close or with too many opponents. My character is a Nord, so he is naturally good in hand-to-hand combat, but my playing style has been to sneak everywhere with firebolts loaded in both hands. Wearing the archmage robes and the dragon priest mask, I was able to lob out twice as many shots before running out of magic juice, so my preference wasn't a surprise.
I had come to a place in the game where I was a much stronger opponent than nearly anything I encountered. What made me such a badass was the "Impact" perk, that made every double-cast destruction spell stagger the target. Since a staggering opponent doesn't run at you or fire arrows or cast spells, double-casting a low-cost spell like firebolts would stop and, eventually, kill any single opponent. Dragons and deathlords alike fell before me and I rejoiced at the sounds of lamentations from their women.
Then I realized that there were better magic robes I could be wearing: those that regenerated magic potential faster, or further decreased the cost of casting spells. Before I spent my hard stolen coin on incrementally better threads, I stumbled over a better idea.
I had read about a particular exploit, but it required me to accumulate a significant collection of alchemical reagents. Once this was done, I spent a few hours (real time) making increasingly powerful potions until I was able to enchant anything to ridiculous levels. My goal was to create a ring that was at least twice as good as my fancy robes, so I could wear my armor all the time, but not suffer with slow regeneration.
Success! Now, I have a plain silver ring that effectively eliminates the cost of casting any destruction spell. I can cast Thunderbolts or Incinerate repeatedly, without touching my magicka. Then I took it one step further: I created a necklace that regenerates my magicka so fast, all magic is now effectively free. Not only do I no longer have to worry about picking a spell with the best balance of power vs. cost, I don't have to carry around any magicka potions anymore!
In my first test with the ring of power, I cleared a room with ten high-level draugers in about thirty seconds -- while still in the adjacent hallway. Some of the corpses were piled around the door frame, while the rest had been blown back against the furthest wall. It was glorious.
But now the cat's out of the bag, so to speak: I could use the same trick to create a set of lightweight armor far stronger than anything available in the game, allowing me to carry nearly unlimited quantity of loot, easily pick any lock, and defeat any opponent without even using a weapon... but I probably won't. Over time, I'll probably build another set of armor, and I'll probably "enhance" it more than normally allowed, but if there's no danger, the game loses some of its flavor.
We just downloaded "Dragonborn" last week, and I'm loving the new encounters and new environment. After my session last night, we added "Hearthfire". I'm looking forward to exploring these add-ons and building my own castle. I don't think there is necessarily any potential that I'll lose interest right away, even with my fancy rings. If anything I may have just eliminated one of the sources of persistent irritation I have: keeping up with and carrying around enough potions to keep me going through the biggest fights!