A Classy Conundrum
As the release of Skyrim draws nearer, I find myself facing a familiar quandary. It’s as if my mind has become divided and battle lines have already been drawn. Civil war is about to ignite, and it won’t be pretty. In the end, I know what side will win. It always wins. But the rag-tag rebellion is so full of hope this time. The impassioned cries for “times of change” and “new beginnings” have never sounded more appealing.
It’s the war of the classes. The ancient flames that are stoked any time a new role-playing game hits the shelves and I’m once again forced to decide just what type of character I want to play. Regardless of the creation tools and skill progression systems at play, it always seems to come back to the same three options:
Should I be a Warrior? The guy with the bad-ass armor and weapons. Sounds — well — badass.
Then there’s the sneaky rogue/hunter archetype. An air of mystery and a balance of deadly weapons and deadlier skills.
Lastly, the real underdog. The mage. Someone adept at wielding wild and powerful spells to rip their foes asunder, but often “squishy” and weak when forced into physical conflict.
The mind races with deeper possibilities. A paladin-style mage-and-warrior combo — Godly armor with a splash of fireballs. Or the mystical assassin who has a stable of other-worldly magics to compliment his shadowy shenanigans. Heavy armor and sneaking don’t oft play nicely together, but there’s even room for a strength-infused thief who forgoes some of his knightly alignment in order to play a more villainous role.
Sure, games like Skyrim blur these lines. But even when you do away with defined “classes” in favor of a more flexible skill-progression system, the players will still end up styling a character with abilities that place them into one of these groups.
And so the possibilities are both endless and singular. For try as I might to resist it, in the end I know what I’ll become. The leather-wearing, bow-and-dagger wielding assassin. It’s a joy and a curse all in one. The ability to play a game in a role that I so naturally take to, followed by a backpack full of loot that is both tantalizing and unusable.
Oh, those items can be re-discovered the second or third time around. But by then, the magic of exploring a new world has worn off. It’s clean-up duty as you try out the options you passed up the first time around. It’s not the same.
Gads! Things are so much simpler when the developer tells me what to do! I have no problem playing a wizard if I’m told that is who I will be. Anoint me as the noble knight? Okay, bring on the front-line combat! But in giving me my freedom, you are shackling me to the same, tired fate.
Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a cry to do away with character creation and freedom of class choice. That would be ludicrous. This is merely the pained musings of a man doomed to repeat his past from now until the end of times. It’s a bittersweet — even if mostly sweet — existence. Given a good game and my same-old-class, I’m going to enjoy the experience. But there’s a part of me that always wonders, “What if I had chosen differently?”
Now here, on the eve of the eve of the week-before the release of Skyrim — a game that words cannot describe my excitement for — I tell myself that this time, things will be different. This time I’ll finally give in to my curiosity. Not only will I play a magic-centric character, but I might even chose a non-human race! Yeah! Take that, self-styled norms! We’re going to break the molds and forge a bold new path! Onward and upward to a new beginning! The revolution is here!
. . . then I sit back and take a sip of coffee. I start to think about the prospect of ruining an epic experience such as Skyrim by trying to force-fit myself into a class not meant for me. And then I start working on names for my human rogue.
I highly suggest taking a crack at Dark Souls, where, if you DON’T play a rogue-ish, highly mobile psuedo caster, your going to die a f-ing lot until you realize, you should have played a highly mobile rogue-ish psuedo caster.
Seriously, trying to make a badass two handed warrior or a all-in style of glass cannon mage, is nothing short of a recipe for disaster and a completely horrible approach to that game.
You need to be able to stick and move, your going to want to learn how to work backstabs into one on one combat, and if you can’t cast at least a few very basic spells, you are SEVERELY gimping your self in the long term.
Dark Souls, in my opinion, may just be better than Skyrim, but for very different reasons than Skyrim attempts to tackle. It’s really an apples and oranges comparison, but a little bit more fair than say, Skyrim versus BF3.
I’m a big fan of Demon’s Souls and currently playing Dark Souls. As a wanderer. The mid-armor, mid-weapon, agile balanced class.
(Though, to be honest, I did play as a knight in Demon’s Souls)
Yeap, Dark Souls rogue just needs alchemy with it’s poisons.
And a bit of a freedom to have some search for ingredients.
Maybe some proper hiding in shadow too..
Cmon, you can’t be serious.
)
I have been thinking that one way to avoid losing the polish of the experience the second or third time I play is as follows: the game certainly has enough space to limit a character geographically. A few steps back – I always end up as a battle Mage, mainly combat but with fireballs. I thought this time round I should try for a new experience – your conundrum. So here is what is I am gong to do.
Start the game as a mage, purposely refuse to use destruction/ fireballs. Use alchemy to make potions to heal me, and refuse to use healing. Head straight to the mags guild and limit my quests to the mages guild, and those quests that are unrelated to the main quest, in 1 or two of the factions geographies a(winter hold and 1 or two neighboring areas. play like this and enjoy the experience – get to level 20/30
Then start again, as a stealthy sort, I am thinking a bosmer archer who uses a bow and sneaks up with daggers, go join the dark brother and play through those quests – once again do quests in one of the cities and eye surrounds – back to level 20/30
By now I think I would have experienced 4/5 areas of the holds, had to think about playing some very different styles, and experienced some fun quests. But I still have the main quest to look forward to and can go back to my stereotype – but I may just have learnt about a few things that I really like doing from the other classes, and rs might just make me a more interesting player for the third play through. This time round I should be a bit more familiar with some stuff, but I am sure the main quest will leave a lot of awesomeness.
Hopefully this plan will give me something different from my morrowind and oblivion experience.
Choose……….choose wisely my son
Dark Souls sucks so much, it’s very poorly crafted and offers nothing new. I’ve played that exact type of game before. 8 years ago. On my PS2.
“Lastly, the real underdog. The mage.”
I don’t like this, and I disagree! The Mage is not an underdog. Just because they aren’t as physically strong as melee classes, doesn’t make them less powerful and warrant being called underdogs! In fact, Mages are generally a lot more powerful, and in a lot of worlds feared and/or respected for it.
I’d be a Mage any day and wipe the floor with any melee characters.
It’s the underdog in my personal hierarchy of possibilities; not necessarily the underdog or underpowered of any one game’s particular options. Especially not in Elder Scrolls.
I don’t see what your on about i myself in oblivion didn’t at all feel bound to 1 class or another i played as a character who would sneak around attacking 1 enemy and when the rest came to back her/him/it up i jumped to my feat swinging my sword summoning a storm atronach and throwing some fireballs into the mix just to spice it up. i occasionally retreated to a decent distance and pulled out my bow firing in exploding arrows (thanks dark brotherhood) but mostly i just combined a bit of everything.
I am going to try and be a conjuration and get the perk to summon to monsters and sit back and let my minions do the work. With a little illusion to cast invisibility and hide while they try to defeat my minions sounds like fun. I also hope they have rage again so i rage a peasant and sneak into a house to steal loot while they deal with the poor soul.
Honestly i agree with him on “Lastly, the real underdog. The mage” im a pure 2 handed, heavy armor, axe swinging MoFo that eats mages for breakfast! but i honestly have had a love for there ability’s in the unknown arts or casting this game gives me the chance to have a very well based player with a good mix of warrior and mage! The only flaw i have with this game is that there isn’t any type of online play (That i know of). i mean come on give me a arena that i can challenge some poor sap who wont’s to face the beast. but regardless iv been Itching to get my hands in this game since i heard the whisper of its Making in 08 Bethesda you have never let me down i know this wont ether to all players.
why would u talk about a stupid game like dark souls in an articl about skyrim pretty much the best game EVER!
It’s Halloween, why not try a little troll baiting. A) The article isn’t about Skyrim, it’s about any game that allows the user to select a class or create a character in the playstyle they prefer. B) Skyrim *might* be one of the greatest games ever, or one of the best releases of the year. ‘Tis dangerous to say that it definitively *is* the best game before you’ve even played it.
@Paully B
Online in Skyrim? No, I commend them for intentionally leaving it out and unapologetically beating down any idea of an Elderscrolls MMO.
It is and always has been one hero against the massive world they create, online/multiplayer inevitably comprimises the game itself… I can see that an MMO would all but completely destroy the franchise, due to constant resource requirements in money and people.
Let’s hope they stay true to the games and stay well away from a niche the game and we, don’t really need.
Saying that, maybe a Mini-Arena DLC with some kind of online-ish aspect so I can kick my bro’s ass, but not incorporated into the game in any real sense.
@ Steve J Beckham
I completely agree. There are plenty of games out there for those who prefer multi player. The beauty of Elder Scrolls games is that you feel like you’re completely alone in an amazing, deep world full of lore and mystery. As Todd Howard has said himself.. multiplayer would mean making sacrifices to that single user experience.
As for which class to choose I’m in exactly the same boat… I always seem to enjoy the rogue/assassin types the most but this time I’m telling myself I should do something different. Maybe I’ll just choose a race and a cool character and play for an hour or so trying the different ways of playing before settling on a class. Skyrim is probably more suited to this approach than any of the other elder scrolls games, afterall.
On the plus side.. I think each class will have something new this time. The dual wielding of weapons and spells along with the new perk tree should create a new experience no matter which class you’ve played before.
I’m thinking a dual wielding assassin with a bow who also specializes in stealth and alchemy.
Like many of you I have also had sleepless nights contemplating what type of character I’ll play… I think it’ll probably just come to me while creating my character, that’s a few-hour mission in itself. Can’t wait!