and Thieves get Alchemy. OK. I can deal with that, but as someone who usually plays stealth-heavy characters I see myself getting a lot more functional use out of enchanting (in Oblivion, five grand soul level chameleon enchanted articles of clothing/armor would literally make you invisible as long as you wanted to be. Personally, I think that beats the cream filling out of a 60 second potion of invisibility. Also, as a thief, I want to wear light armor, and I want to be able to repair it on the job, or improve it all together. I just don't see why these crafts are lumped in with an archetype. I really only ever used Alchemy to turn nearly useless raw ingredients into valuable potions.

I know there will be more ingredients in Skyrim than there were in Morrowind and Oblivion combined, but what sort of benefits do you see to Alchemy that put it on par with Enchanting (badass) and smithing (badass)?

What were your favorite uses for Alchemy in Morrowind and Oblivion?

Also, I know I don't HAVE to use alchemy, but when it comes to the guardian stones allowing you to level up certain skills faster, I would choose either over alchemy.

One word : Poisons.

It is simply ridiculous and artificial limitation developers decided to stick to
(6 skills per role)
why? I really don't know

I was under the impression that we were supposed to be able to play in whatever way feels natural, so if it feels natural to someone they could have a warrior who is heavily supported by alchemy.

Hopefully poisons gets a good look in.
If thrown weapons were in we could have smoke bombs and acid viles from alchemy to fit in the the thief archetype.

Ya poisons is a good reason, but sense they have no classes, it really dosen't matter in what section they put it. You can level smiting alchemy and enchanting at the same rate no matter what archetype you play.

Maybe there could be more varied types of poisions? i.e. There could be a hallucinogenic (I think that's a word...) type of poision. Or maybe a poision that allows you to possess the poisoned person. Or maybe a poision that could knock someone out.

Poisons were super deadly in oblivion. I guess they'll also be like that in skyrim. I mean a paralyzing poison on arrows with the new stealth mechanics (Stay unseen if you fire from stealth) = whole room dead. Much better then oblivion's system.

Also who says each skill won't be useful for the other 2 play styles?

No one.

Well with about 400 coin in morrowind, stolen master alchemy set from Caldera's mages guild, and teleporting to wolverine hall mages guild, head down one flight of stairs and buy up all the bloat & yams that I can, mix, drink, mix drink..... Until my intelligence is around 10,000 points, I can move the world at that point! make any enchantment without fail i.e. Chemeleon. Make levitation potions that can float me over to ghost gate in a matter of seconds (minus loading screens) and then steal me an intire glass armour set....... Alchemy was awesome for stealth, or better yet my current non-violent stealth player in morrowind.

Now when you go over to Oblivion, other then health potions & cure potions I never really used alchemy for my stealth based character.

If it is like Oblivion and you can make 400~ damage poisons... why gripe about it? I would shoot me bow and nothing could survive a sneak attack + poison.

A good thief doesn't need to repair his armor on the fly, as it would never take that much damage.

i dont care what archetype their under im going to use all 3 crafting abilities on my bad@ss assassin.

boots - + stealth
armor- + health and fatigue
gauntlets - + security
helmet- + water breathing and night eye

blades-+ drain health and fatigue + poisons

Ya... the only item I ever had to repair was my bow. although I could enchant clothes and not worry about weight or durability on gear at all.

I love alchemy. I can turn low level plant, animal, and more expensive etheral items into commodities that can be sold for an excellent profit. I can make poisons, and sell them as well. I can consume potions sucessively and stack the effects. I play unarmored, I prefer to carry and equip enchanted rings and articles of nice clothing. (Any armor that I do loot usally is repaired and sold, although I did have full sets of both glass and deadric armor on Nads Tharen in MW. I liked playing dress up with his corpse.)
Potions are much lighter than armor, and I can make loads of them. Before I questing, I can select the ones I need, and calculate how they will react with my equippable enchanted objects. It's part of the fun. Also, bound weapons > actual weapons. Summoned deadric weapons never need repairing, and are wonderfully light.

I do spend a fair amount of time plotting and planning, wandering and collecting ingredients. My husband says that I am the most tedious player to watch, because I am quite anolytical. For every twelve hours of gaming, there are two of ass kicking. But it is spectacular ass kicking. Alchemy also enables me to take on higher level bosses at a lower level. That is where the fun is at.

I play as a Bosmer WItchunter, not a thief.

Don't associate Alchemy with thieves... Associate it with the Stealth Archetype.... :tongue:

Alchemy fits really well with thief/assassin, poisoned arrows/blades.
Sure enchanting has in the past been all powerful, however its more of a magic users talent.
I didn't really like the chameleon effect, not at 99% anyway.
It was just ridiculous and overpowered.

I agree that in the previous games, enchanting was a lot more effective than alchemy, however, if Skyrim's Alchemy system is revamped and taken to the next level, I think it could be a lot more interesting to play a pure stealth character who doesn't cast any spells or use enchanting or smithing. Especially from a role-playing perspective.

In Oblivion and Morrowind, I never played a pure stealth character, always I invested in increasing some magical skills. Now for the first time I'm interested in playing a pure stealth and pure warrior characters who don't use any magic.

Enchanting isn't exclusive to Mages. Blacksmithing isn't exclusive to Warrior. Alchemy isn't exclusive Thieves.

1. You can be whoever you want.
2. There is no such thing as thieves, mages and warriors anymore ;P

If you want to play a pure warrior or a pure thief/assassin assassin character who doesn't use magic, enchanting doesn't make sense for that type of character.

anyone who wants to can play a warrior who enchants or a thief who has studied magic and uses Illusion spells, etc., but Skyrim is the very first TES game where I'm excited about trying some pure warrior and pure stealth characters. In order to be able to enjoy that type of experience, I cannot use smithing or enchanting.

Frankly I always used alchemy for two things. Health potions, and for making as much money as I could from the get go. Within twenty minutes of leaving the Sewers at the start of Oblivion I almost always had more than two thousand gold on hand simply from creating potions and selling them. In retrospect it made earning money far too easy, but even now whenever I start a new game in Oblivion my default money making strategy always involves alchemy. To the point where I'm literally pushing a skill level of 100 within a few hours.

Here's a little secret about the archetypes...they're only there to organize the skills into three different attributes. You don't have to stick to them. You will still be able to get good at enchanting or smithing. Nothing is holding you to an archetype, seriously. If you had to stick to those archetypes then thieves apparently don't use any kind of weapon.

AFAIK in previous TES games almost nobody played pure thief or pure warrior characters, or at least the vast majority of characters had at least some spell casting or enchanting ability. With 280 perks, dragon shouts, and a leveling/perk system that lets you have a laser focus on just a couple of skills if you want, IMO Skyrim is the first TES game where it will be lots of fun to play a character with absolutely zero spell casting or enchanting.

I didn't get the sense that the OP was complaining about having to stick to any archetype - I think he's inquiring about whether Alchemy will be comparable to the other crafting skills.

Alchemy gives you a lot more mileage than you think, bud. You can create a myriad of poisons and potions, potions that can do things like fire shield, and cure blight. Alchemy will be my very top trained main skill.

Wait ... those skills are limited to certain classes? O___O°

What's that bs? I want to make great potions as a mage. It's also how I earn money in Oblivion when a mage. What happened to "play as you like"?