Okay, I really appreciate these free armor hand outs when doing quest chains but I spent my perks in heavy armor not light. *Sigh* That's some really good looking armor that's pointless for me to wear. My other char who does wear light armor leveled smithing so he would not be a poor beggar. He can always craft something better than the free handies. I end up putting all this good looking stuff on my mannequins. They move around on their own a lot. Maybe they have a secret life adventuring Skyrim when I'm not looking. In my free armor I can't wear.

Then invest in Heavy Armor in the future.

This is why I'm sad that they got rid of guild requirements (and attributes, but that's another rant...): at least with guild requirements, you know the skills that will bring success in the guild, and the guild rewards will be guaranteed to be useful (or, if you're bucking the trend, at least you won't get any rude surprises).

Agreed. It would have been better if the reward armour and weapons was actually better than what you have, but alas, not. Mostly I just put it in my chest assigned to the purpose of storing what I consider are trophies. Too many to display.

I agree with this. If we still had guild requirements the Light Armor/Heavy Armor disappointment would not happen.

We would still run into the problem ZoeMa mentions, though: underpowered quest rewards. I can still remember my intense disappointment in Oblivion, after finishing the main quest, and getting an armor whose underwhelming stats rendered it basically useless to my character. I guess the answer, as much as I hate to say it, would be more scaled quest rewards.

Yes. What you said. My bla-de-blab came out confusing I know. Sry.

I ended up letting the crabs in the river near Whiterun nibble on me until my Heavy Armor was at 100 and I legendary'd it to get those precious perks back. I don't think this game favors heavy armor. My light armor with all it's perks seemed to protect just as well. In a sense heavy armor is silly since this is a single player game - no need for a trinity tank. If you argue tanking with a follower I'm gonna say have fun hitting you follower to death a zillion times. I usually stay clear of a follower and/or wait till they crouch.

Anyway, I don't like heavy armor and I haven't tried robes. Don't know if I'll roll a 3rd char I doubt it. Wonder what robes played like.

A Mage actually gets the best (Enchantment related) free equipment, and not joining the College of Winterhold has too many downsides for a Mage.

In the same vein, have you noticed that you always find armour/weapons that are the opposite of what you want?

Eg, you a light armoured 1 hander and you'll find heavy armour, 2 handed enchanted gloves and weapons.

They should pay you in gold to imply that you're an advlt capable of making your own decisions on how to spend your resources.

This is why I re-gift any gift cards back to the people who give me them every christmas, they know what's up but how do they even act offended when they gave me that nonsense to start with? I win.

Also it's only reasonable to expect to be paid in a relevant currency and not whatever item NPCs have lying around for your mercenary work.

Free Armor? I usually either buy, make my armor, or use a guild's armor.

Ohh mind it not, it was probbably just Bethesda's way of trolling us all

nah, in all seriousness, i do agree that some quest rewards are dumb as hell.. what can i say, randomized reward lists simply wont cut it, but try telling Beth that

Off Topic, but the actual winner is the store. Those cards could very well be money. I never understood the purpose of gift cards, it's like the useless form of money. Steak, on the other hand...

But I think the problem with armor rewards is the fact that you're capable of making better. It's not a fault, you should be able to do so, it's just that people generally will do so asap

What's crazy, is in the Shivering Isles...a quest reward, Shadowrend was depicted as either a two-handed war-axe or a 1-handed sword. With the perk system in Skyrim the way it is, there is NO reason why the game could not define the reward that you get as the highest point value of the specifc attribute you use. There's even perks specific to the type of weapon you use in each handed class....

Ex: I prefer the Greatsword, yet I get the quest reward: the Iron Dagger Blade of Chills is going to immediately find the counter of Belethor's shop.

I am of the mind set that Faction Rewards should not be useful or powerful weapons. Mostly because they are never useful or powerful. They should just be rare and unobtainable any other way.

Funny thing, in Morrowind, the most powerful artifacts in the game came from pursuing the MQ, not as rewards for the MQ. I am referring to the Dagoth Jewelery more so than Keening and Sunder, which really have a limited use in the game otherwise.

I agree that many quest rewards are irrelevant but there is some intelligence in the game with regard to generating loot that ties into your build. I know, not always, but often. I've run into many excellent weapons, enchanted items, and pieces of armor that fit nicely into the build of that particular playthrough. I can't believe this was by accident. Of course, my previous build was heavily invested in smithing and the first piece of enchanted gear for smithing showed up in loot at level 53ish! I was basically done at that point, I think I retired that character at 55. This is all anecdotal, so pretty much worthless, maybe someone who has the developer's kit can shed light on algorithms for spawning random loot?

Also, let's face it, quest are designed so you can successfully complete them (often without much overhead) so the rewards are reasonably accessible. This is one of the reasons I limit my player's access to enchanted items to loot. Otherwise, it's pretty easy to make money and just buy everything.

It's really not that complicated.

If you get something free that you can use, use it.

If you get something free that you may have use for later, keep it. Store it in a safe-storage place (Skyrim has 50 or so, not including player houses).

If you get something free that you have no use for, sell it, and buy something better.

I think if the Jarls are going to give you a gift/quest reward, it would be nice to have a dialogue option such as,

"Would you prefer light armor?"

"Would you prefer heavy armor?"

or

"Would you prefer a one handed weapon?"

"Would you prefer a two handed weapon?"

It's funny, that the guards know your preference of weapon but the Jarls are clueless.

Yes that is rather odd.

Funny that the guards know something the Jarl does not? as clear a relevance to real life here on Earth as i can imagine.

When you bring word of Helgen to Baalgruuf he gives you a piece of light or heavy armour, whichever your skill is highest in, so this sort of check is obviously possible.

To be honest if I am heavily role-playing (and I usually am) I will always wear the faction armor as it is given out, just because I feel like I should, because you know ... I'm role-playing. If I'm metagaming or powergaming then I guess I wouldn't like the handouts, but then I really never do that.

So I would say the armor is useful ... for role-playing.

The problem is that you only use the best of that you have, so chances of finding something better is low. Current character has leather bracers of archery +25%, chances of elven or glass gloves with higher bonus is very low.

Skyrim is not so bad here, lots of the thing you get is obviously honorable gifts like the axe of Whiterun.

Other is the obvious family artifact, one WOW comic joked about it was rude to disenchant it in front of the questgiver.

It's interesting you say this because my opinion is exactly the opposite. I do not see any reason why my thief characters would want to advertise their profession by wearing Thieves Guild armor out in the open for all to see. I usually feel the same way about Dark Brotherhood armor. College of Winterhold robes are the only faction armor I can find a good roleplaying justification for wearing in public. Even then, my mages usually don't wear the robes in Winterhold, or in other places where people might feel uneasy about mages.

I have occasionally had a character put on Dark Brotherhood armor out of sight of the public just before an assassination job, as a way to sadistically instill fear into a target. Then, after the assassination, she immediately takes it off again so no one will see her in it. But I rarely do even this, because most of my assassin characters feel it is more professional to kill before her target is even aware of her presence.

Thief guild armor should draw attention from the guards. Perhaps the thief guild should give them away for free to beggars to confuse the guards, but anyway, using thief guild armor while carrying stolen items should be dangerous.

DB armor is more dangerous, at least then the DB get high profile, you would not simply draw attention but also fire.