In previous Elder Scrolls games, you begin by selecting your character's physical attributes. Once you've done this, however, you cannot go back and change your character's appearance if, say, you don't like his/her hairstyle. What if you were able to visit shops and locations in the game that allowed you to change your character's physical attributes?

Say, you'd be able to visit a barber and pay gold for a new hairstyle/beard. Or visit some sort of shop or location that allowed you to magically change your character's appearance.

Is this something you'd like to have in Skyrim?

Only hair and removing scars using magic/alchemy.

hair and only hair

Meh.. I'd rather not have shops I'll probably never use cluttering up the place. I don't mind having a feature that can change your appearance, but it should be buried deep in some menu and only found when someone comes to the board sobbing about how hideous their level 90 character is and someone takes their hand and shows it to them

i like custom races, i dont want a shop- but i would like to not have all of my attributes reset every time i change via console commands

Yes to hair and beard but no to race, gender, and face.

That's just bizonkers.

Hair/face... sure whatever. It's just cosmetic.

But changing Race or six mid-game will cause all sorts of problems with Globals, Scripts, Dialog.

I'm good with changing hair but not anything else, that would be a huge immersion breaker and not make any sense in a lore stand point or game standpoint.

Yeah, seems I have about the same opinion as everyone else. Yes for hair, beards, and any kind of tattoos, facepaint, and potentially scars. No to actual body changes.

Hair only. Being able to change race/gender/face & body reeks of fail and complety runs against an RPG. It's not a load-out it's YOU

Ok answer me this, for your nay sayers to changing your physical "look" (not race, nor six, just modifying your facial features/body).

How does that affect anything? It's a PURELY cosmetic optional thing that has absolutely NO Gameplay influences at all. IT doesn't affect quests, dialogue, ANYTHING.

It would simply be an option for people to change if they want to tweak something (IE if they notice something off or something about their character is bugging ithem) or they just get tired of how their character looks.

changing the body (if it's possible in character creator) would be a way for people to develop their character, so someone if they want could start out as a lanky warior then later on in the game tweak his character to look more buff/bigger if he wishes.

These things have no influence on the actual game, it is simply a PLAYER prefrence, purely cosmetic. So why say no to that? It makes no sense to me. Breaking lore? out of place? they could easily have something done within the game to make it feasable. I mean there are NUMEROUS things in TES lore that alters a persons appearance FAR beyond changing their "face."

Firstly, it doesn't make sense in a lore standpoint, there is no place you can magically transform yourself at will. Second, it ruins the replay value. Why replay your character when you can keep making your character look different. If you can change you looks later in the game, why take time to make your character look good and unique at the beginning of the game? It ruins immersion and doesn't fit when you can just start over if your really that unhappy with your characters look.

Uh... Viking plastic surgery, anyone?

Honestly, though, I think there should definitely be barbers and people able to change your body/face (they can be plastic surgeons, illusionists, tatoo artists, etc.).

Yes to hair but No to the rest

Yes to all of it. Why not?

I personally won't play a game/character if I don't look right since there is usually no way to tweak them after starting. Being able to change face/hair is purely cosmetic and I can put aside my obsession with looking juuuust right if I know I can always tweak it later on.

As for race/gender, I won't use it myself, but I see no reason to force my own playstyle on others. If Jagar Tharn can impersonate the Emperor, I don't see why a sufficiently powerful illusionist couldn't do something similar.

Doesn't make sense from a lore standpoint? Are we talking about the world populated by powerful magicians known as Tamriel? Jagar Tharn managed, at the very least, to impersonate the Emperor using what is likely illusion magic. Also, there is absolutely nothing that says Tamriel may not have plastic surgery of any kind. No, Tamriel is not currently in the equivalent of medieval times. Medieval times didn't have flying wizards, dragons, teleportation, or magic that can instantly cure any disease or wound. I'd say that last bit is more advanced than our modern medicinal technology, so there is no reason, at all, that plastic surgery of some kind could not exist in TES series. People use the "it breaks lore" statement to try and mask their "I don't want it and will pretend lore doesn't support it to give my claim undeniable validity" thoughts... despite not actually stating any truth, having any actual credibility, or giving a reason why the lore doesn't support it. Also, how does it ruin replay value? Instead, I think it makes tolerating imperfect looks on a character more tolerable. Some of us never get our characters to look as we want, but instead of having to start over to fix any perceived flaws, it's nice to know the flaws/imperfections on our characters' faces can always be fixed, even if they never do get fixed, and we're not talking about switching perks or even genders/races, just purely cosmetic facial features. That ruins replayability? I wasn't aware that making the same exact character with some facial tweaks was worth an entirely new playthrough. :rolleyes:

Changing your race mid-game is ridiculous. Impersonation is one thing but completely changing who your Character is mid-game is another. I'm all for letting people play how they want but this is almost arcade like.

If they implemented it like GTA SA, i e you did weights to bulk up, i could handle it. But just walking in a room and walking out buff is stupid. Reminds me of Fable to be honest

That's assuming it has to be tied into the actual game world. Hell, make it a menu option for all I care. That way I'm 100% free to avoid it if I so choose and it won't disrupt the lore.

So being able to summon a dragon to your aid fits within the lore, but magically altering your appearance doesn't? It could easily "fit" into the lore; your character could visit some magical shop and pay gold to have their appearance changed. That doesn't break immersion.

Never said that TES was medieval, the point is that it isn't in the lore anywhere where anyone was transformed physically unless they were a god or cursed by one. Jagar Tharn had illusion magic which wouldn't be feasible without a constant source of magicka to feed it, not to mention Jagar Tharn had Mehrunes Dagon backing him. There are no "plastic surgeons" in Tamriel...that's just silly. "Nurse, bring me 10 ccs of Illusion magic, stat!"

It's not pretending anything because I don't want it, it's the fact that it is constantly mentioned how amazing it is that gods can change their forms at will. If it was able to be done by mortals, it wouldn't be so fantastic. Just because TES is a fantasy doesn't mean that anything can happen at any time, even fantasies have laws of reality they must abide by that is established. How about spend the 5-10 minutes making your character look just right instead of trying to detract from the actual important parts of the game instead of somehow getting plastic surgery in a primitive province. Like I said, if your really so disgusted with your character that you want to change it's looks, then start a new character. Your character is supposed to be a real person and when someone doesn't look quite like they want, they couldn't change it up until the creation of plastic surgery. Now we know there is no plastic surgery in Skyrim and we know there is no magical place that can transform you so it's sort've out of the question. Besides, BGS gives you two chances in a game to change the look of your character, plenty of chances.

Yes to hair and changing face/body. six, race and that is just too silly I think.

Hmm...squelching my urge to bellow "hell no," how about splitting the difference: You can magically impersonate all you like, but can't actually transmute from one race/gender to the other. No matter how powerful your illusion, you can look like an Orc when you're really an Argonian- but you can still breathe water, and can't use the "Berzerk" greater power since you're not an Orc thus don't have it. All racial modifiers stay "locked" to your original race, since of course it's all Illusion magic changing your appearance. All gender modifiers, same. You're not getting a magic six change, you're going in "magic drag."

Which then raises all sort of amusing other ideas...permanent or temporary disguise? Usefulness for sneak-types, if temporary? If permanent- can this be changed at will, or should there be some concocted risk or reason to allow it a limited number of times, or with limited frequency? (Can't use more than X times per Y timespan)

Oh, so I guess that means Bethesda should stop making new Elder Scrolls lore because anything new is automatically not supported by lore because it isn't there already, right? How is plastic surgery silly? It doesn't have to be under illusion magic, for one thing. They have highly advanced healing magic, so who's going to die if one takes a knife to a patient's face? On another note, Jagar Tharn was only given a connection to Tharn after Arena, and since new lore that isn't already there isn't supported by lore and therefore is lore-breaking and shouldn't be considered canon, I guess Tharn did it all by himself, eh?

If I recall things correctly, 2920 mentioned an Ayleid being able to change shape. If I also remember things correctly, I'm not referring to changing form, I'm referring to plastic surgery and scarification/tatooing, which is done here on earth. It's nothing godly. The people of Tamriel don't have machines as we do, but they aren't backwards people with no advanced technology. Magic is their technology, their tool, and if modern medical technology here on earth can keep a person alive when they get their face altered by a surgeon, I don't see why the more advanced healers of TES universe couldn't assist in performing similar operations, if not more advanced ones. Again, instant heal on touch magic (Elder Scrolls) > take painkillers, get bandaged up , and lay in bed for a few weeks (Real Life). As for making a character right, I spent 3 freaking hours on my Oblivion character, and he didn't come out "right". In different lighting, characters look different. At different parts of the game, I regret a small feature that would only take a few nudges of some sliders to change to something I would find more suitable. Please, don't make pretentious assumptions about my character creation. I'm sorry I can't create the character I want down to a tee and I'm sorry I feel the urge to change things a bit, after a while. I apologize that we're not all perfect at messing with the many different sliders and options in more complex character creation screens and I'm sorry we're not all perfect at predicting how we'll feel later and how all different types of lighting affect the way our characters appear, but I'm not, and I didn't rush into the game. If you can't accept that, then I guess I have nothing more to say to you on the matter, but please don't assume you understand me, my tendencies, or how I play what I consider to be one of the greatest games ever invented because I sure as hell don't rush through any aspect.

Restarting my character and going through a couple hundred hours of the exact same gameplay for some minor facial tweaks is completely unnecessary. No, we don't know there is no plastic surgery in Tamriel as a whole or in Skyrim. It was never stated not to exist and even if it was, which it wasn't, 200 years can change quite a bit. You're pretending the lore opposes it without any evidence that it does. I couldn't sit down in the series before Oblivion. Oops, I guess the Nerevarine couldn't sit. Oh wait, Ayleids weren't known to have an empire before Oblivion. I guess there's some lore-breaking that can't be trusted. Wait a minute, I didn't see more than 10 square miles in Vvardenfell and Cyrodiil was, in-game, only 16 square miles large. How is that possible? I must have seen the entire province, even though I really didn't and game limitations merely made the gameworld that small, but since the larger Cyrodiil wasn't in Oblivion, I guess a larger Cyrodiil isn't supported by lore. Maybe all new game mechanics should never come into being simply because they weren't seen in a game that takes place on Tamriel, before, and simply couldn't exist because they break lore. Oh well. :rolleyes:

Sure, magic drag works for me. Finally my burly Orc can find out what it's like to be a pretty Breton princess like he's always dreamed of. :wub:

If it does tie into the game, it could make for a hilarious off-color quest or two.

You bore me. You misinterpret/make up things I say and then try to justify it being completely unnecessary by saying that just because it doesn't say it doesn't exist it must therefore exist. However, there is already evidence that such a feat is not within the grasp of the peoples of Tamriel that are known today. Yes, Ayleids could shape shift but the only known shapeshifting they did was into animals. Also, Ayleids magical prowess was far beyond that of the other races of Tamriel, which was pointed out countless times in Oblivion. If you've played a character for hundreds of hours and then finally decide you want your character to look different, then yes, it's about time you make a new character. This just shows that I was right that changing your characters looks would ruin replay value. If you have a character you have played for hundreds of hours and you will continue to play it if you can change it's looks, that ruins replay value.

Your reasoning for adding it in is just.....yeah. Your wanting to change the lore to fit the game when it should be the game is changed to fit the lore, which it always has before and TES has been the greatest RPG series ever created, so yeah. I'm not even going to entertain you with a response to your wild exaggerations to try to fit spontaneous morphing of your character. To that I http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx281/Soulece/SM1109Screw-You-Guys-Posters.jpg?t=1297581809 (Not really, just a joke hehe.)