What kind of class do you prefer to use? Why? Do you prefer to autogenerate them, or do you make a custom class? Maybe you start on a premade class?


Personally I like to do a custom class on Morrowind, but on Oblivion I like to go with Witchhunter or another premade class. It pays off so much more to make a custom class on Morrowind, where actions have chances to fail. A person with a shortsword skill of 5 at the start is never going to level it up. You'll rarely ever hit, and paid training takes forever.

I don't believe I've used a pre-made class in any of the Elder Scrolls games

I generally have a good mix of combat, stealth, and magic so its hard to pin down any strong character class themes for me. My initial characters in Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion did have some similarities - they were all Argonians with a fair mix of combat and stealth skills but they had their differences as well. Still that's probably the closest I can get to a theme.

well I would love a Gothic like class system where your game play will determine the kinda class you wish to be.


BUT if its only 3 options I would go with custom

now excuse me I forgot the lava stove running bliviongate:

See, call me old fashion, but I prefer the class system in which, you choose your class and you are then limited to it's abilities, like in D&D. This makes for a more strategic playing experience.

I prefer custom classes, as it gives much more freedom as to what attributes, skills, and skill tree orientation(s) I can have.

Mages mages mages mages. I usually uses mysticism (in Morrowind) as a main skill, as opposed to the default mage class. The reason being that mysticism is one of the most powerful skills in the game (Morrowind) due to Absorb Health. I can be level 1 and still use a Absorb 30 health spell and completely wreck most enemies.

I have tried using the default classes once in a while, but it just doesn't feel like "my" character enough because of that lost level of customization.

I always go with custom classes in the Elder Scrolls series, I have more control over my character's abilities that way instead of being limited to the classes Bethesda chose to create. I think my first characters in Morrowind and Oblivion were premade classes, but now, I always prefer to create my own. Admitably, one still doesn't have complete freedom as one is still limited in how many skills one can choose, but some degree of limitation is inevitable in any character generation system, I'm just glad that Berhesda tries to offer as much customization as possible.

To be honest, it probably wouldn't effect me much if the just abolished the concept of classes entirely and did something like Fallout where you just choose your skills and attributes rather than having them defined for you by a class. But I guess the way it is now, players who don't want to take the time to create a custom class can still use a premade class while those who feel like having a bit more customization over their character can instead use custom classes.

I feel like I'm in minority here, but I love the premade classes. I used to make custom classes all the time, but they just become to perfect/streamlined. So now I almost always choose a class from the list. Since the skills aren't the one I usually choose I have to adjust my play style, and the game stay fresh

Custom classes, of course.

A lot of the time I use premade, but it is not uncommon for me to use a custom so I can tweak it a little.

I almost always take premade classes. This way i feel more related to the gameworld and other NPC's who have the same class.

Custom, maybe to begin with I go premade, but once you've learned to the ropes, custom all the way.

I love custom classes and always have used them. I personally would love to see Daggerfall's depth involving classes though (IE Immunities, weaknesses, etc etc).

I always go custom even if I'm making a class the exact same as a premade class.

I Create my own because and its usually always combat or steath because I hate playing a mage.

That would be wonderful. The antique concept of "class" in a roleplaying game needs to go. Eve Online and Fallen Earth are classless RPGs and they work wonderfully. I think Bethesda was trying to throw a bone to old pen-and-paper gamers, but the concept is not a good fit in supposedly free-form games like those in the Elder Scrolls series.

I'd also like the option for "none"

In the Ideas and Suggestions thread (#183) I proposed an Occupations system to replace classes. In the system, there would be perks to having a particular occupation, such as Blacksmiths being stronger and having a higher Armorer skill, or a Thief having better Stealth and Short Blade skill.

This could be handled via a skill bonus, where having an occupation provides you with a temporary increase as long as you remain employed, and every time you get higher in the occupation tree you would get a higher boost. For example, by becoming a Locksmith, you would get a +1 in Security, and if you do your job well then you get promoted in your job. That promotion would also grant you a +5 in security. Players could have one primary occupation, which would give you both a primary skill boost and several secondary skill boosts, and players could also join 2 other professions at once, but they would only get one skill boost each.

As an example, lets say a player starts the game by choosing his Primary occupation to be Witch-hunting. I already talked about how this system would apply to the way the game starts in the Suggestions thread, but I'll give another scenario here. The player is a Squire Witch-hunter, and so will follow some brave and experienced crusader on an introductory romp through a rat-filled Witch Lair. The player will be given choices at some point during the tutorial, and these will determine his starting equipment (He may be given a Mortar and Pestle and a Bow if he chooses to poison an arrow to kill an enemy when directed, or a Summon Rat spell and some enchanted shoes if he chooses to use a Summon scroll to distract the enemy.) At the end of the tutorial he meets a character that introduces him into the plot. The player would receive all the same skill boosts as if they were in the Witch-hunter class in Oblivion or Morrowind. Then, the player is released into the world, and if he were to become a Blacksmith as well, he'd get a bonus to that Occupation's primary skill bonus, which would be Armorer, but not the various other boosts. After becoming a Blacksmithing Witch-Hunter, maybe the player would become a Priest as well. Now he gets Restoration bonus, but none of the others.


Occupations would essentially work identical to guilds, and once a player enters their occupation, they can switch to a different Employer at a different city, but if they switch proffesions before becoming Masters in their trade, they will lose their place in that trade. If our good friend the Holy Blacksmithing Witch-Hunter decides he'd rather be a Holy Blacksmithing Assassin, then later goes back to Witch-Hunting, he'd be stuck climbing the ladder from the bottom.


For those of you who like to try a bit of everything rather than be confined to a class, but still want to have a good reason to call your character an Enchanting Thieving Necromancer, this might be the system for you.

Custom classes all the way. I feel like I have to use them in Oblivion though to prevent leveling too quickly.

Spellsword/battlemage builds since their the best classes in the game but always have mystism as a skill since open lock spells are vital for any dungeon dweller
so basically I use custom classes since In my opinion there shouldn't be any premade classes their extremely lame and dull and waste kilobytes of space that could of been used for some equally as useless script or whatever but I supposed premade classes are for the casual the most common type of player

Always custom of course.

The super crappy rulesystem of Elder Scrolls doesnt work the way that you can just choose as skills what you're planning to use in the end.

Instead, you have to find a good selection of abilities where you can get 2-3 stats at +5 every levelup.

That is only possible as long as only half of the skills you're using are actually major ones.