This has been a little hobby-horse of mine. I've had a few things to say about it here: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1181329-revisiting-skill-set-speculation/ And there are also links in that thread to other good threads on this topic.

Anyway, it seems to me that now that we know Hand-to-Hand is out (I am somewhat surprised about this) we can with confidence determine the 18 skills.

Take the 21 skills in Oblivion. Now remove Acrobatics, Athletics, and Hand-to-Hand. Replace Mysticism with Enchanting. (And there are other little things like replacing Blade & Blunt with One-Handed & Two-Handed, and replacing Armourer with Smithing).

It sounds like the 18 skills are:

One-Handed
Two-Handed
Shield
Heavy Armour
Smithing
Enchanting
Conjuration
Destruction
Alteration
Restoration
Illusion
Alchemy
Archery
Sneak
Security
Light Armour
Speechcraft
Mercantile

The only way that this isn't the skill set, it seems to me, is if (i) there's a new skill, or (ii) a skill returning from an earlier game. I can't think of any plausible candidates for (ii). I haven't really thought about (i) so much. In the past some people have mentioned Dual-Wielding being a skill. (I previously thought that was implausible. Now my confidence has been raised. Combat, so far, has only 5 skills. If there is a new skill, it seems more likely that it should be a combat skill, to balance it with magic and stealth).

Thought?

I think Mercantile has been folded into Speechcraft.

I heard speech craft and mercantile have been added together but that's only what I hear.

Maybe. But then what's the new skill?

I still don't think it's likely that the Armor skills are actual skills. Armor doesn't actually "Yield Gameplay". If anything, there's one "Armor" skill (Defense or resilience) with a perk tree for the armor styles. I also don't think Mercantile will be available as a skill. It'll probably be lumped in with Speechraft. I would favor that if true though, mercantile as a seperate skill always felt out of place, and speechcraft felt good-but-underutilized, so combining them makes sense. (A good speaker can probably haggle really well anyway, right?)

i thought light and heavy armor were going to be put into one skill...

Thats good thinkig, I like it

That sounds about right.

That's what I hear as well, maybe they will be bringing back medium armour considering there are going to more armour types in Skyrim

Still most likely wrong

I'm not sure. I also think there will be one Armor skill with perks taking care of the light and heavy specialization.

I seriously doubt there will be separate armor skills, given the perk system. I bet there will be one armor skill under combat with perks for light/heavy specialization. A pure stealth character does not need armor of any type! They would only need armor as backup for when they engage in open combat.

However, I do think mercantile will still be its own skill, because they've revamped the economy system and added several crafting abilities (smithing, alchemy, enchanting, cooking, mining, farming, woodcutting, maybe fishing) which should allow you to create and sell a wide variety of goods. And being good at speechcraft shouldn't automatically give you knowledge about the economy and how to get the best deals.

Medium armor was redundant and made no sense (Bethesda has said so in interviews). At this point we are looking at 2-3 unknown skills in my best guess. Dual wielding would just be foolishly redundant with the 1h skills. Armor skills and speechcraft/mercantile were being combined I believe, maybe not? I can't really think of any possible ability that will fill these gaps.

That's the fun though, not knowing?!

Normally, I would have banked on Hand-to-hand, given the great strides it's taken from Morrowind to New Vegas. But thinking about punching a Dragon to death is as equally illogical as not being able to at least try, so who knows?

{Warrior}
One-Handed Weaponry

Two-Handed Weaponry

Blocking

Resilience

Smithing

[Missing Skill: Warrior]

{Mage}
Destruction

Alteration

Enchanting

Restoration

Conjuration

Illusion

{Thief}
Alchemy

Archery

Speechcraft

Sneak

Security

[Missing Skill: Thief]




Medium Armor is redundant as a skill, but not as an Armor style. Medium Armors should have been turned into the "Heaviest" of Light Armors. (Mithril, Elven) and the "Lightest" of Heavy Armors (Adamantium, Orcish). That requires a little more nonlinear item progression for Bethesda though.

Watch them add an ability that lets you do better at the jobs unrelated to crafting... lol

Maybe Medium armor ???

Edit: Job Skill ??? Dragonshout Skill ???

Yes, there are other options than the one I presented. And, yes, we don't know what those new skills might be. But without having a better idea of what those new skills might be, my subjective confidence in the option I presented remains higher. It's difficult for me to know how confident I should be in a certain hypothesis of what the 18 skills are, when I didn't even know what that hypothesis is (other than, "some new skills or other").

I think the list you presented is fair enough. I'm just inclined to fill in those gaps with Light Armour and Mercantile. :shrug:

The only reason I disagree is there's evidence that both skills (And heavy Armor too) have been nixed. It may not be strong evidence, and I'm not putting my chips on the table yet, but still.

I'd personally be fine with no armor skills, like in Daggerfall. :shrug:

Where's the evidence that there's no armor skill at all? I think it's much more likely to have one skill with several perk specializations, just like 1H, 2H, and destruction. I also don't see evidence that they've merged mercantile and speechcraft.

That's exactly how I think it'll be.

So roleplaying skills and build skills seem to be out anyway you look at it.. getting a DA:2 vibe here.. ugghh.
Just hope restoration is at least as powerful / useful as destruction.

Read other posts for discussion context before posting.

not sure what you mean by that, but Skyrim has more roleplaying and crafting elements than Oblivion.

And Morrowind.

I read every post in this topic before I posted (thanks though )... What you mean this?:


There's a difference between "evidence" and "speculation." I haven't seen any confirmed info that suggests the complete removal of armor skills, and honestly the only evidence that they will be combined is that it would match the streamlining strategy used for other skills. Mercantile might feel "out of place," but why would they spend so much time revamping the economy system and adding crafting skills if they just plan on merging mercantile into speechcraft?