Bralsa is a master level trainer in Destruction- I'm sure you know her. She wants 20 bear pelts as payment for her training you. (This is supposed to get the God's attention- don't ask-)
so this time around I decide to wander the fields and gather the bear pelts myself. You can buy them, also, but I wanted to get back to the game, so off I went. I wasnt sure if I'd maxed training for this level or not, and when I finallly found enough pelts, I brought them to Bralsa and realized she couldn't train me until I leveled. No problem- finding bear pelts had leveled me up and improved acrobatics as well- no more major loss of stamina through jumping, what a relief. I thought I'd clear nearby Fort D to find a pallet to sleep on but decided to go to Imperial city, sleep and then sell my goods. I was a little heavy. Did all that- and then couldn't find Bralsa anywhere.

Now, this only alarmed me a little- she occasionally wanders off. Though I hadn't chosen Destruction in quite some time, I remembered that. So I bounced around the boulders and ruins and looked for her. No good, so I tried detect life spells. Then I got real serious and put on a hat with Detect life. Only me and Shadowmere showed up. I searched an ever increasing circle. I mean- what could take out a master level destruction gal?

Then I found her- lying on the ground, dead, quite a ways from her little bed nest near the ruins. Wow.

Unfortunately for me, I'd played so long looking for bear pelts that I'd forgotten to save for an hour, with the exception of the auto save when sleeping. Went to that save, slept again, leveled, and instead of selling my goods put on all my quick gear and ran back to Bralsa. I couldn't find her- and then saw a pink form on a hill. It was she and she was alive!

I took the training, which brought me over 75, and then spent some time looking around to see what had killed her- if it was still coming. Sure enough, about a hundred yards away I found a Ogre, and killed it. I kept looking, killed another Ogre and a Minatour (sic) also.

What troubles have you had keeping a trainer alive? The marksman trainer near Anvil is one of the hardest, and I'd already maxed that and when last checked she was still breathing. I like to stop by now and then to see how she is and kill any bandits at her favorite bandit camp- the one she wanders by and dies in.

Alright- if I really want to keep Bralsa alive, if I go back to her area every two days, will that prevent respawning of bad things in that area? Does it matter? I normally can't answer these type questions, because after all- a stray bad thing can wander by and kill her. There's a ruin nearby and a fort. I usually visit about every three days to help keep a trainer going.

There must be other difficult trainers besides the marksman and the destruction lady. If we could marry in Oblvion, the marksman would probably be it for me. She's a real peach.

When I'm in the dark brotherhood and my infamy goes up- her opinion of me goes down. When I'm clean, it goes up. I like that.

If you are on the PC you could get a mod like SetEssentialActors or Companion Share & Recruit. You can find them on the Nexus. If you're on the console I don't know what to tell you.

Personally I use the first one to keep them alive so I don't have to worry about stuff like that.

Console. You've never really played unless dead is dead for a follower or trainer- course- I can go back to a save, which saved me in this case. If I had a PC I know I'd use it to get out of these messes. But it is fun knowing the trainer can actually disapear from the game and leave you high and dry. I have launched vendettas against bandits for killing the marksman elf.

Some skills are much harder to improve than others- marksman and destruction are two of the hardest. It takes a awful lot of hits to advance either skill a single point. You could ploy through armies and still not make master level.

I would have left the poor woman for dead! I like the fact that it's possible to permanently screw up portions of the game, so that nothing is ever perfect. but from one console player to another, the golden rule as you probably know is save often if you don't wanna wind up backtracking massively

To go a little off-topic, when EradiKate was coming up thru the dark Brotherhood, she's one who kept screwing her quests up! She'd get them done, true, but she was always killing someone who was supposed to stay alive, or whatever. She'd get the quest done, but wasn't getting as many bonuses. silly murderer.

Renee Gade lll,

I've done more than my share of living with the consequences- believe me. I know exactly what you mean about loss in the game and moving on. But Destruction is so hard for me to advance- and I wasn't even to 75 yet- there'd be little hope of reaching 100. My level is getting high and well, I took the EASY way out. It sure was fun though to run back, find the Ogre and kill it before it could change the game. That was really something. I don't think that would have worked in Skyrim. Skyrim erases the game board when you leave more completely than Oblivion- so it seems to me. (for example, the mad woman who wants to be wabbajacked- I made a note of where she was, ran back to Whiterun to get the thing, came back and she was gone. Nowhere. I think the game simply took her)

Bralsa sure was dead- crumpled on the ground like a rag doll, looking small against the weeds. I felt it was so unfair- for her as well. That's immersion. And I was mad at whatever killed her! Here's a thought for future Elder Scrolls games- let us resurect these trainers and still recieve training! Maybe we'd have to pay them in daedra hearts or ghost matter or something.

Hey man, I wasn't criticizing you. I was just saying I would have done that scenario differently.

Oh wow,I ran into the same problem with that trainer,I had finally gotten to the point where I needed her training and when I went looking for her I could never find her....I musta spent a bout three days running around out there trying to find her but never could,never found her dead body or the Ogres and Minotaur either...now I know what must of happened....

I never seem to find any of these advanced trainers myself, not that any of my characters look very hard for them. I just figure if they ever run into one, great. But i can't think of a time when it's actually happened yet.

I use more trainers than I realized. Most of my games I couldn't find them- until one day I got frustrated and looked them up online. I spent two years pretty much without them- except for the lady armorer.

Then I forget all but the ones I actually use. I can never recall their names, the lizard for advanced armorer, the nord at the camp for acobatics, nice elf lady for marksman, and Bralsa on the two or three times I've specialized in Destruction. Keeping the elf archer alive is the hardest challenge of the trainers I've found.

I've assumed most Oblivion players use the trainers efficiently,and I was far behind.

I didn't think, Renee Gade, you were criticising me- I just felt the same way- that when things happen, believing in the game is letting them go. I'm starting to wonder if you and others aren't better at role playing than I am. Too many of my games are a dedicated equipment procurement- must find best weapons... Yeah, I have the men's disease of hoarding and collecting.

Bethesda did a good job with the trainer's quests- they're interesting and varied.

I have never used trainers apart from a very few occasions. And whenever I met a Master trainer it was already way too late

I typically use an armorer trainer during a character's early levels until gaining the 'repair enchanted items' perk. As far as keeping them alive, I'm on PC and have a long list of NPCs that I make essential. That is just part of a package of things I do since my games tend to run so long that, over time, any NPCs that wanders will eventually attrite themselves and not be replaced (soldiers and couriers being exceptions of course). There are too few NPCs in Cyrodiil without unnecessary losses. It would be different if there was some sort of natural immigration to counter the natural losses. Similarly, nirnroot is allowed to grow undisturbed and my character almost never disturbs interesting displays of items in dungeons and never removes welkynd/varla stones from their Ayleid perches.

(By the way, I am quite pleased with my arrangements and not interested in one of the many mods that can replicate some of this.)

I have tried the console command but it has never worked. Please tell me how you do it. I′ll give you an

Here you go:
If you are running OBSE, you can simply open the console, click on the NPC and type: SetRefEssential 1
If you are not running OBSE, then use the UESP to determine the NPC’s BaseID (not RefID). Then open the console and type: SetEssential XXXXX 1 (where XXXXX is the NPC’s BaseID)

Thank you! And here′s the promised

I′ll give you another if you can say whether the changes with OBSE will remain even if I don′t run OBSE later

Eeep! No idea.

Well, needless question on my part I guess since it′s easy to find out

Therefore I will provide with yet another Why don′t you give that one to dear Buffy?

So what are you guys and gals doing that you do not require trainers?


with conjuration it's easy- start with a bound dagger, go from there. Illusion is easy-Let There Be Light. Alteration can be easyish, but Destruction? Marksman? Speechcraft?

A recent poster was looking for a rock to jump off so he could improve acrobatics- I no longer need to improve this, it happens on its own. I'll use a trainer every once in awhile. I do enjoy the bunny hop though, wouldn't think of playing Oblvion without it.

I honestly thought Oblivion forumites would be experts on finding and using trainers. I'm amazed. Even more, you don't seem to need or miss using them.

I thought using a trainer, in particular for minor skills, is a way not to waste the five points of training available every level.

Pretty much just playing the game, leveling up normally.

I mean, I have used some trainers here and there, what I meant earlier is my characters don't usually go out of their way to find thesee trainers.

I have used trainers for roleplaying, too. I think I had a character who was bad at picking locks for instance (I'd use the Auto system to pick locks) but after he or she met a trainer skilled with lockpicking, I roleplayed that this trainer actually schooled my character, after which she could pick locks normally (by pressing X on the PS3's controller instead of []).

In the nearly 10 years I've been playing Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim I've rarely used a trainer. I used a trainer a few times in Morrowind but never in Oblivion or Skyrim. I do as The Gadester does: I pretty much just play the game, leveling up naturally.

When I need to improve those skills, this is what I do:

Destruction: Damage fatigue 3 points x 1 second. Cast as required.

Speechcraft: Find a guard and start randomly pushing speechcraft game buttons. It only matters that you play the game, not that you raise dispo.

Marksman: This one is tougher. Not so much for my character, as all of her kills are by bow except a few (underwater she uses absorb health, and she will thin the ranks of crowds using command creature/humanoid). Prior to marksman reaching 100, she uses bow/arrow combos that are as weak as feasible without getting her killed (more shots to kill). She also uses illusion to immobilize her foes so she can keep firing.

That's true, Acadian, its' possible to still level up Speechcraft, even if you don't always succeed in making an NPC's disposition higher. Luci Pheria and EradiKAte both have Speechcraft as a major. One of the things both of them do or did is hurl insults at an NPC. Even as disposition goes down and the NPC winds up HATING my character, the game still levels up with Speechcraft.

I haven't played in awhile, but I do remember andaren well since both of my Breton sorceresses had 100 in destruction and trained with her. I was fortunate in that she never died on me. I do remember she was obsessed with chasing bears, or some type of creature, and they caught hell just trying to catch up with her and corner her for training. Neither of them had very high acrobatic/speed stats, so this was the primary hurdle for these characters. Given that I played on console (sans mods/command line) I could only suggest a strategic save once you have the required pelts, and she is still alive. Then continue to track her down (or in your case protect her) until you achieve your objective. She will happily provide the training once you are able to catch up with her. And... it was a very interesting twist for a seemingly straightforward, but important objective. Obviously by design..

Actually Speechcraft gets a little harder than most, because at high levels, you find it hard to find an NPC to play the mini-game. They're all maxed out before you start, just because you're such a likeable person with your high personality. That's when you start to need some way of draining your personality or dropping the NPC's disposition before you start. Waving a weapon helps, as does getting properly drunk.
I had that problem with Blossom, my Orc female whose purpose was the challenge of starting from the lowest possible personality (25) and maxing it out (plus max Mercantile, and Speechcraft). I think she became an alcoholic getting there.

I'm amazed, People; but maybe I shouldn't be. In Morrowind there was one spear trainer- advanced- it's been awhile- but there weren't many spear trainers, (2) and leveling up normally might never develope the spear as far as I wanted. I'd go find the spear trainer. I liked spears. Destruction I could cast spells against hill sides....

You guys must really be active. Even when I ran everywhere in Oblivion and would almost, but not quite ever fast travel, I still couldn't make master on many skills. Marksman in Oblivion comes to mind.That is one hard skill, for me anyway, to master. Later on it takes an awful lot of arrows to advance a point.

ln my my early to middle Oblivion games were wthout much training. Later ones- training.

All of this reminds me of the principle lesson in these games; when you're finally 'there', complete, master, you get bored. It's the getting there that makes the game.

I might try a non training game soon.

I find the enjoyment continues or even improves once reaching mastery. Marksman for example. Below 100, I notice my character using tactics that enhance her number of arrow shots such as using lower level arrows than she could or, if the range is great enough not using sneak in order to get more shots and boost marksman. Once achieving 100 though, her thinking switches to purely what are the best tactics. In fact she will often see how few arrows she can clear a dungeon with.

And there is certainly nothing boring about achieving mastery of armorer. Who doesn't love carrying only one perma-hammer and not having to strip the dirty greaves off bandits to practice repair skills? Lol.

Oh. And mercantile. . . well, I'm a bit compulsive so achieving mastery there is a delight - no more selling stacks of things one at a time.

It's all good, actually.