» Thu Mar 14, 2013 1:34 am On the first hand, I am quite happy that the player now has the opportunity to get all the perks, and somehow become a godlike being. After all, he is supposed to be a Dragonborn, and most of his predecessors were terrifyingly potent. Also, it also implies a larger mana pool for mages. The History of Tamriel is full of very powerful mages, and I have always found the magic in TES games a bit underwhelming at high levels. I have always dreamt of titanic duels. Something like becoming a godlike Archmage, the kind of guy who disposes of a dozen Bandits in a disdainous blast of cold wind, who creates a magical shield around him to ward him from his opponents, and then breaks it and makes the sharp cutting shards of it whirl around him in a maelstrom of bleeding wounds. Of course, such a mage would have to face dreadful enemies. The kind of opponents who is imposssible to handle for ordinary and even many less ordinary people. It could lead to an aerial fight with a dragon, dancing between magical fire and lightning in the core of a hail storm, by levitating around the winged drake. It could lead to a lethal, venemous fight in the deepest depth of an ancient Dunmer tomb, fighting a well-named Bonelord, faithful guardian of a fabled staff and able to quadruple-cast deathly spells and to cast four spells at a time. It could lead to a night-illuminating confrontation in the dangerous marsh-domain of a Whisp-Queen leading her armies of harmful illusions. It could lead to an epic, tremendous conflagration against a Frost Monarch in the wastes of Atmora, in the center of a frozen lake, where the duellist would unleash fires and colds so impossibly intense that they would have to dance in a chaos of insane winds, burning vapor wounding hail on the moving gound in the ever-collapsing, ever-rising, ever-breaking ice, constantly melted and immediately refrozen by the tidal ebbs and flows of the fight, leaving a devastated landscape of frozen burnt trees. I would love to see such events take place in future TES games...
Of course, the legendary skills won't bring us there. But I think I could feel less miserably limited thanks to them.
On the other hand, I feel very uncomfortable at the idea of a mere reset of a skill. I do not see, from a roleplay viewpoint, what it possibly could mean to wake up some day, and realize that you forgot everything you knew about alchemy or suddenly lost your skillful mastery of swords. It just doesn't make sense at all. I think it'd be better if a legendary skill at 15 was actually more powerful than an ordinary skill at 100, letting the player climb a never-decreasing slope of power, maybe towards an asymptotic critical value. Also, rather than resetting the skills of the trees, which makes one of the rewards of Dragonborn rather pointless (I won't get into detail so as not to spoil people), why notintroducing a legendary perk tree, superseding the ordinary one?
I would actually be fine about forgetting my mastery in a specific field if I was afforded a good reason, maybe originating in lore, so that I can believe in it. The willing regression could be the result of a new power or blessing obtained during a quest? Maybe a quest involving Herma-Mora, as he is the Prince of Knowledge? Or a quest involving Jhunal the forgotten, an ancient Nordic God of esoteric knowledge? Maybe it could be a double-edged gift from Fa-Nuit-Hen, the Multiplier of the Motions Known, who taught some moves to Vehk? Maybe the forgetting could be the result of dabbling in the Dreamsleeve?
So far, I see the legendary skills only as a "Way to Divinity Button", which would be entirely game-mechanical and hence extrinsic to the game world, which would prevent me to enjoy them. However, i am not a beta-tester, so this opinion is uninformed.
What do you think about these concerns? About those ways to introduce the legendary skills in a believable way? Do you see other ways to introduce them so that they don't seem meaningless?
