This. My current character is doing my semi-common "light armor, sword+shield, sneak+bow" thing. But due to wanting to keep good stat bonuses up and have enough casting to support a bit of healing, she's been "practicing" conjuration, illusion, alchemy, etc, between levels so that she can get her int & wis up.


And I never used the "classes" in OB except to metagame the skill and level gain system anyway. (Always used "custom" class, and generally only picked Major skills that I wasn't actually going to use, so I could control my leveling and stat gain.)


I'm looking forward to seeing how the new system works. Hopefully, there'll be less odd silliness like OB encouraged.

And how is this different from Oblivion, exactly? The only change they've done for Skyrim is that you don't name your class or pick Major skills in the beginning.

Actually on Skyrim your skills will level up faster depending on how often you use them and you can get perks and follow skill trees. So at the beginning you can dabble in being a ninja, a barbarian and a mage all by sundown, but later on in the game it'll be harder to just switch like that.

What about magical rogues, fighty spellcaster, the jack, or sneaky melee? I'd say that's 4+ more options than rogue, warrior, mage.

No, because if you ditch your battleaxe to use destrcution magic like you said, your spells will be too weak to fight those leveled ennemies. I think having no set skills gives us more freedom, which is good for multiple playtroughs

I've almost always used custom classes since I started playing Morrowind.

Probably. As it appears to me (based on Press, and past games), nothing will have any significant advantage over anything else, so one choice will be as good as another and the differences so minor that one or two play-throughs will be enough ~then just mod for a while; And/or play any story mods if they come.

I could see that being a problem for some people, but not for me. Its always been about who a character is, than what in my eyes. So I make characters as I come up with inspiration for them. Who knows? Maybe not having a defining class might suit me better.

The issue with that is they've already said that higher leveled skills level faster than lower leveled skills. In addition, higher leveled skills contribute more to leveling up than lower leveled skills. Thus, once you get deep into a leveling a skill up, it is wise to continue using that skill, as switching to a less often used skill would both slow your leveling down and also level far slower. You would also be less proficient in that skill and may be fighting rather strong enemies, depending on how the level scaling is handled in Skyrim.

Also, don't let the lack of class skill sets confuse you. You could do the exact same thing you just described in Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion, the only difference is that you wouldn't level up from using skills that weren't major/minor (or just major, in Oblivion). The only difference now is that you do level up from using skills that you don't use often, you just level up very slowly.

In addition, remember that they claimed that the level 50 of Skyrim is about equivalent to the level 25 of Oblivion. You also stop getting perks after level 50. Thus, you will ALWAYS miss out on a lot of perks, and switching to start leveling up a different skill set would cause you to miss perks in both your old skill and your new skill, depending on your level. It only gets worse the more skills you drop and the more you pick up to start using. If you switch in the middle of the game like that, you may find yourself hitting level 50 with no "ultimate" perks (as in, the highest perk in the tree, and also probably the most powerful/interesting).

So, you could feel free to switch over, but you may find yourself lacking in power or diversity.

This

To be honest, once I've got past the character creation screens, I pretty much forget about 'my class'. I get absorbed into the game, and enjoy the experience of role play. The whole thing about attributes, modifiers, gimping the level up has never meant anything to me - and I play for leveling mods anyway.

So, the changes that have been announced are at least cautiously welcomed by me. We'll have to see how it pans out, but I'm looking forward to it anyway....

Uh no because you have 10 races to choose from and not every character is going to be the same.

Nah. Like others have said, I think perks will make a big difference. I may be tempted to play a jack-of-all-trades character, but I'll do my best to resist.

Im not sure you understand how the new system will work. It is designed so that each character is more individual. This makes me want to play through more times.

Exactly, so switching from Axes to Destruction magic might not be a good idea after all. More playthroughts if anything! :thumbsup:

I disagree completely, the classes before were little more than a label and an ass backwards way of leveling. All you need to do is read the previous posts, they all explain pretty well how it's going to work in a way that makes your character individual.

ya dragonbone is right..in OB's system you could become a 100 in everything it took me a while but i got it..in this system you basically choose one of the three.. stealth warroir and mage.. and then all of those can mix to stealth warrior,steath mage,warrior mage, this is the highest level of customization ever and playing through multiple times in this one gives ou the best reward.. in OB you created your character and if he was stealth or mage or whatever it was all in you head because you do the same quests as the other ones. in this one whatever class you choose will effect the side quests you get..im playing through 4 times first will be a mix of all three because it will be my first time.. second mage third stealth 4th warrior

Depending on your goal, some people would choose skills they didn't use for Oblivion to prevent leveling. Especially near those quests that required you to sleep. The class system made this possible, master every skill thats non-major and you can be OP'd but still level 1. I think the Skyrim system will force a level of personalization on the player over the generic class system. In the end you picked a fairly standard set of skills knowing you will use them. Here you can change it around as desired.

Good question...i think bethesda does a good job of thinking about these questions too...thats why they added perks and radient stories

It really depends on how engaging the system works. As each TES game has been released, we've seen a lot of changes throughout the franchise's lifespan, and sometimes these changes are for the better, or for the worst depending on your idea of an RPG. I've always liked the fact that I could drop my current specialization (so-to-speak) and instead of being a mage work on my melee combat and "become" a warrior, personally. That's part of what I've enjoyed about the TES games....
I think the new "class-less" system will be interesting, especially since Oblivion's auto-detect system ALWAYS chose me as a monk, when I would play differenlty through the tutorial dungeon each new character. I did happen to have a save at the end so I could always skip it and just create my own, but I wanted to see if different playstyles would get something else. And to this day, Baurus always suggests I'd be a monk, when clearly I don't play as one... So, we will see. Hopefully it's a fun experience.

I prefer playing a main character. The skill thing is a correlation with that and not a cause.

As long as I can still make unique classes and roles, it will be the same. Yeah, no classes, but I'll still have a predetermined class. The removal of classes and even some skills doesnt mean we'll get less replayability, only if we lose gameplay features and customization nuances. As long as there's still a way to jump high etc. I dont care if the remove Acrobatics, just dont remove the abilities that come with it.

Between Perks and the Radiant Story, I may play this more than OB. Burned through about 6 discs.

I agree with you. Finally my choices will mean something(other than a name which I will miss dearly).

Maybe they could add the ability to give yourself a title other than your name.

I'd rather just have classes back to be honest. Use oblivion or Morrowind's system for start up creation, then use the new system to level up etc.