As the weeks go by, we are finding out more and more details of dragons, warriors, and windmills. Yes folks, Skyrim will soon be upon us. (Oh, come on guys, it will be November before you know it!) When the time comes, as ever, one of the most important elements of our role-playing experience will be that of skills. After all, the skills are our interface with the game world, and everything we do affects them, and is affected by them. The following information represents my personal view as to which skills will be in the final release of Skyrim. Please feel free to give your comments, but remember that this is only my opinion based on the info released so far, with a dose of lateral thinking thrown in for good measure. Here goes...

From everything we have seen and read, we can safely accept that there will be eighteen skills. These, we are told, will be equally split into the categories of Combat, Stealth, and Magic, giving a total of six skills in each. The use of perks will further enhance the available skills by providing a unique experience based on your choices as you increase in levels.

As for the skills themselves, under combat, we have been told of two new weapon skills called One-Handed and Two-Handed (which logic suggests would replace Blade and Blunt) and another new skill called Smithing (replacing Armorer, but with the ability to forge weapons) We can safely assume from all of the screenshots that Heavy Armor and Block will also still be available as combat skills. This would leave one available space for either Hand to Hand or Athletics, or maybe something a little different.

As far as stealth is concerned, we know that Marksman is definitely in. We can assume that Light Armor will still be available, as well as Sneak and Lockpick (although these latter two could possibly be combined to create a new "Thievery" skill) One obvious choice for elimination would have to be Mercantile, which will probably be incorporated into Speechcraft (which evidence suggests is also still in) From the original stealth lineup, this would leave only Acrobatics.

As for magic, we have read that Mysticism is definitely out, leaving the five remaining magic schools of Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion and Restoration, all of which have been confirmed. We know that Alchemy and Enchanting are both in, but if the rule of six does indeed apply, then only one of these can be classed as a magic skill. The other, by default, would have to fall under either combat or stealth.

According to the Skill Menu screenshot, Enchanting could possibly be introduced as a combat skill, allowing you to add magical effects to weapons, armor and clothing to enhance combat effectiveness, which would tie in nicely with Smithing. This could also perhaps be used to recharge magical items, both player created or pre-existing. The screenshot also suggests, as an alternative, that Alchemy could now be a stealth skill, allowing potions, poisons and possibly even traps to be created to assist in stealthy gameplay as a viable alternative to casting magic.

Either of these changes would mean that two of the remaining skills (Athletics and Acrobatics) would most likely be merged into one skill which would cover all aspects of running, jumping, and climbing. For now, lets call this new skill "Free Running." This could quite easily be either a combat or a stealth skill.

The last skill to be covered is Hand to Hand, which could possibly be removed altogether (leaving unarmed combat as a basic low-level ability rather than an alternative combat system), integrated into the other combat skills via the perk system (which would still cater for those who prefer not to use weapons), or kept in the lineup as a fully fledged combat skill (and probably renamed "Unarmed Combat") If it is kept in, then the previously mentioned Thievery skill would have to come into play to keep the total number of skills to eighteen.

To summarise all of this, the new lineup would look like one of these:


Option 1:

COMBAT: One-Handed, Two-Handed, Block, Heavy Armor, Enchanting, Smithing
STEALTH: Marksman, Sneak, Lockpick, Light Armor, Free Running, Speechcraft
MAGIC: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Alchemy

Option 2:

COMBAT: One-Handed, Two-Handed, Block, Heavy Armor, Free Running, Smithing
STEALTH: Marksman, Sneak, Lockpick, Alchemy, Light Armor, Speechcraft
MAGIC: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Enchanting

Option 3:

COMBAT: One-Handed, Two-Handed, Unarmed Combat, Block, Heavy Armor, Smithing
STEALTH: Marksman, Thievery, Alchemy, Light Armor, Free Running, Speechcraft
MAGIC: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Enchanting


I may be way off the mark, but personally, I think that this is pretty close. What do you guys think?



As a side note, and to bring me back to the title of this (really looong!) post, what would be your "one skill to rule them all" and why? (can be an existing, speculated or made up skill)

is that confirmed? i thought blade and blunt stay but they get 1H and 2H perks

It was already confirmed that Alchemy lies under Stealth now. This gives all three specialties a crafting skill (smithing to fighters, enchanting to mages, and alchemy to thieves).

Yes confirmed - individual weapon types can be specialised by using skill perks. For example, under One-Handed, you could probably specialise in blades or axes (and then further customise the skill using more perks)

Combat: One-Handed, Two-Handed, Block, Heavy Armor, Smithing, Athletics(Free Running)
Stealth: Marksman, Sneak, Lock pick, Alchemy, Light Armor, Speech craft
Magic: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Enchanting

-I don't think sneak could be merged with thievery because its just as much used for KILLING!
-Toddy Woddy said Alchemy will be the most magic of the Stealth arts in the pod-cast.
-Maybe Hand to Hand will come under Block or block might come under One handed and Two Handed.

Combat: One-Handed, Two-Handed, Hand to Hand, Heavy Armor, Smithing, Athletics(Free Running)
Stealth: Marksman, Sneak, Lock-pick, Alchemy, Light Armor, Speech-craft
Magic: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Enchanting

EDIT: One skill to rule them all: Hmmm not to sure on this one Necromancy maybe,but i suppose it could fit into all the Magic Skills.

Todd said Alchemy falls into stealth. I don't have a link, but its been considered common knowledge I thought.
If anyone feels the need to confirm this?

Mysticism would be mine, but alas...
So, Alteration? I like Destruction, but elemental effects get old.

i know perks are confirmed, i was asking if there arent blunt and blade as skills now.

When/where was this confirmed?

What would specialization and perks entail? If you "specialized" in blades, would you be terrible at using an axe?

Im going to miss giving myself super strength with alteration... Loved beating people with fists with +100 strength effect.

for example and axe perk would be to cause bleeding, somthing like damage over time
so my guess you could use any weapon but it makes most sense to use the one youd dish out the most damage with

I wouldn't have thought so with only 18 skills in total. But you wouldn't really need then with the two new combat skills.

OK cool. That makes sense to me and sounds like it's a good solution to Beth's constant chopping of skills while not making the game too simplistic. Hopefully there is a "specialization" for short blades and spears.

there probably wont be any spears, and i think youll have some skills/perks that improve fighting with daggers

I think it would more likely be that if you specialised in blades (ie. chose blade related perks) then your blade usage would get noticably better, wheras your axe usage would probably stay the same as when you started. It has already been mentioned that the perks you end up choosing will have far more impact than the actual level of the governing skill (meaning that you can no longer become a "master" of every skill in the game in any one play through)

This does sound like a system that could work really well, I'm excited to see how it turns out. HOWEVER, how would this work outside of weapons? I can see how it would work for Destruction: Lightning, Fire, Ice, Poison, and maybe even for things like Athletics, but how would this work for something like....Alchemy or Light Armor?

You select one perk per level up to level 50 (total of 49 perks), now we can assume that there are WAY more that 49 perks in the game - probably hundreds in total. If you pick perks in Alchemy (possibly seeing more proerties, making more lethal poisons, using less ingredients, etc) then you do this at the expense of choosing a perk in one of your other skills. Many of the perks may well be similar to skill perks in Oblivion, but lots of them will be brand new and VERY different. And, you can pick them when and where you like. No more "rinse and repeat" gameplay...

lets take the 1 handed weapons for example, Todd said that in the 1 handed skill there would be perk lines for axes swords and maces (he didn't confirm those were the only branches but I've got a feeing they are), you could go down all the lines if you wished how ever you've got points to spend and you gain them by leveling so if you wished to fill all the perks in one handed you could but obviously there would be lack in other area you might want to improve for example 2 handed or blocking.

I don't understand why hand-to-hand won't be an option. Equipping nothing to either hand can be both 1-h and 2-h skills. Now that I think about it, two daggers would be 1-h skill. Therefore, two fists have the same effect as using the 1-h skill. It could also qualify for a possible: "more damage when duel wielding" perk.

COMBAT: One-Handed, Two-Handed, Block, Heavy Armor, Free Running, Smithing
STEALTH: Marksman, Sneak, Lockpick, Alchemy, Light Armor, Speechcraft
MAGIC: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Enchanting

I find this option to be the most credible.

A fair point... (see option 2 in my original post)

These aren't all confirmed skills they are guestimations from what has been confirmed and filling in the gaps.

New One Skill To Rule Them All: HEADBUTS!

Combat: One-Handed, Two-Handed, Smithing, Heavy Armor, Block, Athletics/Acrobatics combo

Magic: Enchanting, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Illusion, Conjuration

Stealth: Alchemy, Speechcraft/Mercantile combo, Security, Sneak, Light Armor, Marksman

That's my prediction....

Great suggestion! The perks would be kind of interesting though...

Like I said, option 2 in original post (this one is actually looking very likely now)

MAGIC
This is locked in so we know what they are already

COMBAT
I'm really hoping for locational damage and if it's in then I don't see armor skills as being viable. Also with locational damage plus timed blocking the Block skill is unneeded as well as the result will rely on your timing and quality of shield.

My prediction:
One-Handed, Two-Handed, Dual Wield, Unarmed, Athletics and Smithing

STEALTH
I doubt sneak and security will be combined because we know that the dagger perks are under stealth and obviously that would be Sneak. Also lock picking and trap detection and disarming need a skill so security is still in. Dodge replaces Acrobatics and determines how fast you can execute dodge maneuvers on top of how well you can jump rather than just the latter.

My prediction:
Speechcraft, Sneak, Security, Archery, Dodge and Alchemy