Hi everyone, I began playing a dark elf battle mage and have found the challenge serious fun! Im level 17 and have some decent gear, and have done the first few MQ missions etc.

However, i made an assassin character yesterday and was wandering whether i should use both? I like the idea of the RP of an assassin, but am too far in the main quest to do re-roll and have fun doing it?

Im at uni, swamped with work at the moment and play in the evenings.

AM I MISSING OUT ON ANYTHING VITAL BY NOT DOING THE MAIN QUEST - too play my assassin - as i was thinknig about doing the dark brotherhood quests and then exploring etc.

i beat the main quest on my first guy, straight through. i started a new guy though and have barely made it past the first few stages an im like level 22

honestly just play the main quest to see whats up, its cool and you get some cool stuff from it. its not like fallout where your game ends after you beat it, so you get to keep all the cool stuff. i just didnt enjoy being an archer, so i made a new guy.

I know if i have more than 1 character at a time, i just end up not getting very far overall. Play 1 character at a time & explore the World with them.

I dont think there are any major consequences to ignoring the MQ. I usually explore & quest a bit, then i dabble with the MQ at about level 15. It's upto you.

At the same time? Then: not a good idea, will be hard...
Anything else: yes play 10 other chars how, where and when you want. Nothing bad will happen. You can ignore the main quest with all the chars of just with one, like I said do how you like this is skyrim.

I find that two characters at least is essential to sample the full content of a TES game. At the very basic, you need a "good" and "evil" one.

That was one of my main oblivion gripes, too many ArchMage, Warrior Leader, Gray Fox, Black Hand Assassin all as one character.... I mean... Really...

I usually make mental notes on quests that I turn down for future playthroughs as characters who would do those things etc.

I've got a battle-mage and a thief. I'm currently having more fun with the thief. (Thieves/DB guild member.)

My battle-mage is farther along in the main quest though. I do not intend to do it with my thief. I only "unlocked" the dragon shouts then dropped the main quest all together.

Go for it, play as many as you like just do different things (quest) with each character. My thief has done nothing the battle-mage has.

P.S.

Good point above me. My battle-mage is a kind hearted caring sole. My thief is simply a butt-hole.

One of your characters should play the Main Quest.

However, none of your characters has to do the MQ. My next two characters will not do the Main Quest at all, won't even touch it. One will be a BattleMage and one will be a Thief/Assasin. My fourth character will do the MQ and even participate in the civil war.

I always play a good character as my main, that is I don't murder random citizens, steal or do anything else that would put me at odds with the law. I know it sounds boring to some, but for me that is the character I most enjoy playing. That said I think for a second character I'm going to create a rogue/thief type and do the exact opposite Nothing noble or good, just chaos... Hopefully that will be good for a few additional hours of entertainment.

I'm playing with my 3rd and I still didn't complete the MQ with any.

Like you, I went the farthest with my first, but at some point I just start wanting to try out new play styles. This usually happens to me with every game like this.

I'm normally the good guy to, but I have to say, this evil thief character has been a freaking blast for me!! Makes me want to go back and do Oblivions Thieves/DB guild quests. (And maybe, just maybe, actually finish the game. :blush: )

I don't see any problem with playing with 2 or more characters at a time. I've been forced to do it by broken quests where I couldn't find a console fix or other workaround. Rather than delete the characters, I'm waiting for the patch(es) in case I can finish them later. In the mean time, I'm having fun trying out different races, classes and playing styles than I have used before with less of an emphasis on completing any the main quests. It's a little bit of a bummer, since I really enjoyed completing the main quest and companions quest only to find that I was stuck (literally) and could go anywhere else. Sure, I could load from a save game and do something else, but I thought I'd experiment instead.