hi all.

what are your tips for surviving the overhauls of OWCND-WAC?

I am getting ready to play and my 70 year old twitch finger on the bow is a bit slow. There was a good thread for surviving OOO, why not one her this mod!
Of course not so many play these two huge mods!

Somwheres I read that archery is strong, in OWCND. I have no idea if this is so.

so please, any tips for what skills to take and objectives to follow so to not get killed right off of the sewer?!

thanks....freestone

This might not be the kind of tip you are looking for, but I too was getting crushed right off the bat. But OWC-ND has so much cool new content, I didn't want to quit. So I loaded up DLL with the default settings and so far it's been challenging...but not impossible.

And having a companion (currently Vilja) has gotten me out of a few jams as well

The main strategy is to level up in any easy way you can in the beginning. Practice speechcraft on people, raise your weapons skills on fish that don't fight back, practice your block on super weak enemies, collect ingredients and make any potions you can, and go to the arcane university and sneak around the room while people are sleeping. OWC ND has everything spawn from level 1, so the game does not get harder as you level up. As for archery getting a boost, I think it does. But I still use Duke Patrick's Combat Archery along with it. Reason: enemies who have thousands of health. I once took down a red minotaur that had 3500 health. I also made my own patch with TES4Edit to make those iron scorpions have 0 magic points, appropriate health, and reset their scale to 1.

Once you are selling items that are worth thousands, use all that money to train 15 points of whatever you want each level. Naspia Cosma at Cheydinhal Castle trains beginners blade at around 2:00 pm. You will have to catch her while she is returning to the castle after drinking at the inn.

I have a dragon and a friend with me all the time

And this is the exact reason I hate power-leveling. Why should I do that which does not make me enjoy the game and make it a chore?

Not trying to start a comparison thread or throw criticism on OWC-ND+WAC (I haven't played these overhauls yet), but with FCOM, the strategy is to run when you see something that you can't kill. Makes me feel alive that I can't win over everything, and I need to get better (and NOT doing this by getting whacked at by mudcrabs a few thousand times to improve light/heavy armor). The struggle to survive is what makes this game feel amazing. I get easily bored at higher levels when I can one-hit kill anything (though that's not true for FCOM at higher levels either). Nothing as exhilarating as winning a fight against a badass troll when you have chugged your last potion and are down to your last few points of HP. Yes, the Bruma guards helped me out to beat that frost minatour giant, but it was a memorable fight I will always remember. That sword found as a treasure is really worth it now - not just another trinket I would never use. I will cherish it.

Can't you do just that in OWC-ND+WAC - just delve into dungeons where weaker enemies prowl, stick to roads, and don't necessarily clean it out as you can't beat the boss yet? I also use the help of companions, Tamriel Travelers, Phitt's NPCs, Crowded Road NPCs, and make survival an community effort!

Well since OWC ND is unscaled we can look toward other unscaled overhauls and the strategies there toward survival.

TIE being the most well known. With TIE you will be sneaking/running regularly for about 10-15 levels before you can start standing up to most challenges. This makes sense when you think about it unscaled means you can encounter anything at level 1 and up, so by level 15-20 you are halfway up the ladder of what is even possible to face - you are at the top of he bell curve so to speak.

I'd recommend not slowing down leveling rates. I often use a health regen mod at low levels - because while I like a tough fight I don't like reloading all the time.

I've obviously not played this mod setup, but IMO if your level 10 after 5 dungeons then your going to miss a helluva lot that the modded game would normally offer.

All depends on play style - if you use efficient leveling then yeah you would be.

OK maybe not slow it down too much ... or use OblivionXP or a leveling mod with only half the leveling speed.

But I've tried the 5x slower approach with Progress/nGCD and even with that there was so much still to do in a game but at level 32 it just stopped being that challenging (with FCOM and mostly due to the wealth and loot that made my character a god). I think overhauls correct this to a degree, but the game itself has limitations on just how long it can be played and the challenges it offers.

I'm more a fan of concise playthroughs now - where a character has a career ark and not a jack of all trades doing everything (Main quest, FG, MG and Dark Brotherhood). Let things rest, don't take every quest. etc.

I know that curve only too well.
I've played this game since day one of it's release and never once joined the Dark Brotherhood or completed the Thieves Guild. :angel:

To counter this problem, I use the item removal feature of Enhanced Economy - it randomly removes (magical and non-magical) items and weapons from loot, so I don't get rich ever. Other features that require you to pay house taxes etc. are also tapping into your money. Loot is much more precious!

I also use features of MMO to hide map markers altogether, and I have to pay guards 10 gold each for them to place map markers for me. I roleplay as cartographically challenged, though in RL I love maps!

Agree with your concise playthorugh concept. My current char is a nord warrior who is FG through and through. Being a simpleton, he has no dealings with the mages, and is too righteous/clumsy for any thieving/assassination.

I dislike/distrust mods (or mod features) that remove loot. It does make more sense when using a scaled or leveled overhaul and you know that pretty much always it will be loot similar to your character level. But with unscaled mods when you have a chance of finding valuable - the idea of not finding it is also bothersome.

So I opt for self control - if I need the loot I grab it - otherwise it stays. Those though are like the leveling mods - delaying the inevitable that there is not a challenge anymore. The game allows one to go in many directions, but not really to go back and do all the paths in one play through.

And so I see it as a needing to balance fun quests with the challenge and not fall off into power playing. Real RPG.

I don't see a better thread to ask this question - so I'll put it here.

Has anyone figured out what the trick is on ayleid chests (it might be all of them, not sure yet). It seems like I get blasted with a pretty strong spell about 75% of the time. Is there a way to avoid that or is it just part of the experience?