Right. That's it. Dead is dead svcks. I'm never doing it again.

It doesn't remove the fact that my level 13 mage just got his chest ripped open by a Daedroth halfway up an oblivion tower.

After 13 hours of toil, his booksmarts didn't translate to the battlefield. He was weak and poor, all his money tied up in a house in chorrol, used now only by the Adoring Fan.
As an Arch Mage he will be remembered, as a great man, meek and shy, whose magic staff failed him at a crucial moment.
I have documented his last moments here:
.....Bloodied, but alive, Merlin stepped over the dead corpse of the Dremora, pausing only to pluck a ring from the humanoid's finger.
Muttering an incantation, he caused the heavy door to slide open. The heat of the Great Spire washed over him, the endless churning spire of heat and fire swirling before him.
A sudden disturbance to his left! A clanfear leapt over a narrow bridge and slammed into him. Merlin recoiled, stabbing out with his staff, unleashing a burst of magicka. The clanfear screamed and keeled over -- Merlin regretted that he had not trapped the daedra's soul.
And then suddenly before him materialised a Daedroth, a pet of some hidden Dremora magician. Merlin whipped his staff around --- but no magic came. He backpeddled, but it was too late.
He looked down at his chest in suprise, wondering how all that blood got there. His blood.
He uttered a final gasp and Merlin the Great collapsed motionless, and as he died, so did hope for all of Tamriel.....

Anyway, moving on; I'm now looking at making a great big tank character -- How does a custom Nord "Knight of the Nine" sound?

Low-Endurance squishy dead-is-dead-ers are a double-edged sword. Whilst they might die before you've invested time in them and grown to love them - they also have a tendency to die immediately afterwards.

My advice is to accrue some life-saving Greater Powers like War Cry or Magicka Manifold. The Pilgrim's one is amazing too. Failing that, taking some hard fights such as the Last King of the Aylieds, Meridia's Quest or Lighting the Dragonfires bit-by-bit, running away and resting occasionally.

Owned

I really don't see the appeal of dead-is-dead play.

It seems to me that forces you into a play-style that avoids challenges. And you only engage enemies that you are pretty sure you can beat.

It seems much more fun to try some challenges. For example, you see a bunch of high level enemies and you wonder if maybe you can take them on. So save and try. If you're playing dead-is-dead, you may never know.

I tried playing dead is dead but gave it up as a bad job after my level 23 character got owned in the SI.

I tried dead is dead once on my current char, it went ok for awhile then I got owned by an invisible bear at fort caratacus - I reloaded. lol

Honestly, I cannot recall the last time I had a character die, and don't really worry about it much. If a mage dies in such a manor as described, then s/he is not familiar perhaps with some of the finer points of spell making, usage, and tactics...... If played at even three quarter effectiveness a mage should not die on default settings.

I'm sorry. I really am.

I've tried dead is dead - even thinking of trying it again - but it just svcks to be thirty or forty hours into a character and have them ripped from you.

Now companions - I play dead is dead. And I usually kill a bunch of them ...

As to the Nord tank, just a bit of advice. Your magic skills will svck, so you'll definitely want to do the Mages Guild recommendation quests and get access to the Arcane University. That seem an odd statement, but without spell points, you'll need enchanted stuff later after about level 15. Every true warrior I've played - Nords with strength/endurance emphasis - do great from the start running into trouble deeper into the game.

Good luck - and sorry about your loss.

@ Avarae: So you probably do have a better knowledge of the game than many us. I've had lots of characters die over the few years, even though I'm pretty familiar with magic. A lot depends on (1) the mods you have installed and (2) your gamestyle.

~ Dani ~

Mods - mods will kick your behind. OOO does it to me regular like. No dead is dead here. I'd be restarting every other day.

i was playing dead is dead
i had a lvl 20 character
he had little heath after a oblivion tower i did not know i took 8 skoomas i trip and die

I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your mage.

I don't play dead is dead, because I would be afraid to allow my character to leave the safety of her hearth. She is a fragile glass cannon (base endurance, base strength, won't touch a melee weapon, runs around dressed for fashion with an armor rating of about. . . 6, etc). In practice however, her cannon prevails over her glass. She is limited to her current top level of 20 (3 major skills she never uses) and at about 500 hours has never, ever died. We play cautiously, but she will take on anything she needs to - just slowly and carefully. If she were to die, I most certainly would reload her, but it would be traumatic indeed.

Sorry to hear that, sounded a good fight though.
Never tried dead is dead, for the simple reason I play on impulse in games.
So I learn alot but get my butt handed to me on a regular basis, not so much these days but after playing awhile it should be about time.

When one of my characters watches a sunset it is a bittersweet moment knowing that because of the dangers, they might be dead tomorrow, Their mortality hangs over their heads like a sword suspended by a thread. Nevertheless, they have all amazed me at times with truly selfless acts of courage and compassion for others.

Angel will watch a sunset for your fallen mage.

Character death in TES games also (far too often) depends on what glitch just happens to pop up and kill you. I wouldn't mind playing dead is dead if the game did not have so many glitches, or at least fatal glitches. It's one thing to die because you make a mistake, but when the game simply kills you because it screws up, I'm afraid I cannot accept the consequences because, simply put, I did not actually do anything (except starting the game, of course).

I've never been one for DID either. I mean I stopped playing DA:O even because my game seems to be at a point where I get random fights on the road and my party gets owned 75% of the time. Of course DA:O poor party AI doesn't help, but I lose interest in game fast when all that is accomplished is dieing, redoing everything a hundred times.

As for a pure tank character, nord or redguard male with the Warrior for a birthsign. That should put your strength and endurance at 60 each to start.

Arch mage with the adoring fan and a house in Chorrol all by level 13?

No wonder he's dead

Hell, he never had a chance

You killed him by pushing him too hard too fast

I've held chars back from any signicant questing untill they were in to their level 20's and very trained

All my chars are grateful they don't have you as their player

My heart does go out to you. A death is never easy.
It is a good thing that you didn't try to build a +5 efficient build and have it die after putting in 300 hours of play.
But then again a +5 build would own the enemies and not the other way around. lol.

I would never try to play DID. I am addicted to Apprentice birthsign on most characters. That makes it WAY too scary to play like that.
The fun part about the build is that you charge into the bad situations and see what happens. :toughninja:

Wow, that would. I really dislike that birthsign. The weakness to magic is just way too deadly for me, even with the magic bonus.

At the OP: Winter Wolf just gave me a thought, tho - what was your birthsign and race? That may have had something to do with you dying.

Personally, if I'm playing a mage, I really have to looking for a challenge to turn away form the Breton + Atronach combo. Then, when I play through the mages guild recommendation quests, I save all my pennies to make sure I buy three spells: Fire, Frost, and Shock shield. I make sure when I have access to the enchanting alters, I have these spells.

Then I enchant a six piece set - boots, greaves, curiass, gloves, shield, helmet or amulet - of elemental armor (2 pieces each for fire, frost, and shock). Even if I use lesser soul gems, the end result is a mage that's almost invulnerable to magic attacks. The great thing is - you can use any armor, 'cause the magical shield remains in place even if the armor is destroyed - so you always have the elemental protection and IIR about a 40+ shield protection.

Dead is dead requires you to memorize the Three Rules of Oblivion Combat (I've long since forgotten who taught me this):

1. Prevent any damage from happening to you in any way possible (shields, great armor, or run) while

2. Cause in the greatest possible damage to your opponent (highest possible weapon attack, be it physical or magic) and

3. Restoring or curing any damage that happens to you in the most efficient way possible.

The advice that I got was if you're going to play dead is dead, you have to build your character with those rules in mind and, generally, in that order.

~ Dani ~

Dead is Dead gameplay is just silly to me. I don't see how that's understandable..I keep my characters and max them out to be the best they can be, starting over after dying 1 time is just such a huge and pointless waste of my life IMO.
Considering that I've put in over 1000 hours into Morrowind..yeah. Not going to just delete those guys after I die.

Anyway,
Nord Warriors are pretty stalwart, not going to die very easily as one of those.

I play as a Breton with Apprentice birthsign, default difficulty, no mods, and I rarely die at Level 22, which is where I'm staying. This is probably due to my tendency to get past problems simply by casting Summon Lich/Dremora Lord, Invisio on Self for 30 secs.

I just wanted to add that all of my characters in Morrowind and Oblivion are born under The Lady birthsign (Goddess worship and respect, after all). All of them are either primarily mages or primarily archers. I have not played using a sword or other melee weapon since I first played Morrowind many years ago...

Whaaaaaat !!!! tut tut guys have you not the stones for it. Lol

Playing D is D doesn't mean you never get adventurous - just be a little cautious and prepare very well before fights and unknown areas. It really does get much easier as your char progresses - esp mages. Cos you accrue a vast array of powerfull offensive AND defensive abilities.

For example, my (as yet not died) char is an Altmer mage with the mage birthsign. shes at lev 33 now. head of the FG and Arena, almost Grey Fox and nearly Arch Mage. Shes master of both armour types, bow, all magical abilities and alchemy. Shes got so many powerful spells the only battle choices i need to decide upon is which amusing way i want the npcs to die!

my best tip is build up your skills and make battle winning combos of spells. Here's a good one that will take down almost anything safely. First make a powerfull slow roast spell in the Uni, like 15 points/sec fire damage for 40 secs. Add a couple of secs paralyse to prevent a quick reprisal, add soul trap for 40 secs if you want to recharge soul gems with every kill. Then go invisible, creep up on enemy and fire the spell. Go invisible again immediatly and just watch them roast to death. Cruel but effective AND SAFE. Alternativly, make a long time paralyse spell, like 40 sec. creep up invisibly, paralyse, then bash 'em to pulp.

Potions are key........ for a mage you want powerful Restore Magika potions to keep your abilities powered up in battle - so get good at alchemy. multiple effect poisons like fire with health damage can be fired by bow and do guarrenteed kills with no risk to you (eg; i use a home brew doing 7 points health damage for like 30 sec with 9 points fire damage for the same - thats almost 500 kill points in one bow shot - use an enchanted deadric bow for extra damage on top.

Run for cover and go invisible BEFORE your health is low. Always aim for +5 endurance rises - high health is key to survival - even moreso than just good armour.

TAKE YOUR TIME - levelling too fast empowers your foes and leaves you weak.

D isD is imo far far more satisfying than die/reload/die/reload/die/reload you kinda bond with your char cos you've shared those risky emotional moments and come through better for it. it makes achievements mean something.

So please don't give up on D is D so easily, you'll miss out on a vastly enhanced overall gaming experience.................