Guide to Successful Character Creation

By TJByrum

Note: This guide may be useful for all players, however it is mainly for newer players, or those who just need a few more tips. All websites that are linked do not belong to me and respect and thanks go out to those who did create those sites.

Part I: Brainstorming - The first part of creating a successful character takes place before the console or computer is even turned on. Although it is not necessary to brainstorm a character every single time you play, it can prove useful if you do. All this means is to think about the character and ask questions. What kind of character is this? What race are they? What is there name? What is their goal?

Getting an idea of theme, race, name, and specialization will help out a lot in the next three steps. A 'theme' is like 'assassin' or 'berserker' or 'legionnaire', something like that. One of my theme's was gladiator, so I set out to make a gladiator. It's not that hard, just get an idea of your character and find out what race best fits them. Race is not as important as it once was in past Elder Scrolls games, so pick whoever you prefer. If you do want to know differences please visit the UESP (a wiki):
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Races

Part II: Equipment - After creating a character and escaping Helgen you are pretty much given the freedom to do whatever you want (or rather whatever you can achieve). I would recommend this step before actually going out and doing things. To have a successful character, one must have successful gear; in other words, "dress for success". You'll want to check out the wikis and find armor, weapons, and spells that will fit your character. If you're looking to have a mage character, look up spells and robes; a warrior looks up weapons armor, and so on.

The best place to do this is check out the lists over at the wikis:
Weapons
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Weapons_%28Skyrim%29
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Weapons
Armor
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Armor_%28Skyrim%29
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Armor
Spells
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Spells_%28Skyrim%29
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Spells

Simply scroll down the pages and search for the items that will benefit your character.

Part III: Leveling and Questing - So now you have a character and you know the items you want. Some of these items may require you to complete certain quests (such as obtaining Dawnbreaker and Ysgrammor's Shield, which I did for my gladiator). My suggestion is to first freelance, doing random quests and dungeon diving. Dungeon diving can slowly build up your gold as well, so I recommend doing it for the first few levels.

The meat of the game is set within a series of quests:
-Guild Quests: The Companions (Warriors), College of Winterhold (Mages), Thieves Guild (Thieves), and the Dark Brotherhood (Assassins) are all guilds in Skyrim. Pick the one that fits your character and go for it. They will level you up and offer a number of useful items for your particular class.
-Civil War: Though some prefer to hold off on the Civil War till after the Main Quest (or perhaps never at all), it can net you a few levels and loot. Doing the Civil War later on will only net you very little experience and the loot isn't all that great. However, keep in mind you will receive an additional Main Quest if you hold off on doing the Civil War, one that is fairly interesting.
-Main Quest: The Main Quest is probably best to hold off on until you are a higher level, but you can jump right in if you feel like it. Starting the Main Quest (which I like to say officially starts after Dragon Rising) will make dragons appear, who net loot but can attack towns and cities and kill NPC's (keep in mind some NPC's are essential and cannot be killed). Being a higher level will also result in better loot found in the main quest.