Hey guys, like the title says, last night i decided to try my first DiD character while waiting on the completion to the background of my next RP character (see signature)

I'm not going to bump it up to master until i feel pretty comfortable. My character is a dark and wicked stealth character, who uses a 2h sword, a bow and restoration. I was wondering if you guys had any tips to keep him around for a little while once I feel comfortable bumping up the difficulty. IE, what should I hot key, how I should fight, whether or not I should complete the beginning to allow dragons in my world, if so what shouts I should get, or what perks I should unlock. Any tips are welcome. (i play X-Box)

I wrote a quick background to my character, and I made it way too great, I also unfortunately made the coolest looking Argonian I've ever played... So now I'm really worried about him dying haha.

thanks ahead of time,

Luke

:edit:

in-case anyone cares here's a summary of the background to this character. Both his parents were healers who died when their village erupted into a battle against a vast army of invading bandits. As a baby he was found by these bandits and raised to fight and kill in underground cage matches, using his restoration abilities to keep him alive and give him an advantage to his opponents. At a young age he had killed countless (and quite enjoyed so), but some "heroes/adventurers" ruined his reign of terror over the cage. Once they free'd him he killed them and then killed all the bandits. As a free man he hadn't changed his ways and found out very quickly that the normal world doesn't welcome bloodshed or praise his thirst for blood. This bought him a one-way-ticket to the gallows in Helgen.

I personally would not involve dragons in your playthrough until you're a much higher level.

-As your using a range of skills, grab the Lovers stone (North of Markarth) which raises all skills 15%.

-Sneak everywhere.

-Get the strongest bow & arrows you can afford ASAP.

-Don't take risks, if in doubt, run! & don't antagonize powerful NPC's.

-Hotkey your health potions.

-Avoid the MQ until your characters skills are fleshed out , then grab the Lord Stone have good magic resistance.

• Always have an escape route that doesn't rely on stealth.
• Never engage in the open - everything runs faster than you.
• Line-of-sight obstructions are your friend.
• And there's always the stealth bowshot "hack." Hit or miss, the enemy will look for you at the position from which you fired your shot, but if they don't find you, they won't look around much. They'll usually head back to wherever they were before.

I think there's a lot of leeway with how you play it, especially if you're playing below Master.

But what works for me:

Use followers, especially up to level 30 or so.

Early on, focus much more on leveling combat than non-combat skills.

Take your time. 90% of my DiD deaths are because I was rushing and not paying attention.

If you normally have self-directed restrictions (only 1 crafting skill, limited crafting, potion use rules, etc.), don't worry about easing up on them or throwing them out.

If you're playing a Sneak-heavy character (as seems to be recommended), level your Illusion and Light Armor. Calm/Fear spells are your friend, and you want to be able to take damage.

If you're not going to be Sneaky, Heavy Armor may be a better bet. Consider wearing high-quality heat/cold/shock resist armor or jewelry, to cover magical attacks as well. A follower might be a good idea, if you can deal with leaving them in the lurch when you flee from a fight, which you will sometimes have to do.

Consider being an orc or an Argonian. An orc can use his Rage power to reduce the damage he takes and increase the damage he does, and an Argonian can rapidly regenerate health via Histskin. Both abilities should create a more durable character, long as you don't rely on them. A Nord is also not a bad thought, since the most dangerous magic spells are the Cold-related ones (because they slow you down, making fleeing problematic). A Nord can absorb far more cold damage than other races.

And don't be afraid to be forgiving! If you die because of a glitch or a distraction, feel free to reload.

thanks guys, I this has actually helped a lot, i'm acutally feeling pretty confident bumping up the difficulty one more notch (the one before master, whatever it is)

I'm going to begin to put a bigger focus on my archery

just a thought about my hot-keys, right now "->" is dual healing and "<-" is my 2H sword. Do you guys think i should sub one of these for my bow?

The hotkeys will really depend on a few things. Are you getting hit at all when using your bow? Do you use melee attacks at some point in most fights? I would swap your bow in for either dual heals or the sword, but it depends on how you are using them

Mod the [censored] out of Skyrim. No point doing DiD in Skyrim without Frostfall, Deadly Reflex (among other combat mods), Realistic Needs, etc, or else the D part in DiD shouldn't really happen.

in the opening post i said im using, X-Box

Well I usually always end up using melee, cause a miss a lot with my bow (i have a small T.V). once i get the zoom and slow function i become much more proficient. And against tough enemies or big groups I always end up hot keying to me healing and then back to melee. I Figured those are the things i need in "the heat of the moment" versus Archery which will usually be well timed and thought out (I can afford to take a couple of seconds to press "up").

in the opening post i stated that i play on an X-Box (no mods), so thats out of the question for me

and the "D" part could very well happen in vanilla skyrim... by perhaps a dragon, or a sword through the chest, or the typical arrow to the knee

Kinda hard on the Xbox though

This thread is most relevant to my interests. I might be back later to hijack it with some questions of my own.

While quite dated I know, this thread, http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1253663-dead-is-dead-first-playthrough/, was just prior to release. It was a good discussion and contains some interesting points on DID.

?Then there is the main DID series of threads for the forums. http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1471401-the-skyrim-dead-is-dead-thread-xiii/, which contains a brief explanation of the concept and links to the DID WIKI and other helpful sites / pages in the OP.