Sorry it took me so long getting back to you but I felt I could answer better if I first tried out what you were telling me. Yes, I can beat on Ralof or Hadvar and affect my game by doing so but I would not use this method. In my opinion, they will never patch your ability to do this because it is just the game acting exactly the way they intended it to. Sneak attacks are built into the game mostly for the thief build. One handed weapon perks do not seem to work for daggers and the only perk that is for the dagger (that I know of) is in the sneak skill tree and it multiplies the damage done on sneak attacks with a dagger by
15 TIMES!!! They just never thought people would use it on their allies. Both of these character do not retaliate because they are there to help new players. They also will not die from your attack because they are essential characters.
This is method only hurts the player who use it. The way to really benefit is to use skill trainers. You get only 5 skill training slots per level and then you must wait for a level up to get 5 more. If you leave Helgen at level 20, yes, your level is higher but at a great price: 20 levels of 5 skill slots means you
LOSE 100 skill training slots.
Ouch!!! Since levels take progressively longer to attain as you keep playing, I can see why slow progress might make you feel like you are burning out on the game. Skills make your character so much stronger. I do not get tired of the game and burn out because the challenge remains. I think the most fun part of the game is developing your character. You start out weak and you develop a strategy to see what you are capable of without the game kicking your backside. LOL Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew but then I turn tail and boogie as fast as I can. Eventually things turn around and I do not need to run as much but in the beginning it is more important to put my points into stamina instead of health so I can run away when I overextend myself. I know guys do not like running away but I do not have a problem with it.
You say your favorite character is a mage but playing a mage was very hard for me. I felt very weak: no armor protection at all for the entire game - wow! I mastered all 5 of the schools of magic. As I did so, I grew more confident. My favorite is the sneaky thief build even though I do not like stealing things. But, there are a lot of things to take in Skyrim that aren't really stealing. I try to only take things that are not in red text. Also when starting out, there are a lot of people to help and they pay you for helping them.
You also said you added mods for more powerful spells. If those make the game too easy, that might sap some of the fun too but on this matter I speak with no knowledge because I have never modded anything. There might be mods I would like though. I would like more mods that define what my character looks like... especially if one could add realistic red hair because I am a redhead and the game's attempt at red hair does not even come close. Or, I would love it if there was a mod that would get rid of dark and rainy days and maybe one that can eliminate the cloud cover when I am looking at the map. These would not change the way the game plays but they would make it more enjoyable.
Ah. Makes sense.
I'm sure they could set it to not work on those two, if they chose to. Probably don't care enough to bother haha.
"20 levels of 5 skill slots means you
LOSE 100 skill training slots"
I'm not grasping what you're saying here. If I do this I gain skill points like normal. So I can put points into the skill tree like normal. So what training slots am I missing out on?
My burnout is more related to bouncing between various characters, causing me to play the same content over and over. I may play a character a day or two, then I get bored of it.
Running isn't my favorite move but one I'm familiar with 😂
I've done my fair share of running away in that game.
One strange thing I've noticed is some characters are, for lack of a better word, unlucky. I have my saved level 20, start a game, and may play it normally. The next time I start on the same level 20 and just get monkey stomped constantly. I'd say roughly every 5th character this happens to. Unplayable. Odd.
Yeah. Being a mage requires some kiting. But there are also different mage builds. Sneak mage, for example. Some of the builds may be less viable in vanilla. I utilize a mod that alters the skill tree. Not to cheat, but to add more variety, make things make more sense. Add more options.
For example if you want to be a fire mage and spec into that, it boosts your fire spells in ways vanilla does not, but also weakens your frost spells, so you're also having to give something up.
So I can sneak mage to a fortress and cast a spell and cause the fortress to fight itself. Or they add more offensive spells to holy to make it a more viable class. Or necromancer. So makes don't have to be just blast blast and run.
Sneak bow is probably my favorite after mage. But, yes, the dagger bonuses for sneaking are insane. That's more assassain than thief, though.
My take on in game theft varies by character. If I become a member of the Dark Brotherhood my character isn't bothered by stealing, for example. But if I want to be some holy paladin type, then thieving is out. I let the characters direction define his morality.
Well the mods add more spells. More variety. Some can be a bit over powered, but I find there's usually not much practical use for those.
Yes. There are mods for everything you can think of. It's actually insane. There are mods for hair, eyes, skin, body shape, trees, weather, grass. Mods that change entire cities. Add new areas. Mods that change the appearance of individual NPCs, mods that alter who you can marry, add more weapons and armor, or change the appearance of vanilla weapons and armor. Mods that add new creatures and beasts, or change their behavior. Mods that change the way NPCs behave. You can add more traveller's on the road. There was a mod that added battles that you could stumble upon and participate in.
Chances are if you can think of it, it's been modded. And stuff you never thought of, too. Even one that removes the clouds from the map. 😁
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim
That's where I get mods from. You can see them all there. But... fair warning. They do have.... adult mods there as well. But you can opt out of seeing those as a member. Or block specific creators.
Also has a media section so people can share screen shots of their game and character.
Down side of bidding is that its Work. And you have to either take the time to learn some deeper stuff to make things stable, or just do what I do. Assume that you're doing the right thing and hope it works. Considering the instability in my games, I'm not the most lucky. But the tech stuff is too much for me to learn how to make it more stable.
Get rid of dark and rainy days? In Skyrim? I love rain in games. Even in real life I enjoy overcast and rainy days.