Zaphod on 26/5/2002 at 16:52

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True, beasts can't wear shoes, but there are lots of other Items of Flying. They also can't wear full helms, so all my Khajjit can wear is his glass helmet. Note: this might be the single-most ridiculous-looking item in the game. The second-best is a bosmer in full orc armor. But I think that ANYONE wearing a glass helm would beat all comers on the laugh-o-meter. Just a huge eyesore.

Celtic_Thief - here's some thoughts on different races:

For warrior-types, I have no idea who's best. I've heard good and bad for Orcs, Nords, and Redguards. Orcs seem to start off with better defense, Nords better offense, and Redguards kinda blend the two. Side note: I have noticed a fairly equal dispersment of gender throughout the game, about 50% men and 50% women for each race. The big exception is Redguards. I've only seen 1 female Redguard. The rest have all been male. This could, of course, just be a misperception.

For thieves and other sneaky-types, Khajjit and Bosmers start off with a big advantage. No magic, though. I had to buy a LOT of training. Plus, the Khajjit's Eye of Night is very useful in the darker dungeons and the Eye of Fear is a good way of scaring something off if you don't want to fight. Of course, these are easily replicated by magic items later in the game (see final paragraph).

Next time through, I'm playing as a full-on Mage, so I'll probably either go with an Altmer or a Breton. They seem, by far, to have the best predisposition to Magey things.

Argonians - no idea. They seem tailor-made to the "Nightblade" discipline. Kinda shadowy. Not a great choice for a warrior, but could make a decent Magic or Sneak class.

I just can't see the advantage of playing as an Imperial. These guys seem, to me, to be useful only in numbers. If this was a real-time strategy game, having a squad of Imperials would be helpful as infantry, but they don't seem specialized enough to chose as a character race. Of course, I have no idea what their two Special Abilities do, so I could easily be wrong. If anyone has played as an Imperial, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Dunmer: Remember how in the 80s and early 90s, every video game where you could choose a character always had 3 choices - the strong but slow guy, the fast but weak guy, and the middle-of-the-road guy who was sorta strong but sorta fast and was touted as being "balanced"? It seems that the Dunmer occupy that role here. They have some spellcasting, some warrior, and some sneakiness. A good "balanced" choice, but they don't seem to have a distinct predisposition. Might be a good choice if you want to blend abilities or don't quite know which direction you want to go when you start out.

[massive tangent] If an attribute can only be cast once a day, does that mean a calendar day, or any 24-hour period. That is, if I cast it at 11:50 pm, can I wait 10 minutes and recast it, or do I have to wait until 11:50 pm the following day? Also, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't come across a single timed objective yet. And since the vast majority of the game is untimed, you could theoretically cast one of those "once a day" attributes, then find a cozy corner away from any patrol routes or wilderness beasts, press T, wait 24 hours, then use it again. No one in any city/dungeon/wilderness area ever makes a distinction between day and night (with one notable, annoying, but non-threatening exception). So, although it might feel cheap, there's not much reason why you couldn't just keep waiting day after day if your once-a-day attribute is something you need to use multiple times. [/massive tangent]

Finally, for practical purposes, the Race of your character is less important the further you progress through the game. As you pick up skills, buy training, and get special items. you can offset any advantages other races will have against you. And in terms of having characters automatically like or dislike you, they may have an opinion based solely on race at the beginning, but further along your factions and past actions will have a much greater influence than your race.

Mehrunes on 29/5/2002 at 03:08

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I think the Orcs look great. Their armor is also one of the nicest looking styles in the game (based on Japanese yoroi). The voices done for Nord greetings are excellent ("Seen any elves lately? Hahahahahaha!"), but otherwise they're a little plain-looking. Some of them have face-painting on them (this goes for some other races too) that help alleviate the plain-vanilla look.

Poseidon on 29/5/2002 at 16:49

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I'm playing an Imperial warrior right now. Looks like I'm just about the only one :D The "Emperor's Voice" ability has come in quite handy a number of times. Especially for those quests where you're supposed to collect debt money. Everyone gets real friendly when you hit 'em with the "Voice," which means I don't have to pick fights very often. Of course, you also start out with a personality of 50, which doesn't hurt. I haven't had much use for his other ability, which drains 200 fatigue. I tried it a couple times, but it never really seemed to have much effect. Maybe if it were during an extended melee fight... all in all, he's been a pretty well balanced character.