On the Level

Classes will not be present in Skyrim. You will not choose a Spellsword or Bard or some custom class of your own making. As a result, there will be no major or minor skills. Attributes have also been given their pink slips. I'm not yet sold on the removal of attributes, but the more I think about it, the more I like a classless system.

Even back in the old, old days of playing the classic and duly revered Dungeons & Dragons with pencil and paper (and dice!), I was frustrated by classes. They did not leave room for the kind of character I wanted to play. For example, the character in whom I was most invested was a Half-Elf called Fallon Chiaro. He was a Magic-user/Thief. This was all well and good except that I wanted to play him as an archer. But, neither as a magic-user nor as a thief was I allowed to use a bow. Such an artificial limitation seems silly now, and I've always enjoyed the lack of such restrictions in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (TESIV).

In fact, I must not have been the only one frustrated with the restrictions of classes in Dungeons & Dragons because later on, in order to help alleviate this problem, additional classes were added to accommodate a broader range of styles of play, which had not been allowed with the previously available classes.

In Oblivion, classes were defined by your choice of 1 of the 3 schools (combat, magic, stealth) and by your choice of 7 of the 21 skills. All skills not chosen as your 7 major skills were instead minor skills for your character. Each school included 7 skills, and the skills associated with the school you chose were increased by 5 points for your character. The major skills you chose for your character were increased by 20 points.

In Oblivion, as well as in Skyrim, leveling is accomplished by increasing skills. In Oblivion, when your major skills in any combination increased 10 times, your character would advance to the next level. In Skyrim, since there are no major or minor skills, increasing any skill will contribute toward leveling up. I've come to realize and appreciate the significance of this change.

I had resisted the prompting of several forum posts to consider what kind of character I will play first. I initially had no interest making such a decision before even putting my hands on the game, particularly without knowing the racial abilities and skill bonuses.

However, after seeing the 20 minutes of Skyrim game play video, I was so impressed and enchanted by the beauty of the world that I am now intent on creating a character that will live in the wilderness and explore this new realm. When I considered what choice I would make in order to build this character, I immediately fell back into the normal thought process for developing characters for Oblivion. That is, I thought about what skills I would have to choose as majors.

Of course, this is completely unnecessary in Skyrim. Rather I will merely play using those skills. This is much simpler, but even better, we now have the freedom to alter our style of play without having to start a new character. I can be a sort of ranger for a while, but later, if I want, I can join the fighter's guild, or become a vampire, or whatever. I can do all that without ever regretting decisions made way back when I created the character.

Skyrim is beautiful. I am eager to dive in.

Return of the King

On 11/11/11, The Elder Scrolls series will return with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The graphics are amazing, even though it is made for the same XBOX that TES IV: Oblivion was made for. The user interface is much improved. Some gameplay elements have been removed that will be missed. So much more has been added.

After seeing the graphics in bits of the gameplay demo, I thought I would find it impossible to return to playing Oblivion while waiting for Skyrim to be released. But the full gameplay demo so thoroughly pulled me into the world that I was actually inspired to play Oblivion once again.

The 20 minutes of gameplay demo was released in 3 parts, which are below.