The Thalmor - The "unknowable Other" my ass

What struck me as rather stupid one time was when I read an AMA by Michael Kirkbride (MK), former developer for the Elder Scrolls series. He briefly talked about how the Thalmor were the “other”, the one you’re not supposed to understand. That they are "unknowable". And I am thinking to myself “what the fuck is there to understand?”

Going by only the confirmed canon stuff about them, they are a bunch of fascists with an open attitude of non-elves being shit that seeks to rule Tamriel. No great mystery there, really. Hunger for power coupled with racism and imperialistic tendencies. You know, the same things that has been part of pretty much every empire throughout human history. Though I doubt that is what he was thinking about.

Going by the stuff MK added to the Thalmor, they are still not hard to understand. In fact, I can sum them up in one sentence.

“The Thalmor are trying to end the world in their temper tantrum over not getting to be gods.”

For those of you who are connoisseurs of shit stories in RPGs, this probably reminds you of Final Fantasy 10 and Final Fantasy 10-2, where antagonists (Seymor and Meg Ryan) “are trying to end the world in their temper tantrum over people having to suffer.”

An even more apt example would be certain medieval interpretations in Christianity about Satan, where he is an angel who “tries to end the world in his temper tantrum over not getting to be god.”

So, yeah, not seeing what is so hard to understand about them. Being a dick doesn’t make you mysterious. It just makes you a dick.

Just some more Warcraft 3 ramblings

Paladin stuff

Something I quite like about the Orcs, and to an extent the Night Elves and Undead, is that some of their hero units are strictly speaking a more powerful practitioner of what is also a regular unit.

The Far Seer, Tauren Chieftain, Shadow Hunter, Priestess of Elune, Keeper of the Grove,  Lich and Crypt Lord are “powered up” versions of the Shaman, [regular] Tauren, Witch Doctor, Archer, Dryad, Necromancer and Nerubian.

Given the extent, say, a group like the Knights of the Silver Hand is spread in the Alliance at this time in Warcraft history, I find it quite odd that you only see the Paladins as a hero unit. It would have made sense to me to have a “regular” Paladin unit as the tier 3 human melee fighter, a mana based warrior akin to the Druids of the Claw.

I get that some classes, like the Death Knight, wouldn’t make sense to have so common, but Paladins weren’t really uncommon, were they? Even after Arthas destroyed much of the Knights of the Silver Hand there were enough Paladins to have the Scarlet Crusade, the Argent Dawn and the Blood Knights (taking basis in the ones with ties to the Alliance specifically), in addition to the Knights of the Silver Hand living on, albeit diminished.

It would also make sense that more than 2 Paladins (Uther and Arthas) are involved in fighting the undead after the effects of the plague are shown. You first get access to Knights in the Scourge of Lordaron campaign in the Culling mission, when Arthas purges Strathholm. The same mission when he relieves Uther of command and tells the ones with the will to save the land to follow him. Given that Uther is the leader of the Knights of the Silver Hand and he brings forces assigned to him, I would have expected at least some Paladins to stay behind and follow Arthas. Alas, you only see more Paladins when Arthas has already become a Death Knight.

And, like I said, it is not like you couldn’t have “proper” Paladin heroes even with regular Paladin units.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like the Knight unit in W3. I think that having units(Footman and Knight) with high armor and fast attack speed to compensate for lower per-hit damage and hit points is a good way to bring across the different physique of the humans compared to Orcs, Tauren and powerful undead fighters, like the Abomination, in gameplay alone. This way you show that humans have less raw strength to being to the table and has compensated for it by crafting better armor and being faster. I just wish there was a Paladin regular unit for the human armies.

Rebalancing the Paladin and Death Knight heroes

In my previous take on these two, I argued that it would fit thematically to have them be agility heroes because of how human melee units in W3 works and I stand by that. But I do see a problem that could emerge.

The Paladin’s Divine Shield when coupled with a higher attack speed would make it really fucking dangerous. So I’d favor reducing the duration a bit. Or a lot.

The other problem is that I think the way the game restricts Holy Light and Death Coil very unfairly benefits the Death Knight. On most maps, when fighting most of the other factions, the Death Knight will have a very flexible Death Coil option, as it will be able to damage most foes. This is not the case for the Paladin, since most maps and most enemies do not allow for Holy Light to be used offensively. My thinking would be to make both heal allies and hurt enemies, irrespective of whether or not they qualify as undead, demons or living. Basically different animations and names for the same ability. Which is not all that out of place with the Paladin and Death Knight to begin with.

I think this would help the Paladin see more competitive play. The Death Knight already sees a fair bit of competitive play, as far as I could tell (actually quite fun watching 1v1 matches by professionals, it turned out), and I think this is largely because Death Coil is simply more versatile against most enemies.

Also, Agility based Paladin hero with a Holy Light able to damage things strikes me a bit like a Retribution style Paladin, which is my favorite style of Paladin. In principle anyway. Never actually played World of Warcraft myself, though I’ve had friends who did during the Burning Crusade and the Wrath of the Lich King. I dunno. I just like the “being the damage dealer” side of it better.

Samurai Orcs

The Blademaster is one of my favorite heroes in W3, especially Grommash with his unique model. However, I do have to say I dislike the way the Blademaster speaks. I don’t mind their weapon or even the flag-thing their have on their back, but the comically bad stereotypical accent is quite annoying.

Founding of Durotar

Quite a fun campaign, which nicely shows the W3 gameplay at work in a more RPGy setting. Too bad there isn’t more stuff like that. One where you could choose your own hero would’ve been nice.

Horribly bad models

Talking about horrible models might be a lost cause with this game, as it’s graphics are not that great. Things are meant to be viewed at a fair distance. So, when a model in this game makes you go “what the fuck happened!?”, you know something is seriously wrong. The generic Far Seer hero appearance is, in my opinion, completely mystifying. How could they have decided that that was the model they wanted to go with?

Eh, whatever. Going to give my opinion on the Thalmor next time. Probably. Should be fun, if brief.

Fuck Tolkien.

A statement that will probably invoke the ire of quite a few, should they ever read this, but one that I am quite certain I will stand behind.

This is not to say that I think Tolkien was not a good author. He was an exceedingly talented and meticulous writer with a dedication to languages that is likely unmatched in recent history. He also deserves credit for starting the trend of creating formally established worlds for fantastical stories. My problem with Tolkien’s works is that I consider them a huge waste of potential.

And let’s dispel one common myth right away: The myth that Tolkien was original. No, he wasn’t. There. Done. Oh, you want to know why? Fine…

First off, his world is very explicitly based on a Catholic world-view. You have this omni-god on top, angels (like the Istari), the Fallen Angel (Morgul/Satan), Jesus-figures(Frodo, Gandalf and Aragorn). To name a few. You could go on for quite a while, if you cared to. I don’t.

Secondly he plays a lot on mythological themes that had existed for thousands of years, like elves, dwarves, giants, talking animals, nature being alive, vengeful spirits, shapeshifters, corrupted humans and so on.

Granted, this does not make his writings bad by themselves. But it does mean it is not original. Thus the “he was original” argument in his defense is invalid.

My problems with Tolkien comes from, to begin with, the Catholic-based world he created. I am sorry to say it, but I find it really fucking boring. Make the world as internally consistent as you like, but that will count for naught if I am not the slightest bit interested or intrigued. Fine, his theology regarding an all-powerful(or as close as can be) god makes more sense than the traditional Christian views (which make no sense at all, so good job beating no competition at all), but that does not make it good literature.

This would not have been a problem for the stories themselves if it was just something kinda looming in the background, but it isn’t. Tolkien’s meticulous nature works against him here, as it does tend to play a role in his stories. Most known among these is The Lord of the Rings, which I will largely stick to in this article. Simply because it is the most famous of his works.

For those who have only seen the films, you might be a wee bit surprised, because the LotR films tell a very structured story with few, if any, distracting elements. Yeah, because Peter Jackson and his team knew how to tell that story better than Tolkien did.

Tom Bombadil and the Istari are cases of the world-building fucking with the story, as I see it. The former because the reason why he can’t help solve the One Ring problem is “writing myself out of a corner 101” (he can’t because he “doesn’t care” as a Tolkien-fan I know summed it up as). The latter because they are supposedly so mind numbingly powerful that Sauron isn’t even a threat to them, at which point the “problem of evil”-apologetic Tolkien subscribed to comes into it. That is to say that the Istari (angels) intervening in human affairs would be a misuse of power and would have dire consequences.

And, fine, if it was just Gandalf that was an Istari playing part in this story, I could buy it. But Saruman is an Istari too and one that has already overstepped his boundaries as “guides” for humanity (and elves and dwarves, I guess) by ruling Isengard. And further overstepped his boundaries as he begins to cooperate and compete with Sauron.

It makes no sense to me why Saruman, which is supposedly exceedingly more powerful than Sauron, holds back. He already decided to take his own course apart from his given role, so why not? And this is apart from me thinking that it is really fucking stupid to have so powerful being in the world and story to begin with.

Luckily Peter Jackson and his team saw this tiny, winy flaw at the size of a small country and 1) cut out the 2 chapters or so wasted on Tom Bombadil, and 2) made the Istari less powerful than Sauron. Heck, Gandalf even says he isn’t as powerful as the Witch-King of Angmar, whom is a mortal man with a Ring of Power and slave to Sauron.

Don’t get me wrong, I love world building. I consider it so important that I will rate a stale, shallow game (Morrowind) higher than a game that has actually a resemblance of enjoyable gameplay (Oblivion). But that means good world-building. A work that (mostly, until it turned into an idiot-plot and the world collapsed in on itself towards the end) does have a lot of good world-building is the Lies of Locke Lamora. Even though a lot of that work is just building the world, it was actually interesting to read. I don’t consider Tolkien’s world to be interesting or good. Written meticulously and with extreme dedication, sure, but spending a lot of time and effort on something does not automatically improve something.

The other flaw, besides that I really hate the way Tolkien built and handled his world, is his writing style. Grammatically good and all of that, sure. Still boring as fucking hell, because I don’t have a fetish about how the landscape looks. If you cut out all but the necessary descriptions, I have to wonder how long his writings would actually be. Pretty sure you could cut LotR in half.

Third major flaw is pacing. There is building up to a story and then there is wasting my time. LotR in particular is in the latter category. If Tolkien spent less time on the descriptions and more on, say, exploring the characters and their relationships with one another, maybe I would like it more.

In short, I think that Tolkien is one of the most overrated authors in human history. And that is the last I am going to waste on that for the time being.

An attempt to review Skyrim

Where does one even begin with an entity like Skyrim? Do you go by the same lists of individual merits like you would a standalone game, or do one primarily see it in regards to the rest of the Elder Scrolls series? Or maybe start with the fact that the five years after its release has brought a seemingly never ending stream of (more or less) openworld sandboxes?

Skyrim was, in my opinion, the last truly great game Bethesda Game Studios made. And, I know, I am beginning to sound like the bitches who complain about how the Elder Scrolls have been “dumbed down” since Morrowind (which I have a hard time understanding the reasoning behind, because Morrowind is a stale, shallow game that is redeemed by its world-building). And I am sorry I do come across like one of those bitches, but Fallout 4 (FO4) simply do not engage me the same way.

Bethesda Game Studios has a bad habit of not learning the correct lessons from their previous installments. When the Radiant Story (RS) in Skyrim didn’t ignite people’s pubes in excitement, what they should have done is to tone that aspect down, not have more of it. It is really quite annoying to see the extent to which RS is used in the game.

I do like a lot of the things they did with FO4. I like the return to the more traditional outlook for the Brotherhood of Steel (BoS), while being a more engaged player in the development of an area. It strikes me as a good way to marry the ideas of the traditional and Lyons interpretations of their mythos. I like the Institute and their rather unambiguous moral character. I like that the Railroad, while having good intentions, appear entirely detached from the reality of the synth situation, both as it pertains to who they are and what threat they can pose. I like the Minutemen, in that it makes sense for me that people would organize themselves.

I like that there is not an obviously wrong side to the conflict of the main story, I like that it is not about the mustache twirling evil Enclave. I like that the BoS and Institute both engage in some messed up things. I like the Commonwealth Wasteland, with its creatures and people.

Gameplay wise, it is far stronger than FO3 was. Guns handle better, the customization of equipment is fucking awesome and they made a very meaningful distinction between regular armor and Power Armor, which I think was about frikkin’ time. The levelling is, well, it’s there. Kinda. I can’t say whether or not I like it, even now. It’s just a new way to do it. And, honestly, I’d rather they try this stuff than never evolve.

In short, I have a lot of good things to say about FO4. So why don’t I consider it alongside Skyrim, FO3, Morrowind and even Oblivion? It is entirely possible that I am just weary of the BGS style sandbox RPGs, but I don’t think that is it. I still have some fun in FO4, running around shooting people, after all.

There are a few prongs to the reasons why the game leaves my mind almost the instance I turn it off, unlike Skyrim which made me go over things and plan what I wanted to do next when I turned it off again. Or what sort of character I wanted to roll next, because I knew there would be a next character. In FO4, on the other hand, I have 1 character. Total. Never restarted the game.

Indeed, it is so hard for me to stay with FO4 that this review has been in the making ever since the release of Nuka-World. Comparing to my “The Orderless Paladin” article, which I wrote in a couple of hours after thinking it though a little bit beforehand, that is quite bad.

FO4 breaks tradition on one thing (not as jarring an article shift as it seems right now, trust me), compared to previous BGS titles: Expansions. As much as I dislike what they did to Cyrodiil in Oblivion, the Shivering Isles is a fucking awesome place with an awesome character driving the plot: Sheogorath. They have tried to recapture his awesomeness in both Skyrim and the Elder Scrolls Online without much success. As much as I love Skyrim, Dragonborn surpasses it in most regards. Bloodmoon and Tribunal for Morrowind are great.

Then there is Far Harbor, Automatrons and Nuka-World. Eh… Well, I liked Far Harbor until it kinda just stopped with no real ending. It was atmospheric and brought up some interesting questions about the player character. I like the ideas behind Nuka-World. Automatron is, in a word, lackluster.

I think Nuka-World is a micro-scale example of why I think FO4 do not engage me. On paper the thing is fucking brilliant, but the story elements and lack of interesting quests makes the game a lot shittier than the sum of its parts.

For the main game, one of the things that really drive me nuts is that you’re given too much investment in following the main quest. This is something I touched on a bit for my New Vegas rant, but it is important for a game to understand what it is trying to be. This is why it is such a nice detail that Hadvar/Ralof suggest to split ways after Helgen, just as the road forks off in two directions. Your character doesn’t have any personal investment, you just escaped from a Dragon attack. Getting the fuck out of dodge is a perfectly reasonable conclusion.

And, yes, FO3 suffers a bit from the same issue as FO4 here. Oblivion not as much, as your character do not necessarily have the motivation to oppose Dagon or help the Septims. But I think it is a major problem when the game gives me a sandbox with a great deal to explore, after it has established that my character’s child has been kidnapped.

Enjoy the sandbox nature of the game and be the worst fucking parent ever, or ignore most of the game running after the kid? I get that BGS wants to do better storytelling, I do. It is necessary as more and more developers branch out into the open world game niche. Like the Witcher 3, which pulled off the whole “looking for your daughter(well, sort-of adopted daughter, in that Geralt loves her like a daughter)” story in a sandbox game. Man, Witcher 3 is an awesome game. I think it is the first nominee for the “Best Game” award I have played. It has fun gameplay, great storytelling, likeable characters, an interesting world… you name it. I hope it will be topped, because that means more absolutely fucking awesome games. But back to FO4.

When it comes to Nuka-World the story elements are tones down. You’re basically given an offer to become the boss of some Raider gangs and has to help them conquer the rest of the Nuka-World. There is a safari zone, bottling plant, wild west place, castle for children and a futuristic place. Nice spread, on paper this would be brilliant. Shame they didn’t put any content in these places to make them interesting. I don’t think I have ever played a BGS expansion with so little content in it. Even fucking Knights of the Nine, which is just a questline DLC added to Oblivion, felt more fleshed out than this.

At the end of the day, I’d describe Nuka-World like this: Pick it up if you want to kill mostly the same enemies to new scenerie.

This is what happens when I try to review Skyrim. I can talk about specific things in Skyrim, like how I think people are oversimplifying the change in religion that has occurred, or the civil war, but I can’t write an actual review for it without going off about something else.

The Orderless Paladin – Part 2: More stuff about the classes

Something I ended up skipping on was to do a more in-depth take on the classes I recommended for this roleplay. It was a combination of work, exercise and eating away at the hours I had to sleep in before work again that made me take the shortcut. So let’s do a look at some features of interest for the classes I recommended, in random order.

Barbarian – The Barbarian’s automatic ability, Carnage, gives you an AoE on your normal attacks, which further emphasizes its role as a damage dealer.

Frenzy – Activated self-buff well suited for damage dealing, though with risks as it hides your health and endurance for the duration. I recommend picking up this ability because of the simple reason alone that it is a version of this that is the cross-class Talent and thus a Paladin could have learned it.

Savage Defiance – Self-heal. Could be taken as a redirected form of Lay on Hands.

Bloodlust – A passive ability that gives you increased speed (attack and movement) after downing two enemies. Works as a variant of abilities like Inspiring Triumph and The Black Path.

Thick Skinned – More defenses. Works as a variant of Faith and Conviction.

Threatening Presence – AoE Sickened status effect on enemies when stationary. Could be taken as a variant on Bleak Walker ability The Black Path, which inflicts AoE Terrify on kill.

Barbaric Shout – AoE Terrify ability. See above.

Dragon Leap – Dragon Leap is most interesting due to its description, which mentions the Barbarian drawing upon “spiritual energy” to perform the attack.

Rogue – The Rogue’s automatic ability is Sneak Attack, which allows for bonus damage against unaware enemies and against enemies suffering from a negative status effect. The Rogue cross-class talent is a version of the Sneak Attack.

Shadow Step – Most Rogue abilities are centered around inflicting status effects to trigger Sneak Attack and do not lend themselves to comparison for Paladin abilities easily. Neither does Shadow Step, as it is a form of teleportation, but it does work as a form of magic.

Ranger – The cross-class talent for Rangers is the Wounding Shot, so this is worth considering picking up for the sake of RPing.

Marked Prey – Works similarly to Sworn Enemy, increasing damage against a target, though Marked Prey has a time limit.

Heal Companion – Works as a variant of Lay on Hands.

Revive Companion – Works as a variant of Reviving Exhortation.

Fighter – In a sense, one could almost consider the Fighter a “selfish Paladin”. Instead of group support, they have a variety of self support abilities. The cross-class Talent for the Fighter is a version of their Constant Recovery, which is a continuous self-heal that lasts for 45 (plus or minus the Intelligence duration modifier) seconds from combat start. Constant recovery works both because it is cross-class and that it can be taken as a variant of Lay on Hands.

Disciplined Barrage – Increases one’s own accuracy for a while. Could be taken as a variant on Sworn Enemy that works on a time limit, but not only against one enemy.

Confident Aim – Converts some Grazes into Hits, at a slightly higher rate than Zealous Focus does, but only for the Fighter himself. Nice when coupled with Gallant’s Focus.

Guardian – Works as a variant on Zealous Endurance, increasing ally Deflection rather than Damage Reduction.

Vigorous Defense – Boosts the Fighters defenses for a short period of time. Can work as a variant of Faith and Conviction.

Unbending – Converts some damage taken to Endurance. Works as a variant of Lay on Hands.

Critical Defense – Converts some Critical Hits to Hits and Hits to Grazes, similar to what Zealous Endurance does.

Unbroken – A self-revive that I think puts the case quite well for the Fighter having some magic in their repertoire. Works as a variant of Reviving Exhortation.

The Orderless Paladin - A Pillars of Eternity Roleplaying Guide

As I was playing through a particularly interesting side-quest centered around Bleak Walker Paladin lore on my Bleak Walker Paladin (BWP), something struck me: You cannot leave your Paladin Order as a thing of the past in RPing with the Paladin class because someone, somewhere will recognize you.

This is not something that would have struck me if my BWP were not rolling an “Untroubled Faith” roleplaying build, where he had turned his back on the Bleak Walkers and engaged in Benevolence and Diplomacy in addition to Aggression (but not Cruelty) just to get some of those increases in base defenses.

So it got me thinking, with the addition of cross-class talents in the White March – Part 1, what could be done with other classes representing a Paladin who truly left their Order and started as a blank slate with none but himself knowing of his past?

A disclaimer before getting into the meat of it: This is just my set of guidelines based on my understanding of the lore of Eora’s world. It is not a definitive set of rules and you are free to go outside of these without earning my ire in your roleplaying. Indeed, if you have other ideas (or build something from mine), I’d love to hear it. And I’d appreciate anyone pointing out any factual errors.

Gallant’s Focus

This is, in a very real sense, the ability that the rest of the roleplay (RP) hinges on, in that it is the only ability that is actually a Paladin ability available to the non-Paladin classes. Specifically it is a weaker version of the Paladin’s Zealous Aura.

It is not to be denied that, because of this, being a dedicated damage dealer is easier on the RP than being a tank. Tanks are usually much better off picking talents like Weapon and Shield Focus, Bull’s Will and others that improve their ability to withstand enemy attacks, whereas a damage dealer does benefit from the extra accuracy quite nicely. Both in the form of hitting more and in that accuracy the base determiner of critical strikes. This does not, however, mean you can’t do this sort of RPing with a tank build. Just my recommendation.

Gallant’s Focus can, in my opinion, work well if you use it as a substitute for your Weapon Focus of choice, though some of you minmaxers might disagree with me on that. My reasoning is that, yes, it does provide only 4 instead of 6 accuracy, but it does provide those 4 accuracy to all allies nearby, which is useful prior to having a Zealous Focus Paladin in your party. In truth, I would say it is quite useful even with a Paladin (you have access to one as a story companion, in addition to Hired Adventurers), because then you can give the Paladin either Zealous Endurance or Zealous Charge, giving you 2 group benefits. Another benefit is that, in the early game when resources are more scarce, it gives you more options. Gallant’s Focus, unlike Weapon Focus, is not restricted to any set of weapons. And, of course, you can always pick up Weapon Focus as well later, if you have a spare point for it, to get a total of 10 accuracy.

It is true that Gallant’s Focus is a significantly worse ability that Zealous Focus, and not only because Zealous Focus gives +6 accuracy. It has a secondary effect that converts some Grazes into Hits, which means the effective accuracy bonus is higher than +6. However, Gallant’s Focus should be compared to Weapon Focus, as it is a Talent and not class ability.

As a roleplaying detail, Gallant’s Focus being weaker fit very well. It can be taken to show the Paladin’s weakened devotion to his past ideals, god, king, whatever. A vestigial part of his drive that has been damaged, but doesn’t quite die.

Gallant’s Focus is first available at level 2, meaning immediately after you are cured of the disease that sparks the story to begin with. One can simply think that your sickness temporarily hampered your ability to project this ability to others.

Paladin Orders

Paladins come from a variety of backgrounds, so I will summarize the ones I am aware of, playable and non-playable.

Kind Wayfarer – Mostly made up of semi-organized wanderers performing good deeds and taking on jobs as cartographers and pathfinders in remote areas of Eora. Loved by commoners, but are not overly prestigious. They like Benevolent and Passionate acts, while disliking Cruelty and Deception.

A former Kind Wayfarer might be a “burnt believer”, someone who got too hurt when trying to uphold the tenets of the Order. Very likely to be Stoic, Aggressive, Cruel and Deceptive.

Bleak Walker – Often engages in Mercenary work during war, their beliefs center around a notion that Benevolence and Diplomacy (and mercy) only fosters further conflict because it lets people believe they can get away (or even earn something) with rebellious or aggressive actions. They do not even stop if their employees ask them to, believing that one can never compromise. Their enemies need to know that there will be no mercy, no quarters given, no negotiation. There is only to fight or unconditionally surrender and hope the Bleak Walkers were contracted to win the battle and not destroy the opposing army. Favored dispositions: Aggressive and Cruel.

A former Bleak Walker could be someone who did too much and decided to spend the rest of their life trying to make up for their mistakes. Or they simply wanted away from that life.

Goldpact Knight – Mercenary Paladin Order in the truest sense. While the Bleak Walkers live by a code that dictates how they should act in warfare and daily life, the Goldpact Knights care for one thing only: Money. They can be bought to save a pregnant lady, or kidnap travelers for necromantic experiments. They prefer Rational and Stoic behaviors and dislike Passion and Aggression.

A former Goldpact Knight might be someone who saw the callous nature of the Order for what it truly was and decided to leave that behind. Passion also includes romance in this game, so they could be trying to get away from the cold way of life and experience love and life to the fullest.

Shieldbearer of St. Elcga – The Shieldbearers were founded in the honor of St. Elcga, a Wood Elf noblewoman who was instrumental in beginning the diplomacy between the Wood Elves and Meadow Humans who now make up the Aedyran Empire. They are tied up in the Aedyran Empire in some degree (uncertain to which). True to their founding roots, the Shiedbearers emphasize Honesty and Diplomacy, while loathing Aggression and Cruelty.

A former Shieldbearer might be someone who turned their back on the Aedyran Empire for whatever reason.

Darcozzi Paladini – Agents and champions for the Darcozzi family, who rules Old Vailia, they are known to favor the Clever tongue and Passion for life. Used to being involved in intricate political machinations, they know they can expect to come in conflict with members of their own Order. Dislikes Cruelty and Stoicism.

A former Darcozzi Paladini might be someone who turned their backs on Old Vailia or at least the Darcozzi family’s scheming.

Brothers of the Five Suns – Paladin Order of the story companion, they serve the Ducs of the Vailian Republic, which sprang forth from the ashes of the Grand Vailia Empire as it was reduced to the Old Vailia.

A former Five Suns Paladin might have turned their backs on the Vailian Republic for whatever reason. Not recommended, due to your Paladin companion being one of their members and the lack of dialogue works against the RP.

Paladins of Berath – Their members are found in Raedric’s Hold, but their teachings are unknown. Berath is the god of life and death, and has a thing about dual natures. That one thing leads to another.

Fellows of St- Waidwen Martyr – Defenders of the Godhammer Trail and devotees of Eothas, the god of redemption.

The Steel Garrote – Followers of Woedica and upholding of contracts.

Rymrgand Paladin Order – Shows up in Noonfrost in Twin Elms. Followers of Rymrgand, the Beast of Winter, god of death, winter, famine and the like.

Classes

Each of the classes are unique in their own way, so each of them have something different to work out from if chosen to substitute the Paladin class on your character. Here is my take on each of them.

First off, let’s pick out the ones I don’t see this working very well with. The Paladin is a class that, through their devotion, has achieved a certain level of magical affinity and a certain set of magical abilities. Therefor I think Wizard, Priest, Druid, Chanter, Cipher and Monk are bad picks for this roleplay, because they have a magical discipline of their own that is very much distinct from the Paladin’s.

Now, I would argue that the Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger and Rogue do possess some magic of their own. Magic comes from the soul and powerful people of said classes are best explained, in my opinion, by having tapped into some of that magic. Abilities like Constant Recovery (Fighter), Unbroken (Fighter), Shadow Step (Rogue), Dragon Leap (Barbarian) and the bond between Ranger and Animal companion make much more sense if you assume there is some magic involved. This “magic”, however, seem much less ordered around teachings and codified ways of unlocking it and more a natural result of certain lifestyles. Lifestyles that are available to the Paladin, in principle.

Fighter – Highest recommendation from me. The Paladin and Fighter both are auto-attack damage dealers and capable tanks. Their typical depictions also fit well with one another, as the Paladin is, essentially, presented as a Fighter with some magic powers thrown in by most of the game.

Barbarian – It does fit with the Paladin’s roles as far as damage dealing goes and might be able to tank (?). It is much more ability driven than both the Paladin and Fighter though. There is, however, some interesting Terrify mechanics for the Bleak Walker and Barbarian that could be worked into the RP. And Paladins can learn a version of Frenzy as the cross-class Barbarian talent.

Rogue – Pillars of Eternity allows for all classes to use all weapons and armor, so it is entirely possible, and I would say very likely as Paladins work in all manners of places and organizations, that some would have a similar approach to combat as a Rogue does. It does make for a very squishy Paladin substitute though, so be warned.

Ranger – Probably the one that is the second simplest to justify. Not only Rangers can use ranged and Rangers can go melee. And no one said only Rangers can have animal friends. Like the Rogue, it is a bit squishy though.

Background

Pillars of Eternity offers various backgrounds for the player to pick from, each of which has a few additional dialogue choices for RPing during the tutorial. I’ll point out what I think are relevant info and give my recommendations.

Note: You can always say “None of your business” if none of the options suit your particular RP.

Aristocrat – General term for any Highborn character. Its dialogue choices include being part of the royalty, being from a family that bought their titles or generally “having clout among the elite” (meaning, “regular” nobility). This background fit very well with Paladin Orders like the Shieldbearers of St. Elcga and the Darcozzi Paladini. It also fits well with the other Orders.

Artist – Noe idea how this would be related to a Paladin, sorry.

Clergyman – Paladin’s and faith goes hand in hand, so why wouldn’t some religiously aligned people be Paladins? You can choose to be a congregation leader, missionary (my recommendation), jaded ex-believer (also recommended) or that you just “left it behind”. Fits well with Kind Wayfarers in particular, and the non-playable Orders like the Fellows of St. Waidwen or the Paladins of Berath you can meet in Raedric’s Hold.

Colonist – Works well with any Order, as it can be taken to mean the trip to Dyrwood is your second attempt to get away from your old life.

Dissident – A Paladin who couldn’t follow orders and had to flee maybe?

Drifter and Explorer – Both fit the Kind Wayfarer modus operandi quite well.

Hunter – Hunters can choose between living on their own in the wilderness (Kind Wayfarer fit), being a monster hunter (Goldpact Knight fit) and some other irrelevant stuff.

Laborer – Builder option does not offer much, but the Cook and Blacksmith could have a place in organized Paladin Orders, as a side-duty.

Mercenary – This background is a catch-all term for sellswords, war veterans and constables. Sellsword fits well with Goldpact and Bleakwalker, war veteran suits everyone and constable fits the Shieldbearer and Darcozzi Orders.

Merchant – The option for being someone who transported goods and people in secret lends itself well to Goldpact Knights.

Mystic – See Clergyman.

Philosopher – The option for having considered right and wrong, good and evil fits well with a former Bleak Walker and Goldpact Knight.

Raider – This mostly lends itself to Goldpact Knights. Seems too random for the Bleak Walker and their defined role.

Scholar – The option for being a scholar of war and combat lends itself to the Bleak Walkers.

Scientist – Actually means “dedicated alchemist”. Could be a thing for Kind Wayfarers, who travel a lot.

Slave – Ship slave, estate slave or indentured servant. Could work for any, but Paladins are driven by devotion. Awakening from Stockholm syndrome, perhaps?

Culture

There are seven cultures available for the payer to pick from. Here is my take on which race, subrace and Paladin Order would make the most sense in each of them.

Note: Godlike can be of any race and their features obscure which subrace they belong to. Godlike, in this list, will be automatically included with the race recommendations. For example, if I say “Human, Occean Folk” that includes all Godlike who are human.

Note 2: Due to the limited knowledge on the non-playable Paladin Orders (and that the Brotherhood of Five Suns is from somewhere the player cannot be from), I have omitted most of them from the lists.

Aedyr – The Aedyr Empire is made up of human and Wood Elf kingdoms, and is the home of the Shieldbearers of St. Elcga.

Race: Human, Meadow Folk. Elf, Wood Elf.

Order: Kind Wayfarer, Bleak Walker, Goldpact Knight, Shieldbearer of St. Elcga.

Deadfire Archipelago – A mesh of island nations. Naasitaq is only known nation, home to many boreal dwarves and Aumaua. Ranger companion is from Naasitaq.

Race: Aumaua, Island. Dwarf, boreal.

Order: Kind Wayfarer, Bleak Walker, Goldpact Knight.

Ixamitl Plains – A large nation of savannah, mostly occupied by humans and Orlan.

Race: Human, Savannah. Orlan, either.

Order: Kind Wayfarer, Bleak Walker, Goldpact Knight.

Old Vailia – Once the seat of the Grand Empire, Old Vailia is now renowned for their great culture, but are no longer considered an important player in international politics.

Race: Human, Occean. Dwarf, either(?).

Order: Darcozzi Paladini, Kind Wayfarer, Bleak Walker, Goldpact Knight.

Rauatai – The kingdom of the Aumaua, known to be technologically advanced and have a powerful navy.

Race: Aumaua, either (?).

Order: Kind Wayfarer, Bleak Walker, Goldpact Knight.

The Living Lands – Chaotic frontier in a weird world, with strong racial diversity. Dwarves are common.

Race: Dwarf, any. Any.

Order: Kind Wayfarer.

The White that Wends – Southern expanse of ice, inhabited by elves and some dwarves.

Race: Elf, Pale. Dwarf, Boreal.

Order: Rymrgand Paladin, Kind Wayfarer.

My Orderless Paladin

As for me, the character I decided to make is this:

Human, Meadow Folk.

Aedyr, Aristocrat. Chose that the family has some clout among the elite and that they are embarrassed by him.

Former Bleak Walker. My thinking is that he is a “spare son”, someone not in line for inheritance. Embarrassed his family by joining the Bleak Walkers over the Shieldbearers, and kept no contact after leaving the Bleak Walkers.

Came to Dyrwood to escape his old life.

Fighter, damage dealer.

I hate Fallout: New Vegas

I continue my trend of catching up to 2016 after covering one thing in Skyrim by going back a few years to Obsidian Entertainment’s take on a Bethesda Game Studios RPG. Or their take on a BioWare RPG. Whichever strikes your fancy, really, since it fucks up both.

Now, let me start of by saying that I tend to really enjoy Bethesda and BioWare RPGs. Even Oblivion, which I can’t fucking stop using as a prime example (because it fucking is) of missed potential, have given me hours upon hours of enjoyable gameplay because it had shit worth doing not attached to the main quest. Indeed, the main quest was maybe 10% of the total content amount in the game. Maybe. Probably more like 5%.

I enjoy linear and semi-linear stories too, like your typical BioWare RPGs, where everything major is in some way tied to your main quest, with a few side quests strewn in between. I can forgive stale repetitive gameplay if the world draws me in, like in Morrowind. So why do I hate, and I really do hate, New Vegas?

On paper the game looks absolutely brilliant. Post-apocalyptic New Vegas is the stage for a conflict between Caesar’s Legion from the East and the New California Republic from the West, with a pre-war genius trying to keep control of the New Vegas he built. It set’s BioWare characters and storytelling in a Bethesda sandbox, while improving on some of the niggles of Fallout 3’s gameplay. Another thing that makes perfect sense on paper is for Donald Trump to open Trump’s Mortgage shortly before the housing market collapsed. That is to say, it only makes sense until you actually think it through.

It is no secret that Bethesda Game Studios are not great at the whole “storytelling” aspect of developing a game. We saw them give a real good attempt with Fallout 4, and a token entry with Fallout 3, which were anticlimactic as hell. Much like New Vegas, come to think of it. But Fallout 3&4 have something NV do not: The option to fucking escape from the main story.

See, the thing that actually makes a BGS RPG is 1) the freedom, and 2) the world-building. These two ingredients are why Morrowind, Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and to a lesser extent Fallout 4 are good games. BGS knows (or at least used to know. Cough, F4, cough) that their engine and approach to gameplay does not lend itself to lengthy conversations directly engaged in by the player. This is why all the best dialogue with, say, Ulfric Stormcloak is between him and Galmar Stone-Fist and not with the player. You can actually have the two of them react in some way to what the other person is saying.

What it does lend itself to is letting the player explore and to let you build a world. The former because it gives you a shit-ton of locations to explore and the latter because you can put books, journals, mini-quests, visual storytelling, interesting loot/rewards and more NPC to NPC dialogue in these places as the player murders their way through legions of whoever is unfortunate enough to be in their way.

If you want to play a game that lends itself to story-telling, I’d recommend most BioWare RPGs over any BGS RPG any day of the week. They use a very different engine, with more linear stories and more character focus. They also remove a lot of the freedom associated with BGS games, have more “cinematic” conversation systems and a very, very strong focus on the overarching story. Except in Dragon Age: Origins. That was an “unfortunate coincidence”-fest I might have to revisit in a post of its own someday.

The point I am ultimately making, since it obviously needs to be spelled out, is that the different game systems and designs lend itself to different things. When you remove the cinematic effect (which in older games, and some new ones, were given to you in textbox descriptions, which is fine), you remove a lot of the humanity of a character. You remove the option to showcase a lot of their quirks visually. Like Jack’s restlessness and unease and pain in Mass Effect 2, which are made more impactful and believable by the way she moves when interacting with Sheperd. Boone stopping you in the middle of nowhere to engage in a “who can go without blinking the longest” contest, while standing perfectly stiff, is not engaging, no matter how interesting and touching his story is. They do that shit in Oblivion and Fallout 3 too, but at least has the courtesy of being fucking brief about it.

This is, in my opinion, the worst of the flaws NV makes. The thing that cannot be fixed, because it is not a matter of the furniture (don’t worry, I have plenty of things to complain about there too), but of the foundation of the house. Even if it looked lovely inside, I am not buying a house that is collapsing in on itself. Or, since I did when I bought NV, I will complain about it.

The TL;DR of this first part about NV is this: Forcing me into endless amounts of Oblivion and Fallout 3 style conversations is a quick way to get me really fucking bored. Now to throw the furniture (and babies in bathwater) into a burning fire.

As I can’t stop ragging on about when giving my opinions on Morrowind and Oblivion (and later on when I get around to talking about Skyrim), world building is really fucking important to me. It can make or break a game by itself. And I really fucking hate the world building in New Vegas.

The first obvious problem is Caesar’s Legion. Not only are they a rip off of something I am really fucking sick of, the Romans, but they are also so mind bogglingly evil that it is hard to comprehend that they were introduced as one of the two major parts of a conflict that could be really interesting. They enslave people, force women into bearing children, force men to fight, destroy any semblance of self-identity and engages in torture, terrorism and genocide. And this is only by their own description of what they do. At least Skyrim’s Civil War keeps the obviously evil group as a looming threat, not a side to pick. Heck, the Thalmor being mind bogglingly evil isn’t even fully established in the canon of the series yet, just interpretations based on a former developer’s writings that are not part of the games.

I also hates the casino families. Nero (really going for the subtle approach, Obsidian) and his Gamorra are your stereotypical Italian gangsters, Benny and the Chairmen are stereotypical American gangsters and the white masked freaks are high society perverts and cannibals. Nice spread, shame only the least fleshed out one is the most interesting. Hint, it is the ones eating people. You’d think I didn’t have to specify that, but a lot of people seem to like this game, so I am apparently living on a planet of morons. Once upon time I started cooking food for a living and prayed to the Eight and One that the waiters and waitresses I worked with were not representative of humanity’s overall spread in intelligence, but the Eight and One apparently hate me.

In a short summation, because there isn’t a lot to say about them, I find the Boomers to be very silly, the NRC to be boring, the BoS to be poorly executed and the Followers of the Apocalypse to be numbingly dull. The slums outside of New Vegas and the Enclave veterans are alright-ish, but there are like 3 things to do there, so that’s nowhere near close enough to make up for the boredom the rest of the game leaves me with.

Most of the major sidequests are, in some way, tied to the main quest. And I absolutely hate this too. This is where the mixing of BGS and BioWare game styles really begin to run into one another. I do not play an openworld sandbox RPG (that is not the Witcher 3) to be forced to play the main questline and quest in a particular order. I play is for freedom. The linearity of FO:NV is further emphasized by the jerkish enemy placement that steer you in 1 path around the world that just happens to be the one with the most NPCs explaining what is going on in the world. You can sneak through these high level areas, but you’re not rewarded for it. You just end up in areas before you have the gear and level to deal with them. Whop-de-fucking-do.

On the topic of quests, most of them seem to be designed to give the middle finger to anyone who do not care to have a high speechcraft skill. And don’t get me wrong, I think that having a viable path through the game based around the ability to be persuasive is fine. What I am not fine with is making it so that you fuck up a quest in some way or another if you don’t have that skill on your character. Making something viable is not the same thing as making it the only fucking solution that doesn’t resemble a “thank you for trying” award. Name me 1 quest in the game that does not net you a benefit with speechcraft that is unobtainable otherwise.

The character could be interesting, I don’t know. I don’t know because I am taken out of the immersion with a bucket of cold water by the dialogue system past the 2 minute mark, so the game wouldn’t even get points for that if they were the best written characters I had ever encountered. Which they are not. Which I know because I can still hear what they are saying after the immersion has taken the first train to Sweden. Stereotypes and flat-faced popculture-references, a reliance on “silly mutants” and a Companion quest system that, should you actually want to get to know them, will miss no chance to mess with you as you need a bloody spreadsheet to not miss the triggers. And don’t get me started on the DLCs. Too late, I suppose, so let’s give each of them a quick look.

Dead Money: Oh, great, a claustrophobic heist mission in an open world game. Exactly what I want. No, New Vegas, I do not want more linear shit from you and I definitely don’t want more casinos.

Big MT: Running around an experimental facility while a bunch of mad scientist robots shouts nonsense at you in really annoying tones of voice. Hint: It worked for Portal because 1) it was short, 2) it had a strong central game mechanic that was incredibly (blatant brown-nosing) well implemented, and 3) it was clever and funny. It does not work in Old World Blues because I want to tear of my ears 5 minutes into the first conversation and things are only going downhill from there when they introduce the most annoying enemies from New Vegas again. Oh, and don’t try to pass it off as “original”. Running around an experimental science lab gone wrong is not original.

Honest Hearts: It was alright. I think. I remember engaging in a little tribal warfare and that was pretty much it. Honestly, I remember next to nothing about it, so I know for a fact that it did neither engage nor infuriate me. So it was probably alright. If I’m charitable.

Lonesome Road: Oh, great, retroactively unmaking every roleplaying decision the player has made by attaching a past to them in the last expansion of the game. Great way to end things guys. At least FO 3&4 give you your backstory at the start and don’t invite you to make up your own on a supposedly near-blank canvass. Oh, and then there is the dull-voices antagonist that is inexplicitly obsessed with the player because you changed the course of history for an area you just heard about for the first time like 2 hours ago. And this place too is very linear and I have ragged on about how well that goes with the engine four or five time by now.

DLC TL;DR: It does not fix any of the game’s faults, nor give you the option of a more interesting place to spend your game time. Like the Shivering Isles for Oblivion did, by adding an open chunk of land with bright colors, weird people and its own wildlife to hunt to your heart’s content roughly one fourth the size of the original landmass. Which is pretty damn good in terms of value.

I suppose a couple of positives towards the end are mandatory, if only in interest of being fair minded: There are a couple of improvements on FO3’s gameplay, with the added armor typing, adding of a threshold for weapons and armor condition before they start affecting performance and food crafting. The added weapon and armor variety is nice.

Naturally, with that, we also have to mention that for the first few months, the game had technical issues the same way a child rapist has a few personality flaws. Most of which was fixed in post, but fucking hell that launch resembled the Skyrim launch for PS3. It just happened across all platforms.

The Elder Scrolls: On Classes

 “Don’t fix what is not broken.” – A common claim. A claim I don’t disagree with, in principle. But I do have to disagree with it being applied to the classes and levelling in Morrowind and Oblivion. Because “broken” is the only way I have of describing it.

All I really have to say about the change in character levelling system when it comes to Skyrim from the previous games is: “What change?”

A surprising statement, perhaps, until you consider how these systems worked and how little that actually changed with Skyrim. In Morrowind and Oblivion (and Daggerfall, but fuck Daggerfall and its shit interface, RNGenerated world and quests), you pick a selection of skills at the start of your journey that will decide what levels you up. Not that actually defines your character, since there is no difference between a class skill and non-class skill of the same level. They just decide what levels you up and get a bonus to experience gain to match this. In Skyrim you just go out in the world and level by using whatever skill you want. Well, okay, there was one major change: Attribute bonuses when levelling became perk points when levelling.

Attributes start out semi-unique and, through a combination of high starting values compared to max value and how frequent you increase them, very quickly become just the same as everyone else with a remotely similar character. A warrior in Morrowind or Oblivion, regardless of whether they focus on offense or defense or a mix, will have roughly the same numbers in Strength, Endurance, Agility and Speed at all levels. Hybrid characters that spread themselves thin eventually end up more powerful (usually anyway), because the low caps on attributes really do not reward specialization.

Perks, on the other hand, very directly forces you to choose between what you want to do that level and characters that outwardly focus on the same skills (say, a warrior in heavy armor with 1-handed) can vary quite a bit. One might focus on defense and use a shield, with high investment in armor and blocking skills, while the other might be dual wielding and focus much more on the efficiency of his weapons. One might have very high health while the other have a mix of stamina and health. Hybrid characters spread themselves thin in this system too, perhaps even more so, given the limited number of perk points compared to perks.

Putting it like this: Your attributes can have pretty high numbers across the board on a “high level” character in Oblivion and Morrowind, even without grinding. You can also easily max every single attribute by level 50 if you do grind. In Skyrim, you need to be level 250-something to get all the perks. Something that is possible with the Legendary thing added, but still takes a great deal more time and grinding than reaching level 50 (regular max level in Oblivion, and some 20 levels below regular max level in Morrowind). No matter how you twist and turn it, there is simply more specialization of your character going on in Skyrim, because of the more limited perkpoints.

Now that I have poked that hornet’s nest, let’s move on to the topic I want to cover more thoughtfully and that is the classes in Morrowind and Oblivion. And why I don’t think they are worth defending. And we’re not just talking implementation, but in principle.

On implementation, I will say this; it’s shit. The lack of differentiating things between class and non-class skills and the related attribute problem makes it a laughably bad and shallow system. The attributes also don’t really do anything interesting.

For example, if I want to create an agility based, rather than strength based, warrior, I am punished for that. It is not that I am just doing less damage per hit, but I am not receiving anything useful in return for this. Agility gives a minor boost in accuracy and dodge ability in Morrowind and reduced stagger in Oblivion. And both games give a little stamina bonus. In Oblivion, it also gives some bow damage, but that is irrelevant to a warrior character.

In Morrowind, the dodge is nice, I guess, if very inconsistent. But the accuracy is rather quite inconsequential compared. Your primary accuracy comes from the skill in use itself and is already generally reliable by skill-level 50 (70+ for high level enemies like Umbra). Given that starting values for Major Skills in Morrowind range from 30(no bonuses) to 50(Redguard, combat specialization, Long Blade as a Major Skill), this is generally not a problem.

In Oblivion, staggering is nice to avoid, but this too is not very much in return for the sacrifice of the only attribute that increases melee damage. And carry weight. On top of that, Strength also gives stamina. And then there is the biggest problem of them all: I don’t need to make a choice between them, in either of the games. An Agility based warrior is going to be weaker than a Strength, Endurance and Agility based warrior. Which in turn is weaker than a Strength, Endurance, Agility and Speed based warrior. Etc. All of which is easily achieved in the system with little grinding. Hell, unless you intentionally go for suboptimal stats, it is the inevitable result of levelling a warrior character.

But this is not about implementation. Not really, anyway. Most would agree, in my experience, that the levelling system is hardly something to boast about even if they do prefer it over the (mostly the same) system in Skyrim. Which is not so much a different room in the house as just shuffling some furniture around.

The thing I dislike most with the class system in Morrowind and Oblivion, which says a lot given how much I hate the implementation whose only saving grace is “not being that much of a hassle”, is the core ideas underlying it. The fact that it is essentially a class-less system with unnecessary restrictions and faffing attached.

“Unnecessary restrictions?” you ask, thinking about how most class systems do impose restrictions that are, ultimately, arbitrary. “Just look at how many games, like Dragon Age, has decided for the player that Rogues use one of these 2 types of weapons and only this sort of armor. A lot of RPGs does shit like that and I don’t hear you complaining about them.”

Which is true, a lot of RPGs do impose such restrictions, but they are not “unnecessary” in the same sense. Most games I know of that have a class-system for your character, regardless of how free or limited the player is in outfitting them with arms and armor, tend to use the classes to differentiate and specialize.

If we continue with the Dragon Age examples (a system I think has had the wrong evolution regarding equipment freedom since the first one), let’s focus a moment on Origins. Between Warriors and Rogues, there is a bit of overlap, specifically in the archery and dual wielding skills. Does that mean that a Warrior who pick up sword and dagger will be the same as a Rogue who picks up sword and dagger? Nope. Even assuming the two characters are equipped the same, there is still going to be some fundamental differences between them. And all of these changes come from the underlying differences the classes work with.

Warriors have higher health and higher base stats like damage , with talents like Taunt, Disengage and Death Blow. They have the Reaver, Champion, Templar and Berserker specializations to choose from. Rogues have a higher number of secondary skills like Stealth and Poison Making, the ability to Backstab when flanking an enemy and talents like Dirty Fighting, Coup de Grace and Lethality. They have access to the Ranger, Bard, Assassin and Duelist specializations. These are quite significant differences even when assuming the same equipment, let alone what sort of differences in equipment these differences encourages.

Heck, let’s even take a quick look at a class system that does not impose any more equipment restrictions than the Elder Scrolls: Pillars of Eternity. Each class can equip whatever they want and this may or may not be encouraged by how their skills work. The Paladin, if designed to deal damage, is not overly hindered by a 2-handed weapon and medium/heavy armor, since they focus on high damage auto attacks, high base defenses and the occasional Flames of Devotion nuke to take down priority targets. A Barbarian, on the other hand, has skills that rely on duration (like Frenzy) and this supports quicker attacks for maximum effect. Quicker attacks are easiest to achieve with little to no armor and fast weapons like Hatchets and Daggers. You can switch the equipment of the two and it probably won’t be that bad, but you’re going to have to change the playstyle a bit on both of them. And even in the same equipment, they will play differently due to the fundamentals of their classes.

Those bright bastards among you might realize where I am then going to go with the criticism of the Elder Scrolls class system as seen in Morrowind and Oblivion. It imposes restrictions regarding what allows you to level up, without rewarding those restrictions with anything unique to that class. And this is one of the things that makes me say that the system in Skyrim is leagues above Morrowind and Oblivion, even as poorly implemented as it is. Investing in a skill in Skyrim actually differentiates it from other fundamentally similar skills.

If I, for whatever reason, have the same skill level in Blade and Blunt in Oblivion, it does not matter which is my class skill. They will perform equally well. If we just put the Blade and Blunt skills into Skyrim’s system (ignoring for a moment that they made a better separation with 1-handed and 2-handed), the one I have invested perk points in (Skyrim’s equivalence of a “class skill”), will have significantly more to offer me in terms of efficiency. Even if the skill level is the same. Hell, even if the skill level of the one I haven’t invested perks in is higher the one with the investment will perform better.

In short, I think that if you are to have classes in a game, I want there to be tangible differences in the mechanics to differentiate them from one another. Oblivion and Morrowind does not do this, therefor I think having a class system at all is entirely superfluous and counterproductive. The Elder Scrolls had to either remove classes to keep the general approach in gameplay or give unique skills/talents/mechanics to each class to keep a class system if they wanted to move away from that awful mess. Me, I am glad they saw that it was a mess and made a choice.

I have to admit, I would also have liked to see a Skyrim with more traditionally restrictive classes. Though I doubt there would have been any less outcry about that than it has been about the removal of the old system. Well, in name anyway. In practice Skyrim lets you level your character the same exact way as previous titles: Pick a skill and get to work. It just does it with less shit attached to it.

The Dissapointments of Oblivion

Is that title grammatically correct? I have no idea.

I am someone who likes my game-series to evolve over time, because, sure, I did enjoy Morrowind for what it was, but I don’t want it to be like so many other series in that it is just the same over and over. Call of Duty and Assassins Creed are modern examples of what I am thinking about.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I would say, does improve on most gameplay elements, giving the player more interaction as opposed to just having it happen automatically. I know not all think this is an improvement, but I think it does. I prefer my RPGs to let me decide what to do and the character I control to decide how effective that action is.

Something I need to make clear before I go on with this rant-ish thing is that I don’t consider Oblivion to be a bad game. I’ve had a lot of fun running around Standard Fantasy World #62983756. And I do think that people are ascribing undue originality to Morrowind. After all, “dark elves” worshiping gods everyone else thinks are evil, with a society that allows and emphasize backstabbing and infighting with a general insect-theme on their arms and armor does smell a little of the Drow Elves. And if we look around for a bit, I’m sure we’ll find a Drizzt Do’Urden in their ranks too. Possible candidates would be Symmachus, Sir Ralvas or one of the billion Dunmer NPCs we see in the Elder Scrolls Online.

But if I prefer Oblivion’s gameplay (and I do by a large margin) and think Morrowind is far less original than some would have it be, why do I still think of Oblivion as only the 3^rd best main series Elder Scrolls game?

The problem Oblivion has, in my eyes and it seems I am far from alone in this, is that it did not learn the lesson Morrowind should have taught it: A well-presented world that lets you learn a whole lot about it can make up for stale gameplay. Even elevate it above said gameplay to the point where people are still bitching about how the later titles are not as good 15 years later. And the reverse of this truth: A poorly presented world with few interesting things to lean can make a game a lot shittier than the sum of its parts.

Another thing I have to clarify before moving forward, because I am sure some apologist for Oblivion have spotted a common argument against it implied so far, is that I don’t mind if the lore is changed. Indeed, with time, I’ve become quite fond of the “controversial” additions to the lore, like the Ebonheart Pact, religion in Skyrim having changed or even that Cyrodiil was not what was expected (in principle anyway). An example that more clearly shows what I am thinking about would be Bane from The Dark Knight Rises; changed quite a lot from his original starting point, but still interesting and works very well in the story. Well, a story with loads of plotholes, but you know.

Would I have liked to see Cyrodiil as the Pocket Guide to the Empire 1^st Edition paints it? Yes, I would. Would I mind if they replaced things in order to create a better Cyrodiil? Not at all. The problem is that Oblivion removed most elements of Cyrodiilic culture (even erasing the difference between Colovian and Nibenese culture) without replacing it with anything. Which is the key part. They took something out, without filling something new in in its place.

What this led to, which is what disappoints me so much about Oblivion, is a very bland world. To make matters worse, there are few unique dungeons you can just explore. Not that there were that many unique dungeons in Morrowind, but most had something, some detail to make it stand out just a bit. Everything worth doing in Oblivion is tied directly into a quest you get somewhere else.

With poor presentation of the world and less reason to explore, Oblivion sadly does not do enough to surpass Morrowind as a game, IMO.