The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

Before you start

• Daggerfall Unity modernises the game and makes it more accessible: https://github.com/Interkarma/daggerfall-unity/releases

• Some suggested mods:
  • DREAM (Massive visual enhancements, a lot of community support as well)
  • Daggerfall Unity Quest Pack 1 (More quests)
  • Distant Terrain (Better view distance)
  • Fixed Dungeon Exteriors (Better dungeon exteriors, no longer do castles look like a little mound of dirt)
  • Convenient Clock (Provides date and time near the compass, no need to look at info for date and time)
  • Convenient Quest Log (More usable quest log)

Character creation

• All races get a bonus upon creation but some are better than others, a quick tier breakdown:
  • S: High Elf (Immune to Paralysis), Redguard (Bonus to hit & damage level/3)
  • A: Dark Elf (Bonus to hit & damage level/4), Breton (30% magic resist)
  • B: Nord (30% Cold resist), Wood Elf (Bonus to hit & damage level/3 for Archery only)
  • C: Khajiit (better climbing), Argonian (better swimming)

• Which is not to say that you shouldn't play Khajiit for example, as you can make up the difference with spells or magic items over time.

• You can pick your class or answer questions to have your class picked for you. All pre-built classes are viable, but Custom classes can be made to be very powerful.

• At the Custom class screen, the Help button explains most everything, but it doesn't explain the Skill Advancement bar well. The center is considered 1.0x, if a skill takes 100 skill checks at 1.0x to advance to the next level, it will take 300 at 3.0x and 30 at 0.3x to advance. The stats on the left can be given more or less weight for the upcoming stat distribution screen.

• You gain levels by using Primary, Major and Minor skills. Easy skills to level up will have you gain levels faster, but keep in mind that you will be fighting, so having a weapon/damage skill in Primary or Major is important. If you can't fight, enemies will outpace you and kill you quick.

• Language skills are mostly useless (Impish, Giantish, etc), Streetwise and Etiquette have minimal usage. All weapons except hand to hand and all magic schools are good picks. Running, Jumping, Climbing, Swimming are super easy to level as an option and will just go up naturally.

• Special advantages: Expertise In your preferred weapon type is a great choice, Immunity/Resistance are very strong but expensive. Increased Magery is necessary if you plan to cast lots of spells as normally you only get INT x 0.5 for spell points. Spell Absorption is very powerful. Regen Health isn't as good as it sounds, neither is Acute Hearing and Adrenaline Rush.

• Special disadvantages: Taking Damage from Holy Places only hurts when you are in a Temple or Fighter Trainer's hall, so it's a good pick as long as you pop in and out of those places quickly. Take a forbidden weapon or two of a weapon type that you aren't using to drop the dagger down a bit on the bar. Taking Steel as a forbidden material is actually a great way to get the dagger lower as while Steel is super common, it's the second weakest material. Iron can hold you over until you find Silver weapons and armor or better. Critical Weakness/Low Tolerance exchange extra damage from your choice in order to lower the dagger. Whichever you pick, stock up on ways to resist or cure your weakness asap. I'd ignore the rest of the disadvantages.

• After this, you can fast start to allow the game to create your background or influence it yourself by answering some questions. I suggest answering the questions because that allows you to give yourself some boosts to specific skills, rep with different factions and most importantly you can get an ebony dagger which will be the best starting weapon you can get.

• Next is the Bonus Point screen. The stats you set earlier are the minimum you can roll, with up to 10 extra points in that stat plus up to 14 extra points to distribute. So if you left all stats at 50, each stat can roll between 50-60, so take the time to get a good roll. Next you set your points for your skills and finally you set your reflexes. Very High is what works for most people now days.

Playing

• First things first, press ESC and create a save, you don't want to die in the first dungeon and have to recreate your character.

• Quick save in safe spots often and once you're out of the dungeon I suggest heading for Daggerfall as your starting point. You will get a letter from Lady Brisienna, do this quest within the time frame given and then from there I suggest taking your time to explore the game, do some minor quests for townspeople, nobles, and various factions.

• If a quest has a time limit, you will be told about it and make sure you complete the story quests within the limit or you could lock yourself out of completing the story, barring using console commands.

• If you want, you can enable Guild Quest Selection in the advanced options of DFUnity, this allows you to pick your quest from Guilds instead of having to decline random quests until you get the one you want.

• I would also have the Game Console enabled just in case if you get frustrated during a quest or something bad happens, you can fix it in the console. Commands are here: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall_Mod:Daggerfall_Unity/Console

• Teleport and Recall are very, VERY useful for getting out of dungeons.

• Some dungeons are impossible. Save before going into one.

• I hate cheating in games. Cheatmode in Daggerfall is a lifesaver for me for the key dungeon location jumping.

• Enchanting weapons is very useful when you have the money. Doing the wizards guild quests are worth it just for that.

• Becoming a Vampire is a blast, but it basically derails whatever you were doing until you do the cure quest.

Spell creation

• The Mages Guild allows access to the Spell Maker right when you join and it’s extremely powerful in the right hands.

• A quick overview of how it works:
  • First you want to pick one or more spell effects. Let’s say you want to make a fireball spell. Pick Damage > Health as the effect.
  • Then you will be asked to set the Magnitude which reads as follows: 1-1 + 1-1 per 1 level. The first 1-1 is the Base damage so if you set it at 5-10, the base damage of the spell is now between 5 to 10. The next 1-1 is the per level modifier. If you set this to 5-5 per 1 level and you are at level 3, the spell does 15 extra damage.
  • You can also change the per level value to decrease casting cost of the spell since now it will only gain strength per level multiplier you set. “Per 2 levels” means the spell would only gain another 5-5 every even level.

• Chance and Duration have the same modifiers, Duration is in game minutes.

• Since you picked a Damage Health spell, you can also choose which damage type you want to use, so click on Fire. Finally, choose the single target at range option, name your spell and purchase it.

• Almost all spells won’t allow you to change the spell type from Magicka, so don’t worry about that.

• The general trick with the Spell Maker is to create high base values, low per level values early on and visa versa late game. A level 1 spell could be 20-20 + 1-1 per 10 levels but a level 10 spell would be 1-1 + 10-10 per 1 or 2 levels.