Saturday, November 16, 2013
Dawnguard
One should be very careful when playing with Dawnguard installed on account of the random vampire attacks in cities and towns which can result in the death of someone you'd been thinking of marrying. Anyone who is outside at the time of an attack is likely to rush in to fight the vampires, and also very likely to be killed if they do so because they don't have the skills or health needed for combat. If you are ever near a town or in a city at night, or late evening, be careful and keep your ears out for sounds of combat and get over there as quickly as you can. It's also a good idea to save before exiting any buildings at night, and to fast travel to the outsides of cities to make sure you enter them during the day time when an attack is much less likely. Unfortunately, though this has mostly worked in my experience, I have in fact left a city with everything looking fine, been away a few days and then fast traveled to the stables, waited there till morning and then entered - and found the remains of a deathhound and an ash pile by the gate. It doesn't make any sense that this could have happpened while I was gone since essentially that section wasn't in existance since it wasn't loaded, but.... I can't deny the truth of what I just saw. I didn't see any bodies of townsfolk, luckilly, but still.... it is unsettling. So if you want to make sure your potential spouces stay alive, be very very careful and save often.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Where to Live
Some of the Marriage Partners own property and, once you're married, their house becomes a safe place to store things, which can be particularly handy early in the game before you've bought a house of your own. But don't make a rash decision just because you need a place to drop stuff off.
Even if you're not planning on using magic, I'd highly advise taking a carriage to Winterhold and joining the college as soon as possible because you will be given a free room with a bed and several containers which are safe to store things in, and will also have acess to an enchanting table and an alchemy lab with a lot of free ingredients. Don't be scared off by Faralda's test before being allowed to enter the college. If she asks you to cast a spell you don't know she will give it to you for 30 septims which is much cheaper than you would be able to buy the spell book elsewhere, and she is likely to choose 'Healing Hands' which is very useful if you have a follower (if you're looking to get a particular spell cheaply, save before talking to her and just reload till she asks for the right one). Joining the college also allows you to buy and sell with the various professors, as well as one fellow student, Enthir, who is guaranteed to carry the hard to find Deadra Hearts and Black Soul Gems. Although the Professors may not sell much you're interested in, if you get the Merchant Perk at level 50 Speech you'll be able to sell anything to them which makes the college a very convenient markteting stop as there are 6 people to sell to all in the same place and you can wake them up at any time of the night to trade with them (they are also a good source of soul gems for recharging your enchanted weapons).
But now, back to homes. Even if your intended spouce owns a home, they may only have a single bed in it which makes sleeping there difficult if they are sleeping at the same time you wish to, however you can sleep in their bed whenever they are not in it and still receive the 'lovers comfort' which makes skills increase 15% faster for the rest of the day. You also have to be careful about containers and property in their home that may belong to someone else who also lives there. In most cases it may be best to move them to your house once you have one - they will always have a moving speech option available so don't worry about your first choice of homes being permanent after the wedding. Once they move into your home you will be able to buy and sell things with them, usually like any other general merchant unless they were already a specialized merchant before you married them, in which case they'll have the same stuff they always did. Also, if you want to adopt children, you will most likely have to buy your own house because you have to have an extra bed and chest available for each child.
Something which may make it more attractive to stay in your spouce's home is that when living there they will continue their normal daily routine, so you can find them in the pub or wandering the market or tilling the fields or whatever else they do. Once they move to your home they will just be there all day which doesn't really matter, unless you're like me and feel like maybe they miss their old friends :) It should also be noted that in the houses you can build yourself, your spouce is apparently supposed to go sit in the roof of the Armory during the day, but if you don't build the Armory they will just hang out on the side of the house where the stairs to the roof-top patio would have been - which makes them particularly vulnerable to attacks from bandits or wolves which happen from time to time at the Hearthfire Homes. I should also note that sometimes, though rarely, the bandits actually can enter your home: for instance if they attack while you are on the roof of a tower and you need to enter the house to get down to your front lawn to fight them, you may end up running into one coming through the house to reach you up on the tower. There is also a quest in which your spouce can be kidnapped by bandits and you will have to go and rescue them. Thus, living inside a city is a much safer option.
Even if you're not planning on using magic, I'd highly advise taking a carriage to Winterhold and joining the college as soon as possible because you will be given a free room with a bed and several containers which are safe to store things in, and will also have acess to an enchanting table and an alchemy lab with a lot of free ingredients. Don't be scared off by Faralda's test before being allowed to enter the college. If she asks you to cast a spell you don't know she will give it to you for 30 septims which is much cheaper than you would be able to buy the spell book elsewhere, and she is likely to choose 'Healing Hands' which is very useful if you have a follower (if you're looking to get a particular spell cheaply, save before talking to her and just reload till she asks for the right one). Joining the college also allows you to buy and sell with the various professors, as well as one fellow student, Enthir, who is guaranteed to carry the hard to find Deadra Hearts and Black Soul Gems. Although the Professors may not sell much you're interested in, if you get the Merchant Perk at level 50 Speech you'll be able to sell anything to them which makes the college a very convenient markteting stop as there are 6 people to sell to all in the same place and you can wake them up at any time of the night to trade with them (they are also a good source of soul gems for recharging your enchanted weapons).
But now, back to homes. Even if your intended spouce owns a home, they may only have a single bed in it which makes sleeping there difficult if they are sleeping at the same time you wish to, however you can sleep in their bed whenever they are not in it and still receive the 'lovers comfort' which makes skills increase 15% faster for the rest of the day. You also have to be careful about containers and property in their home that may belong to someone else who also lives there. In most cases it may be best to move them to your house once you have one - they will always have a moving speech option available so don't worry about your first choice of homes being permanent after the wedding. Once they move into your home you will be able to buy and sell things with them, usually like any other general merchant unless they were already a specialized merchant before you married them, in which case they'll have the same stuff they always did. Also, if you want to adopt children, you will most likely have to buy your own house because you have to have an extra bed and chest available for each child.
Something which may make it more attractive to stay in your spouce's home is that when living there they will continue their normal daily routine, so you can find them in the pub or wandering the market or tilling the fields or whatever else they do. Once they move to your home they will just be there all day which doesn't really matter, unless you're like me and feel like maybe they miss their old friends :) It should also be noted that in the houses you can build yourself, your spouce is apparently supposed to go sit in the roof of the Armory during the day, but if you don't build the Armory they will just hang out on the side of the house where the stairs to the roof-top patio would have been - which makes them particularly vulnerable to attacks from bandits or wolves which happen from time to time at the Hearthfire Homes. I should also note that sometimes, though rarely, the bandits actually can enter your home: for instance if they attack while you are on the roof of a tower and you need to enter the house to get down to your front lawn to fight them, you may end up running into one coming through the house to reach you up on the tower. There is also a quest in which your spouce can be kidnapped by bandits and you will have to go and rescue them. Thus, living inside a city is a much safer option.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Creating Characters
I've played around quite a bit with all the options under creating characters and thought I'd share some of my observations.
- The Nords are noticably larger than the other humans. The Bretons are the most petite.
- The Imperials tend to look older because their eyes are smaller/narrower, while there are larger/rounder eye options under the Bretons and Nords which can lend a more innocent look if you're going for a youthful character.
- Also, it's a lot easier to make young looking women and elves, while all the human men tend to look older due to the width of their jaws and complexions. Even the fairest complextion option for men looks coarser and more shaddowed or dirty than for the women. The men's noses also tend to be on the large side. I might add that this trend carries over to the characters you can marry as well. There seem to be more young/pretty looking women to choose from, while the majority of the men look older or generally more thick-set and weathered.
- When using lighter colored hair, facial hair doesn't always look the same color as the rest of the hair, even if you've selected the same color, because of the way it's shaded or something. For example, and old man with the whitest hair option will appear to have a grey beard rather than a white beard.
- The Orcs have some of the most complex and even beautiful war-paint.
- It's possible to make orcs look almost elven if you move the jaw setting as far back as possible so it doesn't jut out, and select one of the smaller mouths without big teeth.
- Often the various eye options will all look really wierd, but if you play with the width and height of them they will actually look much better than expected, so you really can't just scroll through the shape options - you have to adjust everything in order to tell which you'll actually like.
- Occasionally when starting from a preset, if you change a feature you won't be able to find the same one again AT ALL in the rest of the options. Most of the time, however, it's in there somewhere, but not in the location the arrow seemed to indicate orriginally.
- In most cases the options for men and women of the same race are all pretty much the same, however, I have noticed a few instances where there are additional options under one gender or the other. Examples are: Argonian males have a purple hair-color option not available under the females. Nord males and females have a few differing war-paint options.
Something that is really handy is that after playing with options under one race and then switching to check out another one, if you decide to come back to the first race, all the options you picked will still be there. The same goes for switching between male and female under the same race. This is nice for comparrison between different possibilities.
- The Nords are noticably larger than the other humans. The Bretons are the most petite.
- The Imperials tend to look older because their eyes are smaller/narrower, while there are larger/rounder eye options under the Bretons and Nords which can lend a more innocent look if you're going for a youthful character.
- Also, it's a lot easier to make young looking women and elves, while all the human men tend to look older due to the width of their jaws and complexions. Even the fairest complextion option for men looks coarser and more shaddowed or dirty than for the women. The men's noses also tend to be on the large side. I might add that this trend carries over to the characters you can marry as well. There seem to be more young/pretty looking women to choose from, while the majority of the men look older or generally more thick-set and weathered.
- When using lighter colored hair, facial hair doesn't always look the same color as the rest of the hair, even if you've selected the same color, because of the way it's shaded or something. For example, and old man with the whitest hair option will appear to have a grey beard rather than a white beard.
- The Orcs have some of the most complex and even beautiful war-paint.
- It's possible to make orcs look almost elven if you move the jaw setting as far back as possible so it doesn't jut out, and select one of the smaller mouths without big teeth.
- Often the various eye options will all look really wierd, but if you play with the width and height of them they will actually look much better than expected, so you really can't just scroll through the shape options - you have to adjust everything in order to tell which you'll actually like.
- Occasionally when starting from a preset, if you change a feature you won't be able to find the same one again AT ALL in the rest of the options. Most of the time, however, it's in there somewhere, but not in the location the arrow seemed to indicate orriginally.
- In most cases the options for men and women of the same race are all pretty much the same, however, I have noticed a few instances where there are additional options under one gender or the other. Examples are: Argonian males have a purple hair-color option not available under the females. Nord males and females have a few differing war-paint options.
Something that is really handy is that after playing with options under one race and then switching to check out another one, if you decide to come back to the first race, all the options you picked will still be there. The same goes for switching between male and female under the same race. This is nice for comparrison between different possibilities.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
"Free" Skill Set Boosts
The Bard's College in Solitude, which you're likely to hear about frequently, doesn't seem to have a whole lot of purpose considering the fact that you can't play instruments in the game, and becoming a member of the college doesn't even give you a bed to sleep in there (although you can take a large number of books if you are a book collector like me). None of the members of the Bards College are Marriage Candidates either. However, there are three quests given by the professors which are well worth the time. The nice thing is that you don't have to receive the quests first for the quest items to appear, so you can skip becoming a member of the college entirely. You may want to pick up all three items and then return them all at once.
There are three special instruments you may randomly come across in the game, and though they are quest items, picking one up may not trigger the quest objective telling you who to return it to unless you've actually started the quest officially, so you're stuck with the thing till you just happen to talk to the right person....which you probably won't since they all hang out in the Bard's College. The reward for returning them is pretty good though. Each of the three professors will train you not just one level in one skill, as is usually the case with these types of quests, but instead you will get a boost in all the skills of a particular type - combat, stealth, or magic.
Finn's Lute is probably the easiest of the three to obtain. It's found in Stony Creek Cave over between the Rift and Eastmarch. The cave consists of a long narrow pasage populated by 4 or 5 bandits and is filled with a flammable gass which can be ignited to help take out the two bandits who are patrolling the main pasage. There is one little side room where you'll find the Lute guarded by a magic user who is the 'boss' of the cave. Return it to the old lady Inge Six Fingers for a one level boost in all Stealth skills: Sneak, Lockpicking, Pick-Pocket, Light Armor, Speech, and Alchemy.
Pantea's Flute is a little more difficult to obtain. Finding Hob's Fall Cave may prove fustrating, particularly without having it marked on your map, as the northern coastline where it is located has many cliffs and gorges to navegate and blizzards often make visibility almost nill. If you want to kill two birds with one stone, talk to the Jarl of Winterhold before coming here as this is one of the likely places he'll send you to retrieve the Helm of Winterhold, which you need to return in order to become a Thane of Winterhold (not that there is much point in doing that, since there is no house to buy and no Housecarl available in that unfortunate little city). Be prepared to fight magic-users in this cave, as well as a few skeletons, though usually you will meet only one at a time so it's not too bad, epecially if you take them out quietly. Returning the flute to Pantea Ateia (whom you may meet outside the Blue Palace wearing green Fine Clothes) will give you a one level boost in all Magic skills: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, and Enchanting.
Rjorn's Drum is the most difficult to obtain as it is found in Halldir's Cairn in the Falkreath area which has a pretty difficult undead boss to battle at the end. Return it to Giraud Gemane who will be one of the two people to greet you the first time you enter the Bard's College. He's wearing a Fine Hat and will tell you that he is the history teacher, though he is actually a trainer in Speech. When you return the drum to him he will give you a one level boost in all Combat skills: Smithing, One-Handed, Two-Handed, Archery, Heavy Armor, and Block.
There are three special instruments you may randomly come across in the game, and though they are quest items, picking one up may not trigger the quest objective telling you who to return it to unless you've actually started the quest officially, so you're stuck with the thing till you just happen to talk to the right person....which you probably won't since they all hang out in the Bard's College. The reward for returning them is pretty good though. Each of the three professors will train you not just one level in one skill, as is usually the case with these types of quests, but instead you will get a boost in all the skills of a particular type - combat, stealth, or magic.
Finn's Lute is probably the easiest of the three to obtain. It's found in Stony Creek Cave over between the Rift and Eastmarch. The cave consists of a long narrow pasage populated by 4 or 5 bandits and is filled with a flammable gass which can be ignited to help take out the two bandits who are patrolling the main pasage. There is one little side room where you'll find the Lute guarded by a magic user who is the 'boss' of the cave. Return it to the old lady Inge Six Fingers for a one level boost in all Stealth skills: Sneak, Lockpicking, Pick-Pocket, Light Armor, Speech, and Alchemy.
Pantea's Flute is a little more difficult to obtain. Finding Hob's Fall Cave may prove fustrating, particularly without having it marked on your map, as the northern coastline where it is located has many cliffs and gorges to navegate and blizzards often make visibility almost nill. If you want to kill two birds with one stone, talk to the Jarl of Winterhold before coming here as this is one of the likely places he'll send you to retrieve the Helm of Winterhold, which you need to return in order to become a Thane of Winterhold (not that there is much point in doing that, since there is no house to buy and no Housecarl available in that unfortunate little city). Be prepared to fight magic-users in this cave, as well as a few skeletons, though usually you will meet only one at a time so it's not too bad, epecially if you take them out quietly. Returning the flute to Pantea Ateia (whom you may meet outside the Blue Palace wearing green Fine Clothes) will give you a one level boost in all Magic skills: Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, and Enchanting.
Rjorn's Drum is the most difficult to obtain as it is found in Halldir's Cairn in the Falkreath area which has a pretty difficult undead boss to battle at the end. Return it to Giraud Gemane who will be one of the two people to greet you the first time you enter the Bard's College. He's wearing a Fine Hat and will tell you that he is the history teacher, though he is actually a trainer in Speech. When you return the drum to him he will give you a one level boost in all Combat skills: Smithing, One-Handed, Two-Handed, Archery, Heavy Armor, and Block.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Planning Ahead
Some of your seemingly unrelated, random choices may cause you to be unable to access the necessary quest in order to win the affection of the person you want to marry. I'll be compiling a list in this post as I discover what some of those may be.
Sadri / Viola
The good news is that there is only one favor quest which actually makes another marriage candidate impossible to marry. This is the favor which Revyn Sadri will ask you to do for him if you ask if anything in his shop is stolen. He will tell you that he bought a ring by mistake which he believes actually belongs to Viola Giordano and requests that you sneak the ring back into her house so no one will know what really happened, or that he was involved in any way. If you choose to hand the ring over to Viola directly she will become available for marriage, but Revyn will be out of the question. If you choose to secretly plant the ring as Revyn requested then he will be available for marriage (and also for speech training), but there won't be anything else you can do to raise Viola's disposition toward you high enough to make her available. Luckilly since they're not the same sex (not to mention race or type of person, etc.) it's unlikely you'll be trying to decide between those two. Still, it might be easy to make the mistake of helping Sadri without realising that it's excluding Viola as a marriage prospect.
Ysolda
It's very easy to accidentally rule her out. According to this site: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ysolda if you do the favor for Carlotta at the vegetable stand in Whiterun (telling the bard Mikael to stop bothering her) before you've obtained Ysolda's favor quest to retrieve a Mammoth tusk, she may not give you the option to do this for her, making it impossible to win her affection. In my experience this certainly seems to be confirmed, so if you have any interest in Ysolda, be sure to speak with her first! -- Sooooo, after many many in-game hours have passed (from level 3 to level 60), and countless other quests done, Ysolda finally gave me the dialogue for her mammoth tusk quest. I'm not sure why she suddenly did, although the most recent thing that might possibly be related is that I finally went ahead and completed the Bleak Falls Barrow/Golden Claw quests which I'd been putting off because I didn't want to deal with dragons. Possibly returning from that had some effect? I speculate this because it was right after this that I saw her on the steps to Dragon'sreach for the first time, which is also where I obtained the quest from her with my other character. So... it's possibly related.
Sorex Vinius
It's all too easy to loose the opportunity to win Sorex's favor, especially if you head straight to the shops after entering Solitude. Sorex is the son of the owner of the Winking Skeever and can either be found in the inn or browsing the stands in the outdoor market. He will ask you to do him a favor by delivering some rum to Falk Firebeard. Unfortunately, according to this site (once again): http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Sorex_Vinius the speech option for his favor will not show up if you agree to do a favor for Angeline Morrard in the Alchemy shop first. I can confirm this issue as well.
Brelyna Maryon
If you join the Mage's Collge in Winterhold, Brelyna will ask if she can experiment on you. Agreeing will gain her friendship. The trouble is that, apparently, if you have any kind of Spell Absorbtion effect at the time (according to this site: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Brelyna%27s_Practice), you can get stuck in the "wait for Brelyna's spell to wear off" stage permanently and can never become her friend (or spouce). I have had an issue with this myself, although I don't believe I had a spell absorbtion effect. Instead I speculate that a Resist Magic effect might interfere with this as well. Thus I advise doing this favor for her before you take any Resist Magic Perks under Alteration, and before becoming an Agent of Mara. I will have to do further experiments to confirm this.
Sadri / Viola
The good news is that there is only one favor quest which actually makes another marriage candidate impossible to marry. This is the favor which Revyn Sadri will ask you to do for him if you ask if anything in his shop is stolen. He will tell you that he bought a ring by mistake which he believes actually belongs to Viola Giordano and requests that you sneak the ring back into her house so no one will know what really happened, or that he was involved in any way. If you choose to hand the ring over to Viola directly she will become available for marriage, but Revyn will be out of the question. If you choose to secretly plant the ring as Revyn requested then he will be available for marriage (and also for speech training), but there won't be anything else you can do to raise Viola's disposition toward you high enough to make her available. Luckilly since they're not the same sex (not to mention race or type of person, etc.) it's unlikely you'll be trying to decide between those two. Still, it might be easy to make the mistake of helping Sadri without realising that it's excluding Viola as a marriage prospect.
Ysolda
It's very easy to accidentally rule her out. According to this site: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ysolda if you do the favor for Carlotta at the vegetable stand in Whiterun (telling the bard Mikael to stop bothering her) before you've obtained Ysolda's favor quest to retrieve a Mammoth tusk, she may not give you the option to do this for her, making it impossible to win her affection. In my experience this certainly seems to be confirmed, so if you have any interest in Ysolda, be sure to speak with her first! -- Sooooo, after many many in-game hours have passed (from level 3 to level 60), and countless other quests done, Ysolda finally gave me the dialogue for her mammoth tusk quest. I'm not sure why she suddenly did, although the most recent thing that might possibly be related is that I finally went ahead and completed the Bleak Falls Barrow/Golden Claw quests which I'd been putting off because I didn't want to deal with dragons. Possibly returning from that had some effect? I speculate this because it was right after this that I saw her on the steps to Dragon'sreach for the first time, which is also where I obtained the quest from her with my other character. So... it's possibly related.
Sorex Vinius
It's all too easy to loose the opportunity to win Sorex's favor, especially if you head straight to the shops after entering Solitude. Sorex is the son of the owner of the Winking Skeever and can either be found in the inn or browsing the stands in the outdoor market. He will ask you to do him a favor by delivering some rum to Falk Firebeard. Unfortunately, according to this site (once again): http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Sorex_Vinius the speech option for his favor will not show up if you agree to do a favor for Angeline Morrard in the Alchemy shop first. I can confirm this issue as well.
Brelyna Maryon
If you join the Mage's Collge in Winterhold, Brelyna will ask if she can experiment on you. Agreeing will gain her friendship. The trouble is that, apparently, if you have any kind of Spell Absorbtion effect at the time (according to this site: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Brelyna%27s_Practice), you can get stuck in the "wait for Brelyna's spell to wear off" stage permanently and can never become her friend (or spouce). I have had an issue with this myself, although I don't believe I had a spell absorbtion effect. Instead I speculate that a Resist Magic effect might interfere with this as well. Thus I advise doing this favor for her before you take any Resist Magic Perks under Alteration, and before becoming an Agent of Mara. I will have to do further experiments to confirm this.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Free Shout Wall #1
Here's another random tip for you:
Up in the mountains near Solitude is a Monument to Meridia and just up the hill from it is a Shout Wall which has no enemies around it. The word is for the Elemental Fury Shout which makes you swing your weapons faster, but only if they are unenchanted (I suppose because it acts as an enchantment). This is a great shout for two-handed weapon users since they are normally so slow, and is probably most valuable early in the game before you've acquired enchanted weapons. There is a similar Perk under the One-Handed skill if you dual-wield weapons "Dual Flury", but you can use this shout sooner than you will be able to unlock that perk at skill level 30.
Up in the mountains near Solitude is a Monument to Meridia and just up the hill from it is a Shout Wall which has no enemies around it. The word is for the Elemental Fury Shout which makes you swing your weapons faster, but only if they are unenchanted (I suppose because it acts as an enchantment). This is a great shout for two-handed weapon users since they are normally so slow, and is probably most valuable early in the game before you've acquired enchanted weapons. There is a similar Perk under the One-Handed skill if you dual-wield weapons "Dual Flury", but you can use this shout sooner than you will be able to unlock that perk at skill level 30.
"Free" Restoration Training
In order to do these character reviews I'll have to do all the little quests related to each of them first, and although I'd thought I would end up playing only minimally with this character, it's turning out to be a lot of work, soooo I thought I might as well also add a few tips about other things in Skyrim as I come to discover or think of them. So for the first random tip:
A very easy way to level up Restoration, once you have obtained the apprentice level spell Turn Lesser Undead (or any of the other turn undead spells) which can be bought from any of the court Wizards, is to go into the Hall of the Dead in Whiterun (the one in Solitude works nicely as well). Tell your follower to wait outside in the Lobby area while you go into the Catacombs by yourself. You might as well speak to the priest and obtain his miscleaneous quest to retrieve his amulet while you're at it. Once inside the Catecombs there will be three skeletons which are never very high level enemies so even your weakest turn undead spell will work against them. To 'train' your restoration ability, simply keep hitting the skeletons with turn undead. It will staggar them and make them flee and hide in corners, but it won't actually harm them so you can just keep this up all day long. Just chase them from one side of the crypt to the other repeatedly hitting them with the spell (you don't have to wait for it to wear off for it to count). The reason you want to leave your follower outside is that they will simply kill the skeletons too quickly, probably with one hit, and you need them alive to act as valid targets. Now this can be a bit tedious, and using higher level spells will level you up more quickly, but even using the weakest spell can advance you 30 levels in a short ammount of time and is still probably faster than normal training which only allows 5 sessions at a time and then you have to wait till you reach a new character level before you can train again (not to mention it can be expensive). This method is also usefull if your character is a higher level but has lagged behind in the development of Restoration, because the skeletons in the Hall of the Dead don't become stronger along with you like enemies in most locations do so your low level spells will still be effective.
And of course another thing to remember is that as long as you have magicka available, you should always heal yourself after a battle rather than just waiting for your health to naturally regenerate because you only advance your skill when casting on a valid target, which means casting healing on yourself does nothing if you're not actually hurt.
I reccommend leveling up your Restoration quickly at the very beginning of the game so you can buy the higher level spell books which allow you to heal faster and block greater spells. Plus there are some very useful Perks under Restoration, such as:
* "Respite" which is particularly good for those using weapons and heavy armor as it heals your stamina as well as your health, and can also be used to allow you to sprint indefinitely while repeatedly casting the healing spell on yourself.
* "Regeneration" is great for mages at low levels as it causes your magicka to regenerate faster which is important when you haven't got very much to begin with.
* "Avoid Death" will once a day automatically heal 250 points of health if your health drops really low, something which tends to happen all too quickly early on when one hit can take a third of your health (and when you aren't in the habit of remembering to drink a healing potion after every hit you take).
* "Ward Absorb" is indispensible if you plan to utilze ward spells at all because they tend to really drain your magicka, but this perk recharges your ward with every spell that hits it allowing you to keep it up indefinitely. It should be noted that wards are very effective against dragonbreath, even the novice level "Lesser Ward" can almost completely negate a dragon's fire or frost breath effects.
* "Necromage" is another very helpful Perk for those using magic instead of weapons because it makes all your spells stronger against Undead enemies - of which there are many. Probably the worst enemies you'll come up against are the undead Dragon Priests and Draugr Deathlords, not to mention the hoards of draugr whenever you go into Ancient Nord Ruins; Necromancers are hard enough to battle on their own but often raise zombie minions; and then there are also vampires (particularly with the Dawnguard add-on).
This does in fact tie in with the theme of Marriage since Mara the goddess of Love and Compassion is associated with Restoration. Activating a Shrine of Mara will fortify your restortation 10 points for 8 hours and your healing spells will restore 10% more. There are shrines of Mara in three cities: Solitude, in the Temple of the Divines; Riften, in the Temple of Mara; and Dawnstar, in Nightcaller Temple which is actually up the hill a little ways from the town and requires the quest Waking Nightmare to be completed first. If you build your own home with the Hearthfire add-on, you can build your own shrine of Mara in your basement, so you may want to pick up an extra Amulet of Mara in order to do this.
A very easy way to level up Restoration, once you have obtained the apprentice level spell Turn Lesser Undead (or any of the other turn undead spells) which can be bought from any of the court Wizards, is to go into the Hall of the Dead in Whiterun (the one in Solitude works nicely as well). Tell your follower to wait outside in the Lobby area while you go into the Catacombs by yourself. You might as well speak to the priest and obtain his miscleaneous quest to retrieve his amulet while you're at it. Once inside the Catecombs there will be three skeletons which are never very high level enemies so even your weakest turn undead spell will work against them. To 'train' your restoration ability, simply keep hitting the skeletons with turn undead. It will staggar them and make them flee and hide in corners, but it won't actually harm them so you can just keep this up all day long. Just chase them from one side of the crypt to the other repeatedly hitting them with the spell (you don't have to wait for it to wear off for it to count). The reason you want to leave your follower outside is that they will simply kill the skeletons too quickly, probably with one hit, and you need them alive to act as valid targets. Now this can be a bit tedious, and using higher level spells will level you up more quickly, but even using the weakest spell can advance you 30 levels in a short ammount of time and is still probably faster than normal training which only allows 5 sessions at a time and then you have to wait till you reach a new character level before you can train again (not to mention it can be expensive). This method is also usefull if your character is a higher level but has lagged behind in the development of Restoration, because the skeletons in the Hall of the Dead don't become stronger along with you like enemies in most locations do so your low level spells will still be effective.
And of course another thing to remember is that as long as you have magicka available, you should always heal yourself after a battle rather than just waiting for your health to naturally regenerate because you only advance your skill when casting on a valid target, which means casting healing on yourself does nothing if you're not actually hurt.
I reccommend leveling up your Restoration quickly at the very beginning of the game so you can buy the higher level spell books which allow you to heal faster and block greater spells. Plus there are some very useful Perks under Restoration, such as:
* "Respite" which is particularly good for those using weapons and heavy armor as it heals your stamina as well as your health, and can also be used to allow you to sprint indefinitely while repeatedly casting the healing spell on yourself.
* "Regeneration" is great for mages at low levels as it causes your magicka to regenerate faster which is important when you haven't got very much to begin with.
* "Avoid Death" will once a day automatically heal 250 points of health if your health drops really low, something which tends to happen all too quickly early on when one hit can take a third of your health (and when you aren't in the habit of remembering to drink a healing potion after every hit you take).
* "Ward Absorb" is indispensible if you plan to utilze ward spells at all because they tend to really drain your magicka, but this perk recharges your ward with every spell that hits it allowing you to keep it up indefinitely. It should be noted that wards are very effective against dragonbreath, even the novice level "Lesser Ward" can almost completely negate a dragon's fire or frost breath effects.
* "Necromage" is another very helpful Perk for those using magic instead of weapons because it makes all your spells stronger against Undead enemies - of which there are many. Probably the worst enemies you'll come up against are the undead Dragon Priests and Draugr Deathlords, not to mention the hoards of draugr whenever you go into Ancient Nord Ruins; Necromancers are hard enough to battle on their own but often raise zombie minions; and then there are also vampires (particularly with the Dawnguard add-on).
This does in fact tie in with the theme of Marriage since Mara the goddess of Love and Compassion is associated with Restoration. Activating a Shrine of Mara will fortify your restortation 10 points for 8 hours and your healing spells will restore 10% more. There are shrines of Mara in three cities: Solitude, in the Temple of the Divines; Riften, in the Temple of Mara; and Dawnstar, in Nightcaller Temple which is actually up the hill a little ways from the town and requires the quest Waking Nightmare to be completed first. If you build your own home with the Hearthfire add-on, you can build your own shrine of Mara in your basement, so you may want to pick up an extra Amulet of Mara in order to do this.
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