i think destroy the dark brotherhood should've been a questline. where you have to figure out things like where the sanctuary is and the password and then hunt down members like cicero and burn the night mothers corpse
The Dark Brotherhood, let’s be honest: they’re too cheesy to be left alive. They’re a death cult that, with a straight face, rambles on about their “dread father’s will” and whatnot. The name alone for the faction is reason enough to destroy them. The other reason is more of a game role playing perspective: joining their faction means your soul is forfeit to a malevolent god who just wants all life to be extinguished, where you will reside in a void for eternity. Its like walking through the Soul Carin and thinking to yourself “gee, what a lovely place to settle down and spend my eternal existence! It wouldn’t get boring or miserable here at all!”
It’s supposed to be a bad weapon because Vile is known to. It be trusted so you shouldn’t expect a good item from him even if you do his bidding. So it doesn’t count toward the artifact achievement
Even worse, Not killing Paarthurnax isn't "A Choice", its the absence of progression. The Quest gives you not choice, on the basis of completing quests, yet despite that, people still refuse to kill him, even though it means permanently never progressing that quest further, nor completing it. It's heartwarming, and is evidence of how great the writing is.
If I remember correctly, you just need to talk to the leader of the greybeards after Delphine tells you to kill Paarthurnax. One of the dialogue options will allow you to spare Paarthurnax and also complete the quest.
@@darrenbeilke6173 But uh, it doesn't really. Delphine and Esbern still insist you kill Paarthurnax despite you being the Dragonborn and therefore the one they're sworn to *serve* even if you tell Arngeir you're not going to kill him and tell them you're not going to kill him. I had that quest in my journal forever. The only thing that completed it was the mod that let you tell Delphine off for trying to control the Dragonborn.
Lockpicking is only worth investing in if you have more perk points than unlocked perks in the trees. And, granted, that’s very easy to do, since you can power-level and Legendary reset Alteration 5 times in 10 minutes, but that’s beside the point.
as someone who actually did destroy the dark brotherhood on one of my character, It did feel kind of...Empty. maybe if you got a separate questline where you uncovered their plans and prevented what they were going to do, and get like Non murder versions of the Dark brotherhood's major assassination's quests, like being invited to Vittoria's wedding as a guest of honor for preventing her death and that dinner on the ship as thanks, capped off with a white horse gifted from the Emperor as a counterpart to Shadowmere. maybe that was too much but honestly I feel like it needed more than a pat on the head and some gold for taking down a super secret assassins' guild.
yes that NEEDS to be a mod, that's the best addon to skyrim that I have EVER HEARD and I've played this game for 13 years now, isn't it? I love the dark brotherhood but the guilt of it made me feel a bit sick, couldn't really get into that role playing. Victoria is really kind, which I didn't know at first but once I was going to rob her and she was so nice and I realized that this is the woman I've dropped a stone of 10 times 🧐 And the Emperor I loved from the start, definitely never killed him again. And! I ended up killing really nice people on bounties last time, so now I just... I donwannadoit :( your alternative would be amazing!
I do use a mod that increases the reward to 10000 gold, one for attending the wedding (with an option to receive a perk), and one to join the Penitus Oculatus to finish the job (eventually take out Dawnstar Sanctuary). No white horse, though.
With a faction questiline that is fleshed out like that, any active questline that goes to the opposite needs to be similarly fleshed out. I could understand if killing Astrid and leaving the shack will just lead to the occasional assassin coming after the dragonborn, but when you go so far to destroy the faction, make with a reasonable choice over joining them.
A horse is actually pretty useful if you’re overloaded with goods to bring to the market. Being on your horse, you can fast travel back to the market in any city.
horses are really good, they can climb anything lol. They also aren't susceptible to being killed in combat. buying one is a bit of a scam though, just get frost or shadowmere or arvak
Also what i do on every playthough is to buy horse as fast as you can from the begining so you can travel to unreaveled spots on the map faster especially in mountains , 1000g is not that much at start of the game
Option 3 keep Barbas for yourself forever, that way you have an un-killable dog companion. Step 1: Start the quest Step 2: Accept Vile's Task Step 3: Never complete the task
But then you would miss out on the mask I mean sure the mask isn't anything special but getting such a huge increase in speech especially for how early you can get it can really make early game better for making some easy money
Honestly it baffled me that you can't just kill the Blades instead. I mean, it's not like they're major players. After Alduin's Wall (and Season Unending if you didn't finish the Civil War), they basically just hide in their old shitty temple. Why not place a side option to kill the Blades when they tell you to kill ol' Party Snax?
Yeah would be satisfying to kill Delphine tbh, after finding out about the kill Party Snax quest I never went back to see them after completing Alduin's Wall. This was the only way I could think of to avoid the quest & every playthrough I've done since (and there has been many) leaving Alduin's Wall is the last time I ever see Delphine & Esbern. I never get Season Unending due to similar reasons, after first playthrough and finding out about it I now finish the civil war line before going to Blackreach.
I do the blades quest line which is only 2 quests before I defeat Alduin at the throat of the world. This way I get the dragon infusion perk from esbern and the blades don’t know about paarthurnax yet. Then when they want to talk to me after the season unending quest about paarthurnax I just quit their dialogue and don’t get the annoying objective in my journal.
@@KaiserRisOfficial basically it puts a halt on the civil war till you defeat Alduin at the end of main questline. We end up having a debate at High Hrothgar with pretty much all the top brass in the game, I've never actually done the quest before but seen it.
@@KaiserRisOfficial You have to negotiate a peace deal with the imperials and stormcloaks because Balgruuf won't trap a dragon in Dragonsreach unless there's peace, also some cities will change ownership
@@raellawrence7116 I think they changed it cause it made fast traveling a bitch cause you'd be fully satiated, travel across the map and boom now u need to feed again
@JayShroomish I'm literally regretting this SO fcking much right now 😫 🙄 I'm wondering if curing yourself still works since I'm playing the dawnguard version
The absolute worst thing about choices in big games like this that even with dozens of save files, you dont know you made a mistake until youre already hours and hours in
You can actually kill Delphine and Esbern in vanilla Skyrim on any platform if you have any level of “Raise Dead”. Just cast it at them repeatedly (probably pop a few magica pots) and they’ll eventually begin to glow. Shortly after that they’ll turn to ash like any other resurrected corpse. *BE WARNED* doing this *will* break any other quests that are related to them, and they *WILL NOT* respawn. This method works on any NPC even if they are “required” like the graybeards.
Delphine and Esbern should've been killable after you killed Alduin. Also certain minor quest NPCs should've been killable anyway even if it ended the quest.
I refuse to ever kill my dragon buddy over the blades but instead of killing Esbern it would be cool if he joined the greybeards. Unlike Delphine who sends you to your near death on a "hunch" he actually helps you get information and gives you a way to catch a dragon, plus he was the only one to call out both civil war factions outside Arngeir since the other greybeards don't talk. There needs to be a mod to only kill Delphine and let esbern be a greybeard or kill Delphine and rebuild the Blades with him while sparing dragon grandpa.
You can do both. Keep our buddy and build the blades. Just don't visit the Greybeards right away. After reading Alduins wall speak with Esbern. Do his Building the Blades and complete that before visiting the Greybeards.
Bro i hate both, even before getting into modding i always played till that quest, then put the all npc are killable commande and slaughter delphine and esbern
Theres a mod where you can “reason with the blades” basically convincing delphine that paarthunax doesnt need to die and letting you progress the blades
the Vampire decision ONLY talks about the Original Vampires, Vampire Lords have no real downside in sun other than no Magicka, Health and Stamina Regen in daylight. The hostility of Townsfolk is also only applicable to the Original Vampires, They removed it for the Vampire Lords.
@mr.jamrob4505 well, when you've been playing as long as I have and have tried both forms of vampirism and werewolf both pre and post dawnguard DLC, it's easy to see the differences
@@Anty_Praza Special edition is still newer to someone who's played since release Hence why I said newer people because back when I started there was no DLC
Barbas isn't a dog. He's a Daedra that can shape shift into anything he wants, but uses the dog form for scouting and getting around without being noticed. He's only trapped in the form of a dog because Clavicus Vile forced to remain in one form as punishment, In that game only and doing so also trapped Vilein that statue.
For anyone that doesnt know, the best way to get a horse early game w/o doing a whole side quest story line, like dark brotherhood, (shadowmere) or dawnguard (arvaak) would be to tame the unicorn. I forgot exactly how to start the quest, i think its in the college of winterhold but plz correct me if im wrong. Its the 'creature of legend' quest. It is invincible, and it will always be with you and best of all its free and there is not a single threat to reach it or tame it. Im not sure if u need to start the quest to trigger spawning the unicorn but if u wanna try to tame it w/o starting the actual quest i was lead between Riften and Champions rest. Hope this helps 😊
@@ghostsuru8429 honestly most consoles updated vanilla to the AE for free so A majority of people probably have access to the content by now, so you don't have to say "vanilla" anymore, no one has the vanilla game anymore lol
I love the fact that unlike in fallout i dont need to put any point into lockpicking to open master locks, its easy and with enough lockpicks the world is yours
Lock picks are easy to come by and also cheap and weigh so little. Without trying I might have 200 lock picks on me at a time and keep a supply at one of my homes. Loose 20 lock picks to open a chest no problem and the skill goes up with each broken one.
I always quicksave before attempting any lockpicking at some point you'll have so many lockpicks that you don't even need to think about it. Having said that, lockpicking master locks is tedious and boring so I would'n consider perks that make locks easier to pick a waste
God forbid you need to put skill points into a system to use that skill. The game even WITH difficulty mods is easy, what do you need the spare points for anyway?
@@robertoprestigiacomo253 right and you can also complete the thief's guild with guild master armor amulent of articulation a very powerful nightingale power and so much gold it makes the dark brother hood look unlucritive
It's not about stupidity, but about RP and morals. It's obvious that most of moral decisions are made to be non-lucrative, it's a classic artistical device. Wouldn't be the high road otherwise.
True, it just wouldn't be fit for a goody two-shoes paladin to join the shadowy assassin organization and to kill an idiot for a dagger, even more so when this paladin uses 2H weapons.
Your point is understandable, but it's still where I think Bethesda shit the bed anyway. Skyrim is just a game where I feel too compelled to RP as a very morally gray or straight up evil character because they made the villainous choices too much fun to pass up.
I think the best example of this in the game is the Skull of Corruption dedric quest. On it's face the artifact is pretty unless but needed for oblivion Walker trophy, that being said the battlemage dark elf mara priest is one of the best followers having unique lines for every hold you visit.
Yeah I roleplay as someone with good morals, so joining the dark brotherhood or the thieves guild isn’t happening (I have a mod that makes all the thieves guild characters non essential so I can just go down and purge them when I go get esbern)
True - though in these cases I don’t even find the rewards compelling - especially on the points I disagree with (4 and 5). I get plenty of gold already when I’m leveling my smithing, enchanting, and speech craft (which I do as early as possible so I don’t lock in loot and areas at low levels). I prefer Arvak. I don’t enjoy the ‘added content’ of being evil. I can make better daggers. I want to be attacked by the Dremora because free daedra hearts.
Pretty cool video but i'd like to point out 2 things. - After the launch of the Dawnguard DLC the 4th stage of vampirism no longer makes everyone attack you, you will also be able to get a very powerful form of vampirism during it's questline, even if you side with the dawnguard. (you can turn to a Vampire Lord form anytime you want and you can revert back at your will. The Vampire Lord form can be activated multiple times per day.) - Being a werewolf gives you the same imunity to disease as vampirism, you can only turn once a day but if you do Hircine's quest and chose to help Sinding you will be rewarded with the Hircine's ring which will let you turn multiple times a day, you simply have to requip the ring and select the power to turn again FROM THE RING not the Beast Form one.
@@HappyBeezerStudios I honestly don't know where I got it, but I have a Disease Immunity necklace that provides 100% immunity. Just gotta pop it on when you're heading into potentially dangerous areas or just wear it I guess.
@@wisdomprepper by now I have enough cure disease potions in my house that I can just take one when cleaning out my loot. But I remember that necklace, think it was a reward from some miscellaneous quest.
The joke with how shitty your reward for killing barbas is that barbas outright warns you that no deal made with clavicus will be worth it, clavicus does not care for mortals and has no issues screwing them over. in fact clavicus is a daedra of trickery just as much as he is a daedra of bargains. Thus the fact that you get a reward that isn't worth it for siding with him is totally in character. Clavicus' realm in oblivion is literally called "the fields of regret". Barbas is one of the best side characters in skyrim anyway, killing him is like killing paarthunax, I don't know why anyone would do it outside of either not realizing that you have a choice and can spare him or playing a character that wants to make all the worst decisions. The fact that the reward you get for sparing barbas is better then the one you get for killing him is just a bonus.
People don’t attack you if you have late stage vampirism if you have the dawn guard dlc. Also stacking vampirism with the necromage perk is super powerful.
@@joebenzz the description of necromage is “all spells against undead are more effective”. It doesn’t say for better or worse. So if you are a vampire your armor enchants are boosted.
THS! I also like using a mod that removes sun damage if you're wearing a hood/helm. I don't use vampire powers all that much, but the aesthetic is SO DAMN COOL xD
If you've got the dawnguard DLC being a vampire is far superior especially if you max out enchanting and use the necromage perk. Then the benefits are massive
Vampires can use Auriel's Bow from the Dawnguard DLC to block the sun if they need to be outside for an extended time. There is very little downside to being a vampire really.
Being a vampire in Morrowind, that was the real deal. First you had to actually find those reclusive buggers without any sort of guidance and get infected during combat. And then you would never be able to see the light of day anymore or instantly die. And since everyone but a few characters recognized your vampirism right away, you'd also have almost no access to services. Being a bloodsucker REALLY well... sucked... in Morrowind.
@@nervsouly Yeah, it was not so bad as that, but Oblivion was similarly harsh on Vamps. If you went outside at all during the day, it would hurt (there was even a smoking effect on your character's body). The amount of DoT you'd take from sunlight increased with your level of blood-starvation. At the highest level, you would die within around 10 seconds, even with a very high-level character. I remember the first time I became a vamp on there. (I started TES with Skyrim and thought it would be like that, pre-DLCs). I figured out through trial and error that being underwater lessened the DoT amount for some reason. So, the one time I got caught outside VERY far from any inside cells, I stayed underwater in a nearby pond constantly healing myself and chugging potions until night finally came. It was brutal, and I never played a vamp again in Oblivion. (I'm pretty sure I scrapped that character because the cure required going to an obscure place I don't remember and sacrificing a filled black soul gem. With how rare black soul gems are in Oblivion, and me being new to the game at that point, it was a pretty unfortunate situation.)
Lockpicking is always a wild investment in my mind, because once I figured out that basically what you do is turn the lock really slowly until you feel the strongest buzz in your controller, and then rotate the other stick, as long as it’s between the two strongest buzzes, it will open, I don’t think I’ve failed a single lockpick attempt. I do wish I’d known that when I first picked the game up in 2011 though 😅
Regarding the thrid point, yes, we love Paarthurnax and I'd rather destroy all of the blades and everything they stand for than kill my dragon buddy but it is actually possible to rebuild the blades BEFORE they give you the quest to kill him. Once you reach Alduin's wall you'll get the quest to go to the greybeards to find the shout that helps you kill Alduin (you have not met Paarthurnax atp therefore you and the blades dont know he's alive yet) but you can also already talk to Delphine about rebuilding the blades which leads to you getting a side quest of finding new members. Now we ignore the main quest and DON'T go the greybeards yet and instead find companions you wanna turn into blades. Once you found 3 new blades you'll be able to go on dragon hunts. Once you completed your first dragon hunt, talk to Esbern and he'll tell you to retrieve a dragon scale (just warp back to the place where you just defeated the dragon or ideally you already have one). He'll reward you with a potion that, if you drink it, PERMANENTLY gives you the ability "dragon infusion" which causes dragons to do 25% less melee damage. This potion is the only thing that makes it even worth it to restore the blades. Once you finished all of that you can continue with your main quest line, meet Paarthurnax and continue to ignore Delphine's request of killing him :)
Horses are actually pretty useful to those of us who like to get over encumbered but still want to fast travel. I just don't like how they die or glitch by not going home when you get a new horse. 😂 Also, Arvak is the best horse in Skyrim because if you dismount him, he will follow behind you until he despawns. ❤
I love Arvak bcuz you always have access to him whenever needed unlike regular horses who’ll sometimes run away and take ages to find if not dead already
The best reason for being a vampire is because of the necromage perk, which will increase all self buffs and enchantments by whatever its % was. I like it, and you can become immune to magic if you take the breton as race, lvl alteration until you get the absorb magic ability, then become a necromage vampire and pickup the atronach stone. That brings your magic absorb over 100% lol
only lockpicking skill you definitely need to get is quick hands that way if u fail to pick a lock no nearby citizens or other npcs will annoy you put a bounty on you or waste your time
Killing Nilsine Shattershield is also a horrible decision. Not only do you reap a mourning family of another daughter but her mother will be overcome with grief and take her own life, leaving the father alone. It’s an optional objective and the reward is also pretty petty anyway.
If you have the Dawnguard DLC, (And these days, who doesn't? - Legendary Edition and Special Edition include all DLC), I've found the downsides to being a vampire as virtually minimal. Other NPCs will never turn on you, unless some of them witness feeding. It might make things a little more difficult at lower levels, *only* when outdoors while the sun is out, but that's about it - it didn't seem unmanageable at all. This is very easily solved with carrying more than enough health potions. The immunity to ALL other diseases and poison, is very well worth it. Also consider that all the dungeons, ruins, many quest locations, etc. are actually indoors, so the sun penalty doesn't apply. On my last playthrough, I actually used the console at the first opportunity to grant vampirism right away. It was still pretty easy, relatively. To be fair, being a werewolf also grants 100% disease resistance, but it doesn't offer poison resistance at all.
One nitpick, people never attack you as a vampire (despite the game saying so) and the necromage vampire always has been and still is the strongest build in the game.
@@lerarosalene Tell me about it. One of the things Dawnguard will do from time to time is send you to Solstein to do one of Gunmar or Sorine's quest if you triggered the Dragonborn quest just by picking up the Cultist Orders note.
That's because in vanilla people attacked you, Dawnguard being released you won't get attacked. Not sure if it was a bug caused by Dawnguard or Bethesda just removed because they felt it would make players not try the vampire lord.
I remember I married Ysolda and she started selling drugs in the Bannered Mare and every time I saw her it was "Dear my dear, you're so dear to me dear." I got so annoyed that I tried to kill her only to find out that she's immortal.
4:30 good try, DarkBrotherhood sponsored this video obviously. But in my Skyrim the Dragonborn shouldn’t be a part of some evil assassins cult, especially after they kidnapped me. As Argneir once said: “is up to you to decide what to do with your power and skill. Will you be a hero whose name is remembered in song throughout the ages? Or will your name be a curse to future generations? Or will you merely fade from history, unremembered?”. we all remember what happened to the 1st dovahkiin who had chosen the 2nd way
I mean, these aren't the "Worst" decisions. They are simply least profitable. In a game like Skyrim, which is supposed to be a RPG, people don't always take the most profitable choices due to the aspect of role-playing. I, for example, have completed the DB questline only once in my life. Now, I always kill them, because they suck and I hate them.
6:47 That's not a thing if you have the dawnguard dlc or legendary/special/anniversary edition of the game. No one attacks a blood starved vampire if you have those versions.
unless you do want to master lock picking. Return the skeleton key because if you don't you won't increase your level. Also it is wise to level up the tree skills for points to improve other skill tree.
Some guy after the intro: Empire tried to kill me so I must join the Stormcloaks. Same guy after encountering several assassins and being kidnapped: Dark Brotherhood so cool!
The thing about the werewolf and vampire thing is that while werewolves are incredibly op so is being a vampire but the perks of being a vampire extend to everyday play better that having to transform into a werewolf every time.
Most of the vamp stats are pretty bad. Werewolf makes you immune to all disease too, and if you get over encumbered and need to get to a place you can turn into your Werewolf form and just run there no issue. Base Werewolf can also body an Elder Blood Dragon with ease, were a Vampire Lord will still need to put up a fight.
@@JalbesbeSure, the werewolf packs a powerful punch, so to speak. The problem I have had with it fighting dragons is the dragons never land and just stick to attacking from the air. Werewolves have no true ranged attacks.
I picked werewolves coz I found their playstyle easier for me to control Being a Vampire lord was fun, but I had a really hard time adjusting to the playstyle
To be honest, the Anniversary Edition makes choosing the Azura Star over the Black Star no longer a mistake imo. With the necro house at Mara's Eye Pond, you can now have an infinite number of black soul gems, provided you diligently buy every greater soul gem you see being sold. Which makes leveling enchanting a breeze. Then you can keep the Azura Star pure and just use it to hold a mammoth soul as a backup charge for your weapon.
There's also a couple of mod options, Legacy of The Dragonborn has a crafting table for combing soul gems into higher level ones and in Immersive Collage of Winterhold I just found an alter down in the midden which will convert all the grand soul gems you carrying to Black ones so yeah it's a non issue
Azura's star is just conceptually bad, white souls are way inferior to black souls. Being more rare was mentioned already, but the real issue is that all black souls are grand, but most white souls are weaker...
For the axe, Bethesda's just calling you a monster for killing a dog Edit:for the vampire thing, i just do vampire lord(for force equip glitch) and dont feed. The sun isn't bad qhen you can force equip ten amulets of health. I also like going into the soul cairn regularly for black soul gems for a deadric armour thing with a certain forge below the College of Winterhold
@@mxn0chr0maxic85talk to a follower as you transform into a vampire lord or werewolf, the spiffing britt made a good video on it where he equipped 6 amulets of talos
The sun is kinda of a big deal since you're health stamina and Magicka can't Regen in sunlight without and enchantment/potion and since most of Skyrim is outside that will be a huge problem especially if your playing on higher difficulty's since you will take a shitload of damage even with maxed out gear and also using the forge under the college is kind of a waste it's way easier to make deadric armor yourself if you just craft a shitload of iron daggers hell just crafting iron daggers can easily get you to level 100 in a couple hours and you can then easily make some dragon armor which i guess is superior since it has a light variant if you're into that I guess
The Wax Key perk is very useful for Lockpicking, and using it in some locations will even make copies of keys that open other chests and doors in those locations that you can't lockpick.
Horse take is subjective. I love having a steed under me as I’m progressing through the map and having to travel great distances to undiscovered locations.
@@nightowl6055 Or get the Daedric horse instead. The most badass horse of them all. Although the quest line is pretty long it is also super cool and unique. The horse can be summoned as well.
You forgot one of the best horses: Frost This horse can be stolen from the Black Briar's house after you talk to the imprisoned son in Riften. If you decide to keep it, this horse is invincible like Shadowmare (because: quest item) And there is also technicaly the unicorn but it's a "creation club" addon...
@@thespirou5461FYI, Frost is not unkillable…twice after I did that quest, I took Frost home to Lakeview and he was killed by bandits 😞….now I only get the unicorn as it cannot die and has a lot of stamina! I know its a cc quest, but it’s fairly easy to get at any level from the arcaneum at the college of Winterhold..☺️
@@stormym5434I didn't even know that but then again I've never gotten her but that obviously makes both shadowmere and arvak way better since either can't be killed ( I mean shadowmere can but only with fall damage I believe )
@@ireallydontknow278 they are good horse choices, but I never get Shadowmare because I prefer to kill Astrid and her flunkys…lol and even though I like Arvak, he doesn’t have a lot of stamina…the best horse for me is the unicorn,,,it is a cc horse, so it can’t die, and it has a huge amount of stamina,,,and all you have to do is read Saren’s journal in the Arcaneum at the college of winterhold to find it! 🦄
I found that being a werewolf on my first play through is more advantageous. It’s not invasive since I can choose when I want to be one and I just use it to get an advantage in combat. Also I can kill dragons in wolf form pretty easily once they get to ground level.
I remember when I first played Skyrim, I joined the dark brotherhood despite not intending to. I only found out afterwards that there was the option to destroy the Dark Brotherhood. For me, joining the Dark Brotherhood was the mistake. At least the first time.
Werewolf pros: can turn into a Werewolf, Werewolf rings, Werewolf totems, join the Dawnguard Werewolf cons: Silver dmg, can't get rested bonus, can't join the Volkihar Vampire pros: frost res, buffed sneak, buffed illusion, buffed perks, buffed enchantments, new spells, new powers, blood chalice, can turn into vampire lord, vampire rings, vampire sword, vampire necklaces, rested bonus, can join Volkihar Vampire cons: Fire res debuff, sun dmg, regen debuff in sun, silver dmg, can't join Dawnguard, inconvenience Companions, I'd say vampire playthru is a much more compelling experience. Being a Werewolf is just being a normal person but you have a Werewolf power. Whereas being a vampire is more of a lifestyle choice.
I'm not really feeling this list. The vast majority are cases were, although the other choice might be objectively better from a pure cold game mechanics perspective, the choice being asked of the player isn't even really about the reward at all. When being confronted with the Dark Brother hood for example, the choice to join or kill them is not really a choice where the difference is based on game mechanics and rewards; it is a roleplay choice. In that sense, the fact that instead of joining/refusing to join and then not engaging with themat all (netting oyu no rewards at all), there is also a mechanic that gives rewards for the extermination of the Dark Brotherhood is only a plus. But ofcourse the reward for hours of slaving for the Brotherhood has a higher potential payout compared to one slaughterfest. People who destroy the Dark Brotherhood can use that time to earn money elsewhere. Similar for deciding to play a werewolf or vampire, the fact that the sun is an inconvenience is part of the course of being a vampire. These are mostly roleplay decisions, so trying to order them as 'better and objectively awfull' like in this vidoe is missing the point of why these choices exist in the first place. It is silly to critique someone's roleplay decisions for being 'objectively the worst'.' What I was expecting were more things like 'ways to soft-lock /invalidate certain possible questlines without knowing,' like killing 'Character 5 when just strutting about will cause questline B in quest Y to become invalid, forcing the player to always do questline A without intending to.' To me, what can only be 'objectivley bad' decisions are 'decisions that take away possilbe decisions further down the line *without intending to.*'
7:45 I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS! Lockpicking is the easiest in oblivion. I rarely EVER broke a pick in oblivion, cause it is soooooo easy. Why does everyone complain about it? I really do not understand!
Buying horses can actually be a good investment. By havnig a horse outside a dungeon, you can loot it of EVERYTHING an dnot worry about being encumbered because as soon as you mount your horse, you can fast travel. It won't take long to make back that 1000 gold.
If only all the guilds had the option to destroy them like the Brotherhood did. I will forever seethe that I couldn't wipe the Thieves Guild (Maven too) from the face of Nirn.
"Becoming a Vampire is terrible." It's actually really good if you get the necromage perk. I don't play as a Vampire though, the "your vampire blood boils in the sunlight" is too annoying for me.
The Mask of Clavicus Vile is nice, but it's not the best helm for trading. That honour goes to the Blackguard Hood which is far easier to get as well. You can get it with no combat after you join the thieves guild, you just have to run around and grab an item and turn it in on Solstheim.
Also, if you do alchemy, it doesn't really matter what price you sell stuff. One or couple potions/poisons will empty most traders pockets. And growing your own ingredients (especially cheesy with Goldenhills Plantation) will make you a millionaire in no time.
I will say if you're early on in the game and don't have the better horses, if you can find a horse to tame them do it, and if not then just buy one. But as many know, you can't fast travel while you're over weight... Unless you're on a horse. If you're too far from your horse, you can use whirlwind sprint and while that recharges, pull out a dagger and power attack towards your horse. It's a little tedious but getting to that horse is better than trying to slowly walk back to your abode.
As far as Azura's star goes, she has her own plane of oblivion. Effectively her own Nirn. Sorry, I'm not about earning the ire of a god-tier daedric prince for the sake of a black soul gem. You can snipe Giants and Mastodons from ledges and such to charge up white soul gems that way, not to mention train up archery/spells to a nice high level.
Also after being in Soul Cairn I just refuse to use black soul gems. Ofc this is a roleplay aspect but I just feel too bad for those souls :( So I take Azura's star.
I remember hearing somewhere that the Dragonborne's soul is above all of that. None of the daedra or gods can do anything with your soul once you're dead. I don't know how true this is, but it's what I heard.
Me too. I understand people like to have better item but for me game is also moral choice. I do not play games to be strongest rather the righteous. Image you are savior of the world and then suddenly you become just power hungry and there goes morality. I played Skyrim 2nd play through like modestly dressed up healer with alchemy, illusion and speech craft. And have interesting experience when I searched for killer of small girls. I did not have attacking spells so I used turn undead to vampire in that village. She invisible her self in screams and hide nearby. She was yelling various things and slightly glow from spell in dark night. Man that was like chills down my spine. Turn away powerful enemy. It was like in old fantasy movies where mages are not yet strong with path of light can not kill but can turn enemy away. Gandalf did so with Nazgûl’s. And it was also badass.
I like to go all out on Daedric Prince worship (I have installed a mod for Narmira cause I hate always being asked if I wanna eat when looting bodies), so I usually choose Azura's star too.
@@bluebloodroyalty8012 hope you didn't take his advice... the black star is by far the better artifact since it can hold any type of soul even though the game says otherwise. Azuras star can't take all souls.. black gems are more rare than grand souls by a tiny margin so idk where he got the black gems are sSuPeR common loot in skyrim lol
Never particularly mattered to me what rewards you might reap by joining the Brotherhood, I always destroy it. Not only is giving Astrid the logical reward for her unforgivable cheek incredibly satisfying, but the Destroy the Dark Brotherhood quest lets you snag the Barenziah gem from their headquarters anyway, and I generally prefer to play heroic characters in these things.
Most of these "bad" choices aren't really that bad, especially the vampire and horse. Vampires have far more perks and feeding off people is not that hard, literally there is a bandit camp in Riften that one guy is always asleep. The horses are also very useful early game and you know how to deal with them.
I never figured out how to use horses in the game. I can get on one easy enough but getting off them is hit or miss. Then when you do get off it to fight something or mine, they wander off... What a flippn' waste of gold.
@@sithsquid1 If you acquire the horse Frost (as part of a quest in Riften if I remember, you can choose to betray your client and keep Frost), it's one of the better living horses in the game; there's also a reindeer mount you can buy, which is neat and hasn't died on me. They don't wander off on you and will fight fairly reliably (although at the end of the day they're trophies for me, and I prefer using conjurable mounts like Arvak, mentioned in the video, because well - they can't die permanently).
@@sithsquid1 Mods can help. A lot. Convenient Horses for example enables you to double tap E for a quick dismount, useful if you need to dismount for combat. It does other things, if the horse is still while you are mounted you automatically harvest anything in range, though it will not auto mine for you. You also get horse whistle and horse horn which allows you to call or summon your horse if it has wandered off. If you kill something while mounted it also auto loots the opponent, Frankly a large reason I still load Skyrim up even now is because of the mods available. Convenient horses is one of those must haves in my mod loadout.
I usually join the Dark Brotherhood but on my current playthrough I destroyed them. Why? Because after a while the misc contracts repeat themselves, so this time around I know being part of the Brotherhood isn't worth it in the long run as you literally run out of things to do. I destroyed them to clear the game of the random assassins who jump me during the game.
"If you go through the dark brotherhoods quest line you get 20 thousand gold from it!" Which you're meant to spend the entirety of the reward on repairing the dawnstar sanctuary.
You can lie and leave the brotherhood to rot if you want also the torture chambers get you extra gold and windsheer alone makes DB questline worth it imo.
I don't think "Destroy the Dark Brotherhood" is a bad choice. It depends on how seriously you're roleplaying. Like, there are pretty good arguments for a morally good character to do the first contract for Aventus, because the target is utterly despicable. There are also arguments for joining most other factions. Maybe the Thieves' Guild is a bit of a debatable one, and there is the question of whether one can play a good person and still join the Stormcloaks (let's just be happy we can't actually join the Thalmor), but the DB is clearly the most obviously evil faction in the game. So, if you're roleplaying a morally good character, there's no question in my mind that killing Astrid and her people is the right way to go. Another comment said it would've been great if that had been a questline, and I agree with that - would've given the whole deal more gravitas. But seeing as it was a sort of "hidden choice", I think it was well-executed.
I never did that one! lolo Killing Barbus. I actually KEPT the axe and kept barbas as a follower; since he is INVINCABLE in vanilla Skyrim. So yeah. In my first play through I KEPT the axe and barbas by simply not turning in the quest XD The satr thing... I can't remember. But I think I gave it to the woman. And no... I NEVEr or will EVER kill Paarthurnax. Because that's a whole new level of cruel. Instead... I gave him a hug
About the Dark Brotherhood quest. Yes, you get 20k gold, but you have to spend 19k of it on renovations for the Dawnstar sanctuary. Also, you get Arvak from the Soul Cairn in the Dawnguard quest, and there's plenty of coin to be earned in other factions like the Thieves Guild.
Fun fact, for the beginning of the dark brotherhood where you have to kill one of the three (or all three if you want 🤷) if you have the clairvoyance spell, I think it was called that (the one that shows quest path) shows you exactly who should be killed. Even though killing anyone of the three is fine by the game.
@@Daveaintreal I've been playing Skyrim lately imma have to see what she says. I didn't realize she did lol. I thought she said basically the same thing regardless of who you killed lol
@@nickthompson1812 right? I didn't either until I read some random game article talking about it, tried it out and sure as hell, it lead to only one target
With the bloodworm helm and the neccromage perk you can get some insane bonuses so being a vampire is worth it. Also a horse is good for places you haven't discovered yet lol
I always call Clavicus Vile the “used car salesman of Nirn”. His deals always have attached bad things. I have seen some praise the “Rueful Axe” but never realize you get hit by 2 attacks before you can respond. Such a “cosmic axe”.
@@CallMeMimi27 Lorewise, sure-Being a vampire is a horrible contract with Molag Bal. Gameplay wise, no. Being a vampire is objectively better. A maxed out vampire (alchemy/enchanting/smithing, restoration(necromage) will always be more powerful than a maxed out non-vampire. And by quite a margin. It's not debatable.
@@Ryan-ch2om everything you can get from being a vampire can be achieved with alchemy and enchanting. then you get stronger the less you feed? thats stupid, brain dead mechanic. after you reach lvl 10 and stop fighting skeevers the powers you get from being a vampire stop being useful. you get 25% stronger illusions? can't remember the last time i used that unless it was a challenge run. what else?
@@CallMeMimi27 I believe you need to do a bit more research, friend. A non-vampire cannot reach the power levels of a vampire from alchemy and enchanting. Of course all players can utilize this, but objectively, they cannot get the benefits as strong as a vampire can. Look into the necromage perk (I assumed you already had, but based on your response, you appear to be ignorant to it). Vampires can heal more, deal more damage, make stronger potions, stronger enchantments, stronger gear. Yes there are points of limited returns, as all players can be OP. But quire literally, they cannot become as OP as a vampire. Please look into this for yourself. You are just mistaken here.
@@Ryan-ch2om lmao. for the love of mara, this is precious. I've been playing Skyrim since launch, the benefits you get from vampirism are so negligible its basically cosmetic or for roleplaying purposes. necromage increases restoration spells on undead by 25% which turns 50% resistance to 62.5% and increases enchants by 25 too. but you know how little that is when i can do a resto potion loop and become a god?
Destroying the Dark Brotherhood is a great choice. Gets you an intact Falkreath hideout. And you can use console commands to have Babbette come back to stay so it isn't empty.
@@martin-gaming If you complete the DB questline, you lose the Falkreath Sanctuary. And, you know, murder innocent people. If that's your thing have at it.
@@HanaTheSlothis it possible to destroy the dark brotherhood after i've already begun the quest? The only thing I did so far is kill someone as astrid said when she kidnapped me and went to the sanctuary
I only agree on the horse take if you play with fast travel. I currently do a modded VR run, to make it harder, darker and more realistic for VR and the horse has been a fine investment early on until I get to the dark brotherhood questline
1:24 Is that really a bug I mean black soul gems can capture white souls, if I remember right the difference between regular soul gems and black soul gems is lore. The souls captured in a normal soul gem experience a normal afterlife it's just the energy of the soul which is taken but anything trapped in a black soul gem becomes eternally condemned to the Soul Cairn.
You got is backwards with the werewolf, you can't just revert back when you want; it's the vampire lord you can choose when you want to be in or out of the form. Sure you can be a werewolf whenever you want but if you wanna change back you have to wait it out.
All of the negative effects of being a vampire can be removed using enchantments. Once you get the enchanting perk that requires 100 in it. You can put two enchantments on the same item. That means putting on enchantments that improve health, stamin and magica regen. You may get about equal regen to what you would have normally when not a vampire or at night. If you're a Dunmer the weakness to fire is of no concern as the perk for being a Dunmer cancels out the weakness to fire. But you can use a shield or armor piece a necklace to remove the weakness to fire, the enchantment has to be 50% resistance to fire to cancel out the weakness to fire. If you have items with enough regen to cancel out the lack of it caused by the sun. When its night you are double as powerful as your regen will be 200%. If you have at least 40 into restoration, restoration spells can be made to also restore stamina. I find that being a vampire in Dawnguard to be a better quest than the staying with the Dawnguard. Also, Vampire Lords can change and revert form at will, with werewolves you can get more transformations with the Ring of Hircine but you have to wait for a long time to revert back. Werewolves also do not get the benefits from sleeping or sleeping with your spouse called Lovers Confort.
Enchantments can't fix the problem with being a vampire because 1 in daylight you are weaker and you're health stamina and Magicka won't regenerate naturally unless you have enchantments for it which is just a waste of an enchantment on a piece of gear and even if you use the enchantments most of the time it will be slower most of the time
One quest decision that DIDN’T bug me until recently was the Saadia quest. I ALWAYS helped her out until about a week ago or so when I was attacked by a group of bandits which, the lead bandit had a letter from - get this - SAADIA herself !!!!!! What in the world ?
Getting the Black Star can actually prevent you from getting the achievement / trophy for getting all the Daedric artifacts though. It happened to me and I actually had to go back through and do the quest over in order to get it to count.
Destroying the Dark Brotherhood wasn't about money for me in my first playthrough. I played a werewolf wood elf, so eventually I stopped sleeping since it gave no benefits. After completing all the Main story quests as well as the DLC's and many of the side quests, I decided as a bit of role-playing, I'd finally let my character rest to signify the playthrough nearing it's end. Well, even though I killed Grelod the Kind when I was only level 12, at level 82 I was finally kidnapped from my home in Riften and met with Astrid. I heard what she wanted me to do and after exiting dialogue, I summoned a wrathman and drew Dawnbreaker and Fus Ro Dah'd her so hard she glitched into the wall.
I make all the wrong decisions... I give Azura her star back, I wipe out the Dark Brotherhood with extreme prejudice, I spare Silas, I don't become a vampire or werewolf and I buy a horse (I play Survival Mode)...
Do they let you fast travel, bc that is literally the only reason I've never bothered trying survival. I want to play it and not spend literal hours running across the map
@@HistoricMold440 the great thing about survival mode is that you have to find new solutions for problems you don‘t have in the regular game. You may not be able to fast travel at any time by clicking on the map, however in almost each big city is a carriage or ship that can bring you to the major cities. Furthermore if you have your own home in Falkreath you can also buy an own carriage that can also transport you to the smaller towns like Rorikstead. And a horse is also extreeemely useful as it is much faster than you are by foot and you can even move fast with it while being overweight. I would definitely recommend playing the survival mode. I personally play survival mode and master difficulty, i think it just adds so much more to the game when you are really frightened of for example dragons in the beginning and i love the fact that the cold almost kills you on your way to High Hrothgar, it‘s just much more immersive
See, I can agree with half of these (the Rueful Axe, Lockpicking, buying horses, Paarthurnax), but I can't totally agree with the rest. If you're talking from a "pure numbers" perspective, there's some validity, but for many players there's value to be had in role-playing, and that can involve a good character as often as not: maybe you want to help Aranea and one of the few Daedric Princes not widely seen as evil, and/or you disagree with Nelecar's insistence that Azura drove Malen Varyn insane. Perhaps you want to spite Mehrunes Dagon. You may really want to role-play that good character who doesn't kill a bunch of innocents, or perhaps just want to punish Astrid for her mistake in kidnapping you (potentially out of your home with your spouse and children). Maybe you like the idea of role-playing a vampire. (plus, with Arvak available to rival (and in some ways overshadow) Shadowmere, none of the rewards are that great; you'll be rolling in gold eventually whether you interact with the Brotherhood or not, the real prize of the Dagon quest is access to the Shrine and a consistent respawning source of Daedra Hearts, the long-term benefit of both werewolf and vampire is disease immunity, easily rendered moot by Potions of Cure Disease, and the reusable Soul Gem actually isn't terribly useful unless you really want to trek back to an enchanting table each time you fill it to enchant one piece of equipment)
I actually lost Barnabis in my game. I had him wait somewhere while I went off and did a quest, and then came back to my game after a few months and COMPLETELY forgot where I put him.
i think destroy the dark brotherhood should've been a questline. where you have to figure out things like where the sanctuary is and the password and then hunt down members like cicero and burn the night mothers corpse
Yeah, sounds like something they would've done in oblivion
@@EndreyMusic i was thinking of mathieu bellamont with the nightmother part
there is fortunately a mod that does most of those things. "Penitus Oculatus" allows you to join them. Well worth getting for good characters.
@@EmperorNefarious1 what mod?
The Dark Brotherhood, let’s be honest: they’re too cheesy to be left alive. They’re a death cult that, with a straight face, rambles on about their “dread father’s will” and whatnot. The name alone for the faction is reason enough to destroy them. The other reason is more of a game role playing perspective: joining their faction means your soul is forfeit to a malevolent god who just wants all life to be extinguished, where you will reside in a void for eternity. Its like walking through the Soul Carin and thinking to yourself “gee, what a lovely place to settle down and spend my eternal existence! It wouldn’t get boring or miserable here at all!”
The biggest joke is that the Rueful Axe isn't even a daedric artefact.
I mean Clavicus Vile's realm in oblivion is literally called the Fields of Regret hahahah
It’s supposed to be a bad weapon because Vile is known to. It be trusted so you shouldn’t expect a good item from him even if you do his bidding. So it doesn’t count toward the artifact achievement
That's why I didn't get the achievement
The rueful is totally useless, DO NOT KILL THE DOG.
That's the point. In order to get it you need to kill the dog, doing that you get the worse reward. Bethesda punish you.
Even worse, Not killing Paarthurnax isn't "A Choice", its the absence of progression. The Quest gives you not choice, on the basis of completing quests, yet despite that, people still refuse to kill him, even though it means permanently never progressing that quest further, nor completing it. It's heartwarming, and is evidence of how great the writing is.
If I remember correctly, you just need to talk to the leader of the greybeards after Delphine tells you to kill Paarthurnax. One of the dialogue options will allow you to spare Paarthurnax and also complete the quest.
@@darrenbeilke6173 But uh, it doesn't really. Delphine and Esbern still insist you kill Paarthurnax despite you being the Dragonborn and therefore the one they're sworn to *serve* even if you tell Arngeir you're not going to kill him and tell them you're not going to kill him. I had that quest in my journal forever. The only thing that completed it was the mod that let you tell Delphine off for trying to control the Dragonborn.
A mod called Paathurnax's Dilemma resolves the whole thing. Too bad you can't kill Delphine but you do get to tell her off once and for all.
If you finish the main questline, the Paarthurnax apparently disappears. Happened to me, at least. Since ol' Party Snax flew away.
@@devoradordelosmundosscrew Partunax i kill that dragon… im dragonborn good dammit
Lockpicking is actually okay to get to the Increased Gold and the Extra chance of special treasure. It is a must do for a money grubber like me.
Pair it up with the perk of being an Imperial?
Lockpicking is only worth investing in if you have more perk points than unlocked perks in the trees. And, granted, that’s very easy to do, since you can power-level and Legendary reset Alteration 5 times in 10 minutes, but that’s beside the point.
*cough cough* whiterun blacksmith exploit *cough cough*
as someone who actually did destroy the dark brotherhood on one of my character, It did feel kind of...Empty. maybe if you got a separate questline where you uncovered their plans and prevented what they were going to do, and get like Non murder versions of the Dark brotherhood's major assassination's quests, like being invited to Vittoria's wedding as a guest of honor for preventing her death and that dinner on the ship as thanks, capped off with a white horse gifted from the Emperor as a counterpart to Shadowmere.
maybe that was too much but honestly I feel like it needed more than a pat on the head and some gold for taking down a super secret assassins' guild.
What you just described needs to be a mod
yes that NEEDS to be a mod, that's the best addon to skyrim that I have EVER HEARD and I've played this game for 13 years now, isn't it? I love the dark brotherhood but the guilt of it made me feel a bit sick, couldn't really get into that role playing. Victoria is really kind, which I didn't know at first but once I was going to rob her and she was so nice and I realized that this is the woman I've dropped a stone of 10 times 🧐 And the Emperor I loved from the start, definitely never killed him again. And! I ended up killing really nice people on bounties last time, so now I just... I donwannadoit :( your alternative would be amazing!
I do use a mod that increases the reward to 10000 gold, one for attending the wedding (with an option to receive a perk), and one to join the Penitus Oculatus to finish the job (eventually take out Dawnstar Sanctuary). No white horse, though.
This is what I thought it was going to be was disappointing
With a faction questiline that is fleshed out like that, any active questline that goes to the opposite needs to be similarly fleshed out.
I could understand if killing Astrid and leaving the shack will just lead to the occasional assassin coming after the dragonborn, but when you go so far to destroy the faction, make with a reasonable choice over joining them.
A horse is actually pretty useful if you’re overloaded with goods to bring to the market. Being on your horse, you can fast travel back to the market in any city.
horses are really good, they can climb anything lol. They also aren't susceptible to being killed in combat. buying one is a bit of a scam though, just get frost or shadowmere or arvak
They're also really good when you're the type of player that never fast travels like me
@@MalachiCo0 That sounds like a torture method
@@nightowl6055 Why though? Feels way more immersive than fast travel.
Also what i do on every playthough is to buy horse as fast as you can from the begining so you can travel to unreaveled spots on the map faster especially in mountains , 1000g is not that much at start of the game
Option 3 keep Barbas for yourself forever, that way you have an un-killable dog companion.
Step 1: Start the quest
Step 2: Accept Vile's Task
Step 3: Never complete the task
Good call...he barks a f%#kin lot tho
not worth it because of the barking
@@JakanA you must treat the good boy very badly
But then you would miss out on the mask I mean sure the mask isn't anything special but getting such a huge increase in speech especially for how early you can get it can really make early game better for making some easy money
@@ireallydontknow278 money doesn’t matter when you can have an eternal good boy
Honestly it baffled me that you can't just kill the Blades instead. I mean, it's not like they're major players. After Alduin's Wall (and Season Unending if you didn't finish the Civil War), they basically just hide in their old shitty temple. Why not place a side option to kill the Blades when they tell you to kill ol' Party Snax?
Yeah would be satisfying to kill Delphine tbh, after finding out about the kill Party Snax quest I never went back to see them after completing Alduin's Wall. This was the only way I could think of to avoid the quest & every playthrough I've done since (and there has been many) leaving Alduin's Wall is the last time I ever see Delphine & Esbern.
I never get Season Unending due to similar reasons, after first playthrough and finding out about it I now finish the civil war line before going to Blackreach.
I do the blades quest line which is only 2 quests before I defeat Alduin at the throat of the world. This way I get the dragon infusion perk from esbern and the blades don’t know about paarthurnax yet. Then when they want to talk to me after the season unending quest about paarthurnax I just quit their dialogue and don’t get the annoying objective in my journal.
what's Season Unending? I always have the civil war complete by then
@@KaiserRisOfficial basically it puts a halt on the civil war till you defeat Alduin at the end of main questline. We end up having a debate at High Hrothgar with pretty much all the top brass in the game, I've never actually done the quest before but seen it.
@@KaiserRisOfficial You have to negotiate a peace deal with the imperials and stormcloaks because Balgruuf won't trap a dragon in Dragonsreach unless there's peace, also some cities will change ownership
Hey, being a blood starved vampire does NOT make everyone hostile if you have Dawnguard installed, just so you know.
I think that was a poor decision. I liked this mechanic. It added some urgency and excitement to getting a feed as a vampire.
Plus you can like a wherewolf transform whenever you want and get some pretty awesome vampiric upgrades, if Vampire Babe transforms you.
@@raellawrence7116 I think they changed it cause it made fast traveling a bitch cause you'd be fully satiated, travel across the map and boom now u need to feed again
Also I hated that werewolves can never have a satisfying rest
@JayShroomish I'm literally regretting this SO fcking much right now 😫 🙄 I'm wondering if curing yourself still works since I'm playing the dawnguard version
The absolute worst thing about choices in big games like this that even with dozens of save files, you dont know you made a mistake until youre already hours and hours in
Amen to that!!
You can actually kill Delphine and Esbern in vanilla Skyrim on any platform if you have any level of “Raise Dead”. Just cast it at them repeatedly (probably pop a few magica pots) and they’ll eventually begin to glow. Shortly after that they’ll turn to ash like any other resurrected corpse.
*BE WARNED* doing this *will* break any other quests that are related to them, and they *WILL NOT* respawn.
This method works on any NPC even if they are “required” like the graybeards.
Still a good choice
I have never heard of this before in my life. The bugs never end
Can anybody confirm?
Delphine and Esbern should've been killable after you killed Alduin. Also certain minor quest NPCs should've been killable anyway even if it ended the quest.
@@julia-6195 They are though. Not sure if it's 100% vanilla or the unofficial patch, but they loose essential status after Alduin's dead for me.
I refuse to ever kill my dragon buddy over the blades but instead of killing Esbern it would be cool if he joined the greybeards. Unlike Delphine who sends you to your near death on a "hunch" he actually helps you get information and gives you a way to catch a dragon, plus he was the only one to call out both civil war factions outside Arngeir since the other greybeards don't talk. There needs to be a mod to only kill Delphine and let esbern be a greybeard or kill Delphine and rebuild the Blades with him while sparing dragon grandpa.
Yeah Esbern is cool, only Delphine sucks.
You can do both. Keep our buddy and build the blades. Just don't visit the Greybeards right away. After reading Alduins wall speak with Esbern. Do his Building the Blades and complete that before visiting the Greybeards.
Bro i hate both, even before getting into modding i always played till that quest, then put the all npc are killable commande and slaughter delphine and esbern
Theres a mod where you can “reason with the blades” basically convincing delphine that paarthunax doesnt need to die and letting you progress the blades
I got rid of. Both of them shouted Esburn off a cliff and I led Delphine up to Paarthanax and he got rid of Delphine for me
the Vampire decision ONLY talks about the Original Vampires, Vampire Lords have no real downside in sun other than no Magicka, Health and Stamina Regen in daylight. The hostility of Townsfolk is also only applicable to the Original Vampires, They removed it for the Vampire Lords.
Seems like a lot of newer people just don't understand the difference
@mr.jamrob4505 well, when you've been playing as long as I have and have tried both forms of vampirism and werewolf both pre and post dawnguard DLC, it's easy to see the differences
@@mr.jamrob4505It was 7 years since special edition. So I won't say that only new players don't know the difference.
@@Anty_Praza
Special edition is still newer to someone who's played since release
Hence why I said newer people because back when I started there was no DLC
That is true but again I raise you this…
*Necromage*
Barbas isn't a dog. He's a Daedra that can shape shift into anything he wants, but uses the dog form for scouting and getting around without being noticed. He's only trapped in the form of a dog because Clavicus Vile forced to remain in one form as punishment, In that game only and doing so also trapped Vilein that statue.
I wish I could be turned into an eagle so I can fly away.
Eternal good boy.
Sounds like the curse Eric had in the series Woof. Except he doesn’t get to turn human again.
Isn’t he also just a part of Clavicus Vile since he split his power in half to create him?
For anyone that doesnt know, the best way to get a horse early game w/o doing a whole side quest story line, like dark brotherhood, (shadowmere) or dawnguard (arvaak) would be to tame the unicorn. I forgot exactly how to start the quest, i think its in the college of winterhold but plz correct me if im wrong. Its the 'creature of legend' quest. It is invincible, and it will always be with you and best of all its free and there is not a single threat to reach it or tame it. Im not sure if u need to start the quest to trigger spawning the unicorn but if u wanna try to tame it w/o starting the actual quest i was lead between Riften and Champions rest. Hope this helps 😊
Pretty sure this is only for AE not Vanilla.
@ probably. That is what i play so i couldnt say for vanilla.
@@ghostsuru8429 honestly most consoles updated vanilla to the AE for free so
A majority of people probably have access to the content by now, so you don't have to say "vanilla" anymore, no one has the vanilla game anymore lol
I love the fact that unlike in fallout i dont need to put any point into lockpicking to open master locks, its easy and with enough lockpicks the world is yours
Lock picks are easy to come by and also cheap and weigh so little. Without trying I might have 200 lock picks on me at a time and keep a supply at one of my homes. Loose 20 lock picks to open a chest no problem and the skill goes up with each broken one.
I always quicksave before attempting any lockpicking at some point you'll have so many lockpicks that you don't even need to think about it. Having said that, lockpicking master locks is tedious and boring so I would'n consider perks that make locks easier to pick a waste
Play on survival, each lock pick weighs 0.1. I’m not running around with 20lbs of lock picks on me 😂
God forbid you need to put skill points into a system to use that skill. The game even WITH difficulty mods is easy, what do you need the spare points for anyway?
@@robertoprestigiacomo253 right and you can also complete the thief's guild with guild master armor amulent of articulation a very powerful nightingale power and so much gold it makes the dark brother hood look unlucritive
It's not about stupidity, but about RP and morals. It's obvious that most of moral decisions are made to be non-lucrative, it's a classic artistical device. Wouldn't be the high road otherwise.
True, it just wouldn't be fit for a goody two-shoes paladin to join the shadowy assassin organization and to kill an idiot for a dagger, even more so when this paladin uses 2H weapons.
Your point is understandable, but it's still where I think Bethesda shit the bed anyway. Skyrim is just a game where I feel too compelled to RP as a very morally gray or straight up evil character because they made the villainous choices too much fun to pass up.
I think the best example of this in the game is the Skull of Corruption dedric quest. On it's face the artifact is pretty unless but needed for oblivion Walker trophy, that being said the battlemage dark elf mara priest is one of the best followers having unique lines for every hold you visit.
Yeah I roleplay as someone with good morals, so joining the dark brotherhood or the thieves guild isn’t happening (I have a mod that makes all the thieves guild characters non essential so I can just go down and purge them when I go get esbern)
True - though in these cases I don’t even find the rewards compelling - especially on the points I disagree with (4 and 5).
I get plenty of gold already when I’m leveling my smithing, enchanting, and speech craft (which I do as early as possible so I don’t lock in loot and areas at low levels).
I prefer Arvak.
I don’t enjoy the ‘added content’ of being evil.
I can make better daggers.
I want to be attacked by the Dremora because free daedra hearts.
Pretty cool video but i'd like to point out 2 things.
- After the launch of the Dawnguard DLC the 4th stage of vampirism no longer makes everyone attack you, you will also be able to get a very powerful form of vampirism during it's questline, even if you side with the dawnguard. (you can turn to a Vampire Lord form anytime you want and you can revert back at your will. The Vampire Lord form can be activated multiple times per day.)
- Being a werewolf gives you the same imunity to disease as vampirism, you can only turn once a day but if you do Hircine's quest and chose to help Sinding you will be rewarded with the Hircine's ring which will let you turn multiple times a day, you simply have to requip the ring and select the power to turn again FROM THE RING not the Beast Form one.
Also if you side with the vampires in Dawnguard you can get the Ring of Erudite, probably the best ring for mages in the game.
Yup, dawnguard vampirism completely tips the scale.
But I tend to just roll with either for the disease immunity,
@@HappyBeezerStudios I honestly don't know where I got it, but I have a Disease Immunity necklace that provides 100% immunity. Just gotta pop it on when you're heading into potentially dangerous areas or just wear it I guess.
@@wisdomprepper by now I have enough cure disease potions in my house that I can just take one when cleaning out my loot. But I remember that necklace, think it was a reward from some miscellaneous quest.
Timestamps:
Mistake 1: 0:23 Mistake: Returning Azura's Star
Mistake 2: 1:25 Mistake: Killing Barbas
Mistake 3: 2:58 Mistake: Betraying Paarthurnax
Mistake 4: 3:43 Mistake: Destroying the Dark Brotherhood
Mistake 5: 4:54 Mistake: Sparing Silus Vesuius
Mistake 6: 6:13 Mistake: Becoming a Vampire instead of a Werewolf
Mistake 7: 7:13 Mistake: Investing in lockpicking
Mistake 8: 8:09 Mistake: Buying a horse
thank you
The joke with how shitty your reward for killing barbas is that barbas outright warns you that no deal made with clavicus will be worth it, clavicus does not care for mortals and has no issues screwing them over. in fact clavicus is a daedra of trickery just as much as he is a daedra of bargains. Thus the fact that you get a reward that isn't worth it for siding with him is totally in character. Clavicus' realm in oblivion is literally called "the fields of regret". Barbas is one of the best side characters in skyrim anyway, killing him is like killing paarthunax, I don't know why anyone would do it outside of either not realizing that you have a choice and can spare him or playing a character that wants to make all the worst decisions. The fact that the reward you get for sparing barbas is better then the one you get for killing him is just a bonus.
People don’t attack you if you have late stage vampirism if you have the dawn guard dlc. Also stacking vampirism with the necromage perk is super powerful.
You also get a free buff to sneak and illusion, and siding with the vampires nets you two very powerful rings
U should make a video with necrophage vamp build 🧐🤔
honestly half of his points come off like he played skyrim twice, 8 years ago
Wait Necromage is supposed to be against undead and not buffing you for being one.
@@joebenzz the description of necromage is “all spells against undead are more effective”. It doesn’t say for better or worse. So if you are a vampire your armor enchants are boosted.
Being a vampire in the game ISN’T problematic. If you have the Dawnguard DLC.
THS! I also like using a mod that removes sun damage if you're wearing a hood/helm. I don't use vampire powers all that much, but the aesthetic is SO DAMN COOL xD
Survival mode makes it a bit more worth it too because you can get the well fed bonus, and not starve, without making food
I got a mod that reverses vampiric powers. Basically if you don't feed you get weaker. But if you do you gain more powers
@@CedricBarber0687 That sounds a mechanic from Oblivion (Elder Scrolls 4).
Also, I’m NOT much of a mod player.
If you've got the dawnguard DLC being a vampire is far superior especially if you max out enchanting and use the necromage perk. Then the benefits are massive
Vampires can use Auriel's Bow from the Dawnguard DLC to block the sun if they need to be outside for an extended time. There is very little downside to being a vampire really.
plus you get access to two of the best rings in the game
Being a vampire in Morrowind, that was the real deal. First you had to actually find those reclusive buggers without any sort of guidance and get infected during combat. And then you would never be able to see the light of day anymore or instantly die. And since everyone but a few characters recognized your vampirism right away, you'd also have almost no access to services. Being a bloodsucker REALLY well... sucked... in Morrowind.
@@nervsouly You have to use that illusion magic to get services.... Like a vampiric monstrosity should 😛
@@tandavawalsh0777 :D I wouldn't know. I last played the game... when was the GotY edition with both DLCs out for Xbox? So very long ago. That's when.
@@nervsouly Yeah, it was not so bad as that, but Oblivion was similarly harsh on Vamps. If you went outside at all during the day, it would hurt (there was even a smoking effect on your character's body). The amount of DoT you'd take from sunlight increased with your level of blood-starvation. At the highest level, you would die within around 10 seconds, even with a very high-level character. I remember the first time I became a vamp on there. (I started TES with Skyrim and thought it would be like that, pre-DLCs). I figured out through trial and error that being underwater lessened the DoT amount for some reason. So, the one time I got caught outside VERY far from any inside cells, I stayed underwater in a nearby pond constantly healing myself and chugging potions until night finally came. It was brutal, and I never played a vamp again in Oblivion.
(I'm pretty sure I scrapped that character because the cure required going to an obscure place I don't remember and sacrificing a filled black soul gem. With how rare black soul gems are in Oblivion, and me being new to the game at that point, it was a pretty unfortunate situation.)
Lockpicking is always a wild investment in my mind, because once I figured out that basically what you do is turn the lock really slowly until you feel the strongest buzz in your controller, and then rotate the other stick, as long as it’s between the two strongest buzzes, it will open, I don’t think I’ve failed a single lockpick attempt. I do wish I’d known that when I first picked the game up in 2011 though 😅
I wear that one mask while I'm out picking locks - Krosis. it's a triple tier advantage, as well
You do get some useful perks on the skill tree tho
I could never figure this out, so i keep the skeleton key until i reach lockpick 100
And lock picks are super cheap - I bought every pick available so many times - I was probably carrying 1500
Regarding the thrid point, yes, we love Paarthurnax and I'd rather destroy all of the blades and everything they stand for than kill my dragon buddy but it is actually possible to rebuild the blades BEFORE they give you the quest to kill him. Once you reach Alduin's wall you'll get the quest to go to the greybeards to find the shout that helps you kill Alduin (you have not met Paarthurnax atp therefore you and the blades dont know he's alive yet) but you can also already talk to Delphine about rebuilding the blades which leads to you getting a side quest of finding new members. Now we ignore the main quest and DON'T go the greybeards yet and instead find companions you wanna turn into blades. Once you found 3 new blades you'll be able to go on dragon hunts. Once you completed your first dragon hunt, talk to Esbern and he'll tell you to retrieve a dragon scale (just warp back to the place where you just defeated the dragon or ideally you already have one). He'll reward you with a potion that, if you drink it, PERMANENTLY gives you the ability "dragon infusion" which causes dragons to do 25% less melee damage. This potion is the only thing that makes it even worth it to restore the blades. Once you finished all of that you can continue with your main quest line, meet Paarthurnax and continue to ignore Delphine's request of killing him :)
Horses are actually pretty useful to those of us who like to get over encumbered but still want to fast travel. I just don't like how they die or glitch by not going home when you get a new horse. 😂
Also, Arvak is the best horse in Skyrim because if you dismount him, he will follow behind you until he despawns. ❤
So does the daedric horse
Werewolf form also let you fast travel over encumbered
And climb where humans cannot 👍
I despise arvak purely because he despawns shadowmere every single playthrough once I get to soul cairn, and I can never get him back
I love Arvak bcuz you always have access to him whenever needed unlike regular horses who’ll sometimes run away and take ages to find if not dead already
The best reason for being a vampire is because of the necromage perk, which will increase all self buffs and enchantments by whatever its % was. I like it, and you can become immune to magic if you take the breton as race, lvl alteration until you get the absorb magic ability, then become a necromage vampire and pickup the atronach stone. That brings your magic absorb over 100% lol
Best bit: Breton is actually overboard for how much you need. Combo the atronauch stone w/ the alternation atronauch perks then you're more than fine.
@@theepicduck6922 Ah i remembered wrong lol
That is a bug that's fix with the unofficial patch if playing with mods.
@@Ezio500-95That is a "bug" in the opinion of the (famously very opinionated) mod author of the USP
25% buff with Necromage.
Sometimes it's not about the money, it's sending a message.
Well done sir 🤝 everything burns
Dark Knight reference!
@@SpiffyMario55 ah that's where it's from
@@The-Blue-Knight And that message is: "Everything burns."
That’s my logic for wiping out the Dark Brotherhood
only lockpicking skill you definitely need to get is quick hands that way if u fail to pick a lock no nearby citizens or other npcs will annoy you put a bounty on you or waste your time
Killing Nilsine Shattershield is also a horrible decision. Not only do you reap a mourning family of another daughter but her mother will be overcome with grief and take her own life, leaving the father alone. It’s an optional objective and the reward is also pretty petty anyway.
If you have the Dawnguard DLC, (And these days, who doesn't? - Legendary Edition and Special Edition include all DLC), I've found the downsides to being a vampire as virtually minimal. Other NPCs will never turn on you, unless some of them witness feeding.
It might make things a little more difficult at lower levels, *only* when outdoors while the sun is out, but that's about it - it didn't seem unmanageable at all. This is very easily solved with carrying more than enough health potions. The immunity to ALL other diseases and poison, is very well worth it. Also consider that all the dungeons, ruins, many quest locations, etc. are actually indoors, so the sun penalty doesn't apply.
On my last playthrough, I actually used the console at the first opportunity to grant vampirism right away. It was still pretty easy, relatively.
To be fair, being a werewolf also grants 100% disease resistance, but it doesn't offer poison resistance at all.
Potions of Blood fix the need to feed as well, so literally no mechanical downsides.
One nitpick, people never attack you as a vampire (despite the game saying so) and the necromage vampire always has been and still is the strongest build in the game.
They do in vanilla skyrim but the dawnguard dlc changed that
@@OkayAlright I mean, it's SE/AE era now. DLCs aren't DLCs anymore, they are baked into the game itself.
@@lerarosalene Tell me about it. One of the things Dawnguard will do from time to time is send you to Solstein to do one of Gunmar or Sorine's quest if you triggered the Dragonborn quest just by picking up the Cultist Orders note.
If you go for 4 days without feeding you become a blood starved vampire and humans will attack you on sight.
That's because in vanilla people attacked you, Dawnguard being released you won't get attacked. Not sure if it was a bug caused by Dawnguard or Bethesda just removed because they felt it would make players not try the vampire lord.
I remember I married Ysolda and she started selling drugs in the Bannered Mare and every time I saw her it was "Dear my dear, you're so dear to me dear." I got so annoyed that I tried to kill her only to find out that she's immortal.
She said that?
This is my first time coming across this channel and i was literally drinking milk when the outro played 9:05
Ew who tf drinks milk by itself 🤢
Me too lmao
Sameee
4:30 good try, DarkBrotherhood sponsored this video obviously. But in my Skyrim the Dragonborn shouldn’t be a part of some evil assassins cult, especially after they kidnapped me. As Argneir once said: “is up to you to decide what to do with your power and skill. Will you be a hero whose name is remembered in song throughout the ages? Or will your name be a curse to future generations? Or will you merely fade from history, unremembered?”. we all remember what happened to the 1st dovahkiin who had chosen the 2nd way
I killed Astrid right after she finishes her speech just because tf she was kidnapped me and I woke up and confused
I mean, these aren't the "Worst" decisions. They are simply least profitable. In a game like Skyrim, which is supposed to be a RPG, people don't always take the most profitable choices due to the aspect of role-playing. I, for example, have completed the DB questline only once in my life. Now, I always kill them, because they suck and I hate them.
6:47 That's not a thing if you have the dawnguard dlc or legendary/special/anniversary edition of the game. No one attacks a blood starved vampire if you have those versions.
Does that change with the unofficial patch?
@@Lonkshi21 No.
unless you do want to master lock picking. Return the skeleton key because if you don't you won't increase your level. Also it is wise to level up the tree skills for points to improve other skill tree.
Some guy after the intro: Empire tried to kill me so I must join the Stormcloaks.
Same guy after encountering several assassins and being kidnapped: Dark Brotherhood so cool!
The thing about the werewolf and vampire thing is that while werewolves are incredibly op so is being a vampire but the perks of being a vampire extend to everyday play better that having to transform into a werewolf every time.
Most of the vamp stats are pretty bad. Werewolf makes you immune to all disease too, and if you get over encumbered and need to get to a place you can turn into your Werewolf form and just run there no issue. Base Werewolf can also body an Elder Blood Dragon with ease, were a Vampire Lord will still need to put up a fight.
@@JalbesbeSure, the werewolf packs a powerful punch, so to speak. The problem I have had with it fighting dragons is the dragons never land and just stick to attacking from the air. Werewolves have no true ranged attacks.
Vampires are immune to diseases too. And poisons
I picked werewolves coz I found their playstyle easier for me to control
Being a Vampire lord was fun, but I had a really hard time adjusting to the playstyle
@@no_title0w0 the play style wasn’t that great. The best thing about vampire lord are the perks you get while in human form lol
To be honest, the Anniversary Edition makes choosing the Azura Star over the Black Star no longer a mistake imo. With the necro house at Mara's Eye Pond, you can now have an infinite number of black soul gems, provided you diligently buy every greater soul gem you see being sold. Which makes leveling enchanting a breeze. Then you can keep the Azura Star pure and just use it to hold a mammoth soul as a backup charge for your weapon.
There's also a couple of mod options, Legacy of The Dragonborn has a crafting table for combing soul gems into higher level ones and in Immersive Collage of Winterhold I just found an alter down in the midden which will convert all the grand soul gems you carrying to Black ones so yeah it's a non issue
@@maddlarkinjust an fyi some people don't trust mods, but Idk why. [I use mods]
You had that option before AE if you went to the Soul Cairn and used the lighting rods.
Azura's star is just conceptually bad, white souls are way inferior to black souls.
Being more rare was mentioned already, but the real issue is that all black souls are grand, but most white souls are weaker...
Not to mention that if you use the highly recommended Unofficial Patch then the black star can only accept black souls.
For the axe, Bethesda's just calling you a monster for killing a dog
Edit:for the vampire thing, i just do vampire lord(for force equip glitch) and dont feed. The sun isn't bad qhen you can force equip ten amulets of health. I also like going into the soul cairn regularly for black soul gems for a deadric armour thing with a certain forge below the College of Winterhold
how do you force equip? it sounds useful
@@mxn0chr0maxic85talk to a follower as you transform into a vampire lord or werewolf, the spiffing britt made a good video on it where he equipped 6 amulets of talos
@@SCP-pe6cn ohh, thank you!
@@SCP-pe6cnInfi-shouts should have been a legitimately obtainable feature of the base game, ngl
The sun is kinda of a big deal since you're health stamina and Magicka can't Regen in sunlight without and enchantment/potion and since most of Skyrim is outside that will be a huge problem especially if your playing on higher difficulty's since you will take a shitload of damage even with maxed out gear and also using the forge under the college is kind of a waste it's way easier to make deadric armor yourself if you just craft a shitload of iron daggers hell just crafting iron daggers can easily get you to level 100 in a couple hours and you can then easily make some dragon armor which i guess is superior since it has a light variant if you're into that I guess
The Wax Key perk is very useful for Lockpicking, and using it in some locations will even make copies of keys that open other chests and doors in those locations that you can't lockpick.
Horse take is subjective. I love having a steed under me as I’m progressing through the map and having to travel great distances to undiscovered locations.
Actually I have no idea if this is a glitch or not but if your overencumbered once you get on a horse you can freely fast travel.
That is ostensibly intended
Truly the only reason I still buy horses occasionally
Still, buying a horse isn't worth it, just complete either the Dawnguard or the Dark Brotherhood questline
@@nightowl6055 Or get the Daedric horse instead. The most badass horse of them all. Although the quest line is pretty long it is also super cool and unique. The horse can be summoned as well.
You forgot one of the best horses: Frost
This horse can be stolen from the Black Briar's house after you talk to the imprisoned son in Riften.
If you decide to keep it, this horse is invincible like Shadowmare (because: quest item)
And there is also technicaly the unicorn but it's a "creation club" addon...
@@danbauer3669 Glacier is the horse name in French.
@@nivot3052 yea french people here :/
@@thespirou5461FYI, Frost is not unkillable…twice after I did that quest, I took Frost home to Lakeview and he was killed by bandits 😞….now I only get the unicorn as it cannot die and has a lot of stamina! I know its a cc quest, but it’s fairly easy to get at any level from the arcaneum at the college of Winterhold..☺️
@@stormym5434I didn't even know that but then again I've never gotten her but that obviously makes both shadowmere and arvak way better since either can't be killed ( I mean shadowmere can but only with fall damage I believe )
@@ireallydontknow278 they are good horse choices, but I never get Shadowmare because I prefer to kill Astrid and her flunkys…lol and even though I like Arvak, he doesn’t have a lot of stamina…the best horse for me is the unicorn,,,it is a cc horse, so it can’t die, and it has a huge amount of stamina,,,and all you have to do is read Saren’s journal in the Arcaneum at the college of winterhold to find it! 🦄
I found that being a werewolf on my first play through is more advantageous. It’s not invasive since I can choose when I want to be one and I just use it to get an advantage in combat. Also I can kill dragons in wolf form pretty easily once they get to ground level.
I remember when I first played Skyrim, I joined the dark brotherhood despite not intending to. I only found out afterwards that there was the option to destroy the Dark Brotherhood.
For me, joining the Dark Brotherhood was the mistake. At least the first time.
"Keep the Skeleton Key for infinite lockpicking"
MBIC, that's what the unbreakable perk on the skill tree is for.
I feel like the vampire lord from dawn guard dlc is worth being a vampire.
Yeah, besides, you have the choice of killing the worst father in Skyrim, and turning the sun Red completely by your choice.
Can do all that without being a vampire lmao an the vampire sucks you lose half magic an stamina in the sun as well as health f that
@@Ironironiron0 but you get silly magic and funny looking eyes
Being a vampire has way more ups than being a Werewolf, I’ve tried being a werewolf in many playthroughs but it’s always felt underwhelming 😭
Are you playing vanilla or with mods because there are a lot of werewolf mods out there, same with vampires?
You can level up your werewolf to make him better, just need to eat people.
I would rather be a werewolf with damn near no weaknesses than be a vampire who could die in the sun because of the shit ton of weaknesses
Werewolf pros: can turn into a Werewolf, Werewolf rings, Werewolf totems, join the Dawnguard
Werewolf cons: Silver dmg, can't get rested bonus, can't join the Volkihar
Vampire pros: frost res, buffed sneak, buffed illusion, buffed perks, buffed enchantments, new spells, new powers, blood chalice, can turn into vampire lord, vampire rings, vampire sword, vampire necklaces, rested bonus, can join Volkihar
Vampire cons: Fire res debuff, sun dmg, regen debuff in sun, silver dmg, can't join Dawnguard, inconvenience Companions,
I'd say vampire playthru is a much more compelling experience. Being a Werewolf is just being a normal person but you have a Werewolf power.
Whereas being a vampire is more of a lifestyle choice.
@@Ezio500-95 with mods, even with the mods which the mod creators did alot of great work but for me I always go with the creature of the night
I'm not really feeling this list. The vast majority are cases were, although the other choice might be objectively better from a pure cold game mechanics perspective, the choice being asked of the player isn't even really about the reward at all. When being confronted with the Dark Brother hood for example, the choice to join or kill them is not really a choice where the difference is based on game mechanics and rewards; it is a roleplay choice. In that sense, the fact that instead of joining/refusing to join and then not engaging with themat all (netting oyu no rewards at all), there is also a mechanic that gives rewards for the extermination of the Dark Brotherhood is only a plus. But ofcourse the reward for hours of slaving for the Brotherhood has a higher potential payout compared to one slaughterfest. People who destroy the Dark Brotherhood can use that time to earn money elsewhere. Similar for deciding to play a werewolf or vampire, the fact that the sun is an inconvenience is part of the course of being a vampire. These are mostly roleplay decisions, so trying to order them as 'better and objectively awfull' like in this vidoe is missing the point of why these choices exist in the first place. It is silly to critique someone's roleplay decisions for being 'objectively the worst'.' What I was expecting were more things like 'ways to soft-lock /invalidate certain possible questlines without knowing,' like killing 'Character 5 when just strutting about will cause questline B in quest Y to become invalid, forcing the player to always do questline A without intending to.' To me, what can only be 'objectivley bad' decisions are 'decisions that take away possilbe decisions further down the line *without intending to.*'
7:45 I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS! Lockpicking is the easiest in oblivion. I rarely EVER broke a pick in oblivion, cause it is soooooo easy. Why does everyone complain about it? I really do not understand!
But then again defiling the Daedric Prince's favourite object will get you in trouble lorewise
I destroyed the dark brotherhood on my favorite playthrough and questioned why I did it for over 60 levels now.
Because Shadowmere is a liability.
“Because fck em, that’s why”
Buying horses can actually be a good investment. By havnig a horse outside a dungeon, you can loot it of EVERYTHING an dnot worry about being encumbered because as soon as you mount your horse, you can fast travel. It won't take long to make back that 1000 gold.
Yeah, but you can get a follower for 500 gold.
And that follower can come into the dungeon to get the loot the very moment you're overencumbered.
If only all the guilds had the option to destroy them like the Brotherhood did. I will forever seethe that I couldn't wipe the Thieves Guild (Maven too) from the face of Nirn.
Agree completely.
Confront her. 'Go on, call on the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. I'll wait.'
As a werewolf, if no one sees you turning into one, you wont get any bounty. Meaning you can kill Nazeem if no one knows you turned into a werewolf
"Becoming a Vampire is terrible." It's actually really good if you get the necromage perk. I don't play as a Vampire though, the "your vampire blood boils in the sunlight" is too annoying for me.
I disagree on a lot of these being "bad" choices.
Tell us
The Mask of Clavicus Vile is nice, but it's not the best helm for trading. That honour goes to the Blackguard Hood which is far easier to get as well. You can get it with no combat after you join the thieves guild, you just have to run around and grab an item and turn it in on Solstheim.
I do that every time I play
Volsung mask also gives you 20% better prices, on top of +20 carry limit and waterbreathing
Also, if you do alchemy, it doesn't really matter what price you sell stuff. One or couple potions/poisons will empty most traders pockets. And growing your own ingredients (especially cheesy with Goldenhills Plantation) will make you a millionaire in no time.
That helm of Clavicus is part of my Merchant Supreme Build.
Who needs glitches and pickpocketing, when you sell for 50% more, and buy for 60% less?
I will say if you're early on in the game and don't have the better horses, if you can find a horse to tame them do it, and if not then just buy one. But as many know, you can't fast travel while you're over weight... Unless you're on a horse. If you're too far from your horse, you can use whirlwind sprint and while that recharges, pull out a dagger and power attack towards your horse. It's a little tedious but getting to that horse is better than trying to slowly walk back to your abode.
As far as Azura's star goes, she has her own plane of oblivion. Effectively her own Nirn. Sorry, I'm not about earning the ire of a god-tier daedric prince for the sake of a black soul gem. You can snipe Giants and Mastodons from ledges and such to charge up white soul gems that way, not to mention train up archery/spells to a nice high level.
Also after being in Soul Cairn I just refuse to use black soul gems. Ofc this is a roleplay aspect but I just feel too bad for those souls :(
So I take Azura's star.
I remember hearing somewhere that the Dragonborne's soul is above all of that. None of the daedra or gods can do anything with your soul once you're dead. I don't know how true this is, but it's what I heard.
I actually really like having the regular white star, it makes the game just a tad bit harder.
I want mummy azura on my side
I prefer Azura's star myself.
Me too. I understand people like to have better item but for me game is also moral choice. I do not play games to be strongest rather the righteous. Image you are savior of the world and then suddenly you become just power hungry and there goes morality. I played Skyrim 2nd play through like modestly dressed up healer with alchemy, illusion and speech craft. And have interesting experience when I searched for killer of small girls. I did not have attacking spells so I used turn undead to vampire in that village. She invisible her self in screams and hide nearby. She was yelling various things and slightly glow from spell in dark night. Man that was like chills down my spine. Turn away powerful enemy. It was like in old fantasy movies where mages are not yet strong with path of light can not kill but can turn enemy away. Gandalf did so with Nazgûl’s. And it was also badass.
I like to go all out on Daedric Prince worship (I have installed a mod for Narmira cause I hate always being asked if I wanna eat when looting bodies), so I usually choose Azura's star too.
Am I the only one who made all the right choices with azura's star but could never figure out how to use it ?
So you didn’t turn it Into the black soul gem?
azuras star is a soul gem that never breaks. its useful for enchanting, but itll only fill up if theres no other black soul gems.
@@danbauer3669 ok thanks
@@bluebloodroyalty8012 hope you didn't take his advice... the black star is by far the better artifact since it can hold any type of soul even though the game says otherwise. Azuras star can't take all souls.. black gems are more rare than grand souls by a tiny margin so idk where he got the black gems are sSuPeR common loot in skyrim lol
Nope, you're not alone. My first playthru I turned it into Blackstarand then didn't know how to use it. I carried it with me. Everywhere
Never particularly mattered to me what rewards you might reap by joining the Brotherhood, I always destroy it. Not only is giving Astrid the logical reward for her unforgivable cheek incredibly satisfying, but the Destroy the Dark Brotherhood quest lets you snag the Barenziah gem from their headquarters anyway, and I generally prefer to play heroic characters in these things.
Horses don't attack anything when you ride them. There's also a Conjuration spell. Summon Daedric Horse.
7:40 not only does the Lockping perks useless, you can easily open master level locks by giving your follower the lockpicks and have them open it.😅
I agree all the way
And on top of smithing makes it so easy to make legendary
I never knew who's 😮
This*
WHAT 😂 Never knew that, that’s cheating
sh*t I forgot about that but I usually solo the game without companions unless I have the marrissi mod
Most of these "bad" choices aren't really that bad, especially the vampire and horse. Vampires have far more perks and feeding off people is not that hard, literally there is a bandit camp in Riften that one guy is always asleep. The horses are also very useful early game and you know how to deal with them.
I never figured out how to use horses in the game. I can get on one easy enough but getting off them is hit or miss. Then when you do get off it to fight something or mine, they wander off... What a flippn' waste of gold.
@@sithsquid1 If you acquire the horse Frost (as part of a quest in Riften if I remember, you can choose to betray your client and keep Frost), it's one of the better living horses in the game; there's also a reindeer mount you can buy, which is neat and hasn't died on me. They don't wander off on you and will fight fairly reliably (although at the end of the day they're trophies for me, and I prefer using conjurable mounts like Arvak, mentioned in the video, because well - they can't die permanently).
@@sithsquid1 Mods can help. A lot. Convenient Horses for example enables you to double tap E for a quick dismount, useful if you need to dismount for combat. It does other things, if the horse is still while you are mounted you automatically harvest anything in range, though it will not auto mine for you. You also get horse whistle and horse horn which allows you to call or summon your horse if it has wandered off. If you kill something while mounted it also auto loots the opponent,
Frankly a large reason I still load Skyrim up even now is because of the mods available. Convenient horses is one of those must haves in my mod loadout.
I usually join the Dark Brotherhood but on my current playthrough I destroyed them. Why? Because after a while the misc contracts repeat themselves, so this time around I know being part of the Brotherhood isn't worth it in the long run as you literally run out of things to do. I destroyed them to clear the game of the random assassins who jump me during the game.
"If you go through the dark brotherhoods quest line you get 20 thousand gold from it!"
Which you're meant to spend the entirety of the reward on repairing the dawnstar sanctuary.
You can lie and leave the brotherhood to rot if you want also the torture chambers get you extra gold and windsheer alone makes DB questline worth it imo.
I don't think "Destroy the Dark Brotherhood" is a bad choice. It depends on how seriously you're roleplaying.
Like, there are pretty good arguments for a morally good character to do the first contract for Aventus, because the target is utterly despicable. There are also arguments for joining most other factions. Maybe the Thieves' Guild is a bit of a debatable one, and there is the question of whether one can play a good person and still join the Stormcloaks (let's just be happy we can't actually join the Thalmor), but the DB is clearly the most obviously evil faction in the game.
So, if you're roleplaying a morally good character, there's no question in my mind that killing Astrid and her people is the right way to go.
Another comment said it would've been great if that had been a questline, and I agree with that - would've given the whole deal more gravitas. But seeing as it was a sort of "hidden choice", I think it was well-executed.
I never did that one! lolo Killing Barbus. I actually KEPT the axe and kept barbas as a follower; since he is INVINCABLE in vanilla Skyrim. So yeah. In my first play through I KEPT the axe and barbas by simply not turning in the quest XD The satr thing... I can't remember. But I think I gave it to the woman. And no... I NEVEr or will EVER kill Paarthurnax. Because that's a whole new level of cruel. Instead... I gave him a hug
Always give my boy paarthurnax a hug
The one good thing about destroying the Dark Brotherhood is that it's one of the quickest and easiest ways to fully charge the Ebony Blade.
How?
Necromage overshadows all the cons of being a Vampire by a lot if you know what you're doing.
I love how all these videos ignore vampire lords when talking about the vampire vs. werewolf issue
About the Dark Brotherhood quest.
Yes, you get 20k gold, but you have to spend 19k of it on renovations for the Dawnstar sanctuary. Also, you get Arvak from the Soul Cairn in the Dawnguard quest, and there's plenty of coin to be earned in other factions like the Thieves Guild.
Fun fact, for the beginning of the dark brotherhood where you have to kill one of the three (or all three if you want 🤷) if you have the clairvoyance spell, I think it was called that (the one that shows quest path) shows you exactly who should be killed. Even though killing anyone of the three is fine by the game.
Whaaaat, that’s interesting. Never knew which one was the REAL right choice.
Astrid does commend you for picking the right target though.
@@Daveaintreal I've been playing Skyrim lately imma have to see what she says. I didn't realize she did lol. I thought she said basically the same thing regardless of who you killed lol
@@nickthompson1812 right? I didn't either until I read some random game article talking about it, tried it out and sure as hell, it lead to only one target
Which one is it? It doesn’t really matter though because I always choose the person on the right side but I’m curious 😂
With the bloodworm helm and the neccromage perk you can get some insane bonuses so being a vampire is worth it. Also a horse is good for places you haven't discovered yet lol
I always call Clavicus Vile the “used car salesman of Nirn”. His deals always have attached bad things. I have seen some praise the “Rueful Axe” but never realize you get hit by 2 attacks before you can respond. Such a “cosmic axe”.
Counterpoint for horses: What if i wanna run up sheer cliff faces huh?
You can kill Dark Brotherhood? Wow as an imperial playthrough this is a must have.
Being a vampire is literally the most OP decision you can make in Skyrim. This dude is hella wrong on this take.
lorewise?
wrong
gameplay wise? also wrong.
@@CallMeMimi27 Lorewise, sure-Being a vampire is a horrible contract with Molag Bal. Gameplay wise, no. Being a vampire is objectively better. A maxed out vampire (alchemy/enchanting/smithing, restoration(necromage) will always be more powerful than a maxed out non-vampire. And by quite a margin. It's not debatable.
@@Ryan-ch2om everything you can get from being a vampire can be achieved with alchemy and enchanting.
then you get stronger the less you feed? thats stupid, brain dead mechanic. after you reach lvl 10 and stop fighting skeevers the powers you get from being a vampire stop being useful.
you get 25% stronger illusions? can't remember the last time i used that unless it was a challenge run.
what else?
@@CallMeMimi27 I believe you need to do a bit more research, friend. A non-vampire cannot reach the power levels of a vampire from alchemy and enchanting. Of course all players can utilize this, but objectively, they cannot get the benefits as strong as a vampire can. Look into the necromage perk (I assumed you already had, but based on your response, you appear to be ignorant to it). Vampires can heal more, deal more damage, make stronger potions, stronger enchantments, stronger gear. Yes there are points of limited returns, as all players can be OP. But quire literally, they cannot become as OP as a vampire. Please look into this for yourself. You are just mistaken here.
@@Ryan-ch2om lmao. for the love of mara, this is precious. I've been playing Skyrim since launch, the benefits you get from vampirism are so negligible its basically cosmetic or for roleplaying purposes.
necromage increases restoration spells on undead by 25% which turns 50% resistance to 62.5% and increases enchants by 25 too. but you know how little that is when i can do a resto potion loop and become a god?
I safe Silus cause i want the museum to stay open. Its an important part of the history.
And I also like to piss Mehrunes Dagon off too :)
Destroying the Dark Brotherhood is a great choice. Gets you an intact Falkreath hideout. And you can use console commands to have Babbette come back to stay so it isn't empty.
Why can't you do both? Or can you? First complete the questline than kill everyone
@@martin-gaming If you complete the DB questline, you lose the Falkreath Sanctuary. And, you know, murder innocent people. If that's your thing have at it.
Granted, but you can also have a homestead in Falkreath with a reasonable amount of effort.
@@frecklefacedgod A homestead that isn't a fantastic cave. But yes, you are correct.
@@HanaTheSlothis it possible to destroy the dark brotherhood after i've already begun the quest? The only thing I did so far is kill someone as astrid said when she kidnapped me and went to the sanctuary
I only agree on the horse take if you play with fast travel. I currently do a modded VR run, to make it harder, darker and more realistic for VR and the horse has been a fine investment early on until I get to the dark brotherhood questline
1:24 Is that really a bug I mean black soul gems can capture white souls, if I remember right the difference between regular soul gems and black soul gems is lore. The souls captured in a normal soul gem experience a normal afterlife it's just the energy of the soul which is taken but anything trapped in a black soul gem becomes eternally condemned to the Soul Cairn.
You got is backwards with the werewolf, you can't just revert back when you want; it's the vampire lord you can choose when you want to be in or out of the form. Sure you can be a werewolf whenever you want but if you wanna change back you have to wait it out.
All of the negative effects of being a vampire can be removed using enchantments. Once you get the enchanting perk that requires 100 in it. You can put two enchantments on the same item. That means putting on enchantments that improve health, stamin and magica regen. You may get about equal regen to what you would have normally when not a vampire or at night. If you're a Dunmer the weakness to fire is of no concern as the perk for being a Dunmer cancels out the weakness to fire. But you can use a shield or armor piece a necklace to remove the weakness to fire, the enchantment has to be 50% resistance to fire to cancel out the weakness to fire. If you have items with enough regen to cancel out the lack of it caused by the sun. When its night you are double as powerful as your regen will be 200%. If you have at least 40 into restoration, restoration spells can be made to also restore stamina. I find that being a vampire in Dawnguard to be a better quest than the staying with the Dawnguard. Also, Vampire Lords can change and revert form at will, with werewolves you can get more transformations with the Ring of Hircine but you have to wait for a long time to revert back. Werewolves also do not get the benefits from sleeping or sleeping with your spouse called Lovers Confort.
Enchantments can't fix the problem with being a vampire because 1 in daylight you are weaker and you're health stamina and Magicka won't regenerate naturally unless you have enchantments for it which is just a waste of an enchantment on a piece of gear and even if you use the enchantments most of the time it will be slower most of the time
Dawngard dlc gives you the ability to disable sun effects, so not even a problem. Also necromage perk increases enchantment effects
One quest decision that DIDN’T bug me until recently was the Saadia quest. I ALWAYS helped her out until about a week ago or so when I was attacked by a group of bandits which, the lead bandit had a letter from - get this - SAADIA herself !!!!!! What in the world ?
Getting the Black Star can actually prevent you from getting the achievement / trophy for getting all the Daedric artifacts though. It happened to me and I actually had to go back through and do the quest over in order to get it to count.
There are no wrong choices in Skyrim! You ARE The Dragonborn!
Destroying the Dark Brotherhood wasn't about money for me in my first playthrough.
I played a werewolf wood elf, so eventually I stopped sleeping since it gave no benefits.
After completing all the Main story quests as well as the DLC's and many of the side quests, I decided as a bit of role-playing, I'd finally let my character rest to signify the playthrough nearing it's end.
Well, even though I killed Grelod the Kind when I was only level 12, at level 82 I was finally kidnapped from my home in Riften and met with Astrid.
I heard what she wanted me to do and after exiting dialogue, I summoned a wrathman and drew Dawnbreaker and Fus Ro Dah'd her so hard she glitched into the wall.
I make all the wrong decisions...
I give Azura her star back, I wipe out the Dark Brotherhood with extreme prejudice, I spare Silas, I don't become a vampire or werewolf and I buy a horse (I play Survival Mode)...
Horses in survival mode are very useful
Realtalk
Do they let you fast travel, bc that is literally the only reason I've never bothered trying survival. I want to play it and not spend literal hours running across the map
@@HistoricMold440 the great thing about survival mode is that you have to find new solutions for problems you don‘t have in the regular game. You may not be able to fast travel at any time by clicking on the map, however in almost each big city is a carriage or ship that can bring you to the major cities. Furthermore if you have your own home in Falkreath you can also buy an own carriage that can also transport you to the smaller towns like Rorikstead. And a horse is also extreeemely useful as it is much faster than you are by foot and you can even move fast with it while being overweight. I would definitely recommend playing the survival mode. I personally play survival mode and master difficulty, i think it just adds so much more to the game when you are really frightened of for example dragons in the beginning and i love the fact that the cold almost kills you on your way to High Hrothgar, it‘s just much more immersive
See, I can agree with half of these (the Rueful Axe, Lockpicking, buying horses, Paarthurnax), but I can't totally agree with the rest. If you're talking from a "pure numbers" perspective, there's some validity, but for many players there's value to be had in role-playing, and that can involve a good character as often as not: maybe you want to help Aranea and one of the few Daedric Princes not widely seen as evil, and/or you disagree with Nelecar's insistence that Azura drove Malen Varyn insane. Perhaps you want to spite Mehrunes Dagon. You may really want to role-play that good character who doesn't kill a bunch of innocents, or perhaps just want to punish Astrid for her mistake in kidnapping you (potentially out of your home with your spouse and children). Maybe you like the idea of role-playing a vampire.
(plus, with Arvak available to rival (and in some ways overshadow) Shadowmere, none of the rewards are that great; you'll be rolling in gold eventually whether you interact with the Brotherhood or not, the real prize of the Dagon quest is access to the Shrine and a consistent respawning source of Daedra Hearts, the long-term benefit of both werewolf and vampire is disease immunity, easily rendered moot by Potions of Cure Disease, and the reusable Soul Gem actually isn't terribly useful unless you really want to trek back to an enchanting table each time you fill it to enchant one piece of equipment)
Best horse is Arvak. If you're over encumbered, you just have to make it outside and summon him. Once on his back, you can fast travel over encumbered
I actually lost Barnabis in my game. I had him wait somewhere while I went off and did a quest, and then came back to my game after a few months and COMPLETELY forgot where I put him.
I just keep Barbus and don’t finish the quest, he’s an extra unkillable companion who’s a great tank😅