Skills

[jellygoose]

Hey guys,

Just a simple question i don't seem to be able to find an answer to:
When i gain a level of a skill will that make my use of that skill better (e.g. more damage with destruction spells) or does it only unlock the use of the perks that require a higher level skill?

I remember in morrowind i was a thief like character and then went to join the mages guild ended being a powerful mage while able to maintain my skills as a thief. So was wondering if i could level my destruction spells in skyrim without using any perks and still become powerful enough to viably play mage at times?

Cheers Jellygoose

[Marius]

It does make the uses of skills better.

That said, it's not completely like Morrowind, since Morrowind had no perks. Much of the power does come from perks. But if you just want to fling around a few spells every so often then having a high destruction skill with no perks will be fine.

[Jez]

I tested this myself, and noticed that levelling up illusion/restoration makes those spells cheaper to cast. I don't think it increases their effectiveness though. From what I've heard destruction magic becomes less powerful at higher levels becase there aren't many high level spells to keep up with the scaling health of enemies, but I haven't tried it myself.

[Freeborne]

As skill points increase, that skill's effectiveness increases with whatever task requires that skill... in general.


So if Pickpocketing skill increases a few points, your percentage change to successfully pick someones pocket goes up.

With Archery, the damage you do with your weapon increases.

Some benefits only go up every few skill points. Enchanting and Smithing for instance won't make the weapon/enchantments more effective for every skill point. Sometimes you have to jump up 10 points until it will make a difference.

Every time you level up, you get 1 Perk to distribute across any skill, or save up to use later. All perks require a minimum skill level before you can unlock it, so you can't spend an hour Smithing until you reach skill of 100, and a character level of 20, and try to unlock all your Perks on Heavy Armour skill.