I’m in my second serious playthrough of Skyrim having at first made a stab at Lightly Armored Spellsword’ing my way through the game. It was doable and at level 30 I was having a routine time of exploring tombs, stealing treasure from the inhabitants and mauling dragons. But it seemed amiss. And frankly, Magic was just too damned tempting to ignore any longer.
So the second playthrough is pure magic. I owned a dagger for all of an hour. I used it once, the frantic swinging and stabbing motions backed by my panicked backpedaling as i watched my mana bar recover enough to put the insistent witch down. Since then, I sold the dagger and focused on purely magical pursuits. That being said, i’m a danger to anyone in the room with my paired Chain Lightning whose forks know no selection ability and strike anyone or thing within reach. Zap, down go the bandits.
I’m amused as the lightning spells carry a little thunder with them. I swear, it’s a dark day, the sky is clouded and the slight thundering from my powers can suggest a near-time raining.
I spent 20 or 30 minutes on Sunday practicing Illusion via Courage. Courage is a solid spell which helps one of the NPC’s stand up to whatever issue their running into. In this case, Heimskr is a political voice against the government that rules Skyrim. He’s generally alone, standing before the Talos Shrine in Whiterun, your first serious city in the lands you explore.
In general, you can practice skills via usage. But it takes an event that would needs said skills. You can’t, say, swing your sword in the air or against a barrel and get better. No, it’s takes battle. Destruction spells? Sure, take some shots at a dragon and up you go.
And so it was that I learned that Heimskr needs your help. He’s alone, rarely he has some of the bored or unemployed people standing before him one or two at a time. He speaks right, as his issues are our issues. So it was with great ideals that I gave him the courage to stand there and keep speaking. For 30 minutes. Until my magicka would run out and I’d have to let it build up some more.
Not that he needed it, he’s always there and his routine takes about five or so minutes to reset. But for those 30 minutes, I was supporting a revolution.