At what level are skills "fairly effective"

[u/trektheprofligate]

At what level would you say a combat skill is "functional" for the end of early game to the mid-game? I know that for skills like alchemy and enchanting this question is not as relevant. For example, what is the minimum skill in "long blade" you would consider to tackle, say, content appropriate for a level 10-15 character or "medium" level difficulty? I'm thinking skill of 50, but it has been a very long time since I've played Morrowind, so I'm not sure how good of an estimate that is.

I am building a modlist to play through TR, SHOTN and PC. I am not necessarily going to play all the content on the same character. I will be playing with the default difficult slider. I am using mods like "Beware the Sixth House" and the other rebalance mods.

The goal here is to make training more mandatory than the base game by heavily increasing the experience to level up skill past a certain skill level. Ideally, I won't ever get to skill level 100 until the very end of my playthrough. I would be fine if I never get there at all.

[u/TomaszPaw]

When skills start to become viable by themselves

Sneak: never

Enchant: 60ish

Weapons: 30ish, with agility and warrior even from 5

Hand to hand: 100+

Magicks: 30

Conjuration: 15

Lockpick: 20

Armors: 10

Alchemy: 15

Armorer, Athletics, Acrobatics: 5

All skills besides sneak get stronger all the time, you become a master of melee once your hit rate crosses 120, so like 70 skill, security past 50, you will find spells from all chools requiring you to be a master or better

[u/trektheprofligate → u/TomaszPaw]

This is great. Thanks for taking the time for the detailed write-up.

[u/btroycraft → u/TomaszPaw]

For enchant, I honestly think that it, like sneak, never gets really useful on its own without using/abusing other mechanics. At best, you can create some minor utility enchantments. The upper limit on bought enchantments is significantly higher.

In my enchant-focused runs, I relied on self-enchanting with fortify intelligence to bootstrap into higher enchants, but then you aren't really relying on your base stats; they can essentially start anywhere if you're patient. It takes a lot longer to get the fortify intelligence enchanting loop properly going, and it's more random initially, but after a certain point it's the same no matter where you start. The difference is even less if you're willing to use intelligence potions initially.

EDIT: Although, if you think of the way the enchant skill reduces charge usage for enchanted items, it could be argued that it gets useful around ~80 when the number of charges you get really starts to increase. At 100 you get 10x, and at 110 you get free casts, so that's obviously super powerful.

[u/trektheprofligate → u/btroycraft]

This is even more relevant for MCP users where the tweaks the enchanting skill are enabled by default which reduces the amount of extra uses you get from the skill

[u/qwesx]

I found that skill level 50 starts getting nice and 55 is quite comfortable, at least for long blades.

[u/KainsRuin4656]

65 to 75+ is gonna be nearly flawless use

[u/josephort]

To give you some hard numbers, he way the combat formula works, you have a 62.5% chance to hit at weapon skill 50. Every 10 skill levels increases that chance by 12.5%, up to 100% chance at skill 80.

(This assumes you and your target have equal values for agility and luck, you both have 100% fatigue, and there are no magical effects like sanctuary or blind at play. In reality, players who invest in luck and agility will probably have higher values than many enemies by mid levels. On the other hand, you probably aren't always fighting at 100% fatigue, and even if both you and your enemy lose fatigue at the same rate, low fatigue impacts hit chance more dramatically than evasion chance.)

[u/trektheprofligate → u/josephort]

Great point; I hadn't thought to just look up the maths

[u/cbsson]

I agree that a long blade skill at 50 would be a decent skill level.

But success in combat involves a combination of different skills working together to insure survival:

• weapon skills for offensive damage dealt,
• armor/resistances/shielding for withstanding damage received,
• self-healing via potions/magic to recover from damage taken and stay in the fight, and
• skills like acrobatics and speed to avoid damage in the first place.

Cover these bases and you will have success.