Skyrim Fan Uncovers Perks and Racial Traits

Want to make a ninja mage in Skyrim? Then go ahead!

A dedicated Skyrim fan has posted a rough and ready guide to the game’s various racial traits and skill perks which he recorded at the recent Eurogamer Expo. The fan, who goes by “Sammuthegreat” on the Bethesda forums, managed to make fairly detailed notes on 12 of the game’s 18 skills, as well as all of the races.

The list isn’t exhaustive however, as Sammu wasn’t able to note down every perk for every skill, or whether some of them have ranks or not. It’s also worth mentioning that Sammu made this list in a hurry, so there may be some mistakes. All the same, just looking at it shows that there’s plenty of scope for character customization, even with the reduced number of skills.

The racial traits are:

Orc: Berserker
Redguard: Adrenaline Rush
Wood Elf: Resist Poison, Resist Disease, Command Animals
Nord: Battle Cry
Khajiit: Night Eye, Claw Attacks
Imperial: Voice of the Emperor, Find More Coins When Looting
High Elf: Regenerate Magicka More Quickly
Dark Elf: Ancestor’s Wrath (surround self in fire), Resist Fire
Breton: Dragon Skin (absorb spells), Resist Shock
Argonian: Histskin (regenerate health quickly), Resist Disease 50%, Breathe Underwater

As you can see from the list, a lot of racial traits, like Voice of the Emperor or Adrenaline Rush, return from previous Elder Scrolls games. Others, likes Histskin and Battle Cry are new, and others have been tweaked, like the Argonian’s resistance to diseases, which has seemingly gone down from 75% to 50%. Sammu also noted that different races get different bonuses to skills.

The skill perks are:

Speech
– Buying and selling price 10% better (5 ranks)
– 10% price buying from opposite sex
– Invest in shops and increase available gold permanently in invested stores
– Master Trader – every merchant in world gains 1000 gold for bartering
– Buy and sell from any merchant regardless of what they normally buy and sell
– Intimidation attempts twice as successful
– Persuasion attempts more likely successful

Alchemy
– Potions 20% stronger (5 ranks)
– Potions for restore health, magicka or stamina are 25% more powerful (maybe ranked)
– Poisons 25% more effective (maybe ranked)
– Poisons last for twice as many hits
– Two ingredients are gathered from plants
– 50% resistance to all poisons
– All negative effects removed from potions and all positive removed from poisons
– Two effects of an ingredient are revealed when testing it for the first time (instead of just one)

Illusion
– Dual casting overcharges effect for more powerful spell
– Cast Novice spells for 50% less magicka
– Cast Apprentice spells for 50% less magicka
– Cast Adept, Expert, Master etc spells for 50% less magicka (more levels this time around)
– Spells work on higher level animals
– Spells work on higher level people
– All spell casting (from any school) is done silently
– Spells work on undead, Daedra and automatons
– Fear spells work on higher level enemies

Conjuration
– Novice for 50% magicka etc (up to Master)
– Dual casting overcharges –> greater spell effect
– Bound weapons do more damage
– Bound weapons cast Soul Trap on target
– Bound weapons banish certain creatures
– Reanimate undead with 100 more health
– Summon 2 Atronachs or reanimated zombies
– Summon Atronachs at twice the distance
– Summoned Atronachs twice are as strong

Destruction
– More damage for each school (fire, frost and shock) – ranked
– Shock damage chance to disintegrate targets if their health is under 10%
– Frost damage chance to paralyze targets if health low
– Fire damage chance to make low health enemies flee
– Place runes 5x farther away

Restoration
– Healing spells also restore stamina
– Novice for 50% less magicka, etc.
– Healing spells do 50% more healing
– Spells more effective against undead
– Once a day chance to auto-cast 250 HP restoration when health drops low
– Magicka regenerates 25% faster

Alteration
– Novice for 50% less etc
– Alteration spells have greater duration (probably ranked)
– Absorb 30% magicka that hits you

Enchanting
– Enchantments are 20% stronger (ranked)
– Enchanted armor 25% stronger
– Death blows to creatures (but not people) trap souls for weapon recharge
– Health, magicka and stamina enchants stronger
– Extra effect can be applied to enchanted weapons
– Shock, Frost and Fire enchants 25% stronger (individual perks for each element) (probably ranked)

Heavy Armor
– Increase armor rating 20% (5 ranks)
– Unarmed damage increased by gauntlets’ armor rating
– Half fall damage if all in heavy armor
– Heavy armor weighs nothing and doesn’t slow you down
– 25% armor bonus if in matching set
– 25% armor bonus if all in heavy armor (not necessarily matching)
– 50% less stagger if all in heavy armor
– 10% damage reflected back to enemy if all in heavy armor

Two-Handed Weapons
– Two-handed weapons do 20% more damage (5 ranks)
– Attacks with war hammers ignore 25% armor (ranked)
– Attacks with battleaxes do extra bleeding damage (ranked)
– Attacks with great swords do extra critical damage (ranked)
– Power attacks cost 25% less stamina
– Standing power attacks do 25% bonus damage, chance to decapitate
– Sprinting power attacks do double (critical) damage
– Sideways power attacks hit all targets
– Backwards power attacks have 25% chance of paralysis

Archery
– Bows do 25% more damage
– Zoom in
– Zooming slows time
– 10% critical chance
– Move faster with drawn bow
– Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies
– Chance of paralyzing for few seconds
– Draw bow 30% faster

Sneak
– 20% harder to detect (ranked)
– Sneak attacks do 6x damage with one-handed weapons
– Sneak attacks with bows do 3x damage
– Sneak attacks with daggers do 15x damage (last perk on the skill tree)
– Noise from armor reduced by 50%
– No longer activate pressure plates
– Sprinting while sneaking performs silent forward roll
– Running does not affect detection chance
– Crouching can make hostile enemies lose sight of you and search for a target

As I said, the list isn’t complete, as there are both perks and skills missing from it, but – if nothing else – you can get a sense of what’s in store in the game. Of course, as there’s a while to go before Skyrim comes out, a lot of these details could change.

Skyrim comes out for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on November 11th.

Source: Bethesda Forums via VG247