The (IN)famous

Beginner’s Guide to

™

by

Mark Stinson

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LEGAL STUFF TO KEEP THE SUITS HAPPY 7

INTRODUCTION 8

CHARACTER GENERATION 10

PRE-MADE CLASSES 11

Mage 12

Spellsword 13

Battlemage 14

Sorcerer 15

Nightblade 16

Bard 17

Burglar 18

Rogue 19

Thief 20

Assassin 21

Monk 22

Archer 23

Ranger 24

Barbarian 25

Knight 26

Warrior 27

Acrobat 28

Healer 29

CHARACTER RACES 30

CUSTOM CHARACTER GENERATION 31

Attributes 31

Skills 31

Hit Points Per Level 32

Special Advantages 32

Special Disadvantages 35

SKILL PLACEMENT 40

DEALING WITH THE DAGGER 43

SKILL DEVELOPMENT 45

SKILL ENHANCEMENT 52

CHARACTER CREATION CHEAT 54

GAINING LEVELS 55

BACKGROUND QUESTIONS 57

HACKING THE QUESTIONNAIRE 59

GUILDS 64

GUILD RANKS AND RANK NAMES 67

Fighters Guild 68

Thieves Guild 68

Mages Guild 69

Dark Brotherhood 70

Knightly Orders 71

Temples 73

MONEY, TREASURE AND EQUIPMENT 77

EQUIPMENT 79

Wagon 82

Ship 83

Houses 84

Thievery 85

Midnight Adventurer’s Supply 86

Letters of Credit 87

Stores 88

Repairing Items 92

BEASTIES AND THEIR GOODIES 94

Animals 94

Humans 96

Orcs 99

Centaurs 99

Spriggans 100

Giants and Harpies 100

Nymphs 100

Lamia and Dreugh: 100

Undead 101

Daedra 103

Atronachs 104

Gargoyles 105

Imp 105

Dragonling 105

Lycanthropes 106

DUNGEON CRAWLING 107

Finding the Dungeon 107

Getting Into the Dungeon 109

Finding the Quest Object 110

Tips and Tricks of the Dungeoneering Trade 116

Doing Your Thing and Getting Out Again 117

QUESTING 118

Guild Quests 119

Fighters Guild Quests 120

Mages Guild Quests 125

Thieves Guild Quests 129

Dark Brotherhood Quests 131

Temple Quests 134

Knights Guild Quests 137

Merchant/Innkeeper Quests 139

Noble Quests 145

Witch Coven Quests 148

Vampire Quests 150

Cure Quests 151

COMBAT TIPS 153

VAMPIRISM 156

LYCANTHROPY 161

ENCHANTING ITEMS 164

Armor 1 (Table) 164

Armor 2 (Table) 164

Shields 1 (Table) 166

Shields 2 (Table) 166

Weapons 166

Long Blades 1 (Table) 167

Long Blades 2 (Table) 167

Short Blades 1 (Table) 168

Short Blades 2 (Table) 168

Axes and Bows 1 (Table) 169

Axes and Bows 2 (Table) 169

Blunt 1 (Table) 170

Blunt 2 (Table) 170

Miscellaneous 171

THOUGHTS ON ENCHANTING ITEMS 172

ITEM POWERS 175

Cast When Held 175

Cast When Used 177

Cast When Strikes 182

Other Item Powers 184

Side Effects 187

Soul Binding 190

THE CALENDAR 194

DAEDRA SUMMONING 196

ARTIFACTS 203

Aligned Artifacts 203

Non-Aligned Artifacts 211

POTIONS AND RECIPES 215

Ingredients 216

Potion Recipes 219

SPELLS AND EFFECTS 221

Spells and Effects (Table) 223

USING THE SPELL-MAKER 231

STRANGE SPELL EFFECTS 238

"CRYPT"-OLOGY 240

DEALING WITH THE LAW 242

CHEATS AND MISCELLANEOUS 246

MAIN QUEST WALKTHRU 251

Privateer's Hold 252

Meeting With Lady Brisienna 255

Checking Up On Nulfaga 256

Morgiah’s Letter 259

Mynisera's Letters 262

Prince Helseth's Blackmail Scam 266

Cyndassa (The Werewolf) 269

Mynisera (The Courier) 271

Orsinium 273

Interlude #1 277

Lhotun’s Brother 278

Elysana's First Quest 280

Elysana’s Second Quest 282

Lich's Soul 284

The Blades 294

Medora's Tower (standard walkthru) 297

Medora's Tower (shortcut) 301

Unicorn Horn (Shedungent) 303

Barenziah's Book 305

Lich Dust 309

Lysandus’ Tomb 310

Woodborne Hall 314

Interlude #2 319

The Totem 320

Interlude #3 322

The Mantella - Introduction 325

Floating Islands 328

The Pyramid 330

The Shrine 333

Floating Skulls 335

Sword And Crossbow 338

The Mantella 341

The End? 342

TES Adventures: Redguard 343

TES3: MORROWIND 344

WELCOME TO TAMRIEL!!

This is my attempt at an eBook/printable version of the (in)famous "Beginners Guide to Daggerfall". The original web version was first published in July 1997, with an almost complete rewrite in August 1999 and a few odd updates in between. All things considered, you’re looking at the result of several thousand hours of game play and word processing.

As usual there is some new information (not a lot, I’ll confess), rearrangement of some of the old information and a some corrections that I never quite got around to earlier (no one ever accused me of being the world’s greatest typist).

My thanks to George IV, Georgina Allen, Jackie Eason, and uncounted others for their help, comments, suggestions and willingness to help me through the first major rewrite. Special thanks to Tom Stabler for some really good catches on a couple of major boo-boos that somehow made it past everyone else. And thanks to the hundreds of players who have written over the three years with their comments and suggestions for making this material better for everyone.

Most especially I thank my wife for not divorcing me over having my face buried in a monitor for so long. Although she is not a gamer by any long stretch of the imagination, she has endured my long hours at the computer and has done so with more good humor than any guy deserves.

Legal stuff to keep the suits happy

"Daggerfall", "The Elder Scrolls", "Tamriel" and all the rest of that stuff are either registered trademarks of, or copyrighted by Bethesda Softworks, Inc. (ask them which one -- I'm not a lawyer so I have only a vague idea of which is which). The author (that's me) makes no claims to any part, piece or pixel of the game, the music, the images or any of the rest of that (except for my very own registered copy of the game, subject to the license agreement contained therein -- starting to sound like a lawyer, ain't I?). This is a hint book. Nothing more, nothing less.

The maps showing the locations of most of the Witches Covens were made available to the public by Bethesda about the time of Daggerfall's release. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether they are freely distributable or not, but they are not my work and I make no claim to them. Other images were produced or substantially modified by me and you can roll them up on a cardboard tube, put them next to your toilet and use them for toilet paper for all that I care (except that I'd appreciate a credit if you're going to use them in a published work).

Except for materials attributed to someone else, the rest of this stuff (that means the writing) is pretty much mine, mine, all mine. And, subject to my own dubious copyright, you can bend, fold, spindle and mutilate it to your heart's content (but if you're going to copy it, at least do me the courtesy of giving me credit for it).

Introduction

Welcome to Tamriel, the second installment of “The Elder Scrolls” and the Daggerfall province of the Iliac Bay. Your mission, should you choose to accept it (and you don’t have to), is to involve yourself in the political affairs of the region, make a few friends, make a few enemies, kill a few people, recover a purloined letter, lay a ghost to rest, and decide who shall receive the Magical Dingus of Ultimate Power (sometimes called "The Totem of Tiber Septim”). Along the way you have to figure out how to keep yourself alive and kicking long enough to get the job done. Your character will probably get filthy rich, but that’s not the object of the game (who says this game is like real life?).

“Daggerfall” is not a traditional Computer Role-Playing Game in that there is no true linear quest line for you to follow. You are free to develop your character along whatever lines you would like. Feel like devoting yourself to a life of crime, slaughtering innocent people, robbing cities blind and generally becoming one of the Bay’s “Most Wanted”? Go for it. Want to be the Knight In Shining Armor, rescue damsels in distress, slay monsters and make the world safe for Truth, Justice and the Tamrielian Way? Go for it. Both paths (and everything in between) are open to you. The main quest does not have to be followed, though you’ll miss out on a good story and a lot of interesting characters if you don’t. When and if you start the main quest and in what order you complete it is almost entirely up to you.

In preparing this guide, I made a few assumptions about you. First, that you own or have access to a copy of Daggerfall (you’re certainly not going to wade through all of this for my brilliant writing style), have installed it (with the v.213 patch) and want to know more about how the game works. I’m also assuming that you have MS Word 97 or MS Word 2000, or you wouldn’t be able to read this in the first place. Beyond that, I am trying not to make any assumptions.

I do not assume that you know anything about the game, other than how to launch it and use the game interface. Consequently, there will be a lot of fairly basic information here (like how to use fast travel to get from one place to another). I apologize to the more experienced players who have to wade through the basics to get to the stuff they want, but it’s not called “The Beginner’s Guide” for nothing.

Almost all of the information here has been up on the web for several years (with occasional additions/changes), but there are a few new tidbits here and there. I hope they are worth the time and effort to download and read all of this.