What are the best ways to play a character who is not a Dragonborn?
My greatest issue is finding things to do outside of the main quest and DLC quest lines. I feel like most quests wrap up too quickly to be worth building a character around. Not only that but the game pretty much forces you to be Dragonborn to do anything
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I mean, you could go dungeon delving, or try and be a regular Joe or Jane, like say, being a courier
I’m gonna guess he means what kind of goals should one set for their non Dragonborn character. A lot of the lengthier quests like the Dragonborn quest line and the main quest pretty much railroad you into playing a hero out to save the world.
Kinda that yes. More specifically I want to know what you guys think is the best to roleplay a non Dragonborn while still doing the main quest and dlc.
Unfortunately, there is no way to do either the Main Questline nor the Dragonborn Questline without being Dragonborn. Both of those quests require you to be Dragonborn in order to complete - the latter even requires you be a realized Dragonborn just to start it.
That being said, there are actually tons of questlines that do not require you to be Dragonborn.
College of Winterhold - this is nice and lengthy quest with a ton of lore behind you that involves you becoming (spoiler alert) the Arch-Mage. I find that limiting myself to only doing the quests as I level up my magic schools to be both an immersive and fun way to spread it out. Depending on what difficulty I choose to play on, it can even make them almost impossible if I time everything right as far as my PL is concerned. It does require a lot of thinking and timing, as every dungeon in Skyrim is level-locked the moment you load its cell - even if you don't "clear" it, leaving and coming back at a higher level does not increase its difficulty. Thus, if you enter the dungeons at the level which you know it can be increased to, you ensure a more difficult dungeon. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Dungeons this guide on the UESP is extremely helpful in making sure you wait just long enough to make the dungeons as difficult - or as easy - as you can possibly make them per your character level.
Dawnguard Questline - again, this is a nice and lengthy questline that does not need you to be Dragonborn to complete. It is also the longest in this list I am outlining. This questline pits good vs evil in Vampires vs Vampire Hunters. Are they a plague to Skyrim and you its sworn protector? Or shall you succumb to the eternal darkness and join the ranks of the frozen undead?
Lost to the Ages - though this quest only has a few steps involved - (Optional: read the book "The Aetherium Wars"); Investigate the Ruins of Arkngthamz; Locate the Aetherium Shards; Locate the Aetherium Forge; Forge an Aetherium Artifact - the sheer immensity of the quest belies its few objectives. It spans across all of Skyrim, flinging you into a search for items of which you are almost entirely blind to their locations. The amount of time it takes to locate all of them and the Aetherium Forge more than makes up for the fact it is, in essence, about a thirty-minute questline. It also introduces three unique artifacts to your character, giving way to more ways to roleplay. It adds a powerful boss, the Forgemaster, which is, on average, at least twice as powerful as your generic Dwarven Centurion (only the Dwarven Centurion Master matches up to the Forgemaster at its lowest possible level in which DCMs can spawn, which is level 36, but every level after that it gets a huge boost over the DCM) and, instead of the generic Steam Breath attack, it has Fire Breath and Flame Cloak - which is interesting to note since one of the most effective early game strategies against a Centurion at low-levels is to get right up close and personal, practically touching it, since the Centurion is incapable of hitting enemies that are nearly directly beneath it; however, the Forgemaster can because it has Flame Cloak. Furthermore, as I don't believe the Aetherium Forge is scripted to respawn, you can use it as an unofficial player home (I could very well be wrong about this as I've never tried; and it also doesn't have a bed roll)
The Thieves Guild - the Thieves Guild is always among my favorite questlines because of how innocently it starts compared to how it ends - and we all know it is far from innocent at its inception! You get two functional homes from it, sort of, access to a ton of merchants and trainers, a bucketload of loot, not one, not two, not three, but FOUR armor sets - Thieves Guild Armor, Guildmaster Armor, Blackguard Armor (only with DB DLC), and Nightingale Armor. You also get two cool and unique weapons, and arguably one of the best amulets in the game, the Amulet of Articulation. Not only does this bad boy increase your Speech Skill by a leveled amount, not only does it double your chance of success with Persuasion attempts, it also has a light armor rating - now, endgame, this isn't so useful since you're probably hitting the soft armor cap of 567 pretty easily - I say soft cap because the game adds a hidden +100 rating when you're wearing a full set of any armor, so 567 would really read as 667, making the hard cap 667, but since damage mitigation stops at 80%, which is reached at 610, having an armor rating beyond 610 is pointless - it can be quite useful to someone who runs Heavy Armor, as it allows you to level both in combat without compromising your normal armor, or maybe your character is new and the extra boost to your armor rating is much needed.
The Dark Brotherhood - you get to be an assassin! or you can destroy the Brotherhood instead. You can still get the Blade of Woe and the Stone of Barenziah, but you lose Shadowmere forever (press "F" to pay respects). On a serious note, this is one of the most influential questlines as far as playing a devout role in Skyrim. Is your character the hidden blade in the dark, the sweet embrace of the Night Mother, the Shepherd of Sithis, or are you a champion of the people, the savior and conqueror of the Dark Brotherhood? This one is more black and white than the Dawnguard! (click here to see what I mean about the Dawnguard...)
Becoming a Thane - though this is actually an amalgamation of miscellanious quest objectives and not an actual questline by itself - er, themselves - I have actually role-played a character that becomes Thane of all holds - on his way to High King thanks to the lovely mod Become High King of Skyrim by SolarHamster - but in a progressive way, by becoming Thane of the less prosperous holds first - in no particular order, these are: Winterhold, Morthal, Falkreath, Dawnstar; I lied, this is my assumed order (Winterhold is like 80% dead, only surviving, and barely that, by the traveling mages wishing to enter the college; Morthal doesn't seem to contribute much to the province of Skyrim, honestly not sure how its still around beyond its access to alchemical ingredients; following that, Falkreath's only plus is its proximity to the Cyrodiilic border......; and then Dawnstar has both a port and two mines) - before moving onto the more successful and wealthy holds - in order: Riften, Whiterun, Windhelm, Markarth, Solitude; Riften has a fishery and a port and is the home to Black-Briar Mead, but between the lack of tourism due to its shady nature and the fact that the Thieves Guild lives in its sewers, one could say its the least wealthy and most wealthy hold in Skyrim; Whiterun is the home to the Companions and the Skyforge, and thus sees a lot of tourism in both regards; Windhelm, the City of Kings, is the oldest continuously inhabited human settlement on the continent of Tamriel, thus has a lot of history and pride; Markarth is home to Cidhna Mine, the largest quarry of silver in Skyrim, and one of the largest silver mines in Tamriel; Solitude is the capital of Skyrim, thus becoming thane there was the final goal.
I could go on for probably hours listing out possible quests for you to undertake as part of a roleplay, but, let's face it, my way is not your way. Though these are examples, the ultimate decision is up to you. Mayhap a Thane of Riften is secretly the Thieves Guild Guildmaster. Or the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood is also the new Lord of the Volkihar, ruling the darkness with an iron grip. Or maybe the Arch-Mage has seen fit to eradicate vampires once and for all, and thus joined the Dawnguard to offer his services to them. The choices are infinite. The possibilities are endless. And all this without even touching the main questline.
I feel The best way to go in general is to consider how your character would react in the moment as situations arise. It’s not like your character knows the outcome of a quest as soon as it starts, or where every conversation will lead before it starts.
I think this could work for a non dragon as well. Perhaps your character never truly acknowledges their status as a Dragonborn. Once you’ve unlocked dragons you could stop the main quest there if you wish.