Highlights
- A fan-made chart tracks the evolution of skills in The Elder Scrolls series, revealing changes and simplifications made over the years.
- The chart highlights skills that have been grouped together or eliminated altogether, with magic being the most impacted category.
- While Skyrim has fewer skills overall, it still offers unique options within each category, and players can still create unarmed builds and explore additional magical abilities.
An Elder Scrolls fan has created a massive chart that shows how skills have evolved from one game to another. Multiple Elder Scrolls titles have been released over the years, and this image highlights one key difference between each of them.
The Elder Scrolls series began in 1994, and since then there have been four mainline titles and many spin-offs. The main games were added to as well, with expansions released for Oblivion, Morrowind, and Skyrim. As the series has evolved over the years, some things have changed to simplify the experience. The open worlds and characters have become more graphically impressive, but some players have expressed displeasure at aspects of the franchise changing, like the classes and character building. This Elder Scrolls fan has compiled all the ways that skills have been adjusted from Daggerfall to Skyrim.
Amazing Elder Scrolls Mod Makes Skyrim Look and Play Like Daggerfall
A gamer online shares a Skyrim clip that makes the game look and play like the classic Elder Scrolls title, Daggerfall.
Reddit user Stained_Class recently shared a chart showing the evolution of Elder Scrolls skills in Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. The image shows that Daggerfall had combat skills like Critical Strike, Running, and Swimming. Critical Strike skill fell by the wayside over the years, while Running and Swimming got grouped up into the Acrobatics skill in Oblivion, and were gone by Skyrim. The Daggerfall Stealth category shows that Pickpocketing was grouped into Sneak, but it returned in Skyrim. The magic portion of the chart has 16 spells that are shrunk down to 9 in Morrowind, 7 in Oblivion, and only 6 in Skyrim.
While many aspects of The Elder Scrolls have been simplified over the installments, this chart highlights the specifics regarding skills. Other skills that are mentioned that have disappeared include Mercantile, Etiquette, Security, Hand-to-Hand, and Dodging. In most cases, these skills were grouped to be part of a broader category, but others were seemingly erased all together. The chart specifies that Thaumaturgy was partly absorbed by Conjuration, while the rest of it joined Alteration, which still exists in Skyrim. Out of the three skill categories, magic was the most impacted one, which suggests that Daggerfall is an essential title for Mage-build players.
Though some players may be surprised to see Skyrim with fewer skills than the other games, it offers some within their categories. The chart shows that hand-to-hand combat has also disappeared by the release of the latest mainline game, but some players still use a Skyrim unarmed build. Mages in the earlier games are also able to Spellcraft, which expands the possibility of the magic category beyond what's labeled in the image.
