The Elder Scrolls Online Beginners' Guide

The Races of Tamriel 

Much like in every Elder Scrolls game before it (barring the side stories we pretend don’t exist) your adventure in Tamriel will begin with choosing a race for your character. In previous entries your choice of race had a mild impact on your playing experience, influencing your starting stats and / or skills as well as possibly giving you a special ability or two. But since, in the end, you could really create any character you wanted this effect was negligible. By the time you reached the endgame you could have the world’s greatest Orsimer spell caster that had ever existed by simply focusing all of your time to increasing your spell casting abilities.

Unfortunately things are a good bit stricter in TESO. Here you don’t just choose what skills to use whenever you like, you pick a character class and are stuck with that decision. Each race is geared towards a somewhat specific role, like Nord Dragon Knights or Altmer Sorcerers. That’s not to say that you couldn’t choose to, for example, play a High Elven warrior you have to keep in mind that you will in no way be as effective as a Nord fighter since none of your abilities have synchronicity with your class. There are ways to make it work but you’ll have to create a play style that works with your characters natural racial abilities for the best effect.

With all that said, you can reset your skill and attribute points at Rededication Shrines that are spread across the land. All it costs is a small bit of money and you can start over fresh. So if you see an ability that you think sounds cool or want to try something out then feel free to give it a go.

Jump to Section:

• Intro
• The Races of Tamriel
  • The Aldmeri Dominion
  • The Daggerfall Covenant
  • The Ebonheart Pact
• Character Classes
  • Dragon Knight
  • Nightblade
  • Sorcerer
  • Templar
• Armour Skills
• Weapon Skills