Worst Skyrim Quest

[Guest]

What do you think is the worst quest in Skyrim? Keep in mind. These quests are ones that have a story in some manner, so no random ass side quests (even though they are irritating).

For me, it's a tie between the Thieves Guild and Civil War quests. The Thieves Guild, for me, just feels so half-assed. The Civil War, however, I just don't give a shit about. I don't give a fuck about the political bullshit. I just want to go on an adventure.

Edited October 2, 2023 by DeadJester226

[Darkpig]

4 hours ago, DeadJester226 said:

The Civil War

Wasn't there a mod where you could kill both sides?

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Darkpig said:

Wasn't there a mod where you could kill both sides?

Maybe. I usually try not to get involved with that shit. I normally just go the neutral route in the main quest and then leave it at that. I do have the mod that allows you to have Maven replaced as the jarl of Riften, though. Fuck that level 1,000,000 Karen skank.

[karlpaws]

For me it would be a toss up between Bards and Blades. What tips it for me is that even though Delphine is an idiot and the Blades are insignificant (and then want you to kill off one of the most powerful allies you might find in the game.. not that his power is used to affect anything which makes the demand even more dumb), they do tie into the main story and so doing the quest at least is part of the box title's content. 

 

The Bard's college on the other hand is a badly tacked on afterthought with no significant rewards or gated content at all.  If it led to a discount on Proudspire manor or some other citywide benefit, then ok. If it had some song based content or rewards, ok. As it is, you have to do 4 dungeon crawling quests, which I think, at least sometimes, can bug if you get the items before having the quest and of course you have to carry around these quest items you cannot use at all if that happens. At least they are light weight being quest items.

 

 

[Kuroyami]

I'd say any quest that all but presents the idea that you could possibly make a choice, but never offers you one, is among the worst. Of those, a few would qualify, but rather than just saying that...

 

Main Quest - I'd say the main issue with this, is that it doesn't do enough. Such as, going into, at some point, WHY Alduin is the villain. What happened? Was it because of some slight, i.e because his sole purpose was to reset Mundus, and he chose the attempt to rule it instead? Most questions that could be asked now, which would be more ideal during development, are based on hindsight, which it isn't always easy to have when you might have a deadline for the writing phase of development - even if some things can change later, depending on what's wanted, some basic details are effectively set in stone, and seen as fine, only because it would take a lot more time to develop further, between writing, planning, etc.

 

Otherwise, it does not help with the original intention to have the Civil War as part of the MQ, and at some point the choice was made to strip it out, but not de-link it entirely - hence why the intro can still stick you with a quest to join one side, even if you might have no intention of doing so. Also why later, you have to engage with the CW, though only to change a few Jarls around(which, this having an effect if you do the CW quests later, or if they are currently active, but not finished, is good). 

 

Dark Brotherhood - I'd argue that this has only one large issue, which isn't even specifically related to it. Not sure how this would 100% work, but the option should've been there to join the Penitus Occulatus. The quests for it would be similar, but intended to both fit in with the CW questline, alongside prepare Skyrim for Mede's arrival - by doing similar work as with the Brotherhood, but most would be missions were you could rarely be discovered, and if so? You would have an excuse(papers, an amulet, etc) in an Imperial controlled Hold, but if in a Stormcloak held region, you might need to either plan better, or have some clout with a local Thane, be one yourself, or resort to a bribe(if not serving time for the bounty).

 

College of Winterhold - I'd agree, somewhat, with the often voiced issue - the College quests should require more use of magic. On one side of things, the fact that you have the choice to improve your magic at your own pace is good, but the fact that perhaps too many of this factions quests don't depend on having some level of skill with one or perhaps more schools, is certainly a bit of an issue. Especially when a few required cases can be bypassed with scrolls or staves, which is not the worst, but effectively allows for players who want to do everything, but play a perhaps basic warrior character, sail through these quests only rarely needing to use equipped spells.

 

Technically worse, is that barring shouts, only two spells are needed before getting into the first quest for the faction(meaning the Saarthal quest), which I think only the ward spell can't be done without casting(unless there is a scroll for that spell type?).

 

As an aside, I'd recommend this mod, as it adds a few quests between joining the College, and traveling to Saarthal, allowing the player to learn more than just two spells - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/66666.

 

Companions - Simple. The radiant quests should've been almost entirely optional. Perhaps the faction should've had a sort of renown(or some other name...) system, which doing only the factions quests would get you a decent amount of this, but the radiant quests would allow the player to achieve more. Said points gained from quests like Proving Honor would always be enough to progress, but change certain NPCs reactions, depending on the point value.

 

Otherwise, I'd suggest that, almost similar to the Brotherhood, the option should've been presented to join the Silver Hand, which might include a member in Balgruff or Vignar's Court, whom you need to assistance from, in order to perhaps remove the lycanthropy from the Companions(without becoming a Werewolf yourself). I.e, when the player first finds out in the previously stated quest, they would be asked by Courier to visit another Thane of Whiterun, who would be said member of the Silver Hand, and they would reveal they too are aware of the Circle being Werewolves, giving the player the choice to do some additional work for the Silver Hand - like obtaining absolute proof of it, and this would make the proceeding quests progress differently, such as warning this Thane before entering the Undercroft, in which case, when the player does enter, so would a number of guards.

 

"Even if he desires Sovngarde, do you honestly think he deserves it? So his choice to embrace Lycanthropy was that of a younger man, it was his choice. Pity he and the rest of the Circle will pay for allowing the beast blood to corrupt the Companions, but if nothing else, it will make Whiterun, and perhaps the rest of Skyrim, safer."

 

Thieves Guild - The required, vanilla, 125 radiant quests to become Guildmaster, is ridiculous. At most, it should've been between four, five, or six quests per hold, depending on how the reputation quests should be included.

 

Admittedly, I don't see a major problem with the Nightngale bit, but could easily see an option to progress the questline without it, even if it takes more effort.

 

Blades - Simple - The player should have a choice in dealing with Paarthunax. Technically this does exist, say if you don't ever deal with the blades in the later main quests, But if you do? Eventually Delphine brings this up, and suddenly all the Blades(not sure if this includes recruited followers) don't want to assist you until you do as asked. "The Blades serve the greatest Dragonslayer" eh? So if said Dragonborn would choose to not kill a dragon, you think they have no reason?

Edited October 1, 2023 by Kuroyami

[doragonmaid]

Probably College and Civil War for me, with Civil War easily being the least fun outside of the big city sieges. Both of them just feel incredibly unfinished. The Archmage title doesn't feel earned at all, literally just being slapped on at the end of a predetermined path that you can just speed your way through, barely doing any actual magic whatsoever.

 

But to add something positive, the Thieves Guild questline has always been one that I've really enjoyed. Mainly I guess it's the amount of variety and being able to approach several of the quests in different ways. And as opposed to how you can barbarian your way through the College, you really do feel like a thief in the Thieves Guild. Just a really satisfying questline to play through, for me personally.

[Guest]

alduin showed up after the nords wiped out akatosh's favorite race he brought to nirn the snow elves formerly known as falmer, as far as i seen.

 

as for worst quest its the civil war due to its bugs and heavy internal scripting

[Darkpig]

1 hour ago, karlpaws said:

The Bard's college on the other hand is a badly tacked on afterthought with no significant rewards or gated content at all.  If it led to a discount on Proudspire manor or some other citywide benefit, then ok. If it had some song based content or rewards, ok. As it is, you have to do 4 dungeon crawling quests, which I think, at least sometimes, can bug if you get the items before having the quest and of course you have to carry around these quest items you cannot use at all if that happens. At least they are light weight being quest items.

What bugs me is every other guild has some skill set associated with them. The Companions fit the skill set of a warrior, the College of Winterhold fit the skillset of a mage, the Thieves Guild and Dark brotherhood fit that Rogue archetype and the Bards College is... Speechcraft? Maybe they had a full bard skillset but just left it out because Illusion spells deal with most of the magical manipulation magic. It could just be viewed as a fetch quest but the fact that you can join the college but are never able to play the lute is stupid.

[belegost]

Civil War.

Not because of bad story design or the fact you're doing fetch quests either for self-centered asshole or the biggest racist in the Empire (and no, the latter is not Ulfric. Ulfric is that self-centeted asshole but that's it. Its Tulius and his blatant and open disregard for local traditions in front of his Nord subordinates. But this is topic for a whole different discussion);

but because the whole questline is cobbled and held together by spit and sugar and falls apart, literally wiping entire cities off the map, if anything goes wrong.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, karlpaws said:

The Bard's college on the other hand is a badly tacked on afterthought with no significant rewards or gated content at all.

The thing I hated about the Bards College quest is that IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING A BARD. You go in, talk to what's-his-name, go find some old verse in a dungeon, take it back to what's-his-name, find out the verse is fucked up, tamper with it, what's-his-name goes and reads it to Elisif, she allows the festival to go on, and now you're a bard, even though you don't get to actually do anything bard related. You can't play any instruments, sing any songs, nothing.

My advice? If you really want to be a bard, use this.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, belegost said:

Civil War.

Not because of bad story design or the fact you're doing fetch quests either for self-centered asshole or the biggest racist in the Empire (and no, the latter is not Ulfric. Ulfric is that self-centeted asshole but that's it. Its Tulius and his blatant and open disregard for local traditions in front of his Nord subordinates. But this is topic for a whole different discussion);

but because the whole questline is cobbled and held together by spit and sugar and falls apart, literally wiping entire cities off the map, if anything goes wrong.

As long as it's related to why you don't like the quest, you're free to talk about it.?

I also agree with you on Tulius. I hate the fact that he has no respect for Nord traditions. Just because you're fighting someone doesn't mean you need to be a disrespectful dick. As Jun from Halo: Reach said, "I kill the enemy, but do not hate them."

[spoonsinger]

Of the two faction quest lines I've ever completed, Thieves Guild  and College of Winterhold, I will say Thieves Guild is the worst. But obviously won't vote because I don't know if the others are even worse. Maybe ask in another ten years. 

[Guest]

17 hours ago, Darkpig said:

What bugs me is every other guild has some skill set associated with them. The Companions fit the skill set of a warrior, the College of Winterhold fit the skillset of a mage, the Thieves Guild and Dark brotherhood fit that Rogue archetype and the Bards College is... Speechcraft? Maybe they had a full bard skillset but just left it out because Illusion spells deal with most of the magical manipulation magic. It could just be viewed as a fetch quest but the fact that you can join the college but are never able to play the lute is stupid.

That why I have this mod. It allows you to become a bard without having to do all of that stupid shit.

[Vinamael]

The only listed questline that I liked was the Companions.

 

I found the Daedric and many of the side-quests to be more interesting.

[TT.]

10 hours ago, DeadJester226 said:

As long as it's related to why you don't like the quest, you're free to talk about it.?

I also agree with you on Tulius. I hate the fact that he has no respect for Nord traditions. Just because you're fighting someone doesn't mean you need to be a disrespectful dick. As Jun from Halo: Reach said, "I kill the enemy, but do not hate them."

and that you don't know until then, while on the other side you'd just see Ulfric and his people as... well, racists. with more or less reasons.
but as most of the people here, the Civil War is a big waste imo : only the Whiterun and Solitude/Windhelm are actually interesting, and it's just completely straightforward, you never lose anything or have anything meaningful happening during the fights, except for betraying Balgruuf if you side with the Stormcloaks... Really a shame when you have the dlc story quests that have much more impact on stuff, and overall you have actual twists in the faction quests, and even if they're not that impressive at least it's enough to give the stories some substance. and the Civil War has none, and not even any impact on the world, while it's supposed to be WAR

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, TT. said:

and that you don't know until then, while on the other side you'd just see Ulfric and his people as... well, racists. with more or less reasons.
but as most of the people here, the Civil War is a big waste imo : only the Whiterun and Solitude/Windhelm are actually interesting, and it's just completely straightforward, you never lose anything or have anything meaningful happening during the fights, except for betraying Balgruuf if you side with the Stormcloaks... Really a shame when you have the dlc story quests that have much more impact on stuff, and overall you have actual twists in the faction quests, and even if they're not that impressive at least it's enough to give the stories some substance. and the Civil War has none, and not even any impact on the world, while it's supposed to be WAR

When people ask me who I would side with in the Skyrim Civil War, I say neither. I just want to do my own thing and not get involved in something I have no interest in. If they want to kill each other over that shit, that's on them. I'm going to just be my little vampire/succubus self having sex with the hot ladies I live with.?

[TT.]

22 minutes ago, DeadJester226 said:

When people ask me who I would side with in the Skyrim Civil War, I say neither. I just want to do my own thing and not get involved in something I have no interest in. If they want to kill each other over that shit, that's on them. I'm going to just be my little vampire/succubus self having sex with the hot ladies I live with.?

fair fair, although no matter what, it's always good to push the story just so you can reach Sovngarde. this place is the greatest with the Forgotten Vale in the entire game. i'd say that no matter how you play Skyrim, when you reac Sovngarde, you drop everything even just for a sec and you feel like you should be the Dragonborn

there are many things to say about the main story, but at least the set-up is absolutey worth the time imo

[Kitty Kisara]

For me, the main story quest where you have to get the horn was pretty annoying.

I don't know if I would call it the worst quest, but since it's been forever since I finished the main story and switched to the mod quests, it feels like it.

[Seijin8]

Dawnguard.

Committed to destroying all undead wherever and whenever they are found?  Meet your new unkillable best vampire gf, Serana.

Despise the weakness of mortals and want to feed upon the world as a vampire lord?  Then you will have to join the Dawnguard.

 

And it isn't like things make more any more sense after the start.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Seijin8 said:

Dawnguard.

Committed to destroying all undead wherever and whenever they are found?  Meet your new unkillable best vampire gf, Serana.

Despise the weakness of mortals and want to feed upon the world as a vampire lord?  Then you will have to join the Dawnguard.

 

And it isn't like things make more any more sense after the start.

I'm glad you brought up Dawnguard because I forgot to add the DLC quests. I think the poll changed your vote to Dragonborn, so you may want to fix that.

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, _Kisara_ said:

For me, the main story quest where you have to get the horn was pretty annoying.

I don't know if I would call it the worst quest, but since it's been forever since I finished the main story and switched to the mod quests, it feels like it.

This is for questlines overall.

But I agree. That mission is so stupid.

[Wolfshrike]

Dawngard just for the tail end of it, IMO. I already don't like most of the falmer dungeons, and that whole section there at the end with the forgotten vale and the wayshrines... eugh. 

After that? Blood on the ice. Buggiest POS quest in the game, by far. Good god I cannot count the number of times that thing has bugged out