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14 Years Later, ‘Skyrim’ Fans Can’t Believe Bethesda’s “Diabolical” Default Character Build
A resurfaced clip from Bethesda's 2011 E3 demo of "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" has fans amused to discover that the character Todd Howard played was far more powerful than his shabby starting gear suggested. The 21-minute demo, best remembered for Howard's "see that mountain?" line, has been re-examined 14 years on, with players noticing that his supposedly ordinary Nord was secretly a near-maxed-out battlemage, a detail some are calling "diabolical."
Around four and a half minutes into the demo, Howard briefly opens his character's skill menu, revealing a near-maxed Destruction skill alongside strong Illusion and Sneak abilities, despite appearing dressed in poor armour with weak melee weapons. He goes on to obliterate a tough dragon priest boss in under 30 seconds, sneak past a mammoth undetected, and kill dragons almost instantly, feats normally reserved for high-level players. Fans on forums have reacted with amusement rather than anger, joking that Howard was disguised as "unnamed bandit #3" and noting that the iron armour prominently shown in marketing is actually some of the weakest gear in the game.
In short
- Old Skyrim E3 2011 demo resurfaces, fans spot hidden overpowered build
- Todd Howard's "basic" character secretly had a maxed Destruction skill
- Reaction has been amusement, not anger, over the deceptive demo setup
Explained simply
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a fantasy role-playing game released by Bethesda in 2011. Players create a character, explore a large open world and improve their abilities by using skills such as magic, stealth and weapon fighting.
Todd Howard, a senior Bethesda developer, led the game’s public demonstration at the E3 games event. The character’s skills and equipment matter because they affect how easily a player can defeat enemies or avoid them; simple-looking armour does not necessarily mean a character is inexperienced.
The demo has become familiar to players partly because Howard pointed out a distant mountain while describing the game’s open world. Looking back at it can reveal details about how the game was presented and how its character-building system works.