Game:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

Duration: 18:59

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6

This is it. The worst quest in the game, bar none. Nirnroot? Forget it. Purification? Get over it. Confront the King? Annoying, but more because I wasn't prepared properly. Ahdarji's Heirloom? Depends if you have a console version or not, but I don't.

This is...The Wayward Knight.

The quest consists of saving Farwil Indarys, the son of Cheydinhal's Count, from dying in a section of the Deadlands that opened outside of Cheydinhal. Being a rash brat that ought to have been put to the sword along with his father an era and a half ago, he decided to march right through the Oblivion Gate to try and close it (ignore that he knows exactly how to close it, yet the Bruma guard need me to escort them through the Deadlands and show them). With this, there's two problems; levelled enemies, and AI.

Farwil always has a full set of steel armor and a steel sword. But since enemies in the game are levelled and I'm level 50, the game throws enemies at me calculated for a level 50 PC with full enchanted Daedric plus a few artefacts. Farwil is also levelled, he's actually level 51, but his health caps at level 18, and while his magicka only caps at level 100, he doesn't have any actual magic to make use of it. Add that to his set steel equipment, and he's effectively level 10-15, if that, fighting level 50 enemies.

The second, and biggest problem, is AI. If you remember, during Boethia's quest, one of his Chosen decided to run right into the lava because his path finding didn't account for the gate pushing him off the bridge. Farwil's combat AI and path finding are the exact same, except for one detail: If you hit him, he'll not accept a yield and fight you to the death. Now remember that he's a pure fighter, and the AI dances more than a giant enemy crab on a dance floor. If you use ranged weapons or spells, you're going to hit him, and you're going to be forced to kill him.

Lastly, the first section right after you find him, and the point where you need to try and keep him alive, is a long bridge with 2 gates that open once you get close to them, and Farwil will run after Daedra as fast as Boethia's Chosen ran towards you.

All this combined makes for a quest that is completely, utterly impossible. Not because of a game-breaking bug like so many other quests, but because the game's AI is so damn poor that it simply doesn't have a chance to survive. Admittedly it fits Farwil's character perfectly; rash, impulsive, swing sword first and determine whether there is ground between you and the damaging cherry water lake second, but really, it's no excuse for having such a poor AI that it breaks the quest. Besides which Boethia's Chosen were obviously not meant to be so stupid, yet they are because they share the AI, making the whole "fitting his character" argument moot.

Thankfully, there is a way around it, and that is to literally go around Farwil. He'll immediately starts walking to you to talk to you if he sees you, but if he never does, you can just run right past him and close the gate yourself. Or, for those without very good Acrobatics and Restoration, swim right past him. It's indeed possible and even RECOMMENDED that you swim THROUGH DAMAGING CHERRY WATER so as to avoid Farwil entirely. Please note, however, that this trick doesn't work for the Bruma guard, who at high levels (read: 5 or higher) have the same chance to survive as Farwil, but THEY need to be shown how to close the Oblivion gate, so that they can close future gates on their own, even if the trip makes it clear they'd need the entire town guard and than some to make it to the tower, much less get the Sigil Stone. Utter non-spoiler, BTW, but that Bruma gate quest is also pointless, since no other gates spawn close enough to Bruma for the guards to interfere. Never mind the fact that more than a few gates open up in their wilderness area, they will do nothing. For reference, the next closest Oblivion gate that can open near Bruma is the one near Applewatch, the farm where Lucian got murdered.

A long list of problems to be sure, but by GOD the trees are SO PRETTY.

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