Races (Skyrim)

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the class system may be more appropriately called a classless system, as players are not required to select classes during character creation.

Starting Skills by Race
"The following table shows the starting Skill statistics for each Race. The higher the number (over the base level of 15) the better. Values of 20 indicate this is a favored skill of the race. Values of 25 indicate this is a Primary Skill of the Race. Skills can be improved to a primary group" - Skyrim strategy guide

Starting Spells by Race
The following table holds all of the basic spells for each race.

Unique Race Power
These powers can be used only once per day.

Stats Affected by Character Size
Your character's race will also have an impact on their jump height and run speed. Physically taller races can cover more ground while running and have a greater vertical jump height.

Melee Damage
Using the console command  to change the height of the character will increase the size of your character in addition to increasing their movement speed, jump height, and damage output. Because changing the player scale in the console increases and decreases melee damage accordingly, there is a misconception that taller races do more base melee damage. Without console modification, however, the default scale of all races in the console is 1.00, regardless of physical height. Therefore, all races do the same melee damage at the time of character creation. For further explanation, see the screenshot displaying the actual player scale (1.00) used in calculations and the base scale, which is displayed parenthetically.

The  command shows that races all have their own unique base scale, which can be used to determine their height and related run speed and jump height. The base scale for all races are as follows:

Changes from Previous Games
Character creation has been dramatically changed in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Previous games had the player choose from a list of classes that would determine the starting skills for the player's character and in some cases, how the player's character would level. The player also had the option of creating a custom class, selecting each skill individually. This system had a very large impact on player effectiveness in the beginning of the game, though Oblivion's system was able to lessen that impact. A player could spend hours working out the most effective way to build a character.

In Skyrim however, that system has been removed, meaning that though the player will still select a race, the player no longer has to select a class. Skill set specialization is still possible in Skyrim, but instead of permanently selecting this during character creation, this is now done using guardian stones. The birth sign system has been abolished completely.

Controversy
Arguably, Skyrim has not lost any complexity in its system due to its skill growth mechanic and its new perk system. Although this system still allows the player to focus on a certain play style, it has the potential to allow more of the player to shine through than ever before. Many fans are not excited about the new system however, the main complaint being that the game is being "dumbed down."

This does, however, mean that "cheating" the system is no longer as possible, whether to either keep your level low or increase it too much over your actual skill set as in previous games. The removal of primary stats also means that you won't end up with dud levels, whereby you may be high level but still relatively weak due to getting bad stat selections.

Without attributes there are fewer ways to differentiate between characters. For example, will a Wizard who trains with a sword in his spare time and who has equal skill with the Warrior, be as strong as him? No, there is no strength stat so the warrior will have a higher weapon skill (which allows for more perks from those trees), health and stamina while the wizard would likely be focusing on magicka and magic skills. The Luck attribute has been removed and is therefore impossible to increase. Skills have been further simplified from a total of 21 to 18 (though not as much as Oblivion did from 27 to 21.) There are no acrobatics/athletics or speed attributes so it is not possible to increase your jump height or your character's running speed through stats. (However, Khajiit for example, have a naturally faster running speed than the other races.)