The title pretty much says it all
All I hear is that if you want to be a vampire your best bet is to be a Dunmer
But actually being a Breton is your best bet to negate that pesky weakness to fire
This is due to the resistance to magic
If my research proves true then all fire damage taken is considered magic damage
So all you need to do is feed to not get annihilated by it plus you are resistant to other forms of magic
If that`s not enough for you you can acquire the Lord Stone and completely negate the effects, resist even more magic, and get an armor buff
Then if your a mage, which Bretons are great for, you can hit the magic resistance cap with the help of Alteration perks

Of course you could craft some clothes or armour to negate all of that anyway.

Are dragon breaths considered magic?

Yup. My Breton can stand in the flames of a Dragon taking minimal damage. The Health bar doesn't even come up at first.


Sure you can... but if you have Greater Magic Resistance Perk (3/3), Breton 25% Resistance, Agent of Mara (15%) and the Lord Stone; your clothes/armour will be free for other enchantments.

1. And the fire that doesn't come from a magical source?

2. I thought the cap for Magic resistance is 85% ?

1. I will check tonight but I think all fire counts.

2. It is. You can save yourself a perk in Alteration (I went for it anyway) BUT if you're a vampire you'll have up to 50% extra damage from fire anyway. My Breton swordsman does not worry about magic users at all, but with the fire damage being what it is I chose not to go vampire with him; all that effort kind of gets undermined if you're up against a fire breathing dragon or flame atronach. Otar's Dragon Priest Mask will go some way to off-setting it; the individual 30pts for each elemental resistance stacks with the overall magic resistance.

You could technically max out magic absorption, if you don't mind being a walking demigod.

You can use enchants to do the same (as well as other methods- lord stone, perks in Alteration, there's a quest from the temple of Mara, etc), but you'll also probably want to use enchants to offset the lack of regen in sunlight, which takes three enchant slots (one for each, health, magicka, and stamina). Add in magic resist enchants, and you've taken up half your slots just to offset issues with the sun. Being Breton defnitely helps.

Fire, Frost and Shock resist can be useful if you don't have magic resist maxed (85% is the highest you can use, anything higher is not applied), but with 85%, none of those magic types do enough damage to worry about. It's possible to get to something like 98 or 99% immune, but the difference between 85 and 99 is so negligable that it's a waste to use enchant slots for that. Magic resist is just as effective as the specific element resists, but it affects all of them at the same time, so it's far more useful than any of them.

Otar's Mask stacks on top of the previous Resist Magic effects that I mentioned:


EDIT:

That's what I said...

but I what I also said is that there is little practical difference in damage reduction between 85% and 97.75%. Your health barely moves either way, even in dragon breath. It might make a difference if you are getting fireball-bombed by 6 different mages at once, but under normal cirmumstances, your health bar will hardly move once you have magic resist to 85%, even with zero elemental resist.

By the way, in order to get to 97.75%, you need to have both magic resist and a particular elemental resist at 85%. If your at 85% MR and using Otar, that only removes 30% of the damage that gets through the magic resist, so 30% of 15%. I.e. say you have 85%+ MR and 30% FR. You get hit with a fire spell that does 100 damage. The MR will block out 85%, allowing 15 points of damage through. The FR will then block out 30% of that, or 5 additional points of damage (4.5, rounded up), still allowing 10 points of damage through.

You can't just add 13 or more fire resist to your 85% magic resist and call it good, since that's higher than 97.75. It doesn't work that way. The 97.75 figure comes from figuring 85% of the 15% that's not affected by maxed MR. (85% from MR + 85% of the 15% missed, which is 12.75%: 85 + 12.75 = 97.75). So, adding +30 fire resist (and frost and shock resist) to your 85% only adds 4.5% more damage reduction.

Now, I'm not certain how the vampire's weakness to fire figures in, but I THINK it comes after the MR check. I have a Breton vampire with 83% magic reduction, and no other resistances, and is still barely hurt by fire, so that leads me to believe it only affects the 17% of damage that gets through my magic resistance.

That isn't what I meant nor how I understood the information. I simply said that Elemental Resistance stacks on top of Magic Resistance, hence the "Elemental Resist caps at 85%, and is applied after Magic Resist" bit.

Excellent maths, BTW!


Now this I didn't know. If this is true, all well and good, but if not... I don't want my hard work going to waste!

I initially wanted to make a vampire dark elf due to it's bonuses in illusion and sneak, but now, you're making me hesitate between Breton and Dunmer.

But then again, if I wanted to make a magic vamp, I would've chose Breton and I intend on playing as a assassin, so...

I think what we can all agree: Bretons are awesome if you use the right perks and active effects.

Then again, it depends on how you plan on playing your Breton.

Also, there's more reasons why Dunmer are the best vamps: Vampirism boosts both Sneak and Illusion, both in which the dark elf have a skill bonus in. Bretons only have it in Illusion. Make of that what you want.

Well, I play my Breton as a nearly pure duel-wielding melee character.

While a Dunmer may get to, say, 100 Sneak faster than a Breton, that intial skill boost for any race isn't really important in the long run.... with the right amount of effort they all get to 100 eventually. I'd say it's the starting powers and what-not that make all the difference.

What perks do you have with him/her?

I have a nord vampire, their frost resistance added to the natural frost resistance of vampires is sweet. For the fire weakness...well, I have to wear some enchanted stuff, and sometimes just drink a fire resistance potion or two if things gets too "hot".

Yeah, I know, it stinks to rely on enchanted equipment

Tis a him. Here's the skinny (only 'cos I like you):

One Handed - 82 - Armsman (5/5), Dual Flurry (2/2), Dual Savagery, Fighting Stance, Savage Strike.
Two Handed - 40 - Barbarian (1/5)*
Heavy Armour - 65 - Juggarnaut (3/5), Well Fitted, Fists of Steel
Smithing - 100 - Steel through to Dragon, Arcane Blacksmith
Enchanting - 59 - Enchanter (3/5), Insightful Enchanter
Alteration - 80 - Novice through to Adept, Magic Resistance (3/3)
Restoration - 42 - Novice, Regeneration, Recovery (1/2)

On top of that I have Agent of Mara, Breton Blood (or whatever it's called), The Lord Stone and Otar's Mask. Armour is at 442 (552 with Ironflesh, I think). Damage is 220 with Legendary Blade Swords. If you chuck Elemental Fury on that you can easily slice up an Elder Dragon in a few seconds.

*I'm using all the katanas including Ebony Blade. The Ebony Blade is apparently affected by the move-type perks in Two Handed and the Damage-type perks in One Handed.... although no one seems to be entirely sure.

Thanks. I'll go check out what I can alter in that build in order to make it viable for assassin builds.

If you're in it for powergaming, I'd say Argonians are the best vampires.

Atronach stone and perk combined with Necromage should make you immune to all magic 100% of the time.
Inherent waterbreathing ability
Histskin for quick regeneration.

On top of all the powers being a vampire gives you like Night Eye.

But on the other hand, I'd say Bretons are best at everything.

i don't understand...

why is the breton better with 25% general magic resistance? vampire only get a weakness to fire, which reaches at stage 4 -50% and a dunmer got a natural 50% fire resistance.

bretons are in general the best "anti-mages", but if the goal is to negate the weakness to fire from vampires, dunmer are the best.

This. A vampire player's priority is to cover up the weakness to fire in the best of their abilities.

Resisting magic includes fire, so you can negate the effect and it benefits you at the same time

Yeah, but at later stages, you'll need more enchanted clothing in order to keep up with the weakness.

Thus the mention of the Agent of Mara and the Lord Stone
And of course the Necromage exploit