Hello Everyone!

I'm really excited for skyrim, so in anticipation I have tried mapping out my first character. With this particular character I intend on doing the main questline, roleplaying a bit, and doing anything that fits with my character's personality. However, I've run into a bit of trouble in getting my perks down to the number 49, and deciding on race. That's (Hopefully) where you guys come in. Below I've mapped out all the perks that I would like to have (more than 49) and the races I'm deciding on. Any feedback on what would be most effective and fun to play would be greatly appreciated.

My build is basically going to be a stealth-warrior hybrid, essentially your prototypical Ranger.
I'm leaning towards being a Nord, but In my previous Elder Scrolls experiences I like the Redguards in this type of role, so that's the first decision I must make.

Now here are the perks I'm interested in...

One Handed- Armsman (5), Hack and Slash (3), Fighting Stance (1), Savage Strike (1) = 10 total

Light Armor- Agile Defender (5), Custom Fit (1), Unhindered (1), Wind Walker (1), Deft Movement (1) = 9 total

Sneak- Stealth (5), Backstab (1), Deadly Aim (1), Assassin's Blade (1) = 8 total

Block- Shield Wall (5), Deflect Arrows (1), Elemental Protection (1) = 7 total

Archery- Overdraw (5), Eagle Eye (1), Steady Hand (1), Critical Shot (3), Hunter's Discipline (1), Ranger (1) = 12 total

Enchanting- Enchanter (1), Insightful Enchanter (1), Corpus Enchanter (1), Extra Enchantments (1) = 4 total

Smithing- Steel (1), Arcane (1), Elven (1), Advanced (1), Glass (1), Dragon (1) [I assume Dragon has a light armor variant] = 6 total

Restoration- Novice (1), Regen (1), Recovery (1), Avoid Death (1) = 4 total

Overall thats 60 total perks, so I need to eliminate 11. Quite a bit of decision making, I know. I intend to approach combat as a stealthy archer for as long as possible, with good melee capability when things get ugly. I like having Assassin's Blade for roleplay purposes, I feel like a knife in the back or across the throat would be a ranger type thing to do on an unsuspecting marauder. Restoration is for survivability, and smithing/enchanting are for shaping my own armor to my character's abilities.

Again I know, this is a challenge, so any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

- ranger
-hunters discipline

Perhaps all light armor gone too.

Don't rangers usually dual wield?

Deflect arrows sticks out to me as something you could possibly cut.

Your build as it is suggests to me that you'd be using your bow a lot at range, then switching to sword and one hander when the enemies come in close. It would seem that if that's your playstyle, you don't really need your shield deflecting arrows, because if someone is shooting at you, your bow will generally be out shooting back at them.

I see deflect arrows more useful for a character with limited ranged options who throws up their shield and runs in to take out archers.

I can see why ranger and hunter's discipline may go, but all of light armor? Just curious about your reasoning behind that, did I miss something?

Well that makes sense. But then I would cut elemental protection too right? Because i need deflect arrows to get there? But then again I could enchant for some protection from elements.

Couple more ideas as I looked over things more:

3 points in hack and slash you could consider cutting if you're not totally married to the idea of using axes. I have no clue how easy or not it will be to stick with solely one weapon type, but if it's not super easy, and you find yourself using other one handed weapons...well that's 3 perk points you could free up.

Also, you could free up some points here and there by cutting out a point or two in what you've got 5/5 in. Obviously this will costs some damage and other potential, but it isn't necessarily anything earth-shattering, and you could compensate with enchantments.

Personally, if I was choosing between going 5/5 in a perk like, say, overdraw, or going 4/5 in overdraw in 1/1 in Ranger, I'd go with the option that gives me Ranger (or whatever perk I'd most prefer for the build), because I just don't see 20% more damage as being as important as a perk which could shift the way I play the character. That's personal preference, of course, since some people would rather stick with the flat damage increases instead of the special abilities.

Yeah that was one of the ideas I was toying around with. Its definitely not necessary for me to go 5/5 for all of those perks. I'll probably have to wait till I play to actually see how big of a bonus that 20% damage increase is when compared to a new ability. Cutting those down will be the main way I trim the fat. I definitely want the axes for the bleed, but 3 points in that area is probably not vital.

Ah yeah, forgot about how those two link. I'd think you could possibly still cut out elemental protection, but the decision to do so would be, in my mind, based on how exactly enemies use elemental attacks. If it's mostly ranged stuff, well the argument against deflect arrows still applies. If there's a good bit of elemental damage flying around in melee, the perk would be relatively more useful. Since I haven't played yet...well who knows.

It's safe to bet, however, that a character using a bow will need elemental protection on a shield less than a purely melee character (since some of the elemental damage will surely be ranged and require the melee character to run in). It's just a matter of figuring out how much the perk would come in handy when in melee range.

Here you go. I have adjusted your perks to equal 49.


One Handed- Armsman (5), Fighting Stance (1), Savage Strike (1) = 7 total

Light Armor- Agile Defender (5), Custom Fit (1), Unhindered (1) = 7 total

Sneak- Stealth (5), Backstab (1), Deadly Aim (1), Assassin's Blade (1) = 8 total

Block- Shield Wall (5), Deflect Arrows (1), Elemental Protection (1) = 7 total

Archery- Overdraw (5), Eagle Eye (1), Steady Hand (1) = 7 total

Enchanting- Enchanter (1), Insightful Enchanter (1), Corpus Enchanter (1), Extra Enchantments (1) = 4 total

Smithing- Steel (1), Arcane (1), Elven (1), Advanced (1), Glass (1), Dragon (1) = 6 total

Restoration- Novice (1), Recovery (1), Avoid Death (1) = 3 total


You will be able to gain perks past level 50 as far as I know, so don't fret too much. You can still get all 60 perks.

ShrineGuard- Definitely understand your view. I mainly wanted the elemental protection to help block dragonfire/dragonice etc. as I approach to melee them, but I recently just heard Dragon breath of all sorts is not considered under elemental damage, but rather they are all shouts and therefore in a different magical category. If that's the case, I can easily cut that perk.

Lancifer- Thanks a lot for your input! That build seems like a good mix to me. I may try to tweak it so i can have my axe bleed and maybe some crit chance on my bow, but overall I like it. And as you said, I can still get my 60 perks, I'll just have to wait a little longer.

No.

Their typical weapon of choice is the bow. Ranger has never constituted dual-wielding as the definition of its archetype.

The idea here is to use enchantments to make up for having lower points in base skills and then some of course. But you may want enchanter at 5 to do this.. I’ll be experimenting here. You could also go dual wield, ditch block, put out much more damage, and get the ward spell under restoration tree for magic which is said to block magical attacks. I question how useful the shield is.. I’m going to try strafing to avoid arrows, moving fast, and using those fast 2 handed weapons first. I trimmed it to 49 for you though.

One Handed- Armsman (4), Hack and Slash (1), Fighting Stance (1), Savage Strike (1) = 7 total

Light Armor- Agile Defender (4), Custom Fit (1), Unhindered (1), Wind Walker (1), Deft Movement (1) = 8 total

Sneak- Stealth (3), Backstab (1), Deadly Aim (1), Assassin's Blade (1) = 6 total

Block- Shield Wall (4), Deflect Arrows (1), Elemental Protection (1) = 6 total

Archery- Overdraw (4), Eagle Eye (1), Steady Hand (1), Critical Shot (1), = 8 total

Enchanting- Enchanter (2), Insightful Enchanter (1), Corpus Enchanter (1), Extra Enchantments (1) = 4 total

Smithing- Steel (1), Arcane (1), Elven (1), Advanced (1), Glass (1), Dragon (1) = 6 total

Restoration- Novice (1), Regen (1), Recovery (1), Avoid Death (1) = 4 total




Here’s mine… keep in mind dual savagery is said to increase all damage, not just power attacks. Don’t know this for sure though. I’m still undecided on smithing.. ditching it would things up a bit on perhaps more magical ability, we shall see. I may scale back on the restoration magic depending on spell cost and strength. Will experiment with enchantment to see if I need 5 in it for the base. Will probably use the race Altmer for the 50 base increase in magic.. that’s pretty significant.. 5 levels worth I don’t have to dump into it. Either that or Breton, for the 25% magical resistance. And they don’t look half bad. Don’t really care about skill point bonuses either way. They’ll get raised.

light armor - all except deft movement (9) – Total = 9

sneak - stealth (3), backstab (1), deadly aim (1), muffled movement (1) Total = 6

one handed - armsman (4), dual flurry (2), dual savagery (1), bladesman (1) Total = 8

archery - overdraw (3), critical shot (1), eagle eye (1), power shot (1) Total = 7

Smithing - steel (1), arcane, (1) elven (1), advanced (1), glass (1), dragon (1) Total =6

Enchantment - enchanter (5), insightful (1), corpus (1), extra effect (1) Total =8

Restoration – novice (1), recovery (1), avoid death (1), ward absorb (1), apprentice (1) Total = 5

total - 49...

Stockwiz, thanks for your input and build, I like the way it looks. I'll probably end up doing something like your suggestion. For roleplaying and my personal preference I'm going to stay away from dual wield. It was just never my thing, especially since parrying is impossible.

IMO you should cut it much further, and then think about what to add when you get that far.
-3 hack and slash
-4 agile defender
-1 deft movement
-4 stealth (add as necessary, but 5 is likely a waste)
-4 shield wall (physical damage isnt going to be your biggest concern)
+1 block runner (must have)
-3 critical shot
-1 hunter's discipline
-1 ranger
+4 enchanter
+1 daedric smithing (there are no dragon weapons, and daedric weapons > glass)
-1 avoid death
+1 recovery

So that's 15 less points. IMO you should lose the other 4 points out of sneak and lose 4 overdraw as well, but you want strong archery damage and sneak stuff so it stays. Lets look at what changed. First, no hack and slash. Its just not worth 3 points for a damage over time considering how fast combat is. Other than bosses, individual enemies aren't going to last long enough for a damage over time to make much difference. Next, agile defender and shield wall aren't worth the extra 8 points. If you feel too squishy, you can add more in, but you'll probably be better off upgrading your armor and enchants for survivability. Deft movement is a 10% reduction of melee damage, so maybe a 5% reduction overall. Not worth a point. Critical shot and ranger are luxuries, and hunter's discipline is a waste. Together, these 5 points could be better spent. 4 more points in enchanter are really going to compensate for all the offensive and defensive perks we've removed. Also, daedric smithing provides you with homemade daedric weapons, far superior to glass. Avoid death is awful. Just save frequently. IMO, magicka regen from recovery is just excellent.

no problem. I may yet change away from dual wield.. will find out when I get in game and do some slashing to see the mechanics of both. Smithing versus using looted armor, that's my sticking point.. would be nice to have those 6 points back. I go to caves to use the loot I get.. if it's even 80% as powerful as smithing, I'd rather put the points elsewhere. Pretty sure enchanting is a must though. Looking at the restoration spells, I'd like to go deeper into that as well.


this guy here has some good points.. I'd only put more points into the base skills if you feel you need them.. if you are getting your ass handed to you. Otherwise I plan to focus on enchanting stuff. Also not wasting points on critical chances, since a 10% increased chance is not that much. Pretty sure this guy gave me some advice last night, just looking for a way to incorporate it with mine. Being able to enchant everything, keep base skills at 1 or 2, and have more points for magic and other stuff would be great. Actually it's silly to talk about a level 50 build as if we aren't going to modify it based on what works as we go.

I'm wondering a couple things... is smithed armor that much better? Does heavy provide significantly better protection then light? There seems to be some good restoration buffs.. I'm assuming they stack with enchantments on armor? May need to dig into that restoration tree more.