Any player character with any race and any combination of skills can become a vampire and be a fun character to play, so let us make that perfectly clear right from the beginning. However, I would suggest that some races and builds will make better use than others of the strengths of being a vampire, or do a better job of minimizing the weaknesses. What I write will include a curious mix of roleplaying and min/max thoughts. If you don’t like reading complete sentences organized into paragraphs, this post will not be your cup of tea (as it were) -- if TL, then DR. But I have found very little on this topic in the world of the internet or these forums, and it seems appropriate given the recently-released DLC -- Dawnguard.

RACES
Many will say that Dunmer are the best race to be a vampire. With Dawnguard a vampire’s weakness to fire will max out at 50% (at stage 4, while simultaneously providing a 50% resistance to frost), and Dunmer have a 50% resistance to fire, which perfectly neutralizes one of the biggest weaknesses of being a vampire. Sounds very good.

With their 25% magic resistance (which includes fire), Bretons are also a pretty good choice.

Personally, I am something of a fan of Altmer. Extra magicka (50 points) is always good, right? Both of the vampire characters I have played have been Altmer (one of which was infected at level 3), but being a Dunmer sure looks like it would have some great benefits.

SKILLS
Being a Vampire gives a character the benefit of +25% in both Sneak and Illusion. This will automatically make a Vampire character more stealthy and will enable their Illusion spells to work on higher level enemies. Entire dungeons can be cleared using just these two skills -- cast frenzy upon groups of enemies and sneak up and execute the last enemy standing. Good stuff. I would suggest that any vampire character that does not make use these skills is “wasting” the benefits of being a Vampire. It does not take many perk points to get the most out of these skills.

Sneak. All you need are 9 points, one for each perk location. Don’t put additional perks in Stealth; 4 additional perks will only give you an additional +20% stealth (+5% times 4 levels), but merely being a vampire gives you +25%. Use those perks elsewhere and throw on an enchanted item if you feel like you want more sneak.

Illusion. Illusion is one of the few magic schools that genuinely benefit from dual casting, so it is a good perk choice (dual-casting enables Illusion spells to affect higher-level enemies). On my characters I choose all but the magicka-reducing perks, for a total of 9, which gives you all of the functionality from the perk tree. You are often casting these spells from stealth, so you have time to let magicka regen before trying to cast again (or utilize magicka-increasing potions or equipment, if necessary). Of course, it helps to have a character with a lot of magicka; I told you I like Altmer.

When considering what other skills to utilize as a Vampire character, I think it useful to consider what other abilities Vampires are given. Two come to mind: the drain life ability is a destruction spell, and the raise dead spell (and conjure gargoyle in vampire lord form) are conjuration spells. Therefore, I would conclude that destruction and conjuration magic are “natural” for a Vampire character.

Destruction. I have yet to create a destruction/mage character. Clearly there are synergies with vampirism. Make use of Necromage in the restoration skill tree (see other discussions on these forums) and a Vampire necromage can arguably become more powerful than any other magic-centric character. I am hoping someone with greater familiarity than I with this play style might contribute to the discussion here.

Conjuration. This is a favorite and oft-used skill of mine. Many will favor going through Necromancy and Dark Souls to get to Twin Souls. It *is* the shorter path, and a character choosing this path will benefit from dual-casting. However, I favor going through Summoner (both levels) and Atromancy, because then you have summoned help (I think of them as meat-shields) whenever you want. Even in dragon fights. And once again, I avoid magicka-reducing perks. Useful magicka thresholds are when you can conjure a bow and a dremora lord simultaneously, and later when you can conjure two dremora lords simultaneously. Then you have “arrived” as a conjurer.

In the Conjuration perk tree I also take Mystic Binding and Soul Stealer. I think that the best combat skill to blend with Sneak, Illusion, and Conjuration is Archery. Using a conjured bow levels conjuration, and when perked with Mystic Binding is more powerful than most bows in the game, and can be available fairly early in the game. With Soul Stealer the bow provides a great way to fill soul gems. So I discuss this skill next.

Archery. If Archery is going to be your primary method to dispose of foes, then take lots of perks here. The only two I do not take are the 2nd and 3rd levels of critical shot--the additional odds do not seem worth the perks. Go up the left side of the tree first; Power Shot might be the most valuable perk in the tree. I like Steady Hand (both levels), the slow-time effect allows you to get off more shots at enemies rushing you (before they get to you) and more shots at dragons that are stationary (at least for the moment). Steady Hand and Ranger cooperate well together, enabling you to maneuver quickly while your enemy cannot. Note: you can read elsewhere on this forums that Steady Hands is glitched if you take the perk Necromage, so don’t. Sadly, as a result, one of my characters is unplayable until a DLC comes out which allows re-perking.

With these four skills (Sneak, Illusion, Conjuration, and Archery) you can play through the entire game, and you can find a build that works for you at all levels. Prioritize the right branch of the Sneak tree, the left branch of the Archery tree, just one branch up to Twin Souls, and the right side of the Illusion tree to/through Quiet Casting, and you will have a serviceable (and I think fun) character to play at any/all levels.

After these four skills, as I level up I think about how to support these primary skills, and how to minimize the penalties of being a Vampire. One noticeable penalty of playing as a Vampire is that Vampires do not regenerate health, magicka or stamina in daylight. Enchanting and/or Alchemy can be very helpful with this. Smithing is also fun, if for no other reason than you can use all the dragonbone you collect to make lots of Dragonbone arrows.

Smithing. The light armor side is the fastest to Dragon Smithing, and of greater benefit to stealthy characters. Take also Arcane Blacksmith so you can improve items like the Nightingale Bow or Harkon’s Sword. It only takes 6 perks. If you don’t want to make heavy Dragonbone armor, you can have lots of dragonbone available late game to make Dragonbone arrows.

Alchemy. As an Archer, you have what might be the best poison delivery system in the game at your disposal. The most damaging poisons in the game (damage health + lingering damage health, without any beneficial effects) can be made if you have the top-level Purity perk. I like to use these poisons on Dragons. So I like to go all the way and use 12 perks on this skill (although some perk calculators don’t always suggest so, you must take one level of Experimenter before Purify becomes available.) I think this might be a more important skill than Enchanting for the sneaky archer with illusion and conjuration skills. However, if you don’t want to spend all those perks, it only takes 7 perks to make some great potions for regen/recovery of health, magicka and stamina.

Enchanting. Maybe it *is* overpowered, but it is also fun and it is sure helpful to be wearing some magicka and stamina regen items when you are out adventuring. If you are going to take any perks at all, it is useful to take 9. Take 5 in Enchanter, go straight up to Extra Effect, and also take Fire Enchanter, which will improve fire resist enchantments (which are obviously going to be near and dear to a Vampire’s heart). A Dunmer Vampire wearing footgear with Muffle and Fire Resist enchantments (just one piece of gear) will be just as resistant to fire as to frost (about 50% each). That, all by itself, is what is temping me away from my precious Altmer to play a Vampire Dunmer. Enchantments that I personally favor are the following: Vampire Royal Armor or custom enchanted armor with Restore Magicka + Restore Stamina. Feet: Muffle + Resist Fire. Hands: Fortify Marksman + Fortify Sneak. Head: Fortify Illusion + Fortify Conjuration. This combination provides important regeneration and also fortifies all important skills. Neck: Resist Fire + Regenerate Stamina (if you want stamina regeneration while in vampire lord form you need it on either necklace or ring). Swap out for Resist Frost + Regenerate Stamina if it is a frost-breathing dragon shouting at you. For a ring I like the Ring of the Erudite (I got it with the very first random quest after completing the Dawnguard questline) with +100 Magicka and some magicka regeneration or a custom-enchanted ring with regenerate health and regenerate stamina enchantments. If you want an extra enchantment or two on your character, stock up on Penitus Oculatus helmets which can be worn with a circlet underneath. I happen to think that this helmet looks particularly good with vampire armor.

A character as I describe here is good at some things and not so good at others. This is my favorite dungeon crawler: sneak, kill, and move on. This character is also pretty good against dragons. Conjure a friend or two (I now favor storm atronachs for their ranged attack that can help wound a dragon and get it on the ground) and get to shooting. Remember to use a frost-enchanted bow (the Nightingale Bow if you have it) against fire-breathing dragons, and a bow with a fire damage enchantment against frost-breathing dragons. And when you know you are going to hit your shot, add a poison (which you can do even while the bow is drawn).

This character is not always so good at boss fights. Conjure friends who will hopefully attract the enemy’s attention and then hit them with your bow. If you hit your “friends” it doesn’t matter too much because you can always conjure another (one of the benefits of the conjure rather than raise branch of the perk tree). Neither is this character very good if you get attacked by surprise, say by the Dawnguard who have this supreme dislike of Vampires. I have been using the Vampire Lord character in these circumstances with some success.

A pet perk of mine is Extra Pockets in the Pickpocket perk tree, which takes 3 perks to get to. An alchemist will often find need to carry lots of potions and ingredients around. A good choice is to put some perks in is One-Handed, which will help if you are attempting sneak attacks using something other than a dagger.

At level 81 your build might look like this (probably with some extra perks to play with as you wish):

Archery -- 14 perks
One-Handed -- 1 to 5 perks
Smithing -- 6 perks
Sneak -- 9 perks
Pickpocket -- 3+ perks
Alchemy -- 12 perks
Illusion -- 9 perks
Conjuration -- 5 to 11 perks
Enchanting -- 9 perks

If you think, for whatever reason, that some of the suggestions made above are for wimps, that you want to close with the enemy and bash some face personally, then I would suggest that a Vampire be a sword-and-board character, particularly for the Elemental Protection perk which, when combined with Spellbreaker, will make your character practically immune to all fire, frost and shock attacks when your shield is raised.

Light Armor. All it really takes are 8 perks, up the left side to Wind Walker (which has obvious benefits for Vampire characters) and all 5 levels of Agile Defender.

Block. Take every perk, but only one level of Shield Wall, for a total of 9. Prioritize going up the left side of the perk tree; just the four perks up through Block Runner may be enough.

One-Handed. All you really need is 5 levels of Armsman. You will use your shield for power attacks, and use your sword simply to mete out punishment. So if you can find 22 perks to change in my suggested build, you can have a good face-bash character.

Clearly these are simply my own thoughts. There are many, many ways to build and play characters in Skyrim, which is what makes it so fun. I like playing stealthy marksman characters in RPGs, and I think this works *very* well with a Vampire character.

Thank you for this essay. A couple of comments/questions.

Why not take the magicka reducing perks? Half cost for a Dremora Lord is a significant reduction in magicka usage leaving additional magicka for other purposes or for upping your health.

For the smithing tree it is probably useful to take the Dwarven smithing perk just for leveling purposes. Since smithing increases based on the value of the smithed item, Dwarven bows are especially useful for increasing your smithing skill. You can get lots and lots of dwarven ingots for free by going to any Dwarven ruin. For the Storehouse at Mzult you don't even have to fight anyone. And iron ingot are dirt cheap.

If you go with Breton, wouldn't it be better to focus on magic resistance rather than elemental resistance? Elemental resistance is not going to protect you from drain life spells, but magic resistance should. For my Breton builds I take the first two magic resistance perks in the Alteration tree, do the agent of Mara quest, and get the shield of Solitude magic resist. This means I only need one slot for magic resistance on my apparel, leaving 11 slots free for other enchantments (with the dual enchantment perk), not including a shield, which as an archer you will not be euqipping as often.

Don't forget nord vampires are now immune to frost magic.

I never take any smithing perks other than steel and arcane, nor would I perk all three crafting skills. As a light armor wearing vampire use the vampire armor or the royal variant, my current character wears the vampire royal armor, vampire boots, vampire gloves and the apprentice hood/shrouded hood. I also wear a circlet and the thieves guild hood (to retain light armor perks) due to the vampire hair thieves guild hood glitch, only the shrouded/apprentice hood is shown though. If you're obsessed with maximum armor rating then take the advanced armor perk which affects all vampire armor variants.

As a necromage vampire (given you take the illusion perks after) the master illusion spells affect everything that isn't immune, except level 53+ ish vampires. The necromage boost affects the illusion perks, combined with the vampire illusion bonus even single casting frenzy will affect nearly everything you come across, draugr deathlords, bandit marauders etc.

Spellbreaker just isn't a good shield, it's ward effect is too weak for master. All ward effects are too weak for master, even a necromage boosted greater ward of 100 is too weak against arch warlocks and the new high level vamps. The elemental protection perk doesn't combine well with spell breaker either, the elemental resistance isn't being used when the ward is up and when the ward breaks you put the shield down.

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#175063 - there's my build, on master and a vampire from the start. Incredibly powerful now, as he's so versatile. Can go head to head with sword/destruction, sneaking with a dagger, dual destruction, illusion, raising undead etc.

Taking 5/5 of armsman etc are a waste when you have enchanting, even without the perk to augment smithing on my armor I can reach the armor cap. I don't though, I limit my armor rating and use Ebonyflesh (not perked in alteration, but necromage boosts the duration and armor given) aswell as limiting my weapon damage. I still don't have 667 with Ebonyflesh active, I don't want the game to be too easy on master.

Thanks for the questions.

#1. Personally, I prefer to spend magicka-reducing perks elsewhere. Admittedly, I prefer playing characters with lots of magicka, which certainly helps. With enchanting you can create magicka-reducing items, or you can find/purchase them if you don't want to use enchanting. Thus, there are alternative ways to accomplish the same result without using perks; it simply depends on whether you want to spend perks or use alternative methods to accomplish the same results and then spend the perks elsewhere.

#2. Not a bad idea, but as you can perhaps tell I am something of a perk-miser. Even after the adjustment to how smithing levels, I still (personally) find it easier to level smithing than to level alchemy. It takes something in the neighborhood of 1,000 pieces of iron to level smithing to 100 (please don't quote me, but it is a lot). When I am making the rounds to buy alchemy ingredients and soul gems (for leveling up alchemy and enchanting), I also stop by smiths and purchase all their iron and iron ore.

#3. Yes. Absolutely! Although, my understanding of game mechanics is that magic resistance and elemental resistances do stack, but as you point out magic resistance is generally superior.

But these are simply my own thoughts. Having choices is what makes Skyrim so fun!

Nord Vamps aren't immune to frost. You max out at 80% resistance.

Dark Elf Vampire is what I go as, they work well as Destruction Mages or Assassins (bow+dagger) vampires.

Use a frost spell on Serana or Harkon, they're immune to frost.

The vampire frost bonus seems to ignore the resistance cap, which is fitting with the lore as these volkihar vampires should be able to survive under freezing lakes.

Any race can do anything. If you want to optimise your build completely, orcs are the best race for most builds due to the incredible racial bonus. Dark elves have a terrible racial power, I much prefer high elves for mages. If you're choosing dark elves purely for the fire resistance, you're better of going with Bretons as magic resistance is generally superior.

I'll simply mention what Bobjim did: Necromage.

Necromage increases the power of all spells that are used on an Undead target. This includes you, the player, and it works with Enchantments as well. Infact, if I understand correctly, any spell CAST by you (Undead) will be increased as well, whether or not you are Undead. To be precise:

25% boost to magnitude of any spell that applies
50% boost to duration of any spell that applies

My most successful vampire has been a Dunmer Assassin/Necromancer and I've honestly found there comes a point where the conjuring isn't as fun as just shooting arrows into people's heads. I've been thinking about starting another vampire and using different skills (magic focus to benefit VL) but we'll see.

Thank you for your thoughts, and for sharing your build! You also tend to avoid magicka-reducing perks.

What tips or hints would you suggest for leveling Restoration, and when during a playthrough do you level it up (i.e., roughly what level are you)? This can be important if you want (as you suggest) to have Necromage before the Illusion perks, and I know that you also want to have Necromage before choosing Recovery. But alternatively, you don't want to level it up *too* fast (faster than your killing skills) because then it is more difficult to survive encounters. Particularly playing on Master, I would presume.

Are you certain of this? A number of GameFAQS users tested all of the perks that Necromage could effect and, from their tests, there was nothing in the Illusion tree that was effected by the Necromage perk, even if they were taken afterwards. The only thing their tests revealed that would be impacted by the Necromage perk was any spells targeting an undead enemy as Necromage makes them stronger against undead enemies.

Do you know if anyone has tested the new restoration spells, like vampire bane and stendar's aura, to find out if they are enhanced by necromage? I always have my doubts about whether anything in the game works as advertised.

This all sounds fine if you want to have an uber vampire character, but for me the fun is in having a PC that has a weakness, gives a better feeling over coming adversity. I pick the race I wish and deal with whatever headaches it gives me when I'm a vampire. The only thing I might add is I just tend to carry many stamina and fire resistance potions but forget about cold resistant ones.

I'm playing a Nord female Assassin/Necromancer with a heavy emphasis on necromancy. So far its pretty fun but gameplay consists of killing something, raising it, and letting it fight my battles, which irks me. A main difference is -not- fighting with two weapons which opens 3 perk slots. Still some perks in One-handed to maximize Assassin's Blade but for combat I'm focusing on the bow.

Things are progressing nicely. I'm thinking of taking perks in the Summoner line as well as I've noticed the Necromancy line doesn't appear to affect summoned Mistmen et al from the Soul Cairn. More later.

Thank you for your essay on Vamp builds! It's provided some worth while insight, some things to consider.

I'm just now rethinking my current character's build and might "re-roll" her to try and optimize. She's my first and since I had no idea what I wanted to do in the beginning, I have about 10 wasted points placed that I now don't use, lol.

My play style is stealth/assassin (Vampire Lord). I favor a dagger while sneaking for stealth kills, but dual swords when in combat. I only seldom use my bow while sneaking to one-shot kill snipe.
My question: Dose bladesman make any kind of difference while dual wielding swords in combat? If I'm stealthed with a sword, does it make a difference with the "one-shot" kill capability?

Bladesman increases the overall damage of your one-handed weapons, which will significantly increase the damage of your daggers via Assassin's Blade in the Sneak perk tree.

Absolutely, the number displayed to me are increased by the expected necromage amount. I'm not certain of the kindred mage/animage perks as I can't test them, but they should be increased too.

For example my frenzy spell has a base cost of 14, increased to 17 due to the vampire bonus. Then the rage perk has increased the level to 32, a bonus of 15. It's normally 12, so necromage has increased it to 15. Pacify works up to 35, rout to 37, hysteria 43, harmony 41 and mayhem 46. Remember those numbers are x1.25 against undead due to necromage, +10 against animals or +12 against humans.

It also increased the amount of damage the aspect of fear perk adds to fire destruction spells, I have 105 damage incinerates.

I tend to optimise my builds, they end up being pretty perfect ha. You suffer early on with magic costs, especially destruction. But later on with a character that enchants (or is smart about finding the right gear) the perks end up being a waste. With a large magicka pool and large regeneration you just don't need the illusion/conjuration/restoration/alteration reducing perks or any enchantments to reduce the costs, you always need destruction reduction though at high levels. I still roleplay and never power level (except restoration occasionally), I just optimise my builds.

I suggest not power leveling it from the start, I tried that before and it just takes the fun away. But unfortunately restoration just doesn't level as fast as other skills, so I always need to give it a little boost to reach 70. Firstly you can pay trainers up to level 51 cheap, after then it gets expensive. Then:
1) Collect 25 soul husks in the Soul Cairn, then save next to the merchant. Keep reloading until you get the circle of protection expert restoration spell, you can then keep casting the circle spell to quickly level restoration. This is the quickest method.
2) Train to level 51, then buy the close wounds spell. Crank the difficulty to max if it isn't already, and stand in the wind at High Hrothgar constantly healing with as much magicka boosting fortify restoration gear you can get.

I tend to ignore illusion until I get the necromage perk, or at least avoid the perks. My current character didn't perk illusion (other than novice and dual casting) until he was level 37 ish, that was when I got necromage.

You do know there is a spell designed solely for power leveling restoration, yes? Equilibrium. Of course, you have to do the Mages Guild quest to get it.

Exactly, you have to be at the end of the mages guild. I prefer the High Hrothgar winds on master, it's probably quicker. The circle of protection method is definitely quicker.

My preferred method is to go out and have a giant beat me up. Trains my armor, block, alteration (stone flesh), and restoration all in one nifty package. Good therapy for the Giant, too. Let's him work out his aggression.

Good to hear it! I hear some pvssyr / opinions that they were useless...but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why.

Thanks for the input!

I have enjoyed the discussion so far! It has particularly made me more interested to play a necromage-mage -- I have a level 3 Breton who will do just nicely, and I can work toward high levels of magic resistance with this character. .

Just to add my 2 cents, I'll simply advise against turning a Destruction mage into a vampire. There isn't any sort of perk to directly affect the amount of lifesteal you can do, as all attacks are elemental, and when in vampire form, you simply lose the chance to set traps and, in later levels, to use massive AoE blasts such as Blizzard and Fire Storm. Furthermore, you are bound to choose Magicka-reducing perks, since Magicka is of the same value to a Destruction mage, as Stamina is to a fighter (the kind of fighter who swings large, metallic, possibly pointy objects at other people's faces).

Omg thank you guys, going to read through this again tomorrow before I pick up my vamp again.

Struggling to play a vamp, BSR makes it hard.

Thank you kindly for your thoughts. In particular I didn't know about the Circle of Protection spell as a useful way to level Restoration.



Hmmm. But as a Necromage there are perks you can take (like enhanced magicka regeneration) that *do* benefit a mage of any type.