One thing that I absolutely love about Skyrim is its freedom in character design. After the beginning, which determines you as a border-hopper and a prisoner, your imagination is free to figure out absolutely everything about your character, from looks, choice, speech, travel, morality, anything can be achieved and balanced through some sort of determination in this game.

I'm asking for people to come and share their many different character builds, and whether or not they are based on any sort of popular classes from RPGs past. I'd also like to see if anybody else likes to apply their character 'classes' to their own gameplay, altering their path in the game based more on choice and less on the best status in the game. Like, for example, my current Orc character I have made illiterate, making it impossible for him to obtain any sort of skill bonuses from a skill book.

Sig has most of the info you're after . He wears self-enchanted robes and never uses melee weapons.

I made the typical Drow (Dark Elf) Assassin.

Stealth
One Handed (Dual Wield)
Light Armor
Archery
Alchemy

But then I added in Smithing to create my own fine tuned weapons, Enchantment to have magical and deadly equipment that Drow normally have, and Speechcraft to get my way to the top.

I may make a Drizzt Ranger type build that leaves out Alchemy, Smithing, and Enchantment in favor of some magic like Conjuration, Illusion, and Alteration so I can calm and command creatures.

I'm a big fan of Drow obviously >>;

My first character was the typical Assassin too, haha. Dual Wielding, Archery, Light Armor, and Sneak. He's also my buffed-up main, so he has done almost everything in the game so far. Archery gets pretty powerful later in the levels!

Nothing wrong with the Drow! Been a big fan of them since Morrowind, myself. They are just so bad, in the good way, there is hardly a chance of resisting their charm. When I make a Spellsword, I may just make him a Drow.

not classes, but my current character focuses on one handed, conjuration, destruction, healing, and light armor. Light armor has been hard to raise becuase i rarely get hit anymore,

Will probably power level- i mean focus on enchanting and smithing once my other skills hit somewhere around 65-70

That is a very cool character design! So simple, and that is what makes it so incredible. Love it.

My new-ish character is a Spell-Warrior.

Combat skills: Two-Handed, One-Handed, Destruction, Archery
Armour Skills: Heavy-Armour, Light-Armour, Block
Crafting Skills: Smithing, Enchanting

Primary Weapons: Two-Handed Warhammer or Waraxe
Secondary Weapons: One-Handed Mace & Sparks/Shield
Long Range Weapons: Lightening Bolt/Chain Lightening/Lightening Storm or Bow
Misc Weapons: Lightening Rune

I actually thought about making a Drow Priestess/Mage of sorts, relying on magic purely (but not Restoration), to be wicked.

Or doing a Warrior turned Mage, say going through levels 1-25ish as a Warrior, then claiming to have been injured to the point where they can't wield a weapon very well so they must take up magic if they wish to continue adventuring.

I have even started an Orc who is just a merchant. Doesn't go on quests or anything, simply chops wood, mines, makes stuff, etc.

Sounds like your character is a complete power-house of face-frying sweetness! Is his name Thor?

I made an Orc myself! Though I don't think I'm ready, just yet, to make a merchant that simply goes about making stuff. He is a Berserker who practices Smithing like the rest of his race. He's my first character I decided to practice some sort of roleplay, so first thing I did was travel to the Orc stronghold next to Markarth and mined/explored there for about two-three in-game days.

Was a lot of fun, and really wish I could continue him, if it weren't for my computer and its God-forsaken FPS issues..

I routinely delete my characters on a moment's whim, but...

Currently playing a Female Redguard that basically specializes in all schools of magic, stealth via sneak and illusion, smithing and enchanting to make armor/weapons, uses heavy armor and one-handed sword and magic in the other hand. I use sneak attacks and frenzy or fear to initiate combat and then proceed to destroy everything with melee swings for close quarters and destruction for the rest, healing when needed via restoration. Also using alteration for buffs and placing runes before combat (thanks to silent casting.)

Basically wanted to combine all the primary play-styles into one character, although I find conjuration lacking to my solo play-style as Dead Thralls (wanted to only use necromancy from Conjuration) are fairly buggy and won't use whatever I give to them other than weapons. So I use Dead Thralls for storing named corpses.

And the only central theme for roleplaying my character is that she's a [censored], so I take the most violent or offensive route possible for each quest.

Current build as of level 62: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#38448

I like the idea of that! xD I'm sure some of your decisions have gotten you into a jam or two, eh? Playing a violent character myself, I've been ripped apart on more then a few occasions due to some decisions to fight and/or brawl people.

So far I have tried:

-Nord spellsword (destruction, 1-h, heavy armor, bit of restoration)(changed into heavy berserker with dual swords towards the end)
-Katjiit ninja/thief (dual 1-h elemental weapons, light armor, sneak, pickpocketing) (the only character I have finished the main quest with)
-Katjiit monk (restoration and destruction, heavy gauntlets/boots and robes/hoods, unarmed for melee)(was sweet at first but within a couple hours got boring as hell)
-Nord paladin (shield and sword, heavy armor, bit of restoration) (very interesting)
-Bosmer sniper/assasin (archery, sneak, light armor, bit of one-handed)(the most fun I've had so far in Skyrim, and the character I play as atm)
-Multiple Dunmer mages, mainly conjuration/destruction/restoration, none of which worked out for the simple fact that I always ended up just conjuring dual bound swords and charging in, because the only think destruction can destroy is my mana pool and my nerves...

All my characters so far had maxxed smithing (apart from one mage), various amounts of perks in enchanting, bit of speech and and bit of pickpocketing.

If you sell stuff and/or use persuasion, I think Speech is practically unavoidable. And I agree with you on the whole Breton Mage deal. Tried to make one myself, but within moments, I was incredibly bored. Is there anything more you can tell me about the Paladin? I've been very interested in trying both a Paladin and a Death Knight.

Assassin/Necromancer

Nord

One Handed (Dual Wield)
Conjuration (Necromancy spells only)
Light Armor
Sneak
Smithing (to make my own stuff)

Also have minor skills in Archery, Enchanting

Has anyone tried the "Battlemage," Heavy Armor, Destruction, fights with Staff in one hand, magic in the other?

I would think the Battlemage would use One-Handed, instead of a Staff..but no, I haven't. I'd really like to hear if anyone has tried a "Death Knight" build.

Ha ha, you got the reference, I based the class off of Thor.

His name is a Norwegian-Icelandic mix, I called him Ulfurbror (Ulfur: Wolf|Bror: Brother)

And thank you.

My favorite class to roll is the Crusader, a class that have been in TES:3&4(which I believe was based on the Templar Order in DF with the same name).
It shared many traits with your typical Paladin class: heavy armor, melee combat focus with either 1. or 2-handed weapons + healing and some offensice magic. Differs from Paladins in that it does not posses divine power, blessings etc.

Best description? The Morrowind class description: Any heavily armored warrior with spellcasting powers and a good cause may call himself a Crusader. Crusaders do well by doing good. They hunt monsters and villains, making themselves rich by plunder as they rid the world of evil.

My latest character to /faceroll Alduin has been a Breton Nightblade. Dagger/Sneak/Illusion/Destruction in contrast to my archer, which was fun for the first half of the game, my Nightblade has been fun the entire game. I use Destruction instead of bow, mainly Thunderbolt, for dragons and mages, and dagger sneak attacks for everything else. Detected? Invis. Room full of bandits? Frenzy the whole room and grab some popcorn. Ancient dragons or Alduin? Pop a fortify destruction potion and "impact stun" for /faceroll kills. It adds variety, which I really like.

Here's a link to the class, Be sure to check out his other vids too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7b7uzxv9cA&feature=g-all-u&context=G2160d44FAAAAAAAAGAA