Part of the fun of Skyrim and TES in general, for me, is making new characters. I must make at least 3 new characters a week, of which usually 2 get deleted within that same week. But, after having this game for 3 months, I must've gone through most builds... twice.. some even 3 or 4 times.

So, are there are unique builds I could try? I don't mean things that make me weak as hell, or really overpowered builds either.

I've found a pretty balanced build with my cleric. Very powerful against undead, but he actually requires some finesse to play (especially early on).

Primary Skills- Alteration, Restoration, Enchanting

Secondary Skills- One-Handed (maces only), Speechcraft (or Illusion if you don't use the Kyne's Peace shout... he doesn't kill animals).

Deals damage with enchanted maces. Focuses on hunting down undead and daedra, but doesn't have a problem killing the occasional evildoer when necessary. Won't kill any animals or giants.

I like the Crusader Build

Main Skills: Two-Handed, Heavy Armor, Restoration
Secondary Skills: Destruction, Block
Moral: Good

Two-Handed: Main offensive skill. Heavily perked.
Heavy Armor: First and last line of defence. Medium to heavily perked. I recomend taking Juggernaut and Well Fitted, though Matching Set may tip in towards overpowered if you use smithing. On expert I found having about 500 AR was almost too much.
Restoration: Most important perks are Adept Restoration for the Close Wounds spell(no need for anything more powerful), the Regeneration perk and lastly the Respite perk. Recovery can also be useful to have.
Destruction: Your ranged attack, but I do not recomend going beyond Apprentice Destruction, those spells will be to expensive. Impact should be a priority.
Block: Optional really, but having a decent block skill isn't bad.

Persoanlly I divide most of my levels between health and magica untill I have 250 magica. Then I generally only take health untill I have 350, and the rest into stamina. The stamina is kept low because the intention is to rely on your magica more.
You will likely have to do some skills outside these to achieve a high level(35+).

I've tried something like the "Crusader" before, but with Conjuration added. It was good but I still felt fairly overpowered on Expert. The only things I really struggled with were Ice Mages, but as a Breton they weren't that much of a problem.

Note: I also love to make up new builds. I'll list the few I found to be somewhat "balanced," the perk trees are a little flexible so I'll describe them rather than link exact builds. They're all designed to be played on Master, but any difficulty should be fine. All builds are permitted 2 points in Smithing for "arcane blacksmith," but I choose one specific craft for each class (mostly alchemy) as to not become overpowered. Difficulty mods such as "tougher dragons" and "deadly traps" add to the fun.

*** I only use select shouts (one or two) for certain builds, as "fire breath" and the like feel too "magey" and ruin the feel of the class. A favorite shout of my smuggler was "detect life," for example. If it wasn't necessary for the main quest, I'd stick to the shout for the class.

Smuggler (pure Stealth Archer)

• suggested race: Khajiit or Wood Elf
  
• the unique spin on this build is that it's banned from any and all forms of magic, including enchanting, scrolls, and staves. The Smuggler engages enemies from afar using potent poison coated arrows. If enemies come toward his location, the smuggler will retreat and remain hidden-- careful never to go toe to toe unless he's sure to win the fight.
  
• light armor is permissible, but remember the essence of this build is to hide or die, that simple-- so don't perk it too heavily if at all.
  
• perk focus: Archery, Sneak, Alchemy
  
• suggested craft: Alchemy (poison focus)
  
• suggested stone: the serpent
  
• suggested shout: aura whisper, throw voice

Cleric (Sword 'n Board, healing and buffs)

• suggested race: Imperial
  
• designed after the Baldur's Gate Cleric, this class may only wield 1 handed maces, no other weapon type allowed
  
• prioritizes quests at temples and fighting the undead, abilities vs. undead are prioritized
  
• the Cleric may not cast any spell from any school aside from Illusion and Restoration
  
• the Cleric is proficient in Illusion, but only spells that buff followers or calm enemies
  
• perk focus: Heavy Armor, 1-Handed (maces only), Block, Restoration, Illusion
  
• suggested craft: Alchemy (beneficial potions only, no poisons allowed)
  
• suggested stone: the steed
  
• suggested shouts: kyne's peace

Summoner (Two Handed specialty with Conjuration)

• suggested race: Breton
  
• the summoner is somewhat difficult at low levels, but is extremely powerful later in the game. The summoner is designed to wear heavy armor while wielding a bound 2h battleaxe, all with a generous pool of health. The summoner will conjure powerful minions to the battlefield to fight behind his lead.
  
• may only wield a 2h bound battleaxe (if on PC "bound weapon scaling" mods are permissible)
  
• perk focus: Heavy Armor, 2-Handed, Conjuration
  
• suggested craft: Smithing
  
• suggested stone: the ritual
  
• suggested shouts: Call of Valor

Pit Fighter (Sword 'n Board with Restoration)

• suggested race: Argonian
  
• The pit fighter is designed to be a relatively straight forward fighter class, wielding a one handed weapon (preferably a sword, as speed is the essence) and a shield. The pit fighter is a grittier, dirtier version of a traditional warrior, and he is therefore open to using poisons and sneaking-- using the x6 backstab multiplier. The Argonian racial is a literal lifesaver on tougher fights.
  
• No followers allowed whatsoever
  
• No forms of magic whatsoever aside from Restoration (may cast basic healing spells on himself)
  
• Perk focus: One-Handed, Block, Light Armor, Restoration
  
• suggested craft: Alchemy
  
• suggested stone: the lord
  
• suggested shout: unrelenting force

Psionic Ranger (illusion heavy stealth archery) *new*

• suggested race: High Elf or Wood Elf
  
• again, no followers allowed
  
• no armor allowed (or alteration buffs)
  
• no (or very few) points put into health
  
• Perk focus: Archery, Illusion, Destruction (runes only), Restoration (passives only, i.e. avoid death, necromage, etc)
  
• The idea behind this build is simple: Keep your enemies CC'd and snipe them-- if you're hit you're dead. Period. You're only going to have 100 health for the entire game on Master difficulty, so it's imperative you never go toe to toe with anyone. Ever. You have access to Destruction runes and passive abilities from Restoration as well.
  
• suggested craft: Enchanting
  
• suggested stone: the apprentice
  
• suggested shouts: aura whisper, throw voice

I recently started a character modelled on Vigilants of Stendarr.

It's basically a standard Cleric build but doesn't wear heavy armour, or any armour. Only Clothes, in fact. Mainly cos a normal Cleric can be a bit too easy.

One Handers (Maces and Hammers)
Restoration (Make sure to use the various turn undead spells and wards, even if they're not all that great)
Illusion (No Frenzy/Fear stuff here, a bit too daedra-y, messing with people's minds, calm is ok if used in a semi rp way)
Alteration (Mage armour spells)

She also does a little enchanting on the side, for blessing weapons, mainly.


My other favourite character is my Pyromancer.

Just Destruction. Nothing else. Only fire spells. Nothing else. It's a minimalist build

Been tooling around with the idea of a Khajiit Brawler. Haven't had much opportunity to work with it a lot, but think of it something along the lines of a tanky assassin/thief.

Race: Khajiit (of course)

Main Skills:
-Heavy Armor (for Fists of Steel)
-Archery
-Sneak

Secondary Skills:
-Smithing
-Player's choice... Enchanting/Lockpick/Pickpocket

Nab yourself the Gloves of the Pugilist and slap that enchantment on a pair of heavy armor gauntlets. Then go and have yourself some fun.

I seem to change characters weekly and i'm always looking to these forums for ideas.

one that lasted the longest (so far) was a tree-hugging/vegan/hippie Wood Elf. She was all about being one with nature.

most perks were illusion (for calm spells), sneak and archery. then a little bit of one handed and other random stuff.

she wouldn't harm animals of any kind (mammals or fish types...dragons and spiders and monsters were ok to kill). the early levels were pretty tough...included lots of running away from wolves, bears and mudcrabs. at least until I got the 'calm' spell. Kyne's peace shout made it a lot easier to walk around.

she also wouldn't eat meat of any kind. just fruits and veggies. (lots of apple cabbage soup!)

leveled up Sneak pretty quickly and i pretty much crouch walked everywhere to avoid being spotted by wolves, bears, etc.

Archery was big for her. also wouldn't wear any armor if it came from animals. no leather, or hide or fur. Mostly she just wore the roughspun tunic she started the game with and ran around barefoot like tarzan. She would put on Elven armor when fighting dragons though because it seemed dramatic

would always kill hunters. because y'know...their job didn't go with her world view. she would only use horses to 'free' them from the stables, ride 'em a bit then let them go. (even though they'd wander back home eventually) and would kill the stable folk if she could get away with it. (that guy at the whiterun stables is still sitting in the chair where she snuck up behind him and killed him )

i had a lot of fun trying to play a character like that. (so different from my own world view...i do love hamburgers!)

There is a whole load of interesting builds I've read about http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/group/character-building/forum

I am going to folow this build because i was planning on making a warrior priest character like the ones in Warhammer.

A method I started back in Oblivion was a pure thief. Focus only on sneak, pickpocket, speechcraft, lockpicking, and archery (to distract foes, not to attack). Combat is not allowed, you must be creative and find a way around every foe. Try sneaking through dungeons without being seen, pilfer the loot, and sneak back out. Join the Thieves Guild. Sell you "stolen" bandit loot. Profit. Speechcraft allows for better prices. Build your way up from a lowly pickpocket to a master thief literally swimming in gold. I wouldn't recommend proceeding to far in the Thieves Guild *cough* NIGHTENGALES *cough* It'd take the fun out of it.

Zen Archer (archer monk)
Desc: student of the way of the bow, and ascetic loner. His sole purpose in life is to achieve perfection in his art.
Perks: archery, alteration, restoration, enchanting
Apparel: self-enchanted robes
Race: any human
Shout: unrelenting force or whirlwind sprint

Battlerager (unarmed, inspired by DnD prestige class of the same name)
Desc: a berserker of unprecedented violence. He throws himself on his enemies and convulses, his heavy armor's spikes and ridges cutting into armor and flesh alike. What they don't finish, his spiked gauntlets will.
Perks: heavy armor, destruction (for cloaks), smithing, enchanting
Apparel: the nastiest looking heavy armor. The more spikes, the better.
Race: khajiit for the unarmed bonus

The guy in my sig is self-gimped so you probably wouldn't enjoy him.

Defensive Battlemage: Main skills - Block, Illusion, Destruction and Restoration. Secondary - Smithing, Heavy Armour and Speech. Only using weapons with conjuration enchants (soul trap, banish) and absorb magicka. Here's a couple of vids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOk4fKgtYmQ&context=C3da0f48ADOEgsToPDskJDqEMopVAKwu-NjAaIy_LG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-nZ9A3JSDM&context=C3828e88ADOEgsToPDskK8zYn0pCI6kjPoAk919LCp

Try my approach, I use a random method of assigning a character three main skills, then design a concept and background around those three skills and assign them appropriate secondary skills (I also assign gender and race randomly).

For example one of my characters was assigned as a male bosmer with alteration, block and smithing as his main skills. So I figured it was quite clearly going to be a tank character, so the concept of the character was to be "shield guardian". A mercenary veteran who has become disillusioned by the politics of Tamriel, seeing no honor in being part of an organized army he is drawn towards the Companions and the philosophy of honor through courage and proving yourself in battle. He serves no jarl and doesn't generally do good deeds, though he will occasionally assist a veteran, farmer or miner, as he regards manual labour a worthy and admirable lifestyle. Only one-handed needed as secondary skill to complete the build.

Another character was assigned as a female nord with two-handed, conjuration and lockpicking as main skills. So I came up with the concept of Inquisitor, a servant of the empire who uses brute force, espionage and dark rituals to locate and root out stormcloak spies and other enemies of the empire. She believes that any means are justified in securing the continued domination of the empire, including the assistance of daedra, undead and any other powerful forces that may serve as temporary allies. Ambitious and cruel this character would be labeled as classic evil, caring not for the lives of meager ordinary people and considering everyone as potential pawns in her political ambition. Secondary skills assigned as heavy armor and speechcraft (intimidation).

Yeah I've pretty much exuasted all my go to builds, can't seem to lock into anything new, I think Skyrim is a little limiting in this respect.

It is restricting.

Yeah, being able to do whatever you want from the get-go is terribly restricting. I feel compelled to use whatever skills are available to me.

Oh don't worry, a month after hitting level 81, I decided to go ahead, sort my character out and solve my little "issue".

What was that nice, catchy phrase... ah, yes: "My game, my rules"

I'm not sure what you meant to say, but it sounds like you took your level 81 character out back and roughed him up.

I like the Berserker Build.
Skilled with Light Armor, 2 Handed Weapons, Restoration, Enchanting, and Smithing.
Use limited light armor, and focus on only charging in quickly and taking down enemies. Get some facepaint and try to look like some kind of barbarian. Works best with a Nord or Orc.

No, I just made sure he got 40 extra perk points -which, in my, always humble, opinion, is where that "sweet spot" should have been in the first place.

play a drunk. only trash cloth no weapons or magic or shots what so ever, always need to have an alchohol effect active. put all points into stamina so you can carry your drinks around

Ah, I get it now.

Of course, I completely disagree with that approach, since the perk system was designed to force you to actually develop a unique character, instead of every character becoming a sneaking/casting/hacking/slashing demi-god by the end-game. But to each his own.

That character was a demi-god already. I just wanted a change that didn't include starting over. Tried that twice and I was like "you know what? Forget it"

^^This.

If you think about perks carefully before you take them, you wont need more than 50-55 for a hybrid build. I can't imagine how boring it would be to grind a bunch of skills I don't care to use all the way to 100 - just for perks I don't need.

Addendum: not to mention that things start to scale incorrectly after the soft cap, so if you do grind yourself all the way up the game has been a no-challenge venture for the past how-every-many hours. For me, that isn't fun.