Nord
Werewolf
Warrior, Mage, Lord, Atronach or Steed stones

Spellbreaker and Dawnbreaker are awesome, but optional.

Some limitations apply to avoid becoming overpowered (see below)

The perks: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#115220

The idea:

To begin with, this is your basic Heavy Armor sword-and-board warrior, the main difference being that this warrior can defend excellently against magic. Some of the build may appear odd to many of you, so let's go through the skills one by one.

One Handed, Heavy Armor, Block...that seems well and nice, but why put points into dual wielding and Block?

For this build, shields are pretty much the standard, but some proficiency in dual wielding means we can change the combat style on the fly, going from defensive to offensive in an instant. This is helpful for dealing with loads of weaker enemies like skeletons, as the shield will just make combat slower, switching to the offensive when you have the upper hand (like against a grounded dragon), or making the best use out of the Elemental Fury shout. Notice, however, that there's only one point in Dual Flurry--we don't want to get too focused on this combat style, as variety is important, and it also saves us a perk point.

Why use Heavy Armor and the light side of the Smithing tree?

There are several reasons for this, but it's mostly a matter of weight. Having lighter weapons means we can have more of them in our inventory, which is especially useful since this build uses Enchanting and will therefore have different weapons for different occasions, so we'll need a few. Lighter weapons also means less stamina usage for power attacks.

When it comes to armor, this path takes less perks to reach Dragon Smithing, and the heavy armors along the way are far from useless (Iron, Steel and Steel Plate). On top of that, even though Deadric has the best armor rating, Dragon is far superior: both can easily reach the armor cap (especially with the 100 Smithing skill required to make Dragon), so it comes down to a matter of weight and availability. The components for Dragon armor are available from the beginning of the game if you save your bones and are easily smithed for cash (as opposed to rare and expensive Deadra hearts and Ebony ingots), and since it weighs less, you can carry more stuff. Even with the Steed stone, this is important, since we may have, say, multiple shields for different encounters.

Also, if the time comes when we want to level up our Light Armor skill so as to increase our level, we can rest assured that we'll have the best of the best to choose from, but that's just an added bonus.

Finally, this side of the tree has more classically fantastical stuff, which I think suits the Paladin build well


What about Restoration and Enchanting?

Restoration should be a bit obvious: we can hotkey shields and healing spells to stay alive and potent, as well as restore the stamina that bashing, power attacks, and running around in heavy armor will deplete. Recovery (2) is vital since we're not using robes (and certainly not the Apprentice stone), and Avoid Death is not only amazing, but probably the perfect perk for the build. Necromage means that our enchanted weapons do more damage against undead and spells that repel undead are more effective.

Enchanting's purpose is many fold. For one, we can increase our attributes, making us more tank-like and giving us a bigger magicka pool. There are other nice touches, like putting Fire Resistance on a shield to make breath attacks from dragons laughable (50% Resist Frost from being a Nord, 50% Elemental Resistance from the aptly named perk, and there is no Shock Breath shout [ ]), Magic Resistance on our armors and other goodies. For the most part, the purpose of Enchanting in this build is to make the user more effective against magic and deal effective magic/melee damage. Enchanting and Restoration really tie together what a Paladin is and makes the distinction between one and a simple warrior.

Y U NO Quick Reflexes?

In my experience, my reflexes are quick enough--I can tell when an enemy is charging up a power attack and react accordingly, usually with an interrupting bash or block if I know I don't have enough time to bash, though sometimes I can outright dodge it. Put it in there if you must, but you're spending an extra perk.

Y U NO Breton?

Honestly, it began as a roleplaying decision, but quickly evolved into something the build is better off without.

Bretons are incredibly defensive, able to shrug off 25% of all magic from the beginning and turning that into a massive 50% reduction with nothing but the Lord stone, which confers an extra 50 points of armor rating to make them even more effective. That stacks with Elemental Protection (though not for 100% resistance) greatly. On top of that, there's the Dragonskin power. Yes, this is amazing, but I believe Nords are better suited for the build.

For one thing, they're bigger, cooler and more intimidating, but that's really beside the point

50% Frost Resistance is nothing to scoff at, and with Elemental Protection, it means never having to have or use enchantment slots for it. Battlecry is considerably more defensive than Dragonskin as it scares the crap out of all enemies as opposed to giving us a 50% chance to absorb hostile spells. In fact, the nature of Dragonskin means that we have to let enemies attack us (and potentially damage us without the Atronach stone) in order for it to be effective, while Battlecry actually helps us win fights by giving us an opportunity to flank the enemy or avoid tough fights altogether. Most importantly, in this build, the only magic school in use is Restoration. What, do you want to absorb half of hostile magic just to heal the damage done by the other half?

Furthermore, Nords have better starting bonuses (or, at least, starting bonuses that better suit the build). Finally, the one advantage Bretons have over Nord Paladins is magic resistance, and it's such a potentially massive difference that I personally consider it gamebreaking, as Bretons can easily reach the resistance cap.


Still, it's possible to cap out our resistance even if we're not Bretons so long as we have Enchanting, which we do. The Bretons, therefore, have no real advantage in this build.



Useful Enchantment Combos for Weapons

Turn Undead + Fear. Very useful for getting things the hell away from you.

Frost Damage + Stamina Damage. Incapacitates the hell out of melee based enemies.

Magicka Damage + Absorb Magicka. Incapacitates the hell out of powerful mages.

Frost Damage + Fire Damage. Practically guaranteed to be super-effective against loads of enemies. If they resist one, they're likely to be weak to the other, and hey: even what they resist deals damage to them.

Frost Damage + Shock Damage. Just because the name "Razor Wind" is too cool to not use.

Armor should be pretty simple. Fortify things like health and magicka as well as magicka regen, resist magic and specific elements, etc. A shield with Resist Fire would be very useful against dragons.

Some overpowered weapon combos you might want to avoid:

Anything with Paralyze. Seriously.

Absorb Stamina + Absorb Health. Even separately they can be gamebreaking.



That's all for now. I'm really tired.

I've played this build for a few hours (currently level 12) and it's loads of fun. What do you folks think?

I'll add more tomorrow and later in the week. This is the basis of the build, but there's certainly more to it.

Why is your paladin a werewolf? Seems contrary.

/
good point, I have to agree there. Maybe he can fight his werewolf-urges? Also I don't think the OP explained why the choice to be werewolf was made.

Otherwise it sounds like a very fun build, and well thought-out. I still feel this one might get OP fast, because you efficiently use the best all of the skills have to offer, even with the limitations you put on them yourself. I'm not sure if I find it logical to have both a shield and restoration though, takes a lot of switching hands and it might not be very necessary to have both. Your only way of doing damage is through enchanted one-handed weapons, so overall I think your build is quite defensive. You will not easily be killed, but it might prove tough to kill some opponents as well. I would probably focus more on two-handed or dual wielding to compensate for it, sacrificing the shield. But then again, what is a paladin without a shield

I thought light side will only enable Dragonscale (which is light armor)?

By the way, a Werewolf Paladin is quite awesome. You know what they say? Only a demon knows what their weakness is. being a werewolf paladin, you have the advantage when you have to fight one of 'em beasts

The Dragon Armor perk unlocks both Scale and Plate. Doesn't matter which side you choose.

Really? Nice to know. Is it new to 1.5 or it has always been like that?

Always been like that as far as I know. I haven't been able to update to 1.5 yet.

I've heard people ranting about only one side of Dragon armor will be unlocked. Looks like either my memory is failing me or those people were wrong.

Huh... Maybe I'm mistaken, but I've always had access to both armors in my experience. Then again, I've always gone down the heavy armor path so I can forge Daedric weapons.

Make it a character flaw.
Maybe his curse is lycanthropy and in an attempt to atone for it he choose a life as a holy law enforcer?

Etienne Navarre is a character in a film called ladyhawke who is a palladin/knight type during the day and a wolf by night maybe that is where the op got his idea from. It is a pretty good film but the music is poopy poop.

There's one perk for both Scale & Plate. Once you open it you get to choose either. BTW. Scale is light & Plate is heavy.

Erm... I think you misunderstood my post I was saying "it will open the Light Armor side, the Dragonscale", not "which one is the light armor? Dragonscale or Dragonplate?"

How about not using any of the advanced smithing perks, just have the steel and arcane perks and improve what you find?

I like the OPs idea. I might have to try it out someday.

However going thru life w/o the light spell or Transmute would never happen for me.

When you reach the dragonsmithing level you gain both heavy and light. However I've noticed that with every perk taken the end result during smithing is better.

Thanks for the feedback, folks!

As i said, I was not done explaining--if you look at the time of my post, it was after 4 AM and I was quite tired. I'll try to answer some questions now and continue posting about the build later.

Given how quickly this thread gained responses, I'll probably just edit the OP and post that I did, so be on the lookout.


You're right, I did not. For the most part, I just love werewolves, but not every paladin behaves like a vigilant of Stendarr. Think of the transformation as sort of a righteous fury.


I thought I explained myself well enough, but I suppose I was too tired to make 100% sense

I've already played using Restoration and a shield, and it's certainly viable. First of all, it's easy to hotkey and switch from a shield to a spell in the middle of combat, especially since one tends not to need a shield when retreating and healing. In the case that you want the shield, just switch out your weapon.

If you look at the perk list, there is dual wielding involved to compensate for the defensive nature of shields. It's sort of policy of mine that shield based characters should put in at least two perks into dual wielding (with one being Dual Savagery).

Enchanting is somewhat of a necessity in this build, but I can see what you mean about becoming OP fast since we have Smithing. You can omit it if you'd like or make any changes you see fit, but Smithing was put there for access to particularly fantastical weapons and armor, like Glass, Steel Plate, and especially Dragon. Being able to make armor from a slain dragon and enchanting the large, bone-plated shield to defend against future dragons works very well, IMO.


That's a great way to look at it

It's a very solid build. Thanks for sharing. I think I'll use some of the ideas on my next build.

I'm glad

I tried making a paladin but I didn't like it I might just use some of your ideas and try again

I'm gonna give this build a shot, but break from the traditional paladin mold and go light armor. I feel it'll be a bit more of a challenge, plus I just really like the looks of most of the light armors. Over the hundreds of hours I've put in since I got Skyrim, I've never really used Restoration, so thanks for motivating me to try a new build! Scourge of the undead, taste my blade and righteous fury!

That is an interesting idea of taking some dual wield perks, I have been thinking about that - my main problem now is the idea of having to pause and use the favorite or main menu to switch out spells and dual wield. If it somehow worked as well as switching from shield/spell/bow I would have done it.

One thing I find odd is the strategy not to optimize the class because of fearing the 'overpowered bugaboo'. I don't think you can avoid it anyway, and that is sort of the point of a Paladin, the all powerful defender whose very power is there to demonstrate to to evil that might doesn't make right. I will generally play these types on adapt and gleefully hack thru hordes of draugr lords without stopping to sip potions. One can turn up the difficulty and probably help minimize the OP.

As far as specifics, personally I would go the left route on the Heavy Armor tree and get Conditioning so I don't have to use the Steed sign. I might take a level or two of Juggernaut, but just enough that i can get high enough AR with smithing and optionally without a helmet if desired. I have never had anyone get Deflect Blows for the same reason you were concerned about being overpowered, as it is really unnecessary given the character will probably be unkillable by melee attacks already.

Oh, and as far as turning, it is great for RP but for some reason in Skyrim, my idea of Turning Undead, consists of turning them to dust with my mace/sword. I did like making a Paladin under the Ritual in Oblivion though.

I'm glad to see so many people eager to try this build

I've continued with it a bit, and I must say that it's great fun. I don't quite know what I want to do next in terms of quests, so I'm a bit stuck, but that's more of a personal problem

For those of you wondering, Restoration, Block and dual wielding all work perfectly well together. Give it a shot!

this build looks amazing! gonna go give it a try