Hey folks

I just wanted to share with the forums my character build that follows, and I'm very interested in hearing what kinds of things other people have done. Of all of my hours in Skyrim and my many characters rolled, I've had, by far, the most fun with my most unique character, my Khajiit monk--that is, he's not just a warrior/mage/thief/typical mix.

Currently, I plan on creating a Dunmer assassin mage who I feel is completely unlike anything I could have done in previous TES games. I've done a lot of anolysis on the build, though I'll just write out the short version, and I am eagerly accepting criticisms.

Skills invested in will be Sneak, Pickpocket, Alchemy, Destruction and Illusion (I've found that, for me, 4-5 skills perked is ideal). Hopefully, some of you may see where this is going

Prioritized perks will be Poisoned (in Pickpocket) and Silent Casting (Illusion). A typical contract would go something like this:

Stalk the target, obtaining necessary info as per usual. Craft a decently powerful "weakness to [element]" poison, sneak up to the target, and silently poison him. Turn his bones to ash, profit. If the distance is too great or it's otherwise inconvenient/unwise to poison the target, there's always "fortify Destruction" potions to ensure a powerful attack (and unlike the enchantment, the potion effect of the same name actually increases spellpower instead of lowering spell cost).

Not only is it useful and versatile for assassinations, but the nature of Sneak, Alchemy, Destruction and Illusion mean I'll be survivable in any situation, whether fighting through enemies or escaping them--none of that "how do I assassinate a dragon" nonsense or worry about being defenseless when out in the open. And, among other things, I'll be able to put the "weakness to [element]" poisons to use: since there are no elemental damage effects in alchemy, the only way to make use of them is to use an enchanted weapon with elemental damage or use a spell, and a weapon is usually the way people poison others. I like that this build puts what I thought the most useless of poisons to great use with unexpected utility.

Let's hear your character ideas and criticisms, folks

Edit: Muffle, Invisibility, close proximity and Firestorm/Blizzard will be nice, too I feel like I'll have so much to do with this class!

That's an interesting strategy, I've never thought of doing anything like that before (I haven't been playing a lot of stealthy characters either). Sounds like you'll survive in the open either by destruction magic or calm/frenzy etc. or by turning invisible and escaping. You obviously need to be quite cautious about bringing enough potions both for placing in pockets and for replenishing your magicka and health.

How would you tackle a draugr deathlord at the end of a cave? A boss that you 'cant' escape? Destruction magic, invisibility, wait for magicka to recharge, attack again?

Good question, since I can't pickpocket him.

Firstly, I'll sneak around. As it stands, your Sneak skill doesn't need to be very high before you get closer and closer to hiding in plain sight (that is, light, and therefore light generation from spells becoming less and less an issue as you progress). With Silent Casting, I can zap or burn the Deathlord from a distance without worrying too much about him detecting me, and "fortify Destruction" potions make that job easier; having invested in Alchemy before, I know how stocked up I can expect to be in potions and poisons, so it'd be nice to drink those during boss battles. I don't foresee such a situation being difficult for me, honestly.

Ever try a more interesting build yourself?

Edit: On a side note, I know that Dunmer are statistically useless (something I'd like to see changed in a patch), and that there's no real reason to choose one other than the temporary (or inconsequential, depending on your play style) head-start in some skills like Destruction. However, I feel that one would best embody my character for roleplay reasons.

Yes, if you can make strong fortify destruction potions, I suppose that would do the trick. I rarely use any 'fortify'-potions myself, so I totally forgot about that. Seems like all your character needs for this to work is a literally a strong gut.

While I do have quite a few different characters, I don't think any of them will qualify as the interesting or unique. I like dual-wielding swords and axes I also have one pure mage character, one stealthy and a spellsword (at least that's what I call it).

When I come to think of it, you can probably call my main character unique. His perks are absolutely screwed up. I guess I got too excited when I first played the game, so I obviously decided to spend perk points everywhere. Call it a wannabe-jack-of-all-trades.

And how did that come out? My Khajiit is far from a JOAT, but certainly good enough to join all four main guilds

My first character was a Fighter/Thief (Adventurer). IMO this is always a good choice for the first play-through of any ES game. As such I'm able to tank a boss, sneak up on minions, obtain loot, buy/sell efficiently, and experience the vast majority of the game. Perks in: Blacksmith (light armor side), Block (all perks), 1 Handed (sword perks), Light Armor (all), Sneak (all), Lock picking (___ is easier side), Speech (Left side), Alchemy (Healing). I was level 47, with 215 HP and 300 Stamina, when I beat the game and defeated Aludin on my first try, with out using any potions.

Other builds I'm playing:

Paladin: Blacksmith, 1 Handed, Block, Restoration, Speech, Heavy Armor
Ranger: Archery, 1 Handed (Dual Wield), Restoration, Sneak, Light Armor
Spell-Sword: Destruction, Restoration, 1 Handed, Light Armor, Sneak, Lock Pick

Sounds like your main character is a lot of fun. I like your idea for a paladin build (I've never invested in Speech, so I don't even know what the left side is about--is it worth it?), and your spellsword idea is probably better than mine was; I tried to make a couple of battlemages that didn't work out because I was using Heavy Armor, so I'm also considering making an Altmer battlemage who uses light. Lockpick, though, I don't agree with. I want you to tell me how it works for you when you invest in it, but personally, I don't have difficulty with locks despite not investing in the skill whatsoever.

The funny thing as that I refrained from doing THAT. He was supposed to be a Nord warrior (and is, despite the slightly scattered perks he still kicks ass). Unfortunately I started thinking like this: "Yeah! I need to spend some points in enchanting so I can make awesome weapons! Oh, and I will be needing powerful health potions for the battles, put some points to alchemy as well! Speech? Yeah, I guess I need some there as well, the shopkeepers are paying scantily for my loot! Cool! There's a perk in the restoration tree that lets you heal both health and stamina at the same time!"

Not to mention: "You can forge dragon armour?! Whoa, that's probably even better than daedric! Start smithing and saving perk points right away!"

Ah I see I think we all start off that way. I suppose that counts as unique

I did a warrior who wears robes and carries no weapons. Alteration and Conjuration to replace armor and weapons. They did not summon any creatures with this build. At the start I used actual weapons till bound weapon tomes were aquired.

How did that end up working out for you? I understand that the conjured weapons are underpowered. Still, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Edit: Did you consider using ward spells as a shield?

Are they really that underpowered? Even with that conjuration perk that increases the damage of bound weapons? I have a mage character that fights from time to time with a bound sword, and I think it's quite good. Compared to a legendary daedric sword though, you might be right. But I haven't checked the number difference in damage.

I heard the base power of the bound sword is 10, 15 with the perk. I'd like someone to confirm this, though. Besides which, the power of those weapons goes up with your skill, anyway--even if those base numbers are correct, we should compare them with the base power of other weapons, namely Deadric and glass weapons.

With relatively low perks those weapons had some high damage. It was very strong. It was my pass at a "gimp me" build to try and find a challenge on master. I still felt a little to strong. I went one hand and no offhand. If I put a ward in offhand, which I did do against mages while closing distances, I would not be able to bash. Normal people would probably use two-handed bound weapons, which I would recommend. All one handed did was make the enemies die slower.

Sounds really fun. Any chance you can post videos of such escapades?

Turtle master. Healing spell in right hand, shield in left hand. Bash away. You'll get a lot of health and stamina with restoration magic, so you'll always be able to do another power-bash when needed or shield-charge.

I still have to see how my FRAPS behaves with Skyrim. Have not tried it yet. I'm at work now too. Additionally I already deleted the character a bad habit of mine. I like a clean save list and tend to delete characters before starting a new one. My current play is using a mod that changes master difficulty so that it's harder though it had some affects that I didn't anticipate... I may take another stab at the build in the future, and of course anyone is welcome to have a go.

A Breton, I hope


Ah, that's too bad. Still, I hope you can provide us with something exciting

I just wanted to say I understand your slight OC habit What I did was make a separate folder where the "Saves" one is and called it "Backup Saves". I move all the files there that I don't want showing up in my load screen. Also, I rename my saves from the default format to my character's name so it's much easier to save/load the game I want without having to mouseover and look at the photo/time to make sure.

this is a jedi/sith build i made for fun XD!

1h weapon Sword perks and dual wield
Conjuration Only bound weapons perks (lightsaberz x2) >Destruction Only Shock spells branch, reduction cost, and dual cast
Alteration All and of course Telekinesis

^main perks

For rp speech for awesome "this arent the droids u are looking for" persuasion XD!!

Rest of the perks idk maybe illusion or enchanting

And u can only use cloth ! i like hoodyz

I was greatly displeased and dismissed the thought of going dual-shields when the "confused turtle" combination was confirmed false (or do you say weakened? correct me ). But this is almost as good. Definitely going to try that sometime.

Never though to just move them out. All my more unique characters will probably be dumped into a folder now. Thanks!

I haven't seen my zen archer build anywhere yet. From the thread in my sig:

Zen Archer
Description: battlecleric, a religious scholar and expert marksman. Controls his opponents through sheer willpower, either by breaking their minds or turning the undead.
Suggested race: Altmer.
Perks:

• Archery(14/16): all except Steady Hand.
  
• Restoration(7/13): Novice Restoration, Apprentice Restoration, Adept Restoration, Expert Restoration, Master Restoration, Regeneration, Necromage.
  
• Illusion(13/13)
  
• Enchanting(13/13)
  
• Two points to place at your discretion.

Equipment: self-enchanted light armor with the highest armor rating.
Gameplay: use your illusion spells and turn undead to control your opponents. May need to do some kiting and may get hit in melee so wear decent light armor.
Shouts: Whirlwind Sprint.