First off, please don't think i'm bringing in WoW into this with 'DeathKnight,' i'm just doing it so the majority of people know what i'm talking about.

Anyhow, i was thinking about starting this kind of character. Possibly orc. But i'll get to the point. Is it brutal trying this kind of setup? Heavy armor + 2h + conjuring. Because i'd assume your HP/Magicka/Stamina would be very spread out. Well, maybe not with certain accessories.

I picked up a 2h once before and they're incredibly slow, so i'd probably go 2h sword for the fastest. Then heavy armor slowing me down more, and having to get 2 useless perks before i can make it weightless.

So, will this work in a GOOD way, without too many drawbacks?

Since you can always turn down the difficulty if needed I guess it can work.
But I like you idea and might do it myself on a 3rd character some time. Perhaps with enchanting to fortify my armour and weapons too.

just play on a difficulty that fits. problem solved

I don't think you understand the amount of perks that you get. Heavy armor, 2handed weapons and conjuration. You should be investing perks in any armor you are using and you should be investing perks in the weapon you are using. You don't have to fill the 2 handed weapon tree since if you plan on using greatswords, you don't need to invest in the perks that only work for axes and hammers. You only need to invest in conjuration perks that pertain to necromancy. Armor perks are good all around.

You're not gonna fill the role right off the bat but it won't take long to do so.

It's like my assassin characters. Starting out using light armor and duel wielding swords. Trying to sneak. The trying quickly turns into successfully sneaking and once I get assassin's blade, the duel wielding swords becomes duel wielding daggers. I was level 10 by the time that happened.

As for Health, stamina, magicka. I think a 3, 2, 1 ratio is best. Do 3 increases to health, 2 increases to stamina and one to magicka then repeat.

The only problem I had with this when I attempted it was that it doesn't take long before the mobs are "too powerful" to be brought back to life. I guess all I needed was to join the college or otherwise find a more powerful spell.

Maybe this is just my problem haha, but i don't ever like turning the difficulty down from wherever it starts. But i'm also not one of those guys who are like "MASTER SO EASY." So, i don't really wanna turn it down to make it playable.

Hopefully somebody out there has tried this


Well i know i won't be putting perks into everything. I just didn't know if it'd work smoothly. After all i'd probably be swapping out between 2h and conjurs between every fight which might be annoying after several hours of play.

Oh and yes i'm aware, my first character was an assassin/thief/archer

I only have experience from DiD on master.

I wouldn't put any points into stamina. The reason being you only need 1 stamina to do a power attack, even if you get drained all you need is a basic stam potion and you're back in business. You can't go too wrong throwing a few points into magic but I would focus on health.

It's not brutal. Just remember, you have a melee setup. Sometimes you will have to summon mid fight, which means you might have to stop attacking and might leave yourself vulnerable due to being in melee range. Sometimes your summons will tank in a fight and this might mean slower heavy armor / block / restoration levelling, etc.

In my experience playing a melee fighter with conjuration, leveling conjuration was a pain. If I wasn't using it every fight I had a hard time leveling it up.

I hope you are not planning on casting spells in the middle of a fight because that can be clumsy for a two handed weapon wielder. When playing 2h character I don't use magic, but I guess Conjuration works because you can summon before fight or after. About the weapon choice, you should know that greatswords' swing speed is the same as the battleaxe's. Whether or not this is a bug or not, I am not sure, but I know that their one handed counterparts differ in this category.

I think a fitting weapon would be Conjured Battleaxe. It looks cool, fits the charater and weighs nothing. Downside is that you can't upgrade it, even though it has very good damage with Mystic Binding perk. Also, no weight means less stamina cost for power attacks.

I'd plan on just casting my summons before battle (or after) like you said. Then run in swinging. 2h Swords and Axes are the same speed? Did not know this. Conjured Battleaxe would also help leveling up Conjuration so it doesn't fall behind my other skills. And it would lead out to not needing to points in stamina, but then i'd need more than 100 base magicka? I have 200 stamina on my Leather wearer for dual wielding and its enough for spamming power attacks for awile but it drains quick and I know 2 handers will take more stamina.

I wouldn't bother with conjuration. There's no problem going straight melee with 2H.

In my experience, your conjuration skill will quickly fall behind, and you'll decide it's not worth the time to summon something that dies in a few hits. If you really need a companion, there are plenty of NPCs that will accompany you.

I'd work on 2H, Heavy Armor, Archery, and Alchemy. I advise against enchanting and smithing. They take all of the fun out of adventuring.

I found 250 or so stamina was plenty. Get the respite perk in restoration tree. It will help with stamina in a long fight. I achieved 250 stamina with enchants. Magic is a little different. You don't want to cast a summon then not have enough to heal etc. The conjured battle axe is ok. Without mystic binding my superior steel greatsword had 10 more damage. This was below level 15. Playing a Deathknight isn't very exciting in my opinion in Skyrim. It lacks that coolness that the Deathknight in WoW has.

Personally I'd have gone with 1 h and bound sword for a 'death knight' so the other hand could cast spells at will and res my undead minions as i cut them down....but that's just me apparently.

Anyway:
Enchanting wise you could make this work, you'd need some cost reduction for conjuration....but you probably won't need more than a few level ups on magicka if all you're doing is presummoning. since most pieces of gear can take a fortify spell school enchantment that's not a problem. damage wise you should be fine since it's a 2 hander the only problem will be it'll get awkward switching between summoning and drawing your weapon. 2 hand weapons have a very long draw time and it's best to avoid having to sheath/unsheath them during combat. It'd be less of a problem when you get to thralls.......but that's a potentially long time to spend with an awkward playstyle.

Weightless armor actually is only really necessary as a perk if you're going for deadric....and even then you can probably put it off just skip using dwarven armor(It's unnecssarily heavy in fact only deadric is heavier.)The ancient nord armor is quite light for a heavy armor and has . Using bound battleaxe can save you some weight issues too since it's essentially a weightless weapon using the bound axe with the perks also makes for easy soul trapping.

You might also consider using alchemy. Making potions to increase the duration of your summons will cut down on the number of times you need to summon them(assuming they're not being smashed to bits right away) and potions can be made to fill in any weak areas you might notice. Plus you get access to poisons(Which are the only way to further boost bound weapons damage since neither smithing or enchanting can be used on them)

I'm playing a Death Knight right now.

I have Heavy Armor, 2-Handed, Destruction (Ice branch), Restoration (Novice, Apprentice, Respite, Recovery 1&2), and Conjuration:Necromantic.

I kick total ass most of the time on Adept level. I also have perks in Enchant. I don't feel 'slow' at all. I only put 50 into Stamina and put the rest evenly between Magicka and Health.

To me it is one of the easier class-types to play.

Thanks for your input, guys.


It doesn't get annoying pre-summoning before a fight then pulling out your 2h again and again and again?

On xbox 360 it's not that bad. 1 button equips my 2h. Then lets say I have ice bolt in one hand and summon dread zombie in the other. I can bind those two to one button. I don't have to go into any menus if I have that setup. I'm sure its not any more trouble than any other spec.

No - I have them hot-keyed (PC) and just hit the summons first into the room and then draw my sword and rush in to whoop azz.

#1 if going heavy armor... go to the Steed Stone. It will make your armor weightless like you had the perk and also add 100 weight to your carry allowance.

#2 Absolutely viable. You might think about trying to use conjuring as much as possible so you can get to Conjure Bound Battleaxe. Chances are it will be better than most gear you find for a while... you can also upgrade it with perks to have soul stealing and banishing. Using the conjured axe will also help you lvl conjuration faster.

#3 Don't forget resto 2x fast heal (Apprentice perk) with +50% str (Regen) will quickly heal you 150 HP AND Stamina (Respite). Take it up to Adept level to 2x cast (note, NOTE dual-cast... just 2x single cast) Close Wounds for a 300 point mega heal (+stam).

#4 After getting Heavy Armor to 70 and getting the weightless perk... you may think about getting the Ritual Stone... giving you a once a day mass raise dead. It's the most thematic for your build.

Block is another important perk tree for 2handers. The left side of the tree is worthless to you... but the slow time against power attacks, and power bashing through disarming bash all work with a 2handed weapon. Take them.

I have a lot of fun as a heavy armor 100 conj build but i use 1h ( the decapitation perk is fun). There is no need to dumb down the difficulty like some may say. you whip out 2 daedra lords and join the action and you're good to go. I just enchant my armor for Conjuration-esque improvements obviously.

I was thinking of creating a character just like that.

You'll have to stay at 4th stage vampire though, to be the Lich King. I'm not sure about WOW, but in the Warcraft Series, He definitely did have major weak points as a warrior.

I could just bind 2h to <-- pad on Xbox 360, and --> pad to heal/summon, then it shouldn't be too bad.