A number of people have complaining about the difficulty in playing vampires in Skyrim. I am currently playing one and have found this model to be very fun and rewarding - surprisingly so. I recommend this and await your comments.

Vampire Necromancer
Focus Skills: One-handed (two hands), Archery, Sneak, Conjuration, Pickpocket; most perks go in these.
Additional Skills: Lockpick, Alchemy, Restoration; few if any perks in these.
Sign: In early game I took Thief, changed to Steed (carry more loot), then Lady to off-set daylight regen problems.


What makes this build different is the use of zombies/thralls as -distractions-. I have been playing this is such a way as to avoid direct combat (though using perks to be ready for it) and raising zombies to "scout ahead" while I sneak behind -> with a high enough sneak you can hit someone with an arrow and even if they don't die you'll remain hidden - and you're zombie will engage them, allowing you to continue striking from hiding. Very helpful for powerful enemies.

Of course, killing foxes, goats, bunnies, spiders and wolves in the wild, raising them and traveling with undead familiars is darn fun too.

I recommend giving this build a shot. Its surprisingly fun and requires strategy and patience. Let me know what you think.

You should get the ritual stone. So you can raise 6 more zombies to fight for you.

Also necromage is a must for a vampire.

Isn't the "spells affect undead more" perk from Restoration good for Vamps too?

How do you get your zombies to scout ahead? I've really wanted to play a necromancer (just zombies/thralls), but anything I raise seems incredibly passive. I'm kind of waiting for the CK so I can get a necromancer with that raise skeleton spell + more aggressive zombies.

No Illusion? That's your main gig. Even for NecroVamp, which in my opinion all Vamps are anyway.
On my second one as an S4V-24/7.

Skills :
Illusion (all perks)
Sneak (Muffle and all the way to Ass Blade)
Conjuration (Master and Necro branch to Twin Souls)
1H (Armsman 5/5 to Savage Strike)
Restoration (to Necromage)
The Cannibal Perk (Daedric Quest)

That is your bread and butter. Anything else is up to you.

Get your Magicka to a naked 250 and the rest in Health. I run at Stage 4 - 24/7. The Cannibal perk lets me feed and I actually benefit from it instead of getting weaker. The most fun I have had with a char yet. Out of 6 chars this the only one I have ran on Master as DID.

I have a necro vamp pure mage altmer on master, level 53 now and seriously kicking ass.

Honestly I'm struggling with Illusion in Skyrim. All the best spells require considerable progress (invisibility) or are superfluous for vampires (night eye). I don't really get into the whole fury/calm style of playing but maybe I should explore this if only to raise my skill level.


Its tricky. If you have a high enough sneak you can stealth attack with a bow (and if you don't kill them outright) and not be discovered. As your enemy (and hopefully their friends) search for you the zombie will -sometimes- run ahead to fight them. The other way is if you are sneaking sometimes enemies will see the zombie and not you and attack the zombie, leaving you to do your naughty-vampire-god best. It takes some practice but you will snort-chuckle your way through most dungeons. Of course half the fun is raising your enemies to act as further distractions.

Also note that lesser zombies (low level) make great health pools via vampiric drain, though they will eventually attack.

And I cannot over-stress the joy of being accompanied by undead bunnies. Genius!

This is somewhat off topic and I don't want to create a tanget but: One criticism of the Skyrim vampire...at lower stages (I operate Stage one to three) Vampiric Drain is completely useless and I suspect it would be even more so at higher levels (40+?). Does it drain more if you have a high Destruction skill? I would suggest a more useful power would be a Detect Life spell - which is also frustratingly unavailable until you get a 40 in Alteration.

..."Ass blade"?

I know you're being serious, but

That's absolutely brilliant! You, friend, have just inspired me to make an evil Altmer vampire

But what's this about bunnies? Why?

Unfortunately no, it gets much , much worse because the damage will always be that set amount.

At the beginning of the game (I turned vampire right out of Helgen) it's amazing, but just around ten even it is to weak to be bothered with.

I'm running a vampire assassin, and raise dead is a lot of fun. Sneak kill someone, hide in the shadows, revive them, sneak kill others during the confusion, repeat.

Thanks for the build specs I'm gonna give it a shot

I was hoping someone would see what I done there.

said ass instead of assasin?

More of a play on words. As they attack from behind, thus Ass Blade. I know...it's lame.

Quick question- Will the lady stone override the no-regen penalties of being a vampire? Has anyone tested this? That would be quite the stone consideration.

That's pretty much what the build is about - creating confusion. If you have the Maste level Sneak perk (and thus can crouch and disappear -during- combat) you become an absolute Padomaic.


Yes. The down side is that Lady only regens Health and Stamina. I recommend taking it and enchanting magicka regen on armor or jewelry. In most of my game I funnelled into Health and Stamina, so am now working on building magicka reserves. Thus I recommend a fairly even split between the three, with magicka a bit higher than stamina - in my xp once stamina gets to about 200 you can hang in most fights.

Agree about stamina. I don't value it above 180 for a build that benefits from the 50% regen rate from light armor. Good to know about lady- it is a tossup then if you want some larger magica reserves you might consider atronarch vice lady- since with necromage you will already have taken healing buff perks. if magic is stunted why get regen items for magic? can you overcome the stunt with extra enchants?

What I am asking rather is lets say your magic regens at 3% out of combat, and as a vampire it is stunted in daytime- if you get a 20% magic regen item would it wind up overwhelming the stunt effect like the lady sign does? If that is the case, the downside is very minor.

Other than my warrior, I have yet to invest anything in Stanima because all of my Vamps mainly sneak attack. I don't worry about the regain that much. I mean that in I don't try to negate it when in a daytime fight. She is a Vampire after all. The sunlight doesn't kill but there should be some negative effects to contend with. If I negate those then I don't feel like I am playing a Vamp. She can Frenzy hide and / or Sneak Attack most situations. Reanimate help if needed. I love it.

I think so. I recently found a Ring of Replenishment that gives 60% faster magicka regen and it seems to completely over-ride the Vampire-daylight stunt. Paired with the Lady I have almost normal or better regen. Of course if you only adventure at night (or inside dungeons) its no problem - but I tend to be out and about in the day time too.

Now at level 33. The zombie-distraction method is still working but -sometimes- not as well. I'll continue to report as I go up in levels.

Can't be a puppetmaster type necrovamp, pulling strings from the shadows making your puppets dance for you without illusion!

Thing is, illusion is best leveled up first, but it may be hard for people who want to kill everything themselves.

At early levels, train it up by casting calm on single targets then attack them and calm again, best is to backstab the target, it will level your sneak really fast.

What really helps is illusion is the one magic school that really benefits from having high magicka regen, since calm takes you out of combat, returning you to the better non-combat regen rate.

It also can help having a follower, buff them up with courage before/during battles.

If you have good sneak, you can snipe a single enemy in a group from great distances with fury, the rest of the enemies will group up against the single furied target and quickly kill them, giving you a corpse you can snipe with a raise dead spell.

Or you can level up the lame way by casting muffle over and over, but that is rather boring imho.