So I'm getting back into my character creation, and started up my Nord warrior again. The idea for this character was a strict warrior with no magic and no thief skills (a brute, if you will--brawn over brains) and wanted to use some mechanics I never touched.

I often play sneaky types, and always sort of bypass things like beds, food, and even people for the sake of easier alternatives, as my characters are usually self-sufficient. So I thought a warrior would need a bed for rest, and rely on meals to make up for damage and fortify skills. (I'm forgetting some other RP aspects so this may be subject to edit.) But yeah I kinda wanted to do something completely different.

So anyway I was looking at my specs for my Nord and I can't find a build that is strictly within the warrior's domain. So far here's what I have:

2-Handed: Perked out with Limbsplitter 3/3

Block: Perked out right side

Heavy Armor: Perked out

Smithing: Right side for heavy armor with arcane blacksmith

And I'll likely perk out enchanting although I feel like I'm cheating.

My Nord loves Talos and uses shouts as a substitue for magic

Soooo, where do I go from here? Maybe I'm just picky, but I don't really want archery, because I can't see my brute Nord painstakingly pinpointing a target.

I love this character, but I can't figure out where to invest my other perks...

You guys know a hell of a lot more than I do, so maybe someone can help

You have Block, so why not change weapons a bit, get a 1H axe, sword or mace. Weapon + shield is a very nice and straightforward offensive strategy, and all decked out in Heavy Armor, you can practically be a juggernaut.

Do characters have to be 'pure'? I think we're all good at least a couple of things. I don't mean 'blocking' and 'stabbing'. I'd invest perks in whatever gets the job done. If you want to be 'pure' warrior, just invest in perfecting combat - kind of like a martial arts perfectionist.

No sense in taking block + two handed weapons, is there?

Block is quite useful and important for two-handed weapon users. Bashing with two-handed weapons do more damage than bashing with a shield. So right hand side of block tree is very good investment for a two-handed user. I would even say they are essential.

I was really wanting to use 2h. But I guess beggars can't be choosers. I was about to cave in to sword + shield but I wanted to see if I was missing something first.


You know, I never really thought about that. But I guess I just set my character up to fail. I mean, he's sure as hell not sneaky (something off-setting about a 300 lb man sneaking around) and he's a Nord that couldn't give a flying f about magic. Ugh


Block doesn't only apply to shields my friend. You can block with the shaft of your battleaxe

Not to mention quick reflexes.

This is very similar to my Nord warrior that uses no magic. He is very anti-magic and casts no spells no spells (not even for healing) and he does no disenchanting/enchanting. I perked 2H, Block, Heavy Armor and Smithing, just like you. There are quite a few perks in those four trees, so you don't need much more, but I am also perking Alchemy. Since I do not use any magic, I need a way to heal and resist elemental damage from fire and shock and such. Alchemy provides a non-magic way to do these things as well as to fortify your block, 2H, Heavy Armor, and Smithing, all without using magic. I consider alchemy to be more akin to cooking then magic in Skyrim so it is acceptable for an anti-magic Nord. Gathering ingredients makes him feel connected with the earth where his ancestors are buried.

I also put three points into pickpocketing for the Extra Pockets perk. What does pickpocket have to do with being a burly 2H warrior you ask? Well, I liken it to football players who study ballet because it improves their agility. My 2H Nord has never picked anyone's pocket in his life, nor would he resort to such cowardly acts. However, that did not prevent him from visiting a certain trainer that you can find in the game (and you do not have to be a Thieves guild member for this trainer) and repeatedly training his pickpocket skill until it was 50, so he could take the Extra Pockets perk. With that I feel much stronger because I can carry an extra 100 pounds.

Dude that's awesome. Although with alchemy, I become a little more self-sufficient and don't need food or anything. I guess I could use discretion but I'm sad I can't do the build I wanted perfectly

Edit: Just an afterthought... what's the point of food then? Isn't it just for immersion? Any character is bound to have resto magic or alchemy... I'd like to utilize it but idk

Mostly for immersion, but vegetable soup makes any melee character that much stronger because it replenishes your stamina over time for unlimted power attacks.

And that's why I wanted to use it... damn there's always gotta be a problem. I just want a pure warrior. And for whoever said nobody is "pure", I now disagree. A pure mage can invest in all mage perks, likewise for thieves. The warrior skills don't synergize like the others. What's the point of switching between 1-2h weapons like Ive seen people do? makes no sense

And for those that don't know about broken mechanics, the skill system in this game is starting to hardly make sense to me

Yeah, the problem I have with food for healing is that it doesn't make sense that you could sit down in the middle of battle and eat a meal. Post combat, you get your health back so fast that you don't need healing. As the poster above said, the vegetable/venison soups make for great stamina regen for power attacks. But mostly, I use food just for immersion roleplay purposes.

Granted taking potions in the middle of combat doesn't make much sense either, but at least it is a little more realistic than eating a meal. I will ususally break off from melee combat and run away a few steps to get a chance to quaff a potion or two. Never more than two at a time. I really wish there were a drinking animation like in dark souls to limit the number of potions you could take during combat. Seems too easy just to spam potions until you are at full health. So, I just don't do that.

I am not going to take archery due to its lack of mobility with a heavy armor set, progressing in other areas would definatly compensate for its lack. Purchase potions for health and what not to help with the health of course this is obvious. If you feel enchanting will make it feel like your cheating then don't go down the tree but you can still enchant your smithed gear it just won't be so overpowered as perking into the tree would. My Paladin type class will use enchanting because he is quite intelligent, knowing a great deal of two types of magic, Alteration and Restoration.

Does your character feel he is worthy to use enchanting? I'd like some updates to your character.

This describes my currant character perfectly TBH enchanting is a bit overpowered Im using a legendary Daedra battle axe with shock and magic damage. What you will want is armour that provides protection from magic. At the higher levels you can be vulnerable to high level mages shocking you to death before you can blink.

My anti-magic Nord warrior doesn't use archery either, although there was this one time at Valtheim Towers, when he had defeated all but the archer on the opposite side of the river. Now he could have just charged the bridge, but there was this hunting bow lying there next to him from one of the other bandits he had slain, so he picked it up, along with a quiver of arrows and began lobbing pot shots across the river. I play with no crosshair, so they were totally pot shots from that distance, but the archer on the other side of the river was not faring much better with his shots and he lacked the heavy armor protection my warrior had and the partial cover from shooting from a doorway. In the end, my Nord warrior dropped the guy into the river with the bow, after trading shots with him for more than 5 minutes real time. After that I decided to keep the hunting bow and smith it. I still do not perk bows, but I do use them on rare occassion where it would be too much trouble to close the distance for melee, or where it is just not possible, like pesky Dragons that won't land.

You say cant see him being much of an archer but as a Nord brought up in that harsh land hunting with a bow would be 2nd nature.

But with 2H's blocking is not your priority.

Not for the damage reduction, but the bash technique adds a whole new dimension to your combat. Fighting a mage, for instance? Do a quick bash to bring down his ward spell before cleaning his clock with a power attack. Plus if you take the time slow perk, blocking becomes invaluable with 2H because you can avoid power attacks really easily and powerbash the heck out of them if you have the right tree perks.

On damage reduction when blocking with weapons, blocking mechanics and more:

Active Blocking stacks with Damage resistance from Armor, being applied to any Damage that makes it through, and is capped at 85%. When you have 100 Blocking, the following happens:

• Daedric Shields block for 63% Damage resist
  
• All weapons block for 60% Damage resist
  
• Iron Shields block for 56% Damage resist

About the Shield Wall perks: the perk descriptions in-game are incorrect. Each level of the perk adds 10% to Blocking, which is multiplied against skill in the same fashion as Fortify Blocking enchants. For example, if you have 60% Damage resistance (unperked) from blocking, then each level of the Shield Wall perk will add +10% to that base 60, meaning that each level will add a total of 6% Damage resistance. Basically, the Shield Wall perks are +10% Fortify Blocking enchants. A quick look at the table above shows that 4 ranks in Shield Wall is enough to hit the cap (and then some) for Daedric Shields, and will give 84% (pretty close to the cap) for all weapons... but an Iron Shield will need all 5 levels of Shield Wall to hit the cap.

Blocking with zero skill or perks:

• Daedric Shield 53% (rounded)
  
• Iron Shield 50%
  
• All Weapons 42%

So we can see that the blocking mechanic is inconsistent for weapon blocking when compared to shields. At low skill levels, weapons are inferior to an Iron Shield, but better at higher skill levels.

Nearly all Blocking perks work with weapons... the only ones that don't are: Arrow Deflection, Elemental Protection, and Shield Charge. Block Runner works just fine with weapons, and will even supercharge your stealth to make sneaking happen at running speed. As a side note, doing a "shield bash" with a 2H weapon instead does dramatically more Damage than properly using a shield, and the Bashing perks work fully as intended with regards to blocking with weapons.

Bashing Damage stats (rounded up):

• Daedric Warhammer : 7 Bash / 21 Power Bash / 102 Deadly Bash
  
• Daedric Greatsword : 6 / 18 / 90
  
• Iron Warhammer : 5 / 14 / 68
  
• Daedric Shield : 5 / 14 / 68
  
• Iron Shield : 3 / 8 / 38

Tl;dr: Blocking with weapons is nearly as effective as blocking with a daedric shield, and it takes the same investment to reach the damage reduction cap.

Taken from http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1342463-complete-character-design-freedom-damage-resist-caps-and-ridiculous-damage-thread-10/, which may be slightly spoilerific in places.

I hated my pure warrior, there is no variety, it's boring to me :/