I've tried this a few times and it's always failed. Miserably.

http://images.uesp.net/6/6d/OB-class-Barbarian.jpg

So, fur/hide armour only. This leaves me with -

Fur/Hide armour - looks perfect but offers the lowest protection out of all. Not great for someone who's blindly running into combat.
Saviours hide - saving grace. Looks awesome, decent protection.
Forsworn armour - low protection, although the helmet is just to damn good not to use,
Scaled armour - decent protection, takes some smithing to get.

I end up with Saviours Hide, scaled gauntlets, scaled boots and forsworn headdress. I look like a demented deer god clad in werewolf skin. Perfect.

As for weapons, barbarians use two handed swords, axes, or dual wield axes. No coward boards. This is where problems start.

Combat is an absolute nightmare. This game wasn't designed with a berserker style of play in mind. Sure, I can melt down melee enemies with great critical charge in one hit due to massive damage output, but when surrounded or faced with mages I just die far too quickly.

So, any tips? I guess I could pick up a bow. Conan used one. Sometimes. Also I can get my head around dual wielding, it just seems so inneficient. How do you use it properly? The power attack does massive damage but leaves you very open, and hammering away with regular attacks doesn't seem any more deadly than using a two hander.

I roleplay classes more than people, as in, I stick to class restrictions rather than realistic immersive restrictions. Pure warriors are doable. Pure assassins are doable. Pure mages, archers, illusionists, necromancers, battlemages, nightblades, you name it, are doable. But the barbarian seems to have beat me.

You can smith any armor to legendary. Fur armor is fine.. just upgrade it. You don't have to go crazy, but just get some +smithing gloves and/or a potion and keep it viable. Ideally, keep it in line with armors meant to be at that level, more or less. Like make it equal to scale, as scale becomes available on vendors.

This is my favorite playstyle in Skyrim.

Nord. All perks go to Light Armor, One-Handed or Two-Handed (War Axe or Battle Axe), Smithing. Throw in a little Archery and Blocking.

I also went with the 'Nordic' looking armors, Hide, Leather, Scale. Honestly an upgraded Scale armor is really all you need. Forsworn is actually pretty good armor, it is just distinctly Forsworn and non-Nord.

As said above, just take some smithing buffs (rings gloves necklace shirt) get arcane smith perk.(arcane- so you can improve saviors hide) and find a blacksmith elixur. You should be able to get some decent armor from that.

If critical charge for 2-handers is functioning the way it does for 1-handers then its utility can get debatable. It would be good for 1v1 but terrible for multiple opponents (because of its huge execution time.)

Lord stone would probably mesh well here, aince you will stack the resist with savior hide and the extra armor will help with the furs.

Maybe an absorb health blade?

I actually just did a build like this.

Light armor - pretty much the same kinds you listed.

Smithing - to improve said armors.

Two Handed - Swords mainly.

Archery - Just as a back up, mainly to soften up dragons.

I put points into health and stamina evenly. Went with Orc for the racials and badassness factor. As far as combat goes, you want to put as many perks into two handed asap and have a large stamina pool for power attacks and sprinting. Try to close the gap on enemies and bring the fight to them and then unload power attacks on them.

A barbarian would use a bow, and also take along a follower of some sort that fits your playstyle. Play on Adept or even apprentice. If you dont like dying easily, then it wouldnt make sense to play anything above adept

Actually, Conan had no problem using a shield or one handed sword, and would wear the best armor he could get his hands on. Perhaps you're limiting yourself a bit too much?

Thanks for all the replies.

Perhaps the restrictions are a little harsh but that's just how I wanted to do it. The problem with oversmithing and enchanting stuff is that you have to spend a lot of time around holds, towns, cities, even Jarls palaces. A barbarian isn't welcome in these sorts of places.

Maybe it's time to cede. Falkreath has an enchanting table and a blacksmith, maybe I'll use that as a base of operations.

Why can't a barbarian wear dragon armor???? He killed the dragon to get it!!!

I really dont see a barbarian having anything to do with enchanting. Barbarians would stay away from crafting magical equipment, and would only use what he finds, if even that

Smithing has generally been part of Barbarian builds in the past (when TES had classes). And all kinds of "barbarians" use bows. It's an outdoors/survivalist weapon. Only a crappy fantasy world would tell you it's for prancing elves or something.

Requires a mastersmith to create it.

Wait, correction. Morrowind premade barbarians had smithing (armorer). Oblivion didn't, I think.


Anyways, do what you want. I suggest getting at least one crafting skill though. As a barbarian, that'd probably be alchemy or smithing. Not going into cities isn't exactly an excuse. If it really matters, there's plenty of outdoor smithing areas. Bandit hideouts and such.

Forge inside of Embershard Mine, along with an alchemy and enchanter's table in Anise's cabin, which is right across the way from the mine.