I'm just curious what other people's characters most invested skills are and how you typically play that character. What role playing do you add for fun and flavor?

My typical character uses one handed, destruction, dual wielding, smthing, enchanting, sneak & alchemy and wears light armor and a circlet or hood.

In combat I typically start off with a sneak arrow or two, switch to destruction/shield until my magicka is depleted, then switch to sword/shield/shout to finish my enemies. I use alchemy and restoration for healing. I add poison to my arrows or blades as needed for tougher enemies. Usually use unrelenting force. However after a few hundred hours I wanted to change things up and played with a few new builds until I found this one:

My second character I created to change the game up was a male orc warrior. He uses one handed and shield, heavy armor, smithing & enchanting. He uses a bow for dragons and hunting. For role playing purposes, he never backs down from a fight (runs for life) and if he dies in combat I reload the game and pretend he got injured badly in combat to the point where restoration spells are not enough to erase the damage completely and I make him rest at home for about a week where he reads books, enchants and smiths a few things, cooks stews for stamina in combat, goes to the pub and drowns his sorrows in mead until he is ready for his revenge.

Then as a test for his trials he goes out into the wild with nothing. No sword, armor, potions. Nothing. He has to clear a fort of bandits to prove his worth to Malacath. This can be hard unless you back track to where you started the game but getting there can be hard as well as you'll run into things in the wild and with no armor or weapons and no knowledge of magic that makes it harder. I beat a few deer down and made leather armor at riverwood and sold my ingredients and some fish to buy an iron ore and made a dagger. Then I made it to a fort and took the first iron armor I could find after killing a bandit. From there things got easier but it was a fun way to play.

Also I punch anyone in the face who spouts off something rude. Guards, shopkeepers, doesn't matter. Malacath would not be pleased with me taking crap from anyone. So my Orc makes them play the blood price, since they are milk drinkers anyway. He has to flee the town usually, and he doesn't beat them to death, but he will knock them down before he runs from the guards.

So to make it interesting he:
Joined the empire
Used some new skills I didn't use on my first few characters
Punches anyone who is disrespectful or dishonest (make them play with blood price)
Says the rude or to the point responses in dialogue
Didn't really collect loot unless he could somehow further his skills from it, like all light armor he collected would be improved before sold using only leather he created from animals he killed.
Jems and jewels get smithed into jewelry, etc.
He makes armor and weapons for his companions as a token for their loyalty. They start with a sword and get armor after proving their worth.
Only does quests if he thinks he can gain some honor and it is a challenge.

I'm having a blast with this build. Punching guards in the face and getting away with it after becoming thane was fun. They walk away after I put my fists down. By specializing in a few perks he's pretty unstopable. Not being a slave to loot was a nice change too. He enchants weapons he finds or smiths for money as orcs are known for enchanting and smithing. I found that book about malacath and the orcs at the strongholds schooled him on orc ways (and me too, I'd never played an orc before, ever) and its been fun trying something new for a change. Now I love Orcs, and their bezerker rage has to be the best power in the whole game. You can turn the tides against a giant with that!

i've started a new character: nord loyalist with 2-h, heavy and smithing as primary attributes (can max) and 1-h, block, archery, and speech as minor (cannot max.) master difficulty with strict roleplay: only appropriate quests, appropriate companions or for-hire only, must sleep/ daytime playing character, no pay for training except in specific situations (i hired faendal and game him armor and weapons to help me get my loot at the barrow and he trained me once for free), no fast travel except in specific situations, no markers/ map and compass are all i get, low setting h.u.d. (i keep it slightly on because beth screwed this option up and i hate not picking up the right stuff or seeing who i'm talking to, or if a corpse/container is empty, dialogue, health/stamina/magicka, new locations, etc.)

he follows ralof and initially stays with gerdur then pays at the inn. due to their kindness and request i goto whiterun and fulfill barrow/dragon quests. for now, will travel the land around helgen, falkreath, riverwood and whiterun and get to know the land and work on skills. will buy breezehome and eventually visit the greybeards and stormcloaks...

With race i figured i go Dunmer by the name Zazan Coldvein
Illusion to get in to peoples minds and use them for my http://www.gamesas.com/user/620012-zuufff/#
Alteration for the flesh spells (http://www.gamesas.com/user/620012-zuufff/# in mage armor perks)
One-handed for when they get in close
Conjuration for necromancy spells and perks

Going to let myself get to stage 4 of vampirism so its mandatory i stay away from cities and towns. Only use stuff i find or take off of dead bodies.

Backstory:

Irony

by

Zazan Coldvein

I am writng this book for I am afraid what I have become will soon be the end of me

I was born to house Coldvein on the 22nd of Last Seed 2E 882, who were well known in Morrowind for being the greatest vampire hunters. Sadly I am the last of the great house and it falls to me to exterminate the blood svcking undead where ever they may appear.

I heard the location of a cave in the province of Skyrim, by the name of Broken Fang, from a traveling Nord Merchant. He said he would be returning to his homeland soon. I asked him if i may join him in his trek back home and he kindly replied "Yes."

Months have gone by and I had decided to complete the rest of the journey alone. I made my way across the border of Skyrim and into the hands of a group Imperial Legionares. They knocked me out and i awoke on a carriage on the way to Windhelm. They sad the others were destined for the fabled Helgen and that i was one of the http://www.gamesas.com/user/620012-zuufff/# ones. We were just outside of Whiterun when i made my escape. I dove out of the carriage into the river along side the trail.

I waited for days for it to be safe for me to enter the city. Once inside I made my way to the inn they call The Bannered Mare. I spoke to a women named Hulda about Broken Fang Cave. She marked its location on my map. I left the inn and journeyed north once outside Whiterun. A few hours later i found myself outside the cave openinig. I prepared myself for the coming battle and charged in.

I awoke days later in the east tower of Valtheim Towers. There was a strange feeling in my mouth so i opened it and felt around. Fangs! I had fangs! For me, the last of the great Dunmer vampire hunters to become a vampire, brought such dishonor toward myself. I had thought long and hard about how i could, in some way, benefit from this. Then it came to me, who better to fight a vampire than another vampire.

Now at age 649, I find myself wandering through the night searching for my fellow undead, but with a different motive in mind...

thus far my favorite character has been a male altmer mage named Arantyl he uses all schools of magic at some point or another but he favors ice magic enchanting and conjuration mainly for the bound weapons and necromancy and he has the ritual guardian stone power. and his most common "weapon" is a staff of zombies but as for melee weapons he has an enchanted silver sword i named Silverchill. he also has the black star and has used it on many an unfortunate soul. his first custom made enchanted item was a pair of boots with +30 stamina they are called The Boots of the Bandit...guess where he got the soul.

I'm playing as a reformed Thalmor Arcane Assassin. And it is glorious.

Just an Demi Immortal cursed for messing around with Soulgems resulting in him going through deaths cycle but never really dieing.

Lost memories of Why he's there or how he came to be there hence alot of redundant questions like who are the Thalmor, stormcloaks, the war, Have imps always been in Skyrim ect ect. went to Whiterun, to find his fortune when he's inadverdently thrusted into finding out what role has been belayed on him after reading the word wall. and subsequently fighting a Dragon and stealing its soul. overcome with the turn of events(being told a massive rumbling call was for him) he fled to Riften where he's ripped off by corrupt guards and "consold" by a shifty man promising more gold. finding he can attain his fortune and be far away from the Dragon business he takes up the offer. he makes leaps and bounds until he is struck down by a leader figure, he "dies" and is visited by a Spirit telling him he can no longer flee from his "destiny". he then plays dead with his former guild and climbs the 7000 steps to become stronger and find himself.

After meeting up with a certain "innkeeper" he finds himself less and less disallusions as the taste of stealing Dragon souls taints him. he took up the Arcane, he was told his power comes from his very soul, so he uses himself as a weapon. Blades formed from his very will, rending the souls from all who stand before him. men beast mer, dova, all fall to his ethereal Sabers. and now he feels he's found the greatest fortune of all, for what could equal the Value of a beings soul?

I'm playing as a Bard-ninja pirate-deathknight-jack of all trades-I-had-no-idea-what-to-spend-my-perks-on according to the people that posted in my thread.
I start of battle by sneaking up on people, then rushing in and slaughtering them.
I have fun because I role-play

Altmer healer. Main skills, restoration, alchemy, enchanting, speechcraft. Secondary, destruction and one handed to survive, ended up doing smithing just because it was fun. With not much in the way of armour or alteration, and not being particularly heavy hitting, the restoration and alchemy have been absolute essential to her survival.
She lost two dogs and a horse, but has never failed to heal a downed ally or follower rather than hitting them by accident, no mean feat with some of the huge fights in confined spaces she and Kharjo have been in.
To be honest, most of the fun comes from having only one character, with a backstory and personality, rather than the build itself, which just follows from who she is. One thing I had to do, being Altmer, was take perks for stuff like decapitate and criticals, but only the first obligatory base damage up for one handed; skill not strength.

Yet another copy/paste of the story, if anyone cares :


And more story after finding the Thalmor were in game :

High elf magic assassin, sneaky too

Altmer Storm Adept. Main skills include:

- Destruction magic
- Conjuration magic
- Restoration magic

I frequently use my numerous collection of staffs to powerhouse my way through enemies that are supposed to be way too strong for me. Sanguine Rose is a life saver.

For some reason this build is alot more fun than any other playstyle I have tried.

i'm having fun with a summoner/duelist type character (sword dueling) with light armor and bound swords i'm having alot of fun relying on conjuration to keep me alive

Race breton
focus conjuration, light armor, onehanded, destrucion

I thoroughly enjoy my stereotypical ranger Wood Elf. Pure archery, no sneaking with Alchemy, Light Armor and living in the wilderness.

Quite fun to roleplay.

The first character I rolled up was the 2H Weapon/Mage build type that I used in Oblivion. Dunmer quasi Nightblade build. When this character got to lvl 32, I thought, my build svcks for Skyrim. I started a few other charactors. A Archer/Sneak, a Battle Mage and a 2H hvy armor warrior. I advanced each into the 20s. A few days ago I realized, that my original character really was just fine, and have gone back to her.

Skyrim loyalist Dunmer. Currently she is at 86 Destrction (With the lightning perks only) Alteration 90. 2H Weapns is at 66. All other skills are 50 and below. The character and system of skyrim are pretty much flexible enough to do whatever. I like to start battles by unloading my magicka into whatever it is that needs killing. If it is a lot of enemies, then I switch to staves and use them while my magicka is recharging. Otherwise, finish off with the 2H Sword.

I like to sneak with my 2H Sword when going after chumps/bandits. A good 2H Sneak attack with a poison weapn does just about anyone in.

Getting some great ideas for future play throughs that is for sure! Thanks everyone for posting. My Orc is by far how I normally play, I sort of invented him on the fly after reading the book about Malacath and he evolved. Role playing certainly adds a lot of fun by breaking the mold of you would normally play a character and reveals new aspects of Elder Scrolls I would never uncover playing as "me" or what is the "most fun". It's a creative way to find new game mechanics and ways to complete tasks and objectives.

Relas, the Dunmer Rogue

I put all my effort into one handed, archery, and sneak mostly, with dabbling in lockpicking and pickpocket. Started speech, hate it, would do alchemy instead if I could. He is just kind of the unlikely hero, a mix of Han Solo and a few other rougish types. His main motive is money, go figure.

Jesan, the Imperial Knight

This guy is just a total BA motha [censored]a. Put everything into one handed, block, heavy armor, smithing, and restoration. He travels about the land doing chivalrous things, slaying dragons ect. He boasts and awesome set of Nordic plate, screw daedric and dragon.

***Bland Alert***

I've tried quite a few different builds, but I still enjoy my first character. Out of all the games I've ever played, the ES series is the only series of games that I've ever tried RP'ing with.

Since the setting in Skyrim screams for a "Nordic barbarian with a big, nasty axe"... it compells me to play one. I have a difficult, but managible time trying to RP anything else.

Level 36 Khajiit Nightingale
I know stealth classes can get O.P., so I intentionally limited perks I put in stealth to keep it interesting (2/5 in stealth and no points in silence or shadow warrior). I also limit his resistence to 50% max to any school. I'm having a lot more fun than I did with my overpowered warrior who I quit playing around this same level. I've dabbled in smithing and alchemy, but no perks in those. I only auto-save and I never grind a skill. The only thing that would make this build more fun would be a mod that punished crime more harshly. I don't let my characters be in more than one guild. It gives me something to look forward to on another playthrough, so no DB for him.

Perks @36 - http://skyrimcalculator.com/#57583
I've spread out my perks a lot more this time which has made me less powerful than focusing on just 3 or 4. I'm not trying for an O.P. build this playthrough. I don't know how much I'll put in enchanting, but I'll probably limit it to building gear that is around the same level as what I find. I will eventually put 2 points in smithing to get arcane smithing, but at 36 I have barely any points in trade perks. I've only done ACT 1 in the main quest and I've completed the thieves' guild questline @ 58 hours played. I only use wagons and don't fast travel which really extends the game out in a good way. I play in a mix of expert and master on this character.

My latest character is a warrior mage with a class i call Berzerka Warlock inspired by the old 1970s horror movie The Witchmaker. Right now he is developing his combat skills and has not touched magic in any form. He specialises in one handed weapons,light armor,alchemy,smithing,mining and some archery and who knows what else that may grab his interest down the road.He loves exploring dungeons and the vast wilderness of Skyrim while helping the good and destroying with soul withering terror bad people who are intent on making themselves happy at the suffering of others. With the fun am having developing his combat side i may not bother with learning magic and just create a pure magic user in the form of a female witch named Hecate Bast or Vardella.

I took a random approach to character creation. Giving each character a random gender and race and 3 random skills to focus on. Some turned out very interesting, others are a bit...well random

The most interesting from a playing style point of view are:

Liijhan, the champion of Azura
A redguard mage with focus on destruction and illusion. This character took up a loyal devotion to Azura upon completing her quest and is generally unselfish and helpful. She accepts that her role in Skyrim is not to gain power or status for herself, but to serve, and as such accepts the greybeards call to help the people of Skyrim. She has a fierce hatred for necromancers and as a redguard, she does not get along well with the Thalmor. Though helpful by nature she is suspicious towards people with political agendas and refuses to get involved in the civil war and will often look to the interests of the common people over the jarls. Though you could label her as good, her nature is more complex than such, seeing as how she serves a daedra. Playstyle is generally stealthy, using illusion to overcome most common enemies. As a destruction mage she does not use fire, only frost and lightning and if needed she can defend herself in melee with daggers. Ran into some very powerful resistance equipment early on so she is nearly invulnerable to fire, making a lot of the dragon fights very easy indeed.

Roemynde, the doomknight
A nord conjurer/warrior with focus on two-handed and conjuration. Roemynde can best be described as a dark, magic wielding, knight. She uses bound weapons (the axe preferably), raised corpses and summoned creatures with great effeciency to rout the stormcloaks and anyone else who stands in her path. With little respect for such concepts as charity and mercy she believes in the nord philosophy of might makes right. She will serve imperial generals, greybeards and daedra lords for the purpose of gaining more power, but she holds no loyalty towards either of them. She dislikes many of the guilds as she doesn′t adhere to their principles but holds a kind of unwilling respect for the Thalmor, though she hates their presence in Skyrim she can′t help but admire their power and resolve. This character is fun as she really lives up to the concept of an intimidating, scary, dark knight, as she storms into a bandit fort and they start fighting back you almost get a sense of sympathy for them like "just get of there you fools, you are going to be slaughtered!". Her fighting style further enhances the impression as she never sneaks and usually don′t sprint around much, just go casually from enemy to enemy and power attacks them with her axe (most die instantly from the first attack).

i play as a master conjurer and it's fun because i get to collect my victims as trophies which i store in my house.

I like having fun by building a character that is totally off the starting race attribute bonuses.

i.e

• Lightly armored Imperial
  
• Heavy armored two handed Nord
  
• High Elf sneaky warrior.

I'm finding that the High Elf character is the most fun, because of their scale, they actually do the most melee damage in the game, so his turning out to be quite a kickass warrior. I never imagined one hit killing a Draugr Deathlord with 6x sneak damage at higher diffculty.

sword and board, smithing (because any good Redguard knows that gear is good, and one should aways care for it), heavy armor, with restoration as a backstopper, and sneak/archery for preparing the battlefield.

It's a *lot* of fun in Oblivion, or once you get some levels, Morrowind, where it's pure hell to start with. Not so much in Skyrim, because the finishers get disruptive, and there's not a lot of point to perks outside of smithing in this build, which makes the whole level system show itself as incredibly boring.

Nice. Reminds my character back in Oblivion. Maybe I'll write my detailed story of my character in Skyrim. I love to read peoples roleplay characters.

<sup>I play a Nord Ranger type class. I decided at the begining of the game to follow the following self imposed rules:
Pick 6 skills that will be primary and only one may be a crafting skill, all skills can be used but only primary skills can be perked. I chose the following skills for this build (Archery, Sneak, Light Armor, One-Handed, Block, and Alchemy)
I am only allowed to pick up weapons and armor that are an improvement to me or my companion, I am only allowed to pick up magical items for resale. (I do collect Elvin, and Dwarvin weapons and sheilds for display in my house)
Because nothing is better than Nord Steel, I will not use any other weapon or armor type (currently have a skyforge steel sword (fine), imperial bow (fine), steel arrows, hide sheild (fine), full set of scaled armor (fine))
I do not use enchanted weapons or armor, only the divine amulets.
Also the character must eat 2 times a day and sleep 6 + hours a night. He often enjoys some Black-Briar Meade after cutting down a horde of bandits

It has been difficult especially since hitting level 20, as my base damage and armor rating is still kind of low, but it has been a lot more fun than my first character who at level 20 was killing dragons in 3 swings.</sup>

I play a High Elf Vampire "Karmirr"

Was turned vampire in the days of the oblivion crisis, lived to tell the tale and now roams skyrim. A wealthy, upper class noble character who blends with society and is an expert at illusion and sneak. Never wears armor as he sees it as "barbaric" and can kill anybody with his normal attire. Only uses two daggers and occasionally uses a bow for fun. Karmirr is a huge land owner in cyrodiil and plans to invest in many shops and expand his empire.