I know you should 'be who you want to be' in the TES games, but I want to know which race best fits my needs as a new player to Skyrim.

I have looked over the skills for Skyrim and have decided I want to use these the most:

Archery
Block
One-Handed
Light Armor

I don't like 'heavy hitter' classes who can take lots of damage and dish out loads of melee damage. I prefer the tactical, and agile combat specialist; pick off targets from afar with my bow - and then use my shield and sword to fight them in melee. I dislike using magic, and I dislike using two-handed weaponry. I like Stealthy gameplay, but figured I should hold off and use a Stealthy character in another playthrough.

Nord seems to be my best bet - but I have not played Skyrim yet, so I want to know what you guys think of that choice. Nord gets +10 for Two-handed, which I dislike, but he has +5 for Block, On-Handed, as well as Light Armor.

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Just tell me if it's a good build or if you have any suggestions, please tell me.

PS: I do not use magic whatsoever in any video game unless forced to.

To be honest the only distinctive about the races early in the game is their powers and active effects, for example a nord is 50% resistant to cold damage whereas a dark elf is resistant to fire damage etc... each race has its own power and active effects.

those +5 for block etc... doesn't really matter an hour into the game though (I recommend going to the lover stone as soon as possible, that bonus 15% in all skills is helpful early in game).

Also most human characters in the game are racist towards elves and it can become annoying over time, other than that your race is up too you.

I'l just chuck in my 2 saves.

My first is my Nord and which specialises in 2h, heavy armor, smithing, enchanting and speech.

My second is Dark elf which specialises in archery, light armor, illusion and sneak. <- so far my favourite play through (The main reason for picking the dark elf is because of the red eyes which I admit looks pretty cool when assassinating someone.

I hope I helped a little and I hope you enjoy the game mate.

you can be anything you want to be, just turn yourself into anything you think that you could ever be


and have fun while you do it, you really gotta make up your own mind

Hmm... and here I was thinking it was a big deal.

So race doesn't matter? Unless of course you want certain effects and powers... but if you don't care for that, it doesn't matter right?

Race doesn't matter at all.

There are only five racials that are actually useful and truth be told, they still don't make much of a difference. Nords have frost resistance, which is nice.

Yes, it's a good build. If you don't do Smithing you might want to throw in Alchemy (or just buy potions from vendors), but it's not necessary, especially if you're going to play on default difficulty.

Just be what you want to be, but I do advise you to go to the lover stone as soon as you can. There are also a number of guides scattered around the internet to help you if you are stuck.

If you wanna RP a bit, you could go for wood elf because they're the best archers on Tamriel. But as stated above, race doesn't really matter.

Well I reckon I'll be Nord - like I always liked.

I'm playing that type of character as well but I am using a Breton. It's my 2nd play through. I've always played Nords as 2handed, heavy armor tanks.

Imperial. They aren't the biggest or best with magic,but for whatever reason they always end up ahead.

I would choose either Nord, Dunmer, Breton, or Argonian for their rull-time, permanent resistances or waterbreathing.

Breton is probably the best with 25% magic resistance. Nords have a pretty easy time in most of the early dungeons where ice magic is all you'll see from magical enemy types.

Wood Elf or Khajiit is your answer.

What matters with the race is the ability and the power, not counting RP.