Skyrim Character Builds Discussion

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[F8]

Gawd
Joined
Jun 11, 2003
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Just wanted to see how people were building their character. I picked a High Elf and was but with all the fire damage fighting dragons, I can see where the 50% fire resist of the Dark Elf would be a pretty big advantage.

I've been trying to go hybrid and get perks that boost one-handed weapons without picking a spec (axe/sword/mace) until I can find a really good weapon. I made the mistake of putting a point into dual casting for destruction, I didn't read it initially and thought I just had to double click the casting button, but then I realized its more like duel wielding.

My plan is to do a hybrid between one-handed, sneak, archery, restoration with some destruction. Silently snipe them at a distance with the damage bonus to bows given by sneak perks. When they get in close beat them down with a one hander, while I keep swap between destruction fire (targets take more damage while burning gives good synergy) and a restoration spell in off-hand. My thoughts were to save my stamina for weapon attacks and sprinting rather than wasting it on block, when I can just cast a heal instead. Maybe as I progress I can get the one-hander buffs in the sneak perks as well and be like a priest assassin,
 
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hehe no magic here!

I'm grabbing armor, a 2 hander and a bow! Open with the Bow to cull an enemy or two, and if they close with me switch to a 2 hander and turn them into Paste!
 
I'm finding it a little harder to hit with spells in combat as enemies are smart enough to dodge, the shock spells seem to hit right after cast, where as the ice and fire spells are more projectile.
 
I started pretty straightforward since this is my first TES game. I have played a whole lot of Fallout 3,NV though.

Orc - 2 hander - Heavey Armor - Smithing - 1 hander

I regret putting points into the 1 hander when I could have used them toward Smithing.

Combat is pretty bland, but it's always nice to swing a big hammer around thwacking people in the face. If I start to potion up I become an unstoppable killing machine.. so far..

What I would do is, at the start of the dungeon, I would use a whole bunch of potions that increase stamina, hp, dmg. Eat the stews and soups that increase hp regen. These are all effects that last 300 - 720 seconds. Then I speed run the entire dungeon killing everything in my path. When I reach the end I work backwards to start looting and exploring. It's very efficient to play with way with a pure warrior type class imo.
 
Pretty much randomly built a char like you describe, F8.

Picked Dunmer as a change from the Bretons I *always* used in Morrowind and Oblivion, and naturally gravitated to 1H to allow casting, Destruction and Restoration. The cross country trek to the mage's college was worth it for the free Minor Ward spell.

Neither of the two dragons I encountered used fire.
 
I'm about at about 16 hours played with two characters. Each time I've gotten a better feel for the game, and I think I'm going to try a couple more things before I settle on a particular focus/race.
 
Custom-built Nord with focus in one-handed, destruction and sneak. Looks Just like Danzig, name is "Snakes of Christ".

Next play through will be a Rob Halford look-alike mage.

Now to figure out how to add Hellbent for Leather to a custom soundtrack :p
 
I made a full-mage breton at first, got to level 15 and finished college of magic quests. Did not enjoy as much as Morrowind mage (my favorite mage experience ever) -- but the system has a lot of good ideas and it is far from bad. Mods that allow more spell options (something similar to Oblivions Midas Magic mod) will really make the mage experience pop.

Now, I have a dual-wielding warrior character. Heavy armor, twin war axes, alchemical poisons, smithing, and enchantments. I believe that this build (or variations of it) will be the most powerful possible.

Can go toe-to-toe with anything, can do an outrageous amount of damage very quickly with poisoned/enchanted/tempered dual weapons, can handle a lot of incoming damage.
 
Using a Wood Elf, and trying to play a Ranger/Thief type character.

Dual wield daggers, using archery, lockpick, sneak, restoration, alteration, alchemy, light armor, and the like.
 
If we are throwing ideas out... A rogue with the paralysis spell would be fun. I've only seen the spell on a scroll, but wouldn't be suprised if it was available elsewhere.
 
Level 19 here. I picked a dark elf for the 50% fire resistance and am trying to build a very sturdy tank/mage, and the build is taking forever to achieve. Right now my focus is on building out my destruction, smithing, enchanting, and heavy armor skills, and it's taking forever it feels like.

My goal is to get my smithing and enchanting high enough that I can put two enchants on a matching set of heavy armor. One enchant will focus on driving my mana regeneration rate up and the other enchant will be to drive my resistances up. My goal is to have a character that deals a massive amount of damage very quickly via spells and is extremely sturdy both from a physical and magical defense standpoint.

So far the character is fun to play but he's definitely lacking in some areas. Fire fights I do very well in, but if someone goes ice I don't have the resistance yet. Also, he can take a few hits from a 2 hander and still come out just fine.
 
Pure Conjuration, with a side of Destruction. Dual cast frost/storm atronachs and use fireballs/bolts as needed. I've put almost every single level into magicka to dual cast the tougher atronachs. Don't worry about health, I just don't get hit. Summon an atronach into a room and everyone aggros him. Also have a companion running around with a 2hander.
 
FirewolfX said:
Using a Wood Elf, and trying to play a Ranger/Thief type character.

Dual wield daggers, using archery, lockpick, sneak, restoration, alteration, alchemy, light armor, and the like.
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Yeah that is pretty much my build too... took on smithing instead of alchemy, want to make my own daggers, sucks you cant make arrows (or least I haven't seen how yet).

Currently my highest skill is 71 in Sneak with all the perks except, the last one at the top. Loving the 15x backstab perk... my archery is at 50 i believe also I am level (base) 20. Yeah I played all weekend long, 34 hours of Skyrim and I would say I haven't even scratched the surface on how much there is to do let alone even doing the main quest (haven't even fought the first dragon).
 
Tetrahedron said:
... Yeah I played all weekend long, 34 hours of Skyrim and I would say I haven't even scratched the surface on how much there is to do let alone even doing the main quest (haven't even fought the first dragon).
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I'm in the same boat time wise, but I'd suggest killing that first dragon. I don't think any other dragons will attack you or spawn if you haven't killed the first one, but I could be wrong since I'm basing this on my experience where I saw no dragons until after the first kill.
 
Is there any concept of respeccing in this game guys? I've been pure destruction so far, but was hoping to try out some other things without totally rebuilding the character.

Or do I need to wait for a mod?
 
petertew said:
I'm in the same boat time wise, but I'd suggest killing that first dragon. I don't think any other dragons will attack you or spawn if you haven't killed the first one, but I could be wrong since I'm basing this on my experience where I saw no dragons until after the first kill.
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sounds about right, my wife has been a the dragon slayer on her game.. anyways, with my build I am wanting to do the main quest tell the I have nearly done the things I want to do first. Which does suck because I can't use any of the shouts I have learned, oh well.

Question on race for build, my wood elf has 50% disease resistance, but I have contracted rockjoint 3 times already... can anyone else chime in on their build/race and diseases?
 
Tetrahedron said:
Question on race for build, my wood elf has 50% disease resistance, but I have contracted rockjoint 3 times already... can anyone else chime in on their build/race and diseases?
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Somehow I had Ataxia for almost 8 hours. I didn't even realize I had it until an alchemist told me I looked sickly and I checked my effects. When I realized I had it, I loaded a few old saves to try to figure out how I got it. Couldn't pin it down, but I think I got it from eating this crazy mushroom I found in a cave.

I made an Argonian so I could breathe underwater, but so far I am finding it not that useful. I also feel terribly out of place in Skyrim, and I'm sick of racist fools calling me "lizard." I'm thinking I'll roll a Nord next time for immersion's sake.
 
Posted this in the Skyrim thread, figured this would make more sense in here.

My build thus far:

Perks:
Specializing in Heavy Armor, Two-Handed
Minor buffs to Conjuration and Restoration. Dabbled in Destruction but haven't put much points into it other than reduction of magicka by 50%.

Thoughts: Conjuration is nice for having two allies. One is your follower, the other some poor sap that is in a dungeon you killed. Double-casting makes this last longer if specced into it. The guys do some damage but are relatively weak. I may not put skill points into this for future builds but the possibility of having a perm. zombie is nice. I might save this for last.. Restoration is needed for my two-handed character and has been good to me thus far. Double-casting and the perk to give double-healing is nice.

Skills I want to pick up: Smithing, so I can build Daedric armor/weapons. Though my axe from the Companions is serving me well enough for now. The steel armor needs to go though.

Two-Handed is very strong. I've completed the first section of Companion quests to get a nice sweet 2-handed Axe. Ran into a bug where if I died on that quest, I couldn't get the axe back. Be careful if you want this axe and survive so you can get it afterwards. Two-Handed has some nice perks, and I love decapitations. My Two-Handed skill is about 76 I think. So I've used it extensively.

Heavy-Armor is nice but slow to level. I got the strategy guide so I need to find out where the trainer is for that skill. I'd like to put more points into that tree to prevent stagger and whatnot.

I have TONS of ingredients for potions, half of my inventory is potions. I have a handful of ingots and ores I need to refine.

Followers...um, part of the Companion quests force your follower to go away in favor of a quest-giver. Be careful with this. I gave a lot of armor and weapons to an Orc Assassjin follower whom was kicked out of my party. Now I need to go find her again to get those items back. I've picked up a Mage follower instead which compliments my warrior well...I'd prefer to take the expensive staffs I got (which I gave to the Orc) and give them to the Mage instead.

I just discovered a book which gave me access to about half a dozen stones in the world. I went and activated a Stone which allows me to summon all dead bodies to become my allies once a day. Very entertaining. I may go for the Stone of Steed though, to reduce the weight of my armor so I can save a perk and not get Conditioning.
 
[L]imey;1038019023 said:
Is there any concept of respeccing in this game guys? I've been pure destruction so far, but was hoping to try out some other things without totally rebuilding the character.

Or do I need to wait for a mod?
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console commands could probably do what you want.
 
So the breton has 25% magical resistance, does this mean fire/ice etc. Just comparing it to the 50% fire resistance of the Dark Elf. I had only encountered dragons that breathe fire, did not know they do other things. I accidentally deleted my High Elf that I had gotten to like level 12 (was cleaning up all the gamesaves and clicked the wrong thing), so I guess I'll revisit the races and start over.
 
What are peoples thoughts on magicka vs. health vs. stamina?

I'm a 2h nord in heavy armor, that does smithing and alchemy. talk about stereotypes? :p

I wish there were throwing weapons though and not just bows. Chucking spears would fit better than archery for me.

[F8];1038020321 said:
So the breton has 25% magical resistance, does this mean fire/ice etc. Just comparing it to the 50% fire resistance of the Dark Elf. I had only encountered dragons that breathe fire, did not know they do other things. I accidentally deleted my High Elf that I had gotten to like level 12 (was cleaning up all the gamesaves and clicked the wrong thing), so I guess I'll revisit the races and start over.
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The dragon's have different elemental attacks.

But really the game isn't particularly hard or setup so that early character creation is "set in stone." Because of that I'd pick your race, skills , etc. for RP reasons and not game reasons. You can min/max more than enough after that through skills/perks/spells/enchantments/potions/equipment etc.
 
limitedaccess said:
What are peoples thoughts on magicka vs. health vs. stamina?
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Thoughts on those depend so much on your character and play style. For instance, I focus almost every level up on magicka, every like 5th level I'll put a point into health, and I never touch stamina. But I make those decisions because I'm trying to make a mage that has extremely high armor points and resists while also dealing huge damage, so I need lots of magicka, some decent health and only enough stamina to let me sprint away from fights, charge my mana and then blow everything up.

In the case of your character who is a two handy melee type you're going to need a lot of stamina to swing your weapons and a lot of health to keep from dying in combat. On top of that you're going to still need a lot of armor and resistance.

A stealth character seems like they'd need a slightly different twist on those three stats, but to say which and how much I'm just not sure.
 
Actually I think what I'm mainly looking for is how late game affects these stats.

For instance do you need to pump enough health to avoid 1 hit kills from say higher end mobs?

Can you say offset stamina drain via perks/enchants/pot spot? (is there say a stamina regen enchant, but not health or vice versa?)

The other thing is does the max amount of magicka, health, stamina affect the regen rate? Or is the regen rate static or based on something else?
 
Dark Elf Thief. I use bows and stealth, occasionally a dagger. No magic. In fact, magic seems to be a big weakness: though my bow usually kills in one hit if I'm sneaking.
 
It's relatively easy to be a jack of all trades in these games. I can't imagine building a pure Mage/warrior/thief when you can pick and choose the best of each class. My character is a badass 2-hand wielding, heavy armor wearing, silent sneaking thief archer, with a hand in destruction/alteration/restoration magics and a master smith who dabbles in alchemy and enchantment. He also enjoys walks in the snow, climbing treacherous ice covered peaks, and reading lots of books ;)
 
I've never actually role-played in an RPG before but I'm doing it this time around since it's the only way to make the game challenging. I'm playing a Redguard speced in One-hander, Shield, Heavy Armor, and Smithing. I only wear basic armor sets such as the Wolf set from the Companions; no Daedric or Dragon armors even though I have smithing maxed. Same goes for my weapons/shields. No enchants allowed and only one potion per battle.

I'm trying to make my guy as ordinary as possible and sword and board is the only playstyle I found that's somewhat engaging. It's too easy to cheese the entire game with a sneak or magic user so I deleted those two chars. I was about ready to put the game down from boredom before doing this but now I'm having a blast.
 
B2BigAl said:
It's relatively easy to be a jack of all trades in these games. I can't imagine building a pure Mage/warrior/thief when you can pick and choose the best of each class. My character is a badass 2-hand wielding, heavy armor wearing, silent sneaking thief archer, with a hand in destruction/alteration/restoration magics and a master smith who dabbles in alchemy and enchantment. He also enjoys walks in the snow, climbing treacherous ice covered peaks, and reading lots of books ;)
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Definitely doable, but I just could never play a character that is adept at all those and not feel weird about it. I prefer a sneaky-shooty/sneaky-stabby character, using fireballs as a theif/assassin just feels wrong. So I don't do it.

But that's what's great about these games, you can do freakin' anything you want :D.

Edit forgot to actually contribute:

Playing a woodelf focusing on stealth, archery, lockpicking and one handed (only going 8 points in this, 5 for armsman and 3 for bladesman[which does affect daggers despite not being listed]). Pretty much the same character I always play. Going to sneak around and ignore the primary quest line.
 
Tetrahedron said:
Why you hatin' on cheese; it is a great food and Skyrim has at least a half of dozen types of cheese to dine on.
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Makes me think Skyrim was based on Wisconsin. Cheese and booze everywhere! Just gotta find some brats simmering in a pot of beer somewhere and I'll know it's true.


As far as character build, got a Nord with primary focus on Destruction with minor focus on Alchemy (as I do with pretty much every character ever in a TES game), Enchanting, and Sneak. Works great against normal single enemies and small groups, but once I run out of Magicka fighting larger groups and bosses and run out of Magicka potions, things get a little rough.
 
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Mosher said:
hehe no magic here!

I'm grabbing armor, a 2 hander and a bow! Open with the Bow to cull an enemy or two, and if they close with me switch to a 2 hander and turn them into Paste!
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Wow this is exactly what my character would do. I was a little hesitant in investing in two handers though when I saw the 16x sneak attack multiplier for daggers :eek:
 
cmadki4 said:
Is there any real value to the khajit race?
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Other than the initial bonuses to most of the thieving skills, not terribly.

The Night Eye racial power isn't all that worthwhile since it's pretty rare that things get dark enough to require a light source or Night Eye.
 
I had a very interesting thought last night on making a very unorthodox build that spec'd into the block and restoration trees. I have yet to see how power bash works but my thoughts were to spend points in the block tree to get Shield Wall, Deflect Arrows, Power Bash, Deadly Bash, Disarming Bash, Elemental Deflection, Block Runner, Shield Charge and then going into restoration for Recovery, Respite, Ward Absorb, and Regeneration. Dip into alteration for Magic Resistance and Mage Armor.

I have not been able to test this out and I'm not yet sure how shield bash works, but basically my thoughts would be to equip a shield in one hand, and use a healing spell in the other hand. When fighting physical attacks I would keep my shield up and use heals to keep up health and replenish stamina, using shield bash as an attack, when I run into a spellcaster, I would swap out the healing spell for a ward which would also replenish magika. If it works like I imagine, just run towards people with your shield up, knock them down, shield bash them, and use your heal to keep up health and give back more stamina for sprinting and shield bashes. You would constantly be knocking attackers down sprinting around and slamming them with your shield, with almost infinite stamina from your Respite Talent.

Put all your points in Magika and use gear that increases mana regeneration.
 
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[F8];1038023467 said:
Put all your points in Magika and use gear that increases mana regeneration.
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Not quite as good as I was hoping it would be. If anything staggers you, you're done for. I can't find a potion or a spell yet that prevents being staggered yet, anyone know if there is one?
 
I went light armor + 2hander for the stamina regen boost.
archery up to the level where I can get zoom.
and smithing to 100 was the first thing I did, literally was the easiest to get up there. iron + leather is ridiculous easy to get, and iron daggers use the least amount of mats.
 
[F8];1038023467 said:
I had a very interesting thought last night on making a very unorthodox build that spec'd into the block and restoration trees. I have yet to see how power bash works but my thoughts were to spend points in the block tree to get Shield Wall, Deflect Arrows, Power Bash, Deadly Bash, Disarming Bash, Elemental Deflection, Block Runner, Shield Charge and then going into restoration for Recovery, Respite, Ward Absorb, and Regeneration. Dip into alteration for Magic Resistance and Mage Armor.

I have not been able to test this out and I'm not yet sure how shield bash works, but basically my thoughts would be to equip a shield in one hand, and use a healing spell in the other hand. When fighting physical attacks I would keep my shield up and use heals to keep up health and replenish stamina, using shield bash as an attack, when I run into a spellcaster, I would swap out the healing spell for a ward which would also replenish magika. If it works like I imagine, just run towards people with your shield up, knock them down, shield bash them, and use your heal to keep up health and give back more stamina for sprinting and shield bashes. You would constantly be knocking attackers down sprinting around and slamming them with your shield, with almost infinite stamina from your Respite Talent.

Put all your points in Magika and use gear that increases mana regeneration.
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I have unlocked bash, it is fairly effective. I only have the bash unlocked not the 5x damage for bash. To use bash hold up your shield to block then press and hold the attack button. Your character will have a similar bashing animation as before but will inflict a lot more damage. It takes more stamina but it also staggers people better.
 
cmadki4 said:
Is there any real value to the khajit race?
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Other than them being awesome? Not really sure...

I'll admit, I went Khajit mostly because they were the one race that I never tried previously. That and the idea of being a giant cat was pretty neat.
 
Hailwood said:
Other than them being awesome? Not really sure...

I'll admit, I went Khajit mostly because they were the one race that I never tried previously. That and the idea of being a giant cat was pretty neat.
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It's what I was in oblivion, and now in skyrim. I tend to be an archer type. I like them :)
 
Q51 said:
I have unlocked bash, it is fairly effective. I only have the bash unlocked not the 5x damage for bash. To use bash hold up your shield to block then press and hold the attack button. Your character will have a similar bashing animation as before but will inflict a lot more damage. It takes more stamina but it also staggers people better.
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Attack button? Do you mean you use Mouse button 1? So you can still have something equipped in the other hand right? I was hoping you could hold your shield up to block while you are casting a spell, but I guess you can't do both at the same time? I have not used shield at all yet, mainly been doing one-handed weapon and spell in off-hand.
 
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