Fun builds / playstyle ( no stealth archer pls)

[President Donald Trump]

Anyone have interesting builds or playstyle? Thinking about doing another playthrough and don't wanna become the stealth archer meta.

[Shadow The Innkeep]

Originally posted by deucey d:

Anyone have interesting builds or playstyle? Thinking about doing another playthrough and don't wanna become the stealth archer meta.

Archer can be pretty dull since there is hardly variety to it. I run as destruction/conjuration mage usually, but now with a few mods added to my arcenal, I might as well delve into wonders of Illusion and restoration magic :D I also always go in guns blazing

[alexander_dougherty]

First playstyle I did was warrior, to which I added rstoration and destruction spells, a cross between a paladin and a spellsword.
Then eventually I did a stealthy thief (no bows), just get ready to switch from dagger to sword via favourites.
I also tred an arcane archer (bows and spells), but I didn't enjoy it for long, but that might have been just me.
It was at this point I finally tried stealth archer, which you don't want.

[Jouchebag]

There are really only 3 primary play styles that slightly break down into subclasses:

Melee, Ranged and Magic.

Melee is Stealth, Light or Heavy.
Ranged is Stealth or Poisons.
Magic is Damage, Healing, or Support

Most people use a hybrid of some sort, but I assume you want to make a strict RP style rule for your class or at least are trying specifically to avoid stealth ranged. Stealth melee is quite a bit more interesting, but Lt/Hvy Melee is just smash it til it's dead. Which only leaves magic.

Without mods, I might recommend a Resto/Alto build with a favorite companion doing the heavy lifting. Illusion can be fun but needs a little stealth to make it work right: Enrage a roomful of badguys and let them kill each other. Destruction is almost too straight-forward, but the traps are neat. Conjuration is neat, but at the end of the day they're just colorful companions that can't hold your stuff for you.


If you're willing to mod: Apocalypse Spells is fantastic. Spell combos, new effects, etc.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1090

[Shadow The Innkeep]

Well, to be more precise, the main three PATHS you can choose are Warrior, Mage or Thief, but that doesn't limit your playstyle to just three choices.

Depending on the race choice and mods, one can take upon pure glass canon sorc, necromancer, battle mage, warlock, pestilence mage to name a few.

You can be master archer who relies on just weapons, or you can be Master Archer of Poisons, sneaky assassin that relies on weapons, assassin who relies on poisons and alchemical stuff, or assassin who relies on magic. Or combine all of them for versatily.

Warriors can be proper standard definition of a warrior, beserkers, paladins, druids (either through Bosmer magic or Werewolf/Vampire shapeshifting).

[Zephyr]

Right now I'm playing a Paladin and I love it! I use Forgotten Magic and Apocalypse Magic for some more restoration spells. So much fun!

[Shadow The Innkeep]

Originally posted by Rain:

Right now I'm playing a Paladin and I love it! I use Forgotten Magic and Apocalypse Magic for some more restoration spells. So much fun!

I'm actually playing with Apocalypse and Ordinator perks mods combo, and Pestilence Warlock (restoration with Illusion schools) is fun as well, even though i don't have any op spells yet. I think Adept is the highest spell strength I have atm :D I also updated my College of Winterhol to be tamrielic Hogwarts. although due to some glitch some place, Ancano and Tolfdir are running around with nothing but their bloomers on xD
I am also considering strongly Thunderchild mod

[Zsrai]

Check this site out[tamrielvault.com], it just loads a bit slowly sometimes. There are some youtubers that do some build vids too, I think Fudgemuppet (if I got that name right) is the most popular. This mod[www.nexusmods.com] works off of the old class system for some ideas too.

If I'm not working off of something else (I never copy them completely, what's the point in that?) then I usually just try and pick some skills that I think would fit and make a complete character. What's my armor skill? Heavy, Light, or Alteration (using mage robes/clothes)? What is my ranged option: Destruction or Archery? What, if any, is my main weapon skill: One Handed, Two Handed, Archery, Destruction. Could even be Conjuration with summons or undead or a "pacifist" run with Illusion spells. I go through a list like that, picking some skills to focus on and then also some to avoid. The simple ones are if I'm using Heavy Armor, I'll skip Light entirely. Same with using Two Handed and skipping One Handed (or visa versa). Skip Pickpocket and Sneak if you don't want to be thief-y, skip most or all spell schools if you want to be a pure warrior or rogue, etc. There are 18 skills and you can probably easily have 6 "majors" (heavily perked), 6 "minors" (zero or few perks) and 6 skills you don't use at all. You'll still have a successful character, and if you get bored just make a new one with a different set of skills.

[Kiygan]

I like to go for a Battle Mage who uses Conjuration Magic to aid myself.

[Langkard]

Sword/Mace/Axe and Board with Destruction for ranged attacks.

[Noodle]

Stealth archer huehuehue

Or one handed with magic in left, for me its a word and restoration or conjuration. Resturation because i'm a vampire and weak during the day, my magic regens stamina and health but also slowly replenishes my magika meter so I am pretty op during the night. My conjuration to summon a mistman or raise undead

[DrNewcenstein]

What's wrong with stealth archer? It gets the job done.

But if you insist that taking damage is "fun" for you, then you can do Light Dagger (Glass, Elven) with Heavy Shield Berserker, a Fist and Fur Shield Berserker, dual-fists, or get one of those "sex your way out of combat" mods from l o v e r' s l a b and go that route.

Or you can rely strictly on Shouts. Become Ethereal and let something chase you somewhere so it gets killed by someone else. Although things don't chase you into or out of caves like they did in Oblivion, which made it lots of fun.

[President Donald Trump]

lol I only say no stealth archer because its basically a meme how overpowered it is. Stealth in general is pretty OP, get a dagger with the 15x sneak attack damage (x2 with dark brotherhood gloves) and you can 1 hit kill basically anything.

[DrNewcenstein]

I'm still baffled as to why it's a problem, but then I'm also baffled as to why people who don't like it continue to put points into the perks that facilitate such a build, and then call it over-powered like it's a bad thing.

Skyrim is not a combat game, at least compared to actual combat games. It's a story-driven Action-RPG, where the main focus is to "go here, do this, come back for more". The combat is secondary, the end-result is primary. Kill whatever gets in the way of completing the task as quickly as possible so you can get on to the next task.

[Mringasa]

Do swords only. Weakest melee, but fastest. You are lightning with the blade, but can't wield anything else. You can only run the Sword "line" in the One-hand and Two-hand Perk trees. You can't get any of the generic enhancers, except for 1 point of pre-requisites, because you suck with any other type of weapon. No bows, no daggers, axes, maces, etc etc.

Absolutely no magic or enchanting. Sorry, you're stuck with what you can find in chests.

No Alchemy. You don't know Blisterwort from a Daedra's Heart.

You can smith to your heart's content, as long as it's a sword. Otherwise, sorry.

The only blessings you are allowed are ones dedicated to battle. Talos (warrior Emperor so the shout reduction is fine), Arkay (God of life and death), Stendarr (God of Mercy and Justice).

Did I mention you love Swords? You sword is your life. There are many others, but that one is yours.

In any event. Do something along this line of RP'ing where you are 100% devoted to a single thing. Craft a storyline around the whys and wherefores, then go to town.

Some restrictions for ANY build that you want to play on though, just general difficulty increasers:

No selling of any item except gemstones, scrolls and staves.

You cannot use any item that you find in a dungeon. You are too fat/skinny/tall/short/sexy/ugly for normal gear. It all must be crafted by you to fit your body.

You can use Enchanting, Alchemy, Smithing, but you cannot profit from it. Any and all goods that are used to grind the levels in these skills must be dumped in the nearest container and left there for the Divine of Cell Reset (I hear this is Mara moonlighting from her current Divine of Love thing).

You cannot buy anything from shopkeepers except for furniture for homes (LotD and any others) and any quest related objects that might need purchased. Everything else must be found, mined, looted with your own two hands.

You cannot steal anything unless it is for a quest. If you steal anything, even by accident, you must reload your last save.

If you use a needs mod (iNeed, RND, etc), you must craft/cook all of your own food. Innkeepers and other cooks cannot satisfy your daily dietary needs. Only you can, even if it's just a slab of charred Skeever meat. If you have a spouse, he/she/it knows your requirements and their daily homecooked meal is acceptable fodder.

Just throwing out some ways to increase the difficulty of your game, and maybe give you some ideas for RP'ing a character. I do all of this and use an Economy mod as well to increase house prices and reduce quest rewards, among other things. Make you sweat for those Septims. Vanilla Skyrim is entirely too full of them imo and that makes the game way too easy in some aspects.