Unique Build Ideas?

[=CrimsoN=]

I've found that I only ever play Skyrim characters for long periods of time if they are unique character builds in the world of fantasy RPGs.

I've only beaten the main quest twice as a death knight (based off the WoW version) and as a pyro knight (basically a spellsword that only uses fire magick and fire damage enchanted swords). I've had a lot of fun playing the pyro knight, and Im looking for something unique in that aspect (being something unique like that).

Hoping for a little inspiration here.

[Midas]

Well, I've tried pretty much everything, and don't be fooled by my playing hours. I first got this game on PS3, and continue to play it on the console today, mainly for the DLC (I'm a poor ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥). Things that I have considered diving into:

Shield Mage: The shield mage casts any spells needed before battle, preferably a flesh spell, or a summon, and then equips a shield along with a damage dealer. I like to play as a dark elf with the 50% fire resistant shield, as it completely blocks fire, which is widely used. The Shield Mage will not wear any chest armor, but heavy armor boots, gauntlets, and the shield. This may get hard, but I haven't played this long enough to know how hard it will get.

Support: Simple. Get a follower, and let him/her deal the damage, while staying in the back and helping. I have seen some people get pretty detailed on the tactics, though, such as the right time to block incoming arrows or spells going towards your followers, but it doesn't sound too hard. skills include alteration, restoration, illusion (for courage), heavy armor (so you don't die) and block (so you can take a hit). If you want any more information, just look it up.

I've seen a youtuber, cannot remember who, who created builds that basically had alter egos, which seems pretty interesting. One build I saw was a monk-type character, who would fight with hands or melee during the day, and would use magic at night. This is pretty interesting, so maybe you can take your two favorite builds and merge them, setting rules for when you can use the specific parts of the build.

~~

[MIRAAK]

im trying to create a merchant.
the merchant is really hard because you'll need only a few abilities but those abilities need to be at 100 with all the perks, so this is the list:
speech 100
pickpocket 100 this is usefull to sell stolen stuff
like
books or gems and other stuff.
lockpicking 100 it's usefull to open the chest in all
the dungeons.
sneak 100 usefull for pickpocket, so you wont get
spotted easily.
light armor 100 because the merchant needs to be
fast without the fast travel.
archery 100 because the merchant prefer to kill the
enemies from the distance.
forging 100 so we can forg some jewels to make
some extra money and armors and weapons.
alchemy 100 a lot of potions has a high value.
active effect the prowelr's profit which greatly
increases the chance of finding multiple precious
gems in chest.

all races can be used for this build, it doesn't matter.

it's a cool build and it gives you a lot of money really fast but it's hard to get all this abilities to 100, so this is not a build for ladies.

[Three Hunters in a Trenchcoat]

I have a friend who will play with weird challenges. So he'll have like one character who is obsessed with cheese to the point he HAS to collect every cheese wheel he sees and drop it in his house, but only the ones that haven't had a piece cut out already and no wedges. And I'm playing a guy who everything he takes, he has to keep except gold. He is not allowed to sell anything. He is allowed to spend gold but that's it. So you might try something like that.

[SoNatural]

Youtube skyrim builds. You'll be full of ideas for days. Zhakaron has some cool ones like the Worm Conjuration one. ESO has some unique ones as well. I think either brodual or gopher makes some videos - can't remember who.

[SoNatural]

Originally posted by Dontmakelemonade:

I have a friend who will play with weird challenges. So he'll have like one character who is obsessed with cheese to the point he HAS to collect every cheese wheel he sees and drop it in his house, but only the ones that haven't had a piece cut out already and no wedges. And I'm playing a guy who everything he takes, he has to keep except gold. He is not allowed to sell anything. He is allowed to spend gold but that's it. So you might try something like that.

Sounds like the perfect Legacy of the Dragonborn character lol. Except they might have to build a mansion for you with a bunch of barrels.

[brigadon]

a bit of a necropost, but right now I am trying to work a 'Magician' build.
He's a weakling and entirely non-magical, he 'fakes' magic by means of potions and Enchanting... but he's basically lazy so he has no real weapons skills (besides a dagger which he uses to poison his enemies) and he runs with others who get to wear the enchanted armor/weapons he makes.
His primary skills are speechcraft, sneak, alchemy, one handed, enchanting, pickpocket, and lockpicking, and he relies on his sleight of hand to get things done... He wears 'mage looking' clothes, to fool people into thinking he's a wizard, but he cannot even get past the test to get into the academy and is a total charlatan.

Only brutes become blacksmiths, so he has no smithing skills... but what he DOES have is a gigantic pool of hit points and a dab hand with healing potions. He also tends to enchant his personal gear for extra lugging, or dumps it all on his companion.

The fact that he is a Breton who has no talent with Magic rankles him enormously, and he has a bit of a 'let the buyer beware' attitude towards anyone he can fool or rob. Being the Dragonborn, of course, has vindicated him, giving him a bit of facility with the 'Magic' he lacks, in the form of shouts.

[Xaveston]

I came up with two different ideas for my characters (To different from my OP psychotic vampire assassin who kills everything and anything, and the Nord Hero who tries to be the good guy much as she can, and does every quest in the game).

The Healer Queen- I chose a Breton female (Named High Queen Amber Firestone), and the build is she only relies on healing abilities, she will not use it anything else, and she travels between cities to help others, and is considered a Queen (Elisif can suck it), so she has one or two bodyguards with her (One for now, soon as I can be bothered finding a suitable mutiple follower mod), who do all the heavy lifting for her, once she can have heal other spell, she will also be healing them. Annoying as she does take a bit to level up, but fun to try and just make one that is basically a pacifist and needs bodyguard.

Primial Khajitti- Nightslash who embodies the stereotype of the Khajittis that can't be trusted, so he goes to each city stealing everything possible, and pickpocketing as well (This includes stealing from the Thieves Guild Flagon area), he is however completely naked and only uses his claws as battle (Turns out, his claws are really good). Going back to a cat that doesn't wear clothing. Sadly I accidentally saved another file over this one, so he's right back at the beginning of the game >.>

[smr1957]

Originally posted by brigadon:

a bit of a necropost, but right now I am trying to work a 'Magician' build.
He's a weakling and entirely non-magical, he 'fakes' magic by means of potions and Enchanting... but he's basically lazy so he has no real weapons skills (besides a dagger which he uses to poison his enemies) and he runs with others who get to wear the enchanted armor/weapons he makes.
His primary skills are speechcraft, sneak, alchemy, one handed, enchanting, pickpocket, and lockpicking, and he relies on his sleight of hand to get things done... He wears 'mage looking' clothes, to fool people into thinking he's a wizard, but he cannot even get past the test to get into the academy and is a total charlatan.

Only brutes become blacksmiths, so he has no smithing skills... but what he DOES have is a gigantic pool of hit points and a dab hand with healing potions. He also tends to enchant his personal gear for extra lugging, or dumps it all on his companion.

The fact that he is a Breton who has no talent with Magic rankles him enormously, and he has a bit of a 'let the buyer beware' attitude towards anyone he can fool or rob. Being the Dragonborn, of course, has vindicated him, giving him a bit of facility with the 'Magic' he lacks, in the form of shouts.

Almost sounds like Rincewind from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

[Cookie]

Originally posted by brigadon:

a bit of a necropost, but right now I am trying to work a 'Magician' build.
He's a weakling and entirely non-magical, he 'fakes' magic by means of potions and Enchanting... but he's basically lazy so he has no real weapons skills (besides a dagger which he uses to poison his enemies) and he runs with others who get to wear the enchanted armor/weapons he makes.
His primary skills are speechcraft, sneak, alchemy, one handed, enchanting, pickpocket, and lockpicking, and he relies on his sleight of hand to get things done... He wears 'mage looking' clothes, to fool people into thinking he's a wizard, but he cannot even get past the test to get into the academy and is a total charlatan.

Only brutes become blacksmiths, so he has no smithing skills... but what he DOES have is a gigantic pool of hit points and a dab hand with healing potions. He also tends to enchant his personal gear for extra lugging, or dumps it all on his companion.

The fact that he is a Breton who has no talent with Magic rankles him enormously, and he has a bit of a 'let the buyer beware' attitude towards anyone he can fool or rob. Being the Dragonborn, of course, has vindicated him, giving him a bit of facility with the 'Magic' he lacks, in the form of shouts.

You might want to give the Squib a read:
https://www.tamrielvault.com/groups/topic/view/group_id/3/topic_id/4326

[fluffysn4ke]

The Vigil Martyr.

Much like the Vigilants of Stendarr, but with a twist- You have rags instead of robes, a horse (Convenient Horses is a must), Amulet of Stendarr, and no carrying 999+ Septims on you for too long!
Your mission is to go forth into the world and bring charity and protection to the poor and impoverished of Skyrim. After all, The Wealthy are not really likely to go asking Clavicus Vile for Money or fame. The people who have a roof over their head and a love to hold and be held by are not going to go into a drunken and lustful stuper. The stable and well-off people are not likely to pursue becoming monsters or taking Daedric Temptations, and worse yet, if a monster kills a beggar, no-one will notice...

Recommended Mods for this journey;
Convenient Horses (This horse will be your home. You can spawn yourself in $1500 to get your horse up and functional, because the Vigil would have made sure you have a horse and rations before sending you out on your holy mission)
Wintersun - Faiths of Skyrim (Because Hail Stendarr.)
Charitable Soul (Access to Sigil Stones to use instead of Soul Gems for enchanting, Able to give 1000 Septims and warm clothes to Beggars.)
Mysticism and Apocalypse Magic (Because Vanilla Magic Sucks)
Ordinator Perk Overhaul (....Come on, it's just that good.)
Skyrim Reputation (Hey, it's a thing)
Undeath + Undeath Classic Lichdom (Because why not thwart the plans of a filthy Necromancer!)
Immersive World Encounters (Makes travelling the roads actually interesting.)

Misc quests for Skyrim, Serve and protect the People in every way you can! Main Quest, Dawnguard and Dragonborn all make sense. Have fun, Vigilants!

[258789553873]

Fudgemuppet has quit a few builds you can do. Of course, a lot of the 'warriors' only differ in their aesthetic and backstory, but its better than nothing.

Some highlights I can think of:

Cryomancer: warrior that uses frost destruction spells and enchants

Puppetmaster: stealth illusioinist with conjuration, if you become a vampire lord you can literally have four different playstyles: a dual-wielder, a stealth archer, a conjuration mage, and of course a vampire lord. This was the most fun build I ever played myself, and I've been thinking of making it into a permanent character.

Forsworn: a build that basically uses skills from all three 'core' playstyles. Its basically a stealth archer that uses a one-handed weapon and destruction spell when forced into open combat

Banshee: a stealth archer with a twist; you use a mixture of the necromage exploirt, fortify altereation potions, and the stability perk to extend the duration of the slow time shout allowing you to activate it again as soon as it wears off. It makes being a combat archer actually viable.

Some other builds you can try:

Paladin: warrior with destruction magic. Its actually one of the more popular builds it would seem; seemingly everyone that has posted a build on youtube has made their own take on the paladin at least once

Conjuration warrior: a favorite of fudgemuppet's, simply a warrior that summons things. I guess you sorta already got that with the deathknight though.

[Gro-Tukil]

I started out playing Morrowind and all the expansions for it, then Oblivion, now Skyrim. Started playing Skyrim in 2011. I've played all type of characters during all these games. Now I play an Orc named Gro-Tukil. He started out mediocre, and died a lot, but now after 760 hours into him, he's quite powerful. I have a lot of fun with him. He can go anywhere, do anything basically. I have learned my lesson though from thinking he's invincible. I've learned that no character is truly invincible in this game. One day I came tromping into a camp all cocky and a Master Mage zapped me with a lightning bolt that zapped the life out of me faster than my armor would replenish it and I dropped dead. It had been a while since I had saved too so I lost a lot of progress. Now I'm very cautious wherever I explore, and I don't underestimate anyone. I'm thinking about starting a new game soon since there's not much more for me to do in this one.

[myrkwood72]

My favorite for the last dozen or so plays is a Breton archer/conjurer. Alternate lives, forgotten magic, realistic archery, etc.... Once you get a few skills up a bit, killing most everything from stealth isn't hard.
I wonder if this is the 'standard', because it's so easy, but no one's mentioned it.