The Secret to Immortality (Necromancer Character Build)

This guide is the basic tutorial on how to play a very powerful (and eventually IMMORTAL) necromancer character, who does not fight themself, but raises an army of the dead to crush all in their way.
This character REQUIRES both DLC and 2 Mods: Skyrim Redone/Perkus Maximus and Undeath. Forgotten Magic Redone and Alternate Start: Live Another Life are also highly recommended but not required.

Gameplay Concept

This character, the necromancer, is a relatively passive one in combat. He/she (I made mine a she so I could name her Liliana Vess, so I will reffer to the necromancer as a she) builds skeleton minions to follow her around and kill things for her. In combat, the necromancer generally sits there, shoots a couple spells in and goes "Yeah, you're doing great guys, keep it up". Whenever a humanoid target is killed, the necromancer harvests them for bones and flesh and hearts to build her army of the dead. The skeleton minions are a product of these bones (more on that later) and are remarkably powerful. You can also have as many of them as you want. I wasn't kidding about the army of the dead thing.
The necromancer starts off incredibly weak, but your power grows exponentially over time, until you are to the point of literal immortality at the end.

If this character appeals to you, keep reading, otherwise, turn back now.
(I'll also appologize now for the typos that undoubtedly riddle this guide.)

Mods

As you could probably tell from the preview of the character, most of what you can do is not in Vanilla Skyrim.
You will NEED two mods: Skyrim Redone/ Perkus Maximus (they should function the same for this build, however keep in mind that I used Skyrim Redone) and Undeath.
I highly recommend you install: Forgotten Magic Redone and Alternate Start: Live Another Life
I will explain the purpose of each mod in this seciton.

Skyrim Redone/ Perkus Maximus- This is the core of the build. If you could only have one mod, make it this, for all the content it adds. Skyrim Redone opens up a multitude of previously unavailable characters and play styles for you to play, and necromancy is one of the most effected. This will allow you to harvest corpses, construct skeletons, and raise zombies that last until killed and don't turn to ash (and that's just with the basic reanimate spell). The mod also adds plagues and diseases into the restoration school of magic, which fit the character for offensive magic (more on that later). It is worth noting that I use Skyrim Redone, not Perkus Maximus. They should function the same, but there may be small changes or compatability issues with Perkus Maximus that I'm not aware of.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9286/?

Undeath- Undeath is a quest mod where you defeat the evil necromancer Antioch and, if you choose wisely, become a lich. The quest shows up when you hit level 30 and damn is it fun! The quest is very long, tedious, and maze like, and will lead you all across Skyrim (even into Hammerfell and Appocrypha for a bit), and once you DO reach the end, it will be very much worth it. The Lich Form is true immortality. You can use the power Undeath (after you preform the very elaborate ritual) to transform into Lich Form. From here you have very powerful spells, and you are not basically immortal, you ARE immortal. I don't usually like mods that make you un-godly powerful, but the way this one does it through a lot of hard work and tedious labor (and enchanting grinding) makes it justified in my eyes. The Ravenscorn Spire the mod gives you is also the perfect base of operations to work out of (but you can't get it until you defeat Antioch I beleive).
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40607/?

Forgotten Magic Redone- This mod adds 39 new spells to the game and using them will level up that spell in particular, allowing you to upgrade them from the mod menu. This mod grants the offensive magic that I prefer to use in combat (there are two other options however, which I will elaborate on later). Spells I use include: Void Bolt, Blight Curse, Necrosis, Summon Deathguard.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35339/?

Alternate Start: Live Another Life- This serves two functions: Starts you with necromancer gear, and in a place to work out of until you have Ravenscorn Spire. If you chose the option "Necromancer in a hidden location", you'll spawn in whatshisname's house in Blackreach with necromancer robes, a dwarven dagger, and a few spells to start you off. The main purpose of this is to have somewhere to store your massive amounts of bones that you will collect, but can also serve other purposes due to the Alchemy Lab and Enchanting Table inside.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9557/?

Magic

Being a necromancer, you are also a mage. The skill trees you will want to invest in are the following:
Conjuration
Enchanting
Destruction/Restoration
Alchemy (Optional)

Conjuratjion is for the obvious- Build skeletons, raise zombies. The percs that are of particular interest to the necromancer are Harvest and Bone Mastery. Harvest allows you to harvest a corpse by activating it while sneaking (this will destroy the body) and collect bones, flesh, and hearts to build your skeletons. Bone Mastery allows you to build your skeletons. You will have access to Skeleton Warriors, Archers, Mages, and Overlords as you level the perk up.

Enchating is probably the one that seems most out of place here as you don't use weapons. Allow me to explain. In Undeath, after you have aquired Ravenscorn Spire and defeated Antioch, you will try to become a lich. To do this you will need a Phylactory (to store your soul) and an Elixer of Defiliation (to kill you). These things are made on a Necromantic Altar, and to use a Necromantic Altar you need to have 100 Enchating. So get grinding. Take all soul gems you see, empty or filled.
Petty, Lesser, Common Empty are used to make your skeletons.
Petty, Lesser, Common Filled are used to enchant things
Greater, Grand Empty can be turned to Black Soul Gems at a shrine to the God of Worms every Necromancer's Moon.
Greater, Grand filled can be used in enchanting.
Black empty can be used to capture humanoid souls.
Black filled can be used for personal gear enchanting (as they are the most powerful soul gems).
As far as what enchantments are useful on your gear, I found that extra mana and carry weight is the way to go. Mana for obvious reason, and carry weight so that you can carry all those bones, because you aren't specking into stamina any time soon.

I say Destruction/Restoration because there are three paths you can take in your offensive magic:
Ice- Very basic, just use ice magic. This levels Destruction and works very well. Simple.
Plagues- This one uses the plagues and diseases added by SkyRe and levels Restoration. I prefer this to Ice magic, not because of power, but because of roleplay. I like being a necromancer who casts blight on his foes.
Forgotten- This is my favorite path for reasons of both power and roleplay. The spells in Forgotten Magic Redone are used here. Namely Blight Curse, Necrosis, Void Bolt, and Deathguard. Blight curse is a damage over time poison, Necrosis is an interesting variant of that that works very well with Blight Curse, and Void Bolt is a damage spell (and an expensive one at that). Casting Blight Curse, then Necrosis on a target does insane amounts of damage, and you need only cast each one once on the target for a load of damage over time. Deathguard will be discussed in the next section.

Alchemy- Mana potions are nice, but not always needed since you'll find them a lot.

Minions

(This is a screenshot from the first time I tried this character. I belive I had 17 skeletons. I was able to use this to destroy most of Whiterun; and I was under level 20)
Of course, who are you to engage in combat, you have people for that. Or skeltons rather.
You will have two categories of minions: Skeletons, and your summon.

Skeletons are the meat and bones of your army. You can have as many as you want and they all know one thing: serve the master (that's you).
To create on skeleton, you require the following:
1 Skull
1 Ribcage
2 Arms
2 Hands
2 Legs
2 Feet
1 Empty Petty, Lesser, or Common Soul gem
The bones are all acquired through harvesting corpses. To harvest a corpse, activate it while crouching and select "Harvest". This will give you a random amount of bones, flesh, and sometimes a heart. Keep in mind this will also destroy the corpse. Harvesting should be done on all of your fallen foes; Falmer and Dremora can also be harvested, but not Draugr. If this becomes practically obsessive for you, you're doing it right.
There are three types of normal skeletons: Warriors, archers, and mages.
Warriors get a one handed weapon and sometimes shield and are what you should be mostly making. These are also ideal for minons to follow you around.
Archers get a bow and arrows, and are weak. 1 Archer/5 Warriors is about what I used, but army composition is mostly up to you.
Mages get a one handed weapon and a spell (which ones in particular I don't know as I didn't use these very often). They're a mix between Warriors and Archers, but not nearly tanky enough for the frontlines and not as ranged as an Archer, so I didn't use them at all.
Then there's the Overlord. The Skeleton Overlord requires:
The full skeleton (as seen in the normal skeleton)
1 Empty Greater or Grand Soul Gem
1 Beast, Elf, or Human Heart
At least 1 skeleton minion spawned
Overlords are incredibly powerful and serve as the generals of your army. When you spawn an Overlord, it will destroy ALL skeletons you currenlty have and gain 100 Health, Stamina, and Magicka for each skeleton destroyed. Because of the way they spawn, summoning a second one would destroy the first one, limiting you to one at a time.

Your summon has two choices: Zombie or Deathguard.
Zombies are what you can get with just Skyrim Redone and are what it sounds like. Reanimate a dead body of a lower level than yours to fight for you. The zombie will not turn to ash when it dies and lasts until it is killed. I prefer to take corpses that used two handed weapons and heavy armor. The two handed weapon hits very hard and the heavy armor lets it last longer. Keep in mind that you can reanimate your zombie again once it dies.
Deathguards are a spell in Forgotten Magic. It summons a large skeleton to fight for you for 60 seconds. The Deathguard has a one handed weapon and a shield. I prefer the Deathguards myself due to the phenomenal upgrades you can get in Forgotten Magic.

Unless you're planning on raiding a city or fighting a war by yourself, you won't need 20 skeletons. I found that 2 or 3 skeleton warriors is a good amount to follow you around for protection and not so much that it gets annoying. Your zombie is something you must always have if you do go the reanimate route and Deathguards can be summoned at will.

Gear

Gear is honestly completely up to you, I don't have a specific set of armor or weapons that work the best.
There is only one thing that you need to have: the Necromancer's Amulet.
You can get this neclace by completing the quest Blood on the Ice in Windhelm. I don't know any details of the quest however because mine was glitched and I had to spawn the Amulet in.
This amulet is essential for your character:
-75% Health and Stamina Regen
Spells cast in Blood Magic cost 5% less (ignore this, we don't use Blood Magic)
Summoned skeletons have 100 more health (ding ding ding)
The skeleton health is so useful. The fewer sekeletons die, the more bones and soul gems you have spare for your army.

I use the Archemage's Robes for the sheer magical power they provide, and the Mehrunes Razor as my melee weapon because it looks so cool. The rest of my gear is just normal stuff I enchanted with extra magicka and extra carry weight when I couldn't put magicka on it.

Since I don't have anywhere else to put it, I'll include race in here as well.
Breton. The head start in Conjuration is crucial to getting to your skeletons as quick as you can.

UPDATE: Two items have become of particular interest to me recently: The revenant ring and the book "Corpse Preparation: Volume 3". Alone each item is weak, but together they make you vastly more powerful.

The Revenant Ring is added by Forgotten Magic and is a ring which will reanimate for roughly 30 seconds any victims of Blight Curse (meaning they died while Blight Curse was inflicted). This is great, except the summons then turn to dust upon their death, which is terrible for your harvesting.

Corpse Preparation: Volume 3 is a book written by a necromancer on how to properly prepare a corpse for reanimation. Upon reading it you gain the passive trait "Efficiency". This trait prevents your zombies from turning to ash upon their deaths. This would not normally effect you as the Reanimation spell in SkyRe prevents that as is, but this trait applies to ALL your zombies, not just your Reanimation zombies. This means the zombies raised from Revenant Ring will not turn to ash after they die. (Note: You need to have read Corpse Preparation: Volumes 1 and 2 prior to reading Corpse Preparation: Volume 3 to gain its effect. I was able to find all three in the process of the Undeath quest line.)

With these two items combined you will raise all your slain foes (including animals and humanoids) for a short time and then you will be able to harvest them afterwards.

Quest Order

This is also something that is mostly up to you, but I will share the order I used while questing:
Bleakfalls Barrow/closest dungeon (depending if you did normal or modded start)
College of Winterhold
Gauldur Amulet (though I didn't use it because of the Necromancer's Amulet)
Pieces of the Past (Mehrunes Razor)
The Black Star (Essential for any enchanter)
Dawnguard (Vampire side)
Undeath (Ascend to Lichdom)
???

I did not do the main quest as I felt it did not fit the character's roleplay. I don't want my character to be the dragonborn, she's just a necromancer.
What you do after Undeath is entirely up to you. I personally installed a mod to disable essential npc's, raised an army of skeletons, and destroyed the world, but you could just do more quests if you want.

Closing Thoughts

All in all this is by far my favorite character to play and I have never had more fun in Skyrim. It is the weakest and strongest character I have played; that is, you're worthless at the very start, but your power grows exponentially until you are immortal.
The play style and roleplay are very unique and make for a very exciting playthrough. I recommend this character if you're bored of Skyrim and need a new way to play the game.
If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them and if I get a ton I'll make a section of the guide devoted to answering questions.
Long live the God of Worms.
UPDATE:
Rejoice, brothers and siters of the Worm, for soon, Mannimarco, the King of Worms, will return to Tamriel. The day we have waited for is almost upon us! Ready your minions, gather your materials, raise your armies! For this summer, we will show the world what true power really is!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpTy5CbuLzI&ab_channel=DragonCombatOverhaul

[swimmy]

Dr. Stone If you could actually read he explains why he stopped making mods in the first sentence.

[.]

William, if you google them they come up

[williampv]

Skyrim Redone mod suggests you install following mods:

Skyrim Script Extender
Skyrim -Community- Uncapper
ReProccer

However the Uncapper & ReProccer don't exist anymore...

[I Am Atomic!]

Yigs wtf does Trump winning have to do with anyone pulling out of creating mods? and please give a reasoned argument, not just ORANGE MAN BAD, REEEEEEE! -_-

[[BAG] Duh Binky]

sucks that apollo down had to pussy out if the modding scene and remove his mods because trump won. CWO and FIO were amazing mods and awake couldve been the next best questline mod ever

[Rem™]

ohhh this sounds like a whole new playthrough i could try!!! thanks for this guide

[Keulron]

I would have used this, but my main is already immortal and is impossible to defeat in combat. Why? Because I'm a Vampire, have 1526 HP, and have an insane defence rating.

[Pokemon_Kid]

thank you for introduceing me to forgotten magic it is now one of my fav magic mods

[Pokemon_Kid]

insted of sky re could i use ordinator? there is a skeleton building path

[Mr. Vulcanator]

If I bump into the skeletons they become hostile. They also seem to become hostile at random.