Bound Warrior Build

This guide describes a Skyrim warrior character build using bound weapons, with perks, equipment, and recommended gameplay.

Introduction

This is Skyrim warrior build based around using bound weapons. It is based on Fudgemuppet's Bounty Hunter build with my own tweaks - I highly recommend viewing their other builds as well. I will describe the basic mechanics of the build (perks, stats), as well as equipment, faction, and playthrough recommendations. I'm 400+ hours into Skyrim and I'm having a lot of fun with this build.

Roleplaying and Factions

Roleplaying

The character is a Breton that was born impoverished - very low on the feudal caste system. By the beginning of the game, he has become a mercenary and will concentrate on jobs for money. He cares little for other concerns unless it has a paycheck, although he has some of the Breton love for quests and making a name for himself.

Factions

Really, the Bound Warrior can join any of the factions in the game, other than maybe the Bard college. Here's the best factions in order:

The Companions
A warrior group that does jobs for money. Perfect. Plus, when you complete the quests you gain followers that can train you for free in Archery, Heavy Armor, and One Handed. Join this group very early on.

College of Winterhold
It makes sense to join the College for access to spells and trainers, but the Bound Warrior likely wouldn't do the quest line because it doesn't pay. Also, he won't get as much benefit as a pure mage because he won't be wearing mage clothing or using staffs. I personally joined and didn't even meet with Mirabelle for the college tour - just bought the spells I wanted from Drevis and left.

Dark Brotherhood
Makes sense - jobs for money. Plus I like the quests. Depends on how dark you want your character. I'd wait until higher levels when you have your Illusion up enough to get Invisibility.

Thieves Guild
Doesn't quite match up as well with a mercenary, but doable. Again, wait until you get Invisibility.

Stats, Perks, Race, and Stone

Stats

As you level, I recommend a 60% Health, 30% Magicka, and 10% Stamina distribution. That's a complicated distribution, but it breaks down like this:
Health - at levels x2, x4, x7, x9, x10, and x11 (so levels 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, etc.)
Magicka - at levels x3, x5, and x8
Stamina - at levels x6

Perks

Your main offense is of course your bound weapons, so One Handed, Archery, and Conjuration are for that. You only need enough Conjuration perks to be able to cast Bound Bow fairly cheaply.

For defense, you'll be using Heavy Armor mainly, and Illusion both to make foes fight each other but also later Invisibility/Muffle for stealth.

Heavy Armor: Juggernaut 5, Well Fitted

Archery: Overdraw 5, Eagle Eye, Steady Hand 2

One Handed: Armsman 5, Fighting Stance, Savage Strike

Smithing: Right-hand side to Dragon Smithing plus Arcane Blacksmith

Illusion: All

Conjuration: Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Mystic Binding

Speech: Left-hand side, only 1 in Haggling

Race

Breton. Decent perk synergy with Conjuration and Illusion, and the 25% Magic Resistance and spell-absorbing Dragonskin power are, IMHO, the best of all the races.

Stone

Start with the Warrior Stone since it matches most of your perks, but switch to the Lover Stone early to get 15% with all skills. Much later you can switch to the Atronach stone which is the best end-game stone in most situations - see Fudgemuppet's explanation of why.

Equipment

End-game is to smith a full set of Legendary Dragonplate armor, with whatever ring and amulet you find along the way.

Until you get your Smithing to 100 to do this, you can smith other armors (Dwarven, Orcish, etc.) along the way and/or use what you find. I recommend getting the Helm of Yngol[en.uesp.net] early on because it's fairly easy to get, looks cool, and the frost resistance is great.

Weapons of course will be your bound weapons, so for the most part you don't care about anything else. Early on, however, you will definitely need a physical bow (until you get your Conjuration up enough), and even a one-handed weapon of some sort for when your magicka gets depleted. This ceases to be a problem fairly quickly though.

Playthrough

Here is my recommended playthrough for this character based on my experiences and knowledge of Skyrim. You are, of course, free to ignore any and all of this advice and play as you will.

Generally speaking, I recommend playing mostly as a straight warrior for the first 10 levels or so, other than using the bound sword spell. The reason for this is that if you try and spread yourself thin leveling Illusion, Smithing, and Speech in addition to your warrior skills you will be weak in combat and that's never fun. Get One Handed, Archery, and Heavy Armor up quick. Conjuration will level fine just using the bound sword and later bow.

After Helgen, get the Warrior Stone, then head to Riverwood to sell your stuff at Riverwood Trader[en.uesp.net] and to get The Golden Claw[en.uesp.net] quest. Also, do Faendal's[en.uesp.net] simple quest to gain him as a follower - he will be able to train you for free in Archery. Immediately head to Whiterun to buy the Bound Sword spell from Farengar [en.uesp.net]in Dragonsreach (as well as Fury and Calm if you can afford them). Head back to Riverwood and clear out the Embershard Mine[en.uesp.net] nearby - it's pretty easy and nets you some iron ore for Smithing.

Now head to Bleak Falls Barrow as part of The Golden Claw quest and complete that (as part of the main quest line). Go back to Whiterun and continue the main quest until after you fight the dragon, and then take the carriage to Markarth to get the Lover Stone[en.uesp.net]. Head to High Hrothgar and continue the main quest until the graybeards send you to get the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. Also, go to the Halted Stream Mine[www.uesp.net] north of Whiterun to get some iron ore, but more importantly to get the Transmute spell. This will let you change your iron old to gold, and make gold rings will advance your Smithing much more than iron daggers.

Head to Riften and go to the Temple of Mara to do The Book of Love[en.uesp.net] quest, which will net you an additional 15% magic resistance and is fairly easy. Once done, briefly head to Winterhold to join the College for spell access, but don't do any of the quest line.

Head back to Whiterun and do the entire Companion quest line. You should be sitting fairly pretty by this point. If you haven't done so already, get the Bound Bow spell (either from the College or Fort Amol Prison[en.uesp.net]). Get Smithing up - I won't do a guide, but stop by the Left Hand Mine just east of Markarth to get some iron ore and do a quest for a gold mine to net some gold ore as well. I recommend Farkas from The Companions as your companion at this point because he can level up your Heavy Armor skill for free, but Aela for Archery or Athis for One Handed are good too.

After that it's up to you. Innkeepers are good for random jobs, as are the Companions. Doing random jobs helps with the roleplaying aspect and keeps things fresh as you are out in a variety of locales experiencing different parts of Skyrim than the larger quest lines. Also do the Dark Brotherhood quest line because it's fun!

Conclusion

That's it! I may update this from time to time if I think of something, but enjoy the character!

[NOT penis man gaming]

too bad they cut bound armor

[mirth81]

Because sometimes, when there are near infinite ways to play, people want idea starters to try something new. YMMV

[ßalente ➳The Leviathan ღ]

Why are there people making builds to a game that can literally be completed in any possible way..

[runestyr]

Interesting approach. I'm going to give this a try today. Maybe it was 10 years of playing Thief 1 and 2* including dozens of fan missions, but I always end up playing a stealth archer in Oblivion, Skyrim, and FO4 if I don't make a conscious effort to do otherwise.

* yes I got Thief Deadly Shadows on sale, and (according to Steam) it took me 8 hours to finish the entire game, talk about a waste of money

[mirth81]

Yes, but unless you're playing on Master/Legendary difficulty it's not really that bad. However, if that's an issue for anyone, refer to Fudgemuppet's build because they did go into Enchanting for just that reason.

[Autoro]

Something to add is to delve into enchanting, and alchemy.

This is to create "Potions of Fortify Enchanting", and enchant your ring, necklace, boots, and gauntlets with "Forty One/Two-Handed". You can't smith up conjured weapons, so they become rather poor late-game (Past level 30).