Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Viking

Tags: #Race:Nord  #Character Build Barbarian  #Character Build Warrior  #Character Build Blacksmith  #Rank:Exemplar  #Stormcloak  #Norse  #Scandinavia  #Viking 
  • Member
    September 4, 2012

    This is my second build, another combat build, based on the Norse Warriors from Medieval Scandinavia:

     

     The Viking

     

    Lore

    You find yourself awakening on a cart, next to a man in ragged clothes, one in Chainmail and a Leather breastplate and one whose mouth is strapped with a piece of cloth. Your head is hurting, what has happened? You remember charging in with your fellow Norse Warriors, led by your leader, your Jarl, at a place called “Solitude”.. What happened to your Jarl, your fellow warriors, your longboat? You ask the man in chainmail what happened, and he tells you that all he knows is that you were loaded onto the cart unconscious, all alone. You realize you are destined for the chopping block. You learn that the soldiers who captured you, and most likely killed your comrades are called “Legionnaires”, soldiers of some Empire. They don’t look like soldiers to you, you could take on at least five of them with your bare hands. You are walking towards the chopping block, thinking of home, realizing that this place and the locals here look alike a lot. You think of Valhalla, your place and time of death cannot be changed, it was decided by Odin from the day of your birth. You are not afraid to die, and just as you wait to have your head removed from your torso, a dragon attacks! The gods have given you another chance, and you’re not going to miss it. You decide to follow the men in blue clothing and chainmail, those that look like your people, to try and find out what’s going on, and eventually, return to Solitude, to slaughter every single soldier there.

    Race: Nord

    Stone: Warrior for lower levels, Lord Stone for the higher levels.

    Major Skills:

    One-Handed; you are a rather wealthy Norseman, close to your Jarl and a well-respected warrior. It took almost all of your family’s wealth, but eventually you smithed yourself a sword. The weapon only the wealthiest and greatest of the Norse Warriors can own. You have trained with it for months, wielding a sword is so much more difficult than wielding an axe. You forgot all about your Mammen Axe, that rusty iron weapon that you used to kill so many enemies with. You now have a sword. You now have Bastarðr (bastard). 

    Iron, (Skyforge) Steel or Silver Sword would work best for this. Vikings often used a Seax as well, a weapon too long to be called a dagger, but too short to be called a sword. The Orcish Sword looks a lot like a seax, so if you don't mind using green weaponry, it looks awesome!     

    Block: You have a shield, first you used it in combination with your Mammen Axe, but now, in combination with your sword, you are an even deadlier opponent.

    Hide, Iron, Steel or any Hold Guard’s Shield will do. Ysgramor’s Shield and Targe of the Blooded are both acceptable as well, and they look badass.                                                                   

    Two-Handed: You have had your Dane Axe since the time you entered the warrior family with the men that you now call your Brothers. You use it mostly when you are feeling like killing more than a dozen of enemies at a time, its long handle gives you a long reach. This is your most trusted weapon. This is your Himintelgja (heaven-scraper).

    Iron, (Skyforge) Steel, or the Rueful Axe for this. I recommend using the Iron Battle Axe, as it looks exactly like a Dane Axe.

    Smithing: You have known how to create your own weapons for a long time. You helped your father create your Himintelgja, and you created your Bastarðr yourself, although it took forever to make.

    Minor Skills:

    Alchemy: You know your environment. You know what plants are poisonous and what are not. The plants here are a lot similar to where you come from. Use all ingredients to mix herbal drinks to heal yourself, and to get extra energy when you’re getting tired.

    Destruction: You can write and read, but you also understand Norse Runes. You have the ability to create Frost Runes, runes that unleash great power once they are activated. Only use Frost Runes.

    Light Armor: The mail that you wear in battle protects for most part, especially from slashing, but not so well from bashing. However, you and your Brothers are not afraid to get hit. You charge into battle, what becomes of your Armor? You’ll see about that later.

    The Vikings used Chainmail and sometimes Leather armor, so use any Hold Guard’s Armor you like (this includes Stormcloak Cuirass), in combination with Light armor for feet and arms by choice. Fur and Stormcloak Officer Armor is both allowed as well. For the helmet however, you are going to use a Steel Helmet (without horns of course), Wolf Helmet or Leather Helmet. Yes, indeed, Heavy Armor, for that tiny bit of extra armor rating, but especially for the Viking-ish look. If you'd like, you could also use Savior's Hide, it's got some chainmail in it as well.                            

    You are highly encouraged to use The Pale Guard's Shield, because it looks very much like the shields the Vikings used and it looks epic on its own!

    Archery: You might find it hard to confess, but when an enemy is too far away too get hit by your Bastarðr, or even your Himintelgja, you will have to use bow and arrow to kill him, or at least slom him down/weaken him. That’s when your wooden bow and iron arrows come in handy.

    Use a Long Bow or a Hunting Bow for this, in combination with Iron, Forsworn, Ancient Nord, Steel or Orcish Arrows. The Vikings had really simple bows that were only made out of wood, and their arrows were made with an iron tip, but I guess Steel and Orcish Arrows wouldn’t really make a difference.

     

    The Build

    Magicka 1 Health 4 Stamina 5 every ten levels

    Level 35 Perks: One-Handed: Armsman (3/5), Critical Charge, Savage Strike, Bladesman (1/3)

    Block:  Shield Wall (3/5), Power Bash, Deflect Arrows, Elemental Protection, Quick Reflexes      

    Two-Handed: Barbarian (3/5), Great Critical Charge, Limbsplitter (1/3)

    Smithing: Steel Smithing, Arcane Blacksmith, Dwarven Smithing, Orcish Smithing (fill right branch completely until Dragon Armor)

    Alchemy: Alchemist (3/5), Physician

    Destruction: Novice Destruction, Apprentice Destruction, Rune Master

    Light Armor: Agile Defender (3/5)

    Archery: Overdraw (2/5), Eagle Eye

     

    Quests:

    Civil War Quest, Stormcloaks: You're planning on killing all soldiers that fight in the army that killed your comrades and destroyed your longboat.

    The Companions: Fighting for money? Damn sure, you will! You’re a Viking! (Required to obtain Ysgramor's Shield.)

    Alftand (Optional: required to obtain Targe of the Blooded)

    A Daedra’s Best Friend (Optional: required to obtain Rueful Axe)

    Ill Met By Moonlight (Optional: required to obtain Savior's Hide)

    Dark Brotherhood (Optional: If you want to get to kill the "great" leader of your now mortal enemy; the Emperor, go ahead.)

    Thieves Guild, College of Winterhold: NO. You are a warrior, not a fancy mage or a cowardly thief.

    Main Quest and Daedric Quests: Optional.

    Possible Shouts: Call of Valor (to resurrect one of your former Brothers for a short time), Disarm, Dismay, Marked for Death, Elemental Fury (if your weapon(s) is/are unenchanted), Frost Breath, Ice Form, Throw Voice, Unrelenting Force and Whirlwind Sprint.

    Hearthfire: Become Thane of the Pale and build a house near Dawnstar. It's in a snowy area, which looks like your fatherland a lot and you'll be located close to Dawnstar, which has a port, where you like to be. The ships there remind you of your longboat and the good, old times.

     

    Gameplay/Roleplaying:

    - Don’t talk your way out of things, if you can pick a fight, go for it.

    - Don’t ever run from a fight or hold back, just charge in, and use Battle Cry as much as possible.

    - Never turn on your allies. Once you have become Brother in Arms with them, you do not turn against them. Always have their back.

    - Don’t spare anyone or anything, unless you really have the need for them, or really don’t think it’s right. You know mercy when you feel like doing so.

    - You might not be the smartest or most strategic warrior of all, but you are not stupid or dumb. Let that be clear.

    - If someone has a job for you and there's money in it, accept!

    - When creating your character, get badass hair, like half-long, long or bald. And get a beard. An awesome. amazing. beard.

    - You can enchant your weapons, would be best with Ice Damage or Fear Effect. Then you should name your sword Bastarðr and your Battle Axe Himintelgja: Bastard and Heaven-scraper, sounds pretty cool to me! Of course, you can also just use pre-enchanted weapons and armor found on your epic journeys.

    - If you really don’t like using low level armor and weapons such as Iron and Guard Armor, you can use Studded and Scaled Armor as well, it doesn’t look Viking-ish a lot, but it still looks awesome. On high levels, you can use Dragonscale Armor, which does look really cool, and it looks a tiny, tiny bit like Viking chainmail.

    - If you really want to look the part, there is an awesome mod that creates Viking Chainmail Armor and some awesome Viking Shields on Skyrim Nexus: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19372/ (not made by me) See a picture of it under here:

     

    That's it for this build, thank you for reading! And once again, tell me if you notice any mistakes!

     

    Check out my other Character Builds: The Dothraki Warrior

     

     

     

     

     

  • Member
    September 4, 2012
    I like this build you beat me to it I was working on a viking class and u made it thanks
  • September 4, 2012

    The Bastard Sword, someone's been playing Demon Souls. My first character was a viking, but he f'in sucked I got slaughtered by everything I ran into, I thought it would be epic to battle liches and dragons without proper preparations but being devoured and shot in the head by an icy spear wasn't my idea of epic. His name was awesome, Haggard the Horrible and I can testify that his name was his life.


    Oh and your block attributes suck, if your gonna charge into battle you should probably do it with a shield, replace the pathetic Quick reflexes and one shield wall for Elemental Protection and Block Runner, it's possible to be an expert at block before you reach level 30, and shield wall doesn't really matter, because you can negate a lot of damage with just one shield wall and a sturdy shield on master.

  • Member
    September 5, 2012

    Thanks, oh I'm sorry for you, I was so eager to make it hahah, thank you!

  • Member
    September 5, 2012

    In actual fact I have never played Demon Souls haha. Well, dying so fast is exactly the reason why I added Alchemy, to get enough Healing Potions to make sure you're going to last.

    Okay, I'll take a look at the Block attributes then, I'll see what I can do, thank you. I'm probably going to add a higher-level build later on, though.

  • September 5, 2012

    Pure fighting builds are awesome, and this is not exception. I found myself returning again and again to a simple sword and shield build, and this add two-handed: badass, badass. 

    And is a good excuse to play finally as an Stormcloak. Liked, of course.

    Salu2.

  • Member
    September 6, 2012

    Yeah, I love combat-focused characters way more than magic- and stealth-based.

    I did some experimenting before I posted this, and I ended up with indeed a sword and a shield, but then I'd be missing the axe, so I changed to axe and shield, but then I'd miss the sword, etc. So I decided to put in both, and since the Vikings didn't use as many greatswords as they used axes, I thought it'd be best to use swords for one-handed and axes for two-handed. And it worked out great!

  • Member
    September 8, 2012
  • Member
    September 9, 2012

    Big Update: Changed Level 30 Perk Spread into Level 35 Perk Spread, added Destruction as a Minor Skill to enable the use of runes, added a new One-Handed weapon option; the Seax

    Enjoy!

  • January 9, 2013

    Reminds me of Norse Berserker's "His (Odin's) men rushed forwards without armour, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were strong as bears or wild oxen, and killed people at a blow, but neither fire nor iron told upon them."