Race: Nord
Stone: The Serpent
Shouts: Disarm, Become Ethereal, Marked for Death, Dismay, Slow Time
Right Hand Weapon: One Handed Sword w/ Paralyze or GhostBlade/Harkon's Sword
Left Hand Weapon: Throwing Knife [Mod only] (Poisoned)
Optional: Spells
Back up Weapon: Dwarven Black Bow or Enchanted Bow w/Absorb Stamina or Chaos (Poisoned)
Armor: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/26352/?
Magicka/Health/Stamina: 2/0/1
Spells: Frost, Fire, Lighting, Poison Rune, Invisibility, Muffle, Healing spells
Abilities/Powers: Eternal Spirit, Sinderion's Serendipity
Better Vampires only abilities: Vampire Drain, Reveal Auras, Sanguinem Reddere, Invoke Fog, Vampire Mind Blast
Settings:
Stage Progression: Reverse
Stage Hated: stage 4
Stage and Rank Connection:
Sun Damage: Hardcore / Damaged at Stage 4
Corpse Feeding: Advanced
Force Feeding: On
Dynamic Stages: Only two stages
Rank Progression: Normal
Sun Visual Effects: Yes
Specialized Sun Damage: None
Sneak Feeding: On
Vampire Hunters: Yes
Life as a Nightwalker
This build involves three pc-only mods: Better Vampires, Locational Damage, and Throwing Knives, but they are not so important that this build can't be played without them. PC users however, will enjoy Skyrim allover again with these mods. An attempt has been made to prevent this build from being OP, and the suggested difficulty settings are initially Master and then Legendary at lv 20. Dragonborn and Dawnguard are suggested.
The premise of this build is to lay runes, poison, snipe, turn invisible, roll away, and strike again. Rinse and repeat. When playing on this difficulty and having no health investment and minimal armor rating; needless to say you will die instantly if caught. Whats fun about that? I enjoy my attempts at taking everyone out flawlessly. And it always provides a giggle when the enemy is searching for you and runs smack into a rune.
It takes a long time to clear a dungeon and it provides some suspense (for me atleast) for a game I've been playing for 3 years now. Planning out how you are going to progress from one kill to the next gives me lots of joy.
Combat
The Nightwalker never engages in direct combat with his prey. Just like a spider he or she will lay traps, inflict poison, paralysis and attack from behind. Stat distribution is 2/0/1 and Light Armor will provide minimal damage protection. Flee if you are caught and come back around when your prey thinks they are safe. This is not too difficult of a task when you have access to Become Ethereal, Dismay and Disarm. Shadow warrior, invisibility/poison potions and spells, and silent roll will also go a long way when escaping a dangerous situation. Is this the sign of a coward? No, this is the sign of a true predator. Escape so that you can hunt another day, because a live dog is better than a dead lion as the proverb goes.
When entering a room full of prey the first thing to do is lay the appropriate rune. Fire carries a nice benefit of fear which is augmented by your perks in illusion. Frost is important for slowing down and draining warriors. Lightning runes should be used to further drain mages, which is devastating if you use the "Mage Killer" poison first and cripple their magicka regeneration. Poison runes can be utilized for slowly draining health in addition to your initial poisoned arrow. Frenzy Rune is a nice addition brought to us by the dragonborn dlc since it can throw an enemy off your trail if there are multiple enemies in the area. If you happen to obtain Ash Rune you can use it when trying to isolate enemies or to escape.
Shooting your target from your rune spot will eventually lead them to you depending on their field of vision and how far away you are. They will be in for a nasty surprise when they reach your position - and you will already be on the other side of the room laying down a new sniping point. This strategy reaches full effectiveness when you obtain Silent Roll - which should be perked as soon as possible. Invisibility potions and spells will help you fully realize the effectiveness of this. Normal archers always have to face the fact that a room full of enemies will eventually locate their firing position but you will have no such concern. Your only goal is to never be caught, being caught will mean certain death. This build is intended for Master and Legendary difficulty only which further drives home the need to stay hidden.
Your one handed sword should be imbued with paralyze as soon as you can locate the enchantment as this will further guarantee your safety. Once you have picked off your prey you should finish the one or two remaining with a throat slit. A paralyze enchantment or paralyze poison will eliminate the chance of your prey escaping if the first strike isn't lethal.
I originally wanted to use a crossbow for sniping because of the armor "reduction", but the slow reload time crippled me when trying to roll to safety and it wasn't a good fit for this build. I quickly changed to using a bow again and haven't missed the crossbow. The chaos and/or stamina absorb are ideal enchantments for this build. Elemental damage is boosted by your destruction perks, but why choose one when you can choose them all? Absorb Stamina will help remedy the stamina you lose while zooming in with the bow. But until you can get good enchantments you should try using some of the unique bows in the game, such as the Nightingale Bow (I would wait until lv 46). Zephyr is a good option because of your need to fire arrows quickly. I Also like the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate because of the chaos-like attribute enchantment, but I find this less useful because I normally snipe [i]before[/i] I have need of restoring any of my attributes and I never shoot an enemy that is chasing after me.
This build is to be used with a left handed throwing knife but it isn't absolutely built around it. The problem with using ranged and melee weapons is the delay on switching weapons when you need to. The throwing knife completely remedies this problem because no switching is involved. You can deliver an initial attack while a few feet away and close the gap with your blade. This is effective against enemies that you know for a fact will survive a back stab and an arrow. Poisoning the knife with First Strike or Extract of Deathbell will give them a weakness to poison that will be followed by your poisoned sword. It is also very effect to use Creeping Rot to slow them down so that you can get several sword strikes in. Disarm is an effective shout in this situation which will delay them in recovering their weapons. Extract of Arachnid and Disarm is also a lethal combination - allowing you to pick up their weapon if you see where it was dropped.
But what do you do if there really is no escape? This situation can happen in certain Drauger ruins where the entrance door is locked after you enter. Additionally, those rooms are often small with few places to hide or run. If you mismanaged your resources up until that point you may not have any invisibility potions, have drained magicka and stamina, be on a shout cool down, and/or not have access to Shadow Warrior yet. Sometimes you will have to stand your ground and fight. Disarm and Dismay only work on opponents that are under lv 30 and lv 24 respectively so these are not options for higher levels, but they can save your hide at low levels. Poisons do not work on Drauger. This is why you have chosen The Serpent Stone, it will paralyze one target for 5 seconds and do lingering damage. Use this opportunity to throw everything you have at your pursuer, cast runes underneath them if you have magicka and land multiple strikes with your throwing knife. As mentioned before, Ash Rune can also be used if you need just a little more time to finish a shout cooldown or regenerate magicka/stamina.
Life as a Better Vampire
Stage Progression: Reverse
You need to feed regularly to stay at your strongest but you are hated
Stage Hated: stage 4
Abstain for blood in order to go into town or interact with npcs
Sun Damage: Hardcore / Damaged at Stage 1 / Sun Visual Effects: Yes
When your vampire abilities are in full force you will also be killed by direct sunlight
Specialized Sun Damage: None
Corpse Feeding: Advanced
You can gain a little health by draining fresh corpses of blood. Wear Ring of Namira for extra health.
Force Feeding: On
Dynamic Stages: Faster Stages
Rank Progression: Normal
Sneak Feeding: On
Vampire Hunters: Yes
Skills
http://skyrimcalculator.com/393186
Level 20 Spread
Archery
-Overdraw 1/5
-Eagle Eye
-Steady Hand 1/2
-Critical Shot
OneHanded
-Armsman 1/5
-Bladesman 1/3
Sneak
-Stealth 1/5
-Back stab
-Deadly Aim
-Muffled Movement
-Light Foot
-Silent Roll
Alchemy
-Alchemist 1/5
-Physician
-Poisoner
Destruction
-Novice Destruction
-Apprentice Destruction
Illusion
-Novice Illusion
-Animage
Level 50 Spread
Archery
-Overdraw 4/5
-Critical Shot 1/3
-Eagle Eye
-Steady Hand
-Power Shot
-Quick Shot
-Bull's Eye
One Handed
-Armsman 5/5
-Fighting Stance
-Critical Charge
-Bladesman 1/3
Sneak
-Stealth 3/5
-Back Stab
-Deadly Aim
-Muffled Movement
-Light Foot
-Silent Roll
-Silence
-Shadow Warrior
Light Armor
-Agile Defender 2/5
Alchemy
-Alchemist 1/5
-Physician
-Poisoner
-Concentrated Poison
Restoration
-Novice Restoration
-Regeneration
-Necromage
-Recovery 2/2
Illusion
-Novice Illusion
-Animage
-Kindred Mage
-Quiet Casting
Destruction
-Novice Destruction
-Apprentice Destruction
Level 75 Spread
Archery
-Overdraw 5/5
-Critical Shot 3/3
-Eagle Eye
-Steady Hand
-Power Shot
-Quick Shot
-Bull's Eye
-Ranger
-Hunter's Discipline
One Handed
-Armsman 5/5
-Fighting Stance
-Critical Charge
-Bladesman 3/3
-Savage Strike
-Paralyzing Strike
Sneak
-Stealth 5/5
-Back Stab
-Deadly Aim
-Muffled Movement
-Light Foot
-Silent Roll
-Silence
-Shadow Warrior
Light Armor
-Agile Defender 2/5
Alchemy
-Alchemist 5/5
-Physician
-Poisoner
-Concentrated Poison
-Green Thumb
Restoration
-Novice Restoration
-Regeneration
-Necromage
-Recovery 2/2
-Avoid Death
-Apprentice Restoration
-Adept Restoration
Illusion
-Novice Illusion
-Animage
-Kindred Mage
-Quiet Casting
-Apprentice Illusion
-Adept Illusion
-Expert Illusion
Destruction
-Novice Destruction
-Apprentice Destruction
-Augmented Flames 2/2
-Augmented Frost 2/2
-Augmented Shock 2/2
Poisons
Poisons for bow
-Frenzy Poison
-Mage Frenzy
-The Instigator
-Creeping Rot
-Debilitation
Poisons for Sword
-Triple X Poison
-Mage Killer
-Grip of Terror
Poisons for Throwing Knife
-Extract of Death Bell
-First Strike
-Extract of Arachnid
