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Workshop Spotlight 1 - The Spellsword Paladin

    • 1467 posts
    May 7, 2017 1:59 AM EDT

    Welcome everyone to the first of the recently started 'Workshop Spotlights', a new type of feature focusing on the journey of a piece of content from the Workshop all the way through to when it's officially completed and posted in the appropriate group. This week I'm going to be featuring The Spellsword Paladin by TexasC4, which has to be one of the most interesting builds I've read in a fair while.

    http://tamrielvault.com/groups/topic/view/group_id/12/topic_id/8765/post_id/104218

    Gameplay:

    What the Spellsword Paladin does that interests me most is it's twist on the stereotypical Spellsword character (or at least what it is on the Vault) as a character usually combining offensive spells with a sword to create a bit of a close-ranged Mage/mid-ranged Warrior. Texas' build, instead focuses more on Illusion and Restoration, usually more defensive/support skills to create a mixed Crusader/Spellsword/Paladin that seems really fun so far.

    Naturally I have to mention the fact that this character may be equally good at fighting all types of evil foes, but is especially good at destroying the undead threats to Skyrim. With Dawnguard and the ability to cast powerful Turn Undead spells you have a character that can very effectively control the pace of any battle against the less than alive foes that dot Skyrim. The character can of course do the same thing against living foes with Illusion Magic, meaning there's no real weakness in terms of what type of characters you can fight with this character.

    Roleplay:

    While the combat style of the character is definitely a fun little twist to a more typical character type, I think this build really shines once you read it's backstory. Texas has kind of appraoched this character as an ex-Vigilant of Stendarr who has left the faction, not because of anything that has happened to the character (like becoming a vampire), but because The Spellsword Paladin is actually too morally righteous for the order. I won't spoil the character too much, because the backstory really is a fantastic read, but here's a brief snippet from it to get you psyched up a little bit. 

    The leader of the survivors said he knew where the bandit’s camp was and begged us to bring justice to these bandits because they threatened to come back unless the survivors paid them, but the survivors had nothing left.  But the survivors’ cries fell on deaf ears because our captain ordered we returned to Vigilant headquarters immediately since there were no undead or daedra involvement.  Seeing the look of dismay on the survivors’ faces upon hearing we would not help was more than I could take so I stepped forward and challenged the captain saying that we had to help these people.  He looked at me sternly a replied that the Vigilants are daedra and undead hunters, not bandit hunters and repeated the order to head back to headquarters

    Closing Notes:

    The build isn't quite finished, and I definitely recommend that people to go give it a read and maybe leave a comment or two, especially if you like to read interesting backstories that really create a well-developed character. That's all for this week folks, I hope to see you next week for...well we'll have to keep that one secret, but the second Workshop Spotlight is a build that has words in it. 

     


    This post was edited by SpookyBorn2021 at May 22, 2017 2:52 AM EDT
    • 585 posts
    May 7, 2017 2:31 AM EDT

    Remember seeing this build, it's a very good choice for the first Spotlight Deebs! A solid build by an up and coming builder, and I completely agree with the backstory making the build, sometimes people forget that an amazing backstory can lift a build from good to great (but then again, I might be a little bias).

    • 5 posts
    May 10, 2017 6:40 PM EDT

    I just saw today this was featured (really need to log in on a computer more often haha) and I am flattered.  Talk about some great motivation to finish up the last few pieces of this build.  Thank you for the compliments and I am especially happy to see people enjoying the backstory.  

    • 1467 posts
    May 22, 2017 3:10 AM EDT

    With the Spellsword Crusader hitting the Character Building Group, it's time for an update to this Spotlight. Now, this is the first time I've actually done this, so a quick explanation might be needed. Basically this section is just going over some of the cool changes that the author has made to their piece of work, in Texas' case it isn't massive since I started this pretty late in the build's cycle, but the changes are still really cool.

    ----------------------------------

    Overall Texas has massively improved the build between the first release of the Spotlight and the build's current start. Now for those that saw it in the Workshop you know that saying the build has improved is kind of like saying ten bits of chocolate are better than eight, all of it's good but nobodies going to turn down the extra two bits :P

    The most immediete change is the presentation of the build, which now looks (and I don't say this word very often) awesome. The new artwork spread throughout the build is both fitting, kind of badass and really shows off how good Texas is at taking screenshots (seriously that last one is just really sweet). This isn't a massive change, it's really just a finishing off product there but still, I hadn't had a chance to see the screenshots originally, or at least not all of the ones in there now and it adds a lot to the build. 

    One of the other areas of improvement is the Gameplay section. The changes aren't to the actualy gameplay, but the way taht Texas has shown off a bit more of what the character can do. The additions to the Living Enemies, Dwemer Automaton and Dragons sections are really great to see and help show off the build's diversity a little bti more.

    As I said, none of the changes are particularly ground-breaking, and don't effect the character itself all that much, it's mostly just expanding on what Texas had already done. If you hadn't noticed the build had made it out of the Workshop, head over and check out The Spellsword Crusader