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Oblivion Character Build: The Warlock

  • August 27, 2015

    It´s been some time since I posted a build but now it´s here again. With my Connoisseur I delved into the Restoration school, namely Fortify and Absorb effects. This time I delved really deep into Alchemy (be sure to check my Alchemy Guide), played a little with Destruction and pulled an ace out of my sleeve with Conjuration. I´ll ask you this. Have you ever used the Staff of the Everscamp?

     

    The Warlock

    Power. Power is the only thing that matters. Those fools from Mage´s Guild hardly understand that and sometimes I hate myself for ever aligning with them. But it was neccesary, the first steps on my path to power. And where does it come from? From Oblivion of course.

     

    Race: Orsimer

    Birthsign: Atronach

    Skills: Alchemy, Block, Destruction, Conjuration, Illusion, Mysticism, Heavy Armor

    Specialization: Magic

    Primary Attributes: Intelligence and Willpower

    Secondary Attributes: Strength and Endurance

    Quests: Mage´s Guild (To get your hands on Spellmaking and Enchanting), Main Quest (Up until Dagon Shrine)

    Equipment: Enchanted Tan or Grey Robe and Hood (Fortify Magicka or Spell Absorption), Silver Dagger (Drain Strength), Rings and Amulet enchanted with either Fortify Magicka or Spell Absorption

    The Sigil Stones are really important here, because only through them can you obtain Spell Absorption as an enchantment. Sigil Stones have random effects, so until you get your hands on the right Stone, you might have to close lots of Gates, but that is the purpose of this character.

     

    Skills

    Alchemy: A very useful skill which I am in love with right now. Because this character doesn´t have Restoration and uses the Atronach Birthsign, Restore Health and Magicka potions are a must and Poisons are really priceless here. I won´t be talking much about Alchemy and specific potions, so take a look here at Alchemical Recipes, where I posted most of the potions and poisons I used. I´ll be mentioning it lightly in Combat section.

    Destruction: I decided that with this character I´ll go for Weakness spells, and Damage Magicka, Fatigue and Health spells, used as Damage Over Time effects.

    Conjuration: Every warlock knows that there is power in summoning creatures from other planes and Daedra are really powerful – and dangerous – servants.

    Mysticism: The Spell Absorption spell will help you reach 100pts Absorption pretty easily in combat. Spell Reflect comes in really handy as second protection, and Soul Trap is needed for filling Soul Gems.

    Heavy Armor: While I only used robes, the type of Bound Armor is defined by which Armor skill is higher. So for the sake of Bound Armor, it´s always better to go for a higher armor rating for several seconds which is offered by Heavy Armor.

    Illusion: This is not utilized to it's full potential as the other schools are, but all you need to know is that the Command Creature and Humanoid spells will come in really handy.

    Block: Blocking with a dagger isn´t much but even that is sometimes enough to throw your opponent off guard.

     

    Staff of the Everscamp

    This item really deserves it´s own paragraph and it shall have it. Let´s go down with the basics. The Staff is obtained during the quest Whom Gods Annoys in Leyawiin. Just follow the talk about a foul smell...

    And what does the staff do? It reduces your Speed by 20pts for as long as you have the staff. But more importantly, it will spawn four Scamps that will follow you. These scamps are pretty useless because they don´t attack your enemies and your enemies don´t attack them. That sucks, right?

    Well, don´t cry just yet. There is a way to turn them into your own small horde of smelling and expendable monkeys. All you need is to have Command Creature up to level 2. The best thing about is is that it can be just for 1 second, but even that makes the scamps engage anyone who attacks.

    These scamps aren´t really strong. They don´t cast Fireballs but attack on melee and enemies usually take them down in one hit. But they respawn in few seconds! Before someone hacks through all four of them they mostly start respawning. That´s pretty cool cannon fodder, right?

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Roleplay and Quests

    I played this character as a power hungry mage who joins the Mage´s Guild just to increase his power, but when he realizes they are weak (when you get into the Arcane University) he decides to pursue his own goals.

    When the Daedra invade, follow the Main Quest up until the point where you steal the Mysterium Xarxes. But don´t return it to Martin, keep it. It is an object of dark magic, right? From this point onwards there should be Oblivion Gates pretty much everywhere, so go out there and close them. Sigil Stones are a great way to obtain more power.

    If you never completed all Daedric Quests now´s your time. This Warlock would kill to get his hands on the Oghma Infinium – and to get it you have to complete all the quests from other Daedric Princes.

    Aside from these quests, exploring Ayleid ruins brings many rewards, Welkynd Stones among them. If you use a Welkynd Stone, it will completely restore your magicka, which is very useful for characters using the Atronach Stone.

     

    Combat

    First thing you do when you enter combat is casting Command Creature on your scamps so that they can engage your enemy. I advise making your own version of that spell with a 20ft radius. That way you´ll hit them all at the same time. Much faster, I think.

    You can blast your enemies with Damage Health spells from afar, using your scamps, and other summoned creatures of your choosing, as shields and tanks. Just don´t forget one important thing. Your Magicka isn´t regenerating. That means that you can only use a certain number of spells in combat, so be sure to make every single one of them count. Don´t waste your magicka for nothing. Unless you have tons of Restore Magicka Potions on you, you´ll be in big trouble if you end up with no Magicka.

    As for Weakness spells, be sure to use them before you cast a damaging spell or use a poison. For example, if you use Weakness to Magic and Damage Health as one spell, it won´t work immediately, but it will work on the second spell. It is possible that if you cast Weakness to Magic first, then a second Weakness to Magic spell, the second one should be stronger, but I haven´t really found a way to properly test this.

    If enemies get close, it´s time for Bound Armor and Poisons. First cast Weakness to Poison on your enemies, and then use the appropriate poison. Damage Health is the most obvious one, but, for example, against melee enemies it´s best to combine Damage Fatigue, Damage Strength and Damage Endurance poisons. Damage Strength is one really powerful poison because if you reduce your opponent´s Strength to 0, he won´t be able to move because he´ll be overcumbered. So getting a Drain Strength enchant on your dagger can be more useful than more Damage. Also, before you apply poison, use the Weakness to Poison spell; it will increase the effects of Damage Strength, for example.

    Archers were my most hated enemies because they tend to run away, but Damage Strength poison should work on them very well too. As for mages...well, Damage Magicka isn´t as useful as Absorbing their spells, because that replenishes your own magicka.

    There is a good trick against summoners. If you cast a Dispel spell on a summoner, his summoned creature will disappear, because Conjuration creates effects on the caster.

    Also, if you know there is a fight ahead of you, using Shield, Fortify Health, Magicka and other enhancing potions is advised.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Custom Spells

    Pretty much every one of my damaging spells was with the lowest damage (which is 3pts) but for a longer duration, creating powerful DoT spells. For the beginning it is best to go with 3pts for 10seconds for example, but once you reach higher levels, going for 5pts for 20seconds for the same cost will increase your damage output.

    Also I will be listing only the most used combinations I used, because listing every spell would make this too long. Plus you have only 8 hotkeys and you need some of them for poisons or potions.


    Soulfire – Damage Health + Fire Damage + Soul Trap on Target for x seconds.

     




    Bound Armor – Conjure Bound Boots, Greaves, Cuirass, Gauntlets and Helmet + Conjure (Daedra) for 30 seconds.

     

     

     

    Command Horde – Command Creature up to level 2 for 1 second.

     

     



    Chaos Ward – Reflect Spell + Spell Absorption on Self for x seconds.

     




    Mind Trick – Charm 100pts for 2 seconds on Touch (You can use this with 25 skill in Illusion and completely skip every Persuade minigame with certain characters. Because time freezes when you talk to someone, cast this and within these two seconds start talking to the person.)

     

     

    Mute – Dispel + Silence on Target


     

     

     

     

  • August 29, 2015

    Come on guys, I could use some feedback. I really don´t want to die alone

  • Member
    September 2, 2015

    pretty cool build, I wonder what the Warlock would be like in Skyrim. I could see this build's character becoming a vampire and live along time and do more crazy things in Skyrim as a Vampire lord.

  • September 2, 2015

    Thanks, Mathias. In Skyrim? Hm, I guess it wouldn´t be really the same. No horde of scamps. Hell, there even aren´t any scamps in Skyrim! And no Bound Armor. And Spellmaking.

    Sometimes I wonder why Bethesda decided to remove these things. Maybe to make the game more simpler I guess.

  • Member
    September 2, 2015

    true, but there is conjure Daemora lord and other cool conjuration spells.

  • September 2, 2015

    Well, have you seen the complete list of creatures you can summon in Oblivion? There is Dremora Lord too among other cool creatures like Wraiths, Daedroths and Spider Daedra. Concerning the Conjuration, the necromancy is handled better in Skyrim.

  • Member
    September 2, 2015

    I know, that is sad for those who like to conjure creatures.

  • Member
    January 8, 2016

    This is turning out to be a really fun build! I mistakenly got the staff way too early, so I had scamps uselessly blocking my way until I could make the command spell >.<

    Also I cant believe I've never thought of Charm 100 on non-speech builds. Apparently I'm bad at Oblivion, and your build made me awesome :P

  • January 9, 2016

    Hey, thanks, Mello.

    You can buy some version of the command spell from one of the Mages, probably.

    1 second charm and you can say bye bye to persuasian little game 

  • Member
    January 11, 2016
    Im borrowing the Taking Mysterium Xarxes bit of roleplay for my Daedric Knight Build.