Hi everyone!
I've been experimenting with strong offensive builds with paper-thin defenses; normally, I prefer balanced spellsword builds with an even focus on both offense and defense. I decided to experiment with various ideas, including an idea to present the build lore-wise as Dagoth Ur reborn (an article for which I even posted here awhile ago, which never came to fruition). I looked into characters that, story-wise, are followers of a Daedric Prince. My favorite of the Daedric pantheon is Boethiah, because Boethiah's Calling is my favorite Daedric quest (in Skyrim, at least). I think that Boethiah's philosophy that "might makes right" can easily be adapted to a character build, and the result of that is this build, which is the first iteration of this "series" of ideas that I'm even somewhat happy with. Let's jump in, yeah?
A few notes before I get into what the build looks like: first, this build uses lots of mods. I created this build with Perkus Maximus and similar perk overhauls in mind, so I recommend giving feedback with that in mind. Also, I have not chosen pictures or artwork for this article; that will come later. In the meantime, I'd love some suggestions for good artwork I can use.
The Caller
To preface this section, I made this build with three goals in mind:
1. Build as large a Magicka pool as possible.
2. Attempt to main the highest degree of utility as possible in most situations.
3. While sneaking, Never. Get. Caught.
I conceptualized this build with a competitive Super Smash Bros. mindset. Maintaining high mobility and keeping your pool of options are vitally important to being successful in competitive Smash Bros., and they're vital to playing this build well. This was my way of making the build as fun to play as possible. This is a game, after all!
Race: Dunmer (Vampire)
Given that this character is a member of the cult of Boethiah, one of the major figures in Morrowind's "Good Daedra" pantheon, Dark Elves seemed to be the one race that really fit. Kajiits, Bosmer, and similar races would also work because of their relevant skill boosts, but Dunmer is far and away my first choice. Vampyrism is optional for this build - roleplay-wise, this character isn't supposed to be a vampire, but 25% buffs to Sneak and Illusion and a fantastic ability in Embrace of Shadows are hard to resist.
Attribute Distribution: 3 Magicka, 1 Health, 1 Stamina (after you reach 150 Stamina, continue with 3 Magicka, 1 Health, 0 Stamina)
This build uses many high-cost spells. Because of that, we need as much Magicka as we can get. Our Health and Stamina pools suffer for it, but in the mid- and endgame, this becomes a non-issue.
Standing Stone: Thief and Mage > Shadow or Serpent
In the early game, you want to use the Thief and Mage stones to level up the relevant skills (and the Warrior Stone for Archery). Towards the mid- and endgame, switch to the Shadow Stone for ease of sneaking or the Serpent Stone for ease of picking off targets.
Important Skills: Alchemy, Archery, Destruction, Illusion, Sneak
Where many of my previous build ideas went with six or seven (or even eight, in some cases) essential skills, I chose to go with just five for this one. Lowering the number of skills to perk up allows for deeper specialization and, in my opinion, a more efficient build.
Archery and Destruction are the main attacking skills this build uses, with Sneak being vital for maintaining mobility and secrecy. Alchemy and Illusion supplement the first three skills, allowing this character to win formerly unwinnable fights and affect previously unaffected NPCs with Illusion spells.
Destruction's sole purpose in this build is to use Rune spells to supplement Illusion and Archery by drawing enemies out (assuming the use of a "silent runes" mod), picking off weakened targets, and weakening healthy targets. Though I didn't find myself using it at all, the Frenzy Rune is a good supporting spell that's a bit less effective than the normal Frenzy spell with the added benefit of requiring less commitment on the player's part.
Important Quests: Boethiah's Calling, Thieves Guild questline, Back to Your Roots, The Sallow Regent
This build doesn't go heavy into quests, to be honest. The Thieves Guild questline is good for access to the Nightingale abilities, and it makes for a decent way to fill your wallet going into the mid- and endgame.
Important Abilities: Seeker of Shadows/Sorcery, Sinderion's Serendipity, the Nightingale abilities, Embrace of Shadows (exclusive to Vampires)
Many of these abilites are obvious. The Seeker abilities help optimize the effectiveness of Alchemy, Sneaking, or Destruction, depending on the ability. Serendipity increases the number of potions made, Embrace of Shadows is an amazing substitute for Invisibility; best used when you're low on Magicka.
Each of the Nocturnal abilities are great abilities to have, especially for this build. Shadowclock further optimizes Sneaking, though with many of the Sneak buffs this build has access to, it's likely unnecessary. Nightingale Subterfuge offers an alternative to Fury spells to thin opposing crowds of enemies with the bonus of being useable with an empty Magicka bar. Nightingale Strife is good for a quick and cheap way to heal and finish a weakened target in one action, in addition to the tons of tools this build has to finish them.
Important Shouts: Aura Whisper, Throw Voice, Become Ethereal
Shouts mainly play a support role in this build. Aura Whisper and Throw Voice, in my opinion, are underrated abilities that allow the Caller to scout ahead for potential threats and lure targets into your runes or your arrows' path. Become Ethereral is a no-brainer; it's vital for making sure you escape an unwinnable fight alive.
Important Spells: Rune spells (Fire, Frost, or Shock, and Frenzy), Invisibility, Fear spells, Fury spells, possibly Chain Lighting and similar less passive spells
So yeah, many of these are really expensive to cast, especially in the early-game. Runes won't become useable until after you take a few Destruction perks, since their base Magicka costs are obscenely high for Apprentice level-spells; same applies for Fear and Fury, although their respective costs are lower than those of the elemental Runes.
Equipment Spread: Any bow/crossbow, Chitin Helmet, Chitin Armor, Chitin Gauntlets, Chitin Boots, Savos Aren's Amulet, Ring of the Erudite
This equipment spread is really a sample spread; I made this build such that it can go with nearly any Light Armor set in the game and be fine for most of it. I'm a big fan of the Chitin Light set because of the lore connection, and, with stats between those of the Elven and Scaled armor sets, they're decent. However, Savos Aren's Amulet and the Ring of the Erudite are all but essential to this build. After all, you need as large a Magicka pool as possible; that way, you can continue to keep your magical options open.
Though many endgame light armor sets work well for this build, I took the Nightingale set towards the end of the Thieves Guild line and stuck with it. The extra Stamina is nice, as is the lowered cost for Illusion spells. Even by this build's standards, a total armor rating of 69 (plus 25 from the set bonus makes 94) isn't bad. Originally, my equipment spread revolved around the Archmage's Robes, which have zero defensive value.
Gameplay
As I said in the second goal of this build, every ability, shout, skill, and spell are geared towards one thing: utility. This is hard to accomplish in the early game, when your best offensive options are Sneak + Archery and using your loud and noisy Destruction spells to reduce your targets to ashes. Without the Quiet Casting perk, this build is little more than your typical Sneak archer. Quiet Casting, for this build, is everything. Since many of this build's offensive options are magic-based, entering the midgame without Illusion perked up to Quiet Casting renders you inflexible, which is the worst-case scenario. That said, your main goal in the early game is to get 50 Illusion and have Quiet Casting active. I recommend that you level up Archery and Destruction evenly, since all of your skills complement each other. Alchemy is hard to level in the early game since your limited amount of Septims makes even dirt cheap ingredients hard to come by. Alchemy is important, but you can afford to wait to start leveling it.
By the endgame, this build is nearly unstoppable. Even in PerMa, Sneak is an extremely effective skill at level 100, giving you the advantage going into almost any situation. This build still has trouble dealing with large crowds of enemies, even at high levels, so thinning their crowds and weakening individual NPCs with Fury and Fear is an important starting action. Fortify Illusion potions reduce the likelyhood that one NPC or another will resist your Illusion spells, and the spells need to be able to work in order to complement your bow, Runes, and shouts properly.
That's it for this article, so far. It's really late currently, so I'll edit both perk selections into this post tomorrow morning. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your feedback!
Hi everyone!
I've been experimenting with strong offensive builds with paper-thin defenses; normally, I prefer balanced spellsword builds with an even focus on both offense and defense. I decided to experiment with various ideas, including an idea to present the build lore-wise as Dagoth Ur reborn (an article for which I even posted here awhile ago, which never came to fruition). I looked into characters that, story-wise, are followers of a Daedric Prince. My favorite of the Daedric pantheon is Boethiah, because Boethiah's Calling is my favorite Daedric quest (in Skyrim, at least). I think that Boethiah's philosophy that "might makes right" can easily be adapted to a character build, and the result of that is this build, which is the first iteration of this "series" of ideas that I'm even somewhat happy with. Let's jump in, yeah?
A few notes before I get into what the build looks like: first, this build uses lots of mods. I created this build with Perkus Maximus and similar perk overhauls in mind, so I recommend giving feedback with that in mind. Also, I have not chosen pictures or artwork for this article; that will come later. In the meantime, I'd love some suggestions for good artwork I can use.
The Caller
To preface this section, I made this build with three goals in mind:
1. Build as large a Magicka pool as possible.
2. Attempt to main the highest degree of utility as possible in most situations.
3. While sneaking, Never. Get. Caught.
I conceptualized this build with a competitive Super Smash Bros. mindset. Maintaining high mobility and keeping your pool of options are vitally important to being successful in competitive Smash Bros., and they're vital to playing this build well. This was my way of making the build as fun to play as possible. This is a game, after all!
Race: Dunmer (Vampire)
Given that this character is a member of the cult of Boethiah, one of the major figures in Morrowind's "Good Daedra" pantheon, Dark Elves seemed to be the one race that really fit. Kajiits, Bosmer, and similar races would also work because of their relevant skill boosts, but Dunmer is far and away my first choice. Vampyrism is optional for this build - roleplay-wise, this character isn't supposed to be a vampire, but 25% buffs to Sneak and Illusion and a fantastic ability in Embrace of Shadows are hard to resist.
Attribute Distribution: 3 Magicka, 1 Health, 1 Stamina (after you reach 150 Stamina, continue with 3 Magicka, 1 Health, 0 Stamina)
This build uses many high-cost spells. Because of that, we need as much Magicka as we can get. Our Health and Stamina pools suffer for it, but in the mid- and endgame, this becomes a non-issue.
Standing Stone: Thief and Mage > Shadow or Serpent
In the early game, you want to use the Thief and Mage stones to level up the relevant skills (and the Warrior Stone for Archery). Towards the mid- and endgame, switch to the Shadow Stone for ease of sneaking or the Serpent Stone for ease of picking off targets.
Important Skills: Alchemy, Archery, Destruction, Illusion, Sneak
Where many of my previous build ideas went with six or seven (or even eight, in some cases) essential skills, I chose to go with just five for this one. Lowering the number of skills to perk up allows for deeper specialization and, in my opinion, a more efficient build.
Archery and Destruction are the main attacking skills this build uses, with Sneak being vital for maintaining mobility and secrecy. Alchemy and Illusion supplement the first three skills, allowing this character to win formerly unwinnable fights and affect previously unaffected NPCs with Illusion spells.
Destruction's sole purpose in this build is to use Rune spells to supplement Illusion and Archery by drawing enemies out (assuming the use of a "silent runes" mod), picking off weakened targets, and weakening healthy targets. Though I didn't find myself using it at all, the Frenzy Rune is a good supporting spell that's a bit less effective than the normal Frenzy spell with the added benefit of requiring less commitment on the player's part.
Important Quests: Boethiah's Calling, Thieves Guild questline, Back to Your Roots, The Sallow Regent
This build doesn't go heavy into quests, to be honest. The Thieves Guild questline is good for access to the Nightingale abilities, and it makes for a decent way to fill your wallet going into the mid- and endgame.
Important Abilities: Seeker of Shadows/Sorcery, Sinderion's Serendipity, the Nightingale abilities, Embrace of Shadows (exclusive to Vampires)
Many of these abilites are obvious. The Seeker abilities help optimize the effectiveness of Alchemy, Sneaking, or Destruction, depending on the ability. Serendipity increases the number of potions made, Embrace of Shadows is an amazing substitute for Invisibility; best used when you're low on Magicka.
Each of the Nocturnal abilities are great abilities to have, especially for this build. Shadowclock further optimizes Sneaking, though with many of the Sneak buffs this build has access to, it's likely unnecessary. Nightingale Subterfuge offers an alternative to Fury spells to thin opposing crowds of enemies with the bonus of being useable with an empty Magicka bar. Nightingale Strife is good for a quick and cheap way to heal and finish a weakened target in one action, in addition to the tons of tools this build has to finish them.
Important Shouts: Aura Whisper, Throw Voice, Become Ethereal
Shouts mainly play a support role in this build. Aura Whisper and Throw Voice, in my opinion, are underrated abilities that allow the Caller to scout ahead for potential threats and lure targets into your runes or your arrows' path. Become Ethereral is a no-brainer; it's vital for making sure you escape an unwinnable fight alive.
Important Spells: Rune spells (Fire, Frost, or Shock, and Frenzy), Invisibility, Fear spells, Fury spells, possibly Chain Lighting and similar less passive spells
So yeah, many of these are really expensive to cast, especially in the early-game. Runes won't become useable until after you take a few Destruction perks, since their base Magicka costs are obscenely high for Apprentice level-spells; same applies for Fear and Fury, although their respective costs are lower than those of the elemental Runes.
Equipment Spread: Any bow/crossbow, Chitin Helmet, Chitin Armor, Chitin Gauntlets, Chitin Boots, Savos Aren's Amulet, Ring of the Erudite
This equipment spread is really a sample spread; I made this build such that it can go with nearly any Light Armor set in the game and be fine for most of it. I'm a big fan of the Chitin Light set because of the lore connection, and, with stats between those of the Elven and Scaled armor sets, they're decent. However, Savos Aren's Amulet and the Ring of the Erudite are all but essential to this build. After all, you need as large a Magicka pool as possible; that way, you can continue to keep your magical options open.
Though many endgame light armor sets work well for this build, I took the Nightingale set towards the end of the Thieves Guild line and stuck with it. The extra Stamina is nice, as is the lowered cost for Illusion spells. Even by this build's standards, a total armor rating of 69 (plus 25 from the set bonus makes 94) isn't bad. Originally, my equipment spread revolved around the Archmage's Robes, which have zero defensive value.
Gameplay
As I said in the second goal of this build, every ability, shout, skill, and spell are geared towards one thing: utility. This is hard to accomplish in the early game, when your best offensive options are Sneak + Archery and using your loud and noisy Destruction spells to reduce your targets to ashes. Without the Quiet Casting perk, this build is little more than your typical Sneak archer. Quiet Casting, for this build, is everything. Since many of this build's offensive options are magic-based, entering the midgame without Illusion perked up to Quiet Casting renders you inflexible, which is the worst-case scenario. That said, your main goal in the early game is to get 50 Illusion and have Quiet Casting active. I recommend that you level up Archery and Destruction evenly, since all of your skills complement each other. Alchemy is hard to level in the early game since your limited amount of Septims makes even dirt cheap ingredients hard to come by. Alchemy is important, but you can afford to wait to start leveling it.
By the endgame, this build is nearly unstoppable. Even in PerMa, Sneak is an extremely effective skill at level 100, giving you the advantage going into almost any situation. This build still has trouble dealing with large crowds of enemies, even at high levels, so thinning their crowds and weakening individual NPCs with Fury and Fear is an important starting action. Fortify Illusion potions reduce the likelyhood that one NPC or another will resist your Illusion spells, and the spells need to be able to work in order to complement your bow, Runes, and shouts properly.
That's it for this article, so far. It's really late currently, so I'll edit both perk selections into this post tomorrow morning. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your feedback!
