The Fallen Wizard

This build is inspired by Gandalf from LOTR.  His use of a sword and staff is something I have admired and wanted to incorporate into a build somehow.  Additionally, I have always wanted to create a build that really explored the hidden benefits of the Illusion tree, mainly being silent shouting and the boost to fire magic.  When I put these ideas together I realized they could make for a very interesting build if taken in a darker direction via vampirism instead of the path of a hero.  Therefore, I present you with The Fallen Wizard.

(Build Background Here)

The Build

Race: High Elf Vampire

Stone: Mage >>> Lord

Attributes: Split between Health and Magicka but not sure what the ratio will be yet

Major Skills

Sneak – This build relies on weaving in and out of shadows before and during combat to stay protected since it has next to no armor.

One handed – One of you main forms of damage, this skill is heavily perked to enhance you weapons of choice allowing you to quickly bring your opponents to their knees.

Illusion – This skill is used very interestingly in this build.  The only spells being used from this school are muffle and invisibility but you will take almost every perk in this skill tree to enhance other key areas of this build which are explained below.

Minor Skills

Destruction – This build specializes in Fire magic but by grabbing the Aspects of Terror perk in the illusion tree before grabbing the Augmented Fire perks, the only spells this build will need all game is Flames and Firebolt.  With the boost from Aspects of Terror and the Augmented perks, these spell are pretty strong but have really good magicka efficiency which is necessary for this no crafting build.

Restoration – As an unarmored build this is needed to help keep you alive in longer fights.

Speech – Not completely sure if I will have enough perks but I'd like to put a couple perks into price reduction to make buying potions cheaper.

(Perk Spread here)

Gear (Not quite sure on this but here are my ideas below)

Hooded Thalmor Robes  OR  Royal Vampire Armor & Shrouded Hood

Ancient Shrouded Boots & Gloves  OR  Nightingale Boots & Gloves

Ring of Erudite

Nightingale Blade

Soul Trap Dagger

Staff of Frenzy – This is one of the main reasons why the entire Illusion tree is perked even though the only spells used are Muffle and Invisibility.  Between all the Illusion perks and the vampires bonus, my estimation is that a Staff of Frenzy can work on enemies up to level 37 which covers most enemies in the game that this build will encounter.  By using a staff instead of the spells, the limited charges before requiring a recharge helps put a small check on the use of frenzy spells.  It also means these spells can be cast without using magicka which allows more magicka to be used for destruction spells or invisibility.  Plus, I really like the idea of a wizard whose more powerful spells require the use of his staff.

Black Star – between your Staff of Frenzy and the Nightingale Blade you will need this to keep your weapons recharged.

Spells: Muffle, Invisability, Flames, Firebolt and Fast Healing

General Gameplay Concept

The general idea of this build will be to use silent shouts, stealth and your Staff of Frenzy to create chaos before launching a series of vicious attacks with your sword and flames and once the enemies regroups and begins attacking back you use invisibility to fade back into the shadows and launch another series of attacks.  I plan on making strong use of daily powers like Vampire’s servant, Summon Spectral Assassin and Highborn as parts of my special moves but not quite sure what those will look like yet.

This is a very rough overview of the build.  I starting the gameplay tonight but wanted to put this out for critiques and suggestions.  Please let me know what you think! All feedback is appreciated.

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Dragonborn1721]Mega-Dragonborn-of-Doom (1921)[/url] said:[/b]

Hot damn, this is an excellent looking build so far Ragnar. Noticed you just showed up so welcome to the site and the Workshop. 

Right, so I have to admit that the idea of doing a Fallen Gandalf style build is really, really interesting to me on so many levels. I think it's something that just hasn't really been done, and considering the amount of actual Gandalf builds we've had  (over the last four years, don't think we've had one in... a year?) that's kind of surprising but absolutely awesome. I think my favorite aspect of the build so far is the way that your using the Staff of Frenzy, I mean, it's a pretty interesting and unique way to underpower your character a little bit (at least compared to just throwing around Frenzies by the dozen).

Something that might work out fairly well for this character, is the idea of having a Thrall/Follower to join you. Mostly this is for Soul Trapping, where you can give them an enchanted weapon and Soul Gems and they'll fill them up for you (which is very useful and would allow you to focus more on your current playstyle) but I think it'd also be kinda fun as a play on the Fellowship. You know, instead of merely leading them, this Gandalf-Character has himself a hoard of thralls that he leads on his quest. Not quite the same thing, but could be interesting to experiment with.

But yeah, overall it's just a really interesting build so far, and I'm eager to see what else you do here. Let me know if you need any advice, help, or just want someone to look things over for you (and feel free to bump the thread whenever you update, Workshop is kinda unique in that we absolutely encourage thread-bumping).

[/blockquote]

 Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it.  I am surprised no one has ever done a dark gandalf style build.  That makes me even more excited to put something really unique together for the site.

I spent some time last night just testing out some of my assumptions before stating my legit playthrough and discovered some interesting results about how the Illusion perks work with the Staff of Frenzy and how this works in conjunction with vampirism.  The Kindred Mage and Animage perks DO NOT affect staves.  Therefore, the max level that can be achieved with the Staff of Frenzy is 25 so that will put a serious gimp on this character.  However, Illusion potions do affect the Staff of Frenzy so I might try and incorporate those into the build, though I was hoping to make this a no crafting build.  Either way, a max level of 25 would put a good check on Illusion making sure it isn't overpowered.

I really like your idea about using a follower or a thrall.    Not sure if I want to dive into conjuration as I am working on another necromancy heavy build as the moment (I plan on posting it sometime soon) but this build could be a good chance to explore some Skyrim's darker and more sinister followers to play off a dark version of the Fellowship like you mentioned.  My own personal hoard of dark agent.

One piece I really want the build to make use of is silent shouts via the quiet casting perk since I have never explored these at all.  So any advice on what shouts you reccomend for the build or synergize really well with the quiet casting perk is appreciated.

Putting this on hold so I can focus on my event build and because I think I need to do a reroll.  Might consider running this as an ordinator build instead of vanilla but need to play with that idea.