Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Lumberjack

Tags: #Character Build Barbarian  #Character Build Blacksmith  #Character Build Enchanter  #Rank:Recognized 
  • Member
    May 19, 2013

    Getting tired of playing characters with Legendary Equipments and Weapons having maxed out enchanting and smithing. It makes the game too easy even when playing on "Legendary" difficulty. If you don't want to finish Skyrim way too easy then I definitely recommend this build for you... 

    The Woodsman

    "This is of Khod, a simple Lumberjack, how and what he becomes is up to you..."

    Background Story

    As a simple man having a simple profession and a simple lifestyle, you feed yourself with the thing you know, that's cutting and selling lumber. One day you ventured out far northeast of Falkreath in search of more lumber. On your journey you stumbled upon a caravan of soldiers in need of assistance because of a worn down carriage. You willingly offered your services to them without any hesitations, but only to be ambushed and caught as a prisoner because of a false misunderstanding. You were brought to Helgen, along with other captured prisoners, only to find the truth behind the ambush and thinking that your faith would be at it's end. But with a bit of luck a dragon mysteriously came up from nowhere and attacked the town, allowing you to escape and live a second life. But because of what had happened, you started asking questions which needs answers. That's along with your trusted axe "The Woodman's Friend", you ventured on a journey to find answers and seek knowledge of what is happening to Skyrim...

    Premise

    This build was envisioned while I was playing the "The Executioner" build by TZ, which utilizes a none upgradable weapon and utilizing clothing for equipments. 

    I have played Skyrim a dozen of times now and when I get to a maxed out Legendary weapon and armor I feel like the game becoming TOO easy even on Legendary difficulty. And seeing the possibility of TZ's design. That's when I decided to play this build.

    But the build was for Mid and Late Game, when you already had all the essential equipments and skills. What about early game? So this is where this build fits in, that's why I call this an "Opening Build".

    The "The Woodman's Friend is a weapon similar to that of the "Headsman's Axe" both in damage and characteristic, and can easily be acquired very early on in the game. As for the equipment,  their are some available early on in the game. If not, you could always go to Solitude and buy cheap clothing at the Radiant Raiment Shop.

    The Build

    Race: Any human race (I would suggest Breton, but Nord, Redguard, Imperial or even Orc will do)

    Stone: The Warrior Stone (for leveling purposes)

    Stats: 3/5/to help you progress to the path your taking. But 3/5/0 is still viable for early game stats.

               Target stats would be around 300 magicka, and 300 health. Once achieved, you can either go with stamina

                or even more health, depends on you.

    Gear/Eqiupments: Unenchanted Clothes, Hat, Gloves, Boots (refer to the Image above) and any     

                               Enchanted Ring and Amulet of your liking.

    Weapon: "The Woodman's Friend"  (click here to get location early on), a Hunting Bow with Iron Arrows

    The Gameplay

    " Battling enemies with your Two-handed friend isn't much of a problem.."

    Gameplay is just like playing a standard Two-Handed barbarian but only having no armor to help you survive battles. Because of this, you'll have flesh spells to help aid you through this. But just to be sure, you may also want to have a follower with you to become a meat shield while you trash away at the enemy. 

    Dealing damage to the enemy ins't a problem because of your friend "The Woodman's Friend", which could easily be acquired early on in the game even after just coming out from Helgen. As for the Gear/Equipment, a boots and clothing can be found at a dead worshipper at a Talos Shrine near the location where you found the axe. Your weapon may not be upgradable but with enough perks invested in Two-Handed,  you'd be able to negate this disadvantage and still dealt tons of damage.

    When battling opponents, you can either open up with a sneak attack with your bow or slowly sneak your way to the opponent and doing a devastating blow with your battleaxe. Early in the game you would only have flesh spells to help you survive battles, this would only help you survive one or two blows from opponents so tanking isn't recommended early on, keep spamming your low level flesh spells to help level your Alteration more quickly and gain access to higher form of flesh spells. Instead, always have with you a follower, preferably a tanky one,  to tank the damage dealt by your enemies while you hack away their health.

    As for the role playing aspect, you base your decisions mainly on your own liking, be it that your a tough man, a righteous and kind person always giving alms to beggars, the unpredictable type. Any personality will do as long as you enjoy playing it. But for a strict rule for this build, when in need of money, you may either go sell any loot that you have or simply get a "woodcutter's axe" and go make yourself plenty of firewood to sell, your livelihood after all is by means of wood and lumber.

    You may also open up a battle by using your Hunting Bow and Iron Arrow to deal damage to your enemy while closing the gap into melee range and using your battleaxe from here on. Also because of you lacking essential defense, moving sideways while attacking will help you dodge enemy attacks, may it be range or melee attack, but dodging range attacks is very simple because of your agile movement from wearing no armor. Another opening is to sprint to the enemy and deal a critical charge with the Great Critical Charge perk, just be sure to dodge any range attack done by the enemy. Another important thing to put in mind, to be able to level your enchanting, you should collect all soul gems that you can find and enchant your weapon with "SoulTrap". At this rate you'll have no problem leveling your enchanting skill.

    Perk Spread

    The perks in this build are achievable early on in the game. Leveling your Two-Handed isn't that hard because your weapon will only be dealing average amount of damage. There are other skills which I mentioned to be not yet essential, but leveling them early on would help in leveling or  to gain access to additional perk points that may become essential in the Mid and Late game, depending on what path the Lumberjack takes. So this is still due for additional editing. 

    Estimated Perk Spread Lvl. 19-25

    Major Skills: Two-Handed (Barbarian 4/5, Champion's Stance, Great Critical Charge,Devastating Blow)

                                  Alteration (Novice-Adept Alteration, Mage Armor 2/3. Magic Resistance 2/3)

    Minor Skills:  Restoration (Novice Restoration, Regeneration)

                                   Archery (Overdraw 2/5)

                                   Sneak (not yet that essential)

                                   Block (not yet that essential)

                                   Smithing (not yet that essential)

                                   Enchanting (not yet that essential)

    ***NOTE: Other skills mentioned, even though no perk was invested in them, are still  useful in other situations. And may become essential in Mid or Late game, depending on what path you take.

    **************************************************************************************************************************

    The Lumberjack

    Not much change when taking this path, after you all your already a Woodsman, you just need to enhance your skills even more, this is by taking Enchanting and Smithing. I know that what I said earlier about the no enchanting and smithing rout, but as you delve deeper into the game enemies start to become tougher, and as you level up they become harder even more, especially when playing this on Master difficulty. You may disregard smithing but not enchanting, that's why you need to enchant your "The Woodman's Friend" with soul trap and collect soul gems to help you achieve level 100 enchanting.

    As for the equipment, the hat and the clothes is still the same with the exception of the gloves and boots. You will be changing  your boots and gloves with the Dawnguard Light Boots & Gauntlets. There is no need to upgrade this two piece of armor because you will be relying heavily on your Dragonhide spell for defense. As for other equipments, the "Gauldur Amulet" is your best choice. The extra stat bonus is essential for survival, not only that but the amulet itself looks good with the total appearance of this build. As for the ring, you could go ahead and enchant yourself a gold ring. Gear & Equipment enchantments can be found below. For weapons, range fights will be handled by your unique bow that can be found in game, the "Bow of the Hunt". I know that the bow only deals small amount of damage, but it is upgradable,  and with essential perks in Archery and essential gear enchantments, this bow can deal nearly 200 points of damage. The enchantment on the bow is very negligible, but the bow fits perfectly with this build. For your main weapon, you'll be swapping your "The Woodman's Friend" to the "The Lumberjack's Bestfriend". It is a basic Iron Battleaxe upgraded to Legendary with smithing and enchating to ensure you survive tough fights. Gear/Weapon Enchantment could be found on the list below.

    Gear/Equipment: Lumberjack's Hat (Fortify Alteration, Fortify Archery)

                                       Lumberjack's Clothes (Fortify Alteration, Fortify Health)

                                       Lumberjack's Gloves (Fortify Two-Handed, Fortify Archery)

                                       Lumberjack's Boots (Fortify Two-Handed, Fortify Stamina)

                                       Poorman's Ring (Fortify Two-Handed, Fortify Archery)

                                       The Gauldur Amulet

    Weapons: The Lumberjack's Bestfriend / Iron Battleaxe (Legendary(Paralyze, Soul trap)

                         Bow of the Hunt (Deal extra damage to animals) (for location click here)

    Stats: Stats should be approximately around 300/300/200 by around level 50, without any bonus coming

               from your enchanted gear.

    Perk Spread

    No changes done to the original perks, with the addition of other essential perks. By now you've able to level your enchanting and smithing skill up to 100. Perks are listed below.

    Estimated Perk Spread Lvl. 50 - Onwards

    Non-combat Skills: Enchanting (Enchanter 5/5, Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, Extra Effect)

                                                  Smithing (Steel Smithing, Dwarven Smithing, Arcane Blacksmith)

    As for other skills, Two-Handed and Alteration should be up to 100 by now. This two skills is key for both dishing out tons of damage and also for your own survivability. Also, Alteration lets you gain access to Crowd Control spells which can help you before and even during key battles. Here are the perks which you would have already unlocked or your target perk.

    Major Skills: Two-Handed (Barbarian 5/5, Champion's Stance, Great Critical Charge, Devastating Blow,

                                                               Sweep, Warmaster)

                                 Alteration (Novice - Master Alteration, Aleration Dual Casting,  Magic Resistance 3/3, Stability,

                                                       Atronach)

    ***NOTE: In the Opening Build, we invested some perks in Mage Armor, but here we omitted these perk by turning your Alteration Skill into Legendary and leveling it up again to 100.

    Minor Skills: Archery (Overdraw 5/5, Eagle Eye, Power Shot, Quick Shot, Bullseye)

                                  Restoration (Novice - Adept Restoration, Regeneration, Respite, Recovery 2/2, Avoid Death)

    ***NOTE: Perks listed in the Minor Skills tab may or may not be available, due to the fact that you aren't leveling the said skill as much as you would with your Major Skills. Perks listed here are more notably known to be as Target Perks.

    This perk spread can be achieved at around level 50 or so. Meaning at this level your at your fullest of gear and equipment. But after all of this, you will not be over - powered, which makes the game way too easy and boring. At this point, you can go venturing even without a follower with you. Being able to handle yourself well, both in combat and in surviving difficult battles.

    The Gameplay

    Gameplay is still the same but with a few added strategy and spells to aid you in battle. You will still try to avoid direct battle with enemies, which means you'd still require a meat shield. This is done by having a pet aid, preferably Armored Trolls, an Armored Frost Troll if possible. This pets are kinda annoying because of their slow movement speed, but makes it up in survivability, durability, and damage output.

    Armored Trolls are great tanks, especially against physical type enemies. One good thing about this trolls is that they never back away from fights even though they have low health, which often result to them being killed. So from time to time, always use healing spells on your Armored Trolls, to ensure that it survives the damage dealt by enemies. Just ensure that it gets your enemies agro and not you. But with you Dragonhide spell and other essential crowd control spell, surviving isn't that hard even when venturing alone. But still having an Armored Troll by your side just ensures you survivability even when facing tougher opponents like this Elder Dragon here.

    Skills/Abilities - Battle Tactics

    TIMBER!!!  - ( Unrelenting Force Shout) You shout at your enemies with immense force that they flung away like rag dolls. To help lessen the number of enemies attacking for a short while.

    Saw Dust(Ash Shell or  Dual-cast Ash Shell) You collect saw dust from the mill and use them even during battle. Spraying saw dust at your enemies blinds them, making them unable to attack. But then again, they also cannot be attacked. For crowd control purposes.

    Saw Dust Trap - (Ashe Rune , Throw Voice Shout (Optional)) You place a trap on the ground which when sprung,  burst saw dust to enemies within the explosion. Similar to the Saw Dust skill for crowd control when facing multiple opponents.

    Greater Swing - (Basic attacks + Paralyze enchantment) Years of hard work has developed you arm muscles so hard that striking with your axe can result on the enemy being paralyze. Once there on the ground, a couple more of basic attacks can ensure the enemy staying down until it has no choice but to die.

    Lumberjack Surprise - (Range sneak attacks + Great Critical Charge) You open battle with an attack from your trusted bow. If they still haven't notice you just keep attacking with your bow, but when they do, just bring out your bestfriend and shout "CHARGE!!".

    **************************************************************************************************************************

    Other Paths for the Woodsman

    "What path can a simple Lumberjack take? may it be light or darkness? it all depends on faith...or is it?"

    This part is now intended for the Mid to Late game part of this build. Multiple builds are available within this part, depending on the game style and how you want to play him. You can either choose to go with the GOOD guy thing or the NASTY bloodsucking thing, which ever suits your fancy. The faith of the  Lumberjack  still depends on how you want to play him. This part will give way to changes in play style, skills & perk spread, and also the role play aspect. I tried to make every path straight to the point as much as possible, but if you have other possible suggestions, please do so. The success of this build not only relies on me alone but with the help and cooperation of everyone else. I will be making new discussions regarding the different paths and post just post a link within this one to make this discussion solely for the "Lumberjack" build only.

  • Member
    May 19, 2013

    looking foward to seeing the next part, +1 from me!

  • Member
    May 19, 2013

    Wow thanks dude! I'll try not to disappoint you...

  • Member
    May 19, 2013

    This is nice! The RP element is definitely unique. I may try it out some time, but for now, have my like c:

  • Member
    May 19, 2013

    Appreciate your like Vlad B. Thanks!

  • Member
    May 19, 2013

    Innovative idea..I like it. 

  • Member
    May 19, 2013
    I thought, when I saw the title, well crap here comes another terrible build about a man with an ax. I'm glad to see I was wrong
  • Member
    May 19, 2013

    Thanks for the complement I guess 

  • Member
    May 19, 2013

    Reading your comment at first gave me the "Another cryptic criticism" feeling. But thank god I was wrong  

  • Member
    May 19, 2013

    What do you mean "Monty Python"?? If I may ask