This build was originally an amalgamation of several different builds on this site. Builds such as Ponty's Paladin and Prodigy, no snakes aLive's War-Priest, and Mason's Obsidian Sentinal all had elements that I thought would be incredibly powerful when combined. Imagine a highly skilled and effective melee fighter with the highest magic defenses possible as well as the ability to heal themselves. Originally, that's all the build started out as. I did not intend for it to turn into the hugely enjoyable roleplaying experience that it did. Very soon into playing this character, I turned him into a mage-hunting, undead-killing machine. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...
The two main elements and ideas I had in mind for this character were twofold:
• To achieve nearly the highest possible magic defenses through magic resistance and spell absorption
• To promote the (realistic) idea that the shield should be used as a primary form of physical defense
Likewise, I intentionally added two strong weaknesses to the build as well:
• No ranged damage option of any kind
• Low physical defenses due to the lack of chest armor and no use of Smithing to improve armor
On Master difficulty, this proves to give quite the challenge and really makes you take your time in battle and plan your next move, something that I had never really done before in the game. Now that I've introduced the major elements of the Inquisitor, here's how I achieved it.
The Build
Race: Breton. Bretons are key to the Inquisitor's magic defenses. The innate 25% resistance to all magic, coupled with the Dragonskin power which absorbs 50% of spells, is already a good chunk of the defenses taken care of.
Standing Stone: Atronach. This stone is a key element to the build, granting 50% spell absorption and +50 Magicka, at the cost of reducing the Inquisitor's Magicka regeneration by 50%.
Armor:
- Head: Dawnguard Full Helmet
- Body: Unhooded Thalmor Robes
- Hands: Steel Plate Gauntlets
- Feet: Steel Plate Boots
- Shield: Auriel's Shield
Weapons: Punishment, an Ebony mace enchanted with Frost Damage and Absorb Magicka enchantments, and Banisher, a Silver sword with Turn Undead and Banish enchantments.
Factions: The Dawnguard is a must for this character, both from a roleplaying perspective and gameplay perspective. You need to follow the Dawnguard questline to obtain Auriel's Shield. The College of Winterhold is the only other faction I would say is necessary, if only to join. The Inquistor's purpose is to hunt down uncontrolled rogue mages, not the ones confined in the safety of the College.
Shouts: I rarely create builds with the intention of relying, or even just using Shouts, however Drain Vitality is useful to augment the Inquisitor's ability to damage the physical, and especially magical powers of his enemies. Dragon Aspect is also useful, especially for the increased Armor Rating.
Major Skills
Restoration: The Inquistor is a master of the healing arts. His skills in restorative magics not only allow him to heal his health and replenish his stamina, but they also provide an excellent source of magical damage against the undead. As well, taking the two Recovery perks completely negates the decreased Magicka regeneration from the Atronach stone.
One-Handed: While Restoration can provide some damage, it does not affect the living. As such, the Inquistor has been trained extensively in the use of small weaponry, notably maces and swords. The use of these weapons allows him to paralyze and decapitate, further improving his main source of damage.
Block: A shield is a warrior's primary form of defense. While blocking with a shield, the Inquisitor is able to mitigate both physical and elemental damage, as well as slow time to a crawl. However, his shield is also a potent form of secondary offense, granting the Inquisitor the ability to stagger his enemies with a bash, disarm them, or even charge through ranks of foes, slamming them to the floor as if they were nothing more than sheets on a clothesline.
Alteration: Normally, with a build like this I would make Alteration a Minor skill. However, due to the multiple uses and high perk investment it would fit better as a Major. Alteration provides a heavy boost to magical resistance and spell absorption, as well as being the Inquisitors secondary form of physical defense.
Minor Skills
Smithing & Enchanting: Smithing is useful to the Inquisitor only as a means of tempering his weapons. It is not used to improve his armor, as he relies on his shield and Alteration spells for physical defense. Enchanting is much more useful. The Inquisitor is well-versed in applying magical effects to his equipment, and it is through this skill that he has created his two main weapons, Punishment and Banisher. He also applies enchantments to his armor to augment his already potent abilities.
Enchantments
As I said above, Enchanting is a very valuable skill for the Inquisitor to learn. His main weapon, Punishment, is enchanted with Frost Damage and Damage Magicka. Banisher is his weapon of choice for slaying the undead and summoned creatures, boasting Turn Undead and Banish for it's enchantments.
The Inquistor's robes are unfortunately pre-enchanted with a useless enchantment that reduces the cost of Destruction spells by 12%. However, everything else aside from his shield can be enchanted with the following:
Head: Fortify Alteration + Restoration
Hands: Fortify Block + Fortify One-Handed
Feet: Fortify One-Handed + Fortify Stamina Regen
Necklace: Fortify Health + Resist Magic
Ring: Fortify Magicka + Resist Magic
Perks
4 Magicka | 4 Health | 2 Stamina
every 10 levels
Roleplay & Gameplay
To start off, select the Mage stone. Melee skills tend to rise fairly quickly compared to magic skills (especially Restoration). Once your Restoration is at 60, high enough for both Recovery perks, consider switching to the Atronach stone. Alternatively, you could get all perks in Restoration before making the switch. Restoration is sort of the clumsy elephant in the room; you'll quickly find that all of your other skills are outleveling it. My Block was at 60 before Restoration even got to 35. Once it reaches higher levels, however, it is incredibly potent.
Join the College as early as possible. This gives you access to all the spells you'll ever need, as well as providing a base of operations for your travels. It may benefit you to use this time to increase your skills, gather equipment, and otherwise prepare by going through the College questline before joining the Dawnguard.
At some point, preferably before joining the Dawnguard, you'll want to get your robes. To do this, you'll need to begin the main quest and progress to the quest Diplomatic Immunity. It is here that you will enter the Thalmor Embassy and find the unhooded Thalmor robes.
Before beginning a fight, make sure you cast a fresh defensive spell. I typically use Ebonyflesh for most battles, only casting Dragonhide if I expect an enemy to be particularily difficult due to the very short duration. If you're in a dark cave or dungeon, I suggest trying to keep Candlelight active during battle as well. Fighting is rather typical for a sword & board fighter, with one major difference; Auriel's Shield has the ability to be a powerful weapon as well as a life saver. It's ability to absorb attacks meshes well with the Inquisitor, as he will often keep his shield up to mitigate damage - moreso than a more heavily armored warrior. This allows him to quickly charge the shield before unleashing it's powerful shockwave on his enemies.
Activating Dragonskin with the Atronach stone gives a chance for 100% of a spells effects to be absorbed. This is hugely powerful but should only be used for very strong foes or large groups of powerful mages.
In terms of roleplay, here are some rules I set for myself:
- No ranged attacks of any kind. This can make fighting dragons quite tedious, so I recommend having a follower to assist in your purges.
- If you hear of a band of rogue mages, you drop what you're doing and hunt them down. Likewise, if on your travels you come across a ruin, fort, or cave that you suspect has mages hiding there, you investigate. The same applies to Daedra, although this is rare.
- As a follower of the Nine, you are extremely distrustful of Daedric princes. Do not interact with them in any way.
- Should you meet with a group of Vigilants of Stendarr in your travels, joining with them for a while could may be beneficial to both of your goals. Consider taking a day to assist them. You'll have to take Serana with you at times, but that doesn't mean you have to like it. Do not speak with her unless you must, do not heal her, and above all, do not trust her. She is the spawn of a Daedric Lord and belongs to a group of beings that you have sworn to slay.
Credits
DeimosComics (Picture #1)
Slawomir Maniak (Picture #2)
leonart87 (Picture #3)
yefumm (Perk art background)
Sinto-riski (Picture #5)
I hope you've enjoyed reading this post! I've surely enjoyed creating and playing him. Please leave any comments, criticisms and idea to improve the write-up or the build itself.
This build was originally an amalgamation of several different builds on this site. Builds such as Ponty's Paladin and Prodigy, no snakes aLive's War-Priest, and Mason's Obsidian Sentinal all had elements that I thought would be incredibly powerful when combined. Imagine a highly skilled and effective melee fighter with the highest magic defenses possible as well as the ability to heal themselves. Originally, that's all the build started out as. I did not intend for it to turn into the hugely enjoyable roleplaying experience that it did. Very soon into playing this character, I turned him into a mage-hunting, undead-killing machine. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...
The two main elements and ideas I had in mind for this character were twofold:
• To achieve nearly the highest possible magic defenses through magic resistance and spell absorption
• To promote the (realistic) idea that the shield should be used as a primary form of physical defense
Likewise, I intentionally added two strong weaknesses to the build as well:
• No ranged damage option of any kind
• Low physical defenses due to the lack of chest armor and no use of Smithing to improve armor
On Master difficulty, this proves to give quite the challenge and really makes you take your time in battle and plan your next move, something that I had never really done before in the game. Now that I've introduced the major elements of the Inquisitor, here's how I achieved it.
The Build
Race: Breton. Bretons are key to the Inquisitor's magic defenses. The innate 25% resistance to all magic, coupled with the Dragonskin power which absorbs 50% of spells, is already a good chunk of the defenses taken care of.
Standing Stone: Atronach. This stone is a key element to the build, granting 50% spell absorption and +50 Magicka, at the cost of reducing the Inquisitor's Magicka regeneration by 50%.
Armor:
- Head: Dawnguard Full Helmet
- Body: Unhooded Thalmor Robes
- Hands: Steel Plate Gauntlets
- Feet: Steel Plate Boots
- Shield: Auriel's Shield
Weapons: Punishment, an Ebony mace enchanted with Frost Damage and Absorb Magicka enchantments, and Banisher, a Silver sword with Turn Undead and Banish enchantments.
Factions: The Dawnguard is a must for this character, both from a roleplaying perspective and gameplay perspective. You need to follow the Dawnguard questline to obtain Auriel's Shield. The College of Winterhold is the only other faction I would say is necessary, if only to join. The Inquistor's purpose is to hunt down uncontrolled rogue mages, not the ones confined in the safety of the College.
Shouts: I rarely create builds with the intention of relying, or even just using Shouts, however Drain Vitality is useful to augment the Inquisitor's ability to damage the physical, and especially magical powers of his enemies. Dragon Aspect is also useful, especially for the increased Armor Rating.
Major Skills
Restoration: The Inquistor is a master of the healing arts. His skills in restorative magics not only allow him to heal his health and replenish his stamina, but they also provide an excellent source of magical damage against the undead. As well, taking the two Recovery perks completely negates the decreased Magicka regeneration from the Atronach stone.
One-Handed: While Restoration can provide some damage, it does not affect the living. As such, the Inquistor has been trained extensively in the use of small weaponry, notably maces and swords. The use of these weapons allows him to paralyze and decapitate, further improving his main source of damage.
Block: A shield is a warrior's primary form of defense. While blocking with a shield, the Inquisitor is able to mitigate both physical and elemental damage, as well as slow time to a crawl. However, his shield is also a potent form of secondary offense, granting the Inquisitor the ability to stagger his enemies with a bash, disarm them, or even charge through ranks of foes, slamming them to the floor as if they were nothing more than sheets on a clothesline.
Alteration: Normally, with a build like this I would make Alteration a Minor skill. However, due to the multiple uses and high perk investment it would fit better as a Major. Alteration provides a heavy boost to magical resistance and spell absorption, as well as being the Inquisitors secondary form of physical defense.
Minor Skills
Smithing & Enchanting: Smithing is useful to the Inquisitor only as a means of tempering his weapons. It is not used to improve his armor, as he relies on his shield and Alteration spells for physical defense. Enchanting is much more useful. The Inquisitor is well-versed in applying magical effects to his equipment, and it is through this skill that he has created his two main weapons, Punishment and Banisher. He also applies enchantments to his armor to augment his already potent abilities.
Enchantments
As I said above, Enchanting is a very valuable skill for the Inquisitor to learn. His main weapon, Punishment, is enchanted with Frost Damage and Damage Magicka. Banisher is his weapon of choice for slaying the undead and summoned creatures, boasting Turn Undead and Banish for it's enchantments.
The Inquistor's robes are unfortunately pre-enchanted with a useless enchantment that reduces the cost of Destruction spells by 12%. However, everything else aside from his shield can be enchanted with the following:
Head: Fortify Alteration + Restoration
Hands: Fortify Block + Fortify One-Handed
Feet: Fortify One-Handed + Fortify Stamina Regen
Necklace: Fortify Health + Resist Magic
Ring: Fortify Magicka + Resist Magic
Perks
4 Magicka | 4 Health | 2 Stamina
every 10 levels
Roleplay & Gameplay
To start off, select the Mage stone. Melee skills tend to rise fairly quickly compared to magic skills (especially Restoration). Once your Restoration is at 60, high enough for both Recovery perks, consider switching to the Atronach stone. Alternatively, you could get all perks in Restoration before making the switch. Restoration is sort of the clumsy elephant in the room; you'll quickly find that all of your other skills are outleveling it. My Block was at 60 before Restoration even got to 35. Once it reaches higher levels, however, it is incredibly potent.
Join the College as early as possible. This gives you access to all the spells you'll ever need, as well as providing a base of operations for your travels. It may benefit you to use this time to increase your skills, gather equipment, and otherwise prepare by going through the College questline before joining the Dawnguard.
At some point, preferably before joining the Dawnguard, you'll want to get your robes. To do this, you'll need to begin the main quest and progress to the quest Diplomatic Immunity. It is here that you will enter the Thalmor Embassy and find the unhooded Thalmor robes.
Before beginning a fight, make sure you cast a fresh defensive spell. I typically use Ebonyflesh for most battles, only casting Dragonhide if I expect an enemy to be particularily difficult due to the very short duration. If you're in a dark cave or dungeon, I suggest trying to keep Candlelight active during battle as well. Fighting is rather typical for a sword & board fighter, with one major difference; Auriel's Shield has the ability to be a powerful weapon as well as a life saver. It's ability to absorb attacks meshes well with the Inquisitor, as he will often keep his shield up to mitigate damage - moreso than a more heavily armored warrior. This allows him to quickly charge the shield before unleashing it's powerful shockwave on his enemies.
Activating Dragonskin with the Atronach stone gives a chance for 100% of a spells effects to be absorbed. This is hugely powerful but should only be used for very strong foes or large groups of powerful mages.
In terms of roleplay, here are some rules I set for myself:
- No ranged attacks of any kind. This can make fighting dragons quite tedious, so I recommend having a follower to assist in your purges.
- If you hear of a band of rogue mages, you drop what you're doing and hunt them down. Likewise, if on your travels you come across a ruin, fort, or cave that you suspect has mages hiding there, you investigate. The same applies to Daedra, although this is rare.
- As a follower of the Nine, you are extremely distrustful of Daedric princes. Do not interact with them in any way.
- Should you meet with a group of Vigilants of Stendarr in your travels, joining with them for a while could may be beneficial to both of your goals. Consider taking a day to assist them. You'll have to take Serana with you at times, but that doesn't mean you have to like it. Do not speak with her unless you must, do not heal her, and above all, do not trust her. She is the spawn of a Daedric Lord and belongs to a group of beings that you have sworn to slay.
Credits
DeimosComics (Picture #1)
Slawomir Maniak (Picture #2)
leonart87 (Picture #3)
yefumm (Perk art background)
Sinto-riski (Picture #5)
I hope you've enjoyed reading this post! I've surely enjoyed creating and playing him. Please leave any comments, criticisms and idea to improve the write-up or the build itself.
