Hello there. After a few months of lurking I finally decided to join and see whether I can create builds of my own. This build was inspired by a few things:
- The Vampire subrace: even before the Dawnguard DLC I loved using the vampire subrace. They were weaker than the Werewolf subrace, but they added an extra challenge and lots of roleplaying opportunities.
- The Battlemage attire: I'm mostly talking about the Adept Hood with a heavy armor set combination. The result is often very nice to look at.
- My attempt to reduce sneaking as much as possible. I like being a thief or an assassin in Skyrim and I've spent quite a few months making up many different builds. This build, however, was a conscious attempt of mine to focus more on Warrior and Mage aspects. I hope that I managed to build a battlemage character worthy of the title.
- My desire to play through all the different factions, yet still give my character a reason to join all of them. I like to roleplay while playing through the game and as a result you're often forced to join one or two of the factions. It wouldn't make a lot of sense for a warrior to spend his time studying magicka at the College of Winterhold, nor would an assassin have much incentive to assume the official (and well-known) position of Harbinger. With this character I hope to find a reason to become part of all the factions.
One warning I must issue: the build makes use of the Dawnguard DLC. Without it this build doesn't really work that well.
With that being said, on with the show!
Part 1: The Paladin!
My parents died when I was young. When I returned from the market from the nearest village I found the cold corpses of my parents inside my house, tooth marks on their neck and their life essence gone forever. It didn't take long for the Vigilants of Stendarr to find me. They later told me that my parents were the victim of a notorious vampire called Movarth. The coward fled before your new brothers could slay the foul vermin! Ever since then I've spent my time training at the Hall of the Vigilants, slowly bidding my time before I too could take my vows and join the fight against the scum that should learn to stay dead! My mentor says that it will only take a few more weeks at the most. I am ready to join the cause! I am ready to fulfill the honor of my parents... The honor of Stendarr!
The build:
In this part of the build you will play as a typical Paladin character. Donning impressive Heavy armor along with a mace and hiding behind the protective powers of both Restoration and Alteration, the paladin is a defensive nut that very few enemies could ever hope to crack. You will do what most Paladin builds here advise you to do: protect the weak, destroy the undead with an obsessive zeal and obey the tenets of the Vigilants of Stendarr. Do not allow a single Daedra or undead monster to survive the very sight of your mace!
Race:
Nord: Nord is for the obvious RP elements and to fit the Background story. Their 50% resistance also helps because most of the undead mages use Frost magic. Battlecry is useful for the occassional Draugr Deathlord or even Bandit Chief that proves too powerful for you.
Breton: The Breton is the best defensive race to play with. They gain bonuses to Restoration and Alteration, they have a passive bonus that grants them a 25% resistance towards magic and their special ability allows them to absorb 50% of the magicka fired at them for one minute.
Imperial: Four of their six skills will be used in this part of the build, so the Imperials make for natural paladins. They also get a chance to calm their enemies with their special ability when things get too rough. Take that time to prepare for your next charge!
Stone:
The main reason I took the warrior stone is because this build is all about trying to get your skills as high as possible within as little time as possible. I've learned the hard way that mage skills are a lot easier to powerlevel than warrior skills.
Major Skills:
Restoration: the crux of this build. The Healing spells will see you through the most difficult battles and the Turn Undead and Guardian Circle spells will decimate any undead foe. Get the Necromage perk as soon as you can get. Not only will it make your spells extra effective, but it'll also set the stage for the second part of the build...
Spells: Close Wounds, Grand Healing, Turn Greater Undead and Guardian Circle
Alteration: Mostly necessary for the Flesh spells. You're a paladin who charges into battle. You could use all the armor ratings you can get! Detect Dead is also a nice way to plan ahead. Do you wait until The Draugr are all together or will you destroy them one-by-one?
Spells: Ebonyflesh and Detect Dead
One-handed: Paladins have always used maces and mine is no different. The Bone Breaker perk will help you out against every heavily armored perk, whether they be dead or alive.
Minor Skills:
Smithing: What good is a warrior that can't smith his own equipment? Eventually you'll want to get your hands on Ebony armor, so focus on the right side of the perk tree.
Heavy Armor: You won't invest much in this perk tree. Just get five points in Juggernaut and that's it. You'll be wearing a hood, so the other perks are of no use to you.
Enchanting: What good is a mage that can't enchant his own equipment? The paladin is still part mage and will enchant (and name!) his own arms and armor!
Having two craft skills does mean you'll spend some time grinding, but it's better to do all of that grinding now rather than later. And it's an excellent way to make money and to fund your spells and soul gems. No-one ever said that paladins are wealthy people!
Shouts: Unrelenting Force and Fire Breath
Perks: The Paladin!
Stat Distribution:
Start with an even 1 Health/Stamina/Magicka distribution until you get 200 in the three stats.
Follow with a 1 Health/Stamina distribution until you get 300 in both stats. The rest of the stats will go into magicka, preparing for the second part of the build.
Gear:
Weapon(s):
Mace: Ebony mace with following enchantments: Fire Damage and Turn Undead.
Armor:
Adept Hood: Plus 50 Magicka
Ebony Armor: Fortify Magicka Regeneration and Fortify Healing Rate
Ebony Gauntlets: Fortify One-Handed and Fortify Carry Weight
Ebony Boots: Resist Frost and Fortify Stamina Regeneration
Oath to Stendarr: Ring with fortify Restoration and Alteration enchantments
Gameplay:
When it comes to normal battles (like bandits) The Paladin will start by activating a flesh spell and charging at his opponent. Keep a healing spell at your left hand at all times and heal yourself when necessary. I personally didn't need any potions, nor would it make sense to use one. A paladin fights honorable with his own might!
During battles against the undead the Paladin will take a lot more defensive stance, literally. Start the battle with a Guardian circle and let the undead come to you. If there are too many, use the Turn Greater Undead spell and deal with them one-by-one. Generally speaking you shouldn't have to use any healing spells because of your active circle, but keep a healing spell in your left hand just in case. It wouldn't be the first time a Draugr Deathlord got a sneak attack on me.
The two factions you'll want to join during this part of the guild are the Companions and the College of Winterhold. Think of it as developing your warrior and mage skills as you delve through both questlines. You can choose to become a werewolf or not yourself. It wouldn't be strange for a paladin to justify becoming a wolf in order to get a layer of protection against the Sanguinare Vampiris. The undead is the true foe of the Paladin, not the wolves. Are you willing to go all the way in the war against your skeletal foes?
Other than that you'll want to focus mostly on quests that deal with the undead in one way or another. Maybe you could even explore a few ancient ruins in your search for the Dragon Shouts?
However, you can't do any evil quests. No stealing, assassinations, gathering quests (I'm looking at you Balimund!) and you can't serve any Daedric princes. Melidia is the only exception if you really want to use the Dawnbreaker, but you're better of sticking with your enchanted Mace.
You can do some mercenary jobs, but only if it's to protect the weak. A quest like trying to collect Amren's sword is a no go.
Once you reach lvl 47 and have finished both the Companions and College of Winterhold questlines you should make your way to Fort Dawnguard to become...
Part 2: The Dark Paladin
My oath... Still stands...
After learning about this new organisation that is trying to fight the vampiric vermin, the Paladin doesn't hesitate for a second to join up. Those filthy bloodsuckers killed your parents, so they have to pay! You will do as Isran commands and you will venture into Dimhollow Crypt. But when you reach Serana the Paladin comes across something odd. A vampire that doesn't immediately attack? A vampire who asks for your help? Intrigued, the Paladin decides to bring Serana back to her father. You had never thought that the ancient vampire would offer you such... An interesting reward. Why did most of those vampiric scum forfeit their soul for some extra powers? Why not experiment with the vampiric form for a bit? You know of a certain mage in Morthal who can heal you of the filthy disease after a few days. Maybe it would be interesting to become that which you've always hunted with such zeal...
The result is a magical warrior with no equal, the vampire that hunts other vampires. The Dark Paladin will be the final road of the journey, and what a journey it'll become. With the vampiric curse comes the darker schools of magic and the ocassional usage of stealth. Illusion and Conjuration will become main powers at your disposal in combat and you will be able to move in the shadows unseen. Not all the battles must be fought fair and square! Sometimes destroying your enemies without them ever being the wiser would be a beter choice. And don't forget the charming lure of a vampire. You can now sway any merchant into buying whatever you have to offer.
Stone:
The Lord Stone really helps your defensive qualities. That 50+ armor rating will negate the lack of a helm while the extra magic resistance will make any spells against you worthless. Even the mightiest storm will become naught but a breeze!
Major Skills: Restoration, Alteration and One-handed
+ Illusion: This should be the first skill to be perked in this part of the build. The key perks to get here are Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror, Rage and Kindred Mage. You're already late in the game, so you've got to make your illusion spells as powerful as you possibly can before you can really use them.
Spells: Frenzy, Rally, Invisibility, Pacify and Rout
+ Conjuration: This skill will mostly be used to summon minions from the Soul Cairn to take a part of the tanking for you. You'll also want to banish any daedra you see in order to dominate the battlefield!
Spells: Expel Daedra, Conjure Boneman and Conjure Wrathmen, Soul Trap and Dread Zombie
Minor Skills: Smithing, Heavy Armor and Enchanting
+ Sneak: Mostly to deal with the Thieving and Dark Brotherhood quests. It becomes difficult to steal something if you can't even sneak properly. You can also use this skill to prepare battles by scouting your environment or checking your foes by using the Detect spells from the Alteration school, but most of the fighting itself must be done in open combat!
+ Speech: The final skill you'll invest in. The speech tree is mostly to sell your wares at better rates.
Shouts: Become Ethereal, Bend Will, Dragonrend, Drain Vitality, Frost Breath, Soul Tear, Slow Time and Summon Durnehviir
Perks: The Dark Paladin...
Stat Distribution:
By this point you'll want to dump any point in magicka to fuel the many spells you'll be using.
Gear:
You can choose to continue using your Ebony, but you've got a new option: the heavy Stalhrim set. Not only is it good for the extra ice bonus, but to me it's the perfect combination of a warrior and vampire armor. And the armor fits very well with the Adept Hood. It's the armor I would recommend to anyone!
Weapon(s):
The Mace of Molag Bal. A powerful mace that comes from the patron of vampires? Yes please!
Other than that I also use my Ebony mace with the Fire Damage and Turn Undead enchantments to deal with those pesky undead.
Armor:
Adept Hood: Plus 50 Magicka
Stalhrim Armor: Fortify Magicka Regeneration and Fortify Healing Rate
Stalhrim Gauntlets: Fortify One-Handed and Fortify Pickpocket
Stalhrim Boots: Fortify Sneak and Muffle
Oath to Stendarr: Ring with fortify Restoration and Alteration enchantments
Oath to Molag Bal: Bone Hawk Amulet with fortify Illusion and Conjuration enchantments
Gameplay and Roleplaying purposes:
This warrior simply won't die. Your Heavy Armor, Alteration and Restoration will keep you alive for as long as you need while your Illusion and Conjuration can be used to mess around with your enemies. Creating fear within your enemy, summoning skeletal minions from the Soul Cairn itself, turning your foes against each other, using invisibility to hide yourself, reanimating a corpse amidst its one-time friends; the Dark paladin is all about pure chaos. Illusion and Conjuration are known for their wonderful synergy and along with Restoration and Alteration you don't ever need to hide. And if something does manage to reach you the vile mace from Molag Bal will send the poor soul right into your Black Soul Gem, ready for some enchanting.
I generally start a battle by conjuringTwo Bonemen and casting either a Frenzy spell at a large group or Fear spell at one or two of the tougher enemies in order to allow my Bonemen to deal some damage. You're not the warrior who'll do most of the fighting yourself. Instead you're more of a commander who tries to control the battlefield. Cast Frenzy, Calm or Fear spells as you see fit and use Heal Undead to manage your skeletal minions. You can also choose to conjure Wrathmen if your enemies are close-by and you need some melee back-up. Generally speaking you don't need to cast a whole lot of Flesh or healing spells anymore, but that's up to you. The beauty of this build is that it's very versatile. You can choose to either dominate the battlefield as I do or you could just use the same tactic as before and charge in with a flesh spell to protect you and a healing spell in your left hand as you use your Mace to destroy your enemies and fill your soul gems.
Something that is of note is the fact that the Dark Paladin is still a Paladin. Hunting the undead is still the main point of this build, but the Vampiric battlemage has long forsaken his vow to protect the people of Tamriel and he sees no ally in the (destroyed ) Vigilants anymore. He's fueled by nothing more than his hatred for the undead and anything standing in the way will perish. The Dark Paladin will therefore join the darker factions of Skyrim. A paladin who works on his own will need all the financial help he can get. If those fools within their cities won't donate to the cause to keep their lands free of the undead, so be it. There's more than one way to acquire wealth. The Dark Brotherhood will make for fine allies now that the Dark Paladin has none in the Vigilants. It's another way to gain money if the Thieves Guild seems too meek for you.
As for the other quests, you can do pretty much what you want. There is no more honor or vow (save for destroying the undead) that stops you. Join the Imperial Legion or kick them out, venture into Solsteim to become the servant of another Daedric prince or collect the powerful Daedric artifacts. Skyrim is yours for the taking!
One last thing: you do not feed off of the innocent. The one thing that the Dark Paladin stubbornly holds onto is that he does not want to drink the blood of the weak who can't defend themselves. His parents died that way and he will not force that pain upon others. You can use blood potions or your prey to feed on, but no sneaking in houses to feed. Your pride, and the last of your mercy, will not allow it.
And speaking of that mercy, the extent of that depends on you. Will you spare the bandit that runs away from you after witnessing you slaughtering his clanmen or will you hunt the poor fool down? Will you find it in your hear to spare some of that ill-gotten wealth with a few beggars or will all of it be spent on wine and ale? Skyrim is a country right for the taking with nothing to hold you down, so enjoy!
Hello there. After a few months of lurking I finally decided to join and see whether I can create builds of my own. This build was inspired by a few things:
- The Vampire subrace: even before the Dawnguard DLC I loved using the vampire subrace. They were weaker than the Werewolf subrace, but they added an extra challenge and lots of roleplaying opportunities.
- The Battlemage attire: I'm mostly talking about the Adept Hood with a heavy armor set combination. The result is often very nice to look at.
- My attempt to reduce sneaking as much as possible. I like being a thief or an assassin in Skyrim and I've spent quite a few months making up many different builds. This build, however, was a conscious attempt of mine to focus more on Warrior and Mage aspects. I hope that I managed to build a battlemage character worthy of the title.
- My desire to play through all the different factions, yet still give my character a reason to join all of them. I like to roleplay while playing through the game and as a result you're often forced to join one or two of the factions. It wouldn't make a lot of sense for a warrior to spend his time studying magicka at the College of Winterhold, nor would an assassin have much incentive to assume the official (and well-known) position of Harbinger. With this character I hope to find a reason to become part of all the factions.
One warning I must issue: the build makes use of the Dawnguard DLC. Without it this build doesn't really work that well.
With that being said, on with the show!
Part 1: The Paladin!
My parents died when I was young. When I returned from the market from the nearest village I found the cold corpses of my parents inside my house, tooth marks on their neck and their life essence gone forever. It didn't take long for the Vigilants of Stendarr to find me. They later told me that my parents were the victim of a notorious vampire called Movarth. The coward fled before your new brothers could slay the foul vermin! Ever since then I've spent my time training at the Hall of the Vigilants, slowly bidding my time before I too could take my vows and join the fight against the scum that should learn to stay dead! My mentor says that it will only take a few more weeks at the most. I am ready to join the cause! I am ready to fulfill the honor of my parents... The honor of Stendarr!
The build:
In this part of the build you will play as a typical Paladin character. Donning impressive Heavy armor along with a mace and hiding behind the protective powers of both Restoration and Alteration, the paladin is a defensive nut that very few enemies could ever hope to crack. You will do what most Paladin builds here advise you to do: protect the weak, destroy the undead with an obsessive zeal and obey the tenets of the Vigilants of Stendarr. Do not allow a single Daedra or undead monster to survive the very sight of your mace!
Race:
Nord: Nord is for the obvious RP elements and to fit the Background story. Their 50% resistance also helps because most of the undead mages use Frost magic. Battlecry is useful for the occassional Draugr Deathlord or even Bandit Chief that proves too powerful for you.
Breton: The Breton is the best defensive race to play with. They gain bonuses to Restoration and Alteration, they have a passive bonus that grants them a 25% resistance towards magic and their special ability allows them to absorb 50% of the magicka fired at them for one minute.
Imperial: Four of their six skills will be used in this part of the build, so the Imperials make for natural paladins. They also get a chance to calm their enemies with their special ability when things get too rough. Take that time to prepare for your next charge!
Stone:
The main reason I took the warrior stone is because this build is all about trying to get your skills as high as possible within as little time as possible. I've learned the hard way that mage skills are a lot easier to powerlevel than warrior skills.
Major Skills:
Restoration: the crux of this build. The Healing spells will see you through the most difficult battles and the Turn Undead and Guardian Circle spells will decimate any undead foe. Get the Necromage perk as soon as you can get. Not only will it make your spells extra effective, but it'll also set the stage for the second part of the build...
Spells: Close Wounds, Grand Healing, Turn Greater Undead and Guardian Circle
Alteration: Mostly necessary for the Flesh spells. You're a paladin who charges into battle. You could use all the armor ratings you can get! Detect Dead is also a nice way to plan ahead. Do you wait until The Draugr are all together or will you destroy them one-by-one?
Spells: Ebonyflesh and Detect Dead
One-handed: Paladins have always used maces and mine is no different. The Bone Breaker perk will help you out against every heavily armored perk, whether they be dead or alive.
Minor Skills:
Smithing: What good is a warrior that can't smith his own equipment? Eventually you'll want to get your hands on Ebony armor, so focus on the right side of the perk tree.
Heavy Armor: You won't invest much in this perk tree. Just get five points in Juggernaut and that's it. You'll be wearing a hood, so the other perks are of no use to you.
Enchanting: What good is a mage that can't enchant his own equipment? The paladin is still part mage and will enchant (and name!) his own arms and armor!
Having two craft skills does mean you'll spend some time grinding, but it's better to do all of that grinding now rather than later. And it's an excellent way to make money and to fund your spells and soul gems. No-one ever said that paladins are wealthy people!
Shouts: Unrelenting Force and Fire Breath
Perks: The Paladin!
Stat Distribution:
Start with an even 1 Health/Stamina/Magicka distribution until you get 200 in the three stats.
Follow with a 1 Health/Stamina distribution until you get 300 in both stats. The rest of the stats will go into magicka, preparing for the second part of the build.
Gear:
Weapon(s):
Mace: Ebony mace with following enchantments: Fire Damage and Turn Undead.
Armor:
Adept Hood: Plus 50 Magicka
Ebony Armor: Fortify Magicka Regeneration and Fortify Healing Rate
Ebony Gauntlets: Fortify One-Handed and Fortify Carry Weight
Ebony Boots: Resist Frost and Fortify Stamina Regeneration
Oath to Stendarr: Ring with fortify Restoration and Alteration enchantments
Gameplay:
When it comes to normal battles (like bandits) The Paladin will start by activating a flesh spell and charging at his opponent. Keep a healing spell at your left hand at all times and heal yourself when necessary. I personally didn't need any potions, nor would it make sense to use one. A paladin fights honorable with his own might!
During battles against the undead the Paladin will take a lot more defensive stance, literally. Start the battle with a Guardian circle and let the undead come to you. If there are too many, use the Turn Greater Undead spell and deal with them one-by-one. Generally speaking you shouldn't have to use any healing spells because of your active circle, but keep a healing spell in your left hand just in case. It wouldn't be the first time a Draugr Deathlord got a sneak attack on me.
The two factions you'll want to join during this part of the guild are the Companions and the College of Winterhold. Think of it as developing your warrior and mage skills as you delve through both questlines. You can choose to become a werewolf or not yourself. It wouldn't be strange for a paladin to justify becoming a wolf in order to get a layer of protection against the Sanguinare Vampiris. The undead is the true foe of the Paladin, not the wolves. Are you willing to go all the way in the war against your skeletal foes?
Other than that you'll want to focus mostly on quests that deal with the undead in one way or another. Maybe you could even explore a few ancient ruins in your search for the Dragon Shouts?
However, you can't do any evil quests. No stealing, assassinations, gathering quests (I'm looking at you Balimund!) and you can't serve any Daedric princes. Melidia is the only exception if you really want to use the Dawnbreaker, but you're better of sticking with your enchanted Mace.
You can do some mercenary jobs, but only if it's to protect the weak. A quest like trying to collect Amren's sword is a no go.
Once you reach lvl 47 and have finished both the Companions and College of Winterhold questlines you should make your way to Fort Dawnguard to become...
Part 2: The Dark Paladin
My oath... Still stands...
After learning about this new organisation that is trying to fight the vampiric vermin, the Paladin doesn't hesitate for a second to join up. Those filthy bloodsuckers killed your parents, so they have to pay! You will do as Isran commands and you will venture into Dimhollow Crypt. But when you reach Serana the Paladin comes across something odd. A vampire that doesn't immediately attack? A vampire who asks for your help? Intrigued, the Paladin decides to bring Serana back to her father. You had never thought that the ancient vampire would offer you such... An interesting reward. Why did most of those vampiric scum forfeit their soul for some extra powers? Why not experiment with the vampiric form for a bit? You know of a certain mage in Morthal who can heal you of the filthy disease after a few days. Maybe it would be interesting to become that which you've always hunted with such zeal...
The result is a magical warrior with no equal, the vampire that hunts other vampires. The Dark Paladin will be the final road of the journey, and what a journey it'll become. With the vampiric curse comes the darker schools of magic and the ocassional usage of stealth. Illusion and Conjuration will become main powers at your disposal in combat and you will be able to move in the shadows unseen. Not all the battles must be fought fair and square! Sometimes destroying your enemies without them ever being the wiser would be a beter choice. And don't forget the charming lure of a vampire. You can now sway any merchant into buying whatever you have to offer.
Stone:
The Lord Stone really helps your defensive qualities. That 50+ armor rating will negate the lack of a helm while the extra magic resistance will make any spells against you worthless. Even the mightiest storm will become naught but a breeze!
Major Skills: Restoration, Alteration and One-handed
+ Illusion: This should be the first skill to be perked in this part of the build. The key perks to get here are Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror, Rage and Kindred Mage. You're already late in the game, so you've got to make your illusion spells as powerful as you possibly can before you can really use them.
Spells: Frenzy, Rally, Invisibility, Pacify and Rout
+ Conjuration: This skill will mostly be used to summon minions from the Soul Cairn to take a part of the tanking for you. You'll also want to banish any daedra you see in order to dominate the battlefield!
Spells: Expel Daedra, Conjure Boneman and Conjure Wrathmen, Soul Trap and Dread Zombie
Minor Skills: Smithing, Heavy Armor and Enchanting
+ Sneak: Mostly to deal with the Thieving and Dark Brotherhood quests. It becomes difficult to steal something if you can't even sneak properly. You can also use this skill to prepare battles by scouting your environment or checking your foes by using the Detect spells from the Alteration school, but most of the fighting itself must be done in open combat!
+ Speech: The final skill you'll invest in. The speech tree is mostly to sell your wares at better rates.
Shouts: Become Ethereal, Bend Will, Dragonrend, Drain Vitality, Frost Breath, Soul Tear, Slow Time and Summon Durnehviir
Perks: The Dark Paladin...
Stat Distribution:
By this point you'll want to dump any point in magicka to fuel the many spells you'll be using.
Gear:
You can choose to continue using your Ebony, but you've got a new option: the heavy Stalhrim set. Not only is it good for the extra ice bonus, but to me it's the perfect combination of a warrior and vampire armor. And the armor fits very well with the Adept Hood. It's the armor I would recommend to anyone!
Weapon(s):
The Mace of Molag Bal. A powerful mace that comes from the patron of vampires? Yes please!
Other than that I also use my Ebony mace with the Fire Damage and Turn Undead enchantments to deal with those pesky undead.
Armor:
Adept Hood: Plus 50 Magicka
Stalhrim Armor: Fortify Magicka Regeneration and Fortify Healing Rate
Stalhrim Gauntlets: Fortify One-Handed and Fortify Pickpocket
Stalhrim Boots: Fortify Sneak and Muffle
Oath to Stendarr: Ring with fortify Restoration and Alteration enchantments
Oath to Molag Bal: Bone Hawk Amulet with fortify Illusion and Conjuration enchantments
Gameplay and Roleplaying purposes:
This warrior simply won't die. Your Heavy Armor, Alteration and Restoration will keep you alive for as long as you need while your Illusion and Conjuration can be used to mess around with your enemies. Creating fear within your enemy, summoning skeletal minions from the Soul Cairn itself, turning your foes against each other, using invisibility to hide yourself, reanimating a corpse amidst its one-time friends; the Dark paladin is all about pure chaos. Illusion and Conjuration are known for their wonderful synergy and along with Restoration and Alteration you don't ever need to hide. And if something does manage to reach you the vile mace from Molag Bal will send the poor soul right into your Black Soul Gem, ready for some enchanting.
I generally start a battle by conjuringTwo Bonemen and casting either a Frenzy spell at a large group or Fear spell at one or two of the tougher enemies in order to allow my Bonemen to deal some damage. You're not the warrior who'll do most of the fighting yourself. Instead you're more of a commander who tries to control the battlefield. Cast Frenzy, Calm or Fear spells as you see fit and use Heal Undead to manage your skeletal minions. You can also choose to conjure Wrathmen if your enemies are close-by and you need some melee back-up. Generally speaking you don't need to cast a whole lot of Flesh or healing spells anymore, but that's up to you. The beauty of this build is that it's very versatile. You can choose to either dominate the battlefield as I do or you could just use the same tactic as before and charge in with a flesh spell to protect you and a healing spell in your left hand as you use your Mace to destroy your enemies and fill your soul gems.
Something that is of note is the fact that the Dark Paladin is still a Paladin. Hunting the undead is still the main point of this build, but the Vampiric battlemage has long forsaken his vow to protect the people of Tamriel and he sees no ally in the (destroyed ) Vigilants anymore. He's fueled by nothing more than his hatred for the undead and anything standing in the way will perish. The Dark Paladin will therefore join the darker factions of Skyrim. A paladin who works on his own will need all the financial help he can get. If those fools within their cities won't donate to the cause to keep their lands free of the undead, so be it. There's more than one way to acquire wealth. The Dark Brotherhood will make for fine allies now that the Dark Paladin has none in the Vigilants. It's another way to gain money if the Thieves Guild seems too meek for you.
As for the other quests, you can do pretty much what you want. There is no more honor or vow (save for destroying the undead) that stops you. Join the Imperial Legion or kick them out, venture into Solsteim to become the servant of another Daedric prince or collect the powerful Daedric artifacts. Skyrim is yours for the taking!
One last thing: you do not feed off of the innocent. The one thing that the Dark Paladin stubbornly holds onto is that he does not want to drink the blood of the weak who can't defend themselves. His parents died that way and he will not force that pain upon others. You can use blood potions or your prey to feed on, but no sneaking in houses to feed. Your pride, and the last of your mercy, will not allow it.
And speaking of that mercy, the extent of that depends on you. Will you spare the bandit that runs away from you after witnessing you slaughtering his clanmen or will you hunt the poor fool down? Will you find it in your hear to spare some of that ill-gotten wealth with a few beggars or will all of it be spent on wine and ale? Skyrim is a country right for the taking with nothing to hold you down, so enjoy!
