“You have not seen the power of a true vampire.”
This build was born out of the desire to make a build that uses some things I’ve never even considered using. One of these was the Bloodskal Blade, and other stuff like Vampirism without the Vampire Lord. The result is what I would call my take on a true vampire. Using the offensive powers of the Bloodskal Blade, Illusion spells and the Become Ethereal shout, this character ended up being really enjoyable, without feeling too powerful. So without further ado I present to you what I would call my most ambitious build so far, The Bloodskal Vampire.
Lore: The Quarra and Aundae Clan
The Quarra and Aundae are among the most feared vampire bloodlines on Vvardenfell. The Quarra are the most gifted in extreme physical strength. The Aundae however, are gifted in the arcane arts to ambush their prey. Both bloodlines were believed to be extinct along with the Berne after the eruption of Red Mountain in 4E 5. What is nowhere to be mentioned, however, is the existence of a survivor. This survivor has been in hiding, preparing for his revenge on all other vampire bloodlines…
“I can’t even remember how long I have been like this, hiding in the shadows of the night. Nobody knows about my existence, but they shall all come to regret it. Now you may wonder how I became like this? I shall tell you.. .
I was originally a member of the Quarra, amongst the strongest of their members actually. But they betrayed me… . Love you see, is a powerful thing, even for a vampire like me. The Quarra couldn’t comprehend my feelings, so they banished me. They even killed the women I fell in love with. After being banished, however, the Aundae seemed to have a strange interest in me. They said that they’d let me join their bloodline, even though the Aundae can’t stand the Quarra. Blinded by anger, I accepted their proposal and became the very first hybrid between the bloodlines of two of the most feared vampire bloodlines in Vvardenfell… .
The Aundae, however simply used me as a tool of mass destruction, ordering me around like I was some sort of Thrall. I couldn’t stand them… so I left. Of course, I got hunted by both the Quarra and the Aundae, both looking to kill the betrayer, but I managed to stay hidden. Even when they all got slaughtered and their bloodlines ended, I survived.
What am I doing in this cave? The answer is simple really… planning my revenge on every vampire who dares to face me. Nobody knows what a vampire is capable of doing, especially if they would put aside their arrogance. My biggest hatred, however goes towards Harkon, leader of the Volkihar bloodline. They act like they’re better than all other clans, simply because they got gifted with the Vampire Lord. Harkon looks down upon me, and every other vampire who don’t have this gift. So I am planning on infiltrating his ranks, and kill him.”
“This is the story of the betrayer, who got abandoned by multiple bloodlines. But heed my words, while hiding in Solstheim, I found some powerful tools that will help me in achieving my goal…..”
Race: Dark Elf. Not only does the Fire Resistance help out a lot as the character is a vampire, but the Ancestor’s Wrath racial power really fits the aesthetics of the build as well. Other viable choices would be High Elf or Breton. Both have decent boosts to the skills used in this build.
Stone: The Ritual Stone. This vampire leaves behind piles and piles of dead bodies. This makes it a powerful tool to be able to revive them all and make them do your bidding. Other viable choices could be The Lord, for the extra magic resistance, or the The Mage for leveling early game.
Stats Distribution: I went with 2|1|3 in Magicka|Health|Stamina. This character relies a lot on power attacks, with support from his magical powers, thus there is no real reason to put any points into health. Who needs Health when you’re never getting hit?
Shouts: Become Ethereal(with meditation), Fire Breath, Aura Whisper, Dismay.
Recommended Mods: Tribunal Masks, iHUD and Heartbreaker. As you may have noticed, the Bronze Tribunal Mask looks amazing with the armor combo for this build, so I’d highly recommend it, although none of these mods are necessary but they boost the immersion on this build. iHUD is a mod I’d just highly recommend as the overhaul on the HUD is brilliantly done! The Heartbreaker Mod allows you to rip the heart out of the chests of surrendering enemies, giving you yet another amazing finishing move for this evil character.
Two-handed: This is your primary offensive skill. You know how to put the Bloodskal Blade to use, and how to cut off the skulls of your foes with it. The stamina use reduction perks make the use of it a lot easier too, as you will be spending a lot of time using just the ranged power attack on the Bloodskal blade.
Illusion: This is your greatest utility skill. By making all your opponents fight one another, instead of yourself, you have the time to use the maximum potential of the power attacks of the Bloodskal Blade. This skill is a great defensive tool as well. When in need, you can always use a Potion of Fortify Illusion, and Calm your enemies while casting some healing spells, or waiting for your Magicka to come back.
Alchemy: By using potions, The Bloodskal Vampire is able to boost his abilities in combat even more. The potion that proves it’s use multiple times is the Fortify Restoration Potion, which allows you to extend your Become Ethereal shout to last longer than the cooldown! It also boost all of your other skills by using the Fortify Destruction, Conjuration and Illusion Potions!
Destruction: The perks in the destruction tree are limited to just apprentice. Your most important go-to spell is Ignite. This spell will simply set your foes on fire, dealing even more damage over time after. At higher levels Fireball becomes more useful for groups of enemies. What is more satisfying than watching your enemies burn to a crisp right?
Restoration: The Necromage Perk is incredibly powerful. Not only does it buff up the strength of all active affects, it also increases the healing done by your spells, as a vampire counts as undead. For this reason, I didn’t perk restoration past Apprentice, as Fast Healing, will heal more. Since there aren’t many point invested into Health, this spell should be able to save your life when you run low on health.
Conjuration: In the conjuration tree, Fire Familiar is one of my favorite spells in the game. This spell is hugely looked down upon, which I don’t get because it’s basically a homing Fire Rune. Combat should always be opened with the same combo, casting Fire Familiar in one hand, and Ignite in the other. The Fire Familiar deals quite some damage, and at a safe distance too! Of course, at higher levels you can even use the resurrection spells to make yourself an army before you even engage in direct combat!
Here’s a Perk Spread with all of the perks at level 40. Thanks to Golden Fool for the awesome Perk Spread!
When playing as the Bloodskal Vampire, you are a real powerhouse. As you follow the ways of the Quarra, you are no fond of sneaking. You do use Aura Whisper however to track down your targets. When engaging combat, you should simply walk in, drop a Fury Rune, and bait the enemies in. After that, use a Fortify Restoration Potion to buff the duration of Become Ethreal. As soon as the enemies triggers the rune, use Become Ethereal and walk to a distance. Once a distance away, you use the horizontal power attacks from the Bloodskal Blade to hit all enemies with the ray. These attacks don’t cancel the Become Ethereal shout, even when the ray hits multiple enemies. When you see the shout run out, use the Critical Charge Power Attack. Usually this will kill most of the enemies, like groups of bandits for example. Now to know how to handle different enemies here you find a few examples of how you should handle combat.
Example 1: You want to clear out a Forsworn Camp.
In open combat situations, The Bloodskal Vampire causes pure slaughter. When doing things similar to this, you can easily handle combat like described above. The difference is that you now have the opportunity to simply cast Ignite, dealing DPS before even entering combat. When entering the Camp, use your Flaming Familiar in your left hand, and the Ignite in the other. These two can cause massive destruction, setting your enemies on fire, and even send your furious Fire Familiar towards them, hurling them in even more flames. As soon as you are forced to go in melee combat. Simply cast one last fire familiar, but swap out your Ignite spell for the Fury Rune and drop it in front of you. Now all you have to do is bait as many enemies in the Rune as possible and continue combat as described at the start of this section.
Example 2 : You get caught in one on one combat with a Bandit Chief or some other big guy.
When in one on one combat, The Bloodskal Vampire can’t really rely on his Fury Rune as he will only make it worse for himself. You don’t really have the health to take the hits to be swinging spells around. Your best option is to either use the Dismay shout and kill them with power attacks as they run away, or to use the Become Ethereal Shout and Fire Breath shout, to switch between making yourself immune to damage and dealing some nice fire damage. So when in close combat with only one opponent, your best option is to make smart use of the shouts to turn the battle.
Example 3 : You get attacked by a dragon.
Even though this character is able to fight dragons, I generally avoided them, as soon as I got the dragon souls needed for the shouts. Dragons are too powerful and deal to much damage for you to take, even with the buffed Become Ethereal Shout. I found myself being killed by dragons when I tried to fight them. The fact that fire damage is not very effective on them, makes it hard to just pick them off with Ignite. The Bloodskal Blade’s power attack ray only deals 30 damage so this won’t help you much either. As soon as you have access to the higher tier spells like Fireball, you can easily pick them off with spells. Especially with a Fortify Destruction Potion. So my advice for dragons, unless you’ve mastered the arcane arts, run away from them in Become Ethereal.
Now that we know how to handle combat it’s time to move onto the next section… .
“Not even Lord Harkon’s Vampire Lord can save him from my vengeance….“
By the way the Bloodskal Vampire looks, you can clearly see the roots from Vvardenfell. I highly recommend using the Bronze Tribunal Mask with this armor combination as it really adds to the looks of the character, without making it look like it doesn’t fit with the lore. The armor used can be seen on the beautiful equipment spread by Golden Fool.
The increased Magicka on the Novice Hood and the boost to Magicka Regen on the Telvanni Robes, helps out the playstyle of the Bloodskal Vampire, specifically the Aundae elements used in Illusion, Destruction and Conjuration. The Mythic Dawn boots and gloves can be acquired by looting them off the poor fool who thought he could steal Mehrunes Dagon’s favor from you. The Bloodskal Blade can be found on Solstheim in Raven Rock Mine, but beware, this quest is not for the early levels, I recommend leveling to atleast level 10 before attempting this quest. Now it’s time to move onto the next section… .
When playing as The Bloodskal Vampire, you are a general Chaotic Evil sort of character. Devoured by his own anger, he doesn’t do well in big cities, especially since the Vampirism is a common feared thing. Avoid the big cities as much as possible. Now of course, after reading the backstory for this guy, you already know that The Bloodskal Vampire is going to infiltrate Harkon’s Court by starting the Dawnguard Questline and joining the Volkihar Clan after that, making him a mixture of 3 really powerfull vampire bloodlines. The choices to be made for side quests are simply all of the quests that somehow have something to do with killing vampires and other unworthy undead filth. Here’s a list of the major quests to be done.
The Volkihar Questline : This one is obvious, by killing Harkon, you take the place of the leader of the most powerful vampire bloodline in Skyrim. And you also finally show the other vampires what a REAL vampire looks like.. .
The Main Questline : Less obvious than the Volkihar Questline, but still essential. By enabling yourself to have access to the power of both a vampire and dragons, you become even more unstoppable than you already were. I only completed this questline up to the end of Alduin’s Wall.
Dragonborn Questline : After you find out that Miraak is terrorizing the people of Solstheim, you go back to your homeland to chase after Miraak and destroy him. Only one individual is allowed to be the strongest on this land, and that is nobody but The Bloodskal Vampire himself.
Now that we know what quests to do and how to roleplay this character, it’s time to head to the final section… .
There we have it. This build was a desperate attempt at getting my creativity back, after more than 20 character build ideas, that ended up in the ‘idea trash bin’ because I wasn’t satisfied with them or felt like it was a generally boring concept. With this build I’ve rediscovered my inspiration, so in some way I could call this my most ambitious build so far.
I hope that everyone who reads this, enjoys playing the build as much as I did, after tons of playtesting. Of course, I didn’t do all of this alone, I am unable to make perk and equipment spreads that are even close to what Golden Fool managed to do with them. A huge thanks to him for the incredibly amazing Equipment Spread and Perk Spread!!
Ow, and if you enjoyed the build, feel free to leave a comment or give it a like. Of course you can also check out My Page for more builds!
“You have not seen the power of a true vampire.”
This build was born out of the desire to make a build that uses some things I’ve never even considered using. One of these was the Bloodskal Blade, and other stuff like Vampirism without the Vampire Lord. The result is what I would call my take on a true vampire. Using the offensive powers of the Bloodskal Blade, Illusion spells and the Become Ethereal shout, this character ended up being really enjoyable, without feeling too powerful. So without further ado I present to you what I would call my most ambitious build so far, The Bloodskal Vampire.
Lore: The Quarra and Aundae Clan
The Quarra and Aundae are among the most feared vampire bloodlines on Vvardenfell. The Quarra are the most gifted in extreme physical strength. The Aundae however, are gifted in the arcane arts to ambush their prey. Both bloodlines were believed to be extinct along with the Berne after the eruption of Red Mountain in 4E 5. What is nowhere to be mentioned, however, is the existence of a survivor. This survivor has been in hiding, preparing for his revenge on all other vampire bloodlines…
“I can’t even remember how long I have been like this, hiding in the shadows of the night. Nobody knows about my existence, but they shall all come to regret it. Now you may wonder how I became like this? I shall tell you.. .
I was originally a member of the Quarra, amongst the strongest of their members actually. But they betrayed me… . Love you see, is a powerful thing, even for a vampire like me. The Quarra couldn’t comprehend my feelings, so they banished me. They even killed the women I fell in love with. After being banished, however, the Aundae seemed to have a strange interest in me. They said that they’d let me join their bloodline, even though the Aundae can’t stand the Quarra. Blinded by anger, I accepted their proposal and became the very first hybrid between the bloodlines of two of the most feared vampire bloodlines in Vvardenfell… .
The Aundae, however simply used me as a tool of mass destruction, ordering me around like I was some sort of Thrall. I couldn’t stand them… so I left. Of course, I got hunted by both the Quarra and the Aundae, both looking to kill the betrayer, but I managed to stay hidden. Even when they all got slaughtered and their bloodlines ended, I survived.
What am I doing in this cave? The answer is simple really… planning my revenge on every vampire who dares to face me. Nobody knows what a vampire is capable of doing, especially if they would put aside their arrogance. My biggest hatred, however goes towards Harkon, leader of the Volkihar bloodline. They act like they’re better than all other clans, simply because they got gifted with the Vampire Lord. Harkon looks down upon me, and every other vampire who don’t have this gift. So I am planning on infiltrating his ranks, and kill him.”
“This is the story of the betrayer, who got abandoned by multiple bloodlines. But heed my words, while hiding in Solstheim, I found some powerful tools that will help me in achieving my goal…..”
Race: Dark Elf. Not only does the Fire Resistance help out a lot as the character is a vampire, but the Ancestor’s Wrath racial power really fits the aesthetics of the build as well. Other viable choices would be High Elf or Breton. Both have decent boosts to the skills used in this build.
Stone: The Ritual Stone. This vampire leaves behind piles and piles of dead bodies. This makes it a powerful tool to be able to revive them all and make them do your bidding. Other viable choices could be The Lord, for the extra magic resistance, or the The Mage for leveling early game.
Stats Distribution: I went with 2|1|3 in Magicka|Health|Stamina. This character relies a lot on power attacks, with support from his magical powers, thus there is no real reason to put any points into health. Who needs Health when you’re never getting hit?
Shouts: Become Ethereal(with meditation), Fire Breath, Aura Whisper, Dismay.
Recommended Mods: Tribunal Masks, iHUD and Heartbreaker. As you may have noticed, the Bronze Tribunal Mask looks amazing with the armor combo for this build, so I’d highly recommend it, although none of these mods are necessary but they boost the immersion on this build. iHUD is a mod I’d just highly recommend as the overhaul on the HUD is brilliantly done! The Heartbreaker Mod allows you to rip the heart out of the chests of surrendering enemies, giving you yet another amazing finishing move for this evil character.
Two-handed: This is your primary offensive skill. You know how to put the Bloodskal Blade to use, and how to cut off the skulls of your foes with it. The stamina use reduction perks make the use of it a lot easier too, as you will be spending a lot of time using just the ranged power attack on the Bloodskal blade.
Illusion: This is your greatest utility skill. By making all your opponents fight one another, instead of yourself, you have the time to use the maximum potential of the power attacks of the Bloodskal Blade. This skill is a great defensive tool as well. When in need, you can always use a Potion of Fortify Illusion, and Calm your enemies while casting some healing spells, or waiting for your Magicka to come back.
Alchemy: By using potions, The Bloodskal Vampire is able to boost his abilities in combat even more. The potion that proves it’s use multiple times is the Fortify Restoration Potion, which allows you to extend your Become Ethereal shout to last longer than the cooldown! It also boost all of your other skills by using the Fortify Destruction, Conjuration and Illusion Potions!
Destruction: The perks in the destruction tree are limited to just apprentice. Your most important go-to spell is Ignite. This spell will simply set your foes on fire, dealing even more damage over time after. At higher levels Fireball becomes more useful for groups of enemies. What is more satisfying than watching your enemies burn to a crisp right?
Restoration: The Necromage Perk is incredibly powerful. Not only does it buff up the strength of all active affects, it also increases the healing done by your spells, as a vampire counts as undead. For this reason, I didn’t perk restoration past Apprentice, as Fast Healing, will heal more. Since there aren’t many point invested into Health, this spell should be able to save your life when you run low on health.
Conjuration: In the conjuration tree, Fire Familiar is one of my favorite spells in the game. This spell is hugely looked down upon, which I don’t get because it’s basically a homing Fire Rune. Combat should always be opened with the same combo, casting Fire Familiar in one hand, and Ignite in the other. The Fire Familiar deals quite some damage, and at a safe distance too! Of course, at higher levels you can even use the resurrection spells to make yourself an army before you even engage in direct combat!
Here’s a Perk Spread with all of the perks at level 40. Thanks to Golden Fool for the awesome Perk Spread!
When playing as the Bloodskal Vampire, you are a real powerhouse. As you follow the ways of the Quarra, you are no fond of sneaking. You do use Aura Whisper however to track down your targets. When engaging combat, you should simply walk in, drop a Fury Rune, and bait the enemies in. After that, use a Fortify Restoration Potion to buff the duration of Become Ethreal. As soon as the enemies triggers the rune, use Become Ethereal and walk to a distance. Once a distance away, you use the horizontal power attacks from the Bloodskal Blade to hit all enemies with the ray. These attacks don’t cancel the Become Ethereal shout, even when the ray hits multiple enemies. When you see the shout run out, use the Critical Charge Power Attack. Usually this will kill most of the enemies, like groups of bandits for example. Now to know how to handle different enemies here you find a few examples of how you should handle combat.
Example 1: You want to clear out a Forsworn Camp.
In open combat situations, The Bloodskal Vampire causes pure slaughter. When doing things similar to this, you can easily handle combat like described above. The difference is that you now have the opportunity to simply cast Ignite, dealing DPS before even entering combat. When entering the Camp, use your Flaming Familiar in your left hand, and the Ignite in the other. These two can cause massive destruction, setting your enemies on fire, and even send your furious Fire Familiar towards them, hurling them in even more flames. As soon as you are forced to go in melee combat. Simply cast one last fire familiar, but swap out your Ignite spell for the Fury Rune and drop it in front of you. Now all you have to do is bait as many enemies in the Rune as possible and continue combat as described at the start of this section.
Example 2 : You get caught in one on one combat with a Bandit Chief or some other big guy.
When in one on one combat, The Bloodskal Vampire can’t really rely on his Fury Rune as he will only make it worse for himself. You don’t really have the health to take the hits to be swinging spells around. Your best option is to either use the Dismay shout and kill them with power attacks as they run away, or to use the Become Ethereal Shout and Fire Breath shout, to switch between making yourself immune to damage and dealing some nice fire damage. So when in close combat with only one opponent, your best option is to make smart use of the shouts to turn the battle.
Example 3 : You get attacked by a dragon.
Even though this character is able to fight dragons, I generally avoided them, as soon as I got the dragon souls needed for the shouts. Dragons are too powerful and deal to much damage for you to take, even with the buffed Become Ethereal Shout. I found myself being killed by dragons when I tried to fight them. The fact that fire damage is not very effective on them, makes it hard to just pick them off with Ignite. The Bloodskal Blade’s power attack ray only deals 30 damage so this won’t help you much either. As soon as you have access to the higher tier spells like Fireball, you can easily pick them off with spells. Especially with a Fortify Destruction Potion. So my advice for dragons, unless you’ve mastered the arcane arts, run away from them in Become Ethereal.
Now that we know how to handle combat it’s time to move onto the next section… .
“Not even Lord Harkon’s Vampire Lord can save him from my vengeance….“
By the way the Bloodskal Vampire looks, you can clearly see the roots from Vvardenfell. I highly recommend using the Bronze Tribunal Mask with this armor combination as it really adds to the looks of the character, without making it look like it doesn’t fit with the lore. The armor used can be seen on the beautiful equipment spread by Golden Fool.
The increased Magicka on the Novice Hood and the boost to Magicka Regen on the Telvanni Robes, helps out the playstyle of the Bloodskal Vampire, specifically the Aundae elements used in Illusion, Destruction and Conjuration. The Mythic Dawn boots and gloves can be acquired by looting them off the poor fool who thought he could steal Mehrunes Dagon’s favor from you. The Bloodskal Blade can be found on Solstheim in Raven Rock Mine, but beware, this quest is not for the early levels, I recommend leveling to atleast level 10 before attempting this quest. Now it’s time to move onto the next section… .
When playing as The Bloodskal Vampire, you are a general Chaotic Evil sort of character. Devoured by his own anger, he doesn’t do well in big cities, especially since the Vampirism is a common feared thing. Avoid the big cities as much as possible. Now of course, after reading the backstory for this guy, you already know that The Bloodskal Vampire is going to infiltrate Harkon’s Court by starting the Dawnguard Questline and joining the Volkihar Clan after that, making him a mixture of 3 really powerfull vampire bloodlines. The choices to be made for side quests are simply all of the quests that somehow have something to do with killing vampires and other unworthy undead filth. Here’s a list of the major quests to be done.
The Volkihar Questline : This one is obvious, by killing Harkon, you take the place of the leader of the most powerful vampire bloodline in Skyrim. And you also finally show the other vampires what a REAL vampire looks like.. .
The Main Questline : Less obvious than the Volkihar Questline, but still essential. By enabling yourself to have access to the power of both a vampire and dragons, you become even more unstoppable than you already were. I only completed this questline up to the end of Alduin’s Wall.
Dragonborn Questline : After you find out that Miraak is terrorizing the people of Solstheim, you go back to your homeland to chase after Miraak and destroy him. Only one individual is allowed to be the strongest on this land, and that is nobody but The Bloodskal Vampire himself.
Now that we know what quests to do and how to roleplay this character, it’s time to head to the final section… .
There we have it. This build was a desperate attempt at getting my creativity back, after more than 20 character build ideas, that ended up in the ‘idea trash bin’ because I wasn’t satisfied with them or felt like it was a generally boring concept. With this build I’ve rediscovered my inspiration, so in some way I could call this my most ambitious build so far.
I hope that everyone who reads this, enjoys playing the build as much as I did, after tons of playtesting. Of course, I didn’t do all of this alone, I am unable to make perk and equipment spreads that are even close to what Golden Fool managed to do with them. A huge thanks to him for the incredibly amazing Equipment Spread and Perk Spread!!
Ow, and if you enjoyed the build, feel free to leave a comment or give it a like. Of course you can also check out My Page for more builds!
