While I was working on one of my previous builds (The Chirurgeon, a Skyrim take on Frankenstein) I had the idea of doing a series of builds based on the classic Universal movie monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf-Man etc. However, I gave up on the idea of doing a full series since vampire and werewolf builds are a dime a dozen and the ideas I had for them have already been done to a much greater degree than I could give justice. However, my Gill-man (Creature from the Black Lagoon) concept seemed unique and fun so I thought I’d post it for the community.
-THE CREATURE OF LAKE ILINALTA-
A decent catch of fish is getting harder to come by. Without a good spot soon, I don’t think we’ll survive the next winter, so I’m traveling further south towards Lake Ilinalta. Folks say it’s cursed. Whole Imperial Fort just sank into the water one day, and they say the ruins have been haunted since.
When I asked, I got ghost stories. Tales of people who went out near the lake and never came back. They say spirits haunt the hallways of the sunken fort and steal little children from their mothers’ cribs. No amount of coin could convince any of the nearby villagers to guide me there, so I’m following the White River.
Divines protect me. I hope the stories aren’t true.
-Fisherman’s Journal
Race: Argonian, no other race will fit. You will need scaly skin and the ability to breathe water. Make yourself as hideous and fish like as possible. I found making the nose, mouth, and jaw all as shallow and wide as you can makes for a pretty hideous and almost froglike appearance. Vampirism is necessary to obtain the Ring of the Beast, plus it gives you some nasty fangs furthering the feral appearance of this character.
Stone: Shadow and Serpent. Depending on your preference and play style store one in the Aetherial Crown and leave the other for special occasions.
Major Skills: Smithing, Enchanting, Sneak.
Minor Skills: Heavy Armor, Restoration, Destruction.
Stat Placement: M: 1 H: 2 S: 2 every five levels.
Weapons: Claws and Bioelectricity!
Apparel: Armor made of hides, furs, scales, etc. with heavy armor gloves. The creature creates its own clothing out of the skins of its prey. Pick up the Falmer armor set found in Mzinchaleft to start off the play thru. Upgrade to chitin armor, chitin boots, and chitin heavy gauntlets. Eventually we will upgrade to dragon scale armor, boots, and helmet with dragon plate gauntlets.
Gear: Any ring self enchanted with fortify unarmed, Aetherial Crown, Ring of the Beast, Ring of Namira.
Enchantments: Fortify unarmed on hands and ring. Fortify Destruction/Fortify Magicka on head. Fortify Health/Fortify Stamina on necklace, and chest. Muffle/Fortify Sneak on feet.
Shouts: Marked for Death.
Perk Spread Level 25
Smithing: The creature is able to make its own armor out of the skins and scales of its prey. Elven Smithing will allow us to forge our own set of chitin armor which we will use for most of the play thru, until we get Dragon Smithing. Arcane Blacksmith isn't necessary since we will be crafting a new set of armor every time we want to upgrade our enchantments anyway.
Enchanting: This build wouldn’t work without this skill, mainly for fortify unarmed. Hitch a ride to Riften early to pick this enchantment up in the Rat Way. Take every perk in the middle branch, the rest aren't necessary for this build since we won’t be using conventional weapons. Though Fire Enchanter may be useful to offset our weakness to fire with some fire resistance enchantments.
Sneak: The creature is a stalker by nature slowly approaching its prey beneath the water’s surface. Focus more on getting into position then on assassinating targets, unarmed sneak attacks can be hard to execute properly since your reach is so limited. Go up the left branch all the way to Shadow Warrior. The right branch is reliant on weapons to be useful.
Heavy Armor: The creature uses its claws to kill its prey. Unarmed combat is limited in damage output with few ways to improve it. The Fists of Steel perk is necessary for any unarmed build and will be adding 10 to 18 points of damage depending on the base armor rating of the gauntlets.
Restoration: The creature boasts unnatural regenerative capabilities, able to shrug off even the most devastating blows. Furthermore the creature is unrelenting in combat with boundless stores of savage energy. Minimally perked, we want the respite and regeneration perks making our low tier restoration spells pull double duty.
Destruction: Like some other aquatic hunters the creature is able to produce a bioelectric charge, its mastery of which enable it to give off bursts of electricity that can incapacitate and even kill prey from afar. Another minimally perked skill, higher level characters may want to take further cost reduction perks.
The Beginning
An important part of any role-play is the origin story. You need to know how you got to Helgen in the first place. Yes, even this monster has an origin story that leads to Helgen’s executioner.
The Horror: Sealed long ago in an ancient barrow by forgotten eldritch rites. The creature has slept undisturbed for centuries. Over time the valley of the barrow flooded forming Lake Ilinalta, concealing the monstrosity in its depths. Until the Empire came along and began building a fort on the shore of the lake, they were unaware of the barrow beneath them until the tunnels collapsed and the fort sank beneath the waves. A creature out of the ancient past emerged from the lake that night. The ancient seals that had once bound it were now broken. Possessed of a terrible hunger, the creature devoured all of the injured soldiers that remained. To this day the creature lurks beneath the surface and makes its den in the halls of the ruined keep. It lives for the hunt, the kill, and the sweet flesh of its prey.
Recently there have been several gruesome deaths, mostly hunters and fishers, in the Lake Ilinalta area. This has caused the local Legion contingent to investigate; and what they found was the creature, a wild eyed and vicious thing incapable of speech. Believing it to be an argonian and therefore a defunct citizen of the empire, the legionnaires decided to capture the suspected murderer rather than slay him outright. This led to the creature being held prisoner in Helgen.
Tooth and Claw
The creature uses its claws and feral strength in combat. It rends the flesh of its opponents with endless slashes and swipes of its muck encrusted claws. It doesn’t use weapons and its armor is just the bones, shells, and skins of beasts hung on the body in a poor imitation of civilized clothing.
Unfortunately unarmed combat in Skyrim is not governed by a skill like one handed, two handed, or archery and therefore can’t be organically improved through use or training. To simulate unarmed combat growth and training we will instead train other skills that will help us improve our damage potential and durability. Therefore the “Unarmed skill” will be represented by Heavy Armor, Smithing, and Enchanting.
Heavy Armor is taken for one reason, the Fists of Steel perk. This perk will add an additional 17 damage once we have dragonplate gauntlets.
Smithing is the easiest and most reliable way of getting dragon armor which doesn’t start appearing until level 40. We will be able to create these items long before they start showing up in chests.
Enchanting is the final path to further improve our unarmed damage. Fully perked this will increase the unarmed enchantments magnitude by 125%.
In the end we will have a total 51 damage per hit, 59 if we use the Ring of the Beast, without any glitches or exploits. See James’ post for a more in depth look at unarmed damage and its effectiveness in Skyrim.
The Supernatural Beast
In addition to its hooked claws and needle like teeth this creature has another weapon at its disposal, bioelectric manipulation. The creature is able to create an electric charge within its own body and is able to discharge this energy in controlled and aimed bursts, or allow it to build within, creating an electric field around the entire body, damaging anything foolish enough to get too close. The creature uses this ability to stun and weaken its prey while it closes in for the kill.
The Destruction magic school provides this build with its ranged capabilities. Focusing specifically on the shock spells. This represents the uncanny ability of the creature to shock its prey and is used both offensively and defensively. Spells include Sparks, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lightning Cloak.
The creature is also possessed of some powerful defensive adaptations making it just as deadly when surprised or ambushed. When startled the creature spits corrosive venom into the face of its attacker, causing temporary paralysis and blinding pain. This distraction provides a window of opportunity for the creature to flee to safety, or dispose of it’s would be slayer. In addition to this the creature’s skin has a chameleon like ability; this ability is so powerful that the creature is all but invisible to the naked eye, even while moving.
The Aetherial crown allows us to equip both the Serpent Stone and the Shadow Stone abilities at the same time. Loading one of these into the crown and taking the other natively. Which stone goes in the crown depends on your play style preference. Aggressive players may want to load the Serpent ability in the crown allowing infinite uses of the paralyzing poison. Defensive players may want multiple uses of the Shadow stone allowing them to disappear and bypass enemies or escape ambushes.
Play Style
Hunting and exploration are the name of the game. This is the first time that I really used the water breathing ability to its fullest. Take the time to explore every body of water you come across as you hunt the hunters of Skyrim. There are all sorts of hidden places that I never knew existed because I never bothered to search the bottoms of lakes or rivers. Stay close to water as much as possible. It’s your natural habitat and where you hold the advantage. Stalk the unwary fishermen and hunters, sneak into their camps at night and leave no survivors.
The goal is to kill as many enemies as you can before being detected. Once you assassinate the first target rush to the next while they are still confused and drawing their weapons. For tougher fights or when sneaking isn’t an option throw a lightning cloak on and hit the enemy with Marked for Death. Take out the small fry first until you can focus all your energy on the boss. When facing dragons, pelt them with your shock magic until they land, then get in close and rip through them with your claws, not only will they be weakened by your lightning they will also be drained of magicka preventing them from using their deadly breath weapon. Marked for Death is the main shout of this character and is useful in almost every encounter at later levels.
Suggested Dungeons
Mzinchaleft
Ilinalta’s Deep
Chillwind Depths
Broken Oar Grotto
Darkwater Pass
East Empire Company Warehouse/Brinewater Grotto
Giermund’s Hall
Kagrenzel
Nchuand-Zel
Stony Creek Cave
Fort Greenwall via Greenwall Cave
Fort Neugrad via Neugrad Lake
Nchardak
Pilgrim’s Trench
Wreck of the Brinehammer
Wreck of the Icerunner
Wreck of the Price of Tel Vos
Wreck of the Winter War
There’s something unsettling about these caravan attacks. I expected bandits, but the remains we saw were literally torn apart, rent limb from limb. Yet no mere animal could coordinate an attack on a full-sized merchant train. And wolves don't take prisoners. We've found a trail leading up into the hills. We'll make camp here for the night, then set out at dawn. Whoever- whatever- murdered those people, we'll make sure it never happens again.
-Adventurer’s Journal
Conclusion
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your interest and look forward to any comments you may have. This was intended as a fun build just to mess around with and I hope you have found it to be fun as well. Special thanks to James for his breakdown on unarmed damage, man that is one smart guy.
-Vargr
While I was working on one of my previous builds (The Chirurgeon, a Skyrim take on Frankenstein) I had the idea of doing a series of builds based on the classic Universal movie monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf-Man etc. However, I gave up on the idea of doing a full series since vampire and werewolf builds are a dime a dozen and the ideas I had for them have already been done to a much greater degree than I could give justice. However, my Gill-man (Creature from the Black Lagoon) concept seemed unique and fun so I thought I’d post it for the community.
-THE CREATURE OF LAKE ILINALTA-
A decent catch of fish is getting harder to come by. Without a good spot soon, I don’t think we’ll survive the next winter, so I’m traveling further south towards Lake Ilinalta. Folks say it’s cursed. Whole Imperial Fort just sank into the water one day, and they say the ruins have been haunted since.
When I asked, I got ghost stories. Tales of people who went out near the lake and never came back. They say spirits haunt the hallways of the sunken fort and steal little children from their mothers’ cribs. No amount of coin could convince any of the nearby villagers to guide me there, so I’m following the White River.
Divines protect me. I hope the stories aren’t true.
-Fisherman’s Journal
Race: Argonian, no other race will fit. You will need scaly skin and the ability to breathe water. Make yourself as hideous and fish like as possible. I found making the nose, mouth, and jaw all as shallow and wide as you can makes for a pretty hideous and almost froglike appearance. Vampirism is necessary to obtain the Ring of the Beast, plus it gives you some nasty fangs furthering the feral appearance of this character.
Stone: Shadow and Serpent. Depending on your preference and play style store one in the Aetherial Crown and leave the other for special occasions.
Major Skills: Smithing, Enchanting, Sneak.
Minor Skills: Heavy Armor, Restoration, Destruction.
Stat Placement: M: 1 H: 2 S: 2 every five levels.
Weapons: Claws and Bioelectricity!
Apparel: Armor made of hides, furs, scales, etc. with heavy armor gloves. The creature creates its own clothing out of the skins of its prey. Pick up the Falmer armor set found in Mzinchaleft to start off the play thru. Upgrade to chitin armor, chitin boots, and chitin heavy gauntlets. Eventually we will upgrade to dragon scale armor, boots, and helmet with dragon plate gauntlets.
Gear: Any ring self enchanted with fortify unarmed, Aetherial Crown, Ring of the Beast, Ring of Namira.
Enchantments: Fortify unarmed on hands and ring. Fortify Destruction/Fortify Magicka on head. Fortify Health/Fortify Stamina on necklace, and chest. Muffle/Fortify Sneak on feet.
Shouts: Marked for Death.
Perk Spread Level 25
Smithing: The creature is able to make its own armor out of the skins and scales of its prey. Elven Smithing will allow us to forge our own set of chitin armor which we will use for most of the play thru, until we get Dragon Smithing. Arcane Blacksmith isn't necessary since we will be crafting a new set of armor every time we want to upgrade our enchantments anyway.
Enchanting: This build wouldn’t work without this skill, mainly for fortify unarmed. Hitch a ride to Riften early to pick this enchantment up in the Rat Way. Take every perk in the middle branch, the rest aren't necessary for this build since we won’t be using conventional weapons. Though Fire Enchanter may be useful to offset our weakness to fire with some fire resistance enchantments.
Sneak: The creature is a stalker by nature slowly approaching its prey beneath the water’s surface. Focus more on getting into position then on assassinating targets, unarmed sneak attacks can be hard to execute properly since your reach is so limited. Go up the left branch all the way to Shadow Warrior. The right branch is reliant on weapons to be useful.
Heavy Armor: The creature uses its claws to kill its prey. Unarmed combat is limited in damage output with few ways to improve it. The Fists of Steel perk is necessary for any unarmed build and will be adding 10 to 18 points of damage depending on the base armor rating of the gauntlets.
Restoration: The creature boasts unnatural regenerative capabilities, able to shrug off even the most devastating blows. Furthermore the creature is unrelenting in combat with boundless stores of savage energy. Minimally perked, we want the respite and regeneration perks making our low tier restoration spells pull double duty.
Destruction: Like some other aquatic hunters the creature is able to produce a bioelectric charge, its mastery of which enable it to give off bursts of electricity that can incapacitate and even kill prey from afar. Another minimally perked skill, higher level characters may want to take further cost reduction perks.
The Beginning
An important part of any role-play is the origin story. You need to know how you got to Helgen in the first place. Yes, even this monster has an origin story that leads to Helgen’s executioner.
The Horror: Sealed long ago in an ancient barrow by forgotten eldritch rites. The creature has slept undisturbed for centuries. Over time the valley of the barrow flooded forming Lake Ilinalta, concealing the monstrosity in its depths. Until the Empire came along and began building a fort on the shore of the lake, they were unaware of the barrow beneath them until the tunnels collapsed and the fort sank beneath the waves. A creature out of the ancient past emerged from the lake that night. The ancient seals that had once bound it were now broken. Possessed of a terrible hunger, the creature devoured all of the injured soldiers that remained. To this day the creature lurks beneath the surface and makes its den in the halls of the ruined keep. It lives for the hunt, the kill, and the sweet flesh of its prey.
Recently there have been several gruesome deaths, mostly hunters and fishers, in the Lake Ilinalta area. This has caused the local Legion contingent to investigate; and what they found was the creature, a wild eyed and vicious thing incapable of speech. Believing it to be an argonian and therefore a defunct citizen of the empire, the legionnaires decided to capture the suspected murderer rather than slay him outright. This led to the creature being held prisoner in Helgen.
Tooth and Claw
The creature uses its claws and feral strength in combat. It rends the flesh of its opponents with endless slashes and swipes of its muck encrusted claws. It doesn’t use weapons and its armor is just the bones, shells, and skins of beasts hung on the body in a poor imitation of civilized clothing.
Unfortunately unarmed combat in Skyrim is not governed by a skill like one handed, two handed, or archery and therefore can’t be organically improved through use or training. To simulate unarmed combat growth and training we will instead train other skills that will help us improve our damage potential and durability. Therefore the “Unarmed skill” will be represented by Heavy Armor, Smithing, and Enchanting.
Heavy Armor is taken for one reason, the Fists of Steel perk. This perk will add an additional 17 damage once we have dragonplate gauntlets.
Smithing is the easiest and most reliable way of getting dragon armor which doesn’t start appearing until level 40. We will be able to create these items long before they start showing up in chests.
Enchanting is the final path to further improve our unarmed damage. Fully perked this will increase the unarmed enchantments magnitude by 125%.
In the end we will have a total 51 damage per hit, 59 if we use the Ring of the Beast, without any glitches or exploits. See James’ post for a more in depth look at unarmed damage and its effectiveness in Skyrim.
The Supernatural Beast
In addition to its hooked claws and needle like teeth this creature has another weapon at its disposal, bioelectric manipulation. The creature is able to create an electric charge within its own body and is able to discharge this energy in controlled and aimed bursts, or allow it to build within, creating an electric field around the entire body, damaging anything foolish enough to get too close. The creature uses this ability to stun and weaken its prey while it closes in for the kill.
The Destruction magic school provides this build with its ranged capabilities. Focusing specifically on the shock spells. This represents the uncanny ability of the creature to shock its prey and is used both offensively and defensively. Spells include Sparks, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lightning Cloak.
The creature is also possessed of some powerful defensive adaptations making it just as deadly when surprised or ambushed. When startled the creature spits corrosive venom into the face of its attacker, causing temporary paralysis and blinding pain. This distraction provides a window of opportunity for the creature to flee to safety, or dispose of it’s would be slayer. In addition to this the creature’s skin has a chameleon like ability; this ability is so powerful that the creature is all but invisible to the naked eye, even while moving.
The Aetherial crown allows us to equip both the Serpent Stone and the Shadow Stone abilities at the same time. Loading one of these into the crown and taking the other natively. Which stone goes in the crown depends on your play style preference. Aggressive players may want to load the Serpent ability in the crown allowing infinite uses of the paralyzing poison. Defensive players may want multiple uses of the Shadow stone allowing them to disappear and bypass enemies or escape ambushes.
Play Style
Hunting and exploration are the name of the game. This is the first time that I really used the water breathing ability to its fullest. Take the time to explore every body of water you come across as you hunt the hunters of Skyrim. There are all sorts of hidden places that I never knew existed because I never bothered to search the bottoms of lakes or rivers. Stay close to water as much as possible. It’s your natural habitat and where you hold the advantage. Stalk the unwary fishermen and hunters, sneak into their camps at night and leave no survivors.
The goal is to kill as many enemies as you can before being detected. Once you assassinate the first target rush to the next while they are still confused and drawing their weapons. For tougher fights or when sneaking isn’t an option throw a lightning cloak on and hit the enemy with Marked for Death. Take out the small fry first until you can focus all your energy on the boss. When facing dragons, pelt them with your shock magic until they land, then get in close and rip through them with your claws, not only will they be weakened by your lightning they will also be drained of magicka preventing them from using their deadly breath weapon. Marked for Death is the main shout of this character and is useful in almost every encounter at later levels.
Suggested Dungeons
Mzinchaleft
Ilinalta’s Deep
Chillwind Depths
Broken Oar Grotto
Darkwater Pass
East Empire Company Warehouse/Brinewater Grotto
Giermund’s Hall
Kagrenzel
Nchuand-Zel
Stony Creek Cave
Fort Greenwall via Greenwall Cave
Fort Neugrad via Neugrad Lake
Nchardak
Pilgrim’s Trench
Wreck of the Brinehammer
Wreck of the Icerunner
Wreck of the Price of Tel Vos
Wreck of the Winter War
There’s something unsettling about these caravan attacks. I expected bandits, but the remains we saw were literally torn apart, rent limb from limb. Yet no mere animal could coordinate an attack on a full-sized merchant train. And wolves don't take prisoners. We've found a trail leading up into the hills. We'll make camp here for the night, then set out at dawn. Whoever- whatever- murdered those people, we'll make sure it never happens again.
-Adventurer’s Journal
Conclusion
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your interest and look forward to any comments you may have. This was intended as a fun build just to mess around with and I hope you have found it to be fun as well. Special thanks to James for his breakdown on unarmed damage, man that is one smart guy.
-Vargr
