Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Politician

Tags: #Character Build Dual-Wield  #Character Build Warrior  #Character Build Enchanter  #Rank:Recognized 
  • Member
    February 13, 2016

    This build came out of my boredom with magic and my disinterest in alchemy. I wanted a close and personal fighter that used light armor but didn’t have to worry about healing. What I came up with was a build that is fast and light but can still take on a large number of enemies head-on. The three weapons I was using reminded me of America’s three branch government system, and the Politician was born.

    “Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.” – Mao Zedong

    The Politician is not a real politician perse. Rather, he is a skilled fighter that admires the power and stability of a three house government system. Political ideas are embedded in his methods; weapons are his government, combat is his lawmaking, and souls are his currency. He hopes that by studying politics, he can further his fighting prowess, and perhaps one day, achieve the mental tact and strength of will to influence people like a true politician.


    The Build

    Race: Nord or Imperial

    Stat Spread: 0:1:1 until stamina is 250, then 0:1:0

    Standing Stone: The Warrior, then The Lord

    Major Skills: One-Handed, Enchanting, Smithing

    Minor Perks: Light Armor, Speech

    Shouts: Become Ethereal, Unrelenting Force, Whirlwind Sprint

    Armor: Party Colors (see Political Parties section below), Amulet of Talos

    Weapons: The President, The Legislature, and The Supreme Court (see Government section below)

    Important Items: The Black Star

    Important Quests: The Black Star, Forbidden Legend, Ironbind Barrow, The Dark Brotherhood, Skyrim Civil War

     

    Political Parties (Armor):

    Every politician has allegiance to his party. In Skyrim, there are two opposing factions: the Imperials and the Stormcloaks. As such, the Politician must choose a side and don his party’s colors. Imperial party members should start out with Imperial Light Armor and work up to Penitus Oculatus Armor.  Stormcloak party members should start with Stormcloak Armor and work up to Stormcloak Officer Armor. The two final sets of armor can ironically be most easily obtained by killing the wearers during the Dark Brotherhood questline Breaching Security and a bounty given by the Dark Mother after Hail Sithis! respectively. Despite these evils, a true politician understands that politics is a cutthroat game where exploiting one’s peers for personal gain is common practice.

    The Politician’s armor, including ring and amulet, should be enchanted with a mix of Fortify One-Handed and Fortify Healing Rate.

    The Government (Weapons):

    ”The end move in politics is always to pick up a sword.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

    The Politician employs three main weapons, named after the branches of a three-party system of government. Like a real government, the Politician’s weapons must be periodically swapped out for new ones whenever his enchanting and smithing skills allow their potency to improve. They should be steel early on and progress up to glass, but not dragon bone. A tactful politician does not wave around his accomplishments for all to see.

    The President: Dagger enchanted with Absorb Health

    The Politician’s light armor makes him a nimble fighter. However, despite the Lord Stone, he is still very vulnerable to damage. The President solves this issue. Always held in the left hand, the President allows the Politician’s extremely fast strikes to heal him through almost any damage. The President should always be enchanted with maximum health absorption/minimum charges.

    The Legislature: Sword enchanted with Absorb Stamina

    The Legislature is an extremely important body in any government. Just like in a real government, The Legislature plays a pivotal role in making laws/combating enemies, although The President usually has the final say. With the Absorb Stamina enchantment, The Legislature ensures that the Politician never has to stop power attacking. It is recommended that The Legislature be enchanted with lower potency – around 10 stamina absorption, and higher charge amount. Since power attacks can be executed as long as the Politician has at least some stamina, more absorption is not necessary.

     

    The Supreme Court: Axe enchanted with Fiery Soul Trap

    Like the government branch that it was named after, without The Supreme Court, the Politician’s ability to fight would quickly fall apart. While in play less than the other two branches, The Supreme Court replaces The Legislature in the Politician’s right hand whenever one of the weapons is low on enchantment charges. It should be enchanted with many charges and a short soul trap duration, around 2-4 seconds, so that it does not require much maintenance.

     

    Government Policy (Some notes on weapons and enchantments):

    Both necessary absorb enchantments can be easily obtained via the quest Forbidden Legend. Completing the Ironbind Barrow dungeon rewards both the Fiery Soul trap enchantment as well as the Become Ethereal shout.

    While the level 100 enchanting perk, Extra Effect, is great for the Politician’s armor, the extra soul cost it adds to weapons is undesirable. The Politician should not double enchant his weapons.

    Also, a smart Politician remembers to name his weapons! Steel Sword is not the name of a branch of government.

    Politics (Gameplay)

    The Politician, in almost all endeavors, faces things head on. He does not sneak, he does not use ranged weapons, and he does not use magic. He charges in and annihilates all in his path. While this may not seem the MO of a typical politician, shadier tactics come in to play later.

    Lawmaking (Combat):

    The Politician is, somewhat oxymoronically, a tactical berserker. He is not satisfied until his bills are passed, until all his enemies lay defeated. His light armor, large stamina pool, and mobility shouts let him dance from target to target. It is extremely important that The President never stops striking for long. If it does, the Politician is left vulnerable without his regeneration. 

    There are three basic types of political opponents that the Politician must deal with:

    The Headstrong Representative: This new blood has not been in politics long. As such, he believes that he can affect real change via melee attacks. The Politician dispatches him easily using his unlimited dual power attacks with The President and The Legislature.

    The Backbench Conspirer: This more experienced career politician is more familiar with the true nature of the political process and chooses to remain far away, firing at the Politician with ranged attacks. However, the Politician can easily become invulnerable and close the gap using Become Ethereal. Once he is in striking range, this backbencher stands no chance.

    The Imminent Scandal: This big name lawmaker has gotten a bit big for his britches, and the Politician has discovered enough information about some of his shady dealings to take him down. To catch this cowardly spell caster, the Politician must avoid stationary dual-wield power attacks and use his large stamina pool to chase down and expose this opponent.

    Impassioned Speeches (Some notes on shouts)

    The Politician knows when to turn on the passion and give a convincing performance of truly caring about whatever menial issue his constituents are concerned with. If falling from great heights or chasing an imminent scandal, Become Ethereal is his go-to method. When tearing down ideologues hiding behind their shields, he uses Unrelenting Force to stagger them and go for the kill. When facing many opponents scattered all over the legislative hall, he uses Whirlwind Sprint to quickly dash from target to target. His Amulet of Talos lets him swiftly recuperate and give another speech.

    Bureaucracy (Managing Soul Energy):

    The political process is one rife with bureaucratic barriers. In his quest for power, the Politician must navigate them in order to maintain the efficacy of his government arsenal. These political roadblocks come in the form of enchantment charge cost. To overcome them, it is very important to frequently make use of The Supreme Court to keep itself, and, more importantly, The President and The Legislature full of soul energy. If, while engaged in political combat, the Politician notices that one of his weapons are getting low on charges, he should quickly swap out The Legislature for The Supreme Court so that he may refill it with the Black Star. A good practice is to keep the Black Star filled even when all weapons are full, so that in the event of a dry spell in powerful souls, the Politician has something to fall back on.

    Move the Masses (Racial Skills)

    Every Politician occasionally finds himself in some hot water. However, one of the Politician’s key talents is his ability to affect others with nothing more than his voice, and talk his way out of a bad situation. Depending on his race, he can either make his enemies run in fear via Battle Cry or calm them via Voice of the Emperor.

    Foreign Policy (A note on Dwemer ruins):

    While the Politician makes short work of the Falmer commonly found in Dwemer ruins, Dwarven automata’s lack of life force negates the regenerative effects of The President and The Legislature. Fortunately, they often contain soul gems, so although he will not run out of currency, the Politician must utilize his extremely fast attack speed and generous use of Become Ethereal to take care of spiders, spheres, and centurions.

    Roleplaying

    “Politics have no relation to morals.” – Niccolo Machiavelli

    Important Quests:

    Political Study (The Black Star, Forbidden Legend, and Ironbind Barrow):

    The first stage in become a  Politician is collecting the tools necessary to do so. The Black Star obviously rewards The Black Star (make sure you take the Star to Nelacar). Forbidden Legend rewards three enchanted weapons, two of which contain Absorb Health and Absorb Stamina. Finally, The Ironbind barrow dungeon ends with the word wall for Become Ethereal's first word, as well as an enchanted battleaxe that contains Fiery Soul Trap. Once all these things are attained, the Politician is ready to start his political journey.

    Secret Society (The Dark Brotherhood):

    As a realist and student of political theory, the Politician recognizes that politics is not a clean game. He understands the necessity of an underlying hand shaping political policy. While he is truly and genuinely allegiant to his party, he also engages with the Dark Brotherhood, as their tactics allow him to bypass some of the bureaucracy that plagues politics.

    Working with the Dark Brotherhood also rewards the Politician with his second-tier armor: Penitus Oculatus Armor for Imperial Legionaries or Stormcloak Officer Armor for Stormcloaks. To obtain Penitus Oculatus Armor, simply kill  Gaius Maro during the quest Breaching Security and loot him for it. To obtain Stormcloak Officer Armor, take the bounty quest to kill The Beautiful Barbarian after the quest Hail Sithis! 

    Political Majority (Skyrim Civil War):

    No matter what shady dealings the Politician engages in on his own time, his primary obligation is to his party! He must pick a side and should ensure his party’s success relatively early on, securing a political majority by completing the Skyrim Civil War quest line.

    Other Roleplaying:

    Public Image (Marriage, Children, and Religion)

    During his political studies, the Politician has discovered that single people simply aren't very electable. Almost every successful politician has a spouse and usually some children. In his endeavor to become the best "public servant" that he can be, the Politician should follow suit, marrying in Skyrim's traditional way, as well as perhaps adopting a child or two. Of course, with a family, he will also need a sizable abode. A city house is okay, but a better, subtler display of power is a country estate. Finally, the Politician knows that a love for dogs looks great to the public eye, so he may want to adopt a dog from Banning near the Markarth stables to complete his politician's facade.

    In addition to a family, the Politician knows that faith is also very important to being electable. Since the majority of Skyrim's citizen's are fond of Talos and resentful of the Thalmor for outlawing his worship, the Politician wears an Amulet of Talos to show his respect for Nordic tradition and defiance of Elven oppression.

    The Taxpayer’s Expense (Convenient Soul Collecting):

    Sometimes, such as during an election, the Politician has a need to do a great deal of enchanting. However, he does not always have all the souls necessary. Thus, he devises a simple way to obtain black quality souls at the taxpayer’s expense, more specifically, their death. He can simply use The Supreme Court to slaughter any unsuspecting civilians in the vicinity of his enchanting table. Of course, nearby guards won’t be happy about this, which leads us to…

    Greed and Bribery:

    The Politician always wants more of two things: Gold and Souls, and he will do anything to amass more. The Speech skill tree lets him attain both with efficacy. The left side of the tree allows him to make better deals with merchants and bolster economic prosperity. Since he cannot be seen associating with the Thieves Guild, the Politician relies on the Bribery perk to pay guards to look the other way when he inevitably takes the souls of his own constituents. 

    Dragons:

    The Politician fears no opponent, no matter how powerful or dangerous. He understands that the defeat of mighty enemies only serves to increase his own political standing, and he makes no exceptions toward dragons, as they are seen as the ultimate political adversary. Fortunately, his extreme damage output forces weaker dragons to land only once and never take to the sky again. Additionally, the Lord Stone protects him from the Dragon's key political tactic, its magic breath.

    This is my first build. All feedback is appreciated.

  • February 13, 2016

    Oh wow, I don't think I've ever seen a Politician build quite like this, it's an interesting idea and one that you've pulled off pretty well. 

    The Presentation for the build is excellent, especially the first one, the only real recommendation there is to get rid of the white box at the bottom (Under the last picture there's a couple of lines added) and possibly to increase the size of the section titles (Gameplay, Roleplay, the Build, etc.)

    The gameplay is interesting, mostly in the way you presented it, and I like the Imperial/Stormcloak division you have, the only thing I'd into the mix is a list of quests that the character should do, and how it changes between each side.

    I don't think there's much more to say, this is an excellent first build and it definitely gets a like from me  Hope we'll see more of your work in the future


    EDIT: Oh, and to fix up the tags they should be done like this, basically anytime more than two words is used, you should put the quotation marks around it so that it displays probably. 

    "Character Build Dual-Wield", "Character Build Warrior", "Character Build Enchanter", Rank:Bloodworks

  • Member
    February 13, 2016

    This is really good, and actually very unique. Definite plus one from me.

  • Member
    February 14, 2016
    You get my like for naming your weapons in such a unique way! Reading your build, I came up with the idea of The Liberator: an automatic crossbow capable of shooting multiple bolts of Freedom per second. :))
  • February 14, 2016
    The most important question is will he make Skyrim great again?
  • Member
    February 14, 2016
    This is really interesting concept and one you've presented well. My only critique would be to think about throwing in another picture between Gameplay and Roleplay, just to break up the wall of text a bit more. +1 from me.
  • Member
    February 14, 2016
    The stormcloak one sure will... By killing all the gray-skinned and hissing ones and closing all migrations!
  • Member
    February 14, 2016

    This is a really interesting concept that I think you presented very well.

    The gameplay and roleplay sections are really quite unique, especially the way they've been presented. I also quite like the way you've set up the Weapons.

    Overall, this definitely gets a Like from me, both for it's unique concept and it's good presentation, not to mention what a fantastic job this is for a first build.

  • February 14, 2016
    I feel like this build could really be set apart from others if you made this build a more tongue in cheek satirical nod to our many crazy politicians.
  • Member
    February 14, 2016

    Thanks so much for all the positive feedback on my first build guys! I have added a section on shouts as well as another roleplay element to make sure that the build was the best it could be.