Meat, the Engulfer

No thanks, I'm good with both.

 

The following are excerpts from the journal of Oroub Dulagur, The Articulate.

9th of Sun's Height 4E 188 - Found boy in woods today. Him scrawny, but him attacks me. I see dead Nord, maybe boy protect his meat? Me keeping him.

3rd of Midyear 4E 191 – This boy never stop eat! Someone say “meat,” boy turns head! I name this boy Meat. He like it.

28th of Heartfire 4E 195 – Meat strong as Orc. Him no easy to knock down, and no stay down when he go down. Boy has thick skin, him will not stop fighting even if him hurt.

11th of First Seed 4E 196 – Meat is strongest young Orc in Stronghold. Me forget him not really Orc. Meat spend lot of time with forgewife and wise woman now. When Meat not fight or eat, him learn!

22nd of Sun’s Dusk 4E 196 – Meat beat other young Orcs every time. Him need to fight big Orc. Me work with Meat to get better from now on. Meat say him teach me to write good.

1st of Midyear 4E 201 – There is nothing left I can teach Meat, and not much else he can teach me. He wants to head into the world to see, touch, and taste things for himself. He’s heading east to Skyrim. I told him to stop off in Dushnikh Yal and say hello to Murbul, she’ll help him restock and maybe get some food and rest.

15th of Midyear 4E 201 – Meat is leaving today. I gave him all of the gold I’ve saved over the years and wished him luck. Not that he’ll need it. I feel bad for anything that gets in his way out there. Especially if he’s hungry…

       

So this came about from reading on Orc related in game books, threads about bleed damage and the benefits of bashing, and wanting to approach crafting in a different way. The idea was to take a race and use skills typical of another race. It morphed from there into this character, a young orphan Breton found eating a dead Nord in the wilderness by Orcs. I’ve tried to make a character capable of facing anything in hand to hand combat, with an affinity for magic thanks to his blood, but capable of serious bursts of offense thanks to his upbringing.

One other thing to note, this character isn’t the Dragonborn. Helgen, and some events shortly after, will be erased from your memory. This journey starts in Dushnikh Yal.

 

Definitely keeping this crown...

 

The Build

Race: Breton, but don’t tell him that. Put the weight all the way up to get big, burly arms.

Stone: Lord Stone for defense boost and magic resistance, with the Atronach in the Aetherial Crown. Getting the Lord stone should be at the top of your priority list.

Stats Distribution: 1 Magicka | 1 Health | 1 Stamina until level 16, then all Health

Equipment:

Weapons: Orcish War Axe. The Orcish material fits the build from an RP point of view, and as James points out in this thread Orcish War Axes benefit the most from the Hack and Slash perks. They start showing up in vendor lists at level 6.

For the two handed weapon, The Longhammer is the best choice. The Longhammer is fast for a hammer, so you get the most out of your unlimited power attacks. I wouldn't attempt to get it until after you get Secret of Protection. Before that I used Volendrung, which is also fast, but with smithing the Longhammer ends up being stronger. Volendrung is available as early as level 9. A giant shouldn't be a problem, you can keep him stagger locked and chip away at his health. 

Head: Aetherial Crown/Jagged Crown. The Jagged Crown is to cover the ugly Aetherial Crown and also to get that hidden 25 armor rating. With the Atronach in the Aetherial Crown, any magic damage that isn’t resisted has a 50% chance of being absorbed. Add in Dragonskin, and once a day even the most powerful mages or enchanted weapons wielders become helpless. With a little creativity (use traps, pit Falmer against Centurian, etc.) you can grab both crowns after you get the rest of your armor.

Body: I chose Savior’s Hide mainly for the look, and to keep piling on magic resistance. A Breton agent of Mara under the Lord Stone wearing this armor can withstand a magical onslaught, and that’s before any kind of spell absorption even has a chance to kick in. Another reason I chose it is because getting the Ebony Smithing perk doubles how much you can improve the Savior’s Hide. So despite focusing on the heavy armor side of the Smithing tree, you can significantly improve this piece of light armor. There’s also a belief amongst some Orcs that the Savior’s Hide artifact belongs to Malacath and not Hircine. This character doesn’t necessarily believe that, but he knows the worth of this artifact through what he’s read about that particular belief. Grab this after you get the Ring of Namira. The werewolf is yet another big boss that can be stagger locked while you chip away.

Gauntlets and Boots: Getting the right enchantments is key for this build, but enchanting is not a forte for this character. Abstract thought is, however, and he’s read plenty on Dragon Breaks. As there are an infinite number of planes of existence, there must be one where the shopkeeper has the equipment we need. This character just knows how to manipulate that. So basically instead of pumping time into beefing up the enchanting skill, pump time into punching the vendor in the face and reloading until you get what you want. Don’t worry, this isn’t as time consuming as it sounds. In fact if you get lucky it isn’t time consuming at all.

For both gauntlets and boots, Steel is used in the beginning and Orcish after level 30. Smithing and the Unfathomable Depths quest make it so you never need to use anything Dwarven, and that means one less session of rolling the dice and hoping for good equipment. For gauntlets, you want to fortify your 2 hand skill (there’s the Ironhand Gauntlets at Halted Stream Camp to start you off, Orcish Gauntlets of Extreme Sure Grip become available at 30). For boots, fortify carry weight helps you carry all that Dwemer loot back from whatever ruins (Steel Boots of Hauling areavailable at level 9). Late game when you upgrade to Orcish you may not need to fortify your carry weight anymore, so grab something that resists an element.

Shield: The ultimate goal is the Shield of Solitude since it fortifies block and magic resistance. The best version is available at level 40. Before that, follow the same guide as for the gauntlets and boots: vendor punch/reload trick, steel then orcish. Make sure you get one that fortifies your block skill. If you’re going to be picky for any particular piece of equipment and reload until you get the best available item for your level, this is it. Get the Steel Shield of Blocking at level 9, Orcish Shield of Extreme Blocking is ideal at level 30.

Jewelry: Same tactic here, trying to get the best 2 hand enchantment for both a necklace and ring (bonus: you get to kill/punch Endarie in the face many, many times). The ring will be on hotkey switch with the Ring of Namira. RoN is the default ring, switching to the 2 hand ring when you unleash your inner berserker. You can upgrade the ring and/or the necklace every 8 levels (i.e. Minor Sure Grip is available at level 8, Sure Grip at 16, Major Sure Grip at 24, etc.). Once you purchase your first set of enchanted equipment, cook a bunch of soup, and get smithing to 30 get started on the Taste of Death quest. You can also keep a necklace of blocking on switch with the necklace of sure grip, but it’s up to you how much crap you want in your favorites menu.

 

Main equipment used. You can have more useful jewelry on switch if you don't mind a cluttered favorites menu.

 

Gameplay

A few rules for this build. First, no crime. Orc crime and punishment is no joke, so this character is as straight laced as they come. Don’t even carry lock picks. If it’s locked, find the key (Only exception is the Dwarven Storeroom outside Mzulft. There are 2 lockpicks in there, and 2 apprentice doors to pick). Second, no alchemy. That means both making and taking potions. You won’t even miss it, Restoration and food are enough. Rule 1 is meant to handicap the build somewhat, but rule 2 is just because I never needed to drink a potion at all. Collecting and selling them are fine, but don’t drink! Another thing to point out is you want to hoard anything related to smithing, and any of the ingredients for our 2 preferred dishes. In other words mine, keep pelts, and check barrels and sacks.

Gameplay comes down to 3 different “modes:” Balanced, Mage, and Berserker

Balanced Mode: Shield, War Axe, Ring of Namira, Vegetable Soup (if needed)

The vast majority of the time you will be in balanced mode. Eating the soup and human flesh gets your health restoration up and grants unlimited power attacks and bashes. As you perk up the block and 1 hand skills you can choose to hit once and let the bleed do the work while you keep your shield up, or try to disarm your opponent and go on the offensive. This also allows you to cast your best flesh spell before the fight, or switch your weapon out for a spell during the fight (usually to re-apply the flesh spell). One on one, this is the way to go. Even on early levels you can take down a giant with unilimited bash stagger locks and a quick strike between each bash. I also really enjoy timing a power attack to land just as the enemy is recovering from a bash. 

Mage Mode: 1 spell per hand, Elswyr Fondue (if needed)

When things start to go south, take a step back and get into Mage Mode. Here’s where your Breton blood can be put to good use. The fondue raises your magic and the regen to the point that you can get a few spells off. If you’re facing a mage even better, you have a 50% change of absorbing magic to help refill your bar (100% once a day). Whether you’re reapplying a flesh spell while healing, healing yourself with both hands, or bringing Ghorbash back into the fight Mage Mode is meant to help tip the scales back in your favor. It also allows for equally easy transitions back into Balanced Mode or to Berserker Mode.

Berserker Mode: Warhammer, 2 hand ring, Secret of Protection, Vegetable Soup (if needed)

If you either want to end a fight quickly, this is the go to mode. Thanks to your Orcish upbringing (and your enchantments) you hit for a ton in this mode. This is usually used to get rid of a weak enemy quickly, or chase down someone attacking with projectiles. Once a day with Secret of Protection you take half damage (mimicking Berserker Rage), but for the most part this mode swaps out defense for offense. You can open in this mode from time to time if you want to take something down quickly, but usually this is used in more of a “finishing move” type of situation. I don’t care what you’re fighting, switch into this mode and activate both SoP and Dragonskin and not much will be able to touch you.

 

Food

“The battle is won in the stomach first.” –Sayings of the Wise

 Vegetable Soup – Cabbage, Leek, Potato, Tomato

You should be under the influence of Vegetable Soup constantly. With the amount of bashing and power attacking you do, keep a crap load of these on hotkey and eat one any time you see the stamina bar flash. Most of these ingredients are easy to get by raiding farms and Orcish strongholds. I’ve never seen a tomato plant, but they’re still fairly common in various containers. There’s an easy way to stock up on cabbages, leeks, and potatoes that I’ll detail below, so make sure you’re thorough in your tomato searching.

 Elsweyr Fondue – Ale, Eidar Cheese Wheel, Moon Sugar

The fondue is important, but you don’t need to eat this constantly like you do for the soup. This is used just when you need to go full on Mage Mode, which is good because the ingredients aren’t as easy to stockpile. The vendor punch/reload trick can help, though:

• Ale – innkeepers sell this. Also pretty common to happen upon in your travels
• Eidar Cheese Wheel – Angeline in Solitude and Solaf in Falkreath are pretty reliable sources for 3 or so cheese wheels
• Moon Sugar – The Khajit caravans always have some for sale

 Flesh – Ring of Namira, corpse

Eat flesh whenever possible for the boost to health and health regeneration. Only the stamina boost is removed if you take the ring off when you switch to berserker mode. Stamina doesn't mean much to this character other than for carry weight, so you can switch this in and out after you eat without losing any benefits.

 

Skills

 

 

8 skills may seem like a lot at first glance, but read on and you’ll see the skill levels and perk choices aren’t demanding. The choices are streamlined to support the 3 fighting modes, and the skills level naturally as you switch between them. Very little training will be needed, if any at all. Note, I put a “trigger level” at the end of each skill. This will trigger the quest to max out the skill, which I’ll explain later. For now just know that you’ll only need to advance or train the corresponding skill to the trigger level.

One Handed: The most often used and most heavily perked skill. Perk choices support standing power attacks. All 5 Armsman ranks are taken since I don't have any enchanted gear boosting one handed. The bleed perks are to take advantage of the Orcish weapons and their extensive bleed duration. Trigger level: 76

Two Handed: The berserker side of this character. What he lacks in perks, he makes up with the enchantments. Perk selection supports the use of warhammers, and both standing and running power attacks. You'd be surprised how quickly this skill levels just by crushing the occasional mage skull. Trigger level: 48

Block: We go up the right side of the tree because bashing is how we control the fight. With unlimited stamina your shield almost becomes an off-hand weapon. The left side isn’t needed. Deflect arrows just caps block when an arrow is shot at you. We’ll have block at the cap all the time. And since we won’t see any dragons and already have significant magic defense, so Elemental Protection doesn't make much of a difference. Even though I only took 3 shield wall perks, the final equipment enchantments will still get us to the block cap. Get Quick Reflexes as soon as it’s available! Trigger level: 54

Smithing: Arcane Blacksmith is very important, one of the top early priorities for this build. For the heavy armor related perks you only need up to Ebony, that will be enough to improve all of the armor you’ll be getting (again, improvements to the Savior’s Hide are doubled with the Ebony smithing perk). Since we don’t heavily perk the armor skills, it takes the combination of the Lord stone, flesh spells, and smithing to make up the difference. You still end up hitting the cap. Trigger Level: 66

Alteration: Flesh spells are very important to this character to keep your AR respectable. Blocking is the most effective way to prevent damage, but you can’t block everything. Since we’re not focusing on one armor skill and mastering it, this skill (and the lord stone) helps replace the missing fitted/matching perks. You only need to branch off to get Stability, keep that flesh spell active for longer. We already have magic resistance, and I don't feel the need to get up to 100 Alteration for the Atronach. We absorb enough as it is. Trigger level: 68

Restoration: Since we’re not drinking potions, Restoration is important. Mage Mode is mainly to heal, so Regeneration helps you do that as quickly as possible (tackle Frostflow Abyss if you have some downtime, that helps too). Recovery helps balance the Atronach stone, eat a Fondue also and the Atronach penalty is completely eliminated. Trigger Level: 44

Heavy Armor: Just a few ranks in Juggernaut here so you don’t die as easily. The skill level/perk demand here is minimal. Trigger Level: 27

Light Armor: Just a few ranks in Agile Defender here so you don’t die as easily. Similar to the above, this skill is not heavily invested in but still necessary for survivability. Trigger Level: 32

 

 

Quests

This character does a lot of specific quests in order to get the right equipment and abilities. I’ll try to be brief and list bullet points when I can.       

Set the game to novice and run through Helgen and the gold route as fast as you can (get the fast travel mark for Stendarr’s Beacon, and an axe and warhammer when you stop off in Fort Dawnguard). You’ll end up as Blood-Kin with a nice chunk of change, and a starter armor set (Forsworn for the body, iron for everything else). Get to Dunkish Yal, dismiss your followers, set the game to Master. Game on.

(By the way, during this run DO NOT touch any skill books until later levels. Read on)

Ghorbash the Ironhand, resident of Dunkish Yal, will be your follower for a while. He’s best treated as a ranger, give him the best light armor and arrows you can find. Take away his weapon so he only uses his bow. When he starts using more valueable arrows not only does he do some damage, but the arrows you can loot get you free money. Lean on him early while you do the Agent of Mara quest. Also during the Agent of Mara quest I recommend doing the first part of House of Horrors for a place to hoard your cooking and smithing ingredients, and pick up the fast travel marker for Swindler’s Den. There’s a shrine of Stendarr just south. Between this one, Standarr’s Beacon, and Solitude you’ll never be far from a shrine, and you want to have the Blessing of Stendarr activated all the time in the early going.

 

Early look.

Buy yourself a shield with a fortify block enchantment. At this point I think I was level 3 and got a Hide Shield of Minor Blocking. That’s fine; this is a starter shield just to tackle White River Watch and Halted Stream Camp (for the Transmute spell). Join the College of Winterhold (personally, I saved and reloaded until Faralda offered the Healing Hands spell). Get the robes and hood, but don’t take the tour. You just need the bonuses for a little while, you can sell them soon.

The next part is time consuming but necessary. Hopefully you’ve collected a lot of iron ore and tomatoes by now, and enough ingredients for at least 1 Elsweyr Fondue. Get to Whiterun, we’re gonna raid the surrounding farms. You can collect enough cabbage, leeks, and potatoes to make as many Veggie Stews as you have tomatoes, with a lot left over. While you run around collecting, cast Transmute as much as possible and raise your Alteration. If you wear the robes and hood and eat a Fondue, you should be able to cast 3 consecutive Transmute spells before waiting for your meter to recharge. Once you’ve collected the ingredients and transmuted all of your iron to gold, smith until level 30. Now you should have plenty of food and money (sell gold rings), so cook and buy some enchanted equipment. You want the ring, necklace, boots, and shield I outlined above, as well as a war axe.

 

Hanging with Ghorbash, wearing this wolf's skin, nbd.

Now go get the rest of your equipment. 2 things to note. First, when you hit level 14 stop what you're doing and go do Unfathomable Depths. The boost to armor rating and smithing help considerably. Second, after you collect the 4 Aetherium shards, make (and eventually improve) dwarven bows until you can get the Arcane Blacksmith perk. This way you can strenthen your enchanted armor before you have to deal with the Forgemaster and friends. Once you have your crowns you can visit Solstheim and get Secret of Protection (Apocrypha‎ can be tough, try to bash the Lurkers off the side and run to the book).

At level 30, upgrade your equipment. You're looking for Orcish quality shield gauntlets and boots, with eminent or extreme effects. I had good luck with Balimund in Riften for the armor, and Endarie in Solitude for the jewelry. Ghorbash doesn’t level past 30 and you probably don’t need him anymore, so send him home. I let him keep Volendrung, I'm sentimental like that.

One other thing to point out. As your level increases and you start to max out one hand and blocking, you’ll notice your level ups begin to slow down. 2 ways around this: 1, smith! Make jewelry or improve the high quality items you find to help keep the character progressing. The 2nd way is to spend more time in Berserker mode. Your armor rating will be high enough to withstand the more common enemies, and you’ll also level both armor types and the two hand skill. You’ll still need a shield against the heavy hitters but you can feel much more confident running around with the lower armor rating and dishing out heavy punishment.

 

 

Trigger Levels

This part of the playthrough is the RP portion. The quest for knowledge and exploration is pretty literal here as you search for books. It also helps speed up the leveling process and unlocks the most demanding perks pretty quickly. As you hit the trigger levels in each skill you can track down and read the skill books for that skill. Many of these books are laying out in the wild, you will have to look up the locations. This was my favorite part of the playthrough. Finding each book led to some unique encounters and locations, and really didn't take much time at all.

• One Handed: “2920, Morning Star, v1,” “Fire and Darkness,” “The Importance of Where,” “Mace Etiquette,” “Night Falls on Sentinel”
• Two Handed: “Battle of Sancre Tor,” “The Legendary Sancre Tor,” “King,” “Song of Hrormir,” “Words and Philosophy”
• Block: “Battle of Red Mountain,” “A Dance in Fire, v2,” “Death Blow of the Abernanit,” “The Mirror,” “Warrior”
• Smithing: “The Armorer’s Challenge,” “Cherim’s Heart,” “Heavy Armor Forging,” “Last Scabbard of Akrash,” “Light Armor Forging”
• Alteration: “Breathing Water,” “Daughter of the Niben,” “The Lunar Lorkhan,” “Reality & Other Falsehoods,” “Sithis”
• Restoration: “2920, Rain’s Hand, v4,” “The Exodus,” “Mystery of Talara, v 2,” “Racial Phylogeny,” “Withershins”
• Heavy Armor: “2920, MidYear, v6,” “Chimarvamidium,” “Hallgerd’s Tale,” “The Knights of the Nine,” “Orsinium and the Orcs”
• Light Armor: “Ice and Chitin,” “Jornibret’s Last Dance,” “Rislav The Righteous,” “The Rear Guard,” “The Refugees”

Once this is complete, these optional missions are to get the last few skill increases and quickly unlock all of the perks this character needs without spending money on training:

• Find Amren’s family sword
• The Ghost of Old Hroldan
• A Few Words with You
• Find Roggi Knot-Beard’s ancestral shield
• Dragon’s Breath Mead
• Find Queen Freydis’s Sword
• Rare Gifts for Rustleif
• Skilled Apprenticeship
• Dravynea’s Frost Salts
• Kill the bandit leader for Brunwulf Free-Winter
• Find Shahvee’s Amulet of Zenithar
• Kill the bandit leader for Annekke Crag-Jumper
• Filial Bonds
• All Bard’s College quests
• Discerning the Transmundane (path of might)

(Note: You don’t have to complete all of the quests or find all of the books if you got your levels up the old fashioned way.)

There isn’t much left to do from here. I joined the Dawnguard, just because Vampires ran into an Orcish stronghold and hurt my kinfolk. I also did any quest that started by reading a book. Shalidor's Insights fits well with the theme, too. Just do what feels organic. You’re pretty much unstoppable at this point, so really do whatever the hell you want, in the name of knowledge and exploration. And food.

 Closing Notes

Thank you to Golden Fool for the artwork. Thanks to everyone from The Workshop for help and feedback. And please forgive my screenshot method, I haven't figured out a way to get screenshots without enabling some kind of cloud storage. I don't trust the cloud.

You had me at Meat, the Engulfer. Wordplay is very nice. 

Interesting concept, a Breton raised by an Orc who becomes like an Orc. Interesting equipment choices and Savior's Hide looks so cute on a guy. It's almost like a bad figure-skating outfit. Despite the number of skills, like you said, you kept things very streamlined. 

Nice job, Chunk. So sorry I missed this when it posted. Been, neck deep in Urag testing. 

Haha, thanks, it is definitely a unique look. I was going for wild, but also beefing up magic resistance, so it was a nice blend of function and fashion. And I'm the last person anyone should apologize to about timing, I think this took me like 6 months. I miss free time. But I digress. Thank you!

Haha, try a year, friend! Henantier was in the workshop for a year.