Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: Big Head

Tags: #Character Build Thief  #Character Build Healer  #Character Build Enchanter  #Race:Argonian  #Rank:Grandpa Netch  #Tysoyaha 
  • October 16, 2017

     

    Concept:

    In a recent discussion thread, it was mentioned that builders rarely utilize chaos damage due to its overpowered nature. So I challenged myself to create a balanced and interesting build based around it. I decided the most fun I could have would be to create a weapon with such low base damage that it would rely entirely on the chaos enchantment, giving it an equal chance of being overpowered as it did to do essentially nothing at all. From this, the Fork of Horripilation was born, a weapon so unpredictable it had to be from the Shivering Ilses. Wielded, of course, by none other than Big Head himself! Things just spiraled out of control from there...

     

    Background:

    Big Head loves forks.

    •FIN•°~

     

    Build:

    Race - Argonian
    Our hands are kind of tied here. The official Character is an Argonian.

    Standing Stone - The Steed Stone
    You'll need this stone for all the forks you'll be carrying.

    Magic/Health/Stamina - 1/1/1
    A jack of all trades, is a master of none! This build is all about being unpredictable so keep your stats even and your options open.

    Skills - Enchanting, Destruction, Pickpocket, Sneak, Alchemy
    Enchanting and Destruction is to strengthen the Fork of Horripilation, Pickpocket and Sneak are for fork hunting and other antics while Alchemy is for the unorthodox way you'll be healing your followers.

    Powers - Nightingale Subterfuge, Beast Form
    Nightingale Subterfuge is a great way to cause chaos and beast form is just to facilitate the Ring of Hircine's random transformations.

    Shouts - Disarm, Throw Voice
    Disarm is for when your little fork gets weapon envy and throw voice is for insulting people...obviously.

    Weapons - Fork of Horripilation (Chaos Damage and Soul Trap), Sporky (Unenchanted)
    The Fork of Horripilation is for poking the bad guys, Sporky is for poking your friends. Try not to mix them up...

    Tools - Wabbajack (Optional)
    If you use the Wabbajack, don't think of this as a weapon. Forks are for battle, the Wabbajack is for mischief!

    Clothing - Fine Clothes (Blue)
    This is what most resembles Big Heads clothing in Shivering Isles.

    Jewellery - Locket of St. Juib, Cursed Ring of Hircine
    Yes, specifically the cursed one!

     

     

     

    Sing, Precious Forks!

    Fork of Horripilation - The Fork of Horripilation is an interesting weapon with a one in eight chance of doing just a single point of damage and a one in eight chance of inflicting all three elements simultaneously. It will also eventually inflict fear, paralysis, or incineration at random when an enemy has low health.

     

    Sporky - This is your (t)rusty old fork of friendly penetration. Throw some healing poison on that bad boy and you'll be able to prick your buddies back to life! There may also be some side effects when using poison to heal, so I suggest carrying at least six different varieties and rolling dice to see which one you get to have to use.

     

    Potion is Just Poison Spelled Differently:

    Goofy Juice (Wheat + Yellow Mountain Flower) - Fortify Health and Damage Stamina Regen

    Time Out (Gleamblossom + Namira's Root) - Regenerate Health and Fear

    Beauty Rest (Swamp Fungal Pod + Imp Stool) - Restore Health and Paralysis

    Magic Eraser (Luna Mouth Wing + Charus Eggs + Vampire Dust) - Regenerate Health, Damage Magika and Invisibility

    Muggled (Blue Dartwing + Salt Pile + Rock Warbler Egg) - Restore Health and Weakness to Magic

    Cold Blooded (Butterfly Wing + Ice Wraith Teeth + Ash Hopper Jelly) - Restore Health and Weakness to Frost

     

     

    Perks:

    Destruction - There's simply no legitimate way of leveling destruction that isn't way to cool for this character. Instead, jump around in blacksmith forges and sneak around lighting random citizens on fire for your amusement. You can always power level it if you want the random fear/paralyze/disintegrate effects.

     

    Pickpocket - This is a major staple of the character. Of course no residents of Skyrim walk around with forks in their pockets...but Big Head doesn't know that, and he's glad to keep any shiny objects he finds instead.

     

    Alchemy - A lot of these perks are useful even beyond what's suggested. Just avoid Purity at all costs or Sporky will lose its usefulness...and that's sad for everyone.

     

    Enchanting - The perks that effect elemental damage are a good priority and Soul Squeezer is really useful.

     

    Sneak - This is just to aid in your pickpocketing. Traditionally, Big Head is a notoriously poor thief so you can perk this tree as much or as little as you like, depending on how deep you want to roleplay.

     

     

    Sven:

    Starting Equipment - Aetherial Shield, Wooden Sword of Fiery Soul Trap, Soul Gems
    At first you'll be needing some help recharging your fork, and Aetherial shield is just easier to obtain than going through the entire DG questline.

    Late Game Equipment - Auriel's Shield, Hoarfrost
    Eventually you'll unlock Extra Enchantment and won't need Sven to fill soul gems for you. At that point, Hoarfrost and Auriel's Shield are much better equipment

    Sven is Good, Brings Me Cake - Big Head keeps Sven around because he liked his singing, not because he's a powerful warrior. He's expected to run sometimes and get knocked out occasionally...and even when neither of those happen he'll do very little actual damage, while taking quite a bit. However, his cowardly tactics (like staggering, freezing, launching, soul trapping or turning enemies ethereal) can be quite useful...especially while fighting large groups.

     


    Riekling Warrior:

    Equipment - Giants Club
    I don't care what you say, a Riekling with a Giants Club is hilarious. Just ask him to pick one up and he'll poke things with it just like his buddy Big Head!

     

    The Secret to Sneaking is Not to be Seen - The Riekling Warrior reminds Big Head of Grummites, so he can forgive him for being so bad at sneaking. Try to limit how often you tell him to wait and see how well you can learn to sneak while dealing with his antics. It won't always work, but things not going to plan is part of the charm of this build. Of course, if several enemies are together in the same room and you haven't used your daily Nightingale Subterfuge yet, you can always have your Riekling sit just outside the door.

     


    Special Tactics:

    Master Whispers Shouts into my Ear

    One particularly fun strategy for dealing with large groups of enemies is to have your followers wait in the distance while you sneak around stealing everyone's armor and replacing all their weapons with forks...and maybe giving them Forsworn headdresses. After that, gather them together with Throw Voice and use Nightingale Subterfuge so that they'll all put on antlers and start battling it out with dinnerware in their underwear. Master would be pleased!

    Requires: Throw Voice, Nightingale Subterfuge

     

    Wabbajacked Up

    Forks are for battle, don't start using Wabbajack and turn this into every other Sheo build ever. On the other hand, you can't be afraid to use the Wabbajack on your own followers either. You might end up with a powerful Draemora fighting for you, or even better...a chicken! Sure, there's a chance you might lose them forever along with the one of a kind equipment they were carrying, but in turn you'd get a sweetroll. That's a fair trade.

    Requires: Wabbajack, Trust Issues

     

    Pointy side out. Poke Poke Poke!

    A great strategy when battling with forks is to make absolutely certain that you have the sharp end with the prongs facing your enemies. You still won't be doing tons of melee damage this way, but poking people with the handle probably wouldn't do any.

    Requires: Common Sense


    Roleplay/Restrictions:

    Where Has Master Put the Fork? - Don't forget to go fork hunting. Big Head plays like a thief in that you'll be breaking into places and stealing things pretty often...the difference is, this character is looking for cutlery. Of course, anything that's not a fork can by taken and sold for a profit (which will help you train some skills).

     

    Unraveled Mind - Between the Fork of Horripilation, The Wabbajack, The Cursed Ring of Hircine, Hoarfrost, Healing Poisons, a Giant's Club wielding Riekling and a follower who will Fus Ro Dah at random with Auriel's Shield, everything about this build is designed to be as unpredictable as possible...you really just have learn to embrace the chaos and adapt to whatever happens.

     

    No Reloading - Don't plan or expect anything to happen a certain way. If you're trying to pickpocket a guard and suddenly turn into a werewolf, prompting your Riekling to go on a homicidal rampage...then I guess you won't be visiting that town for a while. Accept the fact that you can't control everything anything. Reloading a previous save every time things don't go as planned is an easy way to make a fun whacky playthrough into just one long load screen.

     


    Tips/Tricks:

    Duplication Ritual - While in a city, drop anything you would like a lot of (like forks!) ask your follower to pick it up, then exit the city and immediately re-enter. The item should be both on the floor and your followers inventory. This is a great way to stock up on forks for reverse pickpocketing. Especially since Big Head is exactly the kind of character who would believe performing such a strange ritual would result in more forks (and thanks to having the Madgods favor, it does).

     

    Champions Cudgel - This is the only chaos enchanted weapon you can get at the beginning of the game, and the quest isn't exactly easy at low levels. Luckily, The Chief of Thirsk Hall and Lost to The Ages are both possible at level 1, purely due to (what is at the time) overpowered followers. If you're willing to glitch past the tonal gate later, you can bring both these followers with you to Fort Frostmoth.

  • Member
    October 16, 2017

    This is creative to say the least and looks like one of "those" fun builds if you get my meaning. Nice one! ^_^

  • October 16, 2017

    This is quirky fun. I like it. I am all for crazy quirky builds. A fun read. I look forward to more. 

  • October 17, 2017

    Another great build Ty, sometimes it's just fun to embrace the madness and see where it takes you.  Fork of Friendly Penetration...lol

  • Member
    October 17, 2017

    hahahaha this is hilarious. well done. the only thing I was looking for was a list of known forky locations :)

  • October 19, 2017

    Heh, sorry I'm a bit late dropping by Tysoyaha (I might just shorten that to Tyso from now on, help me not mix it up :P). Anyway, I'm really not the type to enjoy more comedic builds that often, and very rarely enjoy builds that focus on a gimmick but you know, this is just a fun looking build that functions in a really interesting way. I kind of like the take on using Forks coupled with chance based damage to kind of create a character that's either kind of overpowered at times, or really underpowered. It's an interesting idea that you've put to 'paper' really well. 

    The only things that I'd recommend are adding a list of locations for forks (just a few and it isn't critical just sorta useful) and...man I was thinking of something, it wasn't the BBoF, let me think. Oh, I was thinking that um, Rockjoint (Is that the one that reduces weapon damage? Err, I don't pay much attention to diseases) but it might be an interesting little RP element to add on to the build, not sure. Had a quick thought about it originally but the more I think about it the more unsure I am...

    Anyway, a like from me and I'm really enjoying your building style Tyso.

  • October 19, 2017
    @Vargr White-Tree, I'm glad you like it! It admittedly takes some prep before you get to the madness, but it's worth once you're there.
  • October 19, 2017
    @Mottyskills thanks! As for the fork locations, I try to keep my builds concise and figured that was accessible on the wiki. You think a link to that would suffice or should I just list the locations?
  • October 19, 2017
    @Dragonborn1921 Thanks man. Yea, it was designed first to be a fully playable build with fun gameplay. I wouldn't consider it a "joke" build because that's just a way of presenting it that fits the character. So maybe that's why it feels a little different to you. In gonna add a list of forks but I'm just deciding the format and where to put it. As for Rockjoint, it's not necissary because forks do a static amount of damage. They don't provide any experience and wouldn't be affected by a higher one handed skill anyway. I like that kind of thinking though. Rockjoint is the disease that reduces physical damage, and it can be resto-looped to make melee weapons permanently do just base damage. So it is perfect for a poison/enchanting based build. I have an entire guide on Nerfing/balancing, I should give it a quick copy-paste over here. Btw, am I doing the @user thing right? How do I respond to specific comments?
  • Member
    November 5, 2017
    “Honey what are you reading?! You’ve been giggling- sorry, ‘chortling manfully’- for five minutes straight!” - My girlfriend (who knows to start worrying when I chortle manfully)