Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Horseman Pestilence

Tags: #Character Build Archer  #Character Build Alchemist  #Race:Bosmer  #Pestilence  #Character Build Stealth  #Horseman of Apocalypse 
  • December 31, 2017

     Pestilence 

    And I saw when the Lamb opened the first of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the beasts saying, 'Come and see.' And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat upon him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth.

    - Revelation 6:1-2

    "I am the youngest of my four brothers, but my power is great and vile! When I was cast into the pits of Hell, my artifacts were taken from me and spread throughout the world, and now they rest in the hands of mortals, demon princes, and I sit in a bird cage filled with my own fith! For countless years I waited and watched as earth tore itself apart, piece by piece. Although I am a Horseman I do not know when I am to be released, we do not know the time of the Apocalypse, only God does and all we can do is wait and guess when we'll be let out. I thought it was during the U.S. Presidency of Barak Obama . . . I was wrong. I thought it was during the Great War of 2077 . . . but it wasn't. I then considered that I was going to be summoned during the Fallout Epidemic but again I was wrong. I watched as some races mutated from the radiation and became more . . . well elf like. Man was divided into seemingly different races, many beginning to look like the elves seen in the Lord of the Rings movies. Those ones are known as the Wood Elves, or Bosmer. Others, however, took on a darkend skin tone and began to worship the Princes of Hell. Some new 'races' such as the Argonians and Khajiit are nothing but mutated animals.

    Millions of years have passed and the mortals have returned to the medieval times. Nords, Imperials, Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer, they are all the same . . . HUMAN, but their appearance and sense of self causes them to act otherwise. They have all but forgotten their heritage and who they are, except some but I'll allow The Weaver to regale you with that one later. To continue, the world has fallen and nothing remains but it's shadow and I feared that God had abandoned His creation and the Prophecy of Revelation and that all is lost. Then I heard it, the First Seal! It was BROKEN! I felt the power surge through me and I appeared in Heaven before the creatures and before God. God said that it was time and I was cast down to earth. I was confused, I was to ride onto the earth with my brothers and we were to start the apocalypse then . . . what happened? God heard my thoughts and He told me that He had changed his mind a bit. 'The Horsemen are to struggle' He said, 'Now go Pestilence, find your vessel and fulfill your purpose.'

    It was after he finished speaking that I realized something. I was formless, but I could sense my other half . . . my vessel. I saught him out and found him inside a cave at Helgen, fighting a cave bear! I possessed him before he could contract rockjoint and I slew the creature. Now I will fulfill my destiny and help bring about the Apocalypse!"

     

    Pestilence is, of course, based on the First Horseman of the Apocalypse mentioned in the book of Revelation in the Bible. If you don't like the Bible/aren't Christian, fine, but I guarantee you that you'll love this build.

    Race- Bosmer Vampire

    Stats- 2 Magic, 2 Health, 1 Stamina

    Stone- Pestilence uses the Atronach stone so that he can be immune not only to disease, but to magic as well.

     

    Major Skills:

    "Manipulating life is simple, but turning it into a disease is my specialty!"

    Alteration- Pestilence uses his powers of . . . well pestilence, to infect his enemies with a serious case of rockjoint causing them to be unable to move!

    "Poisoning the body lowers it's immune system, making it easier for my plague to spread through them!"

    Alchemy- Due to being forced to live a semi-mortal life, Pestilence must now use the natural world to create his plague and kill his enemies.

    "My armor was destroyed millenia ago, but I believe the Falmer have duplicated the design perfectly!"

    Light Armor- Pestilence uses light armor as it grants him protection and free movement.

    "Although I can wield a sword fairly well, I prefer my bow as I can dispatch of my enemies in quick succession and many times remain unseen."

    Archery- Pestilence uses his Mater Archery skills to kill his foes and infect them with deadly poisons and diseases.

     

    Minor Skills:

    "I'll have to replace my armor, which means that I'll also have to fuse my power into a new set."

    Enchanting- Pestilence uses his power to recreate his armor.

    "Disease is usually unseen, therefore I shall be unseen as well.

    Sneak- Pestilence is a master at stealth, being able to pick off enemies quickly and silently without detection.

    "It's not fun if you can't make someone sick without them knowing it."

    Pickpocket- Pestilence uses his pickpocket abilities to carefully infect his prey with deadly diseases such as rockjoint.

    "Some people are so rude, they slam the door on your face when all you want to do is give them a present . . . guess I'll have to get in the thieves' way."

    Lock Picking- Like a disease, Pestilence does not ask to enter your home, he just does. Ater he does there's a high chance that you're infected with rockjoint or rattles!

     

    Perks

     

    Alteration: Dual Casting, Magic Resistence 3/3, Stability, Atronach, and Master Alteration (and all the other perks required to get them).

    Alchemy: All of them

    Light Armor: Agile Defender 5/5, Custom Fit, and Unhindered.

    Archery: All of them

    Enchanting: Enchanter 5/5 and Extra Effect (and all the other perks required to get them).

    Sneak: Stealth 5/5, Assassin's Blade, and Shadow Warrior (and all the other perks required to get to them).

    Pickpocket: Light Fingers 5/5, Night Thief, and Poisoned.

    One-Handed: Armsman 5/5, Bladesman 3/3, and Paralyzing Strike (and all the other perks required to get to them).

    Lockpicking: Unbreakable and Master Locks (and all the other perks required to get to them).

     

     

    Gear:

    The Bow of Pestilence

    "I was cast into Hell and my artifacts were stolen from me. I do not know where my great bow is but I'll have to make due with this one."

     (enchant with Paralysis+Chaos)

     

    The Sword of Disease

     

    "My sword, rything with tenticles and disease causing my enemies to become weak while I gain strength . . . this powerful item now lies in the hands of . . . of a foolish nephilim or Dragonborn as so many call them now. Miraak, the son of a weak Angel and a Nordic whore, he possesses my sword! I will take it from him, one way or another!"

     

    The Staff of Pestilence

    "One again, one of my artifacts is in the hands of a foolish nephilim! The foolish demon, Cognitionis or now known as Hermaeus Mora, he must've given these to Miraak . . . I will NOT stand for this! They will pay, by God, they will pay!"

     

    The Crown of Pestilence

    "Like my weapons, my crown was stolen from me, I will have it back, one way or another. To my knowledge it rests on the head of an ancient Nord warlord in Korvanjund and has lost it's power . . . it won't be easy getting it so I might need the help of the Empire or the Stormcloaks, they may want it for themselves so I'll have to hide it and retrieve it later. After that I will have to strengthen it's powers."

     The Crown of Pestilence is a powerful and deadly artifact. Those who wear it are immediately infected with hundreds of diseases and they cannot be cured even after the crown is removed! Only Pestilence can wear this crown which increases his eye sight allowing him to spot weaknesses in his enemies which allow for fatal shots fired from his bow. It also increases the potency of his poisons and bottled diseases!

     (enchant with Fortify Archer+Fortify Alchemy)

     

    Ring of Pestilence

    "My power is great but it was a tad unstable and needed to be focussed, so I crafted a ring infused with an ounce of my own essence and several diseases weaved into the emerald laid within the band. I now have complete control over my powers and can bring about the darkest of all Plagues!"

     (enchant with Fortify Alteration+Fortify Alchemy)

     

    Amulet of Witbane

    "My amulet holds great power, it allows me to cast more spells."

    The Amulet of Witbane looks like an ordinary Silver Emerald necklace, however the stone is not an ordinary emerald. The emerald contains several diseases in it and the silver holds strands of Pestilence's own infected hair!

    (enchant with Fortify Magica Regen+Fortify Alteration)

     

    The Protection of Disease

    "My armor was destroyed millenia ago, at least the Snow Elves were able to recreate the design. With a little patience and the right magic I managed to recreate my armor."

    The Protection of Disease is the chest piece of Pestilence's armor set. It has the ability to regenerate both Pestilence's health and stamina.

    (enchant with Fortify Health Regen+Stamina Regen)

     

    The Rockjoint Bracers

    "Despite the name, my bracers have the opposite effect of rockjoint. It increases my One-Handed attacks and improves my archery by giving me a more steady aim."

    The Rockjoint Bracers are one of the most powerful of Pestilence's armor pieces. They grant him the ability to cut deeper into his enemies with his sword and to shoot his arrows with far more force than before.

    (enchant with Fortify One-Handed+Fortify Archery)

     

    The Boots of Rattles

    "Just like The Rockjoint Bracers, don't assume it's abilities by the name. My boots make me stronger and allow me to hide in plain sight of my enemies."

    The Boots of Rattles allow Pestilence to regenerate stamina quickly and to sneak past his enemies more effectively.

    (enchant with Fortify Stamina Regen+Fortfiy Sneak or Muffle)

     

    Plague

    "Plague, my old horse. For countless years he has lived as a mere pet . . . and now he is healthy! He is not stricken with disease nor is he as white as a corpse! I will have to fix him in the weeks to come."

     

    "I will carve a path throughout this world, so that my brothers too may fulfill their purpose and bring about the Apocalypse!"

     

    Gameplay

    Being one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Pestilence is not one to be trifled with. His powers are limitless and he himself is able to bottle the most deadly diseases in the world! Before he fights his enemies, Pestilence surveys his surroundings and maps out where his enemies are. Although many can be picked off from the shadows with his bow, Pestilence enjoys a challenge and loves to toy with his prey. Pestilence enjoys watching his prey squirm and sturggle, and the best way that he does this is by slipping a few bottled diseases into their inventory that will poison them, paralyze them, or even cause immediate death! Should an enemy spot him, Pestilence can either use his bow to put an arrow straight through their knee or his sword to sever their head from their shoulders!

    Now like his brothers, Pestilence does not subbmit to the ideas of "right" and "wrong" like mortals tend to do. Because of this, Pestilence infects and kills many with his diseases and will go as far as to kill a child by infecting them with rockjoint, bone break feaver, or even rattles! When Pestilence creates a new disease/poison he usually wants to test it immediately and since everyone in Skyrim is a guinea pig, he doesn't have to travel far to test it!

    Quests

    Main Questline: "I will kill a few dragons and send their souls to Death so that he will have some power when he arrives in this world. However I will not face Alduin as only Death can kill the Arch Angel, the most I could do is give him a little tickle."

    Civil War Questline (up to the Jagged Crown quest): "My crown lies in a musty old tomb upon a Draugr's head . . . at least it's not in the hands of an Angel or Prince of Hell."

    Dragonborn Questline: "I went to retrieve my sword and staff from Miraak . . . I felt that there was someone else there with me . . . the presence was so familiar but I can't quite place it."

    Promises to Keep Quest: "My dear Frost . . . it's been too long since we've ridden together, it's time my friend, it's time for the Apocalypse!"

     

    Powers:

    "I rode out and disease spread throughout the land!"

     The First Rider- Mass Paralysis+Plague+The Bow of Pestilence

    "Oh the classics never die!"

     The Bubonic Plague- Mass Paralysis+Staff of Pestilence+Sword of Disease

    "Let have some fun!"

    Epidemic- Slow Time Shout+Poison Tip Arrows

    "How long has it been since I created a new plauge?"

     Furore Morbus- Mass Paralysis+Mayhem+Storm Call Shout

  • December 31, 2017

    Man, gotta formulate my thoughts here Darkness. Because I actually really loved the first half of your build, I thought you hit all the right notes with your Backstory and basic information and when I saw the armour set there, I just sort of instantly fell in love with the look of the character. But, I won't lie, I think the second half kind of fell apart compared to that first chunk, and that was a real shame for me. I was so set in loving this build, and then...it kind of ended and derailed a little.

    So, let me explain where I'm coming from. Really everything until the Gameplay section is spot on, the design of the character, the backstory, the interesting elements you brought into a character that's been done a few times, but you made feel really fresh, everything was great. Then the Gameplay was over in a few words when you've tackled what is one of the most interesting forms of combat in the game. Like, if I'm reading the build I can get the general idea of what you're going for, but there aren't any specifics. I don't know how he would actually fight, I don't know what types of poisons Pestilence uses, I don't even know exactly what perks were chosen. I mean this build is incredibly different if you perk Concentrated Poison versus skipping it, but I could think of pretty logical reasons for both. That's then compounded when I don't know how this character fights when confronting Dragons, other enemies that resist or are immune to Poison?

    I mean, there's just such a leap between the quality of the first section, and then the relatively minor focus on the second section. I love, love, love the Backstory and Character, but at the moment I think it might honestly work out better if you were to cut the gameplay (the last...what 8th of the build?) and develop this into a Roleplaying Profile. That said, I don't think it'd take much work to bring this up to par with your earlier half, and if you need it I'd love to help develop the Gameplay a bit more. Just for now I'll leave you with these questions and a like, because honestly, the first half is good enough to nearly make up for the second.

    1 - What Perks have you taken (you actually do need to list them all)

    2 - How does Pestielence fight different types of enemies, with an additional focus on enemies immune/resistant to poison.

    3 - How does combat generally start/what is his opening move, and how does he follow it up. Are you more focused on close range delivery of poisons, sneaking up and using the Pickpocket Perks and then moving back to snipe, or something completely different?

     

  • December 31, 2017

    Mega, out of all the Horsemen, Pestilence is probably the most difficult to create for Skyrim. This build is meant to be a complete vanilla build and the only way to really have the disease part is to use poisons (unless you use mods but not all consoles have the same mods). Any poison really works and I am trying to fix the character at the moment. Most of my brain power went to trying to rationalize why a Horseman of the Apocalypse (from the Bible) is in the Elder Scrolls, it was also late at night where I am when I was working on the build so it might not be the best right now. I'm trying to fix it but I guarantee you that the other Horsemen will be far better than this (I'm going in order, Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death).

  • December 31, 2017

    I am definitely interested in War, Famine and Death. I'll admit, Famine sounds like it might be rather difficult to plan just because...well I'm not sure what you'd do there. I could see some sort of Frost/Cold Damage based build working sort of well, but then again I'm not really familiar with how they appear in the bible, so I'm more just basing that off the idea of famine. 

    Let me know once you've finished the edits then Darkness would definitely love to see the build in it's full glory. Just as an idea, when your writing a build you can save the progress by copying the source code (the little symbol that looks like this <>) and pasting it into a word document. Lets you keep all your font changes, pictures and so on, overnight. Don't know if you knew about that, but it's really useful just to do in general, and doubly so with situations where your posting later at night. But yeah, would definitely like to see what the build looks like after your edits/additions.

  • Member
    December 31, 2017
    What about Conquest?
  • December 31, 2017

    Chris, there's been a debate with people as to who the First Horseman is. The full version of Revelation 6:1-2 is "And I saw when the Lamb opened the first of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the beasts saying, 'Come and see.' And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he who sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering and to conquer."

     

    Many people debate on who the First Horseman is, whether he's Pestilence, Conquest, or in some cases the Anti-Christ. Pop-Cultuer says Pestilence and in some ways it makes a lot more sense than Conquest. The Anti-Christ doesn't work at all.

     

    In my opinion, it should be Pestilence as Conquest and War are quite similar and in Revelation is says "And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." However another version of it ends with "to kill with sword, famine, pesilence, and with the beasts of the earth."

     

    Pestilence is most likely as why are wars waged? Well there are several reasons, but one reason is for help. See if there was a massive outbreak of an unknown virus and once country had already found a cure and used it for their people, other countries would want it. Now if there wasn't enough for the other country then that country might want to steal the cure. A lot of BS would happen, then BOOM! War! After War comes Famine, and as we all know, War isn't good. So after a long War there will be Famine as so much money would've been used in the war effort and people wouldn't have enough to buy food. And after Famine comes the oldest and most powerful of the brothers, Death. Death can kill by any means, storms, "accidents," wild creatures, Famine, Pestilence, and War.

     

    Now when it comes to Conquest vs the Anti-Christ, some things just don't quite add up. Conquest is more of dominance and enslavement, the Anti-Christ does this in a sort of a way, he decieves. He tricks people into believing that he is the Messiah (he ain't) he's able to call pillars of fire from the heavens, heal the blind, and raise the dead, he will decieve many. Now the reason that it doesn't work for the Anti-Christ to be the First of the Horsemen is because of how it happens. The first beast is the Anti-Christ/The False Prophet and he isn't mentioned 'till Revelation 11:7, far after the Horsemen have been mentioned.

     

    Now, it's never specified WHEN the Apocalypse happens, and we could honestly be nearing the end, or just in the middle of it right now.

     

    If the First Horseman is indeed Pestilence, then look back at history. The Bubonic Plauge/Black Death, over 25 million people died from it! The look at War, we've had the U.S. Civil War, 2 World Wars, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Iraq War, with a total of 121,606,914 deaths! That's NOT counting the deaths of the people who fought in the wars after the Black Death!

  • Member
    January 1, 2018
    Ah, all fair points.
  • January 2, 2018

    Mega, Pestilence is completed. If there's anything else you think I should edit please inform me.

  • January 2, 2018

    Hmm, yeah looks good. It's got everything it needs at the very least, and while I've got a few small suggestions (that I'll drop below) I do like the changes. I've got a better understanding of the character now, which is excellent and could play it. I will say, and it's something that I forgot to mention earlier, that I love the way you've kind of had other deities steal all his stuff, that's an interesting way to work in their quests.

    Right, the major edits that I would make at the moment. Get rid of the coloured text for the Quests section (works quite well higher up), it's just sort of distracting and hard to read. Uhh, there was one other...right I'd change up how you've presented the perks, get them in a simple list form, or use something like Skyrim Calculator so it doesn't clog up the build as much.

    Other then those relatively minor things, yeah all good man, looks really good overall :)

  • Member
    January 23, 2018
    One question: Why the beautiful bow of Auri-El when you could use Zephyr to rapid-fire spam poisoned arrows or the Black Bow of Fate to suck away vitality? I get that the Black Bow of Fate would be awesome for, say, Famine, but unless Famine is an Archer than it’s easy to say people are weakened by whatever putrefying essence is trapped in the Black Bow.