Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


General Build Discussion

Tags: #Crucial Discussion 
  • Member
    January 21, 2018

    Not I, though I usually have at least a BIT of cooking in my playthroughs at the start and have previously used cooking exclusively for making my healing items (it isn’t difficult to heal way over 50 Health per pound of weight, though you will forever be hunting for salt). The best Mage food requires moonsugar, though, and that’s quite hard to come by normally.

    My big issue with cooking in Skyrim is that the vast majority of the food you can make is quite simple. You need to make a hearthfire house with a kitchen if you really plan on diving into it. Without the braided breads and pies, you’re mostly making camp food. Because of that most of my “cooks” are soldiers, merchants, and travelers. They make the nice stuff for the family back home and maybe bring leftovers for the journey.

  • January 21, 2018

    I think the idea of a roleplay cook is an interesting/awesome one. I would do it in such a way that maybe it isn't just about the cooking aspect, but finding the ingredients. When you consider that you will delve into dungeons and what not for ingredients, then the roleplay turns interesting. Perhaps even utilizing Alchemy as well? Then it makes the build a little more viable because you will be looking for all kinds of ingredients, both for food and for alchemy, because lets be honest, Garlic as just an alchemical ingredient? It would require a good deal of role play, including being primarily a support role. For instance, maybe have your major perks be: Alchemy, Sneak, and maybe Illusion or Alteration. Minor perks could be: One handed (dagger) or mace (tenderizer), Speech, and maybe restoration. I don't know but there are a few good ways it could be done, that would be highly immersive, and give you a reason to actually use the Hearthfire DLC (I don't usually).

  • January 22, 2018

    I still haven't figured out a reason to use Hearthfire unless it's for Alchemy... Well outside of basing some ideas for RP on the houses, it always felt like more effort than it was worth to me. 

    I think the major problem with food-based builds is that they run off very specific ideas that most of us are used to after years of knowing builds. I mean, Vegetable Soup is probably one of the major items, but so many builds have used this (without being Chef-Based) that it kind of reduces the impact of the item. There are a couple things that are still fresh, like whatever it is that boosts Archery (which is just strange...think it's a Dumpling) but your best bet with food is really to go with mods.

    There are plenty that makes food actually a viable form of primary healing and buffing, and then you can create a completely (Pure) Chef/Cooking build, but for me, I think you're always going to rely on things like Alchemy, Alteration or Block (+ Veggie Soup) to make it viable. Not to say that you can't do that, in fact, it's perfectly fine and I'd love to see Cooking Builds used in some new ways, just personally would want the base idea to be the centerpiece of the build from a Gameplay perspective. 

  • January 23, 2018

    So I've scrapped everything I was working on to start a new idea that I randomly had based on Destruction and the Vampire Lord form. The first step was simply remembering how Cloaks and Werewolves work, the effect continuing even after you transform and seeing if I can combine Cloaks with the VL form to make a pretty interesting Mage Character. Mostly it was going to be Whirlwind Cloak so you don't really have to worry about melee opponents, especially with potions boosting range (I think...) but it's entirely hinged on whether or not the same mechanics work with VL as WW.

    Also going to add in Alteration and look at Conjuration (seeing if the effects persist) and generally creating a character that has 'human support' with the regular Vampire Lord spells, and aiming to end up being transformed for hours of play. Dunno how it'll work, and ultimately it just makes me wish I was playing Xbox so I could grab Ordinator, Apocalypse and so on because I think there might be some even better combinations there. 

  • Member
    January 23, 2018

    I’ve done something similar before, DB. From what I recall of it, I got a lot more out of Illusion than Conjuration for the build, mostly because the Amulet of the Gargoyle made you pretty comparable to summoning Dremora Lords.

    Destruction magic for Cloaks works well, and yes Whirlwind Cloak does extend its range based on Alchemical enhancement. I recall a favorite dirty drick for powerful enemies having been throwing on a Cloak of Frost, using Vampiric Grip on an enemy, and letting it dangle while Cloak of Frost and Night Cloak did passive damage and my Gargoyles gleefully ripped the enemy limb from limb.

    Flesh spells also carry over just fine. I didn’t really find myself needing them, though. More important from Alteration was getting magic protection. Ranged enemies had a far greater change of messing up my beautiful Vampire Lord face, and mages were the most dangerous of those.

  • January 23, 2018

    I've never really played around with Gargoyles, but I think the ranged benefits of the Atronach might make things a little more...viable to fight ranged enemies. Not sure though, but that was my original thinking. I did end up moving Illusion into the mix a little more, mostly to take advantage of the boosts which will make 'human form'a  bit more viable the few times that I need to swap over.

    Just checked and apparently, the summons die upon transformation which makes Conjuration useless. Going to drop that

    I am debating the idea of dropping Conjuration though. Also not sure how much I'll focus on Alteration, It'll definitely be a core skill but I don't want to maximize it or anything even if that does make Vampires really powerful. Actually, after just checking the UESP page, I think I'm going to go for Alteration and at least get a single boost on to Ebonyflesh (Shalidor's Insights or an Alteration Potion) because late game I should be able to get pretty close to the maximum AR, which should allow me to function pretty well without needing to get into 80 different buffs.

    Managed to get to Level 7 so far with just Oakflesh, Fury and Flames so that's doing pretty well (though part of it is the fact that I'm leveling Speech). 

     

    So yeah, running the current skill set at the moment. Alteration, Alchemy (Still Deciding), Destruction, Illusion and Speech. Considering the idea of dropping Alchemy since I'd rather have the extra duration on Ebonyflesh, and don't see a need for it outside of maybe Destruction Potions...Not sure, will run it for now but could swap it out for Sneak if I don't really need it.

  • Member
    January 30, 2018
    Currently working on the write up for a few upcomers.
  • February 3, 2018

    Just started my playthrough for my latest build 'He Who Carves Wood in the Shapes of the Gods' (and yeah, the name has to be long because that's fun as all hell) and it's been going pretty well. Trying out a few different weather/texture mods and the entire Divine Cities collection, because it's something I haven't used before. The basic idea behind the build is to play as a Support Shouter rather than the more classical offense-oriented Shout Builds that tend to be used. Only real offensive Shout so far is going to be Storm Call, with some of the key shouts being Call of Valor, Battle Fury, Aura Whisper, Animal Allegiance and so on.

  • Member
    February 4, 2018
    Definitely an interesting concept, DB. I'll need to go and have another look, but I remember when playing Banshee of the Reach and messing with Ordinator's shout perks that it made whether to choose shout cooldown equipment or not a much more tactical choice. Like, with Cloaks of Skyrim, there is the Greybeard Mantle cloak in High Hrothgar which adds 20% to cooldown in addition to the Amulet of Talos for another 20%. However, obviously with Ordinator you are reducing healing by that 40% too, making it much more interesting. Are you really going with no offence, though? Hear me out, am thinking that Campfire adds that lovely wooden walking stick adorned with a Nordic amulet. You can use that to block, and it adds 10 Stamina. I have this idea that using that and a simple axe or sword would be very thematically appropriate.
  • February 4, 2018

    Ah, at the moment I have been going around with a Woodcutter's Axe which adds a teeny bit of offence to the character, but that's the extent of his offensive power. I won't be perking One-Handed or Smithing and I might not even be perking Enchanting (dunno at the moment) so it'll just the Light Armour and Speech for now. I am having a bit of trouble picking a Shout that represents Dibella (need a Shout for each Totem-God) and my thoughts at the moment are leaning towards Ice Form or Fire Breath, with the former being my preference but there is a fair bit to say about adding some more damage potential. 

    But yeah, focusing on Shout Cooldown is something that has positives and negatives with this character, I mean it would allow you to trigger the damage boosting and staggering effects more often but that self-healing is really good for this character. There's also the fact that my character's going to have a 25% chance to reset any cooldowns to 3 seconds, which kind of makes the Amulet of Talos/Mantle a bit useless because 25% of the time I won't need it while there are benefits to having the full cooldown the other 75% of the time. Especially if I'm using something like Storm Call which will always heal me to the full extent.

    But I'm also considering the idea of dropping that and picking up either Dragon Aspect (1 Word) or Slow Time to represent my 'Alduin' shout since...you know those are sort of fitting.