Concept:
This is my attempt at creating a build based around sun damage. It's a unique set of spells and enchantments that do massive damage to the undead, but have no affect on the living. Using them instead of Destruction is fun restriction for a Paladin type character to have, especially if they're against murder. However, no killing can put a damper on your hopes of completing a majority of the quests in the game.
My solution to this was to draw inspiration from the real life phenomenon of firefighter arson. Making a character that would secretly summon hordes of undead to do his dirty work only to rush in and defeat them once they had served their purpose. Thus circumventing his moral hangups about killing people himself, while simultaneously gaining recognition as a heroic force of good and righteousness.
Oh yea, and because we're using Malkoran to summon what are technically enemies (Malkoran's Shade) then, unlike most summons, there's no limit to how many you can have running around at once. Raise an entire army of them to terrorize Whiterun if you like...just make sure you're capable of defeating them all. Have fun kids!
Background:
You are Julian Iscariot, a member of the Knights of the Nine. Following the defeat of Umaril The Uneathered The Order has struggled to retain its relevancy in Tamriel. Most members believe their purpose has been served and are content just to worship in private.
You don't agree with your brothers and are appalled by their complacency. You believe that the greatest triumph of The Order is still ahead of it, you seek glory and power in the name of the Divines, and the war over Talos worship is the perfect opportunity.
Unfortunately, in your quest to defeat all things dark and evil you discover the efficiency of "fighting fire with fire". Turning necromancer's zombies against them, raising defeated draugr to battle each other. Used within reason, conjuration turned out to be a powerful tool indeed!
Initially opposed to killing of any kind, the power of this new ability feeds your greed for fame. Eventually, your increasingly twisted logic/morality leads you to purposely conjure shades to murder those who stand in your way, only to heroically slay the wretched creatures yourself and claim the glory of their defeat.
Build:
Race - Breton
You're spellcasting summons are notorious for turning on you, so magical resistance will serve this build well.
Standing Stone - Atronach Stone
This will give you a resistance to your shades attacks and facilitate the Beacon of Light strategy.
Magic/Health/Stamina - 3/1/2
Nice and well-rounded. There will be a stronger focus on spellcasting in later levels. So you can alter your stat allocation accordingly if like, but the Beacon of Light strategy should make that unnecessary.
Skills - Restoration, Illusion, Conjuration, Block, One Handed, Heavy Armor
Everything a paladin would need...plus Conjuration. Ironic.
Powers - Dragonskin
This is particularly useful for facing strong spellcasters. It doesn't stack with the Atronach Stone for 100% Absorption, but both do apply together incrementally.
Shouts - Unrelenting Force
This is the basis for the Word of God strategy so make sure you have all three words by the time you master Conjuration.
Spells - Healing, Vampire's Bane, Stendarr's Aura, Guardian Circle, Pacify, Dead Thrall
Pretty standard stuff for a follower of the Divines. Until that last one at least.
Weapons - Dawnguard Rune Axe
This is a great weapon for this character, it's damage is tied directly to your success as an eliminator of the undead.
Armor - Dawnguard Heavy Helmet, Apprentice Robes, Steel Plate Gauntlets, Steel Plate Boots, Dawnguard Rune Shield
This provides a nice balance of mobility and protection while also looking the part quite well.
Jewellery - Amulet of Talos, Ahzidal's Ring of Necromancy
Ahzidal's Ring is the fastest and easiest way to summon multiple shades. Shout cooldown can be useful...but it's not important enough that you can't use a different Divines Amulet if you prefer the roleplay.
Perks:
Restoration - Respite had great synergy with the Novice spell "healing". Because it's a concentration spell it can provide nearly limitless power attacks at a very low cost to your mana. Later you'll focus more on spellcasting than melee so Necromage and Dual Casting will be important perks to have.
Illusion - You'll be using Calm spells to avoid bloodshed so you basically just need to make sure they can affect the level of opponent you're currently facing. You may no longer find them necissary late game, depending on how far off the deep end your character goes.
Conjuration - The health and duration of your zombies won't matter once you start killing them instantly to release a shade. So the usefulness of those perks depends entirely on how long it takes you to succumb completely to the power of Necromancy. The Summoner perk will be an asset no matter what.
Block - Your shield casts a cloak on you when raised, so your perks should focus on the usefulness of continuous blocking. Bash perks aren't necissary for this build.
One Handed - At the start of the game, your one handed weapon is how you get a body to raise. Once you have your own thrall it won't be so important...so quickly grab a few perks in One Handed and then leave it be.
Heavy Armor - You don't have a full set of armor so don't waste to many perks here.
Special Tactics:
Penance of the Corrupted - Ahzidal's Ring will cause your zombies to die instantly when hit and cause a 50pt frost damage explosion. Usually, this isn't worth the price of admission, but Malkoran has the unique ability to sprout a new shade every time he's killed. Shades are technically considered enemies, but they'll generally attack whoever attacked Malkoran first. Thus making for a nifty little way of (sometimes greatly) exceeding the summon limit.
Requires: Ahzidal's Ring of Necromancy, Dead Thrall
The Word of God - Your shades are unbound and won't hesitate to attack you once any other hostiles are gone. Undead are this characters specialty, but it never hurts to have a backup plan. Three words of the Unrelenting Force shout will freeze any shade it hits in place, leaving them unable to attack and invulnerable to melee but not magic attacks. This is both a useful way to set a decoy when fighting enemies, and quick way of "shutting down" a few of your shades when they inevitably turn on you.
Requires: Unrelenting Force
Beacon of Light - Guardian Circle casts a persistent healing spell on you, so with the Atronach Stone active you'll constantly be absorbing half that spell. This unlimited mana regen helps you repeatedly cast Dead Thrall to summon multiple shades. Plus, the Healing and Turn Undead effects will make dispatching them easy, even if you've summoned an otherwise overwhelming number of them.
Requires: Guardian Circle, Atronach Stone
Roleplay/Restrictions:
A Force for Good - This character starts off as a real boyscout, no killing of any kind. You can break machines, banish daedra and "correct" the abomination that is the undead...but even bandits and necromancers get a calm spell to the face before you let them walk away. Slowly begin incorporating conjuration into you playstyle. First by calling upon innocent familiars to aid you in battle, then by raising defeated draugr to fight the others, and eventually by turning necromancer's zombies against them.
Power Corrupts - You cross a line when you first turn a necromancer's zombie. You struggle with the moral implications of letting the undead kill someone, and argue to yourself that it was an accident. (It wasn't.) You eventually begin to rationalize this behavior, convinced that the putrid monsters would be off killing innocents had you not turned them on their master. In this desperate attempt to absolve yourself of any guilt you eventually develop a complete disassociation from the actions of your own zombies and shades. By the end of game, they should be free to murder indiscriminately while you pretend to be the hero.
Tips/Tricks:
Malkoran - Fighting Malkoran on his terms leaves you behind a locked door with a cutscene as your only way out. Even if you raise him first, your new thrall won't be following you through this cutscene. Instead, you have to stand at the top of the stairs just before the large doorway and draw Malkoran and his minions out of the room by shooting arrows down the hallway.
Concept:
This is my attempt at creating a build based around sun damage. It's a unique set of spells and enchantments that do massive damage to the undead, but have no affect on the living. Using them instead of Destruction is fun restriction for a Paladin type character to have, especially if they're against murder. However, no killing can put a damper on your hopes of completing a majority of the quests in the game.
My solution to this was to draw inspiration from the real life phenomenon of firefighter arson. Making a character that would secretly summon hordes of undead to do his dirty work only to rush in and defeat them once they had served their purpose. Thus circumventing his moral hangups about killing people himself, while simultaneously gaining recognition as a heroic force of good and righteousness.
Oh yea, and because we're using Malkoran to summon what are technically enemies (Malkoran's Shade) then, unlike most summons, there's no limit to how many you can have running around at once. Raise an entire army of them to terrorize Whiterun if you like...just make sure you're capable of defeating them all. Have fun kids!
Background:
You are Julian Iscariot, a member of the Knights of the Nine. Following the defeat of Umaril The Uneathered The Order has struggled to retain its relevancy in Tamriel. Most members believe their purpose has been served and are content just to worship in private.
You don't agree with your brothers and are appalled by their complacency. You believe that the greatest triumph of The Order is still ahead of it, you seek glory and power in the name of the Divines, and the war over Talos worship is the perfect opportunity.
Unfortunately, in your quest to defeat all things dark and evil you discover the efficiency of "fighting fire with fire". Turning necromancer's zombies against them, raising defeated draugr to battle each other. Used within reason, conjuration turned out to be a powerful tool indeed!
Initially opposed to killing of any kind, the power of this new ability feeds your greed for fame. Eventually, your increasingly twisted logic/morality leads you to purposely conjure shades to murder those who stand in your way, only to heroically slay the wretched creatures yourself and claim the glory of their defeat.
Build:
Race - Breton
You're spellcasting summons are notorious for turning on you, so magical resistance will serve this build well.
Standing Stone - Atronach Stone
This will give you a resistance to your shades attacks and facilitate the Beacon of Light strategy.
Magic/Health/Stamina - 3/1/2
Nice and well-rounded. There will be a stronger focus on spellcasting in later levels. So you can alter your stat allocation accordingly if like, but the Beacon of Light strategy should make that unnecessary.
Skills - Restoration, Illusion, Conjuration, Block, One Handed, Heavy Armor
Everything a paladin would need...plus Conjuration. Ironic.
Powers - Dragonskin
This is particularly useful for facing strong spellcasters. It doesn't stack with the Atronach Stone for 100% Absorption, but both do apply together incrementally.
Shouts - Unrelenting Force
This is the basis for the Word of God strategy so make sure you have all three words by the time you master Conjuration.
Spells - Healing, Vampire's Bane, Stendarr's Aura, Guardian Circle, Pacify, Dead Thrall
Pretty standard stuff for a follower of the Divines. Until that last one at least.
Weapons - Dawnguard Rune Axe
This is a great weapon for this character, it's damage is tied directly to your success as an eliminator of the undead.
Armor - Dawnguard Heavy Helmet, Apprentice Robes, Steel Plate Gauntlets, Steel Plate Boots, Dawnguard Rune Shield
This provides a nice balance of mobility and protection while also looking the part quite well.
Jewellery - Amulet of Talos, Ahzidal's Ring of Necromancy
Ahzidal's Ring is the fastest and easiest way to summon multiple shades. Shout cooldown can be useful...but it's not important enough that you can't use a different Divines Amulet if you prefer the roleplay.
Perks:
Restoration - Respite had great synergy with the Novice spell "healing". Because it's a concentration spell it can provide nearly limitless power attacks at a very low cost to your mana. Later you'll focus more on spellcasting than melee so Necromage and Dual Casting will be important perks to have.
Illusion - You'll be using Calm spells to avoid bloodshed so you basically just need to make sure they can affect the level of opponent you're currently facing. You may no longer find them necissary late game, depending on how far off the deep end your character goes.
Conjuration - The health and duration of your zombies won't matter once you start killing them instantly to release a shade. So the usefulness of those perks depends entirely on how long it takes you to succumb completely to the power of Necromancy. The Summoner perk will be an asset no matter what.
Block - Your shield casts a cloak on you when raised, so your perks should focus on the usefulness of continuous blocking. Bash perks aren't necissary for this build.
One Handed - At the start of the game, your one handed weapon is how you get a body to raise. Once you have your own thrall it won't be so important...so quickly grab a few perks in One Handed and then leave it be.
Heavy Armor - You don't have a full set of armor so don't waste to many perks here.
Special Tactics:
Penance of the Corrupted - Ahzidal's Ring will cause your zombies to die instantly when hit and cause a 50pt frost damage explosion. Usually, this isn't worth the price of admission, but Malkoran has the unique ability to sprout a new shade every time he's killed. Shades are technically considered enemies, but they'll generally attack whoever attacked Malkoran first. Thus making for a nifty little way of (sometimes greatly) exceeding the summon limit.
Requires: Ahzidal's Ring of Necromancy, Dead Thrall
The Word of God - Your shades are unbound and won't hesitate to attack you once any other hostiles are gone. Undead are this characters specialty, but it never hurts to have a backup plan. Three words of the Unrelenting Force shout will freeze any shade it hits in place, leaving them unable to attack and invulnerable to melee but not magic attacks. This is both a useful way to set a decoy when fighting enemies, and quick way of "shutting down" a few of your shades when they inevitably turn on you.
Requires: Unrelenting Force
Beacon of Light - Guardian Circle casts a persistent healing spell on you, so with the Atronach Stone active you'll constantly be absorbing half that spell. This unlimited mana regen helps you repeatedly cast Dead Thrall to summon multiple shades. Plus, the Healing and Turn Undead effects will make dispatching them easy, even if you've summoned an otherwise overwhelming number of them.
Requires: Guardian Circle, Atronach Stone
Roleplay/Restrictions:
A Force for Good - This character starts off as a real boyscout, no killing of any kind. You can break machines, banish daedra and "correct" the abomination that is the undead...but even bandits and necromancers get a calm spell to the face before you let them walk away. Slowly begin incorporating conjuration into you playstyle. First by calling upon innocent familiars to aid you in battle, then by raising defeated draugr to fight the others, and eventually by turning necromancer's zombies against them.
Power Corrupts - You cross a line when you first turn a necromancer's zombie. You struggle with the moral implications of letting the undead kill someone, and argue to yourself that it was an accident. (It wasn't.) You eventually begin to rationalize this behavior, convinced that the putrid monsters would be off killing innocents had you not turned them on their master. In this desperate attempt to absolve yourself of any guilt you eventually develop a complete disassociation from the actions of your own zombies and shades. By the end of game, they should be free to murder indiscriminately while you pretend to be the hero.
Tips/Tricks:
Malkoran - Fighting Malkoran on his terms leaves you behind a locked door with a cutscene as your only way out. Even if you raise him first, your new thrall won't be following you through this cutscene. Instead, you have to stand at the top of the stairs just before the large doorway and draw Malkoran and his minions out of the room by shooting arrows down the hallway.
