Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Event Build: The Dark in a World Gone Wrong

Tags: #Character Build Juggernaut  #Character Build Barbarian  #Character Build Alchemist  #Character Build Hero  #Dragonborn1721  #Ordinator  #Race: Argonian  #SE Rank: Adept  #Event: Songs of the North 
  • March 15, 2018

    Yo there, welcome to the first of my Event Builds for the CB Event: Songs of the North. I thought the idea for basing builds off music would be really interesting, and had to give this one a shot. This build was originally based on the song 'Shackled and Drawn' from Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball album, but it's sort of evolved into a bit of a mash-up of various songs, themes and tones expressed through the whole album rather than just one song. I'll have the full list at the bottom.

    Quick Mod List

     Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim

    Imperious - Races of Skyrim

    Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim

    Andromeda - Unique Standing Stones

     The Dark in a World Gone Wrong 

    The morning light pierced through the tree-shade that the Argonian, Tsh'akal was resting in, ray by ray, filling the clearing with a dull light as what little sunlight that could penetrate both the grey clouds covering the world and the trees covering the Argonian, Tsh'akal filtered in. It was just another day for the Argonian, Tsh'akal, another day of a life that he barely wanted to live in, another day of a world where everything feels wrong and evil. Each day felt like another step as he moved forever towards his potential death, hoping that he'd do something worth being given a grave someday.

    *thump*. . . *thump*. . .*thump, thump, thump, thump, thump* step after step crashing into the ground around the trees, the glade that the Tsh'akal rested in, they woke the Argonian with a shout, his hand instantly jumping to the sword laying beside him. The sounds of screams could be heard next, of swords clashing upon each other, carving through bone, of hammers striking metal and crashing, crashing, crashing. A battle was taking place around the Argonian, Tsh'akal, unknown members fighting, unknown numbers. Nothing was known to him except that someone was fighting and killing in a place that had previously been untouched by battle. With a hiss, the Argonian, Tsh'akal stood, hands on sword and rushing out as a light flooded his body. Armour of Stone covered the Argonian, Tsh'akal and a cry mimicking that of the Wamasu of Black Marsh echoed across the field, pausing the combat for but a second before the Argonian, Tsh'akal's blade came lashing out, piercing through the stomach of a distracted Imperial, guts spilling out into the Glade. A shock was felt, as soldiers of Blue, Red and Steel were aware of a third party that came crashing into their battle, carving through flesh, bone and skin as easily as a lumber mill can cut through a tree. A dozen men fell to the Argonian, Tsh'akal, and the Battle of Treeshade Glade came to an end, a single survivor as the Argonian, Tsh'akal cleaned his blade.

    "War has no place in a land like this, where beauty covers the land and the god's favour is still felt" the Argonian, Tsh'akal hissed to himself. Before moving on, his time here done, and a new home needing to be found where he could rest, and pray that the War would end before covering the land in the red-blood of man.

     The Basics 

    Race: Argonian

    Amphibious: Become harder to detect and move faster after swimming.
    Histborn: Rapidly regenerate Health, Magicka or Stamina below a threshold.
    Marsh Dweller: Swim much faster and breathe underwater.

    Skills: Alchemy, Illusion, Alteration and Two-Handed

    Standing Stone: The Tower Stone

    Royal Treasury: A quest leads to a hidden cache in Skyrim containing fabulous loot. Looting it indicates the next cache.
    Tower Key: Open locked doors up to Adept level. Once a day, open any lock of up to Expert level.

    Unlockable...

    The Dungeon: 1/day - Targets are lost in a mental maze, mindless but untouchable for 25 seconds. This is not a hostile effect

     Perks - Level 35

    Alchemy: Alchemy Mastery 2/2, Poisoner, Stimulants, Advanced Lab, Bottomless Cup, Alkahest, Crimson Haze, Lab Skeever, Maenad, Double Toil and Trouble and Amplify Lethality.

    Alchemy, heh I've been meaning to give this a proper run with Ordinator, but this is just an interesting skill that I'm probably going to rave about. I mean the idea behind this character is to make poisons that are so ridiculously deadly that they kill just about anything. With, Bottomless Cup these Poisons are going to last 10 attacks (at 100 Alchemy) and a collection of other perks are going to make them relatively easy to make, but more importantly just really, really strong. I've also got a bit of support through the use of Stimulants which give a lot of benefits to drinking potions, giving this character a lot of buffs even though I won't be relying too heavily on potions.

    You may also notice that I'm not sure on That Which Does Not Kill You. And simply put, if I can guarantee survival, I'm going to take a perk that lets me gain three perk points, and increases all potions and poisons that you make by 25% (Permanently). 

    Illusion: Illusion Mastery 2/2, Dream Thief, Imposing Presence, Kindred Mage, Wilting, Fickle Fate, Nemesis, Terror and Master of the Mind

    The idea of Illusion in this build is twofold. The first (and the one that I'm definitely going with) is the idea of walking into combat, hitting everyone with Frenzy, Fury or Calm and abusing the absolute hell out of some of the more powerful Perks the tree contains to hopefully end up with a character that can end combat incredibly easily. 

    Two-Handed: Two-Handed Mastery 2/2, Trained Fighter, Ferocious Strength, Trample, Death or Glory and Massacre

    Essentially the idea for Two-Handed is to heavily focus on Power Attacks, making them both as powerful as possible and increasing their general utility in combat. Logically speaking, it's normally better to use regular attacks with poison, but I thought that Ordinator Perks just seemed to scream 'POWER ATTACKS' in loud, bold font so I decided to run with it and see how it'd work. Really the best part is that even if they did block an attack, they'd still take Poison Damage. 

    Alteration: Alteration Mastery 2/2, Mage Armour 3/3, Distorted Shape and  Alter Self: Resistances (Fire and Frost)

    The main focus for this skill is going to be using Flesh Spells in order to bolster our (otherwise) non-existent AR, by the time we've maxed out everything, we're going to be able to get some really good Armour Spells up, including using Distorted Shape which allows us to use a bit of a 'Become Ethereal' effect whenever the shield goes up. 

     Gameplay (1-15) 

    Early game is pretty simple, especially before you reach Whiterun (at around Level 5). Essentially the idea is going to be 'smack things with a two-handed weapon till they die' and there really isn't anything else I can add on to that to explain how simplistic combat has to be at this point. Without access to Illusion Magic, Alteration Magic or our more potent poisons that we'll be using later on, the character is just a 0AR Beater that goes into combat killing everything as fast as possible so that we can try not to die. I was foolish enough to explore a place called Forgotten Hideout, which transitions into an area called Vampire Hideout (Forgotten Dungeons - Mod Link)...so yeah, my first 5 or so levels were spent fighting Vampires, which is not fun.

    Outside of combat, we're going to be picking every flower, butterfly wing, plant or other alchemical ingredients we can get our hands on to create a huge supply of potions/poisons once we finally get to Whiterun. Hopefully, you've been able to hit 25/30 Alchemy by around Level 6 or so (I hit 31 at Level 7) but the important thing is to just find simple, but plentiful ingredients to make potions (which we then sell). I'd recommend clearing out caves, but following roads and picking everything up is pretty easy and gets you, well hundreds of flowers to be blunt. 

    Upon reaching Whiterun, our main goal (other than buying our basic spells and making all the potions) is to complete a few of the more basic quests. Just things like Amren's Family Sword, getting Ysolda the Mammoth's Tusk, similar low reward, low risk quests that only really require you to clear out a few bandits, something this character can do fairly easily. 

    Quests: Bring Ysolda a Mammoth Tusk, Find Amren's Family Sword, Clear out Embershard Mine, Clear out Valtheim Towers, Clear out White River Watch, Slay the Bandit Leader at Silent Moons Camp and Kill the Mages in Halted Stream Camp.

     Backstory 

    The tale of the Argonian, Tsh'akal has to begin in Black Marsh. One could say that the tale of any Argonian should begin in Black Marsh, or a Nord's tale should begin in Skyrim, but Tsh'akal's life truly is linked to that of the marshes beyond most others. 

    Imagine, the border between Morrowind and Argonia, a border that has been expanding and expanding for your entire life as your people crush the opposition, barely being held back by the might of the Redoran, a Warrior-Tribe of your opponents that protects the entire southern border of their land with a bone-clad fist. First, your father is called forth to serve your land, to protect the Hist and to continue marching forward, slaying or imprisoning Dunmer by the dozen, only to fall in battle to a Telvanni Necromancer who uses the corpses of Argonians as explosives to sow chaos amongst armies. Then, your mother, a competent Mage is sent forth to stem a Redoran counter-attack that pierced through miles of land before being halted...naturally at the cost of your mother's life. 

    This was hardly a unique situation in Black Marsh at the time of the Argonian, Tsh'akal's life there, but it is something that defines him to this day. Family falls prey to Dunmer Mages, or to the Archers and Assassins that they employ through the Morag Tong, or even the occasional Redoran Warband that is as devastating as the army your land sends forth. Argonian Warmongers that spread propaganda through the streets, reminding everyone of the slavery that your people faced not 100 years ago and that the Telvanni still practise when they can. The war between Argonia and Morrowind was a terrible event, and while many would rather gloss over it, for the Argonian, Tsh'akal, it was a life-changing event. 

    He didn't fight in that war, but...really who needs to, the horrors of war could be seen on a daily basis, dozens of dead being carted through every city to be buried near a Hist Tree, Dunmer Slavecamps being made to keep those who had surrendered (something that the An-Xileel considered traitorous, disrespectful and disgusting) and using them as tools to keep expanding into Dunmer territory. A hospital, barracks and slave camp all within an hours walk of the alley you lived in...That was the early life of the Argonian, Tsh'akal. 

     Gameplay (16-35) 

    Primarily the idea is going to be finishing the Main Quest, while also helping out with the Gildergreen, and perhaps more importantly, heading up to grab the Tower Stone near Winterhold. Now as a fair note, I should point out that I was playing with the restriction that I couldn't enter any city allied with either Stormcloaks or the Legion while the Civil War was ongoing. Now technically speaking, Whiterun is the only hold that isn't allied with either at the beginning of the game, so it's the only Hold/City that I stayed in. Anything else was just me going from Whiterun to a certain place and returning. There was no sleeping in inns, entering cities, or talking to citizens. Because of this, the Tower Stone (and anything up near any city, especially Winterhold) can be rather difficult to get to.

    The Main Quest is interesting but rather difficult for me to actually complete (not from a gameplay perspective, but when examining it as a concept). Having the two sides call a temporary cease fire is exactly the sort of thing that Tsk'akal would want, however, he's not stupid (or naive) enough to believe that this would actually result in an end to the war. He knows that the key word is temporary and thus, it may actually be detrimental to his end goal to kill Alduin. So that's something that's up to you...Do you end the Civil War by having a constant Dragon Menace, or kill the Dragons...so the world isn't eaten. Eh, up to you, personally I went with completing the Main Quest and then just killing a lot of Imperials and Stormcloaks, but whatever floats the boat as they say.

    Trick One: Interestingly enough, Ocato's Recital triggers whenever combat ends, now usually it ends when you kill everything buuuuuuuut if you use Calm (or any of the higher ranked spells/effects) you can end combat by Calming every enemy nearby, and then killing them one by one means you can trigger Ocato's Recital against each enemy. This means you can trigger a new armour spell (automatically) every time you want to fight an enemy.

    Quests: Restore the Gildergreen, Discover the Tower Stone (clearing out dungeons nearby) and the Main Quest

     Closing Notes

    Welp, another Event down, well partially still got two builds (I think) to figure out and play around with. Anyway, the point is that this build is finished. I'm not sure if I have many thanks for this one, definitely Phil and Tysoyaha for giving advice and acting as an ear for me to babble at over in the Workshop, FlamezSword for dropping by and anyone else that I missed over there. And of course, thank you for reading and any thoughts you want to share. Definitely would like to encourage comments regardless of whether you liked it or not, and would appreciate any likes that people drop. 

    Song List

    Shackled and Drawn (Wrecking Ball - Bruce Springsteen)

    Death to my Hometown (Wrecking Ball - Bruce Springsteen)

    Wrecking Ball (Wrecking Ball - Bruce Springsteen)

    Use the 'Event: Songs of the North' tag to check out the other builds for this Event, and the Dragonborn1721 tag to check out...well my collection of builds. Oh and the 'Ordinator' tag for other builds that use Ordinator. Eh, you know how tags work, thanks again :D

  • Member
    March 15, 2018

    There's a lot more to the Argonian, Tsh'akal, than a being a glass cannon with a some excellent RP and a good background story. Those two things alone are rather noteworthy in that establishing limitations such as not being able to enter a city are things which add such an incredible amount of depth to a character and playthrough, while the Argonian, Tsh'akal's story makes him come across as war-weary and sad.

    In terms of gameplay, I think using the Tower Stone as interpreted by Andromeda makes this build unique, as it isn't the most obvious choice but one that works perfectly as you have presented. Even Royal Treasury alone I imagine makes for added story elements. The use of Distorted Shape from Ordinator Alteration is especially well-implemented, I think, a perfect use for that perk when looking at the Argonian, Tsh'akal's almost non-existant AR. It can be really easy to make those Ordinator perks exploit the game, but I think you've balanced it all well.

    A couple of things I am curious about, and actually believe you've left in so as to become talking points, are the use of That Which Does Not Kill You and the power of your poisons. Did you take that perk, and what was the strongest poison or potion the Argonian, Tsh'akal, brewed?

    After reading this and enjoying the presentation, it's hard not to want to go flower-picking, make poisons and stimulants from those flowers, and go mind-fucking and whacking the crap out of things in the footsteps of the Argonian, Tsh'akal :)

  • March 15, 2018

    You've just reminded me that I forgot to mention a few tips :P Namely just about Calm and Ocato's Recital (which is really cool, but basically if you stop combat by calming everything, you can then trigger Ocato's Recital again, and kind of use it to pick off foes one by one) 

    And as for some for the Alchemy stuff...honestly I just forgot to edit the skill descriptions after I toned the build down a little bit, was originally going to be about 20 levels higher so I would've tried to take That Which Does Not Kill You, but the plan changed and I never had the perks to try it. I believe I was managing Poisons (of Damage Health) that could do 80 damage per hit, not entirely sure because I didn't really keep track of the exact numbers, but even so that's pretty decent when your getting 8 uses out of it (minimum, I was actually getting 10 because I managed to grind to 100 but that isn't required.), you can rack up some serious damage with them. As for potions, nope not a clue, I'd just pop them without looking half the time, I kind of go into an 'Alchemy Trance' sometimes and just button mash until the potions are made, so I can't remember for the life of me. 

    But yeah, the build was pretty damn fun (I'm not biased I swear :P), loved doing up the art in particular for this one :D Thanks for dropping by Phil, both here and in the 'Shop.

  • March 15, 2018

    Very cool. I still don’t have the whole “what the hell is a build?” concept down, but just chalk that up to me being a terrible player and a novice, besides. 

     

    But I like the history here, and the music weaved through it, all the way through it. And I can’t imagine playing with the restrictions you did - not entering most cities?  Amazing. 

     

    Did I miss, though, how Tsh’akal got to Skyrim in the first place? Just because of the war-torn nature of his own land, and he ends up in a place that’s just as bloody? The political/cultural climate of Skyrim during the game reminds me of medieval France - they were at war with England, and at war with each other - Catholic/Protestant/Cathar, so to survive you not only have to be the right type of person, but also hold a very narrow set of political and cultural beliefs. Skyrim - with the Civil War and the Thalmor assholes running around capturing everyone who looks at them wrong - seems similar.

     

     

    So, your song choices are spot on, in that regard, too, it captures that vibe perfectly. 

     

    I also liked your commentary on the main quest - the real implications of halting the war temporarily. 

  • March 15, 2018

    But I like the history here, and the music weaved through it, all the way through it. And I can’t imagine playing with the restrictions you did - not entering most cities?  Amazing. 

     Sweet, broke it up nicely for me :P Ah, thanks for dropping by Ilani, and the kind comments :D Honestly I didn't really notice the restrictions most of the time, Whiterun had just about everything I needed and had enough quests when combined with the Main Quest...uh well obviously there were a few times I had to enter Riften and a few other places....should make the clear in the build itself shouldn't I. 

    Did I miss, though, how Tsh’akal got to Skyrim in the first place? Just because of the war-torn nature of his own land, and he ends up in a place that’s just as bloody? The political/cultural climate of Skyrim during the game reminds me of medieval France - they were at war with England, and at war with each other - Catholic/Protestant/Cathar, so to survive you not only have to be the right type of person but also hold a very narrow set of political and cultural beliefs. Skyrim - with the Civil War and the Thalmor assholes running around capturing everyone who looks at them wrong - seems similar.

    No, I like to leave a bit in the build up the reader's interpretation. I think to give the whole story (one takes far too long when it's me, the build would be about six times as long if I included everything :P) is just a bit...stifling at times, and here, you've got the base idea of the character, enough about his past that you can reasonably understand him, but there are a few holes you can fill in you know. Just how I like to build, but realistically, he's been in Skyrim since before the Civil War, he figured it'd be relatively peaceful during the Great War (since Hammerfell and Cyrodiil acted as...barriers I suppose for any of the war touching Skyrim) so it was more or less a country that while going off to war, they were doing it somewhere else. I know that does make him rather old, but I don't know the life-span of an Argonian...Eh it's not too hard to think of some justification there. 

    So, your song choices are spot on, in that regard, too, it captures that vibe perfectly. 

    I also liked your commentary on the main quest - the real implications of halting the war temporarily. 

    Heh thanks, Ilani, it was a damn hard one to pick the songs for honestly, it went through a lot of changes but I like how it turned out there. And yeah, it's always something I've been interested in thinking about, the morality of the decision is kind of tough, especially if you were looking at it as a Gameplay Add-On because Alduin doesn't really do anything unless the Dragonborn is directly attacking him, you could probably reason something that would make leaving the Dragons for awhile a moral decision...tough one though.

  • March 15, 2018

    Dragonborn1921 said:

     

    Heh thanks, Ilani, it was a damn hard one to pick the songs for honestly, it went through a lot of changes but I like how it turned out there. And yeah, it's always something I've been interested in thinking about, the morality of the decision is kind of tough, especially if you were looking at it as a Gameplay Add-On because Alduin doesn't really do anything unless the Dragonborn is directly attacking him, you could probably reason something that would make leaving the Dragons for awhile a moral decision...tough one though.

     

    It is. I struggle with that when I’m trying to make my character’s reactions realistic and lifelike. On one hand, the DB wants to get strong enough to take on Alduin in the first place. On the other hand, no, Alduin doesn’t attack the DB, but his minions do, and attack the rest of Skyrim as well. Some dragon attacked Rorikstead once and I just happened upon it, and some of the villagers were killed. I didn’t think much of it, but later my daughter wouldn’t stop bugging me until I adopted a kid. And when I did, I noticed one of the kids from Rorikstead was at the orphanage. I imagine to really have to make that devision would be a harrowing process, and no matter what you choose, someone would end up losing. Lots of someones. 

     

  • March 17, 2018

    It is. I struggle with that when I’m trying to make my character’s reactions realistic and lifelike. On one hand, the DB wants to get strong enough to take on Alduin in the first place. On the other hand, no, Alduin doesn’t attack the DB, but his minions do, and attack the rest of Skyrim as well. Some dragon attacked Rorikstead once and I just happened upon it, and some of the villagers were killed. I didn’t think much of it, but later my daughter wouldn’t stop bugging me until I adopted a kid. And when I did, I noticed one of the kids from Rorikstead was at the orphanage. I imagine to really have to make that devision would be a harrowing process, and no matter what you choose, someone would end up losing. Lots of someones. 

    Oh I totally forgot that children move into the orphanage sometimes, it's a pretty cool little feature. But yeah, I always thought the Main Quest had some weird little moral issues that are sort of glanced over in favour of say...The Thalmor/Civil War debate (or really how much control the Thalmor have on both sides), because things like this are things that can be discussed.

  • Member
    March 28, 2018

    The title alone was enough to hook me :D

    I was surprised by the skill selection for this (in a good way ;D (so good in fact that I'm tempted to give this a run if I ever get some time to sit down and play))--kind of like reaching into a Christmas stocking after you thought you got it all, and finding a handful of wonderful things. But they all blend in together so well, it makes me wonder why I never thought of going that direction before.

    Another great DB build!

    And it's currently being featured on the TV Twitter and Facebook pages ;D

  • Member
    March 28, 2018

    I totally agree with Shin, I am really digging the skills you took here. The build is actually is giving me a very ESO Argonian alchemist-fighter Shadowfen sorta vibe and I'm really into how you've packaged that all together here. I love the backstory and weaving those nature quests together (especially restoring the Gildergreen) makes everything feel really natural. Easy, easy +1 from me. 

  • March 29, 2018

    Sorry I'm late with the reply Shin, E, just sorta never got around to it for some reason. Anyway, the build was definitely a fun one to write if nothing else, well that and the artwork but just a really, really fun build to write. The skills were, sorta weird in the end, I mean I'm a big fan of Two-Handed + Alchemy for some strange reason (maybe it's the fact that Fly Amanita and Dragon's Tongue are so easy to find and make a kickass potion), then I had to throw in Alteration because I'm not entirely sure whether I can play an Ordinator build without it :P And Illusion...eh I can't even remember the justification for that one, but it worked so :D

    Thanks for the comments and likes guys, very much appreciated.