It was an important time for the tribe, Naming Day was upon them. As per ritual all the new hatchlings were gathered to recieve the Hist's sap and get a name. The Hist would reveal the role, appearance and ability of each hatchling. That is, it would have if not for the fiery explosion eminating from the second to last hatchling, killing an elder and the unlucky follow-up. A name was given to the young Argonian, Ash-Scale and branded eternally unlucky, most likely dangerous.
The leader of the tribe, a most renowned witch doctor, took the little thing under his wing in the hope that his skills might be able to balance it's unstable, hidden potential. Years of secluded study, meditation and ingestion of varies elixirs were planned out for him. Things looked great, right up until the point where his fiery ego got the better of him and he lost control completely. Once he regained consciousness he found himself lying in the smoldering remnants of the witch doctor's hut. In his shame and grief he did the only thing he could think of...run.
The Ash-Scale
When fully released, woe unto you
Fire is the theme here if you haven't guessed it yet. Fire everywhere, but with a twist! The idea behind the build is to have a young Argonian with a tremendous untapped potential of virtually unlimited fire power. The way I simulated that is by making a "non-mage" who's magicka comes from (two) items instead of himself and is capable of enhancing fire spell damage or cast spells which he shouldn't be able to with drinking potions and the new Dragonborn powers that let him access his dormant powers.
The build is extremely opportunistic with it's wide spread and capable of doing almost anything. Sneaky sneaky? No problem. Toe to toe as a light armored knife fighter? Absolutely. Boom Boom spells? Yes!
Race; Only one option here, Argonian. I made mine as skinny as possible with a nice warm, earthly brown colour and red "eyeliner". Ash-Scale is a young Argonian, somewhat underdeveloped. The thin body in armor with the big head looks very gecko-like.
Stone; The Lord. He's a quite rare breed of Argonian, he deserves some status whether he knows it or not. It will go nicely with his perks and skills. Agent of Mara, the stone and 1/3 Magic Resistance brings it to a total of 50%. With the use of our homemade elixirs we can push it to the max whenever we need it.
Armor; The goal is to wrap ourself in a nice full set of Light Chitin or Morag Tong Armor. The organic look really fits an angry marsh dweller. Light Chitin is red and slightly more sturdy than Morag Tong, but the latter looks nice and muddy. I tend to carry both sets for whatever mood I'm in and variation. At the very early levels wear Leather Armor/Bracers/Boots with an Adept Hood. Easiest way to get the hood is by going to Markath and end the life of that silly Vigilant Tyranus who just has to stick his nose where it doesn't belong.
Enchants; Just because we're not "using" Enchanting or Smithing, does not mean you should not improve your armor/weapon. Improvements, no matter how tiny, get boosted a lot by Custom Fit, Matching Set and Assassin's Blade.
Use a Grand Soul gem to slap +20 magicka on your helm, gloves and -% cost on Alteration for your chest. If you're unable or can't be bothered to look for a Muffle enchant for the boots you'd have to spend an extra perk on Silence in the Sneak tree. There's no real rush for the enchants (because you dont rely on them) apart from Muffle, which is much easier to obtain at lower levels (10-20). At higher levels it gets pushed out of the possible inventory by enchants that are considered "more valuable" by the game.
Use Fiery Soul Trap for your dagger of choice. It's cheap, barely uses charges and still benefits from Augmented Flames. Having no enchanting and randomly finding an Ebony Dagger of the Inferno makes you really, really appreciate the find. I jumped up and down in my chair for a couple of minutes like a happy kid when i found it in one of my playthroughs.
Shouts; The only ones I actually used are Fire Breath and Dragon Aspect. Bend Will on a Fire breathing Dragon for epicness, but that's it. I could make up something fancy but the truth is that most of the time you could shout something it should be fire.
Level 50 perks
I've included a link as to show where your Ash-Scale should be at when you reach level 25 as I can imagine it's quite overwhelming with so many perk trees. Level 25 perk spread
Luckily for you the dear old witch doctor was well educated. Besides passing on his extensive knowledge of alchemy, he possesed quite the collection of books left behind long ago by the Imperials whenever they had the silly idea of building trading outposts or temples only to abandon them to the marsh. In particular about infamous objects with magical properties.
How it works
This build uses two specific magical items: Ring of the Erudite and the Necromancer's Amulet. Our flaming gecko will seek them out, no matter what the cost. The items will give him the magicka to let off some steam and relieve parts of the ever building pressure. The deaths of his tribe members weigh heavily on our young friend and he's quite determined to stay in control to the best of his abilities.
This is not a vampire build however, so cure yourself as soon as you have the ring. Their weakness to fire makes you sick to the stomach. No wonder Harkon only tells you afterwards.
These two items will be the base fuel on which your inner fire will burn. Combined both they will add a ludicrous amount of 150 magicka.
It doesn't stop there though. Remember the amulet? Besides +50 magicka it also gives -25% cost on your Conjurations. When you get to Riverwood buy the Raise Zombie spell. The Necromancer's Amulet lets you use it quite easily without any perks (tbh it should have been on the amulet itself). Don't worry! This is not a zombie build. You'll only use that low level spell, no perks needed. Raise Zombie is a life saver at lower levels as you can resurrect something to take the heat off you. Restless Draugr casters and Death Hounds are my all time favourites. Obviously this has another purpose since you'll out-level the spell's use. If you actually use it regularly at your lower levels it will raise conjuration all the way to 40. With Conjuration at that level you'll be able to buy the Conjure Ash Spawn. Our big, fat magicka reserve will allow you to cast it whenever you feel like it without a single perk wasted.
Now the fiery Ash-Scale wearing the Necromancer's Amulet can raise burnt up dead people, how awesome is that! They are very resistant to fire (75%) so blast away with your spells.
Stats
Since we're getting 150 magicka from our two items we're sort of working backwards here. At level 20 you'll be sitting on roughly 320 magicka, 240 health and 120 stamina. At level 50 these numbers will look like this: 430 magicka, 400 health and 150 stamina. Remeber that these numbers are not set in stone. The massive healthpool will keep you alive and works nicely with Histskin. The stamina ended at 150 so that you can refill it in one cast of Close Wounds (raised with Regeneration) with very little wasted. At lower levels it will help you work with the damaged stamina regeneration untill you get Respite.
Being able to instantly refill all of your stamina means endless power attacks whenever you please and non-stop sprinting. When you're sprinting through the world with your healing spell out in third-person you look almost exactly like those lizards that run on water. Bonus!
I hope you have some buckets Hermy.
Powers and abilities
All the powers and abilities enhance either the fire damage output or work in tandem with the rest of his skillset. The best part of this build (I find) is that everything feels very "organic". None of it is absolutely necessary to function from the start according to the base we set out for the character and really defines the "growth" or "evolution" of our tiny Argonian friend as he travels around the world.
All in all this has been an extremely fun character for me. The wide spread and variations of playstyle can carry it up way beyond level 50 without leaving a stale aftertaste.
The combinations are endless, from straight up casting boosted fire spells, to stealthing in invisible and burning the paralysed boss to a crisp, to classic spellblade fights casting and slashing with weakness to fire poisons while cloaked in flames. Choosing to either burn your entire magicka reserves while under the effect of a potion or whithering them down in a longer fight is up to you!
Miscellaneous info
I've had several playthroughs with multiple variations and tweaks before I finally made up my mind.
Any combination with Ahzidal's Ring of Arcana and/or Slow Time resulted in a completely broken and boring game (alchemy boosted Ignite spam).
The limited use of different Shouts is to make sure you use Fire Breath as much as possible. Dragon Aspect let's you breathe fire even more and boosts almost everything you do.
The only factions you'd have to seek out and join (unfortunately) are:
The quest to get your hands on the Necromancers Amulet can and should be done as soon as possible. Blood on the Ice is less buggy than people believe. The quest only starts when certain conditions are met;
This pretty much covers it (I hope). Thanks for suffering through the text and if anything is not clear or you have suggestions/tips/flames do not hesitate. It has been very therapeutic for me writing this out, at least it won't haunt me in my dreams anymore.
It was an important time for the tribe, Naming Day was upon them. As per ritual all the new hatchlings were gathered to recieve the Hist's sap and get a name. The Hist would reveal the role, appearance and ability of each hatchling. That is, it would have if not for the fiery explosion eminating from the second to last hatchling, killing an elder and the unlucky follow-up. A name was given to the young Argonian, Ash-Scale and branded eternally unlucky, most likely dangerous.
The leader of the tribe, a most renowned witch doctor, took the little thing under his wing in the hope that his skills might be able to balance it's unstable, hidden potential. Years of secluded study, meditation and ingestion of varies elixirs were planned out for him. Things looked great, right up until the point where his fiery ego got the better of him and he lost control completely. Once he regained consciousness he found himself lying in the smoldering remnants of the witch doctor's hut. In his shame and grief he did the only thing he could think of...run.
The Ash-Scale
When fully released, woe unto you
Fire is the theme here if you haven't guessed it yet. Fire everywhere, but with a twist! The idea behind the build is to have a young Argonian with a tremendous untapped potential of virtually unlimited fire power. The way I simulated that is by making a "non-mage" who's magicka comes from (two) items instead of himself and is capable of enhancing fire spell damage or cast spells which he shouldn't be able to with drinking potions and the new Dragonborn powers that let him access his dormant powers.
The build is extremely opportunistic with it's wide spread and capable of doing almost anything. Sneaky sneaky? No problem. Toe to toe as a light armored knife fighter? Absolutely. Boom Boom spells? Yes!
Race; Only one option here, Argonian. I made mine as skinny as possible with a nice warm, earthly brown colour and red "eyeliner". Ash-Scale is a young Argonian, somewhat underdeveloped. The thin body in armor with the big head looks very gecko-like.
Stone; The Lord. He's a quite rare breed of Argonian, he deserves some status whether he knows it or not. It will go nicely with his perks and skills. Agent of Mara, the stone and 1/3 Magic Resistance brings it to a total of 50%. With the use of our homemade elixirs we can push it to the max whenever we need it.
Armor; The goal is to wrap ourself in a nice full set of Light Chitin or Morag Tong Armor. The organic look really fits an angry marsh dweller. Light Chitin is red and slightly more sturdy than Morag Tong, but the latter looks nice and muddy. I tend to carry both sets for whatever mood I'm in and variation. At the very early levels wear Leather Armor/Bracers/Boots with an Adept Hood. Easiest way to get the hood is by going to Markath and end the life of that silly Vigilant Tyranus who just has to stick his nose where it doesn't belong.
Enchants; Just because we're not "using" Enchanting or Smithing, does not mean you should not improve your armor/weapon. Improvements, no matter how tiny, get boosted a lot by Custom Fit, Matching Set and Assassin's Blade.
Use a Grand Soul gem to slap +20 magicka on your helm, gloves and -% cost on Alteration for your chest. If you're unable or can't be bothered to look for a Muffle enchant for the boots you'd have to spend an extra perk on Silence in the Sneak tree. There's no real rush for the enchants (because you dont rely on them) apart from Muffle, which is much easier to obtain at lower levels (10-20). At higher levels it gets pushed out of the possible inventory by enchants that are considered "more valuable" by the game.
Use Fiery Soul Trap for your dagger of choice. It's cheap, barely uses charges and still benefits from Augmented Flames. Having no enchanting and randomly finding an Ebony Dagger of the Inferno makes you really, really appreciate the find. I jumped up and down in my chair for a couple of minutes like a happy kid when i found it in one of my playthroughs.
Shouts; The only ones I actually used are Fire Breath and Dragon Aspect. Bend Will on a Fire breathing Dragon for epicness, but that's it. I could make up something fancy but the truth is that most of the time you could shout something it should be fire.
Level 50 perks
I've included a link as to show where your Ash-Scale should be at when you reach level 25 as I can imagine it's quite overwhelming with so many perk trees. Level 25 perk spread
Luckily for you the dear old witch doctor was well educated. Besides passing on his extensive knowledge of alchemy, he possesed quite the collection of books left behind long ago by the Imperials whenever they had the silly idea of building trading outposts or temples only to abandon them to the marsh. In particular about infamous objects with magical properties.
How it works
This build uses two specific magical items: Ring of the Erudite and the Necromancer's Amulet. Our flaming gecko will seek them out, no matter what the cost. The items will give him the magicka to let off some steam and relieve parts of the ever building pressure. The deaths of his tribe members weigh heavily on our young friend and he's quite determined to stay in control to the best of his abilities.
This is not a vampire build however, so cure yourself as soon as you have the ring. Their weakness to fire makes you sick to the stomach. No wonder Harkon only tells you afterwards.
These two items will be the base fuel on which your inner fire will burn. Combined both they will add a ludicrous amount of 150 magicka.
It doesn't stop there though. Remember the amulet? Besides +50 magicka it also gives -25% cost on your Conjurations. When you get to Riverwood buy the Raise Zombie spell. The Necromancer's Amulet lets you use it quite easily without any perks (tbh it should have been on the amulet itself). Don't worry! This is not a zombie build. You'll only use that low level spell, no perks needed. Raise Zombie is a life saver at lower levels as you can resurrect something to take the heat off you. Restless Draugr casters and Death Hounds are my all time favourites. Obviously this has another purpose since you'll out-level the spell's use. If you actually use it regularly at your lower levels it will raise conjuration all the way to 40. With Conjuration at that level you'll be able to buy the Conjure Ash Spawn. Our big, fat magicka reserve will allow you to cast it whenever you feel like it without a single perk wasted.
Now the fiery Ash-Scale wearing the Necromancer's Amulet can raise burnt up dead people, how awesome is that! They are very resistant to fire (75%) so blast away with your spells.
Stats
Since we're getting 150 magicka from our two items we're sort of working backwards here. At level 20 you'll be sitting on roughly 320 magicka, 240 health and 120 stamina. At level 50 these numbers will look like this: 430 magicka, 400 health and 150 stamina. Remeber that these numbers are not set in stone. The massive healthpool will keep you alive and works nicely with Histskin. The stamina ended at 150 so that you can refill it in one cast of Close Wounds (raised with Regeneration) with very little wasted. At lower levels it will help you work with the damaged stamina regeneration untill you get Respite.
Being able to instantly refill all of your stamina means endless power attacks whenever you please and non-stop sprinting. When you're sprinting through the world with your healing spell out in third-person you look almost exactly like those lizards that run on water. Bonus!
I hope you have some buckets Hermy.
Powers and abilities
All the powers and abilities enhance either the fire damage output or work in tandem with the rest of his skillset. The best part of this build (I find) is that everything feels very "organic". None of it is absolutely necessary to function from the start according to the base we set out for the character and really defines the "growth" or "evolution" of our tiny Argonian friend as he travels around the world.
All in all this has been an extremely fun character for me. The wide spread and variations of playstyle can carry it up way beyond level 50 without leaving a stale aftertaste.
The combinations are endless, from straight up casting boosted fire spells, to stealthing in invisible and burning the paralysed boss to a crisp, to classic spellblade fights casting and slashing with weakness to fire poisons while cloaked in flames. Choosing to either burn your entire magicka reserves while under the effect of a potion or whithering them down in a longer fight is up to you!
Miscellaneous info
I've had several playthroughs with multiple variations and tweaks before I finally made up my mind.
Any combination with Ahzidal's Ring of Arcana and/or Slow Time resulted in a completely broken and boring game (alchemy boosted Ignite spam).
The limited use of different Shouts is to make sure you use Fire Breath as much as possible. Dragon Aspect let's you breathe fire even more and boosts almost everything you do.
The only factions you'd have to seek out and join (unfortunately) are:
The quest to get your hands on the Necromancers Amulet can and should be done as soon as possible. Blood on the Ice is less buggy than people believe. The quest only starts when certain conditions are met;
This pretty much covers it (I hope). Thanks for suffering through the text and if anything is not clear or you have suggestions/tips/flames do not hesitate. It has been very therapeutic for me writing this out, at least it won't haunt me in my dreams anymore.
No it most certainly does not as it's not an actual healing spell, would be great. It's not supposed to be in the sentence at all, it was one line down before in the alchemy bit.
I had some serious hickups writing this up earlier with the maintenance so I had to re-write sections from my original draft.
I thought it was all properly fixed, so thanks for pointing that out.
No it most certainly does not as it's not an actual healing spell, would be great. It's not supposed to be in the sentence at all, it was one line down before in the alchemy bit.
I had some serious hickups writing this up earlier with the maintenance so I had to re-write sections from my original draft.
I thought it was all properly fixed, so thanks for pointing that out.
Thanks Emer!
I had a fabulous story all worked out in my head but I don't want to scare people off with even more blocks of text. I had hoped that the first two paragraphs would convey the facts that there was some serious firepower locked away in our little friend, that he wasn't really in control over it and give him a good motive from leaving his tribe. Real Marsh dwellers don't just pack up and leave.
Glad you liked it though, Argonians are fascinating.
Thanks Emer!
I had a fabulous story all worked out in my head but I don't want to scare people off with even more blocks of text. I had hoped that the first two paragraphs would convey the facts that there was some serious firepower locked away in our little friend, that he wasn't really in control over it and give him a good motive from leaving his tribe. Real Marsh dwellers don't just pack up and leave.
Glad you liked it though, Argonians are fascinating.
Really amazing build! I like the presentation and the idea of using items to boost magicka is very interesting! +1
However being an alchemy fan I have a few suggestions for more efficient recipes:
This is just a minor note in case you'll want to use it.
Really amazing build! I like the presentation and the idea of using items to boost magicka is very interesting! +1
However being an alchemy fan I have a few suggestions for more efficient recipes:
This is just a minor note in case you'll want to use it.
You're absolutely right about Nightshade and Glowing Mushroom. I just really like Nightshade and am happy they're also growing in Solstheim. Benefactor kicks them up pretty high already, even with a bare minimum on apparal. I only used the Ring of Pure Mixtures (I never ever give it back, she can keep the +1 alchemy)
I tried avoiding using Vampire Dust with Luna Moth Wing for only 1 reason. If used seperately you get twice the amount of potions out of them. I know how much non-alchemist people dislike specific and continious farming so I tried to mix it up a bit without much repeated use of a certain ingredient.
Of course it's only a sample, potion brewing with Alchemy is an extremely vast and fun thing. The sky's the limit really.
You're absolutely right about Nightshade and Glowing Mushroom. I just really like Nightshade and am happy they're also growing in Solstheim. Benefactor kicks them up pretty high already, even with a bare minimum on apparal. I only used the Ring of Pure Mixtures (I never ever give it back, she can keep the +1 alchemy)
I tried avoiding using Vampire Dust with Luna Moth Wing for only 1 reason. If used seperately you get twice the amount of potions out of them. I know how much non-alchemist people dislike specific and continious farming so I tried to mix it up a bit without much repeated use of a certain ingredient.
Of course it's only a sample, potion brewing with Alchemy is an extremely vast and fun thing. The sky's the limit really.
Yeah I was really surprised when I saw that amount of Nightshade near Stones! Concerning the number of potions the sheer amount of Luna Moth wings can compensate that. One night of harvest and you'll have more wings than Nirnroots and Vampire Dust combined! And I agree with your point on continuous farming, mixing different ingredients makes it less tedious.
Yeah I was really surprised when I saw that amount of Nightshade near Stones! Concerning the number of potions the sheer amount of Luna Moth wings can compensate that. One night of harvest and you'll have more wings than Nirnroots and Vampire Dust combined! And I agree with your point on continuous farming, mixing different ingredients makes it less tedious.
+1 for the back-story and your easy-to-read perk spread, can't tell you how many I have come across that's hard to see.
Your dragon in a bottle picture is pretty cool too....
+1 for the back-story and your easy-to-read perk spread, can't tell you how many I have come across that's hard to see.
Your dragon in a bottle picture is pretty cool too....