Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Shadowscale

Tags: #Character Build Illusionist  #Character Build Nightblade  #Character Build Assassin  #Race:Argonian  #Rank:Legendary 
  • August 19, 2012
    My advice is to play it like a standard assassin at first. You should be able to unlock the Backstab Perk relatively quickly in your playthrough, and most Draugr are stupid easy to sneak up on (half the time they're in slumber mode before you even get to them).

    With Backstab and some Armsmen perks you should easily be able to take out most enemies you initiate with a stealth attack. If your damage output is still lacking, start with sneak dual-wield power attacks for your backstabs.

    As for straight up combat, block often early on. Grind it a bit even (when there's one enemy left, let him attack your shield for a bit before you kill him). Once you've unlocked Quick Reflexes you should be able to dodge power attacks and just block regular ones, and that should keep you alive in combat.

    So to sum up, the goals should be Backstab, Quick Reflexes, and any One-Handed damage increasers when it comes to perks. When it comes to playstyle, full-blown assassin.


    Disarming isn't the FOCUS of the build, assassinating enemies is. Disarming just adds flavor to how you can accomplish that. The whole point behind it is to work towards creating a Shadowscale who can eventually kill anyone anywhere at any time with any weapon. That's the premise behind the build.
  • August 19, 2012
    Right, but what separates this Shadowscale from others is the Disarm-centered attack style.
  • August 19, 2012
    @Emer, of course, but you have to work towards achieving that. First focus should be on building the assassin skillset, then comes the disarming prowess.
  • August 19, 2012

    See, I went right for Block. I perfected that skill tree before I even looked at another one (aside from those skills that come along with blocking).

  • August 19, 2012
    Suppose I role-played my Shadowscale as more of an assassin then, only really leveling Block through Training and on enemies I had to engage in combat because I couldn't stealth-kill them. There's many ways to play many of these builds, of course, but I prefer to focus on role-playing the character from the start and letting the gameplay elements fall into place, rather than focusing on grinding out the gameplay and then getting into character. Of course, with my method, Disarming Bash is going to be one of the last puzzle pieces to fall into place, but I got plenty of use out of the Shout when I needed to relieve someone of their sword and there's always pickpocketing to level too.
  • August 19, 2012

    Just found out, this is the SECOND collaborative build on this site. Guess what the first was... the Nurse! I know it really doesn't really matter, I just thought it was funny :P

  • August 19, 2012

    Are the robes and Ebony stuff purely aesthetic?

  • August 19, 2012

    Pretty much. You can enchant them to do pretty much anything you'd like, but aesthetics are what we went for with that look.

  • August 19, 2012
    Congrats, friend. I had a feeling (and high hopes) that this one would hit Legendary.
  • August 19, 2012

    I believe I owe a lot of credit to you, my friend. Without your additions, ideas, and redesign, this build would still be a jumbled mess of playstyles. 

    Thank you, my friend.