Interesting Builds Thread

[Drethen]

No matter what I do, I always seem to play a stealth/magic based Dunmer or Breton/Altmer mage in TES. My Dunmer is Level 58 at the moment, prefers to keep at distance with archery or destruction(fire). Also uses a fair bit of illusion and necromancy. The characters only slight weakness really is going toe to toe in melee. I feel this character specialises in too many things, so I've taken to wandering in unenchanted monks robes.

I never play a warrior in TES, always thought of it as too simplistic, although skyrims melee seems a big improvement so it could be worth doing. So I'm thinking of a Khajiit, based on the lore of the Cathay-Raht (jaguar warriors). Going to use heavy armour and 2 handed axe, archery. No magic except enchanting. In towns, he will prefer to slip in to something a bit more comfortable and seek to break in, steal, pickpocket and rob every town blind. A wanderer looking for adventure and fortune, especially coveting rare gems, skooma and moonsugar.

Another idea is an Argonian who only uses robes/alteration/illusion, focusing on alchemy/poisons effects.

[Red Guardian]

Grab a Bosmer and train him/her to be a tank.

-Two-handed and heavy armor as skills.
-No spells or stealth.
-Waste points only in health and stamina.
-Profit.

[X086573]

Currently playing an imperial:

heavy armor
restoration
enchanting
alteration
one handed
archery
speech

not too different, but instead of block, uses alteration. Pretty fun so far.

[Rhabdo]

This one is so simple but incredibly effective.
I made a mage killer:

Breton, (25% magic resist)
95% of level ups to health
5% of level ups to stamina
0% of level ups to magicka

One Handed with mace up to 75% armor ignore.
Shield: up to shield charge (for chasing down those pesky spell casters)
Alteration: 30% magic resist, and 30% spell absorb
Heavy Armor: 5/5 juggernaut, matching set.
Smithing: to Daedric
Enchanting upto double-enchant

This build is viable early. It is fully realized at about level 54, at which point you will laugh at ancient dragons and dragon priests.
Do not put points into archery, sneakiness, magics, or other weapony things not specifically mentioned above. Until you reach a point where you have to.
The health bar will seem like it lasts forever if you do this right.
You will only be able to cast one alteration spell at a time to augment your armor as you progress.
The shield will protect you from just about everything and is your key to closing with backpedaling enemies when you get the shield charge.
Alteration is your key to extra armor before you can max out the Heavy armor skill. Use the Perks to reduce magicka cost of spells up to expert.
Enchanting is needed to reduce the spell cost of alteration spells since you will put no points into magic.
Mix paralyze with shield charge to be your crowd control at higher levels.

Get the lord stone for the +50 armor and 25% spell resist until you get to max armor then swtich to atronach stone for the 50pts of spell absorb
The end state:
You will have max spell resist, and max spell absorb (80 and 80) with only 25% of resistance coming from apparel (if your shield is raised you don't even need the extra 25%) and maximum armor rating (567).

With this build mages will fear the sound of your footsteps (because you can't sneak anyhow).

[X086573]

I have a Breton Sorcerer build VERY similar to that, although instead its:

Heavy Armor
Conjuration
Alteration
Block
Restoration
Destruction
Enchanting

And pretty much the same perks in regards to Elemental Protection and the Alteration perks, as well as the stones. I'd also recommend the Shield you get for the Peryite Daedric Quest. W/ This build, not only do Mage's not hurt you, you also have a steady supply of magicka regen. because of the magicka absorb, but instead of beefing up health, i do it for magicka. I like this build.

[Derp53]

I just made a nord legionnaire/knight
Heavy armor
one handed
archery
block
smithing
dabbles in restoration

[Mr.smexy113]

I have a bunch in the characters thread, some of them are interesting. Here's some of the more unorthodox ones.

Name - Cleric
Level - 52
Race - Imperial
Play style - The Cleric is a battlefield medic and protector of kings. His shield in one hand, restoration in the other may sound unorthodox, and it certainly is, but with the respite perk in the restoration tree allowing you to heal your stamina, this gives you relatively unlimited shield bashing. Smash those enemies into submission, send them flying off cliffs with your shield charge, or buff your follower as they take care of business. It takes a bit of strategic thinking, but it's a very fun build.
Skills - block, restoration, alteration, heavy armor, smithing, enchanting

Name - Vampire
Level - 36
Race - Dark Elf
Play style - The vampire is a stealthy predator, using powerful curses and spells to confuse his enemies, turning them upon one another. From the shadows, he silently waits as they weaken each other, and then when one falls, he raises it with necromatic conjuration, to finish the job. This build is designed to remain at stage four vampirism at all times, and can deal with almost anyone with illusion magic alone, but for more creative and powerful solutions he is also a master at sneaking up behind his prey and slitting their throat.
Skills - illusion, sneak, conjuration, restoration

Name - Alik'r warrior
Level - 57
Race - Redguard
Play style - The Alik'r are the sworn protectors of hammerfell, the Redguard nation. They wear light cloth only due to the scorching heat of their desert homeland, and prefer curved swords to shred their enemies to ribbons. Curved. Swords. He uses alteration and restoration to protect himself from the mortal injuries of master difficulty, and mastery enchantments to keep up with his enemies, despite using a low end weapon and no armor.
Skills - One handed, restoration, alteration, enchanting, smithing, sneak

[Theificka]

I need help with building a Spellsword:

Spoiler:

Dunmer (Dark Elf)

Skills:
Light Armor for protection
One Handed for swords
Smithing for making and improving equipment
Enchanting for efficiency
Destruction for ranged damage
Speech for easy tomes and supplies

Perks:
Extra Pockets (Will definitely need it)
Bladesman
Dragon Smithing
Deft Movement
Investor
Dual Effects
Expert Destruction

Recommend:
Element of Destruction
Shout
And General Tips

[Stormborn]

i'm thinking about a Warhammer Fantasy Battle style Warrior Priest. Warhammer and heavy armour, no magic just shouts (to represent prayers) and no stealth. Not sure about race maybe an Orc or Khajit (for Night Sight).

[TEScLiCHe]

I've been working on a Bosmer archer assassin who uses conjured weapons exclusively.
Sneak
Light Armor
Conjuration
Archery
maybe some illusion(since your investing in magic anyway has some neat bonus for stealth)

[Theificka]

i'm thinking about a Warhammer Fantasy Battle style Warrior Priest. Warhammer and heavy armour, no magic just shouts (to represent prayers) and no stealth. Not sure about race maybe an Orc or Khajit (for Night Sight).

Orc, every time you use your power, you will be blessed by the gods.

[Anderband]

Someone mentioned something about a "real mage shouln't have to put on enchanted clothes and pretend" back in another thread (cant remember who or what thread now), and it got me thinking about a build:

Conjuration
Alteration
Two handed
Archery

and either illusion or restoration or speachcraft

Would not carry any weapons or armor, and use no crafting skills. Travels very light. Summons atronachs and bound weapons, casting mage armor for protection, wears normal clothes.

Just not sure about a fifth skill. Silent casting would be useful, so perhaps illusion, although I may abandon it after I get the perk. Any thoughts?

[gamermanblue]

Most of these seem like nice builds although I'm not sure how well they suit the adj. of 'interesting'.

One of my characters:

Bosmer (although any race is fine).
Stamina is the only increase.
Lockpicking, Speech, Pickpocket, Sneak are the only skills.

This character hangs around in cities stealing things until he has enough gold to hire a mercenary. Then it's off to rob a few ruins to make some extra coin. (I roleplay that mercenaries require ~10% of the loot/gold from every place. Quite easy as I just give them all the weapons and armor.)

The point of this build is that my character has no martial ability whatsoever and no aptitude for magic. Just their hands and their wits and their wonderful cowardly run.

For those who want a real challange, play on expert and put all levels to magicka. Can't take a hit and can't run very far.

[Poohunter]

Mixing blade and conjuration can be fun. Instead of carrying a sword around with you by default, you will have a conjure 2h sword (or 1h sword if you're using a shield) and dual cast (if you're using 2h sword) or single cast (if you're using 1h). Then you simply conjure up a sword whenever someone attacks you or you attack them

[Anderband]

I have planned a thief/murderer/lowlife scum type of character.

Much like a traditional thief, although a real scumbag with the tools for murder (although not quite an ideal assassin). This character would likely start out as a simple thief/pickpocket with hobbies including poison crafting and deadra summoning, eventually becomming a rich and powerful crooked buisnessman (alchemist)/thief/murderer. Would likely complete thieves guild, dark brotherhood, and deadric quests.

Spoiler:

At level 50:

Magicka/Health/Stamina 290/300/200

Speech: Level 90
Perks: 12 Haggling x5, Allure, Merchant, Investor, Fence, Briber, Persuasion, Intimidation
One of the few builds that can afford speech perks, may as well take advantage. After all,
rich people make great bullies and scumbags

Alchemy: Level 80
Perks: 9 Alchemist x5, Physician, Poisoner, Concentrated Poison, Green Thumb
Few things more shady then poison making. Also gives him a "legit" business, and obviously
a way to kill things

Pickpocket: Level 100
Perks: 11 Light Fingers x5, Night Thief, Poisoned, Cutpurse, Extra Pockets, Misdirection,
Perfect Touch
This will also provide a chance to have fun with the upper tier pickpocket perks, and an
alternate method of dealing with enemies by stealing thier weapons

Sneak: Level 80
Perks: 9 Stealth x5, Muffle, Backstab, Deadly Aim, Assassins Blade
Will likely provide best method of killing with backstabbing and throat cutting

Conjuration: Level 100
Perks: 8 Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Summoner, Atromancy, Elemental Potency,
Twin Souls
Whats better way for a lowlife to deal with a theat besides conjuring a minion from
oblivion and running away?

[Bomb_Voyage]

Here's a fun one: the Reckoner. He was a Breton battlemage necromancer. I ran around dressed in the Stormcloak Officer getup with the Jagged Crown on my head... that was probably a rich opportunity for roleplaying, come to think about it. Anyway, I also carried the Targe of the Blooded for maximum spike appeal. I'd use my free hand to summon a couple Dremora, shield charge the enemy, hack away with my blade till a couple were dead, resurrect 'em as my zombies, then spam Paralyze while my underlings did the rest pf the dirty work. When the dust cleared, enthrall the most worthy opponents to accompany me in the next battle. Beware the mad High King of the Undead! Pretty even split between Health, Magicka, and Stamina, with my main skills being Block, Conj, and 1H.

Playing this way was quite a lot of fun... but the Reckoner met his untimely demise when I accidentally reformatted the USB device his saved game lived on. Oh well. Perhaps I'll make rebuilding him via console on the PC version my next Skyrim-related side project, lol.

Probably my favorite character is another Breton. She's a vampire nightblade who wears clothes and relies on 'flesh spells for defense. I used enchantments along with Necromage and the Archmage's Robes to reduce the costs of my main schools of magic (Alt, Conj, Illusion, Destro) to zero. I didn't put any perks into Smithing and opted to just use the Atronach Forge to artifice a Daedric Dagger. The end result was such a nifty and flexible character. I'd stealth around dungeons, one or two hitting most things on Master with just the Bound Bow. I could Frenzy pretty much anything from the shadows, turning my enemies against one another... and if found, there was nothing I couldn't Pacify, then kill with a dagger sneak attack... or I could run in guns blazing, summoning Dremora while using AoE Destro spells and Disintegrate-powered Lightning Cloak to end every foe in my vicinity 15% earlier. I put a ton into Health, a little into Magicka (since I knew I was going to use cost-reducing enchants), and next to nothing into Stam.

I think I'm going to move away from 'flesh spells and clothes though and into some vampire-themed light armor thanks to Dawnguard. Plus them Crossbows are just too cool for a sneaky character to pass up. This char used to be a vampire-werewolf hybrid by taking advantage of the glitch where you were able to retain the Ring of Hircine power after purging yourself of Beast Blood, but patch 1.6 fixed that. No big loss as it never did work quite right (you could go into werewolf mode, but it would cause Necromage to stop working till you went out and re-contracted Sanguinare Vampiris or whatever it's called even though your other vampire attributes would remain in effect).

Anyway, those are the sort of characters I enjoy. I have a couple one-note ones like a vampire Orc who uses Necromage and Talos buffs for endless Elemental Fury shouts and a High Elf tank with 100% Spell Absorption who is good at literally everything... but they make the vanilla game so gosh darn easy I had to port them over to the PC version where I can create more challenging environments and scenarios with mods.

[DikaSmausha]

Chuck Norris. I dont need to say more.

[Yaije]

Chuck Norris. I dont need to say more.

How does he build his unarmed damaged up?

[DikaSmausha]

He doesnt need to. He is Chuck Norris.

[Unionhack]

An interesting build is the Master Alchemist.
You can only wear clothes and only use a single iron dagger without improving it. No enchanting.
You must use your alchemy to heal, poison to do damage, and pretty much everything else.

[Pandamatak]

I am thinking about starting a character that I put 100% of my perks into stealth skills. I know that powerful characters can be made by putting all perks into combat or magick skills, but I'm curious to see if it will work with stealth.

It seems that stealth skills really eat up perks. I'll probably put few to no perks into lockpicking, and I may have to choose particular sides of some trees. Here is my plan:

Spoiler:

Race: Khajiit. I figure I can make use of the claws to survive early on close encounters

Weapons: Lots. And preferably enchanted. A bow, two one handed weapons, a dagger, and probably a staff or two

Alchemy: Probably my only means of surviving open combat. I figure if I dual wield and have the concentrated poison perk, thats 4 hits of poison at a time

Stamina: lots of stamina will ensure that my wimpy one handed attacks are at least all power attacks. Also, running away will be something I will likely do alot of. I'm also going to have to carry alot of weapons and potions/ingredients. I figure a 2:1 health/stamina ratio may work, although perhaps a 1:1 ratio later on, depending on how things go

Light armor: This will be important, however as I will not be taking many hits, I will likey have to pay for training. Enchanted armor will be very very helpful as well

Sneak: Obviously my best means of killing will be backstabbing with a dagger, and best means of surviving will be staying undetected.

Smithing: Even though I will be putting no perks into this skill, high smithing will alow me to improve my weapons more, which adds up significantly with the sneak multiplier

Pickpocket: I would really like to be able to take enemies weapons away, and then claw them to death

Speach: Will come in handy. Lots of money means I can train up in archery, one handed, light armor. ( I may have to take advantage of that wood elf in riverwood!)

This will have to be put on hold for now, as I've just started my classic wood elf build, the one I used for morrowind and oblivion my first playthroughs. The stealthy, skilled archer who can also kick butt with a sword and shield. Will probably do every major questline exept stormcloaks and college of winterhold.

I did this a while ago. Khajiit on master difficulty. Pure archer build (used it as primary form of combat save for claws) and Illusion magic for invisibility.

I haven't gotten invisibility yet, but here's what makes this build overpowered:

Pickpocket Perk: Poisoner - allows you to place poisons into people's pockets and they drink them.
Most Alchemy Perks: Especially poison ones - Basically lets you kill anybody once you get a lingering poison that does 100+ damage over 15 seconds. Best part is you never get a bounty even if you place it in their pocket in plain sight.

It's very cheap indeed.

[Pandamatak]

Someone mentioned something about a "real mage shouln't have to put on enchanted clothes and pretend" back in another thread (cant remember who or what thread now), and it got me thinking about a build:

Conjuration
Alteration
Two handed
Archery

and either illusion or restoration or speachcraft

Would not carry any weapons or armor, and use no crafting skills. Travels very light. Summons atronachs and bound weapons, casting mage armor for protection, wears normal clothes.

Just not sure about a fifth skill. Silent casting would be useful, so perhaps illusion, although I may abandon it after I get the perk. Any thoughts?

Definitely alteration. Detect life is pretty useful, but Paralyse really beats every other spell out there.

[tatortodd22]

I'm about to make a merchant of sorts. Possibly a vampire politician and merchant cutthroat. Joins assassins guild and thieves guild and stuff, pretty evil, and specializes in utility skills like smithing, enchanting, alchemy, speech, etc. I'll let you guys know how it goes