What's the Best Character Build to Play in Skyrim?

I just bought Skyrim today on it's 33% off Steam Sale. Jan & Feb were kinda dead in games sales so I jumped in on Skyrim today.

I don't know what's the best character build on Skyrim... Maybe I'd like to have powerful arrow stealth kills, some good magic, and a sword and shield if I ever get into melee fights.

So what are your recommendations and what have you played and how good is your character? Also recommend character builds not to use!

 

I've only been playing Skyrim for a week now, but I hear ya: so many options!

Right now my main character is a battle mage with a decent bow for backup. Tried a dedicated mage / magic-only and had some...uh... difficulties.

Also for my melee characters, I've found that smithing is a GREAT way to level up and build your health and stamina. Man, so many iron daggers. Ugh. Enchantments never hurt either.

 

If you're looking to build a stealth character with magic (illusion is prolly the best option for a stealth character and it's very powerful end game) I would put points in the following categories...

Archery (don't bother getting that slow time crap or the one where you get more arrows and supposively "move faster while aiming" they're not worth it)

1H Weapons (I particularly like using 2 swords for the crit bonus and then using healing magic/soul trap/fear when I need to)

Light Armor (definitely some good stuff for a stealthy dude)

Resto (At least get enough for the point where you can heal your health and stamina at the same time. but the majority of the resto tree is good)

Illusion (this is an awesome school of magic for a stealthy character due to the invisibility and the manipulation of other charcters with fear/calm and frenzy)

Lockpicking (I wouldn't fill the whole tree up, but I would at least go up to the points that let you find more gold and special treasure in chests)

Enchanting (In my opinion no matter which kind of character you would like to play chanting is awesome for making really cool weapons)

Sneak (obviously if you want to be a stealthy character the majority of the stuff in this tree is pretty crucial)

Well, I hope this gives you some ideas for your character. I personally have a lot of fun with my Khajit dude (Although I'm really disappointed they removed acrobatics because khajit were awesome in morrowind and oblivion for jumping around towns and on top of buildings)

You can obviously try out whatever you'd like, but based off of what you mentioned I would recommend putting some points in these trees I mentioned above.

Also! I would recommend putting you stat points like this...

Health = 50%
Magic = 30%
Stamina = 20% (mostly because if you have the perk where your heals restore stamina you don't need a lot. Especially if you only use your power attacks when necessary)

And remember, because you're using the PC. If you choose a perk you don't like, you can always use the console to remove it and place it elsewhere. I've been told there are around 80 points that you can use once you're maxed out. Well, enjoy the game! Good luck with building your character.

 

I personally think that lockpicking is a waste of perks. Later on, you wouldn't really need the golds coming from treasure chests because of the loots.

 

Easy mode. Get Bound Bow ASAP and get conjuration up. Do thieves guild quests.

Focus on Archery and Sneak. Only wear Light Armor.

You'll get good armor from thieves guild (the best IMO for this character) but I won't go into details because it'll include spoilers.

I started off as a mage my first playthrough - big mistake. You ebb and flow between being broken and way behind. Archery you can either focus on it and make the game easy (turn the difficulty up) or you can spreaed around a bit, work on light armor or conjuration, and keep things interesting.

edit: in short, archery + conjuration

 

Everything is pretty much good. The game simply isn't difficult on highest difficulty. Every play-through I've done was on max difficulty, and never had any big problems, I see a lot of people with the same "problem" on other forums.

Though one time I did abandon a playthrough because I pumped smithing up a lot, like way too much. The level scaling screwed me cause I had next to no combat skills that scaled with me.

Sneak is incredibly, stupidly easy. You basically one shot everyone except bosses not that far into the game if you sneak alot. And its not like the sneaking system is difficult to use.

 

If I get bored with my Sneak character can I switch to playing a Mage character? That is, can I switch between two different games / characters often?

 

Focus on bows and stealth

I can OHKO 90% of all enemies due to stealth bonus and bow damage bonus.

Don't worry about lockpick.

Spoiler

In one of the Thieve's Guild quests you get the Skeleton Key (unbreakable lockpick). Don't turn that quest in and you have an unbreakable lockpick forever.

 

Mage wearing robes with a lot of resistance to lightning. You can kite everything by running in circles except lightning mages.

 

Just do Conjuration and carry a shield.

 

Play the computer geek.

 

If you're doing archer/ sneak you'll benefit from Conjure as well. This means you can get storm atronachs etc and double as a conjurer while benefiting from Bound Bow.

 

Easy mode for me was Conjuration/Destruction - Conjuration - Dual Summons + companion + Destruction and Heavy armor and you are virtually indestructible.

 

Im a sneak archer, it was the class i had fun with in oblivion so im using it in skyrim.

it gets too boring for me to meele, so that only leaves casters and I just like the hide in the shadows nature of stealth vs casting as casting in oblivion was not that entertaining for me neither.

My talents will be max smithing, max enchanting, high alchemy, max archery, and max sneaking.

This way I can craft and enchant the best armor/bows, yes it will be super ez mode if I power level this stuff and give myself god armor/weapons but I am not doing that I am just playing the game and leveling naturally and evenly distrobuting my skills so when the time comes that I can make god equipment I will have well earned it.

Also for me the difficulty in combat really has little to do with the enjoyment of the game, its just simply the exploration, lore/story, trying new things, etc.

Infact I have to say the only time the game is not fun for me is when I get wth pwned in combat by some super strong enemy and have to lose time/progress and do it again.

 

the one you enjoy playing the most.

 

My suggestion is to specialize your first character a little bit and save some of the major questlines for your next playthrough.

For example, maybe your first character is a sort of sneaky archer/thief type, in which case your playthrough can last a really long time just doing the thieves guild or dark brotherhood, maybe part of the main quest. You may decide to save the Companions for a Nord 2-handed barbarian character who joins the Stormcloaks. And then perhaps you can try playing an elemental mage or necromancer character that joins the College of Winterhold, etc.

What I've found is that once you get above level 30-40, the combat starts to become a bit too easy, even on Master difficulty. So instead of doing every single major questline with one character, I had more fun by starting over after I got up to around level 30-40 and playing a completely different character.

The gameplay for pure mage, 2-handed warrior, sword and shield, dual wield stealth, archer, etc. are so different that it feels a bit like a brand new game each time you start over with a different build and different race. And the lower levels are the most fun IMO, when every encounter is dangerous for the PC.

 

Game is too easy is never valid to me, you can increase the difficulty some people do, but you can use lesser equipment as well.

So if your too strong with your 2h super warrior, put on some cloth robes and use an iron dagger. Instantly the game should be harder

 

Haha, yep. Or just don't focus on any "build" and simply raise your character's skills without focus. Game gets harder.

 

archery and sneak are by far the less stressful and easier way to go through the game imo. Also i was saving some perks to invest into craft as soon as i got money to powerlevel it.
Note: when leveling smithing go Daedric first for a bow and then dragonscale crafting.

Then powerlevel Enchanting.

To sum it up:
Archery
Sneak
Smithing
Enchanting
Invest leftovers into light armor.

I didnt touch anything else. No need imo.

 

High elf, mage/thief, I think it is the uber-build, especially if you boost your lightning dmg and get staggering with dual cast, after you shoot lightning your opponent will stagger and won't move, if you have a good mana pool (which comes with the elf, highborn + 50 mana) then you are pretty much lighthning bolting opponents and waiting till they get up, then again then again... even the toughest boss (including dragons, they will also stop even breathing on you) will just take time casting lightning bolt over and over again, you won't take a single dmg, at the same time, if you get bored, you invis go backstab for x6 dmg.. infinity amount of fun but I stopped playing a month ago, damn semester

 

Im doing alchemy as well, make myself some potions to increase my smithing & enchanting power

Also I went left side for glass armor since its light armor and easy to make, so I will have a glass bow instead of daedric but its not that much weaker, I can easily make up for it with alchemy.

 

you can go with glass np, its just at that point i had so much gold that i didnt really care. Also i wanted DE BEST WEAPON FIRTST ))

As for alchemy, picking something from inventory during a fight is so silly-hard that i didnt bother. Had enough pots for boss fights from loot in case i needed smth.