The Healer and The Beast
“Ah, here it is. Give your husband three spoonful’s of this healing potion every day and his leg will be fully healed within the week Synda.”
“Thank you doc. Dravin has been restless wanting to get back to work at the farm. He says that winter is coming early this year so he needs to get our crops out of the field soon.”
“How are things out at Merryfair? Pretty good crop this year?”
“Crop wise everything is good. Between the early rains and abundant sunshine it’s looking to be our best crop in several years. But we lost another cow last week. Dravin only caught a glimpse of the beast but he is sure it was the same one that slaughtered those traveling merchants outside Riften a month ago.”
“Dravin actually saw the beast?”
“Just a glimpse but it was a full moon that night so it was pretty bright outside. He said looked like a wolf with glowing yellow eyes but it stood on its hind legs and was larger than a bear. When Dravin saw the beast, it was running toward the Riften Stables but no one over by the stables or the docks saw the beast that night. It just disappeared. With this being the fourth sighting, people around Riften are scared to go outside after dark now." She pauses briefly somewhat meloncholy and then continues. "Between the civil war, dragons and this beast, these truly are dark times. Anyhow, I better get back home to the patient. Dravin is probably wondering where I am with his medicine. I’ll bring you your usual order of wheat once we get in the harvest doc.”
“Sounds great Synda, give Dravin my best.”
You escort Synda to the main door and while walking back to your lab you glance at the side door in your bedroom which leads to behind the Riften Stables. While looking at the door you smile glad you’re able to come and go unseen so easily on those nights.
The Build
This is a healer build though an unconventional one at that. What makes this build unique is the true duality of its nature. One side is that a renown healer, successful businessman and upstanding citizen of Skyrim. The other side, however, is the beast: savage, fierce and uncontrolled. This duality of nature is not the result of Lycanthropy as most might suspect, but is actually the inherent nature of the Healer, who seeks to release his darker side through Lycanthropy.
The build makes use of the Disparity Race Overhaul Mod which makes a lot of changes to starting skill levels depending on not only a builds race but also its chosen class. I utilized this mod to enhance the early portions of this build but the build can still be played using any of vanilla Skyrim races with the only difference being the starting skill levels and possibly an extra perk point due to an extra level up. Below I explain my selections and what changes Disparity makes to them.
Race: Male Imperial (Imperials get 5% better buying/selling prices and a boost to Speech and Restoration which fits this character very well.)
Class: Healer (The healer class receives a strong starting boost to Alchemy, Restoration and Speech as well as health. Additionally, I chose to have it also increase XP rate for boosted skills means all this builds skills increase 20-25% faster which is nice considering all three are notorious for slow leveling.)
Stone: Serpent (Disparity allows you to choose your stone or Birthsign at the beginning of the game. The Serpent Stone gives you 50% resistance to poisons, poisons you make are 10% stronger and poisons last for an additional hit making this stone very well suited to this build.)
Mods: Ordinator - Perk Overhaul, Harvest Overhaul, Disparity - Player Character Class - Race and Gender Diversity, Moonlight Tales
Skills
Alchemy – The Healer is a master alchemist; his potions and poisons are so renowned across Skyrim that his concoctions are sought out by clients from all nine holds. My goal is to make this the only major skill of the build so that I can heavily perk this tree and really explore some of the unique things added by the Ordinator mod.
Restoration – While primarily known for his potions and poisons, the Healer is also skilled in the art of Restoration magic. A very useful skill for not only healing patients, but also himself after his alchemic experiments. This skill is only going to have a few perks but thanks to Ordinator will provide some interesting gameplay aspects.
Speech – Good concoctions don’t come cheap. Your years as an alchemist have given you a silver tongue for trading and a large network of distributors for your prized concoctions. This skill only has a few perks to help with buying/selling prices and to gain access to the investor perk. Combined with Imperials racial discount from Disparity, the Healer will have some pretty good prices without too much investment.
(Insert Perks Spread Here)
Gear: TBD
Spells: TBD
Shouts: None. You are not dragonborn.
Player Home: Honeyside in Riften
Acquiring a home is really important part of this build as it really immerses you as a true resident healer in Skyrim. Honeyside is the perfect home for this character for two reasons. 1) This house has an alchemy lab which you can upgrade to an Advanced Lab via the Ordinator perk and a small garden with harvestable ingredients. 2) This is the only house in Skyrim which has a door to the city and the wilds. This door is used to the wilds when in beast form to go to and from the house unseen.
Master Healer/Alchemist
As a renown healer in Skyrim, this build will spend a large portion of time not only creating alchemic concoctions but also working to establish his home in which he creates all his potions and the network of distributors across Skyrim to sell his renown alchemic concoctions. Early on the focus of the Healer is collecting ingredients for potions he will sell to fund the purchase of Honeyside. Once he has established his home lab, he will then traverse Skyrim to seek out the best ingredients and to invest in all businesses he can sell his potions through so that by the end game, the Healer will be invested in every alchemy shop in Skyrim. While the Healer sells many of his alchemic concoctions through this network of apothecaries, he will always keep the best for himself to use as needed during his travels.
(list out key potions/poisons used by the build here)
The Beast Within
You found it. Years of work but you finally discovered the formula. You can finally indulge that hidden nature, those suppressed urges… you can finally release the beast within.
Lycanthropy is the sweet release the Healer seeks out to indulge the dark side of his nature. In this form, there is no morality to restrict cravings, urges and passions. The Moonlight Tales mod is used to acquire Lycanthropy from the beginning of the game since the Companions questline does not suite this build. While exploring Skyrim looking for ingredients there were many occasions where I would come across an Imperial or Stormcloak camp and for no reason at all, take on beast form and slaughter then entire camp just for some action and death. This style of arbitrary violence is perfect for the build as the Healer uses beast form to release his dark side and indulges those sinister cravings. One key aspect of the build is slowly losing control of your transformations as the Healer begins to truly become the beast. This is accomplished through the lunar transformations offered by the Moonlight Tales mod. At the beginning of the Healer is in full control and will only transform at will. However, as the playthrough progresses the Healer will begin losing control and start occasionally transforming night against his will until finally he loses all control and transforms into the beast every night against his will. This slow loss of control is accomplished through periodically upping the lunar transformation settings in Moonlight Tales.
(post which lunar transformations settings are used at what point during the playthrough here)
Combat
Combat with this build is interesting since it exhibits the same duality as is present in the very nature of the Healer. As the Beast, combat is sought out and direct through berserker melee type gameplay. However, as the Healer, combat is actually avoided for the most part and when necessary is much more subtle. Ordinator gives Restoration some really interesting disease spells which fits this build nicely as it allows this master healer/alchemist to use disease as his means to eliminate enemies, living and undead. In addition to disease spells, the Healer also uses an iron dagger to deliver poisons he has created which, thanks to his skill as an alchemist, are deadly. Between poisons and disease spells, the Healer can take on any enemy with the exception of Dwarven Automatons, which are easy to avoid with this build. However, if the Healer really does feel the need to dive into some Dwarven ruins, a strong mercenary like Marcurio kept in the fight with heal other spells and a staff is a pretty potent combo.
Closing Notes
As is probably pretty obvious by now my build is inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and my goal is to replicate them as they are in the original book and not some of the very different movie adaptations. In the book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde represent the duality of human nature and I have attempted to recreate that utilizing the role of a respectable healer and lycanthropy. Additionally, the indulging of his dark side caused Dr. Jekyll to ultimately lose control of his transformations in the book and by using escalated lunar transformations from Moonlight Tales this is also recreated in the build.
Still working on some of the parts to this build but would love to hear everyone's thoughts on what I have so far. I have also thought about doing a Modders Log to really capture the roleplaying but not sure so let me know what you think of this idea. Thanks for any and all feedback!
The Healer and The Beast
“Ah, here it is. Give your husband three spoonful’s of this healing potion every day and his leg will be fully healed within the week Synda.”
“Thank you doc. Dravin has been restless wanting to get back to work at the farm. He says that winter is coming early this year so he needs to get our crops out of the field soon.”
“How are things out at Merryfair? Pretty good crop this year?”
“Crop wise everything is good. Between the early rains and abundant sunshine it’s looking to be our best crop in several years. But we lost another cow last week. Dravin only caught a glimpse of the beast but he is sure it was the same one that slaughtered those traveling merchants outside Riften a month ago.”
“Dravin actually saw the beast?”
“Just a glimpse but it was a full moon that night so it was pretty bright outside. He said looked like a wolf with glowing yellow eyes but it stood on its hind legs and was larger than a bear. When Dravin saw the beast, it was running toward the Riften Stables but no one over by the stables or the docks saw the beast that night. It just disappeared. With this being the fourth sighting, people around Riften are scared to go outside after dark now." She pauses briefly somewhat meloncholy and then continues. "Between the civil war, dragons and this beast, these truly are dark times. Anyhow, I better get back home to the patient. Dravin is probably wondering where I am with his medicine. I’ll bring you your usual order of wheat once we get in the harvest doc.”
“Sounds great Synda, give Dravin my best.”
You escort Synda to the main door and while walking back to your lab you glance at the side door in your bedroom which leads to behind the Riften Stables. While looking at the door you smile glad you’re able to come and go unseen so easily on those nights.
The Build
This is a healer build though an unconventional one at that. What makes this build unique is the true duality of its nature. One side is that a renown healer, successful businessman and upstanding citizen of Skyrim. The other side, however, is the beast: savage, fierce and uncontrolled. This duality of nature is not the result of Lycanthropy as most might suspect, but is actually the inherent nature of the Healer, who seeks to release his darker side through Lycanthropy.
The build makes use of the Disparity Race Overhaul Mod which makes a lot of changes to starting skill levels depending on not only a builds race but also its chosen class. I utilized this mod to enhance the early portions of this build but the build can still be played using any of vanilla Skyrim races with the only difference being the starting skill levels and possibly an extra perk point due to an extra level up. Below I explain my selections and what changes Disparity makes to them.
Race: Male Imperial (Imperials get 5% better buying/selling prices and a boost to Speech and Restoration which fits this character very well.)
Class: Healer (The healer class receives a strong starting boost to Alchemy, Restoration and Speech as well as health. Additionally, I chose to have it also increase XP rate for boosted skills means all this builds skills increase 20-25% faster which is nice considering all three are notorious for slow leveling.)
Stone: Serpent (Disparity allows you to choose your stone or Birthsign at the beginning of the game. The Serpent Stone gives you 50% resistance to poisons, poisons you make are 10% stronger and poisons last for an additional hit making this stone very well suited to this build.)
Mods: Ordinator - Perk Overhaul, Harvest Overhaul, Disparity - Player Character Class - Race and Gender Diversity, Moonlight Tales
Skills
Alchemy – The Healer is a master alchemist; his potions and poisons are so renowned across Skyrim that his concoctions are sought out by clients from all nine holds. My goal is to make this the only major skill of the build so that I can heavily perk this tree and really explore some of the unique things added by the Ordinator mod.
Restoration – While primarily known for his potions and poisons, the Healer is also skilled in the art of Restoration magic. A very useful skill for not only healing patients, but also himself after his alchemic experiments. This skill is only going to have a few perks but thanks to Ordinator will provide some interesting gameplay aspects.
Speech – Good concoctions don’t come cheap. Your years as an alchemist have given you a silver tongue for trading and a large network of distributors for your prized concoctions. This skill only has a few perks to help with buying/selling prices and to gain access to the investor perk. Combined with Imperials racial discount from Disparity, the Healer will have some pretty good prices without too much investment.
(Insert Perks Spread Here)
Gear: TBD
Spells: TBD
Shouts: None. You are not dragonborn.
Player Home: Honeyside in Riften
Acquiring a home is really important part of this build as it really immerses you as a true resident healer in Skyrim. Honeyside is the perfect home for this character for two reasons. 1) This house has an alchemy lab which you can upgrade to an Advanced Lab via the Ordinator perk and a small garden with harvestable ingredients. 2) This is the only house in Skyrim which has a door to the city and the wilds. This door is used to the wilds when in beast form to go to and from the house unseen.
Master Healer/Alchemist
As a renown healer in Skyrim, this build will spend a large portion of time not only creating alchemic concoctions but also working to establish his home in which he creates all his potions and the network of distributors across Skyrim to sell his renown alchemic concoctions. Early on the focus of the Healer is collecting ingredients for potions he will sell to fund the purchase of Honeyside. Once he has established his home lab, he will then traverse Skyrim to seek out the best ingredients and to invest in all businesses he can sell his potions through so that by the end game, the Healer will be invested in every alchemy shop in Skyrim. While the Healer sells many of his alchemic concoctions through this network of apothecaries, he will always keep the best for himself to use as needed during his travels.
(list out key potions/poisons used by the build here)
The Beast Within
You found it. Years of work but you finally discovered the formula. You can finally indulge that hidden nature, those suppressed urges… you can finally release the beast within.
Lycanthropy is the sweet release the Healer seeks out to indulge the dark side of his nature. In this form, there is no morality to restrict cravings, urges and passions. The Moonlight Tales mod is used to acquire Lycanthropy from the beginning of the game since the Companions questline does not suite this build. While exploring Skyrim looking for ingredients there were many occasions where I would come across an Imperial or Stormcloak camp and for no reason at all, take on beast form and slaughter then entire camp just for some action and death. This style of arbitrary violence is perfect for the build as the Healer uses beast form to release his dark side and indulges those sinister cravings. One key aspect of the build is slowly losing control of your transformations as the Healer begins to truly become the beast. This is accomplished through the lunar transformations offered by the Moonlight Tales mod. At the beginning of the Healer is in full control and will only transform at will. However, as the playthrough progresses the Healer will begin losing control and start occasionally transforming night against his will until finally he loses all control and transforms into the beast every night against his will. This slow loss of control is accomplished through periodically upping the lunar transformation settings in Moonlight Tales.
(post which lunar transformations settings are used at what point during the playthrough here)
Combat
Combat with this build is interesting since it exhibits the same duality as is present in the very nature of the Healer. As the Beast, combat is sought out and direct through berserker melee type gameplay. However, as the Healer, combat is actually avoided for the most part and when necessary is much more subtle. Ordinator gives Restoration some really interesting disease spells which fits this build nicely as it allows this master healer/alchemist to use disease as his means to eliminate enemies, living and undead. In addition to disease spells, the Healer also uses an iron dagger to deliver poisons he has created which, thanks to his skill as an alchemist, are deadly. Between poisons and disease spells, the Healer can take on any enemy with the exception of Dwarven Automatons, which are easy to avoid with this build. However, if the Healer really does feel the need to dive into some Dwarven ruins, a strong mercenary like Marcurio kept in the fight with heal other spells and a staff is a pretty potent combo.
Closing Notes
As is probably pretty obvious by now my build is inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and my goal is to replicate them as they are in the original book and not some of the very different movie adaptations. In the book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde represent the duality of human nature and I have attempted to recreate that utilizing the role of a respectable healer and lycanthropy. Additionally, the indulging of his dark side caused Dr. Jekyll to ultimately lose control of his transformations in the book and by using escalated lunar transformations from Moonlight Tales this is also recreated in the build.
Still working on some of the parts to this build but would love to hear everyone's thoughts on what I have so far. I have also thought about doing a Modders Log to really capture the roleplaying but not sure so let me know what you think of this idea. Thanks for any and all feedback!
