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Character Build: The Masque of Red Death

Tags: #Character Build Healer  #Character Build Bound Weapons  #Race:Breton  #Ordinator  #ShinJin Build  #SE Rank:Novice  #Tysoyaha  #Charger Build Necromancer 
  • August 14, 2018

    "No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal --the redness and the horror of blood."

     

    This is a build that me and Shinjin have been working on for a while now. Neither of us frequent the site quite as much anymore, life gets in the way and all that...but we both worked really hard on this and I didn't want to let him down. So I figured I should at least post something. I'm sorry if the presentation isn't up to par with Shinjin's usual builds, I did the best I could on mobile. I don't know if you'll see this, Shinjin, but if you do, I just wanted to thank you for literally the most fun I've ever had working on a build. You're a fucking genius and your enthusiasm is downright viral. If this ends up being either of our last build, you sure as hell made us go out with a bang!

     

    Background:

    Prospero was a Plague Doctor from Cyrodiil who had to tend to the terrible diseases that spread throughout the poor when the empire couldn't keep up with it's own war and started dumping it's dead soldiers in the waterfront district. After seeing so much misery and pain he realizes that praying to the Aedra isn't getting him anywhere. So he decides to plead to Namira, the Lady of Decay, to show mercy and call off her plague. She scoffs at this pathetic display and tells him she has absolutely no intention of showing such weakness. Though seeing the hatred in his heart and the resentment he has for the upper class and their apathetic ways, she senses an opportunity.

    Instead of showing mercy on the sick, she makes him her harbinger of decay by bestowing him with the power to use the plague against those who he feels are responsible. At first he refuses to involve himself in anymore violence and flees to Skyrim, but he gets caught trying to cross the boarder and after the Imperials attempt to execute him, he embraces his hatred of the empire. Determined to bring disease and decay to those who think themselves untouchable, he becomes Namira's reluctant Champion and dawns The Masque of Red Death


    "There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not."


    Required Mods:

    Ordinator Perks - Probably the best perk overhaul available. Combining perk effects and exploring build combinations can be as intriguing and creative as vanilla.

    Apocalypse Spells - Adds a ton of interesting and well balanced spell effects to the game. Several of which are essential to the gameplay of this build.

    Aurora Standing Stones - Changes the effects of the Standing Stones. It's since been updated to Andromeda, but the version required for this build can still be found on Xbox One and in the additional files of Andromeda on Nexus.


    Build:

    Race - Breton
    Use the Skull facepaint in a deep red to resemble the bloody visage of those afflicted with the plague.

    Standing Stone - Ritual Stone
    During combat, nearby corpses are reanimated under your control. Performing offensive actions or ending combat breaks the spell.

    Magic/Health/Stamina - 2/0/1 
    You'll need a bit of stamina for blocking and bashing, but beyond that your focus should be on expanding your magic pool.

    Skills - Two Handed, Block, Conjuration, Restoration 
    Two melee and two magic. Perfectly balanced...as all things should be.

    Spells - Bound Battleaxe, Bound Bow, Power of the Master, Necroplague, Wild Healing, Steadfast Ward, Tree Rings 
    Most of these spells will be used in unique combinations that will be explained in the Special Tactics section. See Apocalypse Spells for an explanation on any spells you might be unfamiliar with.

    Weapons - Arrows 
    Your zombies will only be able to use Bound Bow if they have at least one arrow in their inventory. So you'll want to carry a few of the strongest arrows you can find to plant on bodies as you raise them.

    Armor - Necromancer Robes 
    These look the part well, and have a thrilling 0AR that'll keep every encounter strategic.

    Jewellery - Gaulder Amulet 
    This equipment isn't really necessary, but it's a fun and very roleplay friendly quest (that possess a unique challenge for this build), so you might as well reap the spoils.


    "There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust."


    Ordinator Perk Abilities:

    False Light - While in combat, you may cast targeted healing spells and effects on enemies to inflict damage equal to 75% of the heal amount.

    Rat King - When entering combat, creates 3 undead Skeevers under your control. Their corpses can be raised, but they dissipate when combat ends. Use the "Merciful King" power to temporarily prevent this ability from activating.

    A Plague Upon Thee - If a reanimated undead is destroyed within 20 seconds, the attacker is stricken with a Daedric disease that deals 40 damage per second for 20 seconds. Those who have this perk are immune.


    Apocalypse Spells:

    Power of the Master - Casts the (beneficial self-targeted) spell in your left hand on all nearby summoned or reanimated minions.

    Necroplague - Infects a corpse with a spreading virus that deals X disease damage for X seconds to nonmechanical foes.

    Wild Healing - Heals the caster X points, then heals a random target within range X points.

    Tree Rings - Caster receives 10 layers of tough plant skin, each increasing maximum Health by X points. Layers gradually fall off over the course of Xseconds.


    "His vesture was dabbled in blood --and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror."

     

    Perks:

    Conjuration -  A strong focus will be on strengthening the bound weapons that both you and your zombies will be using. Rat King won't be particularly useful until you can obtain A Plague Upon Thee, but both should be a priority if you want to start entering Dwarven ruins. In fact, any place with a high level of Necromancy immune enemies like Automatons or Dremora should probably be avoided until you have both perks. Rat King is the only way to summon zombies in those fights and APUT is the only disease that will affect mechanical and Deadric enemies.

    Two Handed - Starting battle alone will be an uphill struggle, so focus on perks like Bleed Like a Dog that can be used to keep you out of danger while inflicting damage over time, or things like Execute that will shorten the time it takes you to start raising zombies. This should be obvious, but do NOT unlock decapitations and focus on Battleaxe abilities. This won't be an easy skill to train, because

    Restoration - As a support skill, Restoration might not have the flashiest spells, but they're some of the most useful. Remember not to neglect this skill. Early game, Necrocloak will be your highest DPS ability (and doesn't even require your zombie to stay alive to be effective), while late game Wild Healing will simultaneously cause damage and healing on nearly everything nearby based on allegiance.

    Block - Perfect Blocking has a quicker animation than bashing, can stagger multiple enemies within range, and has perks that allow it to block magic and others that raise your attack...but it won't block all damage, so on legendary difficulty many bosses will still OHKO you even through a Perfect Block. Power Bashing is a much more reliable way to cause damage while keeping a single strong enemy from being able to retaliate. Base your priorities on your own play style and what gives you more trouble: mobs or bosses.


    Special Tactics:

    Necrocloak - Necroplague can only be cast on a corpse, but it isn't dispelled if you raise the body afterwards. This can be used to give your melee zombies a powerful disease cloak. Unlike other cloak spells, Necroplague will also persist after a zombie is defeated, so letting weak enemies pile up at the feet of a much stronger one can be a very effective strategy. The virus also spreads so victims of your "patient zero" will also have a disease cloak.
    Requires: Necroplague, Ritual Stone

    Firing Line - Power of the Master can be used to simultaneously equip all your Zombies with Bound Bow. It won't give them bound arrows though, so they'll immediately revert to their melee weapon unless you place an arrow in their inventory. This gives you the ability to select which zombies will use BB and which ones will serve as meat shields for the bow wielding zombies. Even just one Bound archer and one Necrocloaked warrior can be a powerful combination.
    Requires: Power of The Master, Bound Bow

    Scarlet Light - Once you obtain False Light, any healing spell that hits an enemy will cause damage instead of restoring health. This not only removes the drawback to using Wild Healing, but makes it an effective work around to Ritual Stone's "Offensive Action" restriction, since it's not technically an attack. Just use PotM to cast it on your zombies and not only will it heal them a small amount, but for every active zombie you'll have a 50/50 chance to either double heal another zombie, or damage an enemy. The base power of the spell may not seem impressive at first, but affecting the entire battlefield to your favor, even just a small amount, can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
    Requires: Power of the Master, Wild Healing, False Light

    Plague Candy - A Plague Upon Thee is intended as a Hail Mary for a character that relies on their zombie, so it's actually pretty strong. It's basically the only disease that will affect automatons, and does enough DoT to take out a Dwarven Centurion. This becomes even more powerful when coupled with Rat King because of how frail Skeevers are. They die almost immediately and proc APUT that much faster. Even ranged attacks will activate the disease, so it's useful against mages, archers, and dragons as well.
    Requires: Rat King, A Plague Upon Thee 


    "There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion.  Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made."


    Gameplay:

    After a few bodies start piling up, the Aurora Ritual Stone can be as strong as it's vanilla counterpart. However, because it only works during combat, every encounter will begin with the challenge of killing something to raise as a zombie. Pick a weak looking enemy and focus your efforts on them. Taking on entire groups won't end well for you, so either lead a melee enemy away from the pack or charge down a ranged attacker while the rest give chase. Performing offensive actions will cancel the Ritual Stone's effect, so once you kill an enemy you'll have to choose between making it a zombie and trading your axe for support magic, or continuing to fight on your own. The latter will be much more challenging, but the reward will be that you can raise a larger army sooner.

    Once you have a few zombies by your side, your most powerful offensive strategies will be disease-based kamikaze attacks. These pack a punch, but they also leave you alone and vulnerable, while re-raising a body that fell at a strong foes feet can be a risky endeavor. On the other hand, more resilient minions can serve as great protection and they can be buffed with Preservation/Tree Rings, Healed with Wild Healing, and protected by Wards and blocking. Even bashing doesn't count as an offensive action for the sake of the Ritual Stone so you can effectively stunlock enemies for your zombies to attack without breaking the effects of the stone.

     

    "The rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise --then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust."


    Roleplay:

    This character would give to the less fortunate and aid the middle and lower class if asked to complete such quests. He would seek out the College of Winterhold in an attempt to gain insight into his gift/affliction and would absolutely indulge in it's crypt-heavy questline.

    In fact, early/mid game he would focus almost exclusively on raiding tombs and ruins (any place with draugr in them) seeing as these would be places established by the ancient, wealthy families of Skyrim. This gold, ostensibly, would be stolen from the wealthy, and saved up to finance plague-homes and facilities for the afflicted poor.

    He may or may not worry himself with the MQ depending on how it's presented to him. If you want to do the MQ then after the tutorial, return to Helgen and view the devastation it caused the rich and poor alike, then make sure to visit the humble families of Riverwood and see how terrified they are of dragons returning before heading to Whiterun. If you would rather skip the MQ (which fits the story a but better) then just head straight to Whiterun and belligerently refuse to aid the likes of a Jarl.


    Endgame:

    Since this characters journey is so drastically different from your typical dragonborn, it doesn't make sense for the endgame to be fighting Alduin. Instead, after honing your skills on the ornate burial chambers of Skyrims wealthy undead, it's time to take on the living oppressors. Go to each hold to attack the Jarl, start at the gates by killing the guards, raising them, and just let things snowball until the rich, locked in their keeps are all dead (or in the case of essential NPC's hobbling in pain, next door to death).

    Then steal everything of value before taking off into the night to escape. Repeat for all the keeps and Jarls in every hold. Once you've cleaned out the noble class, walk to Falkreath, make for the border of Cyrodiil, and return laden with the gold needed to open a fully equipped medical facility to treat the plague (financed by the very people who spread it through their apathy, selfishness, and greed).

     

    "...And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall."

  • August 14, 2018

    I'm a fan of Edgar Allan Poe and love the short story, so nice to see a build inpsired by it. 

  • Member
    August 14, 2018

    It's been a long time since I read Masque of the Red Death, but the quotes you've used imediately bring it all back to me. Very clever use of the source material, I think you and Shin have ported it to Skyrim beautifully! Presentation is fine, no need to worry overmuch about that aspect either :) As for gameplay, looks nice, tight and as you say, balanced. Great job, very inspiring!

  • August 14, 2018
    Loved this so much. Rat King and APUT, that’s fantastic. Masque of the Red Death is such a haunting backdrop for this great build.
  • Member
    August 14, 2018

    Have to agree with everyonne else you two, you did Poe proud

  • August 15, 2018

    Thanks guys.

  • August 24, 2018

    Nice build and all, but if I don't say this I will EXPLODE: The Daedra in charge of plagues and illnesses is Peryite, not Namyra.

  • August 24, 2018

    True, but...the book “The Beggar Prince.” 

    Also, since this build is a riff on Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death,” speaking of the Lady of Decay really makes sense. Many scholars have interpreted this story to be not about some random disease - and a fictitious disease, at that - but about the inevitable decline of life and society, no matter how desperately we cling to our illusion of control. Matter of fact, Prospero in the story filled his sanctuary with the very things that cause societal decay and decline - apathy, selfishness, gluttony, cruel greed. He did it himself, turned his own sanctuary not into an impregnable fortress, but an oppressive tomb. He invited decay inside the self-made, ideal environment for its profusion, and decay accepted.

    And the build focuses more on decay elements - raiding tombs filled with decaying corpses - and visiting terror upon those who secret themselves in their keeps and towers, just like Poe’s Prospero did, hoping only to save himself. “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all,” says the last lines of the story. So yes, disease. But also - and I think, more importantly - decay. 

    Also, I might get a little too enthusiastic about Poe. But he’s awesome. 

  • August 24, 2018

    tirrene said:

    Nice build and all, but if I don't say this I will EXPLODE: The Daedra in charge of plagues and illnesses is Peryite, not Namyra.

     

    Very true. However, similar to how Peryite is the daedra of "order" despite jyggalag existing, his sphere of influence also overlaps Namira's but with subtle differences. He is the daedric prince of pestilence (as in the kind of sickness that affects everyone, regardless of class) while Namira is associated with the "beggaring gifts" which includes disease, a gift she's been known to share with mortals.

     

    Plus, the historical influence we choose (the bubonic plague) was spread by death and decay while our literary inspiration (The Masque Red Death) is, like ilanisilver mentioned, usually interpreted as more of a societal entropy that is ironically exacerbated by the hedonism of the rich and their attempts to insulate themselves from the plight of the rest of humanity. That, combined with the fact that Namira is also the prince of the kind of gross creepy crawly that would spread such disease, as well as the more human undesirables (like the dirty and the poor) who this character believes himself to be there champion of, made her the obvious choice. Even before considering the fact that she evokes much more respect than Peryite.

     

    tirrene said:

    As for the build itself, it's good, just not something I would use because I don't really enjoy using necromancers.

     

    Honestly, neither do I...which is why I often take myself with taking things I find boring (like Conjuration, sneak, archery, ect...) and develop builds that make them more challenging and exciting to play. Shinjin actually said the same thing and it took me a while to convince him that I could make a Necromancer that was fun. Lol. Though once we started playing through it he became hooked! We put a lot of effort into engineering it so that you never really find yourself hiding behind your zombies. Just about every strategy and tactic is rendered ineffective unless you remain in the thick of the combat along side your zombies.

  • August 24, 2018

    ilanisilver said:

    True, but...the book “The Beggar Prince.” 

    Also, since this build is a riff on Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death,” speaking of the Lady of Decay really makes sense. Many scholars have interpreted this story to be not about some random disease - and a fictitious disease, at that - but about the inevitable decline of life and society, no matter how desperately we cling to our illusion of control. Matter of fact, Prospero in the story filled his sanctuary with the very things that cause societal decay and decline - apathy, selfishness, gluttony, cruel greed. He did it himself, turned his own sanctuary not into an impregnable fortress, but an oppressive tomb. He invited decay inside the self-made, ideal environment for its profusion, and decay accepted.

    And the build focuses more on decay elements - raiding tombs filled with decaying corpses - and visiting terror upon those who secret themselves in their keeps and towers, just like Poe’s Prospero did, hoping only to save himself. “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all,” says the last lines of the story. So yes, disease. But also - and I think, more importantly - decay. 

    Also, I might get a little too enthusiastic about Poe. But he’s awesome. 

    Holy crap, that was awesome. I think your interpretation of our build if better than the build itself. Lol. Please let me know if you want to do a colab build on any of Poe's other work, because that enthusiasm is nothing short of fantastic!