Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Heroic Spirit Guide - A'Tor Al-M'kai

Tags: #Dragonborn1721  #Heroic Spirit Guides 
  • January 23, 2019

    A'Tor Al-M'kai, Sword of the West

    A'Tor Al-M'kai is the full name of the supposed Prince A'Tor, hero of the Crowns and famous for his victory in numerous battles against the Forebears and Empire. His defeat only came during a battle with the Dragon, Nafaalilargusm and even then it was not death by Dragon that killed A'Tor but an assassin possibly armed with the Bow of Shadows. It was a time of great upheavel in Hammerfell, and A'Tor was made famous in those battles by succesfully leading Crown armies against foes that by all measures should have been capable of winning. For those feats, A'Tor is considered a top tier Heroic Spirit, but is weakened due to the love that Imperial Scholars tend to have for supressing the legends of anyone who fights against the Empire.

    In reality, A'Tor Al-M'kai is famous for her role as a general far more than her ability as an individual warrior, though her skill with a blade may be considered high in any other culture, compared to Sword Saints her skill is mediocre at best. That's another aspect of her legend that is wrong, Prince A'Tor never existed, or at least there was no male Prince called A'Tor to exist in the 2nd Era (unless they died at an incredibly young age and wasn't worth mentioning). Princess A'Tor, Daughter of King Thassad II however, did exist though whether she would be summoned as a female as a Heroic Spirit is completely unknown due to the corruption of her legend.

    Potential Classes:

    Note 1: All Heroic Spirits are summoned into a specific ‘class container’ which dictates many of their skills, parameters and even personality. While they’re often most suited for a particular class, there are many heroes that qualify for multiple classes and thus could theoretically be summoned under any of those classes. An easy example is Almalexia. She is well known for both her swordsmanship and magical abilities and would commonly be summonable under the classes of Saber or Caster.

    Potential Classes: Saber and Rider

    A'Tor's legend is so heavily linked to her Sword which eventually became one of the most fascinating examples of Soul Trapping, because it housed her entire soul in it after her death. Because of this connection, she is most commonly summoned under the Saber class, but can be summoned under the Rider Class as well due to her skill at leading from horseback, or even as part of a Navy. 

    Class for this Guide: Rider

    Rider Class Servants are known for being fairly agile and having incredibly powerful Noble Phantasms that can completely overwhelm foes. At the same time, many of them fight with the restriction of being weaker when dismounted or fighting on foot because their legends are usually tied to fighting on horseback (or any other sort of 'mount'). For A'Tor this is slightly different because she isn't known for having a single mount, and can fight equally well on horseback, ship or foot. 

    Parameters

    Note 2: Parameters are defined both by the individual and the class they’re summoned under. For example, all Caster’s have a base Mana of A, but there are individuals who have specific restrictions that may reduce their Mana to B or are incredibly powerful and thus could have a rating of A+. The system is hardly a way to judge a servant fully, just because an individual has higher stats doesn’t mean they’ll automatically defeat someone with lower stats, but it would mean that (for example) a Servant with a Strength of A will be naturally stronger than one with a Strength of B.

    Note 3: The ranking is E, D, C, B, A, EX. Ranks E through A can also have a modifier (either + or -) that designates that their skill has certain restrictions or increases in certain situations. Essentially a + or – means that their highest level isn’t stable or permanent, with a B+ being normally weaker than an A but being stronger than an A in certain circumstances. Examples – fighting a specific foe, being blessed or cursed, having a spell cast on you, etc

    Note 4: A servant is more powerful than a normal mortal by default (or the average human). E is 10x more powerful than an average human. D is 20x more powerful and so on and so forth. EX is theoretically 100x more powerful, but the scale is ambiguous.

    Strength: B

    Endurance: B

    Agility: C+

    Mana: C+

    Luck: D

    Noble Phantasm: A

    Class Skills:

    Note 5: Class Skills are the skills that all Servants summoned under that class have access to, but to a varying degree based on the individuals. These are very general skills, but everyone will have different ranks in each skill based on certain aspects of their legend which are popular. If a Saber Class Servant was well known for fighting Mages, then they may receive a higher Magic Resistance than another Saber Servant who was known for being killed by a Mage.

    Riding: C

    A'Tor isn't particularly well known for riding a particular Mount but is capable of fighting on horseback or ship and is summoned with a basic capacity for both, though not to the same degree as other Rider Class Servants.

    Magic Resistance: D+

    A'Tor's Magic Resistance allows her to shrug off any low level spells and continue fighting even while under spellfire. It's not a high enough level to be able to feel comfortable fighting against high level Mages (like Caster Class Servants) without dodging spells but is enough to shrug off enchantments and human spells.

    Personal Skills:

    Note 6: Personal Skills are unique to everyone…mostly. Two Servants may have Personal Skills with the same name, but they’ll have unique differences based on their own personal life and legend (for example, two Servants may have the ‘Charisma’ skill at the exact same rank, but one of them may be more charismatic when talking to military leaders while the other is more charismatic when talking to commoners.

    Charisma – A++

    If A'Tor is well known for anything it's the loyalty she inspired in her troops, leading armies against superior foes without having a single person disobey her orders, and even encouraging them after her death to fight against an Empire that occupied Hammerfell with the help of the Forebears.

    Military Tactics: B+

    While her individual fighting ability is nothing to laugh at, A'Tor's true gift is her ability to lead groups in combat. Her tactical genius is better used agaist large forces rather than individual opponents, but any time she is either fighting with, or against, a group of combatents her ability to plan and use the terrain to win is nearly unmatched.

    Shadows from Afar: B-

    Due to her death coming from a poisoner arrow, A'Tor suffers a completel lack of real protection against enemies attack from afar. Any Archer she fights recieves a slight boost to accuracy, and even attacks that she thinks she can dodge easily can hit her, seemingly at random. None of this impacts her ability to fight in close combat, but provides a significant weakess in combat.

    Noble Phantasms:

    Note 7: Noble Phantasms are unique to each Servant completely and is a notable part of their legend. For some heroes, these may be unique weapons or a set of armour that they wielded in their life, for others it may be a concept that is closely related to the Servant’s legend. For example, Morihaus is likely to be summoned with The Lord’s Mail as a set of armour while Tiber Septim may have a Noble Phantasm connected to his role of Emperor or Dragonborn.

    Soul-Sword: B+

    The Soul-Sword is interesting because it's technically another aspect of A'Tor herself rather than a weapon that was powerful when she wielded. In her life it was a normal sword but it's history is so connected with housing a soul that it's given her an innate ability to enchant swords, culminating in a single sword that has an infinite connection with her. 

    Army of the Crown: A-EX

    Army of the Crown is a Noble Phantasm connected to A'Tor's history as a general. Passively it allows her to sway almost anyone who isn't directly opposed to her, into fighting alongside her against any foe (unless it's someone that they hold loyalty to. Ralof for example would not fight against Ulfric) but it's more powerful effect can only be used in Hammerfell. There she is capable of summoning small parts of her army and fighting alongside her, in Stros M'kai it would be even more powerful and theoretically allow her to draw upon the strength of her entire army. 

     

    Translation to Skyrim

    So, I decided to finally implement a classic Fate cliche with the whole female genderbending thing. They've got a fun little habit of making some historical figures female for...anime reasons (actually it's not always fan service, sometimes but not all the time), and since it's such a classical aspect of Fate I figured that I should do it a few times here. Prince A'Tor was chosen simply because it's not all that difficult to do it because he's from Redguard and well...I probably could have sold him as a female the whole time and nobody would have known otherwise :P

    Anyway, lets talk about the character. Rider was a weird choice honestly, not terrible but logically you'd look at her history and instantly make the connection to the Saber Class because the Soul Sword is, well a huge aspect of it. But Rider does sort of work, I mean it's not as nice as having someone famous for Mounted Warfare, but Fate often makes the decision of allowing people famous for Naval Warfare Rider Class servants with their 'Ship' as a "Mount" and with a naval battle being part of A'Tor's legend...well it was a fitting enough connection that I felt mostly comfortable with the idea of making her a Rider. So yeah, honestly what I had more fun with was the Skills and Noble Phantasms. Riders are tricky because they're supposed to have completely broken Noble Phantasms, I won't spoil any of them, but they're always broken and the base game sort of restricts what I can do within character limits. Which is fun, interesting and hopefully made an interesting character.

    Skills and Stats:

    Primary Skills: One-Handed, Light Armour, Enchanting 

    Secondary Skills: Smithing, Destruction and Speech

    Optional Skill: Illusion (Courage and Rally Spells)

    Stats: 2 Magicka, 4 Health and 4 Stamina per 10 levels.

    Required Perks and Equipment:

    One-Handed: Armsman 5/5 and Bladesman 3/3

    Equipment: While the build has no specific equipment that is required, enchanting swords is a crucial aspect of the build so having a sword that you use consistantly may help you Roleplay having a consistant sword that you improve (Personally I'd recommend the Ebony Sword because it looks the best for this character). 

    Standing Stone: The Lord

    Roleplaying and Other Information:

    So starting off, we've primarily got Roleplaying Personal/Class Skills here, with only a single Class Skill really being Gameplay reliant. Riding is simple, just ride a horse. Magic Resistance at that level can be accomplished with a ring enchanted with Magic Resistance and the Lord Stone, Charisma is purely RP as is Military Tactics. Shadows from Afar is a bit weird, because it's also Roleplaying but it does have a direct impact on your gameplay. Specifically not being able to perk Block or being able to properly defend yourself against arrows. I like to think of this as a bit of a justification for how enemy archers can seemingly always hit you, no matter how stupid their shot attempt seems (and how well they can track moving targets) but if you want to boost ranged damage through a mod then that works too. But Noble Phantasms can be fascinating here, Army of the Crown is honestly more of a way to showcase how a Heroic Spirit's 'home territory' can provide different powers because the base Noble Phantasm isn't crazy, but if she's summoned in a location where she has more power, she gets an insane boost to it. The base idea here is to use a Follower Mod (available on all consoles) that allows you to take more than one follower and create a small squad. It might make combat a bit easier in the long run, but it's something that I think fits the character far too well to avoid. Soul-Sword is pretty simplistic but has so many chances for interesting Roleplaying opportunities. Obviously the sword in question doesn't contain A'Tor's soul, which is a slight shame, but it's still a fun way to bring Enchanting into the build.

    I would like to quickly cover the playstyle of the build because it's a bit strange. The general idea is to function as a semi-spellsword but being more reliant on the sword than spells. The occasional use of spells like Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning is mostly just used as a panic button and is still something that has to be done around close combat range. There's no flood of spells coming forth, just the occasional close quarters spell to inflict a bit more damage, or maybe even stun if you want Impact. The build is still very much focused on One-Handed and unleashing sword combos to win fights.

    Lets quickly talk Quests. I think this is a relatively free character and you could justify a lot of different quests but I'm going to list a few that I think are required and a few that you absolutely shouldn't do. Both the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood are out, as is the Volkihar questline. The College of Winterhold is a bit iffy but I think the initial justification of improving her basic magic and then discovering the threat aroud the Eye of Magnus is an easy justifcation so I'd recommend it. Dawnguard is required and I think the Civil War is an interesting choice, not required but fighting alongside the Stormcloaks is definitely something that would fit this character, if for no other reason than killing Imperials. 

    Closing Notes:

    Okay, lets think a bit. Do I have anything else important to say? Not really to be honest, I had a lot of fun with this build because I felt like it A'Tor is an interesting character and she was completely new to me, well he was but...you get the point. The actual guide here is a bit loose because I felt like there are a lot of places to take the character, with specific focuses on different skills and abilities, hell even just running it with Mods makes for an incredibly different playstyle.

    Oh, I am still looking for an additional image to add to the build. I really got hooked on using screenshots for this one for some reason (not mine, links below) but it's not a requirement by any means. The general size however is a requirement which makes it an absolute pain in the ass. If anyone can guess the logic behind the last name that would be entertaining, it is technically fitting but not a canon name for the character. 

    Image 1 Source

    Image 2 Source

    Teaser Image 1

    Prince A'Tor Sources - Imperial Library 

    Soul Sword Sources - UESP

    More Information on the Rider Class

    Fate - Parameter Rules    |    Fate - Servant Definition    |    Fate - Noble Phantasms    |    Fate - Full List of Skills

    As a final note, I just wanted to thank Trekster for inspiring these guides. Obviously we've got really different takes and inspirations for the series and they're honestly really different, but there's so much of his work that inspired mine. Check Out His Guides because they really are awesome, and a bit more suited to just plugging a build into the Guide and playing with it. Hope these are interesting, I tried really hard to balance the combination of Skyrim and Fate, though I'll freely admit to focusing more on the latter.

  • Member
    January 25, 2019

    So, I decided to finally implement a classic Fate cliche with the whole female genderbending thing. They've got a fun little habit of making some historical figures female for...anime reasons (actually it's not always fan service, sometimes but not all the time), and since it's such a classical aspect of Fate I figured that I should do it a few times here. Prince A'Tor was chosen simply because it's not all that difficult to do it because he's from Redguard and well...I probably could have sold him as a female the whole time and nobody would have known otherwise :P

    Oh, so that's why it's a thing? For the art?  xD Honestly, I quite like it when I see it happen. Nothing excited me more than when an ESO character refered to Syrabane as a female, or when Y'ffre was called "she." In this day and age it should be a non-issue, yet I still enjoy it when a preconception is replaced by a new one. So I did it myself in one artcle by making Trinimac a lady - I can't now picture that deity as male :D

    Shadows from Afar is a bit weird, because it's also Roleplaying but it does have a direct impact on your gameplay. Specifically not being able to perk Block or being able to properly defend yourself against arrows. I like to think of this as a bit of a justification for how enemy archers can seemingly always hit you, no matter how stupid their shot attempt seems (and how well they can track moving targets) but if you want to boost ranged damage through a mod then that works too. But Noble Phantasms can be fascinating here, Army of the Crown is honestly more of a way to showcase how a Heroic Spirit's 'home territory' can provide different powers because the base Noble Phantasm isn't crazy, but if she's summoned in a location where she has more power, she gets an insane boost to it. The base idea here is to use a Follower Mod (available on all consoles) that allows you to take more than one follower and create a small squad. It might make combat a bit easier in the long run, but it's something that I think fits the character far too well to avoid.

    Just like before, nice use of mechanics to reflect the character - A'tor and arrows is a nice, consistent theme here, and using a mounted squad with Amazing Follower Tweaks and Convenient Horses is jsut so much fun - buy them all horses, change their horses' tack and saddles, and manage the squad's personal inventory so they all wear what you want to really create your own little cavalry division :D

    Good work, Deebs, enjoyed reading!

  • January 25, 2019

    Oh, so that's why it's a thing? For the art?  xD Honestly, I quite like it when I see it happen. Nothing excited me more than when an ESO character refered to Syrabane as a female, or when Y'ffre was called "she." In this day and age it should be a non-issue, yet I still enjoy it when a preconception is replaced by a new one. So I did it myself in one artcle by making Trinimac a lady - I can't now picture that deity as male :D

    More or less, yes :P Ah that's true I think I remember you mentioning Syrabane to me (or at least in a photo that I stumbled into), bah, either way I remember it coming up at some point and it was fascinating. It's the same thing with Daedric Princes for me (to an extent), I'm a bit attached to female Boethiah despite the male form being older, but I suppose we have always known that they're more fluid...for the most part, Sheogorath seems a bit strangely attached to that single form. 

    Just like before, nice use of mechanics to reflect the character - A'tor and arrows is a nice, consistent theme here, and using a mounted squad with Amazing Follower Tweaks and Convenient Horses is jsut so much fun - buy them all horses, change their horses' tack and saddles, and manage the squad's personal inventory so they all wear what you want to really create your own little cavalry diviIsion :D

    Good work, Deebs, enjoyed reading!

    Thanks Phil, always appreciate you reading them :D I think selling the link between mechanics and character is something that I'm going to stick with, though with this first set being complete (the incredibly titled Heroic Spirits based off Characters Whose Names Begin with 'A') I'm going to be doing a few random ones while I work on the next set which is going to be fascinating. Won't spoil it yet but it's going to be covering basically some of the most Lore Heavy Characters so I'm going to need to deep dive into some really interesting people. 

    Thanks again Phil :D

  • January 25, 2019

    Paws said:

    Oh, so that's why it's a thing? For the art?  xD Honestly, I quite like it when I see it happen. Nothing excited me more than when an ESO character refered to Syrabane as a female, or when Y'ffre was called "she." In this day and age it should be a non-issue, yet I still enjoy it when a preconception is replaced by a new one. So I did it myself in one artcle by making Trinimac a lady - I can't now picture that deity as male :D

    I rather like the idea of elven gods being gender-fluid, it is a nice detail that speaks volumes about the elven perception of the world, different from the human gods, which have established gender-static archetypes tied to social roles. The Redguards seem the only humans who might have the same thing.

  • Member
    January 26, 2019

    Dragonborn2021 said:

    Thanks Phil, always appreciate you reading them :D I think selling the link between mechanics and character is something that I'm going to stick with, though with this first set being complete (the incredibly titled Heroic Spirits based off Characters Whose Names Begin with 'A') I'm going to be doing a few random ones while I work on the next set which is going to be fascinating. Won't spoil it yet but it's going to be covering basically some of the most Lore Heavy Characters so I'm going to need to deep dive into some really interesting people. 

    Thanks again Phil :D

    Sounds good, I'm looking forward to them!

    Justiciar Thorien said:

    I rather like the idea of elven gods being gender-fluid, it is a nice detail that speaks volumes about the elven perception of the world, different from the human gods, which have established gender-static archetypes tied to social roles. The Redguards seem the only humans who might have the same thing.

    Ha, ok I'm curious :D What volumes does it speak about Altmeri perception? That, up until Syrabane and Y'ffre got a new interpretation, their pantheon had just one goddess vs nine males? I quite like Lis' interpretation on that - the rise of Queen Ayrenn's Aldmeri Dominion ushered in a new age of hope and progressive thinking among the normally rigid and inflexible traditionalist values of the High Elven people: Ayrenn succeeded in retracting the poles up their asses by half an inch!

  • Member
    March 10, 2019

    Paws said:

    Oh, so that's why it's a thing? For the art?  xD Honestly, I quite like it when I see it happen. Nothing excited me more than when an ESO character refered to Syrabane as a female, or when Y'ffre was called "she." In this day and age it should be a non-issue, yet I still enjoy it when a preconception is replaced by a new one. So I did it myself in one artcle by making Trinimac a lady - I can't now picture that deity as male :D

    Damn it Phil, I'm now picturing it too. Both hot, and terrifying