Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: Phantom, The Master Thief

Tags: #Character Build Thief  #Character Build Necromancer  #Character Build Enchanter  #Rank:Mythic 
  • Member
    November 24, 2012

     So I wanted to embrace a Thief character. People tend to separate Skyrim play styles into Assassin/Warrior/Mage. I wanted a character that embraced thievery and gold and not murder. Yet I also wanted to...well do dungeons.  If you invest in only thievery you can't fight.  So I embraced thievery and needed an offense. And who is infamous for their impossibility to play without hybridism? Necromancers! And what do Necromancers steal! SOULS!  This character does not murder But turns murder into a grand form of Theft.

    EDIT: I decided that instead of using enchanting as a minor skill. I wanted to take advantage of these souls and use them to compliment our utility belt aspect. So I got rid of speech and lock picking for powerful theft oriented enchantments. 

     

    Souls? Gold? Same thing.

    Phantom, The Master Thief

     

      Phantom was once an incredibly talented and curious thief. He even trained under the Gray Fox long ago. However  his curiosity got the best of him while he was performing a very high profile job. While stalking around a necromancers lab looking for an magical ingredient  He saw a particularity powerful portal to an unknown world. The necromancer was also oddly enough no-where else to be found. Curious of the riches and adventures Phantom jumped into the portal and found himself in a strange world populated by strange undead. His energy draining by small amounts. But he ignored it. He found fissures which filled the soul gems he gathered from the necromancers lab and strange and valuable spell tombs, nimbly avoiding the undead and pleading spirits.

    However in his attempt to leave he meant powerful creatures. They offered him magical power in exchange all the souls in his possession. Phantom accepted. Phantom passed over the soul gems but did not realize  his own soul was in his "possession". However while the Ideal Masters attempted to claim his soul he channeled the power of the souls he had in his possession to fuel himself. He managed to narrowly escape with the majority of his soul intact. The rest of his soul was inhabited by the knowledge of mage who soul combined with his essence during his narrow escape.

      Since then the power of the soul he collected gave him natural knowledge of the magical arts he used and embraced. He dabbled further and further into necromancy until he understood souls were the true treasure to collect. Not gold. Since then Phantom has traveled the land looking for the ideal souls to harness for his immortality.

     

     

    Race: Any.

    Stone: Ritual to further your Necromantic powers.

    Weapon of Choice: Haldirs Staff after a second play through proved to serve as a signature item. However other destruction staves are useful. Preferably one of every element. Wabbajack will be the dragon demolisher.

    Quests: Thieves guild to get cool looking armor. Join the Dark Brotherhood to steal the emperors soul as the ULTIMATE heist. Any where a powerful boss is waiting for a powerful soul to collect. The Black Star. 

    Spell Tombs: The 3 Necromantic spell tombs you should be using the most will be found in the Soul Cairn during the Dawngaurd quest line.

    Shouts: Not a single shout fits better then Soul Tear. Rip the soul out of the enemy and it raised them? its amazing. Become Ethereal also was a perfect "Oh crap" button.

    Souls Gems:  Early in the game I just robbed the crap of everyone in the mages guild to get my collection started. However as times go on the Master Conjuration trainer Falion in Morthal sells Black Soul Gems on a regular basis. As do Enthir from the College of Winterhold

    Game play

     

    Phantom through decades of years of study and innate talent from stolen is a utility expert. While not being a powerful assassin or destruction mage. He utilizes no form of offense other then staves and summoned undead. The goal is not to have a main method of attack but to have a bat-man like utility belt with unique staves and scrolls and enchanted weaponry. With pickpocket you should be able to raid a bandit camp and steal every weapon and armor they have without being seen. Then unleash a hoarde of your undead against naked weaponless enemies. The goal is not really to "kill everything". Your goal is simply for the items,gold and souls. Killing things is just to get them out of your way. Your main offense will be a wide array of destruction staves you buy and find or more likely steal. Every once in a while I just stop adventuring and and do things the burglar way. Just pick-pocketing some wealthy citizens and breaking into homes with the proper Shadowmarks can you get you rich real fast. You need funds to further your research.

     The prize at the end of a dungeon is more then just the master chest at the end. The prize is the boss. The powerful soul they hold is one of your main goals. To collect the souls of the most powerful creatures and men in Tamriel and add them to your powerful collection of items.

     

    Major skills

    Sneak: We will use this to avoid detection. Go all up the left side of the tree. We are a thief. Not an assassin. And avoiding detection is crucial for a successful heist.

    Pickpocket: Before we claim the soul of our enemies its best to strategically weaken them by removing their armor and weaponry.  Plus stealing things off people in the street and selling it for  gold is just basic thief knowledge.

    Illusion - Phantom calm the enemies who souls at not worthy to keep. Frenzy can also be used in situations where we are overwhelmed with enemies. But calm what we plan to use the most. We have no desire to kill unless unnecessarily. Invisibility is also excellent for avoiding combat all-together. If you plan on not using dead thralls and being and investing in the summoner perks on conjuration to play as a shadow summoner quiet casting is also necessary. Master of the mind also allows you to buff up your undead with the courage spells. Allowing them to stand up to the higher level creatures.

    Conjuration: Up to the necromancy side to twin souls. Once you get too level 100 you can choose 2 play styles.

     Shadowmancer; Take the summoner perks and from the shadows queitly create undead armies from the Soul Cairn. However you will not be able to utilize the courage spells. You will be much safer then the second path. Since you don't have to walk straight into everything. You also will spend more mana then using dead thralls.

    Undead Army: Ignore the summoner perks and walk around with 2 powerful undead body guards. Once you get the Master of the Mind perk with illusion you can buff them with Call To Arms and other courage spells(they stack). However they walk behind you. So your going to have to walk everywhere first. Walking around dungeons invisible helps this problem.

    Alteration: This is a utility belt. Pretty much a combination of random spells with limited uses. They don't come in handy often.Water breathing can let you escape into a lake and hide until the enemies give up. Alteration can bring objects closer to you to avoid traps. Detect life and detect dead can let you see around a suspicious corner.Paralyze is just aways useful for an "OMG" moment. Paralyze also increases the chance for you to pick-pocket.

    Enchanting: See Enchantment Section.

    Minor skills.

    Light Armor: I found light armor more aesthetically pleasing then just taking mage armor. However if you want to be more efficient you can take "mage armor" in alteration and skip out on it.

    Enchanting And Gear

     This is where are your yummy collected souls will be going. I found that having a large amount of souls but no where to put them can be boring. Instead of putting the Empeor of Tamriel in a box somewhere I decided it would be better to have him as a trusty piece of equipment. The souls will actually be aiding in your thievery and defense as long as your staves. 

    Rather then invest in speech we will have a collection of amulets and rings we use to gain a maximum amount of cash from shop-keepers.

    Rather the invest in lock-picking we have have a powerful set of lock-picking gauntlets we will use for those darn master-locks.

    Is there a dragon owning for your face with fire? Become immediately fireproof with the use of enchantments. Take our your magic resist ring and fire resistance amulet to save your life. 

    Lack the little bit of mana you need to cast a life saving spell? Take out fortify conjuration/whatever school you need. Even a fortify destruction amulet will help you get more out of your staff.

    I limited myself to amulets,rings and gloves/hoods. to avoid it being over-powered. The problem enchanting seems to have often. Plus those also from a logical stand-point seem to be the things you could change in battle the fastest.

    Plus we get the great irony of having people who were attempting to kill us constantly saving our life. I got to thank Harkon and Ancano for constantly saving my life. Lydia was carrying my burdens(fortify carry weight boots). It was particularly amusing taking the souls of certain people and deciding the most ironic way to utilize their personalities into items. As time goes on you will have a huge collection of talismans with powerful defense and utility based uses.  Each item with its own history and battle and   soul attached it. To make you feel as if you are utilizing the most from those you kill.

    You can also have a more offense oriented path by enchanting one handed items with large amounts of magical damage. I however found it seemed really out of character. But I did have an absorb health/soul trap dagger. So I could at least stay alive in direct combat while summons destroyed the enemy.

    (the only reason we don't do the same for pickpocket is that currently there seems to be a glitch pick-pocketing enchantments makes your success even worse. Instead of better. Lock-picking had the same problem till a patch came in)

     

    Ideal perk Spread: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#214967

    Role-Play


    Remember first and foremost you are a Thief. Not a murderer. Not a mage. You are a deadly mix of intelligence and nimble movement. If you don't feel like wasting your time killing a bandit. Don't. Move on and do what you wish like anyone else. I find when we play skyrim we focus too much on the "everything has to die!" aspect. This character does not want to kill. He just wants to collect souls and make gold. Souls are your main motivation for Violence. Nothing else. 

    If you are going up against an enemy and its earns your respect as something then capture its soul. Decide who is worthy of death by your hands.

    After a follower has proven to be the most worthy to me. By saving my life or being being amazingly useful in a dungeon. I capture their soul so they can be useful for me forever. You are the ultimate predator. Seeking out the most powerful creatures and people from all of Tamriel to be added to your collection of enchantments.

     

     

     

  • Member
    November 24, 2012

     I'l mention how to get lots of black soul gems. I can see how that could be a problem.

    The thing about enchanting is I don't really feel like it fit. Like after stealing for gold and having everything one could have I don't feel like enchanting would be something taken up. I saw it more as a personal challenge then anything. Like "I can steal gold. Lets move on!".

    Yeaaa I'l fix Grammar. I usually have to do that. 

    Wrathmen is a Spell-tomb found in the Soul-Cairn. Not a shout.

    Master Conjuration allows you to cast it once. The spell cost ALOT of magicka. On my first character I I needed Master Conjuration because without it I would not have been able to cast the spells. This would depend on your character and and what level they get 100 conjuration and equipment. But as long as you have Master Conjuration you will always be able to cast it.

  • Member
    November 24, 2012

    well this stinks..ive been working on a build myself and this has way to many similarities...

  • November 24, 2012
    No, cherry
  • Member
    November 24, 2012
    I like the build but you should have mentioned stealing their souls after all wouldn't a dragon soul be the ultimate soul?
  • TZ
    Member
    November 25, 2012

    I really like this idea, I was contemplating making a similar build like this before, but I think you have done it well enough that I do not need to make it.  The closest I got was a stealth mage who only uses staves since my idea was built around staves but this build is much more sophisticated. +1!

  • Member
    November 26, 2012

    I decided to revamp it to utilize enchanting in a utility oriented manner.

  • Member
    December 30, 2012

    Yea but sadly I'm going to have to wait for the PC version. I'm reaalllly looking forward to it. Based on some of the anti-combat oriented things I've seen in it.

  • Member
    November 3, 2016

    All images have been restored for this build. While I try my best to keep the formatting as close to the original as possible, there are some unavoidable differences as a result of differing platforms... for this I apologize.

    Also, please feel free to remove the 'Restored' banner at the end of the build--I put it there as a courtesy to let the reader know that the build has been worked on by somebody other than its original creator without his or her knowlege.