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Character Build: The Whispering Fang

  • March 30, 2013

     

    A member of the Dark Brotherhood killed your master. You are now on the hunt for vengeance.

    "I am not adorable, it was not funny, and he wasn't a merchant. He was a Khajiit monk, a master of the Whispering Fang style. But now he's dead... and I have a new loincloth."
    - Arnbjorn, Dark Brotherhood Assassin



    "It has begun!"

    Jo’Nova, The Whispering Fang

    The Whispering Fang is a Khajiit Monk trained in the ancient mysteries of the fang and claw. There is very little lore available revealing these secret arts, and so our modern incarnate is but a wanderer in search of it’s shadow.

    As the history goes, the Khajiit, a proud and ancient race, suffered derision and disrespect at the hands of the other sentient inhabitants of Tamriel. Over time, when traveling alone in strange lands, they often had to worry of becoming ensnared in foreign affairs, usually resulting in their enslavement.

    Generations disappeared, their fates unknown.

    A man must worry when his arms are taken away.Stripped and defenseless, they would bow before the mighty who wielded the weapons.

    But a Khajiit is no mere man.

    In light of darkness, they learned to defend themselves, tooth and claw from any that would dare take away their liberties. Stripped of weapons, those that began to follow the secrets of the Whispering Fang would defend themselves with indignant ferocity.

    Through meditation, diligence, and commitment, the Whispering Fang focuses their power through meditative alteration, always pursuing a path of balance and harmony; even when that path is through vengeance.

     

    The Whispering Fang

    Class: Monk

    Race: Khajiit

    Stones: The Atronach

    Major Skills: Alteration, Sneak, Enchanting

    Minor Skills: Heavy Armor, Archery

    Armor: Clothes, Robes, Heavy Armor Gauntlets

    Weapon: Claws and Bow

    Ability Increases: Health & Stamina 2:1

     

     

    Nomenclature

    Naming your Khajiit is of vital importance. The following prefixes denote your Khajiit’s profession or status. Multiple statuses can be conferred and are applied as  “‘“ and “-” accordingly. I.e “Jo’Nova” which in the case of the Whispering Fang means “Scholar Nova.” If he delves too far down the thieving line, however, he may become “Jo’Nova-Dar,” or, “Scholar Nova the Clever.”

    • Dar = Thief, clever

    • Do = Warrior

    • Dro = Grandparent

    • J/Ja/Ji = Bachelor, Young Adult

    • Jo = Wizard, Scholar

    • M/Ma = Child, Apprentice, also used to imply virginity

    • Qa = Unknown

    • Ra = Shows Status

    • Ri = Status, often tribal leader

    • S = Adult

     

    Wine and Dine

    Khajiit love moon sugar. Their entire religion and civilization revolves around it. According to UESP, “The Khajiit believe that by consuming it, they are consuming a small portion of the eternal souls of the moon gods, Jone and Jode.” This explains all the dens and the propensity of the Khajiit towards Skooma addiction.

    In any case, our Whispering Fang lives off a hearty meal of Venison Stew and Elsweyr Fondue. And he always washes it down with a bottle of Skooma. You can’t make it, but you probably want to buy it everywhere you find it.

    Between these foodstuffs, you’ll only ever need health potions to keep yourself leveled out:

     

    Elsweyr Fondue: Regenerate Magicka, 25 pts for 720 secs Fortify Magicka, 100 pts for 720 secs

    • Ale

    • Eidar Cheese Wedge

    • Moon Sugar

     Venison Stew: Restore Stamina, 15 pts Restore Health, 1 pt for 720 secs Restore Stamina, 1 pt for 720 secs

    • Venison

    • Salt

    • Leek

    • Potato

    To master Alteration, first accept that reality is a falsehood.”

    Skills and Perks

     

    Perks: At 25/At 50

     

    The Whispering Fang utilizes magic and enchanting through a meditation and imbues. Alteration acts as a “focused state”, bestowing protection and allowing the manipulation of the environment. Likewise, Enchanting emulates taking the souls of living beings, and imbuing them into an object, using their “focused life” as the monk’s own power.

    Since there is no major weapon skills to pump perks into, there are many extra points available to spend which will be up to you to define as the flavor of your playstyle.

    • Alteration: Novice, Dual Casting, Apprentice, Magic Resistance, Adept, Stability, Expert, Master, Atronach

      • Spells: Oakflesh, Magelight, Stoneflesh, Iron Flesh, Telekinesis, Waterbreathing, Ebonyflesh, Paralyze, Dragonhide, Mass Paralysis

    • Sneak: Stealth, Muffled Movement, Lightfoot, Silent Roll, Silence, Shadow Warrior.

    • Enchanting: Enchanter, Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, Extra Effect.

    • Heavy Armor: Juggernaut, Fists of Steel

    • Archery:  Overdraw, Eagle Eye, Power Shot.

    • Lockpicking/Pickpocket/Alchemy: For Flare. Pick and choose to your delight. Lockpicks to master and unbreakable makes for a much less tedious play-through  Poisoner in pickpocket along with a healthy dose of alchemy is nice to help annihilate your foes since you can't poison your fists

    Gameplay

    The Whispering Fang is a tasking master. Unlike most builds where you can smith and enchant your main weapons to godliness, with unarmed you will hit a wall. You are undoubtedly penalizing yourself by using fists, but thats part of the passion.

    Having Khajiit Claws helps, easily outpacing one-handed weapons early game. Just when they start to feel dull, you unlock Fists of Steel, once again nearly doubling your damage, and providing you with a steady pace of greater strength as you acquire better gauntlets. Then, slowly your enchanting starts to develop, allowing you to imbue your gauntlets and rings with Fortify Unarmed, finally providing a boost to your damage.

    Thus, combined with practiced archery and stealth tactics you’ll be able to disable every foe on the battlefield with ease and poise. From stealth you pick off the stragglers before committing to a fisticuff battle with whatever boss of the den you happen to be separating from their wealth.

    Your protection comes in the form of the Atronach Stone and Alteration spells. Between the Atronach stones bonus magic, the Elsweyr Fondue, and Alteration cost reduction enchants, magica availability should never be a problem. You shrug off mages as you absorb their power before pulverizing their skulls with a few well placed fists to the face. Between Dual Casting and Stability, your buffs will last a modest time, allowing you to buff, then sneak into the fray without worrying about rebuffing in the heat of battle. Unfortunately, since we need heavy gauntlets for punching, we cannot use the Mage Armor perk, so don’t spend any points on it.

    As for healing, buy potions, eat food.

    Dragon Shouts

    The Way of the Voice is a monastic tradition, one that any Whispering Fang would would do well to study. Being the Dragonborn and getting to passively absorb dragon souls doesn't hurt either. In fact, Dragon Shouts mesh extremely well with monk skills and provide just the right amount of extra control all the field.

    The search for all of them is one of the goals of the Whispering Fang, as he seeks enlightenment. Through intense meditation and focus, he harnesses the dragon souls into cosmic power.

    Useful Shouts: Aura Whisper, Become Ethereal, Unrelenting Force, Disarm, Marked For Death, Slow Time, Whirlwind Sprint, Dismay, Cyclone, Drain Vitality

    "Feet are for walking. Hands are for hitting. Or shaking. Or waving. Sometimes for clapping."
    -M’aiq the Liar

    Martial Arts

    The Whispering Fang utilizes his environment to his advantage. Always observant, he acts only with purpose. In addition to archery, and through long years of practice, he has perfected the Khajiit Claw, using open handed attacks with raked fingers, swiping, tearing and grabbing.

    Gear: As an Alteration based Monk, gear is really negligent.You don’t use any weapons (other than a bow) and don’t really wear any armor. Your gauntlets don’t benefit from Smithing so the armor bonus is redundant. It comes down to finding the best pair of heavy gauntlets you can find, and using the best enchants available. As for the clothes you wear? Your call. You are a monk, so robes or some sort of cool tunic is probably a good choice( i.e mourners clothes)

     

    Imbues:

    • Gloves: Fortify Unarmed, Fortify Archery

    • Rings: Fortify Unarmed, Fortify Archery

    • Neck: Regen Health, Regen Stamina
    • Chest: Alteration (Primary), Regen Health, Regen Stamina
    • Head: Fortify Archery, Fortify Alteration

    • Feet: Fortify Sneak, Fortify Stamina Regen

    • Weapon: Best Bow you can find, Fiery Souls Enchant, Frost Enchants

    Note: For the Fortify Unarmed Enchant you need Gloves of the Pugilist. They can be found on Gian the Fist in the Ratway, Riften. 

     

     

    Moment of Clarity: Slow Time + Sneak Archery + Shadow Warrior. Clear the room before they know what hit them. Taking deadly Aim, this Khajiit Monk let’s fly his Whispering Fang; silent arrows of sudden death. Standing and sneaking after each shot sets you up for a guaranteed sneak attack.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Moongrace:  Detect life + Night Eye + Ethereal Enchant + Mass Paralyze -  You contemplate the world around you, seeing all the connections of life and their wonders before committing yourself to the fray and immobilizing all your enemies. Proceed to single handedly sweep up the fools.

     

     

     

     

     

    JiitClawDo: Stealth Roll, Claw Attack, Marked For Death + Claw Chain (both attack buttons simultaneously)  - This deadly combo eliminates the armor of your enemy and allows you to wail on him as he slowly bleeds out. Useful for Bandit Chiefs and larger more resilient victims.

     

     


    The Pursuit of Vengence

    In the end, the path that The Whispering Fang takes is one of vengence, He seeks to destroy those who have wronged him and his kindred. As for becoming a Werewolf or Vampire, while both would certainly provide many bonuses to this class, both are unfit for the monk class. Purity and harmony have no room in their cloisters for infection.

    • Main Quest - At least up to unlocking dragon shouts. After that, it’s up to you. Note, though, that the Greybeards themselves are a monastic order, and that siding with them should the time arise would fall within your purview. 

    • Amulet of The Moon - Help out a fellow Khajiit, and bid him join you on your path to enlightenment. Kharjo’s skills make him an excellent Whispering Fang Apprentice. Just equip him with similar gear as yourself. Nothing beats two Khajiit running around with claws "tearing" it up. 

    • The Words of Power - This radiant quest bestowed by the Greybeards will send you all over the world of Skyrim, delving into ancient tombs in pursuit of Dragon Shouts. This becomes an obsession, unlocking new styles and more power for the Whispering Fang.

    • Fight! Fight! - Duels and Challenges are what set's Martial Arts styles apart. Any student of the Whispering Fang Style would accept a duel challenge at any moment, taking pride in their school and relishing an opportunity to advance its fame. 
    • Destroy the Dark Brotherhood - Your prime directive is to hunt down and destroy Arnbjorn, the Nord Werewolf who destroyed  the life and decimated the corpse of your former Master. All that you do is in preparation to break this man’s back over your knee. When and how you choose to find him is up to you.

    • Bounty Quests and More.. - After taking vengeance, you have fulfilled your promise to your master. You are now free to explore the world and affect it as you see fit. When you started, you were but a learner. Now you are the Master. Go now, and let the deed's of the Whispering Fang Style shout throughout the realm of Skyrim.

    "M'aiq is tired now. Go bother somebody else"

    Author’s Notes:

    I loved the monk classes in Morrowind and Oblivion. They were awesome. You hopped and skipped around with a bow and fists, using your alteration for trickery and utility. You could use a spell to pick locks, cast feather fall, walk on water, do large sneak attacks without a weapon and jump really really high. In both games, a Khajiit Monk was my first “main quest beater.” They jumped higher, had claw attacks, and were just super fun to play. I always made mine look just like my cat, Nova.

    In Skyrim, they only translated some of the monk class. There is no athletics, there is no acrobatics. No unarmored skill. These were wrapped up in alteration and enchanting. It was the lack of an unarmed skill tree, however, that hurt the most.

    They had the underhanded idea to add it in as a quasi fist weapon via the Fists of Steel perk with subpar enchanting boosting possibilities (weapons skills I believe have four possible item slots, unarmed has only two) and no smithing benefits. This made it feel gimmicky, not ideal, not meta.

    So I put off playing my favorite class for a long time. However, on one itinerant playthrough I came across Arnbjorn telling his tale of a kill he made to the gathered members of the Dark Brotherhood. He spoke of a “master of the Whispering Fang Style” and I just had to drop everything I was doing, research it, figure out how to make it, and whip one up.

    I came up with a build that really resembled the Oblivion Monk in its use of a bow and sneak combined with alteration, lockpick (Security in Oblivion) and enchanting to make up for the loss of athletics and acrobatics (via the stamina regeneration enchants) as well as providing a damage boost to makeup for the lackluster unarmed implementation. 

    I further postulated that the “Whispering Fang Style” was indeed one of Archery; whereby the bow’s arrow emulates a fang or tooth and the whispering was the woosh it made being flung from sneak into an unsuspecting neck. Archery is certainly a viable offensive path. The martial art is then supplemented by the Khajiit’s racial claw bonus in addition to utilizing the Fists of Steel Quasi-Weapon.

    From there, we slap on our role-play directives and jump out into the beautiful majestic world of Skyrim, letting each of our own passions guide us through the Adventure. Not loaded down by reagents, armor, weapons, junk, or other worldly goods, we are free to roam the land at our leisure, pursuing our characters path.

    What it took in the end was the suspension of disbelief that we don’t need more damage, just a willingness to indulge in false realities.

    I hope you all like it. Thanks for taking a look!

  • March 30, 2013
    The bandit doesn't look hurt, he just looks bored :P
  • Member
    March 30, 2013

    Mason wouldn't read past the first line, he hates generic backstories....

  • Member
    March 30, 2013

    Lol hey I posted that picture! :P Great khajiit build +1

  • Member
    March 30, 2013

    Nice build, this deserves more recognition, your presentation is beautiful, and the build idea is a skyrim npc (or at least a mentioned one) much like Henson's Old Orc. good job man. +1

  • Member
    March 31, 2013

    Well it is not exactly the generic background (even though it seems like it), since it is based off a true ingame encounter 

  • Member
    March 31, 2013

    I like this build, and I hate unarmed builds, so good job.

  • Member
    March 31, 2013
    Npcs never really look hurt, not even when you cut their goddamn heads off! They always seem to feel they're better then you for some reason...
  • Member
    March 31, 2013
    I, like you, made a monk inspired character in Oblivion. Skyrim was not very monk friendly. With this build you made, you revived my hopes of making one. I must now drop a character I was doing to make this unarmed build. I hated wearing all heavy armor because of speed. This is one of my favorite builds on here, for personal reasons. I thank you for presenting this build.
  • March 31, 2013

    Really good build, It has a good mix of game play and role play.