This differs from a classic Nightblade mainly in the lack of Destruction, or Light Armor. Instead, you got Conjuration, Archery, and Alteration to fill those niches. The main theme of this build is to do without Equipment, or use a little to enhance it, but even in a Loincloth, or Ragged Robes, he's almost as lethal. This means you don't have to give Malborn a thing, can go to the party with just the Clothes, Boots, and an Amulet of Talos. Cidnha Mine was not designed to hold the likes of you, but for as little as you were noticed, you might as well have never been there.
Playtested on Master, mostly to prove that you don't need Crafting to survive on that Difficulty.
Race: Altmer to cast Bound Bow, or Invisibility with a Novice Hood. Highborn also helps you power Invisibility to serially backstab large forces like in the Katariah.
Stats: All Magicka, he doesn't use Stamina too quickly for it to recover naturally, and Health isn't much of an issue when you're never seen.
Shouts: Aura Whisper, Whirlwind Sprint, Become Ethereal, and Ice Form.
Stones: The Lord, or Lady. Any of the three Guardians for training, as he uses skills from each.
Skills
- One handed: Armsman(5) Fighting Stance, Savage Strike, Dual Flurry(1) Dual Savagery.
- Archery: Overdraw(5) Eagle Eye.
- Sneak: Stealth(1) Backstab, Deadly Aim. The bare minimum for Damage Multipliers, you can fill the other branch later when the points start piling up. Shadow Warrior would just be redundant.
- Illusion: Novice-Expert, Animage, Kindred mage, Quiet Casting.
- Conjuration: Novice-Expert, Mystic Binding, Summoner. Just Bound Weapons, and Flaming Familiar to Spellsword with. Casting them so often means that you're eventually going to become a Conjurer, and gives the option of expanding to Twin Souls for Necromancy, or Summoning.
- Alteration is optional, mostly for Paralysis. Up to Expert with Magearmor(3)/Magic Resistance, and Stability.
Spells
- Bound Sword, Bow (And Dagger with Dragonborn DLC) Flaming Familiar.
- Calm is a 3 Skill Trainer, alternate between casting this, and Backstabbing for Illusion, Sneak, and 1H.
- Fury/Frenzy: combos well with Bound Sword/Flaming Familiar.
- Oak-Ebonyflesh: Cast before going all Spellsword out of boredom.
- Detect Life/Undeath: Other than Dragons, if he sees them first, they're dead before they see him.
- Paralysis: I mostly use this for fights I'd rather avoid...
- Invisibility: Just like Calm, only now you can alternate between backstabs, and disappearing.
Gear
He don't Need equipment, but that doesn't mean you can't dress up!
"Certainly not to infiltrate you, and maybe get some Ice Wraiths' Bane... I mean, I'm just a wandering Wizard, see?" Casts Candlelight... Not like I'm going to run around in Ragged Robes, or a Loincloth the whole game. He could, but I've found that there's still a few choice items that enhance the experience, even for an ultralight Build.
I also have cover stories, and disguises for all my Assassins. It always bugged me that somebody shows up in full Shrouded Armor, the Dawnstar guard whispers "Hey, I know who you are, Hail Sithis!" then within the hour somebody pulls Betilde's body out of the Furnace. Hmmm, I wonder what happened here? Purely an Immersion thing, there's no actual in-game effect, other than a couple NPC comments.
The Shrouded Hood just looks cool. The Enchantment is redundant with no Armor noise, and Invisibility, but I find it really brings the Ensemble' together.
Master Robes of Illusion almost as a sign of Rank.
The Jester's Boots/Gloves best match the outfit. The former partially makes up for primarily using Swords instead of Assassin's Blade, while the latter save Magicka casting Muffle, or having to fill the Sneak tree up to Silence. I didn't see the point in killing Cicero for slightly more valuable versions. By that point in the story, we're about to need all the help we can get, and besides, I kind of like him!
In the background you can see another favorite for Male characters, Ulfric's Stormcloak. For female characters, I usually substitute the Mourner's Dress. Also, you can even wear Light Armor at high level without worrying about earning XP from getting hit. In addition to the Shrouded/Nightingale Ensemble (Shewn in the first two images.) there's no reason not to grab the Gauntlets of the Old Gods from Cidnha Mine (one of the quests this Build is made for.) Stacks well with Linwe's Hood to fortify Arrows, and Daggers.
Speaking of which, while he defaults to Bound Sword, a backup is nice for when this times out while you're Invisibly creeping up for a Backstab. Drawing another weapon doesn't break the spell. I prefer a Drainheart Sword, Skyforge Steel Handaxe, or Valdr's Lucky Dagger.
Followers
Jenassa is the Queen of Dual Wield, so I give her the most unfair weapon combo in the game, Windshear, and the BoW (If I'm not using them.)
Eola likes the Nightingale Blade, Blackblade, a Drainheart Sword, or Windshear, and any nice Staffs I come across, like Jyrik's, and Magnus'. A Staff of the Revenant seems to make her Raise Dead more reliably if you can find one, then ultimately Sanguines' Rose, and/or the Skull of Corruption.
He Married her, so that whenever he wants to take Jenassa for a spin, he can find her again at home. Otherwise, she has a nasty habit of disappearing whenever she's dismissed. She's also a better Endgame sideckick because she summons, resurrects, and uses Spellsword tactics in battle.
Strategy, and Tactics
Not a Tactical fighter, his default strategy is to avoid combat all together, but that gets old, or can sometimes fail even with Invisibility. For one thing, Bound Sword doesn't proc Assassin's Blade (Though you can get a Dagger version from the Dragonborn DLC) so you're not guaranteed an instakill on some of the tougher enemies. Also, when there's just too many in the area, you can run yourself out of Magicka serially backstabbing, so it helps to have some more battle Tactics for places like Karthspire.
He is capable of some light Spellswording, but take out the Archers first, because he's Unarmored, and doesn't have a lot of Health. I usually combine the Drainheart Sword with Flaming Familiar, and juggle out Paralysis, Frenzy, and Ebonyflesh for some protection. Frenzy really helps clump them together for Flaming Familiar, so that's another powerful combo, the summon also can finish the last one standing if you just hide, and watch the fight.
"Darkstep" In a word, "BAMF!" Invisibility>Whirlwind Sprint to disappear, then re-appear elsewhere, it's mostly for looks. The NPCs don't care if you're Visible, or not when you relocate, but damn it, it looks cool, and they took all the Teleportal effects out with Mysticism.
"Aport Daedra" Similarly, you can recast your Atronachs, or Dremora Lords to relocate them. Especially useful for Dremora Lords, and Frosties, which are as slow as Tanks. Fairly useless on Flaming Familiars.
In the endgame, he can also Shadowsummon, or use Necromancy to reenforce himself in battle. With Dremora lords, Frenzy, and Invisibility, he can pretty much kill entire armies undetected instead of isolated enemies one at a time. With Dead Thralls, he can prepare for a large battle, such as some found in the Civil War questline by showing up with 2 Master Vampires, and Eola. Those three will continue to resurrect up to 3 more bodies while you spellsword, or hang back with the Bound Bow to pick off important ones. Curb Stomped Miraak using this combo.
This differs from a classic Nightblade mainly in the lack of Destruction, or Light Armor. Instead, you got Conjuration, Archery, and Alteration to fill those niches. The main theme of this build is to do without Equipment, or use a little to enhance it, but even in a Loincloth, or Ragged Robes, he's almost as lethal. This means you don't have to give Malborn a thing, can go to the party with just the Clothes, Boots, and an Amulet of Talos. Cidnha Mine was not designed to hold the likes of you, but for as little as you were noticed, you might as well have never been there.
Playtested on Master, mostly to prove that you don't need Crafting to survive on that Difficulty.
Race: Altmer to cast Bound Bow, or Invisibility with a Novice Hood. Highborn also helps you power Invisibility to serially backstab large forces like in the Katariah.
Stats: All Magicka, he doesn't use Stamina too quickly for it to recover naturally, and Health isn't much of an issue when you're never seen.
Shouts: Aura Whisper, Whirlwind Sprint, Become Ethereal, and Ice Form.
Stones: The Lord, or Lady. Any of the three Guardians for training, as he uses skills from each.
Skills
- One handed: Armsman(5) Fighting Stance, Savage Strike, Dual Flurry(1) Dual Savagery.
- Archery: Overdraw(5) Eagle Eye.
- Sneak: Stealth(1) Backstab, Deadly Aim. The bare minimum for Damage Multipliers, you can fill the other branch later when the points start piling up. Shadow Warrior would just be redundant.
- Illusion: Novice-Expert, Animage, Kindred mage, Quiet Casting.
- Conjuration: Novice-Expert, Mystic Binding, Summoner. Just Bound Weapons, and Flaming Familiar to Spellsword with. Casting them so often means that you're eventually going to become a Conjurer, and gives the option of expanding to Twin Souls for Necromancy, or Summoning.
- Alteration is optional, mostly for Paralysis. Up to Expert with Magearmor(3)/Magic Resistance, and Stability.
Spells
- Bound Sword, Bow (And Dagger with Dragonborn DLC) Flaming Familiar.
- Calm is a 3 Skill Trainer, alternate between casting this, and Backstabbing for Illusion, Sneak, and 1H.
- Fury/Frenzy: combos well with Bound Sword/Flaming Familiar.
- Oak-Ebonyflesh: Cast before going all Spellsword out of boredom.
- Detect Life/Undeath: Other than Dragons, if he sees them first, they're dead before they see him.
- Paralysis: I mostly use this for fights I'd rather avoid...
- Invisibility: Just like Calm, only now you can alternate between backstabs, and disappearing.
Gear
He don't Need equipment, but that doesn't mean you can't dress up!
"Certainly not to infiltrate you, and maybe get some Ice Wraiths' Bane... I mean, I'm just a wandering Wizard, see?" Casts Candlelight... Not like I'm going to run around in Ragged Robes, or a Loincloth the whole game. He could, but I've found that there's still a few choice items that enhance the experience, even for an ultralight Build.
I also have cover stories, and disguises for all my Assassins. It always bugged me that somebody shows up in full Shrouded Armor, the Dawnstar guard whispers "Hey, I know who you are, Hail Sithis!" then within the hour somebody pulls Betilde's body out of the Furnace. Hmmm, I wonder what happened here? Purely an Immersion thing, there's no actual in-game effect, other than a couple NPC comments.
The Shrouded Hood just looks cool. The Enchantment is redundant with no Armor noise, and Invisibility, but I find it really brings the Ensemble' together.
Master Robes of Illusion almost as a sign of Rank.
The Jester's Boots/Gloves best match the outfit. The former partially makes up for primarily using Swords instead of Assassin's Blade, while the latter save Magicka casting Muffle, or having to fill the Sneak tree up to Silence. I didn't see the point in killing Cicero for slightly more valuable versions. By that point in the story, we're about to need all the help we can get, and besides, I kind of like him!
In the background you can see another favorite for Male characters, Ulfric's Stormcloak. For female characters, I usually substitute the Mourner's Dress. Also, you can even wear Light Armor at high level without worrying about earning XP from getting hit. In addition to the Shrouded/Nightingale Ensemble (Shewn in the first two images.) there's no reason not to grab the Gauntlets of the Old Gods from Cidnha Mine (one of the quests this Build is made for.) Stacks well with Linwe's Hood to fortify Arrows, and Daggers.
Speaking of which, while he defaults to Bound Sword, a backup is nice for when this times out while you're Invisibly creeping up for a Backstab. Drawing another weapon doesn't break the spell. I prefer a Drainheart Sword, Skyforge Steel Handaxe, or Valdr's Lucky Dagger.
Followers
Jenassa is the Queen of Dual Wield, so I give her the most unfair weapon combo in the game, Windshear, and the BoW (If I'm not using them.)
Eola likes the Nightingale Blade, Blackblade, a Drainheart Sword, or Windshear, and any nice Staffs I come across, like Jyrik's, and Magnus'. A Staff of the Revenant seems to make her Raise Dead more reliably if you can find one, then ultimately Sanguines' Rose, and/or the Skull of Corruption.
He Married her, so that whenever he wants to take Jenassa for a spin, he can find her again at home. Otherwise, she has a nasty habit of disappearing whenever she's dismissed. She's also a better Endgame sideckick because she summons, resurrects, and uses Spellsword tactics in battle.
Strategy, and Tactics
Not a Tactical fighter, his default strategy is to avoid combat all together, but that gets old, or can sometimes fail even with Invisibility. For one thing, Bound Sword doesn't proc Assassin's Blade (Though you can get a Dagger version from the Dragonborn DLC) so you're not guaranteed an instakill on some of the tougher enemies. Also, when there's just too many in the area, you can run yourself out of Magicka serially backstabbing, so it helps to have some more battle Tactics for places like Karthspire.
He is capable of some light Spellswording, but take out the Archers first, because he's Unarmored, and doesn't have a lot of Health. I usually combine the Drainheart Sword with Flaming Familiar, and juggle out Paralysis, Frenzy, and Ebonyflesh for some protection. Frenzy really helps clump them together for Flaming Familiar, so that's another powerful combo, the summon also can finish the last one standing if you just hide, and watch the fight.
"Darkstep" In a word, "BAMF!" Invisibility>Whirlwind Sprint to disappear, then re-appear elsewhere, it's mostly for looks. The NPCs don't care if you're Visible, or not when you relocate, but damn it, it looks cool, and they took all the Teleportal effects out with Mysticism.
"Aport Daedra" Similarly, you can recast your Atronachs, or Dremora Lords to relocate them. Especially useful for Dremora Lords, and Frosties, which are as slow as Tanks. Fairly useless on Flaming Familiars.
In the endgame, he can also Shadowsummon, or use Necromancy to reenforce himself in battle. With Dremora lords, Frenzy, and Invisibility, he can pretty much kill entire armies undetected instead of isolated enemies one at a time. With Dead Thralls, he can prepare for a large battle, such as some found in the Civil War questline by showing up with 2 Master Vampires, and Eola. Those three will continue to resurrect up to 3 more bodies while you spellsword, or hang back with the Bound Bow to pick off important ones. Curb Stomped Miraak using this combo.
