Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Friar

Tags: #Rank:Recognized  #Shield  #Monk  #Unarmed  #Adventure 
  • Member
    March 22, 2014

    My Journal

    4E 201 Morning Star 1: 

    Being friar has never been so tough. I am constantly challenged with this new law that that Thalmor have put into action; all worshipers of Talos must be arrested, our shrines desecrated, the statues torn down. But I must not stop, my work is vital to ensure that the worship of our lord Talos lives on in the generations to come. I must not abandon hope, he will save us.

    4E 201 First Seed 17:

    My friend and brother in Talos, Friar Jenor, was taken by the Thalmor. He was such a peaceful fellow, why must we fight over the right to worship. If only Talos was here to guide us in these troubled times.

    4E 201 Rain's Hand 6:

    War has broken out among the land. A rebellion know was the Stormcloacks are fighting back against the Empire, brothers turning on brothers. Murderers in the streets. No where is safe now, we must all bear together if we are to live to see the morning.

    4E 201 Mid Year 23:

    They are here, they are looking for it. I must not let them find it, it is precious to me. I need it to continue my work, I must hid it from them. The Thalmor are searching ever house, ever monastery.... They know I have it. The last shard of Barenziah I do not know why they need it but I must keep it safe. If they had the power the crown contains, who knows what evil they could do with that kinda of wealth. 

    4E 201Frostfall 1:

    It has been 10 months since they set foot on our soil. This has been a trying time indeed. We must stay strong my fellow Friars and Abbots. Do not let the power of the Thalmor overcome the power of Talos. He is greater then them.

    4E 201 Frostfall 5: 

    They are hear. I fear I may not have much time left. They are in the monastery. They know it is here and they are not going to leave with out it. But I can not part from it, it as grown.... precious to me. Why should I let them take it, I can use it for me...... I mean Talos. This gem is messing with my mind. I must not let it take control. I fear I must flea now before they find me. Pray for me my fellow friars, this may well be the last time you hear of Friar Bran. My Talos guide you.

     

    The Build:

    Race: Any race will do, I choose Nord because of their background of Worshiping Talos. But you can even play as a Khajiit who converted as a young cub.

    Stone: I choose to use the lord stone because of the protection it gives you. But the Lady stone will also work well

    Stats: 3 in health, 2 in magicka, and 1 in stamina.

    Shouts:  As far as shouts go, I choose not to use shouts. My personal opinion is that the shouts are too overpowered, and that they should only be used in a build that is meant to be a powerful warrior, or a fearful wizard, not in a common role play build.

    Major Skills: Alteration, Restoration, Heavy Armor, Block

    Minor Skills: Alchemy, Illusion, Speech

     

    Equipment: 

    Head: Fine hat, or any other hat that is common. But no armor, except for maybe a fur helmet. I enjoy playing with alteration and no armor. There are so many choices of clothing in Skyrim and I don't think that all of us realize that Bethesda put them in the game for our enjoyment. And hats are just naturally cool

    Chest: Monks Robes, if you do not want to wear a hat then get the Hooded Monks Robes. You can choose to wear Mage Robes, but I think that defeats the purpose of being a monk and wearing monk clothing. You don't see a monk walking around in Dragon Bone armor.

    Hands: Elvish Gloves, Glass Gloves, Iron Gloves, Steel Gloves, just about any heavy armor gloves will do, I chose to use the Steel Gloves, because they look the part and are not to fancy. You are a friar after all not a rich tax collector.

    Feet:  A nice pair of Fine boots will suit the build, but if you wanted to you could also use steel boots. Your choice really, I prefer the Fine Boots. Boots are a very interesting thing in Skyrim. You can choose from your choice of boots but I suggest using the fine boots because I think they look well on Friar Bran.

     

    Weapons: The only weapons you will be using are your fists. Of course you will be wearing gloves so that you won't damage your delegate knuckles. But you will also have something that you probably would not expect to find in this build. You will have a steel shield. The reason behind this is because I feel like when we play an unarmed build we tend to focus on running around and dodging blows. I have never seen an unarmed build that uses a shield so I wanted to be the first. I feel like it will spice combat up a bit. If you don't like the way it feels, feel free to change it around a bit, if you want you can even get rid of the gloves and use a bow or crossbow.

     

    Gameplay:

     

    Roleplay: 

     

    There are many ways to role play this build. Many paths to take, each can take his own, or can follow in the footsteps of others. I chose to play Friar Bran as a traveling monk, who is on the run from the Thalmor and the Empire. He will want to lay low for as long as possible, trying not to detect unwanted attention. He is very found of the drink, mostly mead but wine will also sooth his appetite. He loves to travel around the area of Markarth and Solitude, but the northern lands of Morthal are also so beautiful in First Seed, along with his home land of Riften. Bran is a pacifist, he hates to fight others. He would rather confuse them with an illusion spell then fight them hand to hand. When Bran was friar at the Saint Mary's Monastery, he had asked brother William if he would teach him about the arts of potion making. He had quite the skill in learning fast, Bran was an expert mixer by the fourth night. Bran is not a woodsman, but he prefers to walk in the wilderness then on a set path. He feels closer to his god and maker; Talos, when is can walk in His creation. So feel free to explore the caves and wilderness of the vast expanse to Tamriel. Your main goal is to find the remaining 23 Stones of Barenziah that the Thalmor have scattered across Skyrim in hope to keep them safe until they find the last shard, the shard that Friar Bran keeps in is possession.  He will stop at nothing until all 23 are safe in his possession. Friar Bran grew up in Riften, this is the area to start exploring. Even though Bran has explored this area before, there are places that he dare not go. But now him being on the run and all, he thinks that the places humans want to go less, the safer he will be from the ever watchful eye of the Empire.

     

    Combat:


    Like I said in the section above, Friar Bran does not like to fight. This build focuses on not fighting, yes it will be challenging, but what is a little fun without a challenge. I want you to focus more on the content of the build then the combat of the build. I feel like to many of use spend our time thinking where that next Word Wall is, or when will I meet someone that it takes more then two arrows from my deadric bow to kill. I want to spend more time on exploring Skyrim. So in short, don't worry about the combat. I know I will probably get some complaints from people about not having a lot in the combat section. But that is OK by me. But when you do fight someone for some reason, this is how its gonna go down. First you are gonna look around, analyse your environment, see
     what you can use to your advantage. When you have done this, you are ready to face your opponent. You rush in, feeling the dull thud as your shield makes contact with their face. And again you smash them, this time making sure they are wounded, then use your superior knowledge of hand to hand combat, you take you foe down with a couple of well placed jabs to stomach and neck, ensuring that death with follow. There is not a whole lot involved with combat in an un-armed build.

     

     

    Quests:

    1.) Bards Collage 

    -The Reason you would want to do that Bards Collage Quest Line is because the quests them selves send you on adventures, and Friar Bran is a traveling prophet of Talos, he loves a good adventure and the opportunity to bask in Talos' wonderful creation.

    2.) No Stone Un-turned

    - The Shard of Barenziah is precious to you, you will stop at nothing until you have all twenty four of these Stones. Then you can complete your studies.

    Final Thoughts:

    Thank you all for checking out this build, I do appreciate it. I would love feed back from all the people out there. And not to bring up suspicion, I do have a lot of free time on my hands, since I am home schooled, so I play a lot of skyrim, I mean A LOT. Well anyways, hope you guys enjoyed my build. I will be publishing another build in maybe two weeks time. If you like my builds could you please say so in the comments so I know someone actually enjoys what I make. We all like to know when people like the things we do. Thank you so much. And for all the people involved in the ESO Imperial Edition Give Away, GOOD LUCK!!

  • March 22, 2014

    I actually started a fist and shield character last night named Captain Atmora.  I like what you've done with this guy. It's a shame Skyrim doesn't allow fat boys:) I'm curious about the gem you mentioned in your back story. I sounds like it could be a corrupting influence on him.

  • Member
    March 22, 2014
    You need to take more time with your build. It has many spelling and grammar errors. You should take your creativity from all the back story and put it into your build.
  • Member
    March 22, 2014

    Thanks mate, and yes it is a shame. But I think there is a mod out there that allows you to change things like the weight and height. 

  • March 22, 2014
    This is fairly good. It's a nice little twist on the Monk play style and I like the backstory a lot. Roleplay wise their isn't really much there and you could use the Stones of Barenziah as something that would make this stand out just that little but more. Your layout is good but you might want to shift some of the pictures around, when I look at it they seem to keep pushing the text around making it a little harder to read and they just seem awkwardly placed. But still good work and +1 from me.
  • Member
    March 22, 2014

    Sweet thank you

    I plan on editing this build later today. You can have a look at it then and tell me if you like it

  • March 22, 2014
    Will do mate.
  • Member
    March 23, 2014

    Just fixed the build up, Hope you all like it, if you do please tell me so in the comments. If you want me to make a build on a certain character idea I would love too. Just PM me if you want me too. 

  • Member
    April 27, 2014

    I gave it a like, but i must say i have mixed feelings about the build as it stands. So here comes something positive, something negative, and some suggestions. I will try to be as constructive as possible. I'll also say that these are my personal opinions, and not necesarily something you should change.

    - First off, the build have a really unique feel to it in the sense of a focused search for the stones of barenziah coupled with a pacifist view. I like that alot. The skillset seems to work well also, and the bottom line is this is something I could enjoy playing. So I already gave it a +1.

    - The problem for me is when talos becomes the one creator God, and your priory is devoted to st.mary. It just doesn't make sense lore wise. This breaks immersion for me. Another point would be a pacifist cult of Talos. It's just a contradiction I can't seem to get my head around. What might work for me personally, is changing the race to imperial as they are slightly more diplomatic. And you get the added bonus of crowd control with imperial voice.

    Some suggestions and potential ideas:

    - The journal is a good read, but have some spelling mistakes. A slight correction there would make it easier to read the story i think.

    - This one being an expert mixer, I would love to see some of the potions used and the ingredients. I think for example invisibility potions would be a nice fit for him to sneak around more difficult enemies. With restoration used, and no weapon to poison, im not sure i see exactly what kind of potions would be useful for him really. Fortify alteration and illusion maybe?

    - You say you would confuse your enemies with spells rather than kill them, but how about some details? How does he control crowds? Does he use calm mostly, or fury and fear. (I would think calm is the best fit). Does he use alteration to paralyze? An idea might be to change race to imperial for the racial bonus of imperial voice.

    - Shouts: I know you said you didn't like shouts, but I can think of a couple at least which might fit. Kynes peace for example would keep you from killing animals all the time.

    - I have said it in another build and i'll say it here, i don't much care for too much choices. Like when you say this is an unarmed build with a shield, I think you should stick with it and not write right after that if you don't like it get a bow. In my opinion it would focus the build more. If i gave him a bow, it would change the build quite a bit in my mind.

    Again, these are my opinions and thoughts, and I really like the idea of an unarmored monk type on a focused search for the stones of barenziah. I'm also curious how the corruption plays out :)

    Good luck in the deathmatch, and i hope you make it out of the bloodworks!

     

  • Member
    April 28, 2014
    This is a really cool unique build! I've thought about doing unarmed with a shield but I could never execute it quite right. One note though, like Tolveor said the journal is really cool but there were a few spelling blurbs but other than that it was really cool. Keep up the great work!