I really like the Morag Tong Armor set that the Dragonborn DLC gives you, but it has one problem: its armor rating is rather low for a light armor set, especially during the end-game. How do you make sure that low AR on the armor isn't a problem? Simple, you don't get hit.
But I wasn't interested in just playing a regular sneaking character who lurks from the shadows and one-hit kills everything in sight. I rather wanted to make sure I was in the midst of all the battles and forced myself to get creative during combat. The result is a quick-paced character that relies heavily on illusion, conjuration and the ocassional poison to create true chaos on the battlefield, yet come out of the fight without a single scratch. I present to you:
The Morag Tong Agent
Build:
An aspiring assassin from birth, your childhood was spent training in order to become a part of the ancient Morag Tong order. However, when you finally had the chance to join the order the Argonians attacked and Vvardenfell was sacked. The order was forever weakened, its grasp on Morrowind slowly diminishing. But you wouldn't stand for it. Ancient traditions just couldn't be erased like that. With what little money you had saved together you paid a smuggler to get you into Solstheim, but the petty thief who was supposed to aid you decided to abandon you at Skyrim and ran away with your hard-earned gold in his hands. It was then that you learned your first lesson as an assassin: always be a professional when fulfilling contracts.
Race: Dunmer: The Morag Tong has always had a foothold in Morrowind, land of the Dunmer. But the race also gets a bonus to four of the six skills you'll be using. It's also the best race if you want to become a vampire and join the Volkihar Questline.
Stone: First the Lover stone, after that the Lady stone for the Stamina Regeneration.
Essential Quests:
- Main questline until Miraak's Cultists attack you. After that you can choose to save the world from an ancient prophecy or not.
- Served Cold in order to get your Morag Tong armor. You can also do the quests around Solstheim in order to rebuild your proud Dunmer community.
- Dark Brotherhood. Yes, you did just read that correctly. The Morag Tong order is all but extinct except for a few people wandering around Solstheim and the Dark Brotherhood once used to be part of the Morag Tong. It's your intention to bring the two groups back together.
- Thieves Guild: Assassins and thieves have always been allies. As a lone assassin hoping to rebuild the Morag Tong you need all the allies and money you can get.
- Volkihar questline: you don't have to do this questline if you don't want to, but Dunmer assassins make for great vampires. Don't see it as serving a crazy vampire who wants to plunge the world in darkness, see it as you making sure that your job will become that much easier to do when the sunlight can't betray your presence.
Stat distribution: 1 Magicka/Health/Stamina until you get 250 Magicka, then 1 Health/Stamina.
Shouts: Aura Whisper, Disarm, Slow Time and Throw Voice
Gear: Blades Sword, the Morag Tong armor set along with Rings and Amulets with either Fortify Illusion/Conjuration or Magicka enchantments..
Major Skills:
What assassin doesn't know how to wield a blade? The main thing you'll want to focus on is getting Critical Charge. The point of this build is to constantly keep moving, so you don't need Savage Strike.
The skill that will allow you to prepare for the coming battle. Get everything in the left side of the tree except for Shadow Warrior. On the right side of the tree you only need Backstab as you'll be using a sword.
The skill that will allow you to control the battlefield and keep your enemies off you. I tend to stick with Frenzy and Calm spells, but Fear can be handy to get rid of the bandit chief when you take care of his minions.
When all else fails you'll still have access to your poisons to keep your foes away. The Paralysis poison will stop any foe in his tracks and with the slow poison no would-be assassin would ever hope to touch you.
Minor Skills:
Conjuration and Illusion combined allows for great crowd control. It gets a lot tougher for your enemies to attack you when a huge icy tank stands between the two of you.
The main purpose of this skill is not to defend yourself from the ocassional blow you will receive, but to increase your moving speed and chance to avoid attacks. Unhindered and Deft Movement are the perks to go for.
Perks: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#373470
Poisons:
Paralysis Poison:
Ingredients: Imp Stool and Canis Root
A simple poison intended for a simple purpose: to turn your enemies into helpless toddlers. This will be your main poison to use during combat
Super Variant: Imp Stool, Human Flesh and Mora Tapinella
These three ingredients will turn your average paralysis poison into a crippling venom by adding extra Damage Health and Lingering Damage Health effects.
One negative side-effect of the super variant is that it also restores magicka. So be careful with this poison or get the Purity perk.
Slow Poison:
Ingredients: Death Bell and Salt Pile
Your reserve poison in case you'll run out of Paralysis poisons (and trust me, you will). This poison will make sure you have an edge in movement and that your foes won't be able to touch you.
Super Variant: Death Bell, River Betty and Thistle Branch
These three ingredients will give your poison some extra bite by damaging Health and Stamina along with movement.
Gameplay:
The point of this build is to not get hit by your enemies without hiding from them the entire time.
There are two parts to how your average battle should go. You should start by sneaking and scouting to see how many foes are in the room or cave and figuring out where they are. Aura Whisper is a wonderful shout for this feature alone and should save you some time.
When you know how many foes you're dealing with you should start the battle by casting a fury spell at the strongest foe around, usually a bandit chief. Come out of stealth and summon an atronach in order to create even more chaos on the battlefield. Look for foes who are turned away from you and attack them in the back like the assassin you are. Use Power attacks to stagger them if they turn their attention on you and summon more attronachs when necessary.
After the effects of the fury spell has ended (or after the foe you cast it on has been slain by its former allies) there should only be a hand few enemies left who'll focus most of their attention at you. It's at this point that you'll want to bring out your poisons in order to paralyze or slow them down. Slay them with your sword while they're lying helplessly on the ground or while you're dancing around them.
During combat you'll want to run around as much as possible and make sure your foes stay on their feet as well. Don't stand still for a second and use your environment to your advantage. If you spot some trees or rocks you can use to annoy your foes or block from their power attack, make sure those poor fools wish they had never decided to chase you down. This is very quick-paced combat, but that's exactly why I loved it. Sneaking gets boring after a while, but this sort of combined form of sneak and combat will keep you entertained for hours to come.
Credits:
- Elder Scrolls Wikia and Uesp for providing many of the pictures and for the lore pages I've used to create this build.
- TheMinttu for the Dunmer picture in the Gameplay section. Here's the link to the Deviantart page: http://theminttu.deviantart.com/art/Dunmer-assassin-354503201
- Bethesda for creating the game and the Morag Tong. Without them I wouldn't be able to create this build.
I really like the Morag Tong Armor set that the Dragonborn DLC gives you, but it has one problem: its armor rating is rather low for a light armor set, especially during the end-game. How do you make sure that low AR on the armor isn't a problem? Simple, you don't get hit.
But I wasn't interested in just playing a regular sneaking character who lurks from the shadows and one-hit kills everything in sight. I rather wanted to make sure I was in the midst of all the battles and forced myself to get creative during combat. The result is a quick-paced character that relies heavily on illusion, conjuration and the ocassional poison to create true chaos on the battlefield, yet come out of the fight without a single scratch. I present to you:
The Morag Tong Agent
Build:
An aspiring assassin from birth, your childhood was spent training in order to become a part of the ancient Morag Tong order. However, when you finally had the chance to join the order the Argonians attacked and Vvardenfell was sacked. The order was forever weakened, its grasp on Morrowind slowly diminishing. But you wouldn't stand for it. Ancient traditions just couldn't be erased like that. With what little money you had saved together you paid a smuggler to get you into Solstheim, but the petty thief who was supposed to aid you decided to abandon you at Skyrim and ran away with your hard-earned gold in his hands. It was then that you learned your first lesson as an assassin: always be a professional when fulfilling contracts.
Race: Dunmer: The Morag Tong has always had a foothold in Morrowind, land of the Dunmer. But the race also gets a bonus to four of the six skills you'll be using. It's also the best race if you want to become a vampire and join the Volkihar Questline.
Stone: First the Lover stone, after that the Lady stone for the Stamina Regeneration.
Essential Quests:
- Main questline until Miraak's Cultists attack you. After that you can choose to save the world from an ancient prophecy or not.
- Served Cold in order to get your Morag Tong armor. You can also do the quests around Solstheim in order to rebuild your proud Dunmer community.
- Dark Brotherhood. Yes, you did just read that correctly. The Morag Tong order is all but extinct except for a few people wandering around Solstheim and the Dark Brotherhood once used to be part of the Morag Tong. It's your intention to bring the two groups back together.
- Thieves Guild: Assassins and thieves have always been allies. As a lone assassin hoping to rebuild the Morag Tong you need all the allies and money you can get.
- Volkihar questline: you don't have to do this questline if you don't want to, but Dunmer assassins make for great vampires. Don't see it as serving a crazy vampire who wants to plunge the world in darkness, see it as you making sure that your job will become that much easier to do when the sunlight can't betray your presence.
Stat distribution: 1 Magicka/Health/Stamina until you get 250 Magicka, then 1 Health/Stamina.
Shouts: Aura Whisper, Disarm, Slow Time and Throw Voice
Gear: Blades Sword, the Morag Tong armor set along with Rings and Amulets with either Fortify Illusion/Conjuration or Magicka enchantments..
Major Skills:
What assassin doesn't know how to wield a blade? The main thing you'll want to focus on is getting Critical Charge. The point of this build is to constantly keep moving, so you don't need Savage Strike.
The skill that will allow you to prepare for the coming battle. Get everything in the left side of the tree except for Shadow Warrior. On the right side of the tree you only need Backstab as you'll be using a sword.
The skill that will allow you to control the battlefield and keep your enemies off you. I tend to stick with Frenzy and Calm spells, but Fear can be handy to get rid of the bandit chief when you take care of his minions.
When all else fails you'll still have access to your poisons to keep your foes away. The Paralysis poison will stop any foe in his tracks and with the slow poison no would-be assassin would ever hope to touch you.
Minor Skills:
Conjuration and Illusion combined allows for great crowd control. It gets a lot tougher for your enemies to attack you when a huge icy tank stands between the two of you.
The main purpose of this skill is not to defend yourself from the ocassional blow you will receive, but to increase your moving speed and chance to avoid attacks. Unhindered and Deft Movement are the perks to go for.
Perks: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#373470
Poisons:
Paralysis Poison:
Ingredients: Imp Stool and Canis Root
A simple poison intended for a simple purpose: to turn your enemies into helpless toddlers. This will be your main poison to use during combat
Super Variant: Imp Stool, Human Flesh and Mora Tapinella
These three ingredients will turn your average paralysis poison into a crippling venom by adding extra Damage Health and Lingering Damage Health effects.
One negative side-effect of the super variant is that it also restores magicka. So be careful with this poison or get the Purity perk.
Slow Poison:
Ingredients: Death Bell and Salt Pile
Your reserve poison in case you'll run out of Paralysis poisons (and trust me, you will). This poison will make sure you have an edge in movement and that your foes won't be able to touch you.
Super Variant: Death Bell, River Betty and Thistle Branch
These three ingredients will give your poison some extra bite by damaging Health and Stamina along with movement.
Gameplay:
The point of this build is to not get hit by your enemies without hiding from them the entire time.
There are two parts to how your average battle should go. You should start by sneaking and scouting to see how many foes are in the room or cave and figuring out where they are. Aura Whisper is a wonderful shout for this feature alone and should save you some time.
When you know how many foes you're dealing with you should start the battle by casting a fury spell at the strongest foe around, usually a bandit chief. Come out of stealth and summon an atronach in order to create even more chaos on the battlefield. Look for foes who are turned away from you and attack them in the back like the assassin you are. Use Power attacks to stagger them if they turn their attention on you and summon more attronachs when necessary.
After the effects of the fury spell has ended (or after the foe you cast it on has been slain by its former allies) there should only be a hand few enemies left who'll focus most of their attention at you. It's at this point that you'll want to bring out your poisons in order to paralyze or slow them down. Slay them with your sword while they're lying helplessly on the ground or while you're dancing around them.
During combat you'll want to run around as much as possible and make sure your foes stay on their feet as well. Don't stand still for a second and use your environment to your advantage. If you spot some trees or rocks you can use to annoy your foes or block from their power attack, make sure those poor fools wish they had never decided to chase you down. This is very quick-paced combat, but that's exactly why I loved it. Sneaking gets boring after a while, but this sort of combined form of sneak and combat will keep you entertained for hours to come.
Credits:
- Elder Scrolls Wikia and Uesp for providing many of the pictures and for the lore pages I've used to create this build.
- TheMinttu for the Dunmer picture in the Gameplay section. Here's the link to the Deviantart page: http://theminttu.deviantart.com/art/Dunmer-assassin-354503201
- Bethesda for creating the game and the Morag Tong. Without them I wouldn't be able to create this build.
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