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Character Build: Ancient Falmer

Tags: #Character Build Archer  #Character Build Knight  #Character Build Enchanter  #Race:Dunmer  #Rank:Recognized 
  • Member
    December 31, 2014

    Character Build: Ancient Falmer

    (spoilers ahead)(level 50 build (give or take 1-2 levels with preference))

    Introduction

    Skyrim, once the home of you and your ancestors. The land is cold and harsh and the race that populates this land are even more so. The land is now a far cry away from its former glory, but great adventure and riches still wait in the depths of its dungeons.

    The build mainly focuses archery/one handed and shield (depending on preference) and uses enchanting to give it a nice destruction back-up. The archery side will be using sneak as well and the one handed side will replace the sneak skill with block. Smithing will also be levelled up as you might not be using the best possible equipment for your level.

    This is a build that is hard to do due to there being no actual Ancient Falmer race as well as parts of the companions quest line and the main story line being particularly un-roleplaying friendly e.g. when you meet Ysgramor in Sovngarde and getting Wuuthrad during the companions. But with all the mystery and betrayal shrouding this race, its un-resistible to do a build and play through. I have played through this build all the way through to level 84 and enjoyed it all the way.

     

    Lore

    The Ancient Falmer once inhabited Skyrim during the Merethic era until Nords came across form Atmora, and tensions grew between the two races. An attack by the Ancient Falmer destroyed Saarthal. It was known as the infamous "Night of Tears" event. This raid on Saarthal killed off all humans bar Ysgramor and his two sons, Yngol and Ylgar. After this event, Ysgimor went back to Atmora and returned with 500 companions; with the intentions of killing off the Ancient Falmer. The conflict may have been related to the rapidly increasing Nord population and a struggle for control over territory and resources.

    Ysgimor and his 500 companions marched across skyrim. The Ancient Falmer lost countless battles against them. The Ancient Falmer were broken and scattered and retreated to the island of Solstheim. Under the leadership of an Ancient Falmer known as the Snow Prince, the Ancient Falmer prepared a final stand against the Nords. The Snow Prince was slain by an 8 year old girl, the Ancient Falmer scattered and the battle was lost. The battle was known as The Battle of the Moesring, and was the final battle for the Ancient Falmer against the Nords.

    The Ancient Falmer went to the Dwemer for refuge but the deal that was struck between them had a high price for the Ancient Falmer. They were to ingest a toxic fungus that would turn them blind and into the slaves of Dwemer. Overtime these Ancient Falmer turned into the Falmer we see today, vile and twisted. Other Ancient Falmer sought after different solutions but many were killed, just vanished or submitted to the Dwemer's demands.

     

     

    Roleplaying

    Roleplaying is mainly up to you, you can choose whether to join the companions or avoid them and to hate nords or not. If you do join the companions I suggested 'destroying' wuuthrad in a dramatic way (I threw Wuuthrad in to the lava at the Aetherium Forge). The Dawngaurd quest line is a must as you need it to get the Ancient Falmer armor as well as Auri-Els bow/shield. The thieves guild quest line is also a must, to get Chillrend, but there is a way to get Chillrend early using whirlwind sprint to gain access to the house early. All the other quest lines are fine to go on. You should worship Auri-El (Akatosh). When in Dwemer ruins or in a dungeon, try to avoid killing the Falmer in there, as they are your relatives.

    (if you think of anything else, leave a comment and I will probably add/change it)

     

    Race

    For the race, I choose Dunmer, as you can change the skin tone to white(ish) and the hair to white to get an Ancient Falmer look but its ability doesn't suit the build as well as its 50% resistance to fire, as Ancient Falmer are meant to be more susceptible to fire. Altmer seem to be a popular choice as well with its high born ability and its 50 extra magika, it helps fit the build we'll. If you have a computer, you could install a race mod to give you the Ancient Falmer race.

     

     

     

     

     

    Equipment

    Ancient Falmer armor is the main armor you'll be using. Either a silver sapphire circlet will be worn with it or if on computer you can use console commands to get the actual Ancient Falmer crown (make sure you complete enchanting skill tree before you enchant). Have fortify destruction enchant on 4 of the 5 listed: necklace, ring, circlet, gauntlets and cuirass. With the extra effect perk taken, the rest of the enchants are up to you. Fortify archery is suggested if you take the archery side and Fortify one-handed, fortify block, fortify heavy armor (due to Auri-El's shield being heavy armor but I don't know if thh enchant makes a noticable difference) for the one-handed and block side.

    Auri-Els bow goes with the armor nicely, but after you get enchanting to 100 I would suggest upgrading to a glass bow and enchanting it yourself with Frost damage and another enchant of you preference. Auri-Els sheild block and you should upgrade to a glass sword withd and Chillrend will be for your one-handed an frost and an enchant of your preference.

    I would suggest Azura's black star to help with keeping your weapon enchant full, so a weapon with soul trap will be useful.

     

    Focus Skills

    Archery - This should be your main offence. I suggest all perks should be taken apart from Bullseye and the other two critical shots. This will require 13 perk points and level 90 archery.

    Sneak - This will pair up with archery to give you a nice bonus sneaking and will help you in the roleplaying aspect of not killing Falmer. I suggest all perks should be taken apart from Assassin's blade and shadow warrior. This will require 11 perks points and level 80 sneak.

    or

    One Handed - This should be your main offence if you are not going down the archery side. I suggest taking all of armsman and bladesman, and taking fighting stance, critical charge and savage strike. This will require 11 perk points and level 90 one-handed.

    Block - This will replace sneak and will pair with one-handed to make your build more of a tank. I suggest taking every perk on the tree with quick reflexes being optional (I personally don't like it). This will require 12-13 perk points and level 100 block.

    as well as

    Enchanting - This will go with either side you choose. Enchanting will be used to upgrade your equipment and once at 100 will let you start you destruction tree by giving you unlimited spell casting capabilities. I suggest taking every perk apart from soul squeezer and soul siphon. This will require 11 perk points and level 100 enchanting.

    Lesser Skills

    Light Armor - This is for your Ancient Falmer armor you're wearing but since its not a full set of light armor you only need the agile defender perks. This requires 5 perk points and level 80 light armor.

    Smithing - This is to increase your armor rating and damage output on weapons. I suggest taking steal smithing, elven smithing, advance armors, glass smithing and arcane blacksmith. Go up to glass smithing due to glass weapons being your final main weapons. This requires 5 perk points and level 100 smithing to get the best upgrade.

    Destruction - This is a secondary offence or it could turn into your primary offence but you need enchanting to 100 before you start levelling this up, to give you unlimited spell casting. Try to only use frost magic but in certain cases when an enemy is immune to this, use shock magic. This is because falmer use frost and shock magic. I suggest taking novice destruction, both augmented frost, deep freeze, destruction dual casting and impact. This will require 6 perk points and level 60 destruction.

     

    Abilities

    If the ability has been used before, let me know and I'll give credit where due.

    Undefended Shot - requires: whirlwind cloak and slow time

    This only works on a large group of enemies. For this you cast your whirlwindcloak and call forth the storm of your homeland then slowtime and bolt through the middle of all your enemies, ripping them from there feetinto the air, then turn around and glance at the beautiful landscape of immobilized bodies flying through the air. Use this chance to attack them. If you manage to kill the enemies before the shout ends and before they hit the ground, you will earn bonus badass points. Just to note, some of the enemies might not be thrown into the air and other enemies you might miss with the affect radius of the cloak. (I will be using this combonation in many up coming build(s))

     

    Other Information

    Stone: Either Lord stone, lady's stone or steed stone depending on preference and mages stone and warriors stone when getting your enchanting and smithing to level 100.

    Stats Distribution: Get magica to 150 if you choose a dark elf as your race otherwise split it evenly between health and stamina

    Shouts: Frost breath and ice form should be your most used but any shout can be used apart from firebreath, call valour and cyclone (and maybe storm call but storm call is to badass not to use) as they don't really fit in with the roleplaying aspect.

    (sorry about the bad quality, the picture was taken from my phone; this is what I ment

    by the light skin tone, and white hair for the dark elf)

     

    Gameplay

    With both sides, I suggest getting up to 'diplomatic immunity' in the main quest and getting some fancy elven (maybe light) armor. For the archer, if you are confident in your lock picking abilities, go to Jorrvaskr and head for Aela's room and there will be an expert lock guarding an elven bow and a skill book. The great thing about this is that you can obtain this bow as soon as possible. For the one-handed there is an elven sword to be obtained in a display case with a master level lock, in the Jarls quarters in Dragonsreach. You may need a few lock picks for this. If your a bit more patient you can obtain an elven sword and elven bow from a body on Solstheim, east of Raven Rock, on a small farm.

    Use sneak to aid your archery and give nice bonuses on unsuspecting target. With the archery path, I suggest doing the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood first to help level up your sneak. The shield is useful for healing in the middle of combat as well as preparing other things, or getting in to close combat with long rage targets. I suggest the Companions quest line or the main quest line for starting as your block skill will become increasingly important. 

    The mage option is more of a late game option to take as it requires level 100 enchanting.Frost spells should be your main offence, using icy spear and frost cloak and runes. If going mage route then use shock when dealing with enemy's immune to frost damage and consider the augmented shock perks (at the expense of other perks of course). For enchanting and smithing, I suggest getting a weapon with soul trap and going on a hunting mission. Soul Cairn is the perfect place to collect empty soul gems. Also collect dwarven ingots and iron ingots to craft dwarven bows, if you want to get to 100 smithing faster, this will require dwarven smithing perk, but this can later be removed at the end of the dragonborn dlc. You then start crafting leather bracers and dwarven bows until level 100 smithing is achieved, then with the the bracers and bows, enchant them with the filled soul gems you have collected.

    Once your level 50(ish) you set up frost runes and frost cloaks before heading in to battle if you have taken the one-handed side so when you are blocking the enemy attack, the enemy is still taking damage, this will only be necessary for the archer if there's a lot of enemy's or there is time to prepare and then this will only affect the enemies if they get to close. That would also be the perfect time to use ice form, to stop there advance. If you choose archer and you're on the higher ground in a dungeon, there's usually only one route to get up reach you, this is the best place to lay down a frost rune, and is a good choke point to attack if being overwhelmed. If going mage route then use shock when dealing with enemy's immune to frost damage and consider the augmented shock perks.

     

    Conclusion

    This build is fun and easy to do (unless playing on legendary, then no matter what your going to get wrecked) with appropriate challenges the further you play into it. This is my first character build, so constructive criticism is appreciated. I don't how many other people have posted the same character build and how similar mine is to theirs, but I hope there is some uniqueness to my build. Images all came from google images apart from the second to last one. Skyrim wiki helped with the lore section and thank you Noodles for the template. (I know the gameplay scetions crap, I've been playing this for so long, I couldn't remember how I played it at the start to well)

  • Member
    December 31, 2014

    Hehe, and some people asked me why do we need a character build template.  Good job on your first build, Tobias! You have some minor writing errors like "This will pair up with archery to give you a nice bonus will sneaking and will help you in the roleplaying aspect of not killing Falmer.", but it's not that bad! You could go in the Art Group and ask Morta to make you some fine screenshots. That's about all I have to say. Well done! 

  • Member
    December 31, 2014

    thanks. i didnt notice that mistake, thanks for that as well:)

  • Member
    December 31, 2014

    This is an impressive first build, well done! There is are other Falmer builds on the site, but this one has more than enough differences to separate itself.

  • Member
    December 31, 2014
    Nice job on your first build, Tobias! Looks like a fun character!