The Avenger of Windhelm
With sword and spell, or warhammer in hand, your foes fall by the wayside in waves, just as they did for your father in the Great War. After the death of the old Jarl of Windhelm, you made it your purpose to serve his son Ulfric every bit as honorably and fiercely as your father did for his.
Backstory:
My father served with the Bear of Eastmarch in the Great War, so naturally It was my honor to join the militia as soon as I was of age. The retaking of Markarth was the first REAL assignment I was sent on, and what a bloody mess it turned out to be. Heroes of the war, retakers of the Reach, and how are we repaid for our loyalty to the empire? Imprisoned by their Elven overseers. I don’t doubt for a moment that my father’s imprisonment had little to do with Talos worship and more to do with his involvement in retaking Cyrodiil, but go visit his tomb and ask him how much that matters now. Well, my duty is more clear now than ever before. There is a fire burning inside me that I feel few men will truly understand. Skyrim will never be out from under the thumb of the Thalmor until we free ourselves from the empire completely.
Skills
(Note: this character really requires the Dragonborn DLC at the very least)
Destruction (major) - Fire is one of the most useful things ever. It can help keep you warm on a cold night, or set fire to that draugr coming at you in the dark. I struggled whether you call this a major or minor skill, but I felt that regardless of the number of perks it has, it's integral to your build, so that really sells it as major to me.
Enchanting (major)- Spending time at the College has given you a true appreciation for the craft of enchanting. You will spend a solid amount of time (and money) learning how to perfect this skill.
Heavy Armor (major) - Naturally, heavy armor is your main line of defense, and you'll want this filled at least up to Tower of Strength.
Two-handed AND One-handed - You trained with all manner of weaponry from an early age. One of these will be a major skill and one will be a minor skill. The minor skill will simply take the 5 damage increasing skills, where the major will include the power attack reduction, the decapitation perk, critical charge, and the weapon specific perks (skullcrusher or bladesman).
Restoration (minor) - No warrior worth his salt doesn't know at least some basic field first aid. Your skill in magic helps you expound upon this, allowing you to keep fighting after taking wounds that would've sidelined many other veteran fighters.
You can stop pumping magicka ~150 if you take the Atronach stone, or 200 if you take any other stone.
1m/2h/1s
*Please note - it's only listed as level 45 because you don't take all of both one-handed and two-handed perks. Focus on one and fill it out, the other you just want the damage increasing perks only.
Gear
The gear really gives you a place to let your individual spin show through, as there's only a couple "required" items that really make the Avenger shine. The rest is all variable depending on which method YOU prefer. The idea is to be pretty solid in one style, and really excel at the other, reflecting years of discipline and training.
Here are the must have items:
Dawnbreaker
Dawnguard Rune Hammer
-Note: The Longhammer is a great weapon to pick up until you get this far in the Dawnguard quest line). If you’re not a fan of warhammers (and believe me, I get it) the Bloodskal Blade is an acceptable substitute, but it doesn’t fit in as well with the fiery theme of the character.
Ahzidal Dragon priest mask
All other gear and Enchants:
Dawnguard Heavy Armor or Nordic Carved Armor have the best aesthetic with Ahzidal's mask.
Enchant Chest with Health and Stamina.
Enchant Boots with Shock resistance and Stamina or Stamina regen. Between your racial Frost resist, and the helmet’s Fire resistance, this will cover all your magical bases.
Self-enchanted ring w/ 1h/2h enchant or Azhidal's Ring of Arcana.
Amulet of Talos or self-enchanted necklace with 1h/2h enchant
Gear and Perk Synergy:
Dawnbreaker’s fire damage component is increased with the “Augmented Flames” perk. The explosion is especially useful against necromancers, vampires, and other things that re-raise the dead.
The runes from the hammer treated as the fire rune spell in every way. The perks, the mask, destruction potions, all improve its damage.
Ahzidal’s mask increases ALL fire damage. Weapon enchants, Fire breath (stacking with Paarthurnax’s meditation), runes from the warhammer, all of it. Bask in the fiery glory of it all.
Standing stone:
You'll probably want to start with the Mage stone to help level your destruction and enchanting skill more quickly. Around level 20 you'll want to switch stones, I personally went with the Atronach stone, but there’s also arguments to be made for the Steed Stone, since you won’t be perking into weightless heavy armor.
Key shouts
Dragon Aspect
Fire Breath (add the meditation by Parthuurnaax & Dragonborn Flame black book)
Unrelenting Force
Whirlwind Sprint
Specific quests:
Besides Whiterun, you will not become Thane of any other holds. (Purchasing Breezehome is pretty much a necessity for storage reasons, I know) Windhelm is your home, and really the only place you want to hang your helmet at the end of the day.
The Light of Dawn: If you're going to become the kind of man to help save Skyrim, you'll need a weapon capable of bringing fear to your enemies. Finding Meridia's beacon intrigues you, and when you investigate her shrine, you find out about Dawnbreaker. The perfect weapon to help you with your just cause..
The Companions: As a proud and true Nord, the idea of joining the companions will be extremely attractive to you early on, but you've no desire to become a werewolf. The discovery of the Companion’s secret will sicken you, and effectively end your time with them.
Alduin the World-Eater: Work your way through the main quest up to Paarthurnax as quickly as you can. Even a one-word Fire Breath that's empowered can be *devastating* to several weak minions.
The Civil War: You've been bred and trained for a chance to prove yourself to Jarl Ulfric, and this is it. Earn your place at his side as Thane of Windhelm.
The White Phial: Spending the majority of your life in Windhelm, you've known Nurelion since you were a kid. Help him realize his life's ambition, if you can, before it's too late.
Unearthed: This is really a tough, expensive questline in Solstheim. But the reward at the end is SO worth it for the Avenger. Spread it out over some levels. Stages 3 & 4 are the key ones though. The Ring of Arcana's ignite spell goes perfectly with the Dawnbreaker, and can really devastate high health enemies, like dragons, quickly.
The Winds of Change: The Companion’s Insight ability is ridiculously useful since you’ll be making a decent use of the Fire Breath shout. Be warned though, this doesn’t appear to work AT ALL with Serana. (I totally nuked her with my 3 word Fire Breath shout) On the plus side, you can’t kill her while she’s a vampire, even after you’ve completed the Dawnguard questline, and Dawnbreaker’s fear effect doesn’t bother her.
Blood on the Ice: Whether you're thane of Windhelm yet or not, you want to take care of your city. The Butcher is making everybody nervous, and the city guard is overworked at best. Do what you can to assist this investigation and see the murderer brought to justice.
Naturally, you'll do the Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLC content as well. If you're already going to help decide the fate of Skyrim, might as well go all the way.
Roleplay:
Your character is falls somewhere on the fringes of Lawful Neutral and Neutral Good. You are beholden to Jarl Ulfric and the Stormcloak uprising. You have no problem fighting and killing, when the need arises, but you are no criminal (aside from Treason against the Empire, of course). You are fiercely protective of your Stormcloak brothers and sisters, and will gladly die for the cause. None of the Thalmor are innocent, and if you can reasonably get away with it, nobody will weep for a few extra corpses on the roads. You’ll do whatever you can to save any prisoners of the Imperials or Thalmor you meet on the roads, and give them some equipment from the soldiers you killed to help them on their way.
Combat:
I've had a few comments about people wanting to see a combat section in this build, so I thought i'd give it a shot. Usually my combat style will depend on what i'm fighting. A 1-3 word Fire Breath will do a LOT of damage to groups of even moderate strength baddies. If you can lure them into a hallway and set off a fire rune while you're at it, that's all the better. I struggled with whether or not to include Sweep in my build, but i've found that most situations that would call for it are either A: taken care of by a rune/breath combo, or B: they're too spread out for sweep to matter much. Generally I spent less time with the warhammer than I did with sword & spell. Even playing on master I found the Ignite spell can be absolutely absurd. When dealing with strong boss-types (Draugr Death Overlords and etc) I found that pegging them with a couple ignites as they move up to you, then hitting them with a 1h power attack is the best way to start. While they're reeling, it's the perfect time to switch weapons and start swinging for the fences with your warhammer. This build has a pretty high magic resist so dragons are generally not too problematic. Hit them with Dragonrend and peg them with a couple Ignites, then once again, start swinging for the fences. I had 2 fights which caused me SERIOUS problems: The first fight against Alduin at the Throat of the World (which is WAY harder than fighting him in Sovngarde), and the fight against Ahzidal. Each one took me multiple tries and even some step-aways in frustration. The best advice I can give for Ahzidal is bring LOTS of potions, and snipe him from far away with the Freeze spell from his Ring of Arcana. It'll take forever, but it'll work. Stay away from his fire cloak and dodge his fiery wave, and kill any minions he raises ASAP. For Alduin 1.0, the key is to just keep moving. Stick and move, stick and move, don't get caught in an explosion, stay away from his face. And pray a little bit.
Closing Notes:
I really want to thank the community for continually keeping my interest in Skyrim at an all time high. You’ve all been welcoming and helpful and even though I spend *most* of my time lurking here, you’ve really given me a lot of insight that has helped this build come to be.
I’ve long suffered from the dreaded create/delete syndrome, but this character, with his varied playstyles, really helped scratch the kind of itch I didn’t realize I was having. Whenever I got bored of the spellsword playstyle, I could switch to the warhammer and just go nuts. When I got bored of that, back to sword and spell. Not having to switch out a lot of gear really helps.
The Avenger of Windhelm
With sword and spell, or warhammer in hand, your foes fall by the wayside in waves, just as they did for your father in the Great War. After the death of the old Jarl of Windhelm, you made it your purpose to serve his son Ulfric every bit as honorably and fiercely as your father did for his.
Backstory:
My father served with the Bear of Eastmarch in the Great War, so naturally It was my honor to join the militia as soon as I was of age. The retaking of Markarth was the first REAL assignment I was sent on, and what a bloody mess it turned out to be. Heroes of the war, retakers of the Reach, and how are we repaid for our loyalty to the empire? Imprisoned by their Elven overseers. I don’t doubt for a moment that my father’s imprisonment had little to do with Talos worship and more to do with his involvement in retaking Cyrodiil, but go visit his tomb and ask him how much that matters now. Well, my duty is more clear now than ever before. There is a fire burning inside me that I feel few men will truly understand. Skyrim will never be out from under the thumb of the Thalmor until we free ourselves from the empire completely.
Skills
(Note: this character really requires the Dragonborn DLC at the very least)
Destruction (major) - Fire is one of the most useful things ever. It can help keep you warm on a cold night, or set fire to that draugr coming at you in the dark. I struggled whether you call this a major or minor skill, but I felt that regardless of the number of perks it has, it's integral to your build, so that really sells it as major to me.
Enchanting (major)- Spending time at the College has given you a true appreciation for the craft of enchanting. You will spend a solid amount of time (and money) learning how to perfect this skill.
Heavy Armor (major) - Naturally, heavy armor is your main line of defense, and you'll want this filled at least up to Tower of Strength.
Two-handed AND One-handed - You trained with all manner of weaponry from an early age. One of these will be a major skill and one will be a minor skill. The minor skill will simply take the 5 damage increasing skills, where the major will include the power attack reduction, the decapitation perk, critical charge, and the weapon specific perks (skullcrusher or bladesman).
Restoration (minor) - No warrior worth his salt doesn't know at least some basic field first aid. Your skill in magic helps you expound upon this, allowing you to keep fighting after taking wounds that would've sidelined many other veteran fighters.
You can stop pumping magicka ~150 if you take the Atronach stone, or 200 if you take any other stone.
1m/2h/1s
*Please note - it's only listed as level 45 because you don't take all of both one-handed and two-handed perks. Focus on one and fill it out, the other you just want the damage increasing perks only.
Gear
The gear really gives you a place to let your individual spin show through, as there's only a couple "required" items that really make the Avenger shine. The rest is all variable depending on which method YOU prefer. The idea is to be pretty solid in one style, and really excel at the other, reflecting years of discipline and training.
Here are the must have items:
Dawnbreaker
Dawnguard Rune Hammer
-Note: The Longhammer is a great weapon to pick up until you get this far in the Dawnguard quest line). If you’re not a fan of warhammers (and believe me, I get it) the Bloodskal Blade is an acceptable substitute, but it doesn’t fit in as well with the fiery theme of the character.
Ahzidal Dragon priest mask
All other gear and Enchants:
Dawnguard Heavy Armor or Nordic Carved Armor have the best aesthetic with Ahzidal's mask.
Enchant Chest with Health and Stamina.
Enchant Boots with Shock resistance and Stamina or Stamina regen. Between your racial Frost resist, and the helmet’s Fire resistance, this will cover all your magical bases.
Self-enchanted ring w/ 1h/2h enchant or Azhidal's Ring of Arcana.
Amulet of Talos or self-enchanted necklace with 1h/2h enchant
Gear and Perk Synergy:
Dawnbreaker’s fire damage component is increased with the “Augmented Flames” perk. The explosion is especially useful against necromancers, vampires, and other things that re-raise the dead.
The runes from the hammer treated as the fire rune spell in every way. The perks, the mask, destruction potions, all improve its damage.
Ahzidal’s mask increases ALL fire damage. Weapon enchants, Fire breath (stacking with Paarthurnax’s meditation), runes from the warhammer, all of it. Bask in the fiery glory of it all.
Standing stone:
You'll probably want to start with the Mage stone to help level your destruction and enchanting skill more quickly. Around level 20 you'll want to switch stones, I personally went with the Atronach stone, but there’s also arguments to be made for the Steed Stone, since you won’t be perking into weightless heavy armor.
Key shouts
Dragon Aspect
Fire Breath (add the meditation by Parthuurnaax & Dragonborn Flame black book)
Unrelenting Force
Whirlwind Sprint
Specific quests:
Besides Whiterun, you will not become Thane of any other holds. (Purchasing Breezehome is pretty much a necessity for storage reasons, I know) Windhelm is your home, and really the only place you want to hang your helmet at the end of the day.
The Light of Dawn: If you're going to become the kind of man to help save Skyrim, you'll need a weapon capable of bringing fear to your enemies. Finding Meridia's beacon intrigues you, and when you investigate her shrine, you find out about Dawnbreaker. The perfect weapon to help you with your just cause..
The Companions: As a proud and true Nord, the idea of joining the companions will be extremely attractive to you early on, but you've no desire to become a werewolf. The discovery of the Companion’s secret will sicken you, and effectively end your time with them.
Alduin the World-Eater: Work your way through the main quest up to Paarthurnax as quickly as you can. Even a one-word Fire Breath that's empowered can be *devastating* to several weak minions.
The Civil War: You've been bred and trained for a chance to prove yourself to Jarl Ulfric, and this is it. Earn your place at his side as Thane of Windhelm.
The White Phial: Spending the majority of your life in Windhelm, you've known Nurelion since you were a kid. Help him realize his life's ambition, if you can, before it's too late.
Unearthed: This is really a tough, expensive questline in Solstheim. But the reward at the end is SO worth it for the Avenger. Spread it out over some levels. Stages 3 & 4 are the key ones though. The Ring of Arcana's ignite spell goes perfectly with the Dawnbreaker, and can really devastate high health enemies, like dragons, quickly.
The Winds of Change: The Companion’s Insight ability is ridiculously useful since you’ll be making a decent use of the Fire Breath shout. Be warned though, this doesn’t appear to work AT ALL with Serana. (I totally nuked her with my 3 word Fire Breath shout) On the plus side, you can’t kill her while she’s a vampire, even after you’ve completed the Dawnguard questline, and Dawnbreaker’s fear effect doesn’t bother her.
Blood on the Ice: Whether you're thane of Windhelm yet or not, you want to take care of your city. The Butcher is making everybody nervous, and the city guard is overworked at best. Do what you can to assist this investigation and see the murderer brought to justice.
Naturally, you'll do the Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLC content as well. If you're already going to help decide the fate of Skyrim, might as well go all the way.
Roleplay:
Your character is falls somewhere on the fringes of Lawful Neutral and Neutral Good. You are beholden to Jarl Ulfric and the Stormcloak uprising. You have no problem fighting and killing, when the need arises, but you are no criminal (aside from Treason against the Empire, of course). You are fiercely protective of your Stormcloak brothers and sisters, and will gladly die for the cause. None of the Thalmor are innocent, and if you can reasonably get away with it, nobody will weep for a few extra corpses on the roads. You’ll do whatever you can to save any prisoners of the Imperials or Thalmor you meet on the roads, and give them some equipment from the soldiers you killed to help them on their way.
Combat:
I've had a few comments about people wanting to see a combat section in this build, so I thought i'd give it a shot. Usually my combat style will depend on what i'm fighting. A 1-3 word Fire Breath will do a LOT of damage to groups of even moderate strength baddies. If you can lure them into a hallway and set off a fire rune while you're at it, that's all the better. I struggled with whether or not to include Sweep in my build, but i've found that most situations that would call for it are either A: taken care of by a rune/breath combo, or B: they're too spread out for sweep to matter much. Generally I spent less time with the warhammer than I did with sword & spell. Even playing on master I found the Ignite spell can be absolutely absurd. When dealing with strong boss-types (Draugr Death Overlords and etc) I found that pegging them with a couple ignites as they move up to you, then hitting them with a 1h power attack is the best way to start. While they're reeling, it's the perfect time to switch weapons and start swinging for the fences with your warhammer. This build has a pretty high magic resist so dragons are generally not too problematic. Hit them with Dragonrend and peg them with a couple Ignites, then once again, start swinging for the fences. I had 2 fights which caused me SERIOUS problems: The first fight against Alduin at the Throat of the World (which is WAY harder than fighting him in Sovngarde), and the fight against Ahzidal. Each one took me multiple tries and even some step-aways in frustration. The best advice I can give for Ahzidal is bring LOTS of potions, and snipe him from far away with the Freeze spell from his Ring of Arcana. It'll take forever, but it'll work. Stay away from his fire cloak and dodge his fiery wave, and kill any minions he raises ASAP. For Alduin 1.0, the key is to just keep moving. Stick and move, stick and move, don't get caught in an explosion, stay away from his face. And pray a little bit.
Closing Notes:
I really want to thank the community for continually keeping my interest in Skyrim at an all time high. You’ve all been welcoming and helpful and even though I spend *most* of my time lurking here, you’ve really given me a lot of insight that has helped this build come to be.
I’ve long suffered from the dreaded create/delete syndrome, but this character, with his varied playstyles, really helped scratch the kind of itch I didn’t realize I was having. Whenever I got bored of the spellsword playstyle, I could switch to the warhammer and just go nuts. When I got bored of that, back to sword and spell. Not having to switch out a lot of gear really helps.
