I've been wanting to upload this one for a while, honestly, now that I finally get around to it, I'm honestly quite nervous, but lets see how he fares...
The Soul Reaper
"An Altmer from the Summerset Isle, an intelligent individual. He was obsessed with the Conjuration school and its endless potential, eventually the trapping of souls engulfed him and drove him to madness. Since the only place that had survived the disbanding of the Mages Guild was the College of Winterhold in Skyrim, he set off to the northernmost reaches of Tamriel to master the Conjuration school, he was caught on the border and the rest we all know..."
"Upon realizing his Dragonborn ability, The Soul Reaper was thrilled, not only were the souls of mortals his for the taking, but now he was in possession of the ability to steal a dragons soul! Perfect! With this power, all creatures cower before The Soul Reaper, his supremacy is absolute..."
"The Dawnguard is a place to slaughter vampires.... Slaughtering vampires is more souls.... It was only logical that he joined this faction. Upon returning Serana to her father, he was offered the Ancient Blood. The Soul Reaper realized that if he took this power that he would become immortal, allowing him to steal souls until the end of time, he accepted gratefully. Now the all powerful blood of the Vampire Lord courses through his veins, granting him eternal life..."
"A call from Solstheim... Another who devours dragon souls is returning, unacceptable! The Soul Reaper goes to investigate this other Dragonborn, infuriated that his power was not his and his alone, he will go on to accept Hermaeus Mora's power, but he shall not remain in Apocrypha so Mora cannot claim him as he did Miraak, the power of the Black Books is his and his alone..."
The Build
Race: Altmer Vampire (The race isn't essential, but it gives the Soul Reaper an intimidating height to strike fear into his prey, also the magicka boost is useful for using spells earlier on.)
Stone: The Mage ---> The Atronach (The magicka boost is incredibly helpful) or The Lord (Armor Rating boost, since this character wears no armor.)
Stats: 2/2/1 (Get your stamina to about 200, that should be enough, or at least it was for me, once you have enough to cast Ebonyflesh and Bound Battleaxe after each other, stop putting points into Magicka and dump it all in health)
Major Skills: Two-Handed, Alteration, Enchanting.
Minor Skills: Conjuration, Illusion, Sneak, Restoration, Block.
Passives: Eternal Spirit
Powers: Highborn, Mora's Boon (An incredible effect that restores your Health, Magicka and Stamina, it is effectively your "Oh shit" button that instantly heals you. Another option would be Mora's Wrath in case you're surrounded, but I preferred Mora's Boon overall)
Gear: Black Robes, Shrouded Shoes, Shrouded Hood, Thalmor Gloves, Amulet of Revival, Ring of Revival.
Weapon: Bound Battleaxe.
Shouts: Marked for Death, Become Ethereal, Dragon Aspect, Aura Whisper, Dismay, Soul Tear, Slow Time, Storm Call.
Spells: Oak-Ebonyflesh, Bound Battleaxe, Muffle (Until Shrouded Shoes and to Power level Illusion), Soul Trap (Until Soul Stealer perk is obtained), Summon Arvak.
Quests: College of Winterhold (See above), Destroy the Dark Brotherhood (Destroy the worshippers of Lorkhan, the traitor God!), Ironbind Barrow (Become Ethereal), Azura's Star/The Black Star, The Volkihar, Main Quest, Dragonborn, Civil War (Imperials), Reluctant Steward, Black Book: The Hidden Twilight.
Skills
Conjuration: The focus of the story behind this build, you will be using this to cast your Bound Battleaxe and Soul Trap. Key Perks are Soul Stealer and Apprentice Conjuration.
Alteration: The second most important skill here, Alteration will keep you alive with no armor rating, allowing you to take more than a single hit without dying. Key perks are Expert Alteration, Stability and Mage Armor 3/3.
Two-Handed: The offence oriented skill, this is to maximize damage with your already Daedric Grade (if you have Mystic Binding) battleaxe. What makes your axe so overpowered is that its available from Farengar at level 1 for 99 gold. Key perks here are Barbarian, Limbsplitter and Champion's Stance. It is also worth noting that taller races swing their weapons faster and deal more damage, being an Altmer, you are the tallest race and therefore your swing speed will increase and you will deal 8% more damage.
Enchanting: To put useful enchantments on your black robes and gloves, of course. Key perks are Enchanter and Insightful Enchanter.
Sneak: I was skeptical about using this skill at first, but it turned out to help my quite a lot against large groups of enemies and allowed me to pull off the first strike on more than a few occasions. Key perks are Muffled Movement and Silence.
Illusion: I invested in this skill to stop myself having to cast Bound Battleaxe and Flesh spells whilst sneaking and getting detected. The only perk really required here is Quiet Casting, but Apprentice Illusion allows Muffle to be cast more rapidly.
Restoration: This skill is purely for Necromage, which actually allowed my character to achieve a near game-breaking ability (In conjunction with Alteration), which I will talk about further down.
Block: I wasn't 100% sold on Block at first, but after getting the appropriate skills I was loving it, it really allowed my character to avoid a little more damage and I can see this helping earlier levels when flesh spells are weaker. The key perk here is Quick Reflexes.
Level 50 Perks: Here
Gear
Black Robes: Enchanted with Fortify Alteration.
Shrouded Hood: Pre-Enchanted with Fortify Sneak 25% (+6.5 from Necromage for 31.5 fortify sneak).
Shrouded Shoes: Pre-Enchanted with Muffle.
Thalmor Gloves: Enchanted with Fortify Two-Handed 40% (+10 from Necromage to make 50% Fortify Two-Handed).
Ring: Ring of Revival 50% Health Regen (+12.5 from Necromage to equal 62.5 regen).
Necklace: Amulet of Revival (As above, +12.5 regen from necromage, combined with Ring of Revival it makes 125% health regen).
It is also worth noting that with Mage Armor, Ebonyflesh will give you 300 Armor rating, this in combination with Necromage will give you an Armor Rating of 325, which is nothing to sniff at although it does make the game incredibly challenging on Legendary difficulty which pretty much laughs at any rating lower than 400.
The Unintended Ability
As implied above, this ability was never actually intended to be part of my build, but as fate would have it, I ended up making a magic immune character. You see, the Atronach Stone in conjunction with the Atronach perk creates an 80% magic absorb effect, pretty good, right? Well, not good enough for my Soul Reaper, apparently. With Necromage active before selecting the Atronach perk and Atronach stone, you will increase both effects by 25% and reach 100% Magic Absorption. Obviously this makes the build completely unstoppable against mages and Dragon Priests. You can avoid this by not using the Atronach perk, if you so choose.
The Uses of Shouts
Become Ethereal: Definitely the most useful shout on the list, if all three words are combined, it allows a window for you to regain health, your 125% health regen from your gear and Necromage added to Parthurnaax's blessing "Eternal Spirit" will allow for 150% health regeneration over 18 seconds. Finally, this shout can also be used to dodge dragon breath attacks when you don't have your magical immunity, as well as other high damaging attacks.
Soul Tear: Probably the strongest shout in the game in my eyes, dealing 300 damage flat out, filling a soul gem AND resurrecting the creature to do your bidding, this includes giants which gives massive advantage in close ranged combat (if you didn't have enough already...)
Dragon Aspect: +100 armor rating, lower shout cooldown, badass appearance and other goodies? Yes please!
Aura Whisper: When combined with Quiet Casting it is incredible for sneaking up on opponents that you can't see behind walls and doors.
Dismay: Useful if you ever need to recover some health and become ethereal isn't an option. Also, who wouldn't run away from a vampire coming to steal their souls?
Slow Time: Useful to dodge enemies attacks and to get free blows against stronger foes.
Storm Call: Incredibly useful against dragons, definitely giving you the advantage over them.
Marked for Death: This shout basically makes everything in the game as easy to kill as a bandit (including bandits, go figure), overall its an incredible resource against dragons and dragon priests as well as other enemies with bulky health bars.
Roleplay
I have included a list of rules here assist roleplay, it is not however, essential to use this list, but it does give the build some character.
⦁ Use soul trap as much as possible.
⦁ As an elf supremacist you will raid Stormcloak camps for the souls and for the Aldmeri Dominion.
⦁ You will kill anyone who praises Talos, this includes Heimskr in Whiterun, you believe the bounty is a tiny cost to rid this world of those who oppose the Dominion.
⦁ Kill the priests in the Temple of Talos in Windhelm
⦁ Soul trap Aranea Ienith after completing Azura's Star/The Black Star, this is humor in the eyes of The Soul Reaper, ironic that a worshiper of Azura should be trapped within a soul gem...
A thanks to Relycs for suggesting the Block skill
Images belong to their respective owners.
This was the Soul Reaper, I hope I have interested you all with this one, as I said before I have been eager to upload him for a while now, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
I've been wanting to upload this one for a while, honestly, now that I finally get around to it, I'm honestly quite nervous, but lets see how he fares...
The Soul Reaper
"An Altmer from the Summerset Isle, an intelligent individual. He was obsessed with the Conjuration school and its endless potential, eventually the trapping of souls engulfed him and drove him to madness. Since the only place that had survived the disbanding of the Mages Guild was the College of Winterhold in Skyrim, he set off to the northernmost reaches of Tamriel to master the Conjuration school, he was caught on the border and the rest we all know..."
"Upon realizing his Dragonborn ability, The Soul Reaper was thrilled, not only were the souls of mortals his for the taking, but now he was in possession of the ability to steal a dragons soul! Perfect! With this power, all creatures cower before The Soul Reaper, his supremacy is absolute..."
"The Dawnguard is a place to slaughter vampires.... Slaughtering vampires is more souls.... It was only logical that he joined this faction. Upon returning Serana to her father, he was offered the Ancient Blood. The Soul Reaper realized that if he took this power that he would become immortal, allowing him to steal souls until the end of time, he accepted gratefully. Now the all powerful blood of the Vampire Lord courses through his veins, granting him eternal life..."
"A call from Solstheim... Another who devours dragon souls is returning, unacceptable! The Soul Reaper goes to investigate this other Dragonborn, infuriated that his power was not his and his alone, he will go on to accept Hermaeus Mora's power, but he shall not remain in Apocrypha so Mora cannot claim him as he did Miraak, the power of the Black Books is his and his alone..."
The Build
Race: Altmer Vampire (The race isn't essential, but it gives the Soul Reaper an intimidating height to strike fear into his prey, also the magicka boost is useful for using spells earlier on.)
Stone: The Mage ---> The Atronach (The magicka boost is incredibly helpful) or The Lord (Armor Rating boost, since this character wears no armor.)
Stats: 2/2/1 (Get your stamina to about 200, that should be enough, or at least it was for me, once you have enough to cast Ebonyflesh and Bound Battleaxe after each other, stop putting points into Magicka and dump it all in health)
Major Skills: Two-Handed, Alteration, Enchanting.
Minor Skills: Conjuration, Illusion, Sneak, Restoration, Block.
Passives: Eternal Spirit
Powers: Highborn, Mora's Boon (An incredible effect that restores your Health, Magicka and Stamina, it is effectively your "Oh shit" button that instantly heals you. Another option would be Mora's Wrath in case you're surrounded, but I preferred Mora's Boon overall)
Gear: Black Robes, Shrouded Shoes, Shrouded Hood, Thalmor Gloves, Amulet of Revival, Ring of Revival.
Weapon: Bound Battleaxe.
Shouts: Marked for Death, Become Ethereal, Dragon Aspect, Aura Whisper, Dismay, Soul Tear, Slow Time, Storm Call.
Spells: Oak-Ebonyflesh, Bound Battleaxe, Muffle (Until Shrouded Shoes and to Power level Illusion), Soul Trap (Until Soul Stealer perk is obtained), Summon Arvak.
Quests: College of Winterhold (See above), Destroy the Dark Brotherhood (Destroy the worshippers of Lorkhan, the traitor God!), Ironbind Barrow (Become Ethereal), Azura's Star/The Black Star, The Volkihar, Main Quest, Dragonborn, Civil War (Imperials), Reluctant Steward, Black Book: The Hidden Twilight.
Skills
Conjuration: The focus of the story behind this build, you will be using this to cast your Bound Battleaxe and Soul Trap. Key Perks are Soul Stealer and Apprentice Conjuration.
Alteration: The second most important skill here, Alteration will keep you alive with no armor rating, allowing you to take more than a single hit without dying. Key perks are Expert Alteration, Stability and Mage Armor 3/3.
Two-Handed: The offence oriented skill, this is to maximize damage with your already Daedric Grade (if you have Mystic Binding) battleaxe. What makes your axe so overpowered is that its available from Farengar at level 1 for 99 gold. Key perks here are Barbarian, Limbsplitter and Champion's Stance. It is also worth noting that taller races swing their weapons faster and deal more damage, being an Altmer, you are the tallest race and therefore your swing speed will increase and you will deal 8% more damage.
Enchanting: To put useful enchantments on your black robes and gloves, of course. Key perks are Enchanter and Insightful Enchanter.
Sneak: I was skeptical about using this skill at first, but it turned out to help my quite a lot against large groups of enemies and allowed me to pull off the first strike on more than a few occasions. Key perks are Muffled Movement and Silence.
Illusion: I invested in this skill to stop myself having to cast Bound Battleaxe and Flesh spells whilst sneaking and getting detected. The only perk really required here is Quiet Casting, but Apprentice Illusion allows Muffle to be cast more rapidly.
Restoration: This skill is purely for Necromage, which actually allowed my character to achieve a near game-breaking ability (In conjunction with Alteration), which I will talk about further down.
Block: I wasn't 100% sold on Block at first, but after getting the appropriate skills I was loving it, it really allowed my character to avoid a little more damage and I can see this helping earlier levels when flesh spells are weaker. The key perk here is Quick Reflexes.
Level 50 Perks: Here
Gear
Black Robes: Enchanted with Fortify Alteration.
Shrouded Hood: Pre-Enchanted with Fortify Sneak 25% (+6.5 from Necromage for 31.5 fortify sneak).
Shrouded Shoes: Pre-Enchanted with Muffle.
Thalmor Gloves: Enchanted with Fortify Two-Handed 40% (+10 from Necromage to make 50% Fortify Two-Handed).
Ring: Ring of Revival 50% Health Regen (+12.5 from Necromage to equal 62.5 regen).
Necklace: Amulet of Revival (As above, +12.5 regen from necromage, combined with Ring of Revival it makes 125% health regen).
It is also worth noting that with Mage Armor, Ebonyflesh will give you 300 Armor rating, this in combination with Necromage will give you an Armor Rating of 325, which is nothing to sniff at although it does make the game incredibly challenging on Legendary difficulty which pretty much laughs at any rating lower than 400.
The Unintended Ability
As implied above, this ability was never actually intended to be part of my build, but as fate would have it, I ended up making a magic immune character. You see, the Atronach Stone in conjunction with the Atronach perk creates an 80% magic absorb effect, pretty good, right? Well, not good enough for my Soul Reaper, apparently. With Necromage active before selecting the Atronach perk and Atronach stone, you will increase both effects by 25% and reach 100% Magic Absorption. Obviously this makes the build completely unstoppable against mages and Dragon Priests. You can avoid this by not using the Atronach perk, if you so choose.
The Uses of Shouts
Become Ethereal: Definitely the most useful shout on the list, if all three words are combined, it allows a window for you to regain health, your 125% health regen from your gear and Necromage added to Parthurnaax's blessing "Eternal Spirit" will allow for 150% health regeneration over 18 seconds. Finally, this shout can also be used to dodge dragon breath attacks when you don't have your magical immunity, as well as other high damaging attacks.
Soul Tear: Probably the strongest shout in the game in my eyes, dealing 300 damage flat out, filling a soul gem AND resurrecting the creature to do your bidding, this includes giants which gives massive advantage in close ranged combat (if you didn't have enough already...)
Dragon Aspect: +100 armor rating, lower shout cooldown, badass appearance and other goodies? Yes please!
Aura Whisper: When combined with Quiet Casting it is incredible for sneaking up on opponents that you can't see behind walls and doors.
Dismay: Useful if you ever need to recover some health and become ethereal isn't an option. Also, who wouldn't run away from a vampire coming to steal their souls?
Slow Time: Useful to dodge enemies attacks and to get free blows against stronger foes.
Storm Call: Incredibly useful against dragons, definitely giving you the advantage over them.
Marked for Death: This shout basically makes everything in the game as easy to kill as a bandit (including bandits, go figure), overall its an incredible resource against dragons and dragon priests as well as other enemies with bulky health bars.
Roleplay
I have included a list of rules here assist roleplay, it is not however, essential to use this list, but it does give the build some character.
⦁ Use soul trap as much as possible.
⦁ As an elf supremacist you will raid Stormcloak camps for the souls and for the Aldmeri Dominion.
⦁ You will kill anyone who praises Talos, this includes Heimskr in Whiterun, you believe the bounty is a tiny cost to rid this world of those who oppose the Dominion.
⦁ Kill the priests in the Temple of Talos in Windhelm
⦁ Soul trap Aranea Ienith after completing Azura's Star/The Black Star, this is humor in the eyes of The Soul Reaper, ironic that a worshiper of Azura should be trapped within a soul gem...
A thanks to Relycs for suggesting the Block skill
Images belong to their respective owners.
This was the Soul Reaper, I hope I have interested you all with this one, as I said before I have been eager to upload him for a while now, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
