Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Planewalker

Tags: #Character Build Knight  #Character Build Bard  #Character Build Mods  #Rank:Bloodworks  #Race:Altmer 
  • Member
    August 12, 2017

    Disclaimer

    This is my first build, so please don't come to my house bearing pitch-forks! I'm too young to die! :P

     

    -- Unless I specifically say "Do what you want", assume that the information is vital to the build--

     

    On a different note, this build means the world to me, it represents 5 1/2 years of my life that I have been playing and appreciating this character. Do take into consideration, that this type of character is the "Do everything" kind of character. A completionists wet dream, if you will. So, without holding you back any longer.... I present to you....

     

     

                                                                  THE PLANEWALKER

     

                

     

    BACKSTORY

     

     " Born in the Summerset Isle in the year 387 of the first era, Satan grew up in the slums of Alinor, and being a underfed, poor, and not as physically capable as his peers, he was always the one who was mistreated; the entire town spat at him and called him a “Pathetic half-breed.” Satan, now at the age of 14 had finally had enough. He had decided to fight fire with fire, he stolen all the food he could and used the entire city as his gymnasium, he also loved it when the guards chased him. The following years had been a remarkable time for Satan, he grew taller, stronger, faster, sneakier, and more robust.

      

      In 1E 418, Satan was confident in his newfound stature, so he began to seek revenge on his peers, for what they did all those years ago. He hunted down and murdered every last one, until he came upon the 19th person. Satan thought it would end like all the rest. He was sorely mistaken.

     

      His research on his target was not as thorough as all the others, the mer was a vampire, and Satan didn’t even know it. He shadowed the bloodsucker to a more remote location and as Satan was about to make his kill, the vampire turned on his heels to meet Satan’s gaze. The battle that ensued was bloody and fierce. Satan dodged, struck, pirouetted, and dodged again and again, but the vampire was draining the life out of him. Satan then tried to mix things up and turned to pyromancy to do it. He hurled fireball after fireball at the creature, but the bloodsucker had superior reflexes, and the fireballs -- one by one -- missed their mark.

      

      And so the stalemate continued, until the vampire decided to close the distance. The creature suffered major burns and was in serious danger of disintegrating under the heat of Satan's fiery attacks, but in the end it was not enough. The vampire broke Satan's guard and knocked him down. He turned Satan….changed him. The act of turning him forced Satan to fall into a slumber. Bested by a vampire -- and to pour salt on the wound -- turned into one of them. He'd forevermore be shamed by this defeat..... "

     

    The full backstory can be found here (It's of a decent size, so keep that in mind)

     

    Gameplay

    This build is mostly going to use dual-wielding, but if you fancy using magic or stealth at a given moment, feel free. The character is going to use whatever style the situation requires. I used duel-wielding throughout my playthrough though, because I enjoyed hitting things with a weapon more than shooting ice-spikes or fireballs.

     

    Skills

    Major Skills : Block, Enchanting, Heavy Armor, One-Handed, Smithing, Sneak, Lockpicking,

    Minor Skills : Archery, Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Light Armor,  Pickpocket, Restoration, Speech, Two-Handed

    Perks : At the end of the playthrough, you should have all perks in all trees. I recommend investing in Smithing, Heavy Armor, and Sneak as soon as possible.

     

    Race

    You can use any race. But I chose a Male Altmer, because.... well there is no reason. I did it on a whim really.

     

    Stone

    Warrior or Lover stone then at later levels go with the Lord stone

     

    Stats Spread

    I recommend, choosing whatever attribute you need the most at the time. Like health when your at low health.

     

    Equipment 

     Full Daedric weapons and armor ( - the helmet) with as many enchantments as you can. As for the enchantments themselves, focus on resistances and health/stamina/and magicka regeneration. I would recommend the "A Tragedy in Black - Enchanting Remastered" mod. It will allow you to achieve the same things that I did, when playing the character myself. If you've got "Cloaks of Skyrim" then I suggest using the Cloak of the Crow, as it kind of fits the character the best. I also highly recommend Daedric Armor Improvement Clean (version 1.0).

     

    Shouts

    The character has all modded and vanilla shout unlocked, but favors Fire Breathe and Unrelenting Force. During the Civil War questline, he attacks Fort Hraggstad, Snowhawk, Sungard, and Solitude with the Storm Call and Call Dragon shouts, as well as Fire Breathe and Unrelenting Force. During the siege of Solitude, he uses the Storm Call, Call Dragon, and Call of Valor shouts. You could instead, transform into a werewolf, if you have a mod that disables the friendly npc aggro. I recommend Ruminations of the RotmulaagThunderchild, and Dragonfire for shouts and Werewolf Mastery for the option to disable friendly npc aggro.

     

    Factions and Questlines in the order of completion

    -- Companions

    -- Dark Brotherhood (Because of Kodlak's death, so finish Companion's questline first) (develope a deep emotional connection with Astrid)

    -- College of Winterhold (guard the expedition and deal with the Thalmor threat)

    -- Theives Guild (make connections and influence)

    -- Main quest (do the vanilla start if your using Alternate Start or similar)

    -- Stormcloaks (the charater believes every province deserves freedom) (Blames Empire for Astrid's death, enhanceing the character's anger, hatred, and ferocity during the war)

    -- Dawnguard (finish ALL vanilla content before starting the DLC's) (send Inigo and other followers "on a break" before starting)

    -- Hearthfire (own all vanilla, modded, and DLC homes) (Lakeview Manor as the primary home with characters family)

    -- Dragonborn DLC (the character is dreaming while sleeping in Lakeview Manor with Serana and their children) (the character dreams of being in a black lake made of black writhing tentacles and hears Miraak say "False Dragonborn" before waking in a cold sweat)

    -- Do ALL other quests in between questlines (character has perticular distaste when doing "Pieces of the Past") (I recommend doing "The Forsworn Conspiracy" either : early in the game or before the Stormcloaks take The Reach) (Kill the cannible in Markarth. Joining doesn't fit the character)

     

    Throughout the playthrough, the character should build relationships with certain NPC's and when those NPC's die, it should fuel his grief and only at about half way through the Main Questline should the character feel at peace. Also, at various points in the game, the character will be reminded of Kodlak, and the grief will return to them for a few minutes and soil whatever mood they were in. Of course, there will be a certain follower to cheer the character up (see "Must Have" Mods section).

     

                              

     

     Lycanthropy and Vampirism

    This character is a Werewolf in it's truest form. The character loves the rush of bloodlust, the feel of the wind in their fur, and the indomitable surge of strength. But to fit the backstory, I encourage the use of a mod that allows both Vampire Lord  and Beast Form at the same time (via bat command) and mods that enhance vampires and the Vampire Lord form. I use Moonlight Tales Essentials Overhauled and Royal Bloodline

     

    Personality 

    Classic "save the damsel" hero / does not burden any followers with loot / keeps female followers safe (deliberately puts himself in harms way to keep them safe) / confident but not pompous / gruff / witty / noble / impatient / compassionate (especially towards children and the elderly) / untrusting / wrathful / charismatic / snarky / sarcastic / cruel and bloodthirsty when provoked / is enfuriated when someone reffers to him being a young (for obvious reasons if you read the backstory)

     

    Appearance

    If your not going to do a male Altmer, skip this. Still reading? Good. Give him a appearance that naturally looks angry. Low eyebrows, green eye's, bright blonde hair, slightly more yellow skin without being dark yellow, set weight to 100, increase height to 1.05, slightly enlongate the nose and chin, the nose should look hooked or romanesque, black warpaint (the one that's only around the eyes and looks kinda spikey). At this point in time, I dont think I even need to recommend Racemenu.

     

    "Must Have" Mods

    -- For Serana's sake (changes the player dialogue with Valerica) (I don't want to go blowing my own horn here, but I made the mod and it was designed for passionate characters)

    -- Thieves Guild for Good Guys (This character isn't the kind of person who would be an ass and extort money or work for that b*tch Maven. This mod allows you to stick it to her.)

    -- Amazing Follower Tweaks and Immersive AFT (I suggest 2 followers maximum)

    -- Lakeview Manor Evolution (improves the interior and exterior of Lakeview Manor) (this is the home that the player is going to live with their family and it looks superb with an ENB)

    -- Skyrim -- Community -- Uncapper (allows you to set the number of perks per level, giving you the ability to have all perks in all trees without being at a crazy level)

    -- Inigo (character appreciates Inigo's juvinile demenour and will help cheer them up at various points)

    -- Marriable Serana (bonding from the start, they develope a deep and sincer romance that paves the way for the events of the HearthFire DLC)

    -- Amorous Adventures (does not matter what version, it's the story that matters) (I suggest changing the dialogue with Serana at the first half of the new dialogue options to sound less callous or heartless. To emulate them bonding.)

     

    Recommended Mods

    -- The Paarthurnax Dilemma

    -- Save the Dark Brotherhood (Just because Astrid dies -- unless you have a mod -- does not mean everyone has to die)

    -- Enchanted Arsenal (improves and animates the enchantments on your weapons)

    -- Immersive Sounds - Compendium

    -- Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions

    -- Thundering Shouts

    -- Less Elusive Torkild (very annoying quest in vanilla, but with the mod it is less annoying)

    -- Miraak - Dragonborn Follower (player pities Miraak and helps give him his freedom....sort of)

    -- Supreme Miraak Reborn and Supreme Harkon Reborn

    -- Skyrim Family Life (A Dragonborn that can't have his own children really doesn't fit the character and at the end of the Main Questline, the character realises they want to settle down, setting the stage for Dawnguard and Hearthfire) 

    -- Heart of the Beast (makes the werewolf roar sound so much more believeable) (the words relentless, viscious, and terrifying come to mind)

    -- Blaze of Eventide (to serve as the players horse and tie into this character's more fiery theme)

    --

     

    Closing Notes

    This build was intended to be played from a storytellers point of view, so keep that in mind during the playthrough. Meaning get in character, when playing the character. Think as if you were the character. Like what Gopher does with his Let's Play's. Kill all Imperial soldiers and Thalmor on sight. Do not kill Paarthurnax. I also would like to thank the authors of the images above for their works (I dont know their names).

     

    Tell me below what you think, how I can improve, or just ask a question! Cheers!

  • August 12, 2017

    Yo Kopis, I hope it'll ease your mind because I left my pitchfork outside tonight :P

    Honestly, my first issue is that I can't read the backstory because I don't have an Archive of Our Own (Is it usually shortened to A3 or Ao3, I never can remember) account which I think is probably a real bummer, I always love a long backstory but I also get that sometimes you just don't want to include it in the actual post. I would definitely recommend trying to share it via something that doesn't require a sign-up because...well to be blunt I just don't like signing up to things, especially if it's just a one use thing. But I might be alone there.

    Anyway, for now I'm going to assume that's a really good read but there are several things I'm going to go into below. The first is presentation, and I will warn you that I'm extremely into talking about the presentation of a build, especially if it's to help a bit that could use a fair bit of work. The second, is the gameplay or skills could really be expanded on in my opinion (without taking away that aspect of using all the skills, and in fact would play off of it really well). And there'll be more stuff when I get to it no doubt, so be aware of that.

    Section 1 - Presentation

    Right, so to be completely blunt here, I feel like this build is rather poorly presented, simply because it's rather difficult to go from section to section in a continious read or just pick out the bits I want. Let me put it this way, for me there are two ways I read a build so I'll just kind of go into them quickly here.

    The first is my original read, the first time I've seen it, and I want to absorb everything at once. Your build makes it rather hard to do that easily, because it kind of jumps all over the place with the text (it being off to the right, then in the middle again, then to the left, and so on) and instantly turns me off reading. You can avoid this issue by trying to keep a more... focucsed, singular presentation style with the text the entire time, having it always aligned to the left is my personal favourite and I feel like the one that is just the most natural (just about everything on the site, or really on most sites is from left to right...well at least with English, I suppose it might be different with other cultures, not sure there). 

    The second method of reading, is when I'm playing a build and I might just want to check a single section (skills for example). Generally speaking, people tend to use bolded text or banners in order to make it extremely obvious what section is coming up at what time. The Factotum is a build that I would heavily recommend you checking out, partially because of it's use of the bolded, centered and larger sized text to break things up, but also because it's got a similar premise to your build.

    So the best way that I think you could adjust the presentation of the build, is to just decrease the bulk of the text to the base font size (which you can do simply by deselecting whatever size it's currently at) and maybe breaking the build up so that the sections are more obvious, even something like this would be infinitely easier to read. 

    ----------------------------------------------

    Roleplaying:

    Lycanthropy and Vamparism: This character is a avid Werewolf, but to fit the backstory, I encourage the use of a mod that allows both Vampire Lord (via bat command) and Beast Form at the same time.

    Personality: Confident, but not pompous, gruff, witty, tactical, noble, impatient, compassionate (especially towards orphans and the elderly), untrusting, wrathful, charismatic

    Closing Notes: Kill all Imperial soldiers and Thalmor on sight. Do not kill Paarthurnax. Use a mod to marry Serana for roleplay purposes. I also would like to thank the authors of the images above for their works (I dont know their names).

    ----------------------------------------------

    See how much easier it is to just read that casually? And it's a fair bit easier to find, I can instantly come to your build when I'm playing it and if it's set out like this and skim through and find that Lycantrhopy and Vamparism section without having to read the bits that I've already read. So, yeah, that's my personal take on presenting a build, it's a style that I think is easy to use, rather simple to read and looks good but I can't force you to use it (and will never suggest not making your own personal edits or changes) but it is one that I highly recommend using.

    Section 2 - Content

    So...now this is the bit I usually have the hardest with because I feel kind of terrible whenever I critique someone's own personal creation and this character means a lot to you obviously. I'm not going to discuss the idea of a 'do everything' build, I have no real issue with it and that's not what I would comment on. However, I feel like there are better ways that you could present that idea that would kind of allow for all the freedom you wanted, but also just...give a little more direction, or have your insight on things being a little more present.

    The first thing I'd recommend, is actually going into the benefits of different options. The race is a great example. Why did you choose Altmer, and if I didn't want to play as an Altmer, what are some of the benefits of playing other races? This build could break down each and every race and just go into the details on why they're all options, but also why the Altmer is your personal option. That way your not really selling a single race, but you can also just give a bit more depth to the build you know. Doing something similar with skills (breaking down how you personally used each skill, and other uses) would be really cool to see and would add more depth yet again.

    Actually, that's something that you could really work with. I would honestly get bored doing so much all the time (so I would never play a build that used all skills all of the time) but what you could do is kind of break it down into playstyles that you could use for the build. So kind of create a bit of a Spellsword form and a Merchant form and a Knight and so on, but it's all one character you know. I just feel like that would be a really interesting way to approach the build and kind of justify the use of all skills and all perks. You could even delve into useful perks for each of the 'forms' and really make them all shine.

    Section 3 - Closing Notes

    You know, I do actually think there are some interesting things that could be done with the build, but to be honest...you just haven't really sold it to me yet you know. I think there are ways to present the idea of a character that literally has every perk under every skill and can do anything, but at the moment that really just comes across in the Quests. I'd love to see you make this build flourish mate, it's just...There needs to be a bit more to the build in my opinion before I can really comment any further or you know...maybe make some more specific comments. At the moment the first section is something I would do instantly but the second is just me having ideas.

    If you do want to work on any of these ideas and change the build a little, just hit me up man. Either in the comments (preferablly here actually) or over messages, I do see the care you have for this build and the idea behind it but you know... Yeah there's just not much to it right now unfortunetly. 

  • August 14, 2017

    Hey Kopis welcome to Skyrim CB, i'm glad you took the plunge and decided to post your build, i understand that it can be a bit daunting to take that step.  I have to second everything Dragonborn1921 said above.  What you have here can be summed up in two words "do everything" and then you list all the content of the game but don't really give us a reason for doing it.  I would like to see a bit more guidance like why you did everythinig, how it fits the role of the character, what order you did it in and why you chose that order? etc.  Right now I don't even know why he's called the Planewalker.  I imagine this is in your backstory but like DB i'm not going to sign up on another site just for a one off back story.  I suggest you actually add it to the build, maybe an abridged version.  If it's super lond like Long Story/Novel lengthe then might I suggest you post it in The Story Corner you could then link both pieces of work (story and build) on site giving easier access to both.  You could then maybe just quote portions of your story here in the build that give a sense of the character and would help set a mood for what this character is suppose to be like.

    Anyway I hope that makes sense still havn't had my second cup of coffee yet but I hope you take our suggestions to heart and really make this build shine.

  • Member
    August 15, 2017

    Sorry guy's for the late reply. Had some nasty bugs to squash in Skyrim. I'll upload a version of the backstory to somewhere else within the next day or so.

     

    @Dragonborn1921

     

    Firstly, I think we may be seeing the page a little differently. It doesn't look like it "jumps all over the place." The page I'm looking at, has the build structured rather orderly. But if your telling me that I need to have a difference in font size to make the category (for lack of a better term) more obvious, I can definately fix that.

     

    As for the second section of your critique, I greatly appreciate it and will try to figure something out. But you must understand that most of the character just happend. There wasn't a "reason" for the race being a High Elf, I just picked it on a whim. The "reason" why I did all the quests and all the skills is because it was my first character I played in a TES game and I wanted to experience it all in one go. And it didn't help that I really wasn't into doing builds or did a variety of characters at the time.

     

    I will immediatly update the build to be a bit better. But to go in depth the way your thinking is a something that will be extremely difficult for me. Mostly because the things that I did, were done because I could. Not because it fit a type of build. But I'll figure it out eventually, I promise you.

     

    @Vargr the White-Tree

     

    Thank you for you input and I'll upload the backstory to The Story Corner and relink to it. As far as the rest of your comment goes, there really isn't a lot left I havn't answered for DB1921. I can't add these small details you want because I never had a reason of doing almost anything when playing the character. So it kinda is hard to add that kind of detail, when you don't know it yourself. But by the time you read this, I have already uploaded the backstory. Cheers!

    Here it is.

  • August 15, 2017

    Ah well, I can't force you to change it you know, if this is your build it's your build :) As for the presentation notes...yeah definitely, in fact I'm looking at a different build than I was last time, there were definitely a few sections that were all over the place but maybe it was just my internet being shitty. It does that sometimes. I still am a little opposed to the larger font but that could just be me being set in my ways. It's nothing major, to be honest, and if it works for you then, well that's fine I suppose. Really the only thing I can't stand at all is a couple people who have made just about every line of their build a different, neon colour...Completely unreadable those are :D

    Ah well, I do like the backstory a lot if you didn't see my message over there. It's kind of cool to get a character that was around for the events of Oblivion who isn't the Hero of Kvatch/Champion of Cyrodiil. 

    Edit: Oh and I noticed the mods tag. Were there any mods that you used in particular for the playthrough? I imagine that they might have changed a fair bit or you had a whole bunch of them but if there are any that were particularly notable then it'd be interested to hear about how they effected the character.

  • Member
    August 15, 2017

    How is the new look of the build?

    Is it good enough?

    What else would you guy's recommend I do?

  • August 16, 2017

    Well Kopis I had the chance to read your back story for this build which was pretty good and actually gave me beeter insight in how to play this character than the build does which is good for the backstory.  However your build approach of do everything, perk everything, level 200 smothers the uniqueness of your character.  Basically all the "issues" I pointed out before are still there.  Actually, reading your backstory makes me wish this build reflected your character more and was less a table of contents for the game.  I think replaying your character with a focus on actually being them in the game would produce a better build.  Your character is intrigueing and I want to see that build.

     

  • Member
    August 16, 2017

    The edit's I made thus far were aimed at DB1921's list of things he'd liked to have changed. I will go back to your original post and see what I can do. But replaying a character that took 5 1/2 years of my life is out of the question!

     

    But what I would like to know is : under what category would I put the information you want? What information - specifically - do you want me to add?

  • August 17, 2017

    Honestly it would only take me about 5 1/2 hours of actual game time to play the character of Satan to fruition just based on what I know about him from your backstory, because you don't have to do everything in the game again in order to get a good feel for how the character plays, i'd probably just do the main quest and the dawnguard quest that should give you enough gameplay to understand how the build plays and enough in game interactions to give you a good sense of the characters personality and motivation.  I understand that you played this character for 5 1/2 years but that doesn't mean they take 5 1/2 years to play, honestly if they did then no one would ever play your build. 

    The core of the problem i have with this build is that it's not one.  It's just a list of everything you can do in the game without any focus or direction.  A build is a guide telling the reader exactly how to play your character, not listing all the things that can be done in the game and telling them to do whatever they want.  Every player has already done that, it's called your first play through of the game.  I would suggest you try reading some other character based builds and see how those were put together.  In the end a build is not about freedom it is about the restriction of choice in order to create a specific type of play style and game experience.

    I'd suggest anything from our Follow Me Follow You event they are all builds based on specific characters in game. Here's a link to the event page.  Hope it helps.

    http://tamrielvault.com/groups/topic/view/group_id/3/topic_id/8856

    The list of builds that were entered in this event can be found at the pottom of the article in the "Registration" section. 

     

  • Member
    August 17, 2017

    First and foremost, I'm insulted that you think you could crunch something that took me 5 1/2 years into 5 1/2 hours. It wasn't about experiencing a build when I made and played this character. It was about the story. The continuation from the backstory into the events of Skyrim and how they happened. No different from how Gopher does his Let's Plays.

     

    Secondly, the restriction of choice in and of itself is not something I'm familiar with. Or something that I would want to practice. But thank you for the link and on that note I will go and take a look at it. Talk to you in the next post.