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Character Build: The Arachnid

Tags: #Character Build Dual-Wield  #Character Build Assassin  #Character Build Agent  #Race:Dunmer  #SE Rank:Apprentice  #H17 
  • Member
    November 3, 2017


    The Arachnid is a horror only discussed by soldiers, mercenaries, and bandits in hushed tones. This sort of horror isn't something that parents use to threaten their children into sleeping; for the frail things would never sleep again if they knew the horrifying truth about her. The Arachnid has developed a reputation as a cunning, ruthless, and sadistic killer with a thirst for the blood of innocents and sinners alike. She never leaves victims, only a trail of bodies with melted lungs, charred flesh, and eviscerated limbs.

     

     

    Lore: Mephala

    Mephala is one of the Daedric Princes. She is known by the names Webspinner, Spinner, and Spider. Her sphere is lies, sex, murder, secrets, and plots; she enjoys seducing and interfering in mortal affairs for her own amusement. Mephala is the ruler of the Spiral Skein.

    Some scholars have identified the Night Mother as an incarnation of Mephala. Her realm is known to be completely inaccessible to mortals, and her minions are known as the Spider Daedra

    (Taken from the Elder Scrolls Wiki)

    -Although The Arachnid is utterly devoted to all of the reclamations as part of her background as a dunmer noble, she has become more obsessed with serving mephala (or at least how she interprets the definition of "serving") by inciting fear, panic, and confusion in all sorts of people before killing them.

     

    Backstory

           The Arachnid was born in Balmora into the great House Hlaalu of Morrowind. Her father was a notable politician and salesman, and could afford to buy his only daughter a top-notch education which included a spiritual leader teaching her about The Reclamations. She spent most of her time as a cloistered child like this, learning about politics, trade, and dunmer culture and religion. She became reverent, even fearful of The Reclamations and the social structure of Morrowind. As she grew older, she became more engrossed with her father's work and her deities, particularly Mephala. Something about secret plans and scheming to outclass someone appealed to her more than anything else she had ever done. Although her father was not an honest man by any stretch of the word, he was deeply disturbed by his daughter's morbid curiosity on the subject. In order to protect her, he pushed harder and harder for her to remain a scholar or priestess rather than a politician, but she pushed back just as hard. One night, during a particularly heated discussion, her father slapped her across the face. The Arachnid ran off to her room, sobbing. Though he felt terrible and immediately regretted it, he did not apologise. Maybe this would snap her out of her fantasy. A few hours later, the father came to her room to apologise for what he had done. Before he could explain himself though, she rushed at him and threw her arms around him, still sobbing uncontrollably. He made gentle cooing sounds, stroking his daughters hair and hoping to calm her down enough to talk to her. She squeezed his stomach tightly, and her sobs steadily became laughs. The father's stomach dropped. As he began to break away from his daughter, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. Dazed, he stumbled back against the wall and looked down at the kitchen knife protruding from his stomach. His vision began to fade. He looked his daughter as red blood coursed out of his gut, draining his life essence. His expression was a mixture of confusion, pain, and bitter sadness. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed for the last time was his daughter maniacally laughting, utterly pleased with what she had done. Once the rush of killing her only loved one fades, The Arachnid is suddenly very small and afraid. She had just murdered the only person that she cared about, though oddly she felt no pity or sadness. Swiftly, she packed her valuables, traveling clothes, and any bits of preserved food she could find before fleeing south into Cyrodill. Several years later, she catches wind of Morag Tong assasins sent to Cyrodill to kill her, and flees north once again, this time to Skyrim. Once she escapes Helgen, the Arachnid realizes that she can start a new life in service to Mephala, and such begins her descent into madness.

    Gameplay Style

           The Arachnid's playstyle is a hybrid of a stealthy magic-using assassin and a heavy meelee dual-wielding tank. Since this build doesn't use the quiet casting perk, your pre-battle spells will cause noise. Don't cast your flesh spells until after you are discovered. Ideally, you should remain unseen until you are completely prepared for combat. First, you'll want to cast detect life or detect dead (if you're in a tomb or barrow). Next, dual-cast a poison rune in a doorway or other narrow space to ensure your target triggers it. Finally, you'll want to put down a spider or two. Which spiders you use is up to you, but they should be appropriate to the situation. Don't use frost spiders on draugr, for example. Now that your'e ready for combat, use throw voice to attract your targets, but remain unseen. Once they approach and trigger the traps, sneak attack them with your daggers. Use poisons, potions, and flesh spells in sticky situations or against tough opponents that you cant's sneak up on.

    Roleplay

           The Arachnid was raised as a noble of House Hlaalu, and was taught to revere the Reclamations ever since she was a little girl. She is utterly devoted to them, but has reached a point in her obsession with Mephala that some of her actions in service to the prince are questionable to say the least. She will kill innocents without mercy if she can get away with it. She is sociopathic and psycopathic to the point of near insanity, though she can appear completely sane when she desires it. She will remove her nightmarish helmet in public areas in order to appear completely normal. When it comes time to kill, though, she will don her spidery mask and relish the opportunity to horrify her victims. Although she has come completely tunhinged mentally, she is still conscious of what she is doing and the consequences of her actions. She loves to inspire terror and awe before she kills her prey, and is concerned primarily with what's best for her and her deities.

    Quests and Factions

    College of Winterhold

    The College of Winterhold will be an early destination for the Arachnid. They're not against "evil" characters, per se, so the Arachnid will be comfortable joining them to hone her skills in alchemy, enchanting, alteration, and restoration. She's not about to let the Thalmor or Ancano get ahold of a powerful artifact and potentially destroy the world, so she will stop him and become the Archmage of the College. 

    Daedric Quests

    As a worshipper of the Reclamations, she will faithfully complete The Wispering Door, Azura's Star, and Boethia's Calling. She will obtain and empower the Ebony Blade, though this build does not use it. Don't betray Azura, even though the Black Star is more powerful. Such an action would be traitorous to the Daedra that the Arachnid worships. Complete Waking Nightmare before Boethia's Calling so that you can destroy a powerful artifact of her enemy, Vaermina, and then sacrifice a former priest of Vaermina to her for a slick set of Ebony Mail. 

    Dark Brotherhood

    The Arachnid delights in killing and setting up traps for her victims. The Dark Brotherhood is perfect for this character. Normally, since they are known enemies of the Morag Tong, she would destroy them. However, The Arachnid has reason to hate the Morag Tong, so she will justify joining them in order to conduct elaborate assassinations for Mephala's viewing pleasure. Make sure that you complete the optional objective during "Breaching Security" in order to recieve the bonus reward of Ancient Shrouded Gauntlets. The Arachnid respects Cicero, and will choose not to kill him. He is amusing to her in the same way that she is amusing to Mephala, or so she would like to think

    Main Quest and Dragonborn DLC

    The Arachnid will complete the main questline and Dragonborn DLC not out of any duty to save the world, but simply for personal gain and power. The shouts will add a diverse array of options to the traps she lays for her enemies. Be sure to avoid the end of the Dragonborn DLC until you can get Miraak's Sword in its most powerful form. The Dragonborn DLC will also give you access to a place not unlike your homeland as well as the infusion chamber for making combat spiders.

    Dawnguard

    The path you choose in the Dawnguard DLC is entirely dependant on whether or not you prefer to play as a vampire. If you do not, join the Dawnguard in order to rid Skyrim of the evil creations of Molag Bal, the archenemy of Boethiah. If you decide to play as a vampire, you may justify it for the gain of power. I.E., if I become a vampire, I will be more powerful, therefore I will be better able to serve Mephala and the other Reclamations. Regardelss, the Dawnguard DLC is important for The Arachnid's armor set

     

    Race: Dunmer. I think that a female dark elf works better with the roleplaying and backstory, but male dunmer would be acceptable as well. As a dunmer, The Arachnid gains a powerful 50% resistance to fire, as well as a +5 starting bonus in sneak, alteration, and alchemy.

    Stone: Atronach Stone. The Atronach Stone provides 50 points of extra magica and 50% spell absorbtion at the cost of 50% slower magica regeneration. This is massively helpful for dealing with enemy mages. If you want, you can instead use the serpent stone to poison and paralyze your prey. While objectively the atronach stone is technically better in terms of stats, the serpent stone is a very viable alternative in terms of utility and roleplaying. In the early game, use the lover stone to level your various skills faster.

    Stats Distribution: 2/3/1

    50% of your stat points in health will keep you alive if things get hairy and will make up for your lack of powerful armor in battle. 50% health makes this build ridiculously sturdy in addition to restoration, alteration, heavy armor, and magic absorbtion/resistance.

    33% magicka will help you cast both your flesh spells and allow you to cast poison runes and healing spells should you need them. This build relies heavily on spell cost reduction from enchanting, so 33% magica should be enough even if you cast numerous spells.

    17% stamina will help you perform a few power attacks in melee combat. Since this build relies heavily on stealth and subterfuge, the low stamina spread is completely viable.

    Essential Skills

    One Handed: One handed is the primary skill for the Arachnid to deal damage to her enemies. Whether it be a stealthy sneak attack or a furious dual power attack, the Arachnid can eviscerate her victims and cleave their heads from their necks.

    Essential Perks:

    Armsman 5/5 - Self-Explanatory. Even more important since she doesn't use smithing to improve her weapons.

    Fighting stance - This perk will open up Savage Strike and also allow you to perform more power attacks.

    Savage Strike - Deal 25% more damage with power attacks, and beheading will prevent necromancers from raising corpses. Bloody fun with both meanings.

    Dual Flurry 2/2 - Makes dual wielding far more viable. Significantly increases damage output.

    Dual Savagery - Similar to the dual wielding version of Savage Strike, but twice as powerful.

    Heavy Armor: Since she isn't exactly a master smith, the Arachnid will rely on the best heavy armor she can get her hands on. While hunting her prey, she would hate to become prey herself

    Essential Perks:

    Juggernaut 5/5 - Self-Explanatory. Even more important since she uses flesh spells instead of smithing.

    Fists of Steel - Required for Conditioning.

    Cusioned - Required for Conditioning, but also a fun immersive ability. Be as nimble and light-footed as a spider when you jump.

    Conditioning - The Arachnid must be nimble to catch her prey. Conditioning is massively important for maneuverability and stealth.

    Alchemy: What's a spider without her venom? The Arachnid will brew both useful potions to empower herself and deadly poisons to kill or weaken her enemies.

    Essential Perks:

    Alchemist 5/5 - Doubles the power of any potion or poison you brew. Very important.

    Physician - Unlocks other perks, helps to keep The Arachnid on her feet by improving restorative potions.

    Poisoner & Benefactor - Further empower your potions and poisons.

    Concentrated Poison - Essentially makes your poisons doubly effective. Wreak havoc with your poisoned dual-wielding power attacks.

    Sneak: As a sneaky spidery assassin, sneak is perhaps the Arachnid's most essential skill, especially since she goes clunking around in heavy armors. It will allow her to stealthily approach and hide from her enemies, as well as do massive amounts of damage when undetected. For the perks, take absolutely everything, especially assassin's blade and shadow warrior.

    Stealth 5/5 - Self-Explanatory. This is necessary especially because The Arachnid uses heavy armors that make a lot of noise.

    Backstab - Dish out tons more damage with your sneak attacks.

    Deadly Aim - Useless, but is required for Assassin's Blade.

    Assassin's Blade - Do a whopping 15x damage with daggers. This should fell most enemies in one hit.

    Muffled Movement - Helps to make up for the massive amount of noise heavy armor makes.

    Light Foot - Spiders are notoriously agile, so it's not a stretch for The Arachnid to be so light on her feet that she doesn't trigger most traps.

    Silent Roll - Great for mobility when moving around while sneaking.

    Silence - Become even more terrifying by producing next to no sound.

    Shadow Warrior - This is the big one. It can be very useful at range to avoid detection, and in melee it gives more opportunities for massive sneak attack damage.

    Enchanting: The Arachnid was raised as nobility. Rather than learning the plebian art of smithing, her tutors taught her how to weave modest enchantments. Since she doesn't use smithing, enchanting will help make up for a below average magicka pool, loud armor, low armor rating, etc. All around benefits.

    Essential Perks:

    Enchanter 5/5 - Self-Explanatory. Enchantments are twice as powerful

    Insightful Enchanter - Helps improve spell reduction costs as well as sneaking.

    Corpus Enchanter - Helps The Arachnid to survive in combat longer, cast more spells, and perform more power attacks.

    Extra Effect - Effectively doubles the power of all enchantments since there are twice as many slots to put them in

    Restoration: Although we use this skill primarily for poison rune, it can also be very valuable for the survivability of this build.

    Essential Perks:

    Novice Restoration - Unlocks important perks.

    Restoration Dual Casting - Keeps Posion Rune viable even in the higher levels of the game. Helps you to avoid death by healing more faster.

    Apprentice Restoration - Unlocks Adept Restoration.

    Adept Restoration - Used for both main spells, Poison Rune and Close Wounds.

    Recovery 2/2 - Offsets the negative effects of the Atronach Stone, unlocks Avoid Death

    Avoid Death - Excellent for survivability, and also terrifies the enemies who think that they just killed you

    Regeneration - Empowers all healing spells by 50%, unlocks Necromage

    Necromage (If a vampire) - If you are a vampire, makes any enchantment you wear more powerful. Massively helpful if you choose to join the Volkihar Clan.

    Alteration: Alteration will make your skin as hard as the carapace of an actual spider as well as give you access to the spells paralyze, detect life, and detect dead. Althought The Arachnid is not a real spider or spider daedra, this school of magic will give her abilities remarkably similar to one. Additionally, with Atronach, the Atronach Stone, and Magic Resistance, you'll be nigh invincible to spellcasters and dragon breath.

    Essential Perks:

    Novice Alteration - Unlocks Apprentice Alteration.

    Apprentice Alteration - Unlocks Adept Alteration.

    Adept Alteration - Unlocks Expert Alteration.

    Expert Alteration - Useful for all of our Alteration spells, unlocks powerful and useful perks.

    Stability - Effectively replaces dual casting flesh spells without having to use twice the magicka. Stay in combat longer.

    Atronach - 30% chance to absorb incoming spells. Increased to 37.5% with Vampire/Necromage combo.

    Magic Resistance 3/3 - Further protects against spellcasters by providing a 30% defense against spells. 55%? with Vampire/Necromage.

              -With Necromage combo, average spell damage is reduced by 94.375%

              -Without Necromage combo, average spell damage is reduced by 86%

     

     

    Equipment: Armor

    Author's Note: Use whatever enchantments that you want/need on the falmer pieces. I simply chose the ones that I find most useful and listed them here.

    Head: Falmer Helmet

    -Badass spidery ascetic. Eight eyes, covers most of face but leaves hair and mouth uncovered.

    -I chose this helmet over the heavy falmer helmet because the heavy helmet had too much anonimity. I wanted The Arachnid to maintain some shred of humanity when she kills her victims and I want them to be able to see her smile as she kills them.

    -Recommended Enchantments: Fortify Alteration, Fortify Magicka

    Chest and Boots: Falmer Heavy Armor

    -Unique insectoid feel, very good protection, low weight. I chose this piece over the standard armor because although The Arachnid is seductive and beautiful, she does not seduce people who she is tormenting and killing.

    -Recommended Chest Enchantments: Fortify Restoration, Fortify Health

    -Recommended Boot Enchantments:  Fortify Sneak, Fortify One-Handed

    Hands: Ancient Shrouded Gauntlets

    -Good armor, works decently with the aescetic.

    -Though they are not heavy armor, the enchantment is massively helpful for The Arachnid's playstyle.

    Necklace and Ring of Choice

    Bone Hawk Ring - Fortify One-Handed, Fortify Alchemy

           -Substitute the Ring of Namira if you want to for roleplaying reasons, but I find that it is far more cruel to kill a victim for the sole purpose of murder and then           leaving them to rot for the crows and maggots

    Bone Hawk Amulet - Fortify Sneak, Fortify Alteration

     

    Equipment: Weapons & Spells

    Right Hand: Miraak's Sword

    -Very creepy look, and will also be quite powerful without needing to be upgraded. The enchantment isn't fantastic, but it will allow you to perform power attacks repeatedly as long as it is charged.

    -Obtain it after level 60 to get the most powerful version. Before then, you can use either a falmer sword or honed ancient nord sword and enchant it as you choose.

    Left Hand: Blade of Woe

    -A wickedly curved dagger that is great for perfoming sneak attacks for 30x damage

    -Decent enchantment, absorbs 10 points of health to help keep you alive.

    Spells: Restoration

    -Poison Rune will poison your prey, doing 180 damage to them over the course of 30 seconds. If you are ovewhelmed, cast several to poison all of your prey and give you the upper hand. Dual-cast it and then lure them into a trap.

    -Close Wounds will keep you alive. Substitute it for your dagger in combat if you need to back off and heal.

    Spells: Alteration

    -Detect Life/Detect Dead will help you locate and trap your prey.

    -Ebonyflesh will significantly increase your armor ratig in battle.

    -Paralyze will immobilize fleeing prey, or help to thin the number of enemies attacking you at once.

    Spiders

    -Use any spiders that you can make on solstheim to poison, control, or kill your enemies.

         -Exploding Spiders act like landmines, exploding in proximity of an enemy. Use these for traps.

         -Cloaked spiders will damage any enemy around them. Use these for combat with one or more enemy.

         -Jumping spiders will jump towards the enemy and explode. This is particularly useful for large groups.

         -Mind Control Spiders are particularly cruel. Throw them at powerful enemies and watch them turn on their friends.

     

    Wicked Web

    Weave a web of lies and death just as Mephala herself would

    Cast Poison Rune on the ground in front of yourself followed by two exploding spiders of the appropriate element. Get into an advantageous stealth position and use throw voice to lure an enemy to the chosen location. If they are not dead by this point, slit their throats with your dagger.

     

    Spider's Carapace

    Empower yourself with the powers of a spider. Harden your shell and sharpen your fangs

    Cast Ebonyflesh and poison both of your weapons with a poison of your choice. A combination of Crimson Nirnroot, Deathbell, and Small Antlers is particularly deadly. Use a concoction of bear claw and hanging moss to fortify health and one-handed. Beware, though, for this potion weakens your magical powers for its duration.

     

    Immobilize

    No prey escapes the Arachnid. Watch your victim fulilely struggle to get away and prepare them for their untimely death

    Hit your enemies with a venom made from river betty and deathbell to slow and poison, use marked for death upon them, and cast paralyze. Your targets will hardly be able to run away from you, let alone fight back.

     

       Closing Thoughts

    Hi all! This is my first build ever that I have submitted on Tamrielvault. I put a lot of playtesting and effort into it in a short period of time so that it could be completed during the Halloween Seventeen Event! Although I am very proud of this build and excited to share it with the community, I am even more delighted by the prospect of feedback that I can get on this build, be it positive, negative, or constructive. Happy Halloween!

     

  • Member
    November 4, 2017

    This is a cool assassin build Xenla! Also you might want to correct what is written in the beginning below the title the text is written with greek letters :P

  • Member
    November 4, 2017

    Thanks!

  • November 4, 2017

    Very cool concept, Xenla. The opening image is sick, sick, sick. The gameplay looks like fun, though I'm not a heavy crafter. I'm with Duvain, not sure the Greek text is intentional? Now, I am personally okay with lots of text because you write well and I am used to academic reading, but see what others say regarding adding some extra images to break things up. 

  • Member
    November 4, 2017

    The Long-Chapper said:

    Very cool concept, Xenla. The opening image is sick, sick, sick. The gameplay looks like fun, though I'm not a heavy crafter. I'm with Duvain, not sure the Greek text is intentional? Now, I am personally okay with lots of text because you write well and I am used to academic reading, but see what others say regarding adding some extra images to break things up. 

     

    Thank you so much for the advice! I can definitely see where it gets too wordy for some people. I'll find some more images to add in to make the text a bit more manageable. Unfortunately, I play on console, so taking screenshots isn't really possible. I usually craft a lot in Elder Scrolls games, but I'm trying to work towards no crafting characters, since leveling those skills is pretty bland gameplay. I think that the greek letters were some sort of weird font, though I didn't see on my screen what you were talking about. Let me know if I've fixed it!

  • November 4, 2017

    Xenla said:

    The Long-Chapper said:

    Very cool concept, Xenla. The opening image is sick, sick, sick. The gameplay looks like fun, though I'm not a heavy crafter. I'm with Duvain, not sure the Greek text is intentional? Now, I am personally okay with lots of text because you write well and I am used to academic reading, but see what others say regarding adding some extra images to break things up. 

     

    Thank you so much for the advice! I can definitely see where it gets too wordy for some people. I'll find some more images to add in to make the text a bit more manageable. Unfortunately, I play on console, so taking screenshots isn't really possible. I usually craft a lot in Elder Scrolls games, but I'm trying to work towards no crafting characters, since leveling those skills is pretty bland gameplay. I think that the greek letters were some sort of weird font, though I didn't see on my screen what you were talking about. Let me know if I've fixed it!

    The Font craziness is fixed. *thumbs up*

    Yay! All three builds for H17 are up, this is awesome! 

  • November 6, 2017

    Great build Xenla, I love how the playstyle actually mimics a spiders behavior.  A few of the images are broken for me not sure if its like that for everyone but I thought I'd let you know.

  • Member
    November 13, 2017

    Great build! Mephala is my favorite of the darker daedra, and this is a great nod in her direction.

    By the way, this build has made the site's Twitter page ;D

  • Member
    November 13, 2017

    ShinJin said:

    Great build! Mephala is my favorite of the darker daedra, and this is a great nod in her direction.

    By the way, this build has made the site's Twitter page ;D

    Thank you! It's really cool that this made the Twitter page!

  • Member
    November 13, 2017

    Vargr White-Tree said:

    Great build Xenla, I love how the playstyle actually mimics a spiders behavior.  A few of the images are broken for me not sure if its like that for everyone but I thought I'd let you know.

    I'll see what I can do to fix that. I appreciate the help!