Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Event Build: The Suplex Cat

Tags: #Khajiit  #Thief  #Unarmed  #Sandaro  #Event: Songs of the North 
  • Leader
    March 23, 2018

    Well she got style you can see it in her feline eyes.
    When she starts movin' you sure can tell
    When she starts shakin' she's raisin' hell.

    And then the cat crept in and crept out again
    The cat crept in and crept out again
    So I open the door for that high-heeled paw
    I said the cat crept in

     

    RACE Khajiit (make a sleek, female, black Khajiit using the Skyrim Fur Colour mod…)

     

    SKILLS Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocketing, Speech, Light Armour, One Handed

     

    STANDING STONE Thief

     

    STATS  0/1/1

     

    SHOUTS None, you are not the Dragonborn

     

     

    WEAPONS Unarmed (Khajiit Claws)

     

    ARMOUR 

    Body Thieves Guild

    Hood Thieves Guild (Take the upgraded hood to boost your mercantile skills)

    Hands Gloves of the Pugilist

    Boots Thieves Guild

    Ring Best sneak enhancing ring that you find

    Necklace Best speech enhancement you find until you are given Amulet of Articulation

    Replace Thieves Guild with Guild Master Armour set when you are able to do so.

     

     

    QUESTS

    • Thieves Guild Main Quests
    • Delvin Mallory’s quests
    • Vex’s quests
    • Thieves Guild Reputation quests
    • No Stone Unturned
    • Litany of Larceny
    • Riften quests to become Thane
    • The Raid (to unlock Riften house)
    • City Quests as you come across them
    • Daedric Quests that fall into your lap

     

    ESSENTIAL MODS (All are mods available on PS4, Xbox One and PC)

     

    To make this build viable there are certain essential mods – fortunately, the mods in this build are all available on the PS4 as well as Xbox One and PC, making this build feasible for all players of Skyrim SE

     

    Amazing Race Tweaks: Khajiit – adds special Khajiit powers and buffs that make an unarmed build viable without recourse to glitches (see special moves below)

     

    Phenderix Elemental Fighter – adds elemental hand wraps to massively help with unarmed combat (N.B This mod has been incorporated into the broader Phenderix Magic World mod which does a whole lot more. You can install that if you prefer, but everything you need for this is included in Elemental Fighter)

     

    BIG Ultimate Kills – significantly increases the triggering of kill moves, this simply helps with the roleplay aspect of the build

     

    Khajiit Dialogue Overhaul – a must for immersion – it makes Khajiit speak like Khajiit!

     

    Skyrim Fur Colours – makes it possible to make a black furry Khajiit

     

    Feel free to add any other ‘quality of life’ mods that will improve your Skyrim experience, but they aren’t essential to the build. For example, you might want to add a mod that gives merchants more money to spend, since you will be doing a LOT of trading. These extra additions are left to player discretion.

       

    MAKING UNARMED VIABLE

     

    As we all know, there is (sadly) no unarmed skill in Skyrim, meaning that it is a challenge to make unarmed viable beyond very early levels. Most unarmed builds on this site get around this restriction with clever use of glitches – usually involving ‘stacking’ the enchantment from the Gloves of the Pugilist.

     

    This build takes a different approach. Keep those Gloves of the Pugilist – the effect stacks with the other unarmed buffs, so you might as well! Your main damage is coming from Elemental effects provided in the Phenderix Magic World mod. The beauty of this is that they scale with the One Handed Skill (even though they don’t act or look like you are using a one-handed weapon). This means that – crucially – you are going to get more powerful as you level up and put perk points into your one-handed skills.

     

    Taken together with some of the special effects and powers, both from Magic World and Amazing Race Tweaks, means that you will be a total badass, able to handle even the most powerful enemies that Skyrim can throw at you…

     

     

    Let’s try and break this down with a few numbers…

     

    Unfortunately, you can’t easily see the exact amount of damage since the ‘Weapon’ tab in Skyrim shows a big, fat zero when you don’t have a weapon equipped. Unarmed starts with a base 10 damage, with Khajiit’s boasting a +12 claw damage – so we are hitting with 22 damage even at Level 1, which paradoxically makes it more powerful than some low-level weapons. But, still, the UI shows that we have 0 damage! Go figure…

     

    We can grab the Gloves of the Pugilist early and add another 10 damage. It stacks with Khajiit Claws (confirmed via Reddit) meaning that we are punching for 32 damage.

     

    So the first order of business is to head for the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood to locate a new NPC called Shenari Tulla who will sell you the elemental unarmed boon. Choose any two from the following:

    • Fire - causes fire damage
    • Frost - causes damage to health and stamina
    • Lightning - causes damage to health and Magicka
    • Poison - causes damage over time
    • Paralysis - causes paralysis

     

    Equip those effects and you are good to go. Your damage scales as you level up your one-handed skill. They are treated as one-handed swords for perk purposes, and the relevant perks (on One Handed and Sneak) work as they would for any normal sword (confirmed by Phenderix on Bethesda.net forums).

     

    Additionally, the unarmed damage will be boosted by the Amazing Race Tweaks mod for every rank of the Armsmans Perk. It stacks with the Elemental Damage and equates to:

     

    • No perk: 2-4
    • Armsman 1: 5-9
    • Armsman 2: 10-14
    • Armsman 3: 16-22
    • Armsman 4: 24-30
    • Armsman 5: 34-40

     

    What this amounts to is that pretty well straight away you’re going to be punching for around 60 damage, and by the time you get to, say, Level 30 your damage is around 135.

     

    Bear in mind that, by Level 30, you’re going to be at close to 100 sneak, then you can pretty much guarantee a sneak attack. Take the backstab perk and you’re going to be destroying everything in your path!

     

     

    SPECIAL MOVES

     

    San Daro Suplex  (High Sneak + Unarmed + Big Ultimate Kills) This is the signature move for this build and can destroy most in-game bosses. Approach the target from behind, get right up close behind them and hit the attack button. You can’t guarantee the move will trigger, but it will around 80% of the time – destroying the target with a perfectly executed German Suplex finishing move… BOOM!

    Disclaimer: I didn't make this video, I just randomly found it on YouTube. But I can promise that I was able to replicate the move on both this annoying fool and the even more annnoying Nazeem ;)  

     

    San Daro Curse (ART Effect + Elemental Attack) This is a once-per-day effect from the Amazing Race Tweaks mod called ‘Khajiit crosses your path’. It curses an enemy and reduces their armour rating. Reserve this for groups of tough enemies. Trigger it like any other daily power and smash them with your elemental attacks.

     

    Whispering Cat (ART Effect + Sneak Attack + Paralysis) This is added by ART when you perk Armsman. It adds a high chance to disarm to your attack. Use this on tough bosses – sneak up to them and trigger the effect, which disarms your mark. Have paralysis from Elemental Magic equipped to take down the boss, then rain down blows with your other hand (equip the fire effect for awesome visuals!)

     

     San-daro finally snaps at Nazeem 


     

    GAMEPLAY

     

    Proceed to Riverwood with either Hadvar or Ralof – it makes no odds as you’re not getting involved in any Civil War nonsense! Once there start on the road to awesome thievery by stealing whatever you can find. Unlock everything that has a lock on it and sneak everywhere. Sell everything to Alvor or Lucan to start levelling speech.

     

    You can do Bleak Falls Barrow to get loads more loot to sell, and level your sneak by creeping up on the draugr in there. Don’t forget to clear out Embershard Mine for even more booty!

     

    Once your bringing up cash and have gone up a couple of levels you’re done there. Visit the Sleeping Giant and buy all the elemental effects from the Khajiit in there. You can recruit him as a companion if you like, but I didn’t bother.

     

    Walk over to Whiterun Stables and get the cart to Riften. Demand to be allowed into the city and gain another level of Speech! Talk to everyone until you are approached by Brynjolf. Take Brand-Shei out of commission, and then head down to the Ratways as directed by Brynjolf. Fight your way through until you meet Gian the Fist – he has gloves you want, so be sure to show him your best suplex.

     

    Join the Thieves Guild and start doing quests for Delvin and Vex as well as gradually progressing through the main Guild questline. Don’t neglect the radiant quests. For one thing they net you significant loot, and mean that your sneak, pickpocket, speech and Lockpicking levels nicely, which you absolutely want to do. You’re also banking jobs for the Under New Management quest at the end of the Thieves Guild, which will open up the possibility to become Guild Master.

     

    This build is ALL about thievery – so focus 100% of the Thieves Guild. That’s right, stay well away from the College, and Jorvaskar, and ignore any rumours you hear about the Dark Brotherhood. You’re not Dragonborn so you’re not ever going to speak to Balgruuf, and the Civil War is no concern of yours.

    Having said that, you will be travelling all over Skyrim in the pursuit of Thieves Guild quests and business. Take any city quests you like, and any ‘one-off’ type quests, even Daedric quests that you chance upon. You’ll need to be an active freelancer to ever be able to level enough to max out your character!

     

    Riften is your home, so befriend the Jarl and do whatever quests you are given or find around your home city. Eventually, you’ll open up the possibility of buying Honeyside – do so as soon as you are able, and fully upgrade it. After all, if Maven can swan around Riften whilst being in league with the Thieves Guild, why shouldn’t you?

     

    I’ve shown perk choices up to Level 40. By this point I was Guild Master of the Thieves Guild, had completed everything that Riften offered, as well as a slew of city and radiant quests. My sneak, pickpocket and Lockpicking were at 100, with Speech, One-Armed and Light Armour lagging behind at around the mid-70s.

     

    Frankly, by this point I could do whatever I wanted. I could drop into sneak and go wherever I pleased. I could take anything from anyone’s pockets – including stripping all the guards naked. And even the toughest bosses were suplexed to Oblivion!

     

    Good to see Delvin recognises this one as better than the common rabble

     

    AND FINALLY

    OK so this won't be the most technically adept build on this fine site. I'll leave that to people more nerdy than I am! But here is a build which is lore-friendly, focussed, fast-paced, and most of all..fun. Hope you enjoy it!

     

     

  • Member
    March 23, 2018

    Great build, Paul! I love a good punch-cat, and I think I might roll this one. Never tried the dialog mods, but I heard good things. 

  • Member
    March 23, 2018

    Puurfect! :D Paul you need to start linking your stuff in your profile, and link to you T&T article in the build, and vice versa this one reckons. That way we can keep track of when the Paul cat creeps in with a great build and character with a story stretching right back to the Second Era :)

  • Member
    March 23, 2018
    This is quite the purrfect build Phil! I'm really feline this one. Keep up the cat-mazing work!
  • March 23, 2018

    Bugger, you've posted it while I was asleep :P

    The build is really good Paul, I have to admit that I think all of the in-character bits of writing were really, really well done, was a bit of a laugh to read (in a good way...maybe it's too early for me to try and make sense...will drink coffee and come back to this comment), and just an overall joy. Plus you throw in those number-crunching sections, which is always something that'll draw me in, and this is just a damn good build. 

    Thank you for participating in the Event Paul, and for sharing the build with us, just a bloody great one :D

    Edit: By the way, tags would be the following

    Race: Khajiit, Character Build Thief, Character Build Unarmed, Event: Songs of the North 

    And if you wanted to, you could add in two more 'Character Build' tags, the Mods tag and a Rank Tag, though none of them are compulsory of course. Just helps it fit into the archives (and helps people head into the archives from your build). 

  • Member
    March 25, 2018

    Yay, Khajiit! Great build, Paul!

  • Member
    April 3, 2018

    I love unarmed builds and all those wonderful kill-cams! Add to that the fact that it's a beautiful Khajiitess... that's pure gravy! :D

    Even before I picked up the Ordinator mod, I ran more unarmed builds than almost any other type--I just love playing unarmed--but Ordinator breathed new life into that playstyle for me. I haven't tried the mods you suggest, but I love how these mods are making unarmed builds more accessible (and more popular). And this is a great one!

    It's also being featured on the TV Twitter and Facebook page :D

  • Leader
    April 3, 2018
    Thanks Shin, and for the feature Getting into Ordinator is my next Skyrim 'project', now that I have acquired an XBox One