Well I'm going to drop a mini Build here in case someone find inspiration to flesh it out. I ran out of creative juice to flesh out the RP element mostly.
The SnowCat
(or ArcticFang)
General Idea / Inspiration:
When winter came around, I had a hankering to drop back into Skyrim after a 9 month hiatus. I started poking around for winter themed builds here and came up with some great ones:
The Cryomancer by Vargr
The Winter Warrior by Anubis
The Winterborn by Garthar
The Winter Bear by Long Chapper
The Kamal by Henson
The King of Winter by Ebony blade
The Frost Nymph by Noodles (and his famous Potent Blizzard Glitch).
I really like the potent Blizzard idea from Noodles and thought Vargr's clever "paths" approach gave me flexibility to keep combat interesting. Lastly, I thought what fun it would be to build a snow white Khajiit into a badass CryoMage. So away we went!
Character Customization:
Race: Khajiit, white fur + blue eyes
Skills: Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration, Alchemy
Spells: Conjure Frost Atronach, all ice destruction, fireball for pesky foes who are immune to cold, flesh spells
Stats: 2:1 Majicka to health, no extra stamina needed
Stone: Mage --> Apprentice
Gear: Pick a chilly blade (Pale Blade, Chillrend which you can steal without doing the Thieves Guild Quest with a little roof hopping and Whirlwind Sprint, Grimsever), Staves if you like.
Attire: I use a MOD that allows stacking certain items and found the combo of Arch Mage Robes, Mage's Circlet (saphire stones), and Steel Plate Boots/Gauntlets looked perfect. (see picture)
Gameplay:
The playthrough followed Vargr's Blizzard Path in order to use alchemy to boost our efficacy as a cryomancer and take advantage of the end game Blizzard glitch. Essentially blending these two concepts sets the playthrough off. I did start the Main Quest to open shouts and enable the uber cool flying dragons and all, but abandoned it soon after in favor of the College of Winterhold. This is obviously a must, with access to Faralda the Master Destruction trainer and the first word of Ice Form, our go-to shout, found down in Saarthal.
By the time I did all that, helped Septimus to get a few hard earned Magic Levels, I was all but a few easily ground levels from the Destruction Ritual Spells from our end game acievement: Blizzard. To grind destruction, simply cast a conjure familiar with one hand and kill them with an expensive destruction spell with the other. Take Rested bonus and Mage Stone of course. I did this in the Arch Mage's quarters for some peace and quiet :)
Quest Thoughts:
Keeping with the winter theme, I tried to seek out a few frosty places and quests. A few great ones are The Pale Lady (a fine thematic fitting blade if you'd like to carry one), track down all frost breath and ice form shouts, Dawnguard - picking up Serana, a fellow ice slinger seemed fitting, become Thane of Winterhold, and basically treking around anything in the super north end of the map or high in mountains. Visiting places with names like Frostmere Crypt are a plus.
RP:
??? no idea. I couldn't come up with anything fresh. I played him as a rogue, semi-recluse mage. A good enough moral compass to save the college, but hey, if you want to take a dark path, totally easy to do it. One idea I had, but didn't do was picking a race to hate, like maybe go wipeout all orcs or something.
Final Thoughts:
Using Alchemy as the classic support / boost / glitch modifier is the real star here. You don't NEED to do the whole three potion cocktail to be super powerful. Just boost up your Destruction Spells if you want. Or nick foes with "Weakness to frost" potions. Really, you can take it in a lot of directions. If you want to get going really fast with this build, use the Fortify Resto loop glitch with alchemy gear, and totally bypass leveling alchemy. Like I said, lots of paths.
Some Screenshots:
Well I'm going to drop a mini Build here in case someone find inspiration to flesh it out. I ran out of creative juice to flesh out the RP element mostly.
The SnowCat
(or ArcticFang)
General Idea / Inspiration:
When winter came around, I had a hankering to drop back into Skyrim after a 9 month hiatus. I started poking around for winter themed builds here and came up with some great ones:
The Cryomancer by Vargr
The Winter Warrior by Anubis
The Winterborn by Garthar
The Winter Bear by Long Chapper
The Kamal by Henson
The King of Winter by Ebony blade
The Frost Nymph by Noodles (and his famous Potent Blizzard Glitch).
I really like the potent Blizzard idea from Noodles and thought Vargr's clever "paths" approach gave me flexibility to keep combat interesting. Lastly, I thought what fun it would be to build a snow white Khajiit into a badass CryoMage. So away we went!
Character Customization:
Race: Khajiit, white fur + blue eyes
Skills: Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration, Alchemy
Spells: Conjure Frost Atronach, all ice destruction, fireball for pesky foes who are immune to cold, flesh spells
Stats: 2:1 Majicka to health, no extra stamina needed
Stone: Mage --> Apprentice
Gear: Pick a chilly blade (Pale Blade, Chillrend which you can steal without doing the Thieves Guild Quest with a little roof hopping and Whirlwind Sprint, Grimsever), Staves if you like.
Attire: I use a MOD that allows stacking certain items and found the combo of Arch Mage Robes, Mage's Circlet (saphire stones), and Steel Plate Boots/Gauntlets looked perfect. (see picture)
Gameplay:
The playthrough followed Vargr's Blizzard Path in order to use alchemy to boost our efficacy as a cryomancer and take advantage of the end game Blizzard glitch. Essentially blending these two concepts sets the playthrough off. I did start the Main Quest to open shouts and enable the uber cool flying dragons and all, but abandoned it soon after in favor of the College of Winterhold. This is obviously a must, with access to Faralda the Master Destruction trainer and the first word of Ice Form, our go-to shout, found down in Saarthal.
By the time I did all that, helped Septimus to get a few hard earned Magic Levels, I was all but a few easily ground levels from the Destruction Ritual Spells from our end game acievement: Blizzard. To grind destruction, simply cast a conjure familiar with one hand and kill them with an expensive destruction spell with the other. Take Rested bonus and Mage Stone of course. I did this in the Arch Mage's quarters for some peace and quiet :)
Quest Thoughts:
Keeping with the winter theme, I tried to seek out a few frosty places and quests. A few great ones are The Pale Lady (a fine thematic fitting blade if you'd like to carry one), track down all frost breath and ice form shouts, Dawnguard - picking up Serana, a fellow ice slinger seemed fitting, become Thane of Winterhold, and basically treking around anything in the super north end of the map or high in mountains. Visiting places with names like Frostmere Crypt are a plus.
RP:
??? no idea. I couldn't come up with anything fresh. I played him as a rogue, semi-recluse mage. A good enough moral compass to save the college, but hey, if you want to take a dark path, totally easy to do it. One idea I had, but didn't do was picking a race to hate, like maybe go wipeout all orcs or something.
Final Thoughts:
Using Alchemy as the classic support / boost / glitch modifier is the real star here. You don't NEED to do the whole three potion cocktail to be super powerful. Just boost up your Destruction Spells if you want. Or nick foes with "Weakness to frost" potions. Really, you can take it in a lot of directions. If you want to get going really fast with this build, use the Fortify Resto loop glitch with alchemy gear, and totally bypass leveling alchemy. Like I said, lots of paths.
Some Screenshots:
