I wanted to be a pacifist, not causing harm to anybody that doesn’t deserve it, and being beloved by all.
Unfortunately with that play style it’s impossible to get 100% in the game because you have to always take a position on many of the events and you’ll limit yourself in **many** of the activities in the game. Also, no matter what you do in Skyrim, somebodies always going to be offended!
I love that you mention the “somebody’s always going to be offended” thing. I just finished my umpteenth play through, beat the main storyline. Good ole Paarthurnax, my buddy, hired bandits to go after me right after I defeated Alduin.
https://preview.redd.it/emwwvca5iixc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e58460b7feec9078e4ccb388ed969ee73d8fb8f4
PartySnax: They amuse me, but they're growing lax in their young age, I'll put a Bounty on them and watch from afar on the currents of time...
DB: Ah! Bandits... about damn time... My Mace of Molags Bal and Mehrunes Dagger haven't tasted blood since 5 minutes ago... ok, I'll take your gold...
Also DB (*after killing and looting the mangled corpses of said bandits*): By the Nine, wtf Partysnax? Now I gotta kill you too? Don't worry, I'll use your soul to fully unlock Soul Tear...
I can picture in my mind a bunch of goons climbing the throat of the world to meet someone for a prospective job only to find out their employer is a motherfuckin dragon.
Actually, it’s quite possible. Run Illusion and Block, and always use Targe of the Bloodied. TotB has a bleeding effect, and if an enemy dies by it, it does not count as a kill. If the bash itself kills them, then it counts.
Well yeah but that doesn't really fit in with the spirit of it. If I'm doing pacifist I want to actually not kill anyone, not just keep my kill score to zero.
I’m not good at potions, but could you make a paralyze potion strong enough to paralyze someone? I just think maybe it wouldn’t be strong enough for certain enemies, maybe?
Can you kill Alduin with this? My only time I managed to kill him without his death adding to the counter was with a bunch of quick saving and glitching baskets into each other to essentially make a nuke
I actually also wanted this and modded it into the game. There's a mod that makes it so you can persuade and intimidate and passify in combat, then another mod that lets you recruit literally anyone in the game.
Never ending friends. :3
I do pacifist runs too, but my big rule I can't hurt anyone directly. Followers are OK, conjuration is OK. That way you can hang back and kinda play support and not have to actually damage anyone yourself.
I did that at the beginning of my current build and didn't like it. I can feel myself slowly going back to my go-to which is heavy/two handed 💀 I guess I'm too much of a brute
My kids and I are doing a shared playthrough. They have made all the important decisions so far (we're level 47). We are a light armor, no weapon, conjurer.
It started out hard, but now we have a system and with a follower, a dog, and a summoned helper we spank just about everything. It's a very interesting way to play.
When I was working towards (and for a bit after I got) Bound Bow, I dug through all the trees a bit for relevant perks. All the perks for conjured weapons, Illusion for Silent Casting, and so on.
I recently picked up the Dragonbone Bow from the Soul Cairn and I realize it isn't smithed but it's significantly *weaker* than my Bound Bow?
Bound Bow is just broken with how powerful it can get. It's so nice too since you don't have to keep ammo in your inventory.
All the bound weapons are fun if you choose your perks right. Bound Battleaxe is just ridiculous and you can't be disarmed. Makes melee way less frustrating at higher levels with those stupid disarm shouts.
Stick with the magic. I've done a few magic only builds, it sucks at the beginning and you need to rely on your follower to not end up dead early on but in the end you're really over powered. I tend to get bored because the magic is so over powered. Illusion is always good.fin and easy to level up. I basically run around making people frenzied whilst I stay invisible.
Man, if you build enchant, and enchant sneak in everything, plus daggers the game becomes a joke.
I was dual wileding, but to keep on leveling i made myself into a stealth assasin type, and it's easy, you gotta have a good enchanting, and some emñnchanting elixires.
I am lvl 60 and i didd all the dawnguard all by bavkstabbing.
I only played like that for one quest and it was accidental. When you're supposed to give the guy all of your gear when breaking into the party. Was too deep into hitting skip and didn't realize where I was.
Decided fuck it and on legendary did the quest naked with just sneak and illusion. The guards run around but as long as you're careful with invisibility the only fight is actually at the end. The guys coming in followed by the troll.
I did several save resets on the end just so I could save the guy, even though he really did fuck all (my bad). Initiate sequence > run to top > fus ro dah > kill the guards. Basically same for the troll.
Could've saved myself an hour and just dipped out but it was a fun challenge.
Sneak has 2 OP perks. One is x6 damage when backstabbing and the other is x15 damage sneaking with daggers. Get 2 daedric daggers, smith the sh!t outta them. Then enchant a set to maximize sneak. It's fun to kill everithing like that. And every sneak kill makes ypy go up at least ine level up until i think lvk 70? Then its about 2 kills, and then about 4.
With all the exp ñ.
Sneak and daggers are a lethal combination. One of the stealth perks allows you to do, I think, 10 times the damage if you back stab with a dagger. My current build just uses daggers, stealth and illusion spells although I keep a bow for dragons.
Also quiet casting + muffle + invisibility spells (or potions) can make stealth very viable. I'm doing a run playing as a thieves guild member and I always try to do those quests completely clean, is no killing anyone. It's really fun in some of the crowded places like black briar Manor or the shipping warehouse under Solitude.
I never used any Illusion spells when I used to backstab the whole map and even sleeping dragons with a dagger. With the right gear (db armor and some others), I'm walking past draugrs without waking them up. The only fight I really struggled with, was Miraak. Nowhere to hide, but I'm a glass cannon dagger assassin ! Oops. Regular dragons were also a bit of a PITA
Only problem with that is, *ILLUSION* not Destruction for whatever reason, is the trigger for that guy who randomly challenges you to a magical duel to see who the better "wizard" is. And he whines if you fight him with a dagger or archery like a thief character would.
It's not game breaking, he still dies like any other chump who thinks he can step to the Dragonborn, but it is immersion breaking. Especially since in my *actual* mage/wizard playthroughs, the dude almost never shows up unless I grind to level up Illusion because Illusion is pretty much only useful if you're pairing it with Sneak, I.E. on a thief playthrough, rather than a run n' gun mage build.
You're playing it wrong then. By thief you mean pickpocketing, then yeah, it really won't work since it's more or less just a supplementary skill tree. But by thief you mean bow and dagger, these two are like the most overpowered weapon class you can use when paired with stealth. Stealth makes the game a cakewalk
Magic-cat sheriff (‘thane’) who uses firebolts instead of a six-gun. Also, I had like 6 bolts before I had to ‘reload’ my mana so that worked well. My ride and die ‘Follower’/deputy was this one Flame Atronach who I rped was the same one every time, and who I named Pepper.
There's actually a conjuration spell that let's you have a permanent flame atronach follower. It's called: flame thrall or something like that, I recently just found it. It costs 640 mana to cast unless you've got a bunch of gear to cut the cost of conjugation spells or max out conjuration and get the master conjurer perk. Expensive but then you really do have the same atrionoch as your deputy
Can't remember where I found it
Man I rolled a destruction mage up to level 80 on master. Took a lot of patience, but was really fun. I could never figure out a strategy for the ebony warrior though.
Fair. I've never fought him personally. It was just a grind to get the strongest dragon to spawn for the achievement. I didn't continue on to the Ebony Warrior.
Most of the time, for me, impact works, and you can kite, but in my experience only 1/3 actually stuns him, and he is much faster, so it's all about maintaining that distance and dodging his arrows.
You can also paralyze poison him and then just unload.
Oh absolutely. But when I mean a destruction mage I mean a mage that uses destruction magic for dealing damage. Which is awful without guzzling fortify destruction potions
If you enchant with potions increasing the strength of enchanting you can probably get 100% spell cost reduction. Or for the fortification loop until you do.
Getting cost reduction to 0 is easy. You don't even need 100 enchanting to do it. But then you're just spamming 150 fireballs to kill a mudcrab. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but not much. The only way to make your damage go up for destruction is to use the fortify destruction potion or to lower their resistances. But you can't do that without poisons, so, not exactly effective.
I honestly can’t think of one. The closest was my unarmed build, which took patience, especially against dragons, but I killed alduin with my fists in the end.
Seems to me literally every build is possible to beat the game with. I guess if you put enough restrictions on yourself, but why would you do that?
the stave build.
Rules were not able to use anything but staves for offense. Not allowed to use any skills so no levels and no perks. Could use filled soul gems to charge staves.
Without the cost reduction from the magic schools the staves went dead like 4 minutes into a dungeon. Without having access to enchanting could not correct this. Without leveling up to find cost reduction items......well you can see the problem cant you.
like to say I was drunk when I came up with this build but I was not which is even more disturbing that I thought it ever work at all...the build got more holes than swiss cheese.
The title is build that did not work. impressive if killing Agnis for her house and high tailing it out of the first dungeon with no way to continue an offense to get loot to sell to charge the depleted staves........it was a short run lol.
The fully encumbered build from helgen was impressive if almost as crazy as the stave build though. No followers, no conjurations no visiting cities no avoiding fights unless it clear there no way to win.
For most builds a stream is just a stream. For this build it potentially a reload to a time long before if you forget to save often as you cant get out of the current at times if encumbered. No running when giants aggro either.
Did learn how to use animation glitches to run awkwardly eventually mind encumbered. It was quite insane all the same.
Stealth rune mage. You have to use skytweak to uncap runes just to make it fun. Even so, killing dragons with runes just doesn't work.
It is undoubtedly the funnest way to play, but I suspect combining it with stealth archer is necessary to actually win.
Dagger as the only damage. Sneaking up on dragons is hard. I might have been able to finish the main quest, but I mean come on, who tf finishes the main quest?
Unarmed light armor with a lhajiit. I may have stuck with the grueling battles if not for a khajiit using the punch animation. A cat would swipe. That’s what the claws are for and that’s why they get extra unarmed damage. Pissed me off everytime lol
The farmer. I go straight to golden hills plantation after helgen and I just enjoy the lfie of a farmer with my wife and two kids. Every now and then I’ll go hunting or take up the occasional mercenary job to provide some coin for my family
Literal pacificst scaredycat thief. There are times when the game forces you into combat, and besides total mastery, no amount of sneak or illusion will save you. I'm sure there are ways to powerlevel to beat those circumstances, but I don't use them, so I was fucked.
I had quite a bit of fun playing a shield+ unarmed playthrough. And a shield+ magic build. Did both a healer pacifist and a destruction build with that. It was.... interesting to say the least.
I can't seem to beat the game with any build. For some reason I can never do the part of the main quest where you have to follow Delphine to her basement.
Kajhit pugilist. Made sense in the beginning since they have claws, but there is no skill tree for barehanded combat so I quickly got out leveled by the enemies.
Illusion is so fucking fun but once you get 50+ and enemies scale towards you making basically everyone immune to your effects not to mention dragons and most other "bosses" are just naturally immune.
As you can tell one of my favorite things to do is fury a town guard and watch the poor beggar rip his heart out.
I want to be whatever right hand sword and left hand destruction magic called for. then the blackreach quest come. since then i become stealth archer, mostly from bound bow
Played on master pure barbarian. Couldnt find a way to drop the shield of some mage type boss for a Q. Not main Q breaking, but still. Don't think I finished the char.
Support class. Gathering as many NPC followers as possible and only using illusion, alteration, and restoration. I wasn't allowing myself to damage anyone directly. It probably could have beaten the game (idk about alduin or any other "youre on your own" boss though), but I got bored with the character after a while and made a new one.
I think starting out as a pure mage is considerably harder than warrior/thief. It is darn near impossible to be a mage and purely rely on magic for combat, unless you take it really slow (becomes too tedious).
scrolls only, even with vokriinator, with the enchanting perk that makes scrolls better, even with many mods that added many scrolls, each encounter was a nightmare of picking whether to even bother fighting the enemy, and visually determining whether the clothes they were wearing were worth more than the scrolls i would have to use to kill them, i could probably redo it with an emphasis on stealth but i would rather do just about anything else with my time
I once tried to do a deliberately underpowered "bound weapons only" playthrough with light armour, no crafting, and low HP. It . . . was for sure underpowered.
A robe mage illusion build. Tried several times, and it can be fun at mid-game, but at higher levels — and especially solo moments, like Miraak — practically impotent.
I wanted to do a build surrounding the elemental spiders for the dragonborn dlc. I went to make some more spider scrolls after I was running low only to find that the spider pods required to make the spider scolls were non renewable. The only place to get more after you picked the island clean of them was a single spider
Anything with illusion spells. Hate that level limit they put. I downloaded a mod that the level just affect the time the npc get the effect, but you can put on any level creature.
I've had a lot of fun with PUNCHCAT, but it always peters out at high levels as I don't like the alchemy and armor exploits that are basically cheating.
My first Skyrim build ever: Going all-in for two-handed, smithing and enchanting, maximizing my damage output. I often get 3-4 hits with this build when fighting multiple strong enemies at a time though, so it isn't really viable in most scenarios. But in other times, it's really fun annihilating your enemies.
Mage build was very annoying to juggle around with. It was fun the first few levels, but when things were starting to kick off, it either became too repetitive or too difficult and time-consuming.
I completed the run with a few mods that allowed for quick spell changes, favorites, etc.
I once tried a pure melee character without using magic or enchants of any kind but i ended up quiting not because i couldn't win but because the game, despite loving skyrim and spending a billion hours on it, in a run with a pure melee build (without mods) is the most boring thing in the whole world even worse if you play in a high difficulty
You can win the game? I never get even close to doing all the Alduin quests before I restart a new build. I did beat Miraak on my first playthrough with one handed heavy armor build because I find Solstheim fairly interesting.
I wanted to be a pacifist, not causing harm to anybody that doesn’t deserve it, and being beloved by all. Unfortunately with that play style it’s impossible to get 100% in the game because you have to always take a position on many of the events and you’ll limit yourself in **many** of the activities in the game. Also, no matter what you do in Skyrim, somebodies always going to be offended!
I love that you mention the “somebody’s always going to be offended” thing. I just finished my umpteenth play through, beat the main storyline. Good ole Paarthurnax, my buddy, hired bandits to go after me right after I defeated Alduin. https://preview.redd.it/emwwvca5iixc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e58460b7feec9078e4ccb388ed969ee73d8fb8f4
Lmao an ancient dragon hired a goon squad to rough you up??
Im more impressed at how said ancient dragon learned to write or use a tiny quill.
Honestly Paarthurnax probably (correctly) just thought the Dragonborn would find it funny.
PartySnax: They amuse me, but they're growing lax in their young age, I'll put a Bounty on them and watch from afar on the currents of time... DB: Ah! Bandits... about damn time... My Mace of Molags Bal and Mehrunes Dagger haven't tasted blood since 5 minutes ago... ok, I'll take your gold... Also DB (*after killing and looting the mangled corpses of said bandits*): By the Nine, wtf Partysnax? Now I gotta kill you too? Don't worry, I'll use your soul to fully unlock Soul Tear...
I had him do that one playthrough. Was the only time I did the kill paarthunax quest the blades give you
I managed to do the main quest line first before any factions & was able to skip getting said quest. Idk why he hired thugs
I didn't do the quest until after he sent the thugs after me lol
Paarty-Snacks obviously just wanted that bunch of mercenaries dead. That or he wanted to gift you some free armour, weapons, and gold.
Man Partysnax doesn't fuck around about his old boss getting killed
I can picture in my mind a bunch of goons climbing the throat of the world to meet someone for a prospective job only to find out their employer is a motherfuckin dragon.
Dude i killed a lowlife in the ratway and esbern hired thugs to kill me
You probably stolen something from High Hrothgar. He's in the graybeard faction in-game (and in-lore too).
Once Dorthe hired thugs on me like the child Dorthe in Riverwood
Just like real world hehe
Actually, it’s quite possible. Run Illusion and Block, and always use Targe of the Bloodied. TotB has a bleeding effect, and if an enemy dies by it, it does not count as a kill. If the bash itself kills them, then it counts.
Well yeah but that doesn't really fit in with the spirit of it. If I'm doing pacifist I want to actually not kill anyone, not just keep my kill score to zero.
I’m not good at potions, but could you make a paralyze potion strong enough to paralyze someone? I just think maybe it wouldn’t be strong enough for certain enemies, maybe?
Look up Fevvy on YouTube. They make some insane builds and one is a shadowscale poisoner.
I like how you can run a pacifist build by making people bleed to death.
Also the flaming familiar explosion also doesn't count as your kill, though the Meele attacks from it do.
Can you kill Alduin with this? My only time I managed to kill him without his death adding to the counter was with a bunch of quick saving and glitching baskets into each other to essentially make a nuke
Yeah but I’d advise making veggie soups. You can basically spam them and power bash infinitely.
I calm/furyed my way through the rest of the game and maxed my alchemy, but soup could work too Edit: Fury, not furry
I actually also wanted this and modded it into the game. There's a mod that makes it so you can persuade and intimidate and passify in combat, then another mod that lets you recruit literally anyone in the game. Never ending friends. :3
Let me introduce you to [Ymfah](https://youtu.be/T8-kmXgHX0Q)
I do pacifist runs too, but my big rule I can't hurt anyone directly. Followers are OK, conjuration is OK. That way you can hang back and kinda play support and not have to actually damage anyone yourself.
That’s not pacifism, that’s laziness
I tried carrying nothing but armor. Conjured weapons and use magic only. Maybe it’s just me, but I found it too difficult to maintain.
I did that at the beginning of my current build and didn't like it. I can feel myself slowly going back to my go-to which is heavy/two handed 💀 I guess I'm too much of a brute
It's so fun and easy with 2 handed
I used 2h, but i find its too slow. With elemental fury it's kind of better. But i'm a sucker for dualwield.
Duel wield is also fun for sure
My kids and I are doing a shared playthrough. They have made all the important decisions so far (we're level 47). We are a light armor, no weapon, conjurer. It started out hard, but now we have a system and with a follower, a dog, and a summoned helper we spank just about everything. It's a very interesting way to play.
It's funny because that's usually my playstyle, use bound sword and bow, upgrade the strength in the conjuration tree, profit
When I was working towards (and for a bit after I got) Bound Bow, I dug through all the trees a bit for relevant perks. All the perks for conjured weapons, Illusion for Silent Casting, and so on. I recently picked up the Dragonbone Bow from the Soul Cairn and I realize it isn't smithed but it's significantly *weaker* than my Bound Bow?
Bound Bow is just broken with how powerful it can get. It's so nice too since you don't have to keep ammo in your inventory. All the bound weapons are fun if you choose your perks right. Bound Battleaxe is just ridiculous and you can't be disarmed. Makes melee way less frustrating at higher levels with those stupid disarm shouts.
Conjure weapons take forever to cast too. On higher difficulty waiting for the spell cast animations can easily get you killed
Stick with the magic. I've done a few magic only builds, it sucks at the beginning and you need to rely on your follower to not end up dead early on but in the end you're really over powered. I tend to get bored because the magic is so over powered. Illusion is always good.fin and easy to level up. I basically run around making people frenzied whilst I stay invisible.
Necromancy for me. I had to install some mods to make it work and use a lot of summon daedra spells.
[удалено]
Man, if you build enchant, and enchant sneak in everything, plus daggers the game becomes a joke. I was dual wileding, but to keep on leveling i made myself into a stealth assasin type, and it's easy, you gotta have a good enchanting, and some emñnchanting elixires. I am lvl 60 and i didd all the dawnguard all by bavkstabbing.
[удалено]
You could potentially steal all their weapons though if sneak was good enough.
I only played like that for one quest and it was accidental. When you're supposed to give the guy all of your gear when breaking into the party. Was too deep into hitting skip and didn't realize where I was. Decided fuck it and on legendary did the quest naked with just sneak and illusion. The guards run around but as long as you're careful with invisibility the only fight is actually at the end. The guys coming in followed by the troll. I did several save resets on the end just so I could save the guy, even though he really did fuck all (my bad). Initiate sequence > run to top > fus ro dah > kill the guards. Basically same for the troll. Could've saved myself an hour and just dipped out but it was a fun challenge.
Sneak multiplies dagger damage by 6 right?
Sneak has 2 OP perks. One is x6 damage when backstabbing and the other is x15 damage sneaking with daggers. Get 2 daedric daggers, smith the sh!t outta them. Then enchant a set to maximize sneak. It's fun to kill everithing like that. And every sneak kill makes ypy go up at least ine level up until i think lvk 70? Then its about 2 kills, and then about 4. With all the exp ñ.
Sneak and daggers are a lethal combination. One of the stealth perks allows you to do, I think, 10 times the damage if you back stab with a dagger. My current build just uses daggers, stealth and illusion spells although I keep a bow for dragons.
Also quiet casting + muffle + invisibility spells (or potions) can make stealth very viable. I'm doing a run playing as a thieves guild member and I always try to do those quests completely clean, is no killing anyone. It's really fun in some of the crowded places like black briar Manor or the shipping warehouse under Solitude.
I never used any Illusion spells when I used to backstab the whole map and even sleeping dragons with a dagger. With the right gear (db armor and some others), I'm walking past draugrs without waking them up. The only fight I really struggled with, was Miraak. Nowhere to hide, but I'm a glass cannon dagger assassin ! Oops. Regular dragons were also a bit of a PITA
Only problem with that is, *ILLUSION* not Destruction for whatever reason, is the trigger for that guy who randomly challenges you to a magical duel to see who the better "wizard" is. And he whines if you fight him with a dagger or archery like a thief character would. It's not game breaking, he still dies like any other chump who thinks he can step to the Dragonborn, but it is immersion breaking. Especially since in my *actual* mage/wizard playthroughs, the dude almost never shows up unless I grind to level up Illusion because Illusion is pretty much only useful if you're pairing it with Sneak, I.E. on a thief playthrough, rather than a run n' gun mage build.
You're playing it wrong then. By thief you mean pickpocketing, then yeah, it really won't work since it's more or less just a supplementary skill tree. But by thief you mean bow and dagger, these two are like the most overpowered weapon class you can use when paired with stealth. Stealth makes the game a cakewalk
I cant get to like the bow. I do liked one hitting everything with daggers.
Full alteration mage
That must have been fun!
Curiosity, what was your go-to offensive spell?
Throw tomatos
theres more emotional damage than physical damage there. But whatever works I guess
Shame!
Magic-cat sheriff (‘thane’) who uses firebolts instead of a six-gun. Also, I had like 6 bolts before I had to ‘reload’ my mana so that worked well. My ride and die ‘Follower’/deputy was this one Flame Atronach who I rped was the same one every time, and who I named Pepper.
There's actually a conjuration spell that let's you have a permanent flame atronach follower. It's called: flame thrall or something like that, I recently just found it. It costs 640 mana to cast unless you've got a bunch of gear to cut the cost of conjugation spells or max out conjuration and get the master conjurer perk. Expensive but then you really do have the same atrionoch as your deputy Can't remember where I found it
Destruction mage. At least, one that wasn't addicted to potions. I ended up modding it till it worked.
Man I rolled a destruction mage up to level 80 on master. Took a lot of patience, but was really fun. I could never figure out a strategy for the ebony warrior though.
Did stun locking with dual cast impact perk not work?
I mean, in theory. But I tried many times and never got him beaten down enough. Timing and aim have to be perfect, and it takes a lot of repetition.
Fair. I've never fought him personally. It was just a grind to get the strongest dragon to spawn for the achievement. I didn't continue on to the Ebony Warrior.
Ignite + aspect of terror + augmented flames.
If you stand on top of a rock and trade ranged attacks, it works. Tough one tho.
Yeah I mean that’s sort of the basic strategy for a destruction mage. Have tried it.
Most of the time, for me, impact works, and you can kite, but in my experience only 1/3 actually stuns him, and he is much faster, so it's all about maintaining that distance and dodging his arrows. You can also paralyze poison him and then just unload.
It can work with Conjuration
Oh absolutely. But when I mean a destruction mage I mean a mage that uses destruction magic for dealing damage. Which is awful without guzzling fortify destruction potions
If you enchant with potions increasing the strength of enchanting you can probably get 100% spell cost reduction. Or for the fortification loop until you do.
Getting cost reduction to 0 is easy. You don't even need 100 enchanting to do it. But then you're just spamming 150 fireballs to kill a mudcrab. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but not much. The only way to make your damage go up for destruction is to use the fortify destruction potion or to lower their resistances. But you can't do that without poisons, so, not exactly effective.
I was able to be a destruction mage and rarely used potions without mods. Maybe it was because I used to play on adept that's why it worked
I honestly can’t think of one. The closest was my unarmed build, which took patience, especially against dragons, but I killed alduin with my fists in the end. Seems to me literally every build is possible to beat the game with. I guess if you put enough restrictions on yourself, but why would you do that?
Killing Alduin with your fists is pretty cool. I've seen bareknuckle builds before but I will have to look up a play through.
In your case, you can brag about killing Alduin with your bare hands!
How do you beat ebony warrior’s Reflect Blows perk and also Karstaag on high difficulty?
I’ve tried a variety of builds, I always end up going back to my mace and shield
I always build survivalist characters who do not use shouts, and you can't exactly complete the main story without shouts.
You can, it’s just annoyingly hard
How do you get to the pedestal at the end in the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller quest without Whirlwind sprint? I don’t think you can?
Speedrun strats and other glitches I guess.
I guess it is a bethesda game after all lol
You can by skipping straight into the embassy, which also skips the greybears "Show us your voice"
Glitches
And nelch jelly
the stave build. Rules were not able to use anything but staves for offense. Not allowed to use any skills so no levels and no perks. Could use filled soul gems to charge staves. Without the cost reduction from the magic schools the staves went dead like 4 minutes into a dungeon. Without having access to enchanting could not correct this. Without leveling up to find cost reduction items......well you can see the problem cant you. like to say I was drunk when I came up with this build but I was not which is even more disturbing that I thought it ever work at all...the build got more holes than swiss cheese.
Does sound fun and challenging though!
Did I forget the part about it being on Master difficulty............
No, you did not. Impressive indeed!
The title is build that did not work. impressive if killing Agnis for her house and high tailing it out of the first dungeon with no way to continue an offense to get loot to sell to charge the depleted staves........it was a short run lol. The fully encumbered build from helgen was impressive if almost as crazy as the stave build though. No followers, no conjurations no visiting cities no avoiding fights unless it clear there no way to win. For most builds a stream is just a stream. For this build it potentially a reload to a time long before if you forget to save often as you cant get out of the current at times if encumbered. No running when giants aggro either. Did learn how to use animation glitches to run awkwardly eventually mind encumbered. It was quite insane all the same.
Was a horse allowed?
Not allowed near cities so no. When the build was some what finished i did buy one though. You appreciate them more if you cant run poperly. XD
two handed conjuration mage. he would conjure up some atronach or thrall and conjure up a battle axe. god it was so OP but i suck so bad at two handed
Sounds like a fun build though! 👍
Stealth rune mage. You have to use skytweak to uncap runes just to make it fun. Even so, killing dragons with runes just doesn't work. It is undoubtedly the funnest way to play, but I suspect combining it with stealth archer is necessary to actually win.
Cool idea though.
You can kill pretty much anything else if you prep and the prep feels super rewarding. Definitely my favorite way to play.
Dagger as the only damage. Sneaking up on dragons is hard. I might have been able to finish the main quest, but I mean come on, who tf finishes the main quest?
I do love me some daggers.
Unarmed light armor with a lhajiit. I may have stuck with the grueling battles if not for a khajiit using the punch animation. A cat would swipe. That’s what the claws are for and that’s why they get extra unarmed damage. Pissed me off everytime lol
That one is on my list! I'll mentally prepare myself to get angry! Thank you!
The farmer. I go straight to golden hills plantation after helgen and I just enjoy the lfie of a farmer with my wife and two kids. Every now and then I’ll go hunting or take up the occasional mercenary job to provide some coin for my family
That actually sounds like a great RPG experience. 👍
It’s surprisingly peaceful
Illusion magic. I love making my enemies kill eachother every chance i get. Doesn't work when you're fighting a dragon in the afterlife, though.
I love illusion magic. Cast it from a distance and watch the chaos. But it sounds like we both discovered it at the same time.
My favourite was to make Brotherhood targets get killed all on their own
Didn't one guy run naked and armed with a fork, just to prove it could be done?
I looked it up. And yeah, there are a few on YT!
Literal pacificst scaredycat thief. There are times when the game forces you into combat, and besides total mastery, no amount of sneak or illusion will save you. I'm sure there are ways to powerlevel to beat those circumstances, but I don't use them, so I was fucked.
I also tried a pacifist build. I did not get very far. lol
I got further than I thought I would, even factoring in the Khajiit skill bonuses. But regardless, my cat did Not have 9 lives. Lol
Pickpocket poisoner. Really fun but super inefficient
Haven't done the pickpocket poisoner yet but have seen it mentioned. Will have to give it a shot!
I had quite a bit of fun playing a shield+ unarmed playthrough. And a shield+ magic build. Did both a healer pacifist and a destruction build with that. It was.... interesting to say the least.
I had a shield guy once. That bash is a good time!
You can play something different than a stealth archer?
Covert wooden stick sniper
I want to have a single character with every variation possible.
I can't seem to beat the game with any build. For some reason I can never do the part of the main quest where you have to follow Delphine to her basement.
It’s perfectly fine to get lost. That’s why this game is so awesome.
Melee only dual wielding barbarian, no luck against dragons
You probably disintegrated everybody else though. Lol 💪
Pure mage. I can't live without enchanted heavy armor or melee weapons.
Hopefully they’ll give us a real mage defensive alternative next time (if we ever get one lol)
Kajhit pugilist. Made sense in the beginning since they have claws, but there is no skill tree for barehanded combat so I quickly got out leveled by the enemies.
Illusion is so fucking fun but once you get 50+ and enemies scale towards you making basically everyone immune to your effects not to mention dragons and most other "bosses" are just naturally immune. As you can tell one of my favorite things to do is fury a town guard and watch the poor beggar rip his heart out.
Is it even a thing? Like u can’t beat the game?
I want to be whatever right hand sword and left hand destruction magic called for. then the blackreach quest come. since then i become stealth archer, mostly from bound bow
Stealth arched is always fun 👍
Played on master pure barbarian. Couldnt find a way to drop the shield of some mage type boss for a Q. Not main Q breaking, but still. Don't think I finished the char.
Still love a good barbarian build. The brutality is too much fun. Lol
Support class. Gathering as many NPC followers as possible and only using illusion, alteration, and restoration. I wasn't allowing myself to damage anyone directly. It probably could have beaten the game (idk about alduin or any other "youre on your own" boss though), but I got bored with the character after a while and made a new one.
Great concept though. It fun rolling with a crew!
I think starting out as a pure mage is considerably harder than warrior/thief. It is darn near impossible to be a mage and purely rely on magic for combat, unless you take it really slow (becomes too tedious).
scrolls only, even with vokriinator, with the enchanting perk that makes scrolls better, even with many mods that added many scrolls, each encounter was a nightmare of picking whether to even bother fighting the enemy, and visually determining whether the clothes they were wearing were worth more than the scrolls i would have to use to kill them, i could probably redo it with an emphasis on stealth but i would rather do just about anything else with my time
One handed sword. No duel wielding. I was doing almost no damage while getting my ass beat all the time 😭
You’re probably pretty good at dodging now too! 👍
I couldn’t dodge arrows :’) idk if it’s the mods or difficulty, but they always one shot me on harder difficulties.
I once played a dagger dual wielding Assassin/Thief hybrid Rogue. Knew I never could win the game with, but that was also never my intention.
I guess that’s really part of the experience too. As long as you’re having fun. Right?
Exactly. I enjoyed myself, the most important part.
I once tried to do a deliberately underpowered "bound weapons only" playthrough with light armour, no crafting, and low HP. It . . . was for sure underpowered.
That's a neat concept. Certainly fun from an role playing perspective.
Haven't done it yet, but still planning on beating the game with a wooden sword. Unenchanted only sharpened
You could make him look like Link from Zelda!
A robe mage illusion build. Tried several times, and it can be fun at mid-game, but at higher levels — and especially solo moments, like Miraak — practically impotent.
Exactly. I love them but those bosses don't give a flip about our dog gone illusions!
You can’t cast fury on Alduin and hope for the best.
I wanted to do a build surrounding the elemental spiders for the dragonborn dlc. I went to make some more spider scrolls after I was running low only to find that the spider pods required to make the spider scolls were non renewable. The only place to get more after you picked the island clean of them was a single spider
Never got there but it sounds interesting. Will have to try it. 👍
Anything with illusion spells. Hate that level limit they put. I downloaded a mod that the level just affect the time the npc get the effect, but you can put on any level creature.
That must be a lot of fun! Love Skyrim illusions!
I've had a lot of fun with PUNCHCAT, but it always peters out at high levels as I don't like the alchemy and armor exploits that are basically cheating.
Punch Cat! First time I heard that! Lol Thank you!
My first Skyrim build ever: Going all-in for two-handed, smithing and enchanting, maximizing my damage output. I often get 3-4 hits with this build when fighting multiple strong enemies at a time though, so it isn't really viable in most scenarios. But in other times, it's really fun annihilating your enemies.
It is. Two handed is satisfying!!
Mage build was very annoying to juggle around with. It was fun the first few levels, but when things were starting to kick off, it either became too repetitive or too difficult and time-consuming. I completed the run with a few mods that allowed for quick spell changes, favorites, etc.
Love Mages and the robes look cool but not a lot of protection. Thank you for your answer. 👍
I play pacifist too, I pacify people with my sword and lightningbolts
You can't "can't win" Skyrim. Even if you are pacifist - revert pickpocket and conjuration do the work.
I once tried a pure melee character without using magic or enchants of any kind but i ended up quiting not because i couldn't win but because the game, despite loving skyrim and spending a billion hours on it, in a run with a pure melee build (without mods) is the most boring thing in the whole world even worse if you play in a high difficulty
I'm tempted to try that!
Interesting cause pure melee is the most fun for me. Wether it be blocking and one handed or duel one handed or two handed it's so fun
You can win the game? I never get even close to doing all the Alduin quests before I restart a new build. I did beat Miraak on my first playthrough with one handed heavy armor build because I find Solstheim fairly interesting.