The Way of the Gimpus (Battlemage) Build

Remove all ads!

EDIT: Build is Now FINISHED!

PART I - Character Creation

A short introduction for character creation. Because you'll be hyper-training most of your skills, don't pick your race based on starting skill levels. That's a terrible way to do it, considering regardless of what you want to specialize in, you can start extremely early. It is much wiser to select a race based on their natural abilities and once-per-day special abilities.

Recommended Race: Breton - for the 25% magic resistance. By picking a few perks and equipment, you can pretty much make this character immune to both magic and elemental damage. (Elemental and magic resistance caps at 85%, so you can't get completely immune to it.)

Other solid choices:

Altmer - With a staring magicka pool at 150, you can get away with base magicka with my build. And the highborn ability makes transmuting minerals a lot faster.

Nord - Comes with a built-in "break glass in case of emergency" skill of Battlecry. The 50% cold resistance also helps against frost dragons.

Imperial - Also with a built-in emergency skill, Voice of the Emperor calms enemies instead of causing them to flee, but the end result is the same - it allows you to temporarily stop combat and regroup. Their other skill of finding more gold in chests has obvious benefits as well.

Orsimer - The Berserker Rage ability doubles your damage output, and cuts in half the damage you take. Very solid for those wishing to pursue a melee route with their battlemage.

Redguard - Adrenaline Rush increases your stamina recovery 10X. Again, if you are going for a melee battlemage, this has appeal. Less so for our bow using battlemages.

That said, any race CAN be a battlemage. We'll be training/leveling no fewer than 12 skills to 90+, with 5 of the remaining 6 getting above 50. So race is more an aesthetic choice than anything. The weakness of the character does come in the early going though, so picking a race that aids in early game survival seems wise.

PART II - Gameplay

By the end game, you're a fully outfitted F/M/T tri-class, capable of dropping a variety of arse-kicking techniques on your foes in just about any way you see fit. But that doesn't mean that you can go and spend perk points willy-nilly, and there are several different paths you can go to reach that end-game goal.

The truth is, you can't be a F/M/T when you're level 20, or even when you're level 40. You simply haven't acquired the requisite number of perks to optimize all three classes. That 3rd class isn't going to come into its own until you're level 50 or so.

The plan is to pick one of the three classes to hard-core train early on. That's the basis of how you'll handle combat throughout the first half of the game. Once you free-train those skills up to 50, you start actively using them, and will advance them most of the rest of the way on your own (although you can certainly come back to them during the optimization phase of your character's career).

A second class will be trained less but also incorporated into your play while growing up, although this one you'll have to put in most of the work yourself - at least until those first class skills get up to skill level 50. It will probably be your least-trained class, only getting some work in the very early part of the game to get them to some functional level, and perhaps coming back to them late game.

The third class will be advanced almost exclusively through training. You want to work on that third class between levels 25ish to 50ish by training them, even though you won't actively be using them throughout most of that training period. You work on them in the mid levels so they're ready to go by the higher levels.

You'll notice that I didn't list what you're 1st, 2nd, and 3rd classes should be. The reason is simple: I don't feel there is an optimal way to go about this. With three different classes, there are six different ways you could order them 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and there are pros and cons to each method.

That said, there does seem to be two paths that stand out above the rest. As the thief skills are seemingly the easiest to level on your own, I would advocate making the thief the "2nd" class you work on. The one that doesn't get priority for early training, and the class that you have to put the most work in on your own. Most of the thief skills are utility skills, with only sneak aiding directly in combat, so you don't necessarily have to go all-in on the thief, unless that's the way you like to play your character.

If we lock the thief into the second class, we now have two options: You either pour all your early training into the warrior skills, and become a F/T for the first half of the game. After the initial training flurry, you'll level the thief and warrior skills through use, and pick up your mage skills during mid-game training. Alternatively, it is equally effective to train up your mage skills early, and become a M/T for the first half of the game. You'll continue to level your thief and mage skills through use after that, and pick up your warrior skills during your mid-game training.

My personal preference is to develop the Warrior first, as I'm trying to minimize my magicka investment, and so putting off the high level mage skills until the end when I have access to equipment to reduce the magicka cost of those spells made the most sense to me. This allows me to only spend a few level ups on magicka increases, because I want to be able to cast some spells - most notably Muffle - throughout my character's career.

So pick one, and activate a guardian stone (from one of the first two classes - the third class you won't be using for a long time). If you take my advice and want to develop your thief skills on your own, the thief stone is a perfectly acceptable choice, and will speed up development of those skills. Then head over to Riverwood, pick up Faendal, and proceed directly to Whiterun. If you decide to start as a warrior, you've reached your destination, as the Companions will provide all you warrior training needs. If you want to start as a mage, grab a carriage to Winterhold and join the college. If you want to start as a thief, you're heading to Riften.

Regardless of which way you go, late-game training (post level 50ish) can be performed any way you like. All three classes will be functional by that time, even though you'll still have 15-20 character levels that you can reasonably expect to achieve. Your post level 50 career can be considered the optimization phase of your career. And it's in this phase where you decide which of the three classes is going to stand out above the rest, dictating your final perk decisions.

If you decide to read on, you'll notice that the build plan incorporates 55-60 perk points (mine was exactly 58, but you may take a few more or few less utility skills), even though I keep telling you that you can reasonably expect to get about 70-75 perks with this character. The part that I want to stress that makes this build so fun is that you have perks to play with. Those last 15 or so perks - enough to heavily invest two skill trees - are up to you to decide, although I certainly will give guidance as to what you can do with them in the sections that follow.

---------- Added 1 hours, 38 minutes and 59 seconds later... ----------

PART III - The Warrior

This is the battle part of the battle mage. I decided to specialize my battle component as a melee sword and shield character. That said, there's no reason you can't specialize in dual wielding, two handed, or archery. I'll give alterations to the build plan below if that's what you want to do.

Archery:
Target early training level: 40
Final training level: based on playstyle

Look, Faendal is going to be the first trainer you run into, and so everyone is going to train archery. And you'll probably gain a few levels by the time you get to Whiterun - or where ever your training destination is - so there's no reason to avoid it. Not only will archery be your primary means of knocking dragons out of the sky early on, every character is going to want to do some sniping in the early going. There's no reason not to devote at least a few perks into Archery.

Bare Bones Minimum: Overdraw 3/5.
I added in Eagle Eye, just because I find it so useful for distance shots, although it's certainly not obligatory. If you wish to specialize in archery, all of the perks are either directly useful, or are prerequisites for later useful perks. Pick them up as they become available.

Block:
Target early Training level: 50 if specializing in Sword and Shield or Two-Handed, leave it at base early on if specializing in archery or dual wielding.
Final Training level: 90 - but again only if specializing in Sword and Shield or Two Handed.

While any character can achieve the armor cap where 80% physical damage is reduced (at total armor value 567), blocking takes it further by being applied BEFORE the damage reduction from armor kicks in. So even two-handed warriors should invest something into block. (NOTE: All the block skills on the right hand side work with a two handed weapon, while the left ones require the use of a shield.) If you use a shield, it also directly contributes to your total armor value. Quick Reflexes causes enemy power attacks to be done in slow motion, allowing you to easily move out of the way and counterattack. Shield bashing temporarily stuns your opponent allowing you free hits too. So there is some offense on the block tree, which is why both one-handed and two-handed warriors could (and should) make use of it.

Obviously, if you are dual wielding or use archery as your primary offense, you ignore this skill completely, and would only train it late-game when all your other training needs are taken care of. If you are two-handed or sword and shield:

Bare Bones Minimum: Shield Wall 1/5, Quick Reflexes, Power Bash, Deadly Bash (If you're going to work on Block, you've GOT to bash. It raises the skill and stuns enemies!)
If using a shield, Deflect Arrows and Elemental Protection are extremely useful, especially the latter if you want to reach to elemental resistance cap. But the remaining perks are strictly optional for late game development.

Heavy Armor:
Target early training level: None
Final training level: Low Priority

While it certainly doesn't hurt to train this skill, it largely takes care of itself. Every time you get hit (hey, it happens to the best of us) - you gain experience towards leveling heavy armor, provided you're wearing at least on piece of heavy armor. So why train something that will level on its own in the early part of the game when you have other more pressing training needs? I actually recommend wearing a combination of heavy and light armor (heavy on body and head, along with the Thieves Guild boots, and Dark Brotherhood gloves) while growing up, to simultaneously level both the skills, as well as helping out with pickpocketing and sneak attacks.

I also recommend no perks in the heavy armor tree. Wearing a decent set of heavy armor with even and average skill level will allow you to reach the armor cap without any help from the right hand side of the tree, and only perk on the left hand side that would prove useful is Conditioning, but it requires taking 4 perks that you don't need.

One-Handed and Two-Handed

I'm taking these together, because the plan is the same even though you'll only pick one to work on. The other one is the ONLY one of the 18 skills in the game that will go virtually untouched, or at the very least it will be LAST skill you work on.

Target Early Training Level - 50 in one of them, nothing in the other
Final Training Level - 90 in the one, nothing in the other

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, because it's self evident.

Get Armsman 3/5, Fighting Stance, and Savage strike early if you're Sword and Shield
Take Armsman to 5/5 later on.

Get Armsman 3/5, and Dual Flurry early if dual wielding. Add in Armsman 5/5, the second Dual Flurry and Dual Savagery as they become available later.

Get Barbarian 3/5, Champion's Stance, and Devastating Blow if you're going Two-Handed. Add in Barbarian 5/5 and Sweep as they become available.

Smithing:
Target early Training level: none
Final Training level: none - all the crafting skills can be leveled on your own. That said, you're definitely going to want to max this skill.

All armor types - even steel - can get you to armor cap provided you have a high smithing skill, and decent +smithing gear equipped when making it. So as for armor, it's more of an aesthetic choice than anything. However, there's no cap on weapon damage, and the better smithing levels offer weapons with a higher damage ceiling. As such, I recommend going up the right hand side of the tree to Daedric, as well as picking up Arcane Blacksmith. There's no need for Dragon Smithing. You get no weapons from it, and if you can't be arsed to find daedra hearts, a nice set of ebony armor and weapons will be more than good enough. I recommend you pick up the perks as they become available.

So depending on what specific fighting style you'll pick, you'll need to spend approximately 24 total perks on the warrior side, of which 11-15 are recommended for early development. Specializing in Archery requires the least early development, sword and shield requires the most because of needing perks in both block and one-handed, but all the fighting styles finish with 23-25 perks. Remember that you can instantly level to 25 so you have plenty to spare for the other two classes.

---------- Added 1 hours, 48 minutes and 42 seconds later... ----------

PART IV - The Thief

The thief is your 2nd class that is developed and used concurrently with your warrior abilities through about the first 50 levels of character development. (And then everything changes.) Unlike the warrior skills, the thief skills are largely utility skills that are easier to develop on their own. As such they are lower priority candidates for training, with one exception: Speech. Let's start there.

Speech:
Target early Training Level: 50
Final Training Level: 50 - after you get there and pick up Merchant, you can let it develop on its own.

The 50 is for the Merchant perk, which requires a perk in Haggling and Allure. So the base build recommends 3 - and only 3 - perks in the skill. There's a two-fold reasoning for this. The first is exactly what the description of the perk describes - it allows you to sell any type of item to any type of merchants. We're training the hell out of this character, and after a skill exceeds level 50, we're going to need money to train them. Most skill trainers are also merchants - including every single wizard at the College. When you train, the money you spend gets added to the trainer's available gold if (s)he's a merchant. This allows you to sell enchanted equipment and potions to the trainer following training to recoup at least a portion of the training costs.

The second aspect isn't in the description. Acquiring the merchant perk increases the number of items a merchant has in his stock. This is most notable with alchemy merchants. There's a list of about 10 alchemy reagents that you'll never see if you don't get the merchant perk. (Most importantly, bear claws, which are used for several high value potions.)

These two aspects make Merchant one of the most powerful perks in the game, and a must for just about any character. That's why it's the only thief skill with a high training priority. The bard in Markarth and the guy with the fur hat at the Bard College both train Speech, and you should pay them a visit early. Keep in mind that speech is a skill that pays you back all game by getting you better prices. You're only helping yourself by grabbing it early. Just don't spend perks beyond those required 3.

Alchemy:
Target early Training level: none
Final Training level: none - all the crafting skills can be leveled on your own. That said, you're definitely going to want to max this skill.

Alchemy is the most difficult skill to recommend perks for. It's possible to level this skill all the way up to 100 without a single perk, and make a lot of money doing it. Strictly speaking, you don't need any perks in alchemy. That said, remember that we have about 15-20 perks that are yours to do with as you wish, and I couldn't fault you for placing some of them here.

Experience in alchemy is gained based on the value of the potion your produce. Perks in alchemy improve the effects (and therefore value) of the potion. So perks in alchemy make you more money and allow you to level the skill faster. With this approach, any perk that improves the value of potions could be considered. So Alchemist 5/5, Physician, Poisoner, and Benefactor are all candidates. The more you take, the more money you'll make.

Perks: none in base build, up to 8 optional perks, with any total in between showing increasing benefits.

Light Armor:
Target Early Training Level: none
Final Training Level: none

My comments here are identical to heavy armor. Wearing a combination of light and heavy armor (I recommend the Dark Brotherhood gloves and Thieves' Guild boots) gives experience towards both skills every single time you get hit, and they develop pretty well on their own. Gimpus had both these skills in the 50s by the time he got to level 50, without any training. More is better with the armor skills, but they don't get priority in training. And since by the end game you'll be using heavy armor, you need NO perks here.

Lockpicking:
Target Early Training Level: none
Final Training Level: none

It is possible to pick a master level lock with a base 15 skill. You're going to pick a lot of locks with this character, and the skill will level on its own through use. Gimpus had a skill of 60 when he was level 50, and it just keeps going up. While it is unlikely that you'll pick enough locks to max it out at 100, getting this skill into the 70s and 80s will happen eventually. No training necessary here, and no perks either.

Pickpocket:
Target Early Training Level: none
Final Training Level: none

This skill doesn't need to be trained not because it isn't important, but because it's going to be the very first skill you max out - completely through use - and it will likely be maxed out before you leave Whiterun. It's the whole key to pickpocket training. Each time you train, quicksave, and try to get the money back. I highly recommend that you train level 15 skills first, because you'll have the highest chance of success. Pickpocket training raises the skill extremely quickly, but you're going to be constantly reloading without some perk investment. To have a 90% chance to pickpocket back your gold up the training level of 50, the following perks are obligatory:

Light Fingers 1/5, Night Thief, Cutpurse. Combine with the Thieves' Guild boots for best results. I also highly recommend the perk "Extra Pockets" for the extra carrying capacity of 100 - that's a lot.

Now we also get into optional points. Training up to level 50 is free with the perk allocation described above. When you hit level 51, the cost of training triples, and with the perks and equipment described above, you'll have exactly a 0% chance to steal back your gold at level 51. However, there is a means of stealing back your gold all the way up to level 75. With the Guild Master's boots, an amulet and ring of pickpocketing (which only need to be worn while doing this), as well as getting the Light Fingers 5/5, you can maintain a 90% success rate for pickpocketing your gold back from merchants all the way to level 75. The question is, is it worth it?

Cost of fully training a skill from level 51-75 = 48,500 gold. Since you're going to be training at least 4 skills in that range, the perk investment will save you 194,000 gold pieces. So it's definitely something to consider. You'll definitely improve your cash situation by investing in pickpocketing and alchemy, but as was the case before, since it's not strictly necessary, I won't include it in the base build.

For those wondering about training levels 76-90, as near as I can tell, it simply isn't possible to get a 90% success rate. At level 76, there's a big jump in training costs again. To train a skill to level 75 costs 2300 gold, but to train it to 76, it costs 3850 gold, and it increases by another 50 gold every level thereafter, meaning it gets increasingly difficult the higher you go. Even with optimized equipment, you'll have less than a 50% chance for success at level 76, and it drops all the way to 11% at level 90. So while it's possible, I don't want to spend all my playing time reloading. It's also by far the most expensive training. Fully training a skill from level 76-90 costs 63,750 gold.

Sneak:
Target early Training Level: 40
Final Training Level: none - I recommend you level it on it's own after reaching level 40.

In addition to Speech, Sneak is the only other thief skill I would consider early training. I personally do not find it difficult to level on it's own to level 40, but it is an important skill to develop early and I wouldn't complain if you trained it to 40. The obligatory perks for the build include:

Stealth 1/5, Backstab, Deadly Aim

In dungeons you should always be sneaking. It's always better to start a battle on your terms, which is what sneaking allows. Muffled Movement is not a required perk, because one of the spells I recommend having active at all times in dungeons is Muffle. Muffle reduces noise from armor 100%, making the perk superfluous, as well as making any additional investment in Stealth a low priority (and the spell raises your illusion skill to boot).

Also, if you selected one-handed weapons as your warrior fighting style of choice, it allows you to skip Assassin's Blade. With the damage bonus from Armsman, the 6x damage from the perk Backstab, and wearing the Dark Brotherhood gloves (bring it to 12X damage), I have yet to find anything I couldn't one-shot while hidden. (NOTE: I haven't tested it on dragons or giants, so it might not work on everything.) If you are NOT specializing in one-handed, then I recommend carrying a dagger on you and picking up Assassin's Blade. So either a 3 or 4 point requirement.

Which concludes the thief. As you can see, there's a wide range of amount of perks you could spend here. At a minimum, we need 10 (all of which should be acquired by level 25), but you could argue that you can use as many as 23 (which necessarily would have to be put off until later.. With Gimpus I took the minimum of 10, but if you want to TRULY play a tri-class, with an even distribution of skills and perks in all 3, shooting for the high end is possible.

For those keeping track, I'm recommending a 15-10 split between warrior and thief perks over your first 25 levels. (Which you can easily accomplish without fighting a god damn thing after you leave Helgen.)

You can complete all necessary perk placements in the Warrior and Thief trees between level 35-48, depending on how many optional perks you spend in the Thief tree.

---------- Added 0 hours, 51 minutes and 50 seconds later... ----------

NO! Power failure! Right when I was nearly done! Part V - the mage will have to wait!

 

BUILD IS NOW COMPLETE

PART V - The Mage

Some opening comments. While you are going to have a freakin' ton of perks, you're going to be limited to specializing in two schools of magic (for reasons described below). So plan early. The only school I would recommend against specializing in is Restoration. With the exception of some of the highest level Restoration spells, like Bane of the Undead, Turn Greater Undead, and Guardian Circle, all of the other Restoration spells can be cast for a rather modest amount of magicka (the highest cost spell that doesn't turn undead is 130 magicka). Since you can make undead flee (or calm them, or frenzy them) utilizing the Illusion skills in conjunction with the Master of the Mind perk, it makes little sense to pick Restoration as one of the two schools.

Secondly, if you're going to be a battlemage, I cannot see why you wouldn't pick Destruction as one of your two schools. While you don't HAVE to pick Destruction, IMO, you're really not a battlemage if you can't shoot fire and lightning everywhere. My build specialized in Destruction and Conjuration. However, if you chose to be more of a thief type battlemage, I'd switch out Conjuration with Illusion. I can see some argument for Alteration, as there are a great many spells in that school with casting costs that will exceed our magicka pool, put most of those spell effects can be duplicated with potions or item enchantments (Invisibility, Paralyze, Waterbreathing).

Finally, there is absolutely no need to invest in any of the Apprentice-Master [school of magic] perks in the two schools you specialize in. We're going to be casting them for free, so they'll be reduced 100%. You will have to pick up Novice Level [school of magic] to unlock the rest of the perk tree, but that's it.

Let's get started with the only mage skill that doesn't cast spells.

Enchanting:
Target early Training level: none
Final Training level: none - all the crafting skills can be leveled on your own. That said, you're definitely going to want to max this skill.

You're going to want to max it sooner than later. Certainly, you want to have it maxed by the time you bring your mage skills online. Whatever two schools of magic you pick, the high-end Expert and Master level spells have very high magicka costs that will far outstrip our magicka pool. So the only way we're casting them is to enchant items that reduce that casting cost. To that end, we need the Extra Effect perk to negate the casting cost in two schools of magic.

Required perks: Enchanter 5/5, Insightful Enchanted, Corpus Enchanter, Extra Effect. And all 8 are obligatory.

This perk investment will allow you to craft equipment with the -25% casting cost for [school of magic] spells. Since there are four different pieces of equipment that can have this enchantment (body armor, head gear, amulet, and ring) you can get two different schools of magic to -100% casting cost (meaning they are cast for free).

Conjuration:
Target early Training level: none
Final Training level: 90

This is one of two skills you'll raise to 90 almost exclusively through training. I would list it as a moderate priority skill. You want to start training mage skills as soon as you finish getting your most needed warrior and thief skills to 50. It's also possible to be a very powerful conjuror without breaking the bank with perk points, because you don't need to be able to summon atronachs and undead. Pick one or the other, and pair them up with Dremora Lords, and you'll do just fine. I personally recommend Atronachs, as the undead summons require you to have a body handy.

Recommended Perks: Novice Conjuration, Conjuration Dual Casting, Summoner 2/2, Atromancy, Elemental Potency, Twin Souls. Sub out Atromancy and Elemental Potency with Necromancy and Dark Souls if you prefer to summon undead. Either way it's just a 7 perk investment.

Destruction:
Target early Training level: none
Final Training level: 90

This is the other skill you'll raise to 90 almost exclusively through training. You won't use destruction much at all until you get to 90 either, as until you get access to the high end spells, you'll be much better off relying on your sword and bow for dealing damage. (Not to mention you won't have the magicka to cast many destruction spells before you get your final gear.)

Once you get to level 90, you'll be casting a very limited spell book. For single targets, use some combination of Icy Spear, Incinerate, or Thunderbolt, while for area of effect spells you'll have Blizzard, Fire Storm, or my personal favorite, Lightning Storm (although one could argue that Lightning Storm is more of a single target spell - it's certainly less area of effect than the other two). There's no need to even purchase the other spells if you do not feel inclined, because none of them will match the damage output of the expert and master level spells.

The obligatory perks include: Novice Destruction, Destruction Dual Casting, and Impact. The other perks are optional. Augmented Flames 2/2, Augmented Frost 2/2, and Augmented Shock 2/2. I like all three, just because the three elements all have their strengths that make one the optimal choice depending on the combat situation. (Fire works the best for undead, frost works the best against melee non-undead, and lightning works the best against casters. Also Fire or Frost will be most effective against dragons - pick the opposite element as their breath weapon.) That said, you don't HAVE to get two perks in all three. You could go for as little as one, in which case I'd pick lightning, as that works against everything, as nothing has high resistance to lightning. In fact, AFAIK, Bretons, with their innate 25% resistance to all magic are the only things that have any resistance to lightning at all.

So anywhere between 5-9 perks here.

That's it for the must-have mage spells and perks. The other 3 schools of magic we'll raise by casting specific spells in the school, and I wouldn't recommend training any of them past 50, unless you've finished everything else and there's nothing left to train. For the most part, since they are low priority training, chances are they will already be 50 or higher by the time you'd want to give them a look.

Illusion:
Target early Training level: none
Final Training level: 50

Unless, of course, you are planning on picking Illusion in lieu of Conjuration. The two schools of magic do not combine particularly well, so it's most likely an either/or choice. Regardless, the one spell you will cast a lot is Muffle. It requires 130 magicka to cast at Illusion skill level 20, and that's the reason why I advocate getting your magicka pool to 130 fairly early in the game. The duration of Muffle is easily long enough for your magicka pool to completely regenerate, so there's no need for enough magicka to cast multiple iterations of it.

You should always have muffle active and be sneaking whenever you're in a dungeon. It's always best to start the battle on YOUR terms, and using Muffle in conjunction with Sneak allows this. I've never trained Illusion or Sneak, and just from casting Muffle and Sneaking, both my Illusion and Sneak skills are in the 70s. It's really that easy.

There is on perk in the Illusion tree that bears mentioning, that will prove useful even if you don't specialize in Illusion - Quiet Casting. It would allow you to quiet cast all of your Conjuration and Destruction skills. It has Novice Illusion, Animage, and Kindred Mage as prerequisites, but it is an option for where to spend some extra perks, although not included in the base build.

Alteration:
Target early Training level: none
Final Training level: 50 - although possibly 70 (see below)

Alteration is another school of magic that will be leveled through use. Illusion has muffle, Alteration has Transmute. Transmute will likely be your most-cast spell. You can pick up the spell early at Halted Stream Camp (which conveniently also has about a dozen iron ore veins to mine). It's typically the quest you receive from the Companions in "Proving Honor", so it will even be placed on your map.

Every time you go to town, you stop by all the blacksmiths, buy all the iron ore they have, and transmute it twice into gold ore. (I would not recommend standing at the blacksmith, waiting for your magicka to keep regenerating, I usually stop at the blacksmith as my first stop in town, and just cast it between my other stops.) Gold ore can be used to make jewelry, which increases your smithing skill by a huge amount. It's probably the most experience you can get from a single item. That it is also profitable (even if you don't enchant the jewelry) is just a bonus.

As an aside, I usually do NOT enchant the jewelry unless I'm doing so for a piece of jewelry I intend to wear. An enchanted iron dagger is typically worth more than an enchanted ring, and since filled soul gems are typically the limiting ingredient when it comes to crafting, I'm disinclined to spend them on anything other than weapons.

As with illusion, while there are no alteration perks in the base build, there is one that you could consider as a place for your spare points: Magic Resistance. There's 3 levels of Magic Resistance, each of which give a 10% increase available at skill levels 30, 50, and 70. If the only Alteration skill you cast is Transmute - even though you'll literally cast it hundreds of times - chances are you're going to have to train Alteration a bit if you want to get it to 70 for the full 3 perks. Transmute gives easy level ups to Alteration in the early going, but it really slows down past level 50.

Optional perks: Magic Resistance 3/3, which has prerequisites of Novice and Apprentice Alteration.

Restoration:
Target early Training level: none
Final Training level: 50

As stated above, there are really no spells that will require more than 130 magicka that you'll want to cast. The top level Restoration spell - Grand Healing - that heals you and everyone around you 300 health has a casting cost of 127. You're not going to need more than that. So this is another skill that I'd plan to level gradually through use, but I wouldn't go out of my way to train it unless I had everything else I wanted.

Unlike the other two secondary magic schools, there aren't any perks I would consider taking either. Regeneration sounds nice, with an additional 50% healing, but Grand Healing already heals you 300 health. Most characters don't even HAVE 450 health so 300 is enough to pretty much fully heal you and your allies the way it is. And I can't really give a major vote towards Recovery either. You're already going to have an increased magicka regeneration rate based on enchantments on your armor, and the only spells you're going to need to spam (like destruction) are going to be free to cast anyway. So I don't see a big attraction for Restoration. Sure, take the easy levels by using it, but I don't think it's a good place to spend your extra perk points.

---------- Added 0 hours, 50 minutes and 0 seconds later... ----------

PART VI - Crafting and Enchantments

Periodically as you raise your enchanting skill, you'll want to enchant a set of armor that serves as crafting armor. One for smithing, and one for alchemy. As soon as you get your enchanting skill to 40, and get Enchanter 3/5, you'll likely be able to craft equipment that will exceed the bonus you would receive from items you find. (Unless you happen upon a +25% one in the early going.) You're not wearing the equipment during combat, so it's best to pick something cheap to make the equipment - like hide or leather. You also don't have to repeatedly make new sets every time you raise your enchanting level. I typically do it each time I place another perk in enchanter. So at enchanting skill level 40, 60, and 80. Then, once I get the Extra Effect perk at 100, I make a final set that serves double duty as both my smithing and alchemy gear.

As for actual equipment to use in combat, you're going to want to craft new weapons and armor each time you unlock a new perk in the smithing tree. Steel armor and weapons will be available before you leave Whiterun. Dwemer and Orcish serve as excellent upgrades for armor and weapons, respectively, as they become available. The final set you'll craft will be daedric, unless you don't feel inclined to find the hearts. The difference between ebony and daedric is marginal for weapons, and non-existent for armor (both will allow you to hit the armor cap), so while deadric is optimal, if you only get enough hearts for your weapons, there will be no in game difference between daedric and ebony.

For the actual enchantments on gear you'll be wearing while adventuring: On weapons, I use two almost exclusively. I have one weapon with soul trap, for the easy stuff when I want to fill soul gems, and paralyze for the enemies when I don't have an appropriate sized soul gem, or just when I'm fighting something where paralyze would be more beneficial than soul trap. In both cases, setting the enchantment for the minimum one second is the way to go. Soul trap will activate each time you strike an enemy, so the killing shot will always fall into the one second time frame. Also, a one second paralyze time is adequate to allow you to get another swing/shot off while the enemy recovers. Upon acquiring the extra effect perk, you'll place both enchantments on your daedric weapons to gain the benefits of both.

Your final gear will be centered around negating the casting costs of two schools of magic. So your body armor will have Fortify Destruction and Magicka Regeneration and Forify either Conjuration or Illusion and Magicka Regeneration. Your helm, amulet, and ring, will have the same two enchantments, although you can only get the +50% magicka regeneration mod on the body armor (so Forify Destruction and Fortify Conjuration/Illusion).

Exception: If you want to specialize as a mage, you're outlay will be slightly different. In this case, the third school of magic, you'll need the reduced casting cost perks, and I definitely will recommend the triple-crafting loop, which with perfect enchanting and alchemy skill, you can get reduced magicka cost of up to 29% on the individual pieces of gear. If you're only going for two schools, it's superfluous, as obtaining -112% magicka cost is the same as -100%. But if you want to do three schools, you want to split your eight slots as follows: In your two main schools of magic, three of the eight slots will be with a -29% casting cost, taking those up to -87% cost to cast. That's enough to get everything under 150 to cast and be within our magicka pool with just a little bit extra magicka. The third school of magic will take the final two slots, granting -58%, which, in conjunction with the apprentice-master perks will reduce the casting cost of the third school to a total of -79%. Like I said - you'll have to go a little higher with magicka - 130 won't be enough for multiple destruction castings. But 200-250 in conjunction with the very fast magicka regeneration you'll have (minimum +100%) and you can do it.

Your gloves are dependent upon what your primary melee weapon is. You'll pick either Fortify Archery, One Handed or Two Handed. The second one will be either Fortify Block (if going Sword and Shield), or your choice between Fortify Sneak, Fortify Lockpicking, or Fortify Pickpocket - whichever you fell the most need to improve. If going sword and shield, there are precious few choices for shield enchantments. Fortify Block and Resist Magic seem the most sensible of those available.

Finally boots. Boots can get Fortify One Handed and Two Handed (but not Archery), and represent an obvious choice if going with either of those melee styles. You also have a choice between Fortify Pickpocket and Fortify Sneak (but not Lockpicking). Note: Pickpocket is pretty much all or nothing. Wearing one piece of gear won't help you much, but if you place pickpocket on both pieces and invest additional perks into Light Fingers, you can free train skills all the way to 75.

Prior to obtaining the Extra Effect perk, you'll need to mix and match. I subscribe to the theory "damage is king" so if I can only get one effect it will always be Fortify One Handed, Two Handed, or Archery, if available on that piece of gear. Fortify Lockpicking is usually my second option as it's always nice to make that easier, with Fortify Sneak being my third choice. For the body armor, I usually tab Fortify Heavy Armor in the early going. The enchantment is totally unnecessary for your final gear as you'll be at the armor cap without it, but it helps prior to reaching that point.

---------- Added 0 hours, 16 minutes and 39 seconds later... ----------
Part VII - Customization

I alluded to this during the appropriate sections, but just a quick recap of how to customize your character with those final points depending on which of the three classes you want to make more powerful. For your last perks, after you have everything you feel you really need, I would recommend dumping all of your remaining perks into one class.

For warriors: If going with archery, almost all the perks are worthwhile, or lead to perks that are worthwhile. The only ones I would probably skip are Hunter's Discipline and Ranger.

For One-Handed: Once you know what your final weapon is, picking up three perks in either Bladesman, Hack and Slash, or Bone Breaker will improve your melee combat. Also, all of the perks in the Block tree are extremely useful, especially Disarming Bash.

For Two-Handed: Similar to One-Handed, except your perk choices are up to three in Limbsplitter, Deep Wounds, or Skull Crusher, and everything on the right hand side of the Block tree.

For Thieves: Specialize in Sneak - all of the perks in that tree are useful, or lead to other useful perks. (You don't need Muffled Movement at all, but it is a prerequisite if you want to progress to Shadow Warrior.) Unfortunately for Thieves, that's about your only option. There's no point in adding to Pickpocket or Alchemy in the end game, after you've already maxed both those skills and completed nearly all of your training. While I have extolled the benefits of those skills, if you're going to invest in Alchemy it should be done as those perks become available, and for Pickpocking you need to pick them up by the time you've trained your skills to 50.

For Mages: Picking up a third school of magic. You can pick up a third school of magic. If you do, for that final one, I WOULD recommend picking up the Novice-Master half casting cost perks. I've detailed the alternate equipment setup in the enchantment section.


Part VIII - Closing Comments

So what do we have at the end of this, beside a character who can hold his/her own as a thief, warrior, or mage? (And be exceptionally good at one of those roles depending on where/how the extra perks are allocated?)

You'll have a character that can do just about everything. To sum up the skills that will definitely be between 90-100 by the end game:

Warrior:
Smithing
Two out of the Following Four: One Handed, Two-Handed, Archery, Block
Alchemy
Pickpocket
Enchanting
Destruction
Conjuration

These skills can certainly exceed 90, but even if you don't make a point of training them, they'll still finish at least at 75 (and the only reason they won't reach 90 is if you stop playing - there's nothing standing in the way of leveling them to 90 through use):

The two that aren't at 90+ among One-Handed, Two-Handed, Block, and Archery
Heavy Armor
Speech
Lockpicking
Sneak
Illusion

Finally, the remaining skills will all be at least 50 (since there is no reason not to free-train them to this level):
Light Armor
Restoration
Alteration (which I would recommend getting to 70 for Magic Resistance 3/3.

15 out of 18 will be VERY high. Potentially all of them at 90+, and the other three will be 50+. While it's hard to calculate the exact level you'll be, as it depends on knowing fairly exactly where between 90-100 those 15 skills are, and where the other three are, getting to the low 70s in level is a very conservative estimate - even if one assumes 90 in all of them except the three crafting skills. If some of those 15 are closer to 100, you're looking at the high 70s for your final level.

 

One apparent problem with this build is that if you train & use melee early on, switching over to anything else later on is going to feel awkwardly ineffective, even more so if you had Fortify One-handed/Two-handed backing it up. I would know, I tried "dual classing" my first character (warrior) into a mage...

Conversely, if you go magic first, you'll face a world of hurt by the mobs as soon as you're done with the early pickpocket training routine, UNLESS you can craft decent equipment which kinda requires high skill in Smithing and/or Enchantment, or can fetch some early key quest rewards to bridge the gap in the meanwhile.

Although the Gimpus build is general enough to cover for both extremes, my personal experience is that if you want to put either Archery or Destruction into actual long-term use, you're better off steering clear from melee for a while. This way you can keep the progression of the character going on in a more natural way. Also, Archery is the only skill in the game that allows for one-shot kills from afar, although you need a LOT of perks and enchants to do that, so it certainly has appeal although it is "worse" in straight dps.

All in all, a solid build worth considering for anyone looking a character that keeps in improving well into the level 60's and even 70's without having to resort to stupid powerleveling exploit techiques just to be able to keep advancing their character.

 

I agree. That's why I said you wouldn't use it at all while leveling. You don't really start using destruction spells until you have your end game armor on, around level 50. Then it just takes the place of archery, which in my build was only sparingly developed. (I just needed it good enough to knock dragons out of the sky in the early going.)

I agree again. That's why I said it's easier to go warrior then mage, but stated up front that since there are many people out there who have played pure mages, that it certainly was possible to start as a mage and then train to bring your warrior skills online. The one advantage I can come up with going mage first (remember Gimpus v1.0 went mage first, so I actually did this both ways) is that average melee skills can can more adequately serve as a backup to superior mage skills than average mage skills can serve as a backup to superior melee skills. For the exact reason you state. Until you get access to the top tier skills there ain't nothing you can do with your mage skills that you couldn't do more efficiently with your warrior skills.

Which was the initial goal. Although there does seem to be some wiggle room here. For example, it would seem like there would be an optimal time to do the Bard's College and Discerning the Transmundane Quests. It seems like you'd want to do both of them at a time when you had a lot of skills already at high levels, to push you over the top. There would even be a bit of math involved for discerning the transmundane. You'd have to add up the levels you'd gain to see which one gave the biggest bang for your buck.

 

Oh, I see. You only used Archery as a placeholder for Destruction until you got certain key spells and enchants to be able to use them, more or less. Makes perfect sense as you wanted to go extremely low on magicka development. The FMT is practically a mage with the occasional sniper rifle moment for quite a while, hence a bit larger magicka pool.

Anyway, it is worth noting that both Gimpus and FMT take exceedingly long time to reach the really, really high skill levels (compared to straight pure classes at least) as you're effectively splitting the kill experience between several different offensive skills as you go.

For the maths savvy: The character exp ( = the sum of skill levels ) needed to go from level 80 to 81 is 2075, meaning you could have a single skill as low as 78 to still be able to make it to clvl 80 overall. (Actually, quite a bit lower than that since 100 in everything is not EXACTLY level 81, rather like 81 and a half, but you get the idea.) Of course the final 99->100 skill-up brings the most but don't forget that upping some long forgotten skill from 50 to 52 is already more than that. So it's not the amount of straight 100's that matter the most to your overall level, it's the lack of skills far, far away from it.

 

Exactly - my character played much more like a straight warrior with a little bit of thief for the first 50 or so levels. I didn't even use archery that much. Like I said, I did some sniping, and I did use bows against dragons, but that's about it. I trained it to 50, and at the moment in is still probably under 60. So I earned less than 10 levels of it on my own through use. With the high sneak skill, I was more apt to sneak up and backstab than I was to snipe from a distance, which is what my archer-thief would have done.

That was to be expected, and I imagine that it is true of any split class. The single class will always reach their maximum potential earlier because they are using fewer skills, and thus will have their perks concentrated in those skills. Unlike the single classed characters, activating the Lover Stone is probably a great idea for both builds once you've developed all your skills.

Although the Lover Stone is a sub-optimal choice for my character in the early going. I activated the Warrior Stone, as I was pretty much a straight warrior. Now that I'm incorporating all types of skills, Lover may be the way to go.

I agree with all that you said. Adding in the extra half level of experience available, you're probably looking at ~3100 experience points that you'd need to get to level 80. Although I do not think that is a particularly realistic goal for this character. I'm thinking he'll top out at somewhere between 75-77, as there will be quite a few skills that will be hard to take all the way to 100, but will likely finish at 90-something. And yes, while the difference between 99 and 100 is marginal from an XP standpoint, it's a lot more significant if you have 5 or 6 skills at say, 93.

In an absolutely sense, that's correct, but keep in mind that counting the number of skills you have at or near 100 gives a very good approximation, as any skill that gets to 100 necessarily has already earned all the experience points there was to earn leading up to that 100th level.

There's probably going to be a few skills that I won't develop fully. While I don't expect any skills to finish below 50, even training has it's limits. (Specifically, 400 levels worth if you train every level.) Now that I've switched over to entirely heavy armor, I won't level light armor ever again unless I train it - and it's only level 50-something. But that doesn't necessarily mean that training is optimally implemented in raising skills you won't ever use and thus will not develop on your own. Take one handed as an example - that skill takes freakin' FOREVER to max out through use, doubly so if you're not using one-handed as your only means of dispatching your foes. It's because of limitation like that, that explains why I'm very confident in going past level 70, and fairly confident of getting to level 75, but not too much beyond that.

 

It's just a matter of splitting the 350-400 training points total you can possibly get so that you get the most bang for the buck for them. It's part of the planning process when you select how exactly you want to go about building your character.

1) You effectively need to deduct 75 points (minus any relevant racial bonus) for every skill you never or at least practically never touch yourself out of the five big ones: One-handed, Two-handed, Block, Archery and Destruction. Trying to train more than two, MAYBE three yourself is going to take longer than a complete playthrough unless you go totally haywire with radiant quests or aimless sightseeing, although it DOES help quite a bit when every single dungeon you ever visit is spawned with at least level 25+ enemies as soon as you're done with the initial pickpocket training routine.

2) Deduct 35 (minus racials) for every skill you need to get to 50 ASAP. That's most likely Speech and your main damage skill, if you're following either one of our guides.

3) Deduct for any specific skill you need to train for in the early going but not immediately. For example, Conjuration to 40 to be able to buy Bound Bow spell, or Alteration to 70 if you want early access to Magic Resistance 3/3.

That's at least 75+75+35+35=220 training points accounted for before you even start considering other uses for your training. If you only aim to train two out the big five yourself AND want a third early 50 skill, your tally is up to 330, which only leaves a precious few training points to play around with. So don't go training nilly-willy just because you can unless your plan has the leeway for it!

Of course that's the worst case scenario, and you're going to find most out of the five skill books (available to all skills) before reaching 90 in pretty much anything so 70 instead of 75 is more relevant figure. Also, if you're really short on available training points, you can get the really early levels (up to 30-50 in most skills) really fast yourself as well.

 

Wow. That was a huge wall of text.

Really good guide so far, not much I can do besides point out a few possible things to tweak.

-Undead vs Atronachs depend on whether you decide to focus on fire/frost/lightning as far as destruction magic is concerned. If you skip all of them, choose undead. The last undead summoning spell does not destroy the corpse upon death, and you can stuff a dead body with daedric gear before animating it.
-Restoration does offer one thing: Necromage. Vampires are undead, turn yourself into a vampire and voila. All magical enchantments affecting your character are something like 50% more effective. Even the ones from items like potions - a must have for anyone with so many disciplines that benefit from +% effectiveness enchantments, imo. All the downsides can be countered by having perks in Alchemy/Enchanting and carrying around the appropriate items. Or just being a Breton/Dunmer and having the appropriate buffs.
-Spend some of your gold on scrolls. Just because you won't be aiming for master spells doesn't mean you have to forfeit your ability to cast some of them.

 

Now the only problem is that the game doesn't throw anything harder at you than you could kill it at level 45 with no skill above 75 even on the hardest difficulty.

 

I was unaware of that, and it does merit some consideration. My thinking was that by picking up dremora lord and atronachs I get physical and elemental damage, to be used as necessary. Truth be told, I tend to prefer dremora lords as my primary summons. Atronachs are nice, but dremora lords are great meat shields.

Hmmm... An option that I had not considered. I've never played as a vampire, and if I did, I would feel compelled to specialize in illusion. Actually, I'd probably finally make full use of the Nightingale set if I did that.

Gimpus has long since passed the point of no return when it comes to his choice of schools of magic. He's specialized in Conjuration and Destruction, but for completeness, this option does bear mentioning. Specialize in archery, one-handed, illusion and destruction, and grab the nightingale set sooner than later. Definitely more of a stealth oriented character than a melee specialist, but I could see it being very effective.

Don't scrolls require magicka to cast? If they do, they're out of reach. Even if they don't, I'm not sure how necessary it's going to be to cast illusion spells from scrolls. (I guess technically we could through paralyze from Alteration in there too.) With a high level destruction and conjuration spells on hand, I don't know how much I'll actually need those benefits.

Anyway, I finished the base part of my build last night by reaching level 59. So now I'm at the point where I have to decide what to do with the remaining points I receive. I'm leaning towards getting Bladesman 3/3 as I see no need for me using any other melee weapon than the daedric sword. After that, I'm seriously considering Alteration training up to 70 (currently around level 50) for Magic Resistance 3/3.

The other thing I did last night when making my final set of crafting gear was adding an extra effect since the armor and helm cannot get both Fortify Smithing and Fortify Alchemy. So I threw Fortify Alteration as the other option in both cases. Makes the transmutation process a hell of a lot faster. I can transmute 4 times with my magicka pool, and the enhanced regeneration allows me to only have to wait a few seconds between subsequent castings.

Oh, don't be such a killjoy. Fear the Gimpus!

 

Speaking of crafting gear, does anyone craft packrat/city stroll gear for themselves? You know, stuff like +carry weight wherever possible, +bartering on neck, +magicka/+alteration helm for heavy duty transmute duty and finally +pickpocket where there's still slots available. It's not like you actually NEED any of that outside cities anyway, and the +carry weight serves only one purpose: to be able to haul back more loot from the dungeon you just cleared. Just make sure you craft these on something that has very low weight, such as fancy clothes you happen to like.

 

Generally no. Although I wonder... I never checked what would happen if you invested minimally in pickpocket perls, but used an enchanted amulet and ring. Hmmm.... And would it be practical? Sure, it would allow you to pickpocket train up to 75, but would it allow you to not place the other points.

Then again, in order to have a high enchanting skill you already would have likely done most of your pickpocket training, and therefore already spent the perks.

Then again, I don't know if I ever crafted perfect pickpocket gear. Amulet, ring, gloves, and the guild master's boots (+35% - better than any boots you can craft). Then put 5 points in light fingers and cutpurse. I wonder if that would allow you pickpocket past level 75.

 

I have to say, I got to level 67 this weekend, and destruction is VERY disappointing in terms of damage. I don't think it even matches archery with a good bow and perks spent. (Fewer perks spent than what you'd spend in Destruction. You can even replicate the Impact perk to a fair extent with power shot (granted 50% chance, but still pretty good).

Also, I think I'm confused as what causes Conjuration to level up. I've cast countless Demora Lords, and I have yet to see a level up from it. (I know the skill doesn't increase if you just cast them, but I thought you got the skill increase presuming they enter battle.)

In fact, since reaching level 90 through training, I've only received two level ups. One was through a skill book, and the other was most strange - it was during an assassination attempt when the Dremora didn't actually attack anything, as the character wasn't hostile. I approached the target, went behind him, and successfully sneak attacked. Conjuration leveled up. WTF?

The build works - there's nothing I can't kill - but I'm finding that with the exception of knocking dragons out of the sky, I don't really NEED destruction magic at all. The only thing destruction does better than anything else I have is for dragons, and only until I get them on the ground. My gut feeling here is that had I spent more perks in archery, instead of the ton I dropped into destruction, that there wouldn't be anything I couldn't kill with either a bow or a melee weapon as well as or better than destruction magic. (Of course, with the impact perk, it stops the dragon's breath weapon, so there's that.)

 

Destruction IS underpowered no matter how you slice it. 150 damage a pop at peak power (Augmented Fire + Fire Storm, close range only, huge cast time, interruptable...), maybe double that with a maxed Alchemy potion backing it up? Puh-lease.

That's why you either don't use it at all (most builds out there) or use it while it still has some relevance, such as when your available alternatives read as Steel Sword (Fine) or Hunter Bow (Fine) + Iron Arrows.