Vampire enchanter?

Remove all ads!

I've been searching for what you actually can expect to get out of a vampire with the Necromage perk in terms of enchants. However, every single source of info I've seen so far ALSO includes using the Falmer Helmet exploit in which you can wear two different headgear at the same time.

So, what can you expect with JUST being a vampire with Necromage, then? I use the Unofficial Skyrim patch which eliminates this exploit and a whole lot of others as well.

It seems that at least most of the incremental Fortify skill enchants, ie. where the bonus is positive signed get an extra cumulative +25% boost. Thus you go from +29% smith/alch to +36%, 1h/arch from +47% to roughly 60% and so forth. Magicka cost reduction enchants are unaltered, except for the minor improvement gained via better Fortify Enchant potions. The burning question that remains is how much further you can keep on pushing your potions when enchanting multiple sets in an ever increasing potency loop.

 

I'd be lying if I said I knew, because I've never tried it, as I don't find the apeal of playing a vampire. It would seem like you should be able to get an additional set of crafting gear. Also, don't forget with Dragonborn expansion, there's an additional set of armor to acquire that adds another 10% enchanting skill on top of what you'd get from your potions.

 

I guess I found an answer to my own question. Shortly put, you only get +25% more out of your enchants but you can't push the effect any further by enchanting new apparel without resorting to dual-helm exploits. Makes sense why no one reports it, then. (Edit: Now that I checked it, USKP specifically also removes the extra bonus to enchantments worn by yourself, since version 1.2.1 last September.)

Specifically, while a vampire can create +36% Fortify Enchanting potions instead of just +32% with the standard maxed 4x29% (effectively 4x36=244% with vampire bonus) Alchemy apparel, it's not enough to improve the skill enchants to +30% (37) even with that.

Here are the actual breakpoints for skill enchants, assuming 5/5 Enchanter and Insightful Enchanter of course.
25% skill = base without potion
26% skill = +9% Enchangting potion required
27% skill = +17% req
28% skill = +24% req
29% skill = +31% req
30% skill = +38% req
31% skill = +44% req

and so forth. The req delta for each subsequent skill percentage slowly diminishes as the enchanting skill modifier for apparel has the potion boost percentage as a second degree polynomial term in the calculation, see here about 2/3 down the page.

Worth noting is that Necromage affects also some other perks, such as Pickpocket's "Extra Pockets" going from +100 to +125 carry.

However, you can brew somewhat better Smithing potions as a vampire, going from +130% to +146%. That ought to get you a few extra levels of improvement together with the +244% (instead of +216%) enchanted apparel.