Advice on spellsword build

[Psiberzerker]

But doing whatever you want doesnt always end up being a class (or what your trying to be). Plus you could do whatever you wanted in every previous ES with custom classes, sans Arena. Spellswords do have illusion as a skill. And technically there are still classes in Skyrim as most NPCs have one, from followers to enemies. An ES without classes would suck.

Well, if you want to get semantic about it, I said "Rigid Classes." Name 1 NPC who leveled ever skill up to 100 and has 80 perks? Don't say J'zargo, because he's a fairly rigid Mage with heavy Armor, he can't even Sneak, and he's a Kajit! Edited June 30, 2012 by Psiberzerker

[Kyuukei]

Oh! I forgot. A good weapon to roll with is the maxed-out Pale Blade. It drains a ton of Stamina from the zergrushy Warrior types in addition to slowing them down, and can cause lower-leveled things that still hit pretty hard (like Bears) to run from you, making them easy targets for a few Fireballs, or otherwise effectively removing them from combat for 30 seconds when fighting multiple enemies. It's the weapon I swore by in my 360 run a while back.

[Enatiomorph]

But doing whatever you want doesnt always end up being a class (or what your trying to be). Plus you could do whatever you wanted in every previous ES with custom classes, sans Arena. Spellswords do have illusion as a skill. And technically there are still classes in Skyrim as most NPCs have one, from followers to enemies. An ES without classes would suck.

Well, if you want to get semantic about it, I said "Rigid Classes." Name 1 NPC who leveled ever skill up to 100 and has 80 perks? Don't say J'zargo, because he's a fairly rigid Mage with heavy Armor, he can't even Sneak, and he's a Kajit!

Every skill to 100 isn't a class. It's a newb that doesnt know how to role play. What are you even talking about? Race does not make the class, skill use and prerogative does.

 

J'zargo's Class is the Sorcerer.

Edited June 30, 2012 by Enatiomorph

[Psiberzerker]

Every skill to 100 isn't a class. It's a newb that doesnt know how to role play. What are you even talking about? Race does not make the class, skill use and prerogative does.

 

J'zargo's Class is the Sorcerer.

Exactly. My point is you don't Have to play a class. It may get you all bubbly with excitement, but quite a lot of players would rather grind up to 100, and not roleplay. Honestly, anyone who spends that much time at the forge I can't call a Noob. Play your way, fine, but don't ridicule people for playing their's. Just because you like to stick with the 3rd era classes that are no longer in the game, that doesn't make you any more elite, creative, nor cool than the guys who go for power over role playing. Had it occured to you that there might be some people out there who don't Want to role play, or are they just idiots who don't see the truth in the game design as clearly as you? Get over yourself, and join us in the 4th era.

[Staind716]

I am rolling out a new spellsword character myself. Mainly because of this mod. And absolute must have for any serious battlemage. Or any other character for that matter.

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17353

[Staind716]

But doing whatever you want doesnt always end up being a class (or what your trying to be). Plus you could do whatever you wanted in every previous ES with custom classes, sans Arena. Spellswords do have illusion as a skill. And technically there are still classes in Skyrim as most NPCs have one, from followers to enemies. An ES without classes would suck.

Well, if you want to get semantic about it, I said "Rigid Classes." Name 1 NPC who leveled ever skill up to 100 and has 80 perks? Don't say J'zargo, because he's a fairly rigid Mage with heavy Armor, he can't even Sneak, and he's a Kajit!

Every skill to 100 isn't a class. It's a newb that doesnt know how to role play. What are you even talking about? Race does not make the class, skill use and prerogative does.

 

J'zargo's Class is the Sorcerer.

Just curious. Who made you god of all roleplay and the judge of how other people play THEIR game? I see you are new to these forums and obviously don't realize we place a high value on mutual respect here. Hopefully you will learn to speak to others with respect or I don't have much hope for you lasting very long around here. This isn't Xbox Live. It is a community. Treat it like one.

 

And because of that respect I have just deleted the last five or so sentences that I wrote. Have a great day and welcome to the forums. Just please, treat people the way you would like to be treated. It's a shame everyone doesn't follow that simple little rule we all learned as kids.

[Diamondeye97]

There were some excellent points made earlier in the thread. My apologies (or compliments) for being repetitive if I state them again below, but anyhow, here's my perscription:

 

Race: Dark Elf or Ork. Ork may seem like an odd choice, but I recommend it for two reasons: A) The Berserk power can bail you out in melee with a really tough opponent, and B) it has +10 to heavy armor and +5 to one-handed, smithing and enchanting. You said you wanted heavy armor (and obviously one-handed), so that helps you out in the early stages, and +5 points in 2 tradeskills makes levelling them just a bit less painful. High Elf is also a clear choice but kind of a no-brainer and I don't think the +50 magic really holds its own in later levels once casting skills and perks bring the spell costs down. As for the Dark Elf, the fire resistance is great to have against fire-using enemies, especially dragons and the ancestor's wrath can help out fighting multiple enemies. I also find that the Dark Elf fits the traditional Spellsword motif pretty well.

 

Ability breakdown: 40% health/40%magic/20% stamina

 

Stone: Lords, Mage, or Lover. Alternately, Atronach if you want to experiment with a different playstyle. Atronach is not as violently altering to the magic dynamic as in the past.

 

Perks:

 

This is where it gets messy.

 

Decide what exactly spellsword means to you. Is the emphasis on "spell" or "sword" (or axe, or dagger, or mace?)

 

The first option is the crafting cycle of invincibility. Obviously this is incredibly powerful, and it's benefits are clear for any class. If you're going to do that though, it's sort of unimportant where you put your other perks since you'll be humiliating pretty much every enemy you encounter when you first leave Whiterun (or wherever). There's nothing wrong with this playstyle at all, but I don't think it requires much advice.

 

Now, if you want to start from the beginning, think mainly about what you want to do with your magic, and how much you want to use.

 

First, is your magic offensive, or defensive?

 

If it's offensive, you're going to be focusing on Conjuration and/or Destruction.

 

Conjuration can essentially remove your need to mess around with melee weapons at all, although a dagger is probably good to have and doesn't weigh much so that you can take advantage of the stealth perks later on if you want. Bound Sword not only benefits from your 1 handed perks, but also takes care of your soul trapping and makes your Conjuration rocket up. That, by the way, is another reason to have a dagger; if you have nothing but Grand Soul Gems left it's really irritating to have to drop them and pick them up to clear out Petty Souls. If you want to model your Spellsword more on a Death Knight or Shadowknight (from certain other game franchises) then Conjuration also allows summoning undead minions to that end and if you'd rather have atronachs, it's always nice to have something to soak up hits. With Conjuration, dual casting may be worthwhile to allow your pets to stick around longer between casts.

 

Destruction, on the other hand, is nice in that it can replace Archery completely, which is fantastic for one reason - shock damage. Shock spells are great because they are a lightspeed attack; it is much, much easier to hit a moving target than with a bow, fire, or ice attack. Also, the shock-specific damage perk Disintegrate can amount to a 15% reduction in enemy HP. In addition, the elemental-damage-boosting perks boost enchanted weapons damage as well provided they do the same elemental damage.

 

In regards to these, my advice is that while you most likely will pick the cost-reducing perks for both, stick to one or the other for other perks unless you are going heavily magic for offense. If you pick Conjuration, use a bow and a bound sword and save the shock perks; if you use Destruction, go for shock, use a regular weapon, and stay away from the bound weapons or the bow.

 

Now, for defense it gets a bit trickier because while 1-handed perks will work with your bound sword or a regular one making 1-handed a no-brainer, the same is NOT true of Alteration vs. Heavy Armor.

 

Assuming that you want to wear heavy armor, since you said you did, keep in mind the armor cap of 567. Once you hit that, the only benefit you are getting from the armor spells is boosts in Alteration. This is not to say not to use those perks, but rather, think about how much you really need to put into physical defense. You do not need maxxed smithing with Daedric armor and full heavy armor perks, AND fully enhanced mage armor. You're wasting a lot of perks there. My advice would be to stick to the heavy armor perks first, since they will also allow you to reduce its weight. Use the Alteration armor spells to augment it, but don't bother boosting them, especially not if you are smithing as well. Save those perks for magic resistance and other things.

 

As for weapons and armor, decide if you want a shield. If magic is supplementary to melee, you may want a shield. If it's the other way around, probably not. In regards to weapons, stay away from the weapon-specific perks unless you want to use swords or war axes pretty much exclusively, then pick the perks for the type you like. If you want to focus on swords, in particular, that works with the bound sword. Stay away from the mace perks; enemies that wear armor don't smith it, don't have many, if any, armor perks, and don't wear very good armor usually anyhow.

 

Personally, I would go for destruction and lightning with a regular sword for that traditional spellsword feel. For a special, self-imposed challenge, don't enchant. Save that skill for maxxing out your last levels. Don't smith new gear either, except to raise skill. Instead, use what you find, and just improve it and use potions. Make up a roleplay reason that such "common labor is beneath you" or something.

[Psiberzerker]

Nice points, DI97, but check the dates. This is a 6 month old thread, (I should know, I'm the one who resurected it. Sorry.) and I doubt the OP is still checking it. If nothing else, this build is long done. Just saying, it's mostly moved over to general advice for Any spellsword build instead of that particular one. I agree with most of it, Lightning is a Hit-scan, so you don't have to lead targets. There's also maybe 3 BGs out there that's resistant to it, as opposed to Fire, or Frost.

 

As for Perks, you're probably going to find yourself using Destruction for most of your damage dealing, unless you're going more for a Nightblade for Backstab. Also, there's a variety of destruction spells with various effects for different situations. I like to Zot dragons, for the aforementioned hit-scan effect, but use mostly Fire for burning, and Ice Storm as a sweeper, because it travels in a line, which you can kite the enemy into, especially if there's bottlenecks. It also travels right through walls, and other obsticals, so that archer that keeps ducking behind a rock? Tell him to chill.

 

The hand weapon will be a lot more personal, so there's where you can specialize, or chose not to. I tend toward handaxes, because the Hack&Slash perk stacks well with Burnin DOT. Leave them burning, and bleeding, and you don't have to hit them as many times. With Critical charge, you can start them burning, strike on your way through the fray, and let them die while you set up for another pass. (If you like, you can even stack on Frostbite Venom for more DOT, and Stamina drain.)

 

I don't use Disintegrate, especially with Necromancy. You can't raise an Ash Pile, and while it's cool, it doesn't really help your game play. If any of the further enhancements, I go for Deep freeze, because I'd rather the enemy be paralized, than made to flee out of range. Even that can backfire, if you mistake those fallen for dead, and advance past them, they can get a free shot at your unprotected rear. None of them are game changing, so I'd respectfully suggest saving those perk points unless you got some burning a hole in your pocket.

 

And again, I'd add Redguard to the race list. Starting with 25 1H means you can concentrate the crucial first few levels to Destruction, yet still have plenty of power for your sidearm. It puts you within 5 of All the second teir perks, which should be pretty easy to get even while Firebolting most of the Draugr training partners. (All builds have to start somewhere.) While it's been Nerfed quite a bit Adrenaline Rush is extremely handy when everthing goes south, to escape, or drop a weapon in the spell hand for dual weild, and sweep the melee real quick.

 

As for the self imposed limitations, try not starting off with Crafting, and having Berserker Rage as a safety net. I go unarmored, mostly so I don't have to worry about stamina, but it also makes for incentive to not linger in the melee.

Edited July 1, 2012 by Psiberzerker

[invertedpanda]

Did some thinking, and came up with this build (I'm playing it now):

 

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#148520

 

Use bound sword only (since it's novice). I have bound sword in one hand, and a destruction spell in the other (when you get your cloaks, cast those when you cast your bound sword). You can also go with fire or frost, depending on your taste, as far as the augments go. You can ditch light armor, enchanting & smithing and go with Alteration & Restoration, too (restoration chiefly for wards), or put more into conjuration.

[Dubnoman]

I'm thinking of playing a spellsword. I was considering playing an Imperial, but would a Breton make a better spellsword? I was considering using heavy armor, but the general consensus is you just don't need to if you put the right perks into alteration and use armor boosting spells?

 

I have another question. A spellsword should use one-handed weapons, but from what I gather, a battlemage can use a 2H weapon (preferably a sword or axe)?

Edited July 1, 2012 by Dubnoman