It is time to once again delve into the land of Tamriel - Skyrim has arrived! It’s taken awhile but the fifth entry in The Elder Scrolls series is finally here in all its glory. Much has changed in the land of Tamriel which means there is a lot to learn even for long time veterans of the series. Almost everything from the ground up has been tweaked or redesigned to create a more action-packed sword and sorcery experience. With blade in one hand and sword in the other it’s time to take on the hordes that stand between your hero and his destiny...
Above: And also, lots of dragons
There is a lot of ground to cover here so let’s get right into it. As usual, this guide is put together for newbies of the game, and is meant to help them out with many of the various intricate systems in this title. While veterans of the older games might find some information to aid with the transition to the new mechanics of this title, newer players will gain the most out of this. With that said, if you have any suggestions or tips you would like to share with the GamesRadar community, please use the comment section below to enlighten your fellows.
Character Creation
Character Builds
Leveling Up
Perks
As is par for the course, the player gets to pick from a wide variety of races. However, this is more important than ever before as there are no classes, birth signs or even stats. You’re going to want to pick your race very carefully. Each of them provides you with bonuses to particular skills as well as granting one of a few unique abilities. There is no such thing as a “bad” race choice - although you can find yourself in a bad spot by choosing a race that doesn’t align with your play style.
Above: For example Bretons love magic. Be a mage
When picking a race you will gain a number of benefits. First, your starting stats are impacted either positively or negatively. Second, you gain a number of passive special abilities, such as boosts to magical damage or poison. Lastly, you will gain a unique activated magical power with a wide variety of effects. With these three things you can plot out what sort of character you want to make.
Take note of a few details:
1. All characters start with a Health, Magicka and Stamina of 100. Very few characters have any passive abilities that grant them higher beginning stats.
2. All of your skills start at a base of 15 and your choice of race modifies it from there.
3. All characters seem to start with the Flames spell and Healing spell. Some will have extra spells to begin with, but this is usually noted in their description.
As one look at their abilities will tell you, any Argonian is naturally designed to be a thief type character. Lockpicking and Sneak will get you into enemy strongholds, Pickpocket can be used to filch things for fun and/or profit and Light Armor will help you when a fight breaks out. While you don’t start out with any boosted weapon skills Alteration helps out a bit thanks to the ability to paralyze your foes. Paralyze your foes, slice them apart and then use Restoration to heal any wounds you’ve accumulated.
To anyone who may have avoided them in the past games due to the restrictions on their equipment, fear not, that restriction is removed. Now you can wear full suits of armor to further enhance your traits, removing their one great hindrance. However, the race itself is somewhat weaker than other stealth races as the water breathing ability isn’t a huge boon. The disease and poison protection is really nice though.
Their abilities are somewhat at odds with their purpose, which weakens them. Their skills are geared towards stealth which helps for thieves and assassins. They have an armor skill to protect them in combat, Restoration magicks to protect them and heal their wounds, plus they have Histskin to regenerate even faster. But with only Alteration to aid them in combat you’re going to be at a disadvantage in a fight until you train up your fighting skills.
An Argonian will have access to:
Starting Skills
Alteration: 20, Light Armor: 20, Lockpicking: 25, Sneak: 20, Pickpocket: 20, Restoration: 20
Passive Abilities
Resist Disease – Gives a 50% resistance to disease.
Waterbreathing – You may at all times breathe underwater.
Activated Ability:
Histskin – When activated your health will regenerate ten times faster.
Character Suggestions:
Once you escape Helgen Keep use the Guardian Stones to gain the Warrior Sign. This will boost your combat abilities at a rate 30% faster than normal, which helps your chosen weapon level-up fast enough so you can pick some really nice perks. Then from here continue to develop both your combat and stealth skills until you have a very nice assassin character. It’s probably best to go with One Handed Blades; pairing up Paralyze spells with two short swords or daggers to slice enemies up is an exceedingly effective combat tactic.
Should you go with this combat route then it’s suggested that you purchase the few dual wielding skills so that you can get more attacks in and do more damage with those attacks. It could make all the difference in killing that enemy before he escapes paralysis and begins fighting back.
Bretons hail from the province of High Rock and they are mages extraordinaire. With the mixture of their Aldmer and human blood they are capable of powerful magical feats without being quite as frail as their elven ancestors. With a sword in one hand and electricity blazing from the other these guys can handle almost any situation if they’ve been trained properly.
To a degree it’s safe to think of the Breton as a “training wheels” type character. They have a high Conjuration skill which lets them summon allies to help them fight, aiding new players in dealing with some of the harder battles (like Dragons). In addition to that, they focus on support magic instead of direct combat spells which lets you fight with a sword and shield - swapping to magic as needed. These two facts grant them high survivability as compared to most other mage characters.
Honestly, the Breton is one of the better character races in the game even if you don’t know what you’re doing. They don’t start off in especially fantastic shape to be a warrior or thief, but they can certainly be trained up for that. Heck, use the Guardian Stones if you find your skills aren’t leveling up fast enough. Overall, this race may not be as immediately helpful as some other races but it definitely packs a heck of a punch when used properly.
A Breton will have access to:
Starting Skills
Alchemy: 20, Alteration: 20, Conjuration: 25, Illusion: 20, Restoration: 20, Speech: 20
Passive Abilities
Magic Resistance: Grants a 25% resistance to magic but not elemental spells.
Activated Ability:
Dragonskin: Absorb 50% of the magicka from hostile spells for 60 seconds.
Character Suggestions:
As you can probably guess, the Breton makes for an excellent mage. Due to their innate skill with magick you have a whole lot of options here. They have no specialization with offensive spells so either train them up or simply work around that. Either way, this character can really be played in just about any way. A few ideas are listed below:
Pure Mage: This is the most obvious choice. Eschew weapons and armors almost entirely for best results; keep an offensive spell in one hand and a summoning or protective spell in the other. Pump up your school of choice and then just tear through your foes. Mages will find you especially difficult to fight, especially if you bring protective spells. While they may not start with a boost to Destruction they do start with Flames and Sparks so they’re ready to blast apart enemies right out the door.
Thief: Illusion provides you with concealment options for stealthy approaches. Take the Illusion Perk and Quiet Casting, to give yourself the option to cast any spells you like while hidden away. Conjuration can be used to summon powerful weapons or battle allies – it’s entirely possible to hide away from enemies and send minions to do your bidding. If you’re not doing great in combat then use Alchemy to make poisons to rapidly damage enemies or paralyze them.
Fighter: A fighter might seem unlikely but it actually works pretty well. Restoration spells will keep you alive, Conjuration will summon up a battle buddy to provide assistance in tough fights and Alteration will help inhibit your foes ability to fight back. Plus, since you resist their magic, mages are going to die in short order as you charge right into their face and cut them open. Even their strongest spells will have little impact on you especially if you use Dragonskin.
Ah, the much maligned Dark Elves. Without a doubt the Dunmer are this author’s personal favorite. All of their skills mesh nicely with my preferred play style – They mix magic with stealth and, once you train your weapon skills, they can easily fit into just about any role you so desire. The Ancestor ability is very useful as well for any enemies who dare to get into melee range and the natural fire resistance will help with some of the tougher enemies in the game.
If you’re going to use a Dunmer then pick what sort of weapon you’ll want to use early on. They do best with light equipment so it’s suggested that you have a bow, a one-handed light sword and a light shield. Early on, the bow is very helpful for getting sneak attacks since you won’t be able to get close to enemies. So snipe them and then deal with them via sword and shield. It is important that you plan out your perk path though, since you don’t want to waste perks on bow abilities and then never use them later on.
Their skills back up this kind of jack-of-all-trades approach. Alchemy provides healing potions as well as poisons to weaken your foes, Alteration provides numerous useful spells (Paralyze is notable) and Illusion can help protect you. Destruction magic is kind of the odd man out since it’s not the most useful for stealth or straight up fights, but as you get stronger spells later on this can become pretty useful.
A Dunmer will have access to:
Starting Skills
Alchemy: 20, Alteration: 20, Destruction: 25, Illusion: 20, Light Armor: 20, Sneak: 20
Passive Abilities
Resist Fire – Your Dunmer has a 50% resistance to all forms of fire.
Activated Ability:
Ancestor’s Wrath – For 60 seconds all nearby enemies take 8 points of fire damage per second.
Character Suggestions:
One of the good things you can do with a Dunmer is to make a spellcaster, swaddle him in light armor and use Alteration and Illusion magic to protect yourself further. Put a shield in one hand with an offensive spell in the other and fight smart. If you are fighting a mage use lightning magic to drain his magicka or set fire to an oil patch on the floor to burn enemies to death. Honestly, you don’t even need a weapon. It’s also possible to favorite Paralyze and an offensive spell, paralyze an enemy and then dual-wield Flames and burn them to cinders.
But as mentioned above, it is quite possible to literally play a character that does a bit of everything. Your perks will be focused on your preferred weapons of choice, but it’s quite possible to have a character that can sneak, cast spells and fight pretty well.
Altmer are without a doubt the undisputed masters of magic. While the Breton may be powerful spellcasters, and resist magic quite well, it is the High Elves who can bend the forces of magicka to their will. Masters of all types of magic, they can draw from deep personal magicka reserves to use their art more often than most other spellcasters could hope.
The High Elves have never been a personal favorite due to the fact that they’re totally focused on spellcasting. In most Elder Scrolls games the spellcasting system was a bit on the tedious side early on and then became grossly overpowered as you created your own spells. It is far more balanced in Skyrim, and the ability to dual wield magic grants you a lot of versatility. Walking around with a protection spell in one hand and Flames coming from the other grants you both offensive and defensive options at the same time almost like having a sword and shield.
One thing to note is that the High Elf actually starts out with an Illusion spell - something few others get. Unfortunately, this is Frenzy which costs a whole lot of mana and doesn’t seem to work very often. You need to find other spells to help this one work, and even then, it is of limited use. So that third starting spell is something of a dud. Focus on your Destruction magic for the opening and then swap over to whatever grabs your interest after you get to the open world.
An Altmer will have access to:
Starting Skills
Alteration: 25, Conjuration: 20, Destruction: 20, Enchanting: 20 Illusion: 20, Restoration: 20
Passive Abilities
Highborn – High Elves are born with 50 extra magicka.
Activated Ability:
Highborn – Regenerate magicka faster for 60 seconds.
Character Suggestions:
Unlike the Breton the High Elves are basically steamrolled into playing as pure mages. Luckily, they excel at that in a way that will make even the Breton envious. So, if you pick a High Elf that’s something you’re going to want to embrace and just go nuts with. Decide on what sort of spellcaster you want to be and just start dropping your perks into those skills.
It is heavily suggested that you place most of your emphasis on your Conjuration and Destruction magicks. Conjuration is so versatile that any pure mage will really want to have that on hand to help out while Destruction will be your offensive bread and butter. Restoration and Illusion are good for helping you to stay alive but you will want to focus on the first two - unless you have a very specific idea for your character.
Out of the various races, the Imperials are among the most versatile. Owing to their expertise as merchants and soldiers they have plenty of skill at keeping themselves alive whether it requires talking their way out of a problem or bashing enemies with a club. The only skills they lack to begin with are stealth based, which means they make much better fighters or mages than they do thieves or assassins.
Newer players who are interested in fighters may find the Imperial to be the ideal race for them. Their skills are designed for them to suit up in heavy armor with a heavy shield and one-handed weapon. If their weapon isn’t cutting it then they can use Destruction magic to assist them. If you’re playing them right then you’ll have very little need for Restoration, but it’s still nice to have it if things get bad.
However, their abilities are kind of spread all over the place, and this does hamper them a bit. For example, if you don’t plan on using much magic then both Destruction and Restoration will be going to waste. Their enchanting ability is in that very same boat, since it’s not something every character will even want to bother with. That leaves you with up to three dead skills, one of which is the highest skill the Imperial starts with. So be very sure that you’re going to do something with those skills before picking this race. It’s not like its active racial ability is anything too special, although the extra money can be nice.
An Imperial will have access to:
Starting Skills
Block: 20, Destruction: 20, Enchanting: 20, Heavy Armor: 20, One Handed: 20, Restoration: 25
Passive Abilities
Imperial Luck – Anywhere gold coins might be found Imperials always seem to find a few more.
Activated Ability:
Voice of the Emperor – Calms nearby people for 60 seconds.
Character Suggestions:
The Imperial works well as either a straight up warrior who uses a few spells to assist him (Restoration mostly) or a mage who wears heavy armor and focuses on Destruction and Restoration.
If you choose to go with a warrior, then you should find yourself having a pretty easy time of it for the earlier portions of the game. Later, you will probably want to invest in Enchanting so that you can get the most of your enchanted items, or you could simply invest in it early on. It will help you keep your enchanted weapons recharged and possibly even make some equipment, helping you as the fighting gets harder.
The mage route is a bit more unconventional due to the fact that you’re going to be a mage who doesn’t use mage robes to enhance his abilities. Put on the hood you find inside of the torture cell to increase your magicka pool and then just heap on the heavy armor with a shield. Then you will want to swap between whatever weapon you’re using to bean enemies in the face and a Destruction spell that fits your opponent.
What do we have here? A race of cats that specializes in stealth skills? I’m fully convinced that somebody made a joke about a cat burglar and the game designers ran with it far too literally. Whatever the reason for them existing they are the single best thieves in the game with a boost to basically every stealth skill that a thief could want.
Basically every single aspect of the Khajiit is geared towards making them the best stealthy murderers. There is no advantage to be had trying to turn them into something else, so just don’t bother. A stealthy approach via bow and poisoned arrows will get you through a lot of enemies, while your sword backup lets you handle close range.
Much like the Argonians, the Khajiit have had the restriction on what armor they can wear removed. This allows you to have a badass full suit of armor to compliment your natural kitty thief abilities. The claw ability is pretty useless in the long run - although it can be powerful in Helgen Keep and the first few dungeons. Use your bow at range and then cat scratch the heck out of them when they get in your face.
Kitty Meow-Meow will have access to:
Starting Skills
Alchemy: 20, Archery: 20, Lockpicking: 20, One Handed: 20, Pickpocket: 20 Sneak: 25
Passive Abilities
Claws – Khajiit can do 15 points of damage with unarmed attacks.
Activated Ability:
Night Eye – Improved night vision for 60 seconds.
Character Suggestions:
Since a Khajiit is designed to be a pure rogue, simply embrace this and pick them when you went the best of the best. Take a quick, light melee weapon like a dagger or light sword and get them enchanted when you want a stronger weapon. If you like, early on, you can stick with just your claws as they’re stronger than most knives and early game swords, but their effectiveness peters off quickly. Otherwise, stick with the bow and whatever poisons that you like to use.
A nice thing about the Khajiit is that their Night Eye ability is a power not a spell. This means you can have your two hands assigned and access your night vision at all times (unless you replace it with a shout).
It seems that in the world of The Elder Scrolls, Vikings are renowned for both their ability to bash your face in with a wide variety of weapons and chat with you. No longer are the Imperials the renowned masters of chit-chat, the Nords are giving them a run for their money. All joking aside, this likely reflects on the fact that you are in the Nordic homeland and people are going to be more positively inclined to their brethren.
As you can see, the Nord are designed to be straight up warriors although they have a preference for light armor. This doesn’t mean that they like to sneak or anything like that, they simply tend to prefer the maneuverability from bearing lighter loads. Slap them in a suit of Imperial Leather, give them a few perks and they can handle even the tough enemies like a trooper. If you do decide to use the lighter armor and not train up heavy armor, then it is best if you use a shield to help bolster your defenses.
It does bear noting that the Nord has very weak abilities. While Resist Frost is decent enough, Battle Cry is incredibly weak. For the most part you’ll really not want to bother with it as you should be killing enemies not chasing them off. The worst part is that sometimes the enemies will return to blindside you with a random ambush.
A Nord will have access to:
Starting Skills
Block: 20, Light Armor: 20, One Handed: 20, Smithing: 20, Speech: 20, Two Handed: 25
Passive Abilities
Resist Frost – Grants a 50% resistance to all Frost attacks.
Activated Ability:
Battle Cry – Targets will flee for 30 seconds although this can be resisted.
Character Suggestions:
Nords are Vikings. They hit stuff. Be a fighter. Yes, it really is that simple. All of their options are neatly laid out before you here. You will always be making use of Speech since it figures into buying and selling goods and you have your pick of using one-handed or two-handed weapons, so there is no reason to look any further than that. None of their skills or abilities give them much in the ways of flexibility in this regard either. So pick a Nord if their skills appeal to you as a fighter in a way that the Reguard or Orc don’t.
Contrary to what you might think from the name, these Orcs are less “human killing primitives” and more or less green skinned dwarves. They walk around with axes and hammers and are the most well renowned craftsmen in the world. In a way though, they’re a mix between the two; they are smiths who are also known for their berserker rage and for slaughtering their foes.
The Orc is almost like a specialized version of the Redguard. They trade in all of the Redguards magical capabilities for a greater focus on bashing faces in. Orcs are meant to be in a suit of heavy armor and charge right into the thick of combat with whatever weapon they so choose. Their special ability, Berserker Rage, allows them to deal double damage while taking half damage for a full minute. For an Orc with a two handed weapon in heavy armor, that is a death sentence for almost all opponents.
Like the Redguard, the Orc has a nice advantage due to his advanced smithing ability. This allows him to make good equipment to either sale or for personal use. But in addition to that, the Orc has a high Enchantment skill which allows him to make magical weapons and armor. Pairing those two skills up lets you craft surprisingly good weapons and armor pretty early into the adventure - if you choose the right perks.
An Orc will have access to:
Starting Skills
Block: 20, Enchanting: 20, Heavy Armor: 25, One Handed: 20, Smithing: 20, Two Handed: 20
Passive Abilities
None
Activated Ability:
Berserker Barrage Rage – You take half damage and do double damage for 60 seconds.
Character Suggestions:
The Orc is meant to be a fighter class and that’s the purpose you should put them towards. Choose your weapon early on and stick with it, there is little advantage to bouncing between one and two handed weapons. My personal preference has always been an Orc wielding a two-handed Hammer or Axe with a full set of heavy armor, but you may find that a sword and shield combo meets your preference.
If you’re interested in pursuing smithing and enchanting then you will want to dedicate yourself to it pretty intensely. Enchantment really requires you to devote yourself fully for it to really pay off. The only optional path is the elemental enchanter abilities on the left side. All of the others are incredibly helpful. Regular Smithing can be done a bit more sparingly, just be sure to get Arcane Smithing and at least Advanced Armors. Those are arguably some of the best perks.
Out of all of the character races in the game, the Redguard is the one most suitable for beginning players who want to play a head-up fighter. They can fight enemies with a bow, sword and shield or even use magical spells to attack foes. This means that they are specifically designed so that they can fight enemies however they please, which allows newbies to experiment with all of the various fighting styles in the game.
In addition, the boost to smithing means that you will be able to craft decent equipment early on for both wearing and selling purposes. When you find Ingots, leathers or other craftable materials simply bring them to the nearest town to craft or improve your current equipment. It is worthwhile to put some perks into smithing to gain the ability to craft better equipment since this will pay off in the long run.
The poison resistance is nice but it only comes into play every now and then. What is very useful is the Adrenaline Rush ability; this will come in very handy for both navigating the world map quickly and in tough fights. The power attack is a very useful tool for breaking enemy defenses and slaughtering weaker enemies in short order. Normally, you can only do one or two of them before taking a break, but with Adrenaline Rush you’ll be able to use them regularly.
A Redguard will have access to:
Starting Skills
Alteration: 20, Archery; 20, Block: 20 Destruction: 20, One Handed: 25, Smithing: 20
Passive Abilities
Resist Poison – Gives a 50% resistance to poison.
Activated Ability:
Adrenaline Rush – Stamina regenerates 10x faster for 60 seconds.
Character Suggestions:
As a personal point, I find that the Redguard is probably the single most newbie friendly character in the game. Pick your preferred choice of armor, pick a single handed weapon, grab a bow and you’re all set to play whatever type of character you like. Your magical abilities will enhance your ability to deal damage to your foes when your sword or bow just isn’t cutting it - which will make many of the boss fights a lot easier.
Due to this there aren’t many situations that your average Redguard can’t handle. If you’re brand new to the game series then this is the race you’ll want to pick.
When you think of hippie elves living as one with the forest, it’s the Bosmer you’re thinking of. Frankly, though the Bosmer are one of the best races in the game due to them having a good set of skills and a strong passive ability that helps out at almost every point in the game. Even with the dubious Command Animal racial ability these guys have a very impressive set of stats
Clearly the Bosmer are one of several races that are set up with a thief build in mind. However, they can also act as a fairly good warrior if you put them in light armor, train up either one or two-handed weapons and have them use poisons to help. But the purpose they are intended is an almost assassin like thief who uses poisoned arrows to weaken foes and bring them down from a distance.
Don’t bother picking a Bosmer if you aren’t going to work with that Archery stat of 25 and sneak around at least a little bit. Even if you train up another weapon for melee combat the bow should be your primary weapon with plenty of perks invested into it. The damage it can inflict is considerable and a poisoned, sneak attack arrow can leave an enemy in no condition to fight back even when they close in to melee range.
A Bosmer will have access to:
Starting Skills
Alchemy: 20, Archery: 25, Light Armor: 20, Lockpicking: 20, Pickpocket: 20, Sneak: 20
Passive Abilities
Resist Disease and Poison – Grants a 50% resistance to poison and disease.
Activated Ability:
Command Animal: Charm an animal into being an ally for 60 seconds.
Character Suggestions:
As mentioned above the Bosmer really excels in any form of combat that involves using a bow. Any character that you make should be taking advantage of the high archery skill as well as the starting talent with light armor. Use your early game perks to increase your skill in these two areas, notably Agile Defender, as this will make your light armor more effective than most of the heavy armor you’ll find.
This works out really well though because even if you aren’t specializing in stealth combat, the light armor and bow work really well for a careful player. Just use stealth to get a clear shot with your bow, take a sneak attack and then fight them however you please. Since Stealth starts at a 20, you will be in good shape to sneak around even the harder enemies so long as you stay far away or stand perfectly still in the shadows when they’re looking for you. If you take the Eagle Eye perk (requires Archery 30) then you will be able to sneak attack enemies from even further away, possibly in such a way that they have a hard time locating you.
As you may have guessed from reading the character race section, there aren’t that many basic types of characters to be played. Essentially, there are six different basic character archetypes to pick from. What will make your two-handed warrior unique compared to the neighbors two-handed warrior is the perk selection. In addition, your choice of armor and crafting ability will impact how your character develops.
You may note that there is no dual-wield character build listed here and there’s a good reason for that. When using two weapons, or a weapon and spell, you cannot block at all. This means that in melee you’re either going to have to take a whole bunch of damage or dance around the enemies while still taking a good deal of damage. Due to this dual-wielding is something that should generally be used when an enemy has been incapacitated and you want to really pile on the damage as opposed to being a constant fighting style.
Races: Imperial, Nord, Reguard
Skills: Block, One-Handed, Smithing, Heavy Armor and Restoration or Light Armor and Sneak
Perks
Block: Shield Wall, Deflect Arrows and Elemental Protection
One-Handed: Armsman, Fighting Stance, Savage Strike, Critical Charge and perks for whatever weapon you have chosen.
Smithing: Arcane Blacksmith and either the top or bottom path depending on the armor you use.
Heavy Armor: Juggernaut, Well Fitted, Tower of Strength, Matching Set, Reflect Blows.
Conditioning is a great ability, but Fists of Steel and Cushioned are very weak, so only pursue it if you feel like wasting those points.
Restoration: Novice Restoration, Regeneration, Respite, Recovery, Avoid Death
Light Armor: All perks will help make up for light armor's weak defenses.
Sneak: Stealth, Muffled Movement, Light Food, Silent Roll, Silence, Backstab
Notes: This build will focus on piling on the defenses so you will probably be better off wearing heavy armor. Sticking your character in a shell of bulky, metal armor with a heavy shield in one hand and a powerful sword in the other will allow you to handle almost every enemy in straight up melee, even the tougher bosses. That said, you’ll always want to keep a decent amount of healing items on hand for emergencies or learn some Restoration magic.
The only reason you’ll want to go with light armor is if you’re planning on taking sneak and using that to help you get through dungeons. Taking it slow while underground is generally a good idea since you could easily find yourself swarmed by enemies in tight corridors. While it’s possible to tank stuff like this in heavy armor, it’s not a great idea in light armor, so sneaking around makes this much more feasible in the long run.
If you do end up taking Restoration then you will want to stick with the healing and protection spells, don’t bother with the offense. Some of the perks for Restoration are phenomenally helpful in keeping you alive longer but the offensive parts are fairly weak, so it’s not something to waste time with when you have a big weapon to bash enemies with.
Races: Nord, Orc
Skills: Heavy Armor, Restoration (optional), Smithing, Two Handed
Perks
Heavy Armor: All perks, bar Fists of Steel will prove useful.
Restoration: Novice Restoration, Regeneration, Respite, Recovery, Avoid Death
Smithing: Arcane Blacksmith and either the top or bottom path depending on the armor you use.
Two Handed: All perks on the right paths and then which perk fits the weapon you’re using.
Notes: Since you’re trading off defense for offense you will want mobility, so your heavy armor perks will become more important than ever. By taking all of the heavy armor perks you will eventually be able to move much swifter while retaining an almost ludicrous amount of defense. Eventually, the fact that you don’t have a shield equipped will be more or less irrelevant. If you invest in Restoration magicks then you will have no problem keeping yourself healed as you battle it out with the toughest monsters in the game.
Two Handed is disastrously effective against your foes, although it doesn’t get that way until you’ve, once again, invested some perks. When you reach the point where your standing power attacks are doing extra damage, possibly flat out decapitating enemies and hitting all enemies right in front of you… well the enemies will have a tough time even getting close to you. Out of the three weapons the great swords and warhammers are probably the best. The hammers work best against heavily armored foes, devastating them through their defenses, while the sword is a well-rounded weapon.
Races: Argonian, Khajiit, Wood Elf
Skills: Archery, Illusion, Light Armor, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Sneak
Perks
Archery: You will want to fully invest in this perk tree, every perk will be helpful.
Illusion: Illusion, Dual Casting, Animage, Rage and Apsect of Terror should be ignored.
Light Armor: Invest into this as much as you like although Unhindered can be skipped.
Lockpicking: Golden Touch, Treasure Hunter and Locksmith can easily be passed on.
Pickpocket: See Pickpocket note below.
Sneak: Stealth, Muffled Movement, Backstab, Deadly Aim, Assassins Blade and Silence.
Notes: This build isn’t designed for fighting per se. Your archery skills will allow you to combat opponents at range while Illusion can protect you from getting enemy attention. However, for the most part this character type excels at totally avoiding fights where possible and prefers stealth to direct combat any day of the week. In some situations, it’s possible to sneak in, steal a key or vital piece of equipment and then sneak out without fighting a single enemy.
You may want to train up One-Handed if you’re going to be using this build, but you don’t actually have to invest any perks into it. Take out your dagger when you can sneak up on an enemy for a backstab; if you have Assassin’s Blade, your simple, unenchanted dagger can do upward of 75 damage with a single shot before even figuring in poisons. Enchant your short blade with a good ability and you will be surprised at how quickly your enemies die. However, it’s still feasible to simply snipe your foes with poisoned arrows to stay safe.
Pickpocket Notes: Pickpocket is a skill of dubious use. Every character that’s going to take it will probably want the Light Fingers perk at least. This can be useful early on to nick extra supplies. Poisoned and Extra Pockets are also incredibly useful – Poisoned can tear enemies apart with careful application; slip a magicka draining poison onto an enemy mage, drain his mana and then backstab him.
Races: Khajiit, Wood Elf
Skills: Alchemy, Alteration, Illusion, Lockpicking, One-Handed, Sneak
Perks
Alchemy: Alchemy, Physician, Poisoner and Concentrated Poison and Snakeblood.
Alteration: All except for Alteration Dual Casting
Illusion: All magicka reducing perks, Animage, Kindred Mage, Quiet Casting
Lockpicking: Difficulty reducing perks, Quick Hands, Wax Key, Locksmith, Unbreakable
One-Handed: Armsman, Bladesman, Dual Flurry, Dual Savagery – the rest is optional.
Sneak: Stealth, Muffled Movement, Backstab, Silence
Notes: This build is kind of tricky to play since it asks the player to fight with no armor, likely not even a shield, and micromanaging a number of spells, poisons, potions and equipment. A bow might be safer when fighting like this but Illusion and Alteration will have your back in this regard. Alteration has a wide variety of uses while Illusion can use calming or fear magic to chase enemies away.
For this setup you will probably want to wear magic-boosting equipment instead of armor which is kind of dangerous in melee. To balance that, use Alteration magic to increase your armor. With the Mage Armor perk you can gain a +80 to your armor rating with a simple casting of Oakflesh. So long as you keep these defensive spells set as a favorite, swapping to them when a fight starts and buffing yourself will do wonders.
A general combat strategy for this build will consist of staying in stealth and sneaking towards a target with a sword in one hand and a Paralyze spell in the other. Hit them for a sneak attack then quickly lock them in place. If this works swap out your spell for a second sword and unleash the fury on them (the dual power attack is particularly impressive). Most enemies will die before they can recover from this. Backpedaling while casting Paralyze is actually a really good method of crowd control in most situations, so your offensive spell doubles for defense.
Races: Breton, High Elf
Skills: Alchemy, Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Enchantment, Illusion, Restoration
Perks
See notes
Notes: While that abbreviated perks section might seem like a bit of a cop-out this is done because, to be frank, the Pure Mage is such a wildly varied character. I may play my pure mage as a spell-slinging monster who brings down the Flames from both hands, burning his foes. But you might use Conjuration and Alteration magic to pin down your foes while summoned undead do the bulk of the fighting for you.
Now, the trick to the Pure Mage build isn’t to play it in a particular way, it’s too flexible for that nonsense. No, the trick is to pick two primary paths to devote almost all of your spellcasting perks to. From there, pick one or two secondary paths and devote a bit of time to them - although you really don’t want to invest too many perks in these until you have obtained all of the ones you wanted from the primary paths.
The two simplest builds to pick up are Destruction / Restoration and Alteration / Conjuration. With the D/R build, a character can focus all of his damage dealing into a very few select spells, minimizing his spell juggling. Then make use of Restoration to recover your health or create wards to protect you. Taking Alteration as a minor path will help for armor enhancing spells. The A/C mage is simple as well – use Alteration magic to buff yourself and debuff your enemy so that your minions can pound on them. Easy!
As a general rule it is suggested that you avoid making use of “Bound” weapons since those fare best in the hands of a Battle Mage. So, if one of your chosen paths is Conjuration then be sure to stick with the summoning / raising spells and perks to boost your defenses. If you are interested in using the Bound Weaponry then play a Battle Mage character instead.
Races: Breton, Dunmer, Imperial, Redguard
Skills: Alteration, Block, Conjuration, Enchantment, Heavy Armor, One-Handed, Restoration
Perks
Alteration: All perks except for Dual Casting and Mage Armor.
Block: Shield Wall, Deflect Arrows, Elemental Protection, Block Runner
Conjuration: All magicka reducing perks. Soul Stealer, Mystic Binding and Oblivion Binding.
Enchantment: Enchanter, Soul Squeezer, Soul Siphon, Corpus Enchanter and Extra Effect.
Heavy Armor: All perks are helpful (Fists of Steel is needed for Cushioned, sadly).
One-Handed: Armsman, Fighting Stance, Savage Strike, Critical Charge and perks for whatever weapon you have chosen.
Restoration: The only must haves are Recovery, Respite and Ward Absorb.
Notes: The Battle Mage is a staple of The Elder Scrolls, so it had to get put in here somewhere. It’s not necessarily an easy character type to play, but it can be incredibly rewarding once you figure out what you’re doing. One of the main issues with this build is that it requires the player to juggle a number of different spells and weapons, possibly even shields, for maximum effect. This can take its toll on your sanity as well as your carrying capacity, and since there are no stats to raise there’s not much to be done about that second problem.
The one thing a Battle Mage can do phenomenally well is to wield Bound weapons to fantastic effect. Bound weapons naturally inflict more damage than similar weapons, a fact that is bumped up by Mystic Binding. Soul Stealer and Oblivion Binding will let those weapons kill enemies, banish Atronachs and chase off undead. Pair those up with the Enchantment perk, Soul Siphon, to keep your actual magic weapons recharged and you should be in phenomenal condition for dealing with most enemy groups.
With that in mind it’s really just a matter of summoning up your minions of choice and then wading into the melee with magic weapon and shield alongside them. Considering it’s possible to call up two flunkies with the right perks, fighting may even be optional in some situations.
It seems odd to have a section explaining how to level up, but the Elder Scrolls games have never been the most clear in this regard. The leveling system was always fairly obtuse and required a good bit of thought to avoid screwing yourself over near the middle or end of the game. To help draw in newer players Skyrim has fiddled with the finer points of this system, although it still works in a manner similar to older games and there are still plenty of finer points to learn.
Raising your skills in Skyrim requires that you either use the skill often or pay someone to train it up for you. Paying to raise your skills is a nice way to get a quick boost, but it’s both expensive and kind of a waste. Generally speaking, paying for skill raises should only be done if there’s a perk you’re aiming for or if you wish to gain some quick points in a skill that hasn’t been given a lot of attention previously. Improving your armor skill like this is a fairly good idea if you decide to swap what armor types or magic you’re using after the game has begun.
But most of your skill raising will come from simply using your skills repeatedly. As such it is important to repeatedly use the skills you want to train up. If you spend too much time using the ones you aren’t planning on sticking with then you will level up rapidly while your primary skills aren’t high enough to take the really good perks. In this game the new perk system is what really determines how good you are at something, not your (now absent) stats or skill levels.
The Guardian Stones are something that you will want to activate very quickly. There are three of these stones standing around in a semi-circle on the road to Riverwood from Helgen (check your map for the specific location, it’s marked by default). Each of the three stones is linked to the skills of a particular skill batch; warrior, mage and thief. When you have a stone activated all skills from that branch level up considerably faster as they’re used.
In the older Elder Scrolls games, a boon like this would actually turn out to be something of a burden due to the obtuse leveling up system. In this game though, they’re definitely something you will want to use. You may want to consider not actually assigning it to the skills that you spend most of your time using, instead assigning it to one you use a bit less. If you’re playing a fighter who uses magic occasionally then activating the mage stone will help your magic improve fast enough that it will stay effective throughout the game.
Numerous things set this game apart from previous entries in the Elder Scrolls series, but none are more important to character customization than the perks. There are 280 different perks to choose from as you level up - one per level. Due to the loss of attributes these are the only way to improve your skills without directly improving them.
Novice Alteration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Novice level Alteration spells for half magicka.
Alteration Dual Casting
Requisites: Alteration 20, Novice Alteration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Dual casting an Alteration spell overcharges the effect into a more powerful spell.
Apprentice Alteration
Requisites: Alteration 25, Novice Alteration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Apprentice level Alteration spells for half magicka.
Mage Armor
Requisites: Alteration 30, Apprentice Alteration
Ranks: 3
Effect: Protection spells like Stoneflesh or Oakflesh are 2x as strong if not wearing armor. Each rank increases the multiplier by 1
Notes: Don’t bother with this unless you’re using a fully non-armor build. It’s a very powerful perk but it’s only compatible with robes or clothing. Honestly you don’t need armor when you can cast a Stoneflesh spell that grants 240 armor.
Magic Resistance
Requisites: Alteration 30, Apprentice Alteration
Ranks: 3
Effect: Blocks 10% of a spells effect, +5% per rank.
Adept Alteration
Requisites: Alteration 50, Apprentice Alteration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Adept level Alteration spells for half magicka.
Stability
Requisites: Alteration 70, Adept Alteration
Ranks: 1
Effect: All Alteration spells have a greater duration.
Expert Alteration
Requisites: Alteration 75, Adept Alteration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Expert Level Alteration spells for half magicka.
Atronach
Requisites: Alteration 100, Expert Alteration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Absorb 30% of the magicka from any hostile spells cast upon you.
Master Alteration
Requisites: Alteration 100, Expert Alteration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Master level Alteration spells for half magicka.
Conjuration
Novice Conjuration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Novice level Conjuration spells for half the magicka.
Conjuration Dual Casting
Requisites: Conjuration 20, Novice Conjuration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Dual casting Conjuration spells overcharges the effects into a stronger version of the spell.
Mystic Binding
Requisites: Conjuration 20, Novice Conjuration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Bound weapons do more damage.
Apprentice Conjuration
Requisites: Conjuration 25, Novice Conjuration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Apprentice level Conjuration spells for half the magicka.
Soul Stealer
Requisites: Conjuration 30, Mystic Binding
Ranks: 1
Effect: Bound Weapons cast Soul Trap on targets on strike.
Summoner
Requisites: Conjuration 30, Novice Conjuration
Ranks: 2
Effect: Can summon Atronachs or raise undead from 2x the distance (+1 for second rank).
Atromancy
Requisites: Conjuration 40, Summoner
Ranks: 1
Effect: Summoned Atronachs last for twice as long.
Necromancy
Requisites: Conjuration 40, Novice Conjuration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Reanimated undead last for much longer.
Adept Conjuration
Requisites: Conjuration 50, Soul Stealer
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast adept level Conjuration spells for half the magicka.
Oblivion Binding
Requisites: Conjuration 50, Soul Stealer
Ranks: 1
Effect: Bound Weapons will banish summoned creatures and turn reanimated undead.
Dark Souls
Requisites: Conjuration 70, Necromancy
Ranks: 1
Effect: Reanimated undead have 100 more hit points.
Expert Conjuration
Requisites: Conjuration 75, Adept Conjuration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Expert level Conjuration spells for half the magicka cost.
Elemental Potency
Requisites: Conjuration 80, Atromancy
Ranks: 1
Effect: Conjured Atronachs are 50% more powerful.
Note: If you’re going to play a summoner character this perk is an absolute must have. Using the various Atronachs will give you an easy edge over most of the enemies in this game. Flame Atronachs are especially effective against Trolls, Frost type enemies and some dragons.
Master Conjuration
Requisites: Conjuration 100, Expert Conjuration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Master level Conjuration spells for half the magicka cost.
Twin Souls
Requisites: Conjuration 100, Dark Souls, Elemental Potency
Ranks: 1
Effect: You may summon two Atronachs or reanimated zombies.
Note: Another must have. Using a pair of Atronachs will more or less let you steamroll over those enemies who are foolish enough to get in your way.
Novice Destruction
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Novice level Destruction spells for half the magicka cost.
Destruction Dual Casting
Requisites: Destruction 20, Novice Destruction
Ranks: 1
Effect: Dual casting a Destruction spell overcharges the effects into an even more powerful spell.
Apprentice Destruction
Requisites: Destruction 25, Novice Destruction
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Apprentice level Destruction spells for half the magicka cost.
Augmented Flames
Requisites: Destruction 30, Novice Destruction
Ranks: 2
Effect: Each rank causes your fire spells to do 25% more damage.
Augmented Frost
Requisites: Destruction 30, Novice Destruction
Ranks: 2
Effect: Each rank causes your frost spells to do 25% more damage.
Augmented Shock
Requisites: Destruction 30, Novice Destruction
Ranks: 2
Effect: Each rank causes your shock spells to do 25% more damage.
Impact
Requisites: Destruction 40, Apprentice Destruction
Ranks: 1
Effect: Destruction spells may stagger an opponent when dual cast.
Rune Master
Requisites: Destruction 40, Apprentice Destruction
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast can place spell runes down up to five times farther away.
Adept Destruction
Requisites: Destruction 50, Apprentice Destruction
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Adept level Destruction spells for half the magicka cost.
Intense Flames
Requisites: Destruction 50, Augmented Flames
Ranks: 1
Effect: Fire spells cause targets to flee if their health gets low.
Note: An interesting perk but fairly worthless. If their health is low you want them to stay still so you can finish them off. If this came before Augmented Flames it would possibly be worthwhile but since it comes after a damage buff it’s easily pass on.
Deep Freeze
Requisites: Destruction 60, Augmented Frost
Ranks: 1
Effect: Frost spells paralyze the target if their health is low.
Note: This perk is actually pretty effective since it locks enemies in place so you can finish them off. Watch as your spells drain their stamina so they can’t use power attacks or shield bashes then lock them in place so they can be finished off.
Disintegrate
Requisites: Destruction 70, Augmented Shock
Ranks: 1
Effect: Shock spells will disintegrate a target if their health gets low.
Note: Disintegrate is only useful when dealing with enemies that can raise the dead since all it really does is clean up the bodies. It will rarely kill off an enemy before its health gets too low but when that happens it’s pretty helpful.
Expert Destruction
Requisites: Destruction 75, Adept Destruction
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Expert level Destruction spells for half the magicka cost.
Master Destruction
Requisites: Destruction 100, Expert Destruction
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Master level Destruction spells for half the magicka cost.
Enchanter
Ranks: 5
Effect: Each rank causes new enchantments to be 20% stronger.
Note: It isn’t entirely obvious what this does at first glance. The actual effect is that it modifies the equipment that you make. So if you make an Orcish Helmet with Fortify Heavy Armor and try to put in a Common Soul gem, the bonus you get might only be a +4 or +5. But with three ranks in this (+60% bonus) the helmet will provide a +6 or +7 instead. This gets incredibly helpful when you make weapons that fortify their skill with a Greater Soul Gem, leading to boosts up to +24 or higher.
Soul Squeezer
Requisites: Enchanting 20, Enchanter
Ranks: 1
Effect: Soul gems provide extra magicka when used for recharging.
Note: Recharge equipment by selecting it in your inventory and pressing RB or R1. This perk simply makes each gem provide about ten or twenty percent more energy to the equipment.
Fire Enchanter
Requisites: Enchanting 30, Enchanter
Ranks: 1
Effect: Fire enchantments placed on weapons and armor are 25% stronger. This means both offensive and defensive abilities are enhanced.
Frost Enchanter
Requisites: Enchanting 40, Enchanter
Ranks: 1
Effect: Frost enchantments placed on weapons and armor are 25% stronger. This means both offensive and defensive abilities are enhanced.
Soul Siphon
Requisites: Enchanting 40, Enchanter
Ranks: 1
Effect: Executions will trap 5% of a non-humanoid enemy's soul inside of a magic weapon thus recharging it. It’s like using a petty soul gem without needing to carry the gems around.
Note: Pair this up with the Conjuration perks Mystic Binding and Soul Stealer to keep yourself loaded up with plenty of souls. Your weapons will never run out of energy.
Insightful Enchanter
Requisites: Enchanting 50, Enchanter
Ranks: 1
Effect: Skill enchantments on armor are 25% stronger.
Storm Enchanter
Requisites: Enchanting 50, Frost Enchanter
Ranks: 1
Effect: Shock enchantments placed on weapons and armor are 25% stronger. This means both offensive and defensive abilities are enhanced.
Corpus Enchanter
Requisites: Enchanting 70, Insightful Enchanter
Ranks: 1
Effect: Health, magicka and stamina enchantments on armor are 25% stronger.
Extra Effect
Requisites: Enchanting 100, Corpus Enchanter, Storm Enchanter
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can put two enchantments onto the same item. This is incredibly powerful and if you’re attempting to seriously enchant items then you will want to invest in this.
Novice Illusion
Ranks: 1
Effect: Cast Novice level Illusion spells for half the magicka.
Animage
Requisites: Illusion 20, Novice Illusion
Ranks: 1
Effect: Illusion spells now work on higher level animals.
Note: Unless you plan on casting spells on Mammoths this can be passed on safely. Otherwise it’s only really helpful when dealing with Sabre Cats, Mammoths and Snow Wolves. Unfortunately if you want to get the useful perks, like the ones that work on higher level people or quiet casting, then you need to take this. Lame.
Illusion Dual Casting
Requisites: Illusion 20, Novice illusion
Ranks: 1
Effect: Dual casting an Illusion spell overcharges the spell into an even more powerful one.
Apprentice Illusion
Requisites: Illusion 25, Novice Illusion
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Apprentice level Illusion spells for half the magicka cost.
Hypnotic Gaze
Requisites: Illusion 30, Novice Illusion
Ranks: 1
Effect: Calm spells now work on higher level opponents.
Note: This perk is really only useful for assassin types who want to disengage enemies so that they can land a sneak attack.
Kindred Mage
Requisites: Illusion 40, Animage
Ranks: 1
Effect: Illusion spells will now work on higher level humanoid opponents.
Adept Illusion
Requisites: Illusion 50, Apprentice illusion
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Adept level Illusion spells for half the magicka cost.
Aspect of Terror
Requisites: Illusion 50, Hypnotic Gaze
Ranks: 1
Effect: Fear spells will now work on higher level opponents.
Quiet Casting
Requisites: Illusion 50, Kindred Mage
Ranks: 1
Effect: All spells that you cast are now silent to others. This works with the spells from every school, not just Illusion so it’s quite useful.
Note: While you don’t need this per se it’s incredibly useful for stealthy types as it lets them summon up allies, heal themselves or paralyze opponents from the safety of stealth. Plus you need this to get to Master of the mind so you’re going to end up taking it either way.
Rage
Requisites: Illusion 70, Aspect of Terror
Ranks: 1
Effect: Frenzy spells now work on higher level opponents.
Note: When this is paired up with Quiet Casting and a good stealth rating it’s now possible to turn even the strongest enemies against one another without them even knowing you’re there. This is one of the few times that Frenzy spells are much of any use as enemies will otherwise tend to target you over other enemies regardless of what spells you cast.
Expert Illusion
Requisites: Illusion 75, Adept Illusion
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Expert Illusion spells for half the magicka cost.
Master of the Mind
Requisites: Illusion 90, Rage, Quiet Casting
Ranks: 1
Effect: Illusion spells work on undead, daedra and automatons now.
Note: If you’re making constant use of Illusion magic then this is an absolute must-have perk. When you start dealing with these enemies late game they’re immune to all targeted Illusion magic so you need this perk to have any effect on them at all.
Master Illusion
Requisites: Illusion 100, Expert Illusion
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Master level Illusion spells for half the magicka cost.
Novice Restoration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Novice level Restoration spells for half the magicka cost.
Regeneration
Requisites: Restoration 20, Novice Restoration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Healing spells are now 50% more effective.
Restoration Dual Casting
Requisites: Restoration 20, Novice Restoration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Dual casting a Restoration spell overcharges it into an even more powerful version.
Apprentice Restoration
Requisites: Restoration 25, Novice Restoration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Apprentice level Restoration spells for half the magicka cost.
Recovery
Requisites: Restoration 30, Novice Restoration
Ranks: 2
Effect: Each rank causes your magicka to regenerate 25% faster.
Respite
Requisites: Restoration 40, Novice Restoration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Healing spells also restore stamina.
Note: We believe this perk stacks with the Regeneration one listed above.
Adept Restoration
Requisites: Restoration 50, Apprentice Restoration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Adept level Restoration spells for half the magicka cost.
Ward Absorb
Requisites: Restoration 60, Novice Restoration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Magicka is recharged when your ward is hit by spells.
Necromage
Requisites: Restoration 70, Regeneration
Ranks: 1
Effect: All spells are more effective when cast against the undead.
Expert Restoration
Requisites: Restoration 75, Adept Restoration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Expert level spells for half the magicka cost.
Avoid Death
Requisites: Restoration 90, Respite
Ranks: 1
Effect: Once per day you heal 250 hit points automatically when your health falls below 10%
Master Restoration
Requisites: Restoration 100, Expert Restoration
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can cast Master level Restoration spells for half the magicka cost.
Alchemist
Ranks: 5
Effect: Each rank will make your potions and poisons 20% stronger.
Physician
Requisites: Alchemy 20, Alchemist
Ranks: 1
Effect: Potions you mix that restore your health, stamina or magicka are 25% more effective.
Benefactor
Requisites: Alchemy 30, Physician
Ranks: 1
Effect: Potions you create with beneficial effects have a 25% greater effect.
Poisoner
Requisites: Alchemy 30, Physician
Ranks: 1
Effect: Poisons you create are 25% more effective.
Note: Early on this might not seem like a terribly effective ability but when paired with three good damage health ingredients, five ranks of alchemy and Concentrated Poison you can do a surprising amount of damage. If you use these alongside the Sneak perk Assassin’s Blade a piddling little dagger will obliterate your foes.
Experimenter
Requisites: Alchemy 50, Benefactor
Ranks: 3
Effect: Eating an ingredient will reveal two effects, +1 per additional rank.
Note: This isn’t strictly necessary as simply making potions will reveal the other effects over time but if you want Snakeblood, and you probably should, this must be taken.
Concentrated Poison
Requisites: Alchemy 60, Poisoner
Ranks: 1
Effect: Poisons applied to weapons will last for two hits instead of one.
Green Thumb
Requisites: Alchemy 70, Concentrated Poison
Ranks: 1
Effect: Two ingredients are harvested from plants.
Snakeblood
Requisites: Alchemy 80, Concentrated Poison, Experimenter
Ranks: 1
Effect: Gain a 50% resistance to all poisons. This seems to be cumulative with racial bonuses.
Purity
Requisites: Alchemy 100, Snakeblood
Ranks: 1
Effect: All negative effects are removed from crafted potions and all positive effects are removed from crafted poisons. Does not have any impact on vials found or purchased.
Agile Defender
Ranks: 5
Effect: All light armor has its armor rating increased by 20% per rank in Agile Defender.
Note: This perk is one of the main reasons you want to specialize in one type of armor. Five ranks of this will make your armor twice as effective, bringing a moderately protective suit of Elven Armor up from a defense of 28 to a whopping 56. That’s not taking into account further perk bonuses, armor enhancements or equipment bonuses.
Custom Fit
Requisites: Light Armor 50, Agile Defender
Ranks: 1
Effect: You gain a 25% bonus to your defense while wearing a full set of light armor. A shield does not count into this.
Unhindered
Requisites: Light Armor 50, Custom Fit
Ranks: 1
Effect: Light Armor doesn’t weigh anything and doesn’t slow you down when worn.
Note: This isn’t as necessary for a light armor wearer as it is for someone using heavy armor. However it definitely helps out when dealing with carrying loot later on.
Wind Walker
Requisites: Light Armor 60, Unhindered
Ranks: 1
Effect: Your character regenerates stamina 50% faster while in a full set of light armor.
Matching Set
Requisites: Light Armor 70, Custom Fit
Ranks: 1
Effect: Gain a 25% armor bonus while wearing a matching set of light armor. This means you must wear all leather, all hide, all Elven, etc. These items may be freely enchanted so long as they are a part of the set.
Deft Movement
Requisites: Light Armor 100, Matching Set, Wind Walker
Ranks: 1
Effect: Character has a 10% chance of fully avoiding a melee attack while in light armor.
Note: All of these are cumulative so sticking your character in a full set of Glass armor with all of these perks means that you will be nigh impossible to kill for all but the toughest foes. Ever wanted a character in armor that weights next to nothing with a defense of over 200 and with a small chance to deftly avoid all damage from melee attacks? Well you can have it now.
Novice Locks
Ranks: 1
Effect: Novice rank locks can be picked much easier.
Apprentice Locks
Requisites: Lockpicking 25, Novice Locks
Ranks: 1
Effect: Apprentice rank locks can be picked much easier.
Quick Hands
Requisites: Lockpicking 40, Apprentice Locks
Ranks: 1
Effect: You may pick locks without being seen by others.
Adept Locks
Requisites: Lockpicking 50, Apprentice Locks
Ranks: 1
Effect: Adept rank locks can be picked much easier.
Wax Key
Requisites: Lockpicking 50, Quick Hands
Ranks: 1
Effect: Whenever you successfully pick a lock you automatically gain a copy of the key.
Note: This isn’t a terribly useful ability as it won’t get you much most of the time. But in a few dungeons one or two keys open up the whole place so picking one lock will get you through much of the dungeon without hunting down the keys.
Golden Touch
Requisites: Lockpicking 60, Adept Locks
Ranks: 1
Effect: Find more gold in chests.
Treasure Hunter
Requisites: Lockpicking 70, Golden Touch
Ranks: 1
Effect: You now have a 50% greater chance of finding special treasure.
Note: This seems to have the effect of causing your found loot to be magical or of higher value than it normally would. However this is basically just conjecture at this moment.
Expert Locks
Requisites: Lockpicking 75, Adept Locks
Ranks: 1
Effect: Expert ranked locks are much easier to pick.
Locksmith
Requisites: Lockpicking 80, Expert Locks
Ranks: 1
Effect: When picking locks the pick starts off closer to the opening position.
Master Locks
Requisites: Lockpicking 100, Expert Locks
Ranks: 1
Effect: Master ranked locks are much easier to pick.
Unbreakable
Requisites: Lockpicking 100, Locksmith
Ranks: 1
Effect: Your lockpicks will never break.
Note: Lockpicks are basically made of aluminum in this game so this perk is a godsend.
Pickpocket
Light Fingers
Ranks: 5
Effect: Gain a bonus to your pickpocketing of 20% per rank.
Night Thief
Requisites: Pickpocket 30, Light Fingers
Ranks: 1
Effect: +25% chance to pickpocket targets that are asleep.
Cutpurse
Requisites: Pickpocket 40, Light Figners
Ranks: 1
Effect: Pickpocketing gold is 50% easier. Stacks with other perks.
Poisoned
Requisites: Pickpocket 40, Light Fingers
Ranks: 1
Effect: Reverse pickpocketing poison onto enemies will silently cause them damage.
Extra Pockets
Requisites: Pickpocket 50, Light Fingers
Ranks: 1
Effect: Increases your carrying capacity by 100.
Keymaster
Requisites: Pickpocket 60, Cutpurse
Ranks: 1
Effect: Pickpocketing keys works most of the time.
Misdirection
Requisites: Pickpocket 70, Cutpurse
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can pickpocket equipped weapons off of the enemies.
Perfect Touch
Requisites: Pickpocket 100, Misdirection
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can pickpocket equipped items right off of your foes.
Stealth
Ranks: 5
Effect: You are 20% harder to detect while sneaking, +20% per additional rank.
Backstab
Requisites: Sneak 30, Stealth
Ranks: 1
Effect: Sneak attacks with one-handed weapons now do six times the damage.
Muffled Movement
Requisites: Sneak 30, Stealth
Ranks: 1
Effect: Noise from your armor is reduced by 50%.
Deadly Aim
Requisites: Sneak 40, Backstab
Ranks: 1
Effect: Sneak attacks with the bow now do three times the damage instead of two times.
Light Foot
Requisites: Sneak 40, Muffled Movement
Ranks: 1
Effect: With this perk you can no longer trigger pressure plates.
Assassin's Blade
Requisites: Sneak 50, Deadly Aim
Ranks: 1
Effect: Sneak attacks with a dagger now inflict fifteen times the damage instead of two.
Note: Seriously, this ability is just ungodly in how strong it is. You might think daggers are weak weapons but they really aren’t. A good Elven or Glass dagger is almost as powerful as a weak sword before you figure in sharpening it on a grindstone and enchanting it. It’s possible to do one hundred damage in a single shot with this perk.
Silent Roll
Requisites: Sneak 50, Light Foot
Ranks: 1
Effect: While sneaking press the sprint button to perform a rapid-moving, silent, forward roll.
Silence
Requisites: Sneak 70, Silent Roll
Ranks: 1
Effect: Walking and running does not produce any extra noise.
Note: This means that you can move around rather freely without having to worry about enemies detecting you based on your movement speed.
Shadow Warrior
Requisites: Sneak 100, Silence
Ranks: 1
Effect: When in combat entering sneak mode will cause enemies to fall out of combat momentarily. Enemies at long range will also lose their target and have to search for you.
Haggling
Ranks: 5
Effect: Buying and selling price is bettered by 10% per rank in the perk.
Allure
Requisites: Speech 30, Haggling
Ranks: 1
Effect: Buying and selling prices are bettered by 10% with members of the opposite sex.
Bribery
Requisites: Speech 30, Haggling
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can bribe guards to ignore criminal actions.
Merchant
Requisites: Speech 50, Allure
Ranks: 1
Effect: Removes limitation on what merchants will purchase allowing you to sell any type of item to any merchant.
Persuasion
Requisites: Speech 50, Bribery
Ranks: 1
Effect: All persuasion attempts are now 30% easier.
Intimidation
Requisites: Speech 70, Persuasion
Ranks: 1
Effect: Your intimidation attempts are now twice as likely to succeed.
Investor
Requisites: Speech 70,
Ranks: 1
Effect: You may invest 500 gold with any shopkeeper to increase his amount of available gold permanently. This is useful if you do this with a few merchants in whatever home base you use.
Fence
Requisites: Speech 90, Investor
Ranks: 1
Effect: You can barter stolen goods with any merchant that you’ve invested in.
Master Trader
Requisites: Speech 100, Fence
Ranks: 1
Effect: Every merchant in the game world will have 1000 more gold to use for bartering.
Overdraw
Ranks: 1
Effect: Bows do +20% damage per rank in the perk.
Note: This only seems to come into play when you fully draw back the bowstring. So if you’re firing off rapid bow shots then this will really not amount to anything.
Critical Shot
Requisites: Archery 30, Overdraw
Ranks: 3
Effect: Grants a 10% chance of landing a critical hit that does extra damage, +5 per rank.
Eagle Eye
Requisites: Archery 30, Overdraw
Ranks: 1
Effect: Pressing Block while aiming will cause your view to zoom in.
Note: Landing headshots do seem to actually cause extra damage so aim for the face!
Steady Hand
Requisites: Archery 40, Eagle Eye
Ranks: 2
Effect: Zooming in with the bow causes a 25% per rank bullet time slowdown. This works very well in letting you act as a sniper.
Hunter’s Discipline
Requisites: Archery 50, Critical Shot
Ranks: 1
Effect: Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies.
Power Shot
Requisites: Archery 50, Eagle eye
Ranks: 1
Effect: 50% of the arrows you fire will cause foes to be staggered.
Note: Most of the archery skills are very useful but this one takes the cake. If you zoom in and snipe the crap out of foes then this will let you kill most enemies from range with ease.
Ranger
Requisites: Archery 60, Hunter’s Discipline
Ranks: 1
Effect: Able to move faster with your bow drawn.
Quick Shot
Requisites: Archery 70, Power Shot
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can draw your bow string back 30% faster than normal.
Bullseye
Requisites: Archery 100, Quick Shot, Ranger
Ranks: 1
Effect: 15% chance of paralyzing your targets for a few seconds with every shot.
Shield Wall
Ranks: 5
Effect: Blocking is 20% more effective with a 20% boost per rank in the perk.
Note: This perk increases the amount of damage that your shield will block. Take note though that five ranks doesn’t mean your shield will block 100% of damage, it means your block will be +100% effectiveness (doubly effective). So if you can block 30% of damage it would be upped to 60% at maximum rank.
Deflect Arrows
Requisites: Block 30, Shield Wall
Ranks: 1
Effect: Arrows that hit your shield will inflict no damage to you at all.
Power Bash
Requisites: Block 30, Shield Wall
Ranks: 1
Effect: Able to do a power bash, a stronger version of the shield bash attack.
Quick Reflexes
Requisites: Block 30, Shield Wall
Ranks: 1
Effect: Time slows down if you are blocking during an enemy’s power attack. This gives you a chance to either dodge or shield bash them to stop their maneuver.
Deadly Bash
Requisites: Block 50, Power Bash
Ranks: 1
Effect: Bashing now inflicts five times more damage making it a viable offensive maneuver.
Elemental Protection
Requisites: Block 50, Elemental Protection
Ranks: 1
Effect: Blocking with the shield reduces fire, frost and shock damage by 50%
Block Runner
Requisites: Block 70, Elemental Protection
Ranks: 1
Effect: May now move much faster while your shield is raised.
Disarming Bash
Requisites: Block 70, Deadly Bash
Ranks: 1
Effect: When power bashing there is a chance to disarm your opponents.
Note: Seriously once you have all the bash upgrades your enemies are going to spend their time getting knocked around, being disarmed and just generally miserable.
Shield Charge
Requisites: Block 100, Block Runner, Disarming Bash
Ranks: 1
Effect: Sprinting with your shield raised will knock down targets in your path.
Juggernaut
Ranks: 5
Effect: Increases the armor rating of all heavy armors by 20% per rank.
Fists of Steel
Requisites: Heavy Armor 30, Juggernaut
Ranks: 1
Effect: Unarmed attacks with heavy gauntlets inflict their armor rating as extra damage.
Note: This is the only thing related to the Unarmed skill from the older games. So if you want to create an unarmed warrior slap on the heaviest armor possible and start punching people. Otherwise this is a perk you only take to get to the higher-level skills.
Well Fitted
Requisites: Heavy Armor 30, Juggernaut
Ranks: 1
Effect: Gain a 25% armor bonus if wearing a full set of heavy armor.
Cushioned
Requisites: Heavy Armor 50, Fists of Steel
Ranks: 1
Effect: You only take half damage from falling while you’re wearing a full set of heavy armor.
Tower of Strength
Requisites: Heavy Armor 50, Well Fitted
Ranks: 1
Effect: You stagger 50% less of the time when wearing only heavy armor.
Conditioning
Requisites: Heavy Armor 70, Cushioned
Ranks: 1
Effect: Heavy armor no longer weighs anything and doesn’t slow you down at all.
Matching Set
Requisites: Heavy Armor 70, Tower of Strength
Ranks: 1
Effect: Gain an additional 25% armor bonus when wearing a matched set of heavy armor (stacks with Well Fitted).
Reflect Blows
Requisites: Heavy Armor 100, Matching Set
Ranks: 1
Effect: You have a 10% chance to reflect all melee damage back to the enemy while you’re wearing only heavy armor.
Armsman
Ranks: 5
Effect: One-handed weapons inflict 20% more damage per rank in this skill.
Fighting Stance
Requisites: One-Handed 20, Armsman
Ranks: 1
Effect: Power attacks with one-handed weapons cost 20% less stamina.
Bladesman
Requisites: One-Handed 30, Armsman
Ranks: 3
Effect: Attacks with swords cause a critical hit 10% of the time, +5 per rank.
Bone Breaker
Requisites: One-Handed 30, Armsman
Ranks: 3
Effect: Attacks with maces ignore 25% of the target's armor, +25% per rank.
Dual Flurry
Requisites: One-Handed 30, Armsman
Ranks: 2
Effect: Dual-wielding attacks are 20% faster, 25% at rank 2.
Hack and Slash
Requisites: One-Handed 30, Armsman
Ranks: 3
Effect: Attacks with war axes cause bleeding damage, causing more at higher ranks.
Critical Charge
Requisites: One-Handed 50, Fighting Stance
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can now do a power attack while sprinting that does double critical damage.
Savage Strike
Requisites: One-Handed 50, Fighting Stance
Ranks: 1
Effect: Standing power attacks to +25 damage with a chance to decapitate your foes.
Dual Savagery
Requisites: One-Handed 70, Dual Flurry
Ranks: 1
Effect: Dual wielding power attacks do +50% damage.
Paralyzing Strike
Requisites: One-Handed 100, Critical Charge, Savage Strike
Ranks: 1
Effect: Backward power attacks have a 25% chance to paralyze the target.
Steel Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can create Steel armor and weapons at forges and improve them twice as much.
Dwarven Smithing
Requisites: Smithing 30, Steel Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can create Dwarven armor and weapons at forges and improve them twice as much.
Elven Smithing
Requisites: Smithing 30, Steel Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can create Elven armor and weapons at forges and improve them twice as much.
Advanced Armors
Requisites: Smithing 50, Elven Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can create Scaled and Plate armor at forges and improve them twice as much.
Orcish Smithing
Requisites: Smithing 50, Dwarven Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can create Orcish armor and weapons at forges and improve them twice as much.
Arcane Smithing
Requisites: Smithing 60, Steel Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can improve magic armor and weapons at forges.
Glass Smithing
Requisites: Smithing 70, Elven Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can create Glass armor and weapons at forges and improve them twice as much.
Ebony Smithing
Requisites: Smithing 80, Orcish Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can create Ebony armor and weapons at forges and improve them twice as much.
Daedric Smithing
Requisites: Smithing 90, Ebony Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can create daedric armor and weapons at forges and improve them twice as much.
Dragon Smithing
Requisites: Smithing 100, Daedric Smithing or Glass Smithing
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can create Dragon armor at forges and improve them twice as much.
Barbarian
Ranks: 5
Effect: Two-Handed weapons do 20% more damage per rank in this perk.
Champion’s Stance
Requisites: Two-Handed 20, Barbarian
Ranks: 1
Effect: Power attacks with two-handed weapons cost 25% less stamina to use.
Deep Wounds
Requisites: Two-Handed 30, Barbarian
Ranks: 3
Effect: Attacks with greatswords have a 10% chance of doing critical damage, +5% per rank.
Limbsplitter
Requisites: Two-Handed 30, Barbarian
Ranks: 3
Effect: Attacks with battle axes cause bleeding damage, additional ranks increase the damage.
Skull Crusher
Requisites: Two-Handed 30, Barbarian
Ranks: 3
Effect: Attacks with warhammers ignore 25% of a targets’ armor per rank.
Devastating Blow
Requisites: Two-Handed 50, Champion’s Stance
Ranks: 1
Effect: Standing power attacks do +25% damage and have a chance to decapitate the target.
Great Critical Charge
Requisites: Two-Handed 50, Champion’s Stance
Ranks: 1
Effect: Can do a two-handed power attack while sprinting that does double critical damage.
Sweep
Requisites: Two-Handed 70, Devastating Blow, Great Critical Charge
Ranks: 1
Effect: Sideways power attacks with two-handed weapons hit all targets in front of you.
Warmaster
Requisites: Two-Handed 100, Sweep
Ranks: 1
Effect: Backward power attacks have a 25% chance to paralyze the target.
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