First, *spoiler alert* I'm not going to mention anything about the main quest line, but I will mention certain items, etc, that could be considered spoilers.
This is my first attempt at writing a guide so... keep that in mind. Skyrim is an amazing game, and I'm writing this to help correct what I consider to be it's biggest flaw, it's super long! Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing! But I tend to get a little bored playing the same type of character hour after hour after hour. Most people solve this by starting new characters, which works great, but for me it's not as fun. So I set out to create a build that's very versatile, allowing me to play many different roles on the same character depending on the mood I'm in. This guide is intended mostly for the people that, like me, almost completely ignore the main quest and instead like to expansively explore the world.
In Skyrim, if you focus on one specific "class" (warrior, thief, or mage) it becomes pretty easy to stack certain effects in the game to become ridiculously powerful. I mean killing dragons in one or two attacks powerful. For example, taking five points into the one hand skill armsman increases your one hand damage by 100%, add to that another 100% to damage from enchanting, and the damage increase you can get from smithing, and you will smash things like a meteor (not even counting the other perks to increase power attack damage). However, the game is very much beatable, and in my opinion more fun, to not be that powerful.
That same system is what allows this versatile build to work, and still be completely capable in each of the three main classes (or any mix of the three) simply by changing your equipment.
Total perks used = 47
------------------The loading Screens lie to you!------------------
Yes, that's right, they lie to you when they say that the more stamina a power attack uses the more damage it does. In actuality a power attack that uses 1 stamina does the exact same damage as one that uses 50. So that 1 stamina per second via the vegetable soup allows you do have very very low base stamina, and still chain power attacks.
This is my first attempt at writing a guide so... keep that in mind. Skyrim is an amazing game, and I'm writing this to help correct what I consider to be it's biggest flaw, it's super long! Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing! But I tend to get a little bored playing the same type of character hour after hour after hour. Most people solve this by starting new characters, which works great, but for me it's not as fun. So I set out to create a build that's very versatile, allowing me to play many different roles on the same character depending on the mood I'm in. This guide is intended mostly for the people that, like me, almost completely ignore the main quest and instead like to expansively explore the world.
Disclaimer:
This guide is assuming that you're leveling all your skills more or less equally. If you've been playing 40 levels as a mage, then smith and enchant some heavy armor, sword, and shield with all your melee skills still around 15-25 you're in for some tough fights. However, your skills will raise pretty quickly!
Short version:
Focus on enchanting, smithing, and certain key items to define your play style at any given time. Don't waste perks on effects you can get through enchanting, smithing, or items.Long version:
I'll go through the basic idea, what perks you can replace with enchanting, smithing, and items, and also what perks are completely skippable, and some that sound great but are in actuality a terrible waste of perks.In Skyrim, if you focus on one specific "class" (warrior, thief, or mage) it becomes pretty easy to stack certain effects in the game to become ridiculously powerful. I mean killing dragons in one or two attacks powerful. For example, taking five points into the one hand skill armsman increases your one hand damage by 100%, add to that another 100% to damage from enchanting, and the damage increase you can get from smithing, and you will smash things like a meteor (not even counting the other perks to increase power attack damage). However, the game is very much beatable, and in my opinion more fun, to not be that powerful.
That same system is what allows this versatile build to work, and still be completely capable in each of the three main classes (or any mix of the three) simply by changing your equipment.
Magicka/Health/Stamina
This may be a little bit biased because I play mostly as a thief, only changing to other rolls as I get bored. In my case by the time I wanted to play a mage, my enchanting was high enough to help cover my low magicka pool. Through enchanting you can reduce the casting cost of any spell by 100%, making a large mana pool essentially a waste of points. Since that get's boring pretty fast I generally divide my points 20% to magicka, 50% to health, and 30% to stamina
Perks:
I'll limit myself to 50 perks for this guide. However I should point out that since you're levelingalmost all of your skills, you'll obtain a higher level than a typical play through of one focused class.
Also, I'm covering being able to change at will between a thief, warrior, and mage. If you only have the desire to change between two of the three, it won't be too hard to adjust the guide.
Warrior: The warrior skill trees consist of Archery, Heavy Armor, Block, Two Handed, One Handed, and Smithing. The main skill here is smithing, allowing you to make your own equipment. But more importantly, allowing you to upgrade your weapons and armor, which will let you skip many perks in the other skill trees.
Smithing: Suggested perk investment - 6: There are two sides to this tree. For the most part light armor is on the left branch, and heavy armor is on the right branch. It takes ten perks to unlock the whole tree. My preference is to only unlock the light armor side of the tree, including Arcane Blacksmithing. My reasoning is you can obtain all of the heavy armors without blacksmithing perks including Daedric via the Atronach Forge.
Alternately, if you don't care about creating equipment, you can invest ZERO perks in smithing because all armor and weapons, including Dragonplate and Daedric can be found randomly in the world. You can still get the full benefit of legendary upgraded weapons and armor with a smithing skill of 100 (but no perks) anda alchemy potions to increase smithing. This way you also don't need Arcane Blacksmith as long as you remember to upgrade your equipment before you enchant it.
Two Handed: Suggested perk investment - 0: Many of these perks are exactly the same as their One handed skill tree counterparts, so I will explain them in that section.
I feel that two handed damage can be pretty devastating. Barbarian can be replaces with enchantments, and the stamina reduction perks can be replaced with the Food Trick (see tips and tricks at the end). Sweep (Sideways power attacks hit multiple targets) could be useful, but not worth the four points to obtain it.
One Handed: Suggested perk investment - 4 for dual wielding, otherwise 0:
Dual wielding pretty much requires a four point investment to be worth while.
Armsman: Increases one hand weapon damage by 20% per point, up to 100%. This is an awesome damage talent, but it's too costly for this build and can be compensated with enchants, smithing, etc. One point is necessary to unlock the dual wielding perks.
Dual Flurry: Dual wielding attacks are 20%(35%) faster. Speeds up every attack when weapons are equipped in both hands, including power attacks. However, the animation for a power attack with two daggers is slow enough to negate this bonus speed. A dagger in your left hand and sword/axe/mace is much better. See tips and tricks at the end for more explanation of dual wield.
Dual Savagery: Dual wielding power attacks do 50% bonus damage. This is a big damage increase for only one point. And since dual wielding leaves you pretty much defenseless, the higher killing potential will keep you alive longer. Not necessary, but helpful.
These next skills are the same for one handed and two handed.
Fighting Stance/Champions Stance: Reduces stamina cost of power attackscan be replaced with the Food Trick (see tips and tricks at the end) and is therefore not worth the point
Hack and Slash/Limbsplitter: Attacks with axes cause extra bleeding damage. At a three point investment the bleed damage caps out at about 20 damage per second, which is not too impressive. Also consider than many enemies don't bleed, negating this perk completely.
Bone Breaker/Skull Crusher: Attacks with maces/warhammers ignore 75% of armor. This sounds amazing! But it's not. Enemy armor values are calculated the same way a players is, but without the perks, smithing upgrades, enchants, etc. Also many enemies don't wear any armor at all (dragons, mammoths, giants, dwarven automatons, etc), leaving pretty much just bandits and draugr wearing armor. And their armor value caps out at around 100 armor, rendering this perk underwhelming for the three point cost.
Bladesman/Deep Wounds: Attacks with swords have a 20% chance of a critical strike. Again this sounds good, but consider how critical hits work. They do 1.5 time the BASE damage of a weapon, ignoring any upgrades, enchants, or perks that increase damage. For example, if your weapon has a base damage of 19, so a critical would hit for 28 damage (28.5 technically, but Skyrim rounds down), essentially adding nine damage. If you put 5 points into Armsman/Barbarian, enchanted all your gear for increased weapon damage, and upgraded the sword to legendary status, the critical hit would still only add nine damage to your attack.
Savage Strike/Devastating Blow: Standing power attacks do 25% bonus damage with a chance to decapitate your enemies. The 25% bonus damage is nice, and possibly worth the three point investment if you aren't going dual wield. Keep in mind that the decapitation is a death animation and I have heard it won't activate if there are other enemies nearby. Also the spell Undead Thrall won't work on enemies that have been decapitated.
Critical Charge/Great Critical Charge: A sprinting power attack does double critical damage. If you read how critical damage is calculated, then you know that double critical damage is very lackluster. Also landing a sprinting power attack is difficult.
Paralyzing Strike/Warmaster: Backwards power attacks have 25% chance to paralyze the target (for one second). This four point investment perk can be replaces with poison or a paralyze enchantment with 100% success rate. Plus backwards power attacks are also somewhat difficult to land.
Archery: Suggested perk investment - 3: Again there are two sides to this tree. Some of them are good, some are useful/fun, and some are useless, however none are considered mandatory.
Overdraw: Increases damage bows do by 20% per point invested, up to 100%. You need to sink one point into this talent to unlock the rest of the tree. I would not suggest more than one point because the damage can be increased through smithing, enchanting, the Shrouded Cowl from the Dark Brotherhood (increases bow damage by 20%), and thief perks if you choose them.
Eagle Eye: One perk point allows you to zoom in while aiming your bow. Fun perk, with no other way to acquire this ability. Since I play mostly as a thief/assassin, to me it's worth the point.
Steady Hands: Zooming in with the bow slows time by 25% per point, up to 50%. In my opinion only one point into this skill in necessary. 25% slow is enough to pick off moving targets, and to me 50% is a little excessive and not worth another precious perk.
Power Shot: Arrows stagger opponents 50% of the time. This is a decent perk, designed for someone playing mainly as an archer. It essentially allows you to kite enemies and never allow them into melee range. Take it if you want, but as a versatile build we have other options for when enemies close the distance.
Quick Shot: Can draw a bow 30% faster. Again a skill for archer characters. 30% seems like a big increase, but take into account how much of each shot you spend aiming before you decide if it's worth it.
Bull's-eye: 15% chance of paralyzing a target for a few seconds. Even if you are a full archer build I find this useless. 15% is a pretty small percent, especially for a benefit that you can get 100% of the time with poison or a weapon enchant.
Critical shot: 10% chance of a critical hit that does extra damage. Three points gets you a 20% chance of a critical hit. This perk is also WORTHLESS!!! I know it sounds decent, but let me explain how critical hits work. They do 1.5 time the BASE damage of a weapon, ignoring any upgrades, enchants, or perks that increase damage. For example, a Daedric bow has a base damage of 19, so a critical would hit for 28 damage (28.5 technically, but Skyrim rounds down), essentially adding nine damage. If you put 5 points into Overdraw, enchanted all your gear for increased bow damage, and upgraded the bow to legendary status, the critical hit would still only add nine damage to your attack.
Hunter's Disciplines: Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies. Arrows are everywhere in Skyrim! You should really never need this perk.
Ranger: Able to move faster with a drawn bow. This has the potential to be a very useful perk, but IMO it's not worth the point investment for a versatile build like this.
*Note on armor* - Armor rating caps at, I believe, 567 which is 80% physical damage reduction. Meaning that any additional armor does nothing. That 80% is easy to achieve through armor perks, smithing, and enchanting. However, a respectably high armor rating can be achieved without spending any armor perks.
Heavy Armor: Suggested Perk investment - 0: I don't suggest spending any points in heavy armor, so I won't go into each perk individually. Most of them simply increase your armor by a percentage, reduce stagger, and reduce fall damage (how after do you really take fall damage?)
Conditioning: Heavy armor weighs nothing and doesn't slow you down when worn. This is a very good talent for someone focusing a heavy armor warrior class. It provides more maneuverability and essentially more carrying capacity by reducing your armor weight to zero. But for our build it costs too many perks for the benefit.
Block: Suggested Perk investment - 0: The way I understand it, physical damage can only be mitigated by 80% through both armor and blocking. So the higher armor rating you have, the less blocking is valued. This tree is divided into two branches, the left branch is for shields, and will ONLY work when a shield is equipped. The right branch works for both blocking with a shield or with just a weapon.
Some of these perks are fun (Block Runner and Shield Charge), and Power Bach plus Deadly Bash in incredibly powerful. But even when you're feeling the urge to stand toe to toe and trade blows with the enemy, none of these perks are essential for survival with a versatile build.
Total Warrior Perks = 12
Thief: The Thief skill trees consist of light armor, sneak, lockpicking, pickpocket, speech, and alchemy. These trees contain more perks that are unique than the warrior trees, ones that cannot be substituted with enchants, smithing, etc.
Light Armor: Suggested Perk investment - 0: Like heavy armor, almost all of these perks can be replaces with smithing and enchanting bonuses. Unhindered is less useful than Conditioning because it already weighs less and barely slows your movement speed.
Sneak: Suggested Perk investment - 6-9: With proper items and enchants you can get away with a pretty decent assassin/thief without investing any points into sneak. However the perk Shadow Warrior cannot be duplicated. Neither can Silent Roll, but that's more fun than useful.
Stealth: You are 20% harder to detect while sneaking, up to 100% at 5 points. You need one point in this talent to unlock the tree. After that you can compensate with the enchant Fortify Sneak, and the Shrouded Hood from the Dark Brotherhood.
Backstab: Sneak attacks with one hand weapons do six times damage. If you combine this with the Shrouded Hand Wraps from the Dark Brotherhood (Sneak attacks do double damage) you end up with twelve times weapon damage and you aren't restricted to a dagger.
Deadly Aim: Sneak attacks with bows now do three times damage. This is good if you're going for Assassin's Blade, otherwise it's not as good as it sounds. Keep in mind regular sneak attacks with bows already do two times normal damage.
Assassin's Blade: Sneak attacks with daggers now do 15 times normal damage. This perk makes you hit like a truck, add in the Shrouded Handwraps for 30 times damage and you hit like a truck being driven by Chuck Norris, provided you can sneak up on it. It's almost mandatory for an assassin except that you need nowhere near that much damage to kill most things in one hit. For most targets the low damage of a dagger times 30 isn't that much more useful than the higher damage of a sword/axe/mace times 12 (backstab + shrouded handwraps)
Muffled Movement: Noise from armor is reduced by 50%. If you want shadow warrior you must get this perk, if not then don't get it. The effect can be duplicated (and improved) by the spell muffle, or the Shrouded Shoes from the Dark Brotherhood. Or the easier, but not very realistic, get naked while sneaking, and armor up if they spot you.
Light Foot: You won't trigger pressure plates. There is no way to duplicate this perk, and you must get it if you want Shadow Warrior. It's useful if you don't like paying attention to the ground, but you will still activate trip wires, etc.
Silent Roll: Sprinting while sneaking executes a silent roll. Fun! And helpful for closing a little distance before a sneak attack, but only necessary if you want Shadow Warrior.
Silence: Walking and running does not affect detection. I'm not too sure how this work, but I BELIEVE that if you are out of sight you can stop sneaking and run, and enemies won't hear you. I could be wrong though. Either way, the Shrouded Shoes or the spell Muffle has a similar effect.
Shadow Warrior: Crouching stops combat for a moment (one second invisibility) and forces distant opponents to search for a target. The gem of the sneak tree! Incredibly useful for stealthy combat once you've been spotted, and pretty fun in my opinion. It's biggest use is after you're spotted and the enemy is closing in, stand up, sidestep the enemy, drop back into stealth and attack. If done properly this should execute a sneak attack! The only potential way to duplicate this effect is by use of the Illusion spell Calm and then backstabbing the enemy. Not exactly the same, but close I guess.
Lockpicking: Suggested Perk investment - 0: While these perks are helpful, any lock in the game can be picked without investing any perks.
Treasure Hunter: 50% greater chance of finding greater treasure. This would require a five point perk investment. I've never gotten this perk so I can't say how much better the loot is. But considering this build revolves around smithing and enchanting, you can make ANY gear you want, so I question the value of this perk for this build.
Pickpocket: Suggested Perk investment - 0-3: Pickpocketing can be very profitable, can get you some nice enchanted jewelry, and is necessary for some thieves guild jobs. However, you can do all of that without any perks. It will be a little hard to get started without any points into Light Fingers, but it's possible. Three points into Pickpocket to obtain Extra pockets (+100 carry capacity) is helpful but enchants can provide that or bonus skill. Stealing equipped weapons and armor is fun, but if you're close enough to do that you can usually just kill them and take it anyway.
Speech: Suggested Perk investment - 0: To me the Speech tree seems lackluster. I haven't run into a persuasion or intimidation scenario that I couldn't get by with just a high speech skill. You usually end up with so much loot you need to visit multiple merchants to sell it all, so the better price perks aren't so great. And the higher end perks are very convenient, but don't affect your ability to play a thief class to any great degree.
Alchemy: Suggested Perk investment - 0: Like Speech, most of these perks are simply for convenience, or can be replaced with enchanting (enchant some cheap armor with Fortify Alchemy, make your potions and poisons, then put the armor back in storage) and you can still make some potent poisons and potions without any spent perks.
Total Thief Perks = 12
Mage: The mage skill tree consists of Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, and Enchanting, with enchanting being the most important for this build. I'm focusing more on a well rounded use of the mage skill tree.
Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, and Master perks for each school of magic are unnecessary because they can be replaced with enchants to lower mana cost. You can use enchants to lower mana cost anywhere from 0%-100%, whatever you find fair/challenging, without spending perk points.
Enchanting: Suggested Perk investment - 8: You need at least 8 points into enchanting to make this build work. Extra effect is simply too important to skip.
Enchanter: New enchantments are 20% stronger per point, up to 100%. This is the perk that enables you to skip so many other perks. Essentially perks in a can! This is one of the reasons why enchanting + smithing + damage perks are so overpowered, but since we've skipped most of the damage perks it becomes fairly well balanced.
Insightful Enchanter: Skill enchantments on armor are 20% stronger. This is for enchants like Fortify heavy armor, etc. Helpful when combined with Enchanter, but mostly because it's the shortest path to extra effect.
Corpus Enchanter: Health, magicka, and stamina enchantments on armor are 25% stronger. Mostly you won't have these enchants on armor since you will need the space for extra damage, skills, etc. But we need it for Extra Effect.
Extra Effect: Can put two enchantments on the same item. This one perk is what makes the whole versatile build work. You have four pieces of armor, two of jewelry, and either a weapon and shield, two weapons, or one weapon, that's 14 or 16 enchantments total. This is what enables you to skip so many perks and still be able to enjoy different play styles without creating a new character every time. This is also the other reason why enchanting + smithing + damage perks is so overpowered, but since we've skipped most of the damage perks it becomes fairly well balanced.
Increase elemental enchants on weapons and armor are helpful, but not necessary.
Alteration: Suggested Perk investment: 0: I really don't suggest any points in alteration. It's main benefits are Mage armor (Armor spells are twice as strong if you're not wearing armor) and Magic Resist (passive blocks 30% of a spells effect) Magic Resist can be replaced with enchantments. And Mage armor isn't needed because you can enchant armor and wear them instead of robes, eliminating the need to cast armor spells once a minute.
Restoration: Suggested Perk investment: 0: While there are some really useful perks in Restoration, most of them can be easily replaced with enchants, or simply potions. If you like adventuring with followers you could consider getting dual casting or Respite to keep them healed and fighting, but you really won't miss any perks in this school.
Destruction: Suggested Perk investment: 5: It's well known that destruction is the outcast of magic schools in Skyrim. While it is awesome and flashy, compared to every other form of dealing damage, it simply doesn't scale at all. The only way to improve destruction damage is with dual casting and the two perks to augment each elements damage. Sure you'll be able to blast your way through much of the game, but after a while the damage just can't keep up considering all the level's you'll be gaining using all your skills with this build.
To keep the perk cost low I suggest choosing only one element to improve and stick with that.
Novice Destruction: Cast Novice level destruction spells for half magicka. With enchants this isn't really needed, but you have to get it to unlock the rest of the tree.
Destruction Dual Casting: Overcharges the spell into an even more powerful version. Necessary to deal significant damage as a Destruction mage, and only one point.
Impact: Most destruction spells will stagger an opponent when dual cast. This is what will keep enemies from rushing you and smashing your skull. Since you might not have any armor, this will help keep you alive.
Augmented Flames/Frost/Shock: Spells of that element do 50% more damage. This includes elemental enchantments on weapons, so keep that in mind. Pretty self explanatory. I chose lightning because it looks the coolest IMO.
Intense Flames/Deep Freeze/Disintegrate: Causes an extra effect depending on the element when the targets health is low. Get it if you want, but for this guide to stay under 50 perks I skipped it. The target will be almost dead when the affect activates anyway, so while cool, they aren't adding too much.
Conjuration: Suggested Perk investment: 0: Conjuration can destroy everything in Skyrim. With the Twin Souls perk, summon two Dremora Lords and watch them smash everything. While there aren't enough perks in this build (there are if you go over level 50) conjuration is still pretty badass with no perks.
Because of enchanting you don't need the perks to reduce mana costs.
The perks to improve bound weapons are useless without the increased damage perks from the other trees that we skipped.
Dual casting increases the duration of summoned atronachs, raised dead, ect. But you can always just summon another one, and the master level spells have a permanent duration anyway.
If you choose not to go so deep into Illusion I would suggest getting Twin Souls via 1 point in Novice Conjuration, 1 point in Summoner, 1 in Atromancy, and 1 in Elemental Potency.
Illusion: Suggested Perk investment: 9: Illusion is where the problem lies for this build, so I saved it for last. There are basically two types of illusion spells, ones you cast on yourself/allies, and ones you cast on enemies. The ones you cast on yourself are fine with no perks. But your enemies very quickly out level the spells you cast on them. For example the Master Illusion spell Harmony causes people and creatures to stop fighting for 60 seconds, but only up to level 33. Higher than level 33 they will be too strong for the spell to effect. To combat this you will need perks that raise the level affected.
Novice Illusion: Novice level Illusion spells cost half mana. Needed to unlock the rest of the tree.
Illusion Dual Casting: Dual casting makes illusion spells affect higher level targets. Necessary if you want to affect targets over level 33.
Hypnotic Gaze/Aspect of Terror/Rage: Calm/Fear/Frenzy spells work on higher level opponents.
Animage: Illusion spells now work on higher level animals. Needed to get quiet casting.
Kindred Mage: All Illusion spells now work on higher level people. Necessary for casting on higher level targets, and needed for quiet casting.
Quiet Casting: All spells you cast from any school of magic are silent to others. Needed to play a sneaky mage, otherwise forget it.
Master of the Mind: Illusion spells work on undead, daedra, and automatons. Considering this makes up a significant amount of enemies in Skyrim, if you're serious about illusion you pretty much need this.
Total Mage Perks = 22
Total perks used = 47
The food trick!
We've skipped every single perk that reduced the stamina cost of power attacks, but this can be solved with one very simple item, vegetable soup!!! Vegetable soup restores a flat 1 health and 1 stamina per second for 720 seconds. Of course one stamina per second is almost nothing, except for one fact
------------------The loading Screens lie to you!------------------
Yes, that's right, they lie to you when they say that the more stamina a power attack uses the more damage it does. In actuality a power attack that uses 1 stamina does the exact same damage as one that uses 50. So that 1 stamina per second via the vegetable soup allows you do have very very low base stamina, and still chain power attacks.
In conclusion:
I understand that this guide will not make you the best at any particular play style for Skyrim. I also understand that everything I advise you to do with smithing and enchanting, etc, in order to skip certain perks would be incredibly more effective if you got the perks also. Weapons will do way more damage, armor will be exceptionally stronger, I know all this.
This guide is not meant to create the strongest character possible, it's designed to create a character that can change roles at will, allowing you to experience every play style without having to level up new characters.
One thing Skyrim shares with online games like World of Warcraft is that the more specialized you are, the more powerful you are. The more versatile, the less powerful. But hopefully this guide will help you create a character that is both versatile and fun, while also being strong enough in each roll.
