Hello everyone, this is my first build. I have been creeping character builds on here and TamrielVault for a while, tried a bunch of builds, had a great time, etc. I thoroughy enjoy thick roleplay, unique playstyle, cool abilities, and especially a build that makes you think about how you want to approach different types of enemies and situations. After thousands of hours of gameplay, I thought it's time I finally give back to the community and present this spicy little nugget that's made my pants tighter than they're supposed to be for an extended period of time.
Lolth, Queen of Spiders
Queen of the Demonweb Pits,
The Weaver of Destiny,
Demigoddess of Spiders, Assassins, and Drow
Lolth is a demon lord and a goddess worshipped by the Drow (some myths propose that she was originally a goddess who was transformed into a demon). She displays formidable power and great cruelty with an affection for arachnids. Goddess of Darkness, Drow, Evil, and Spiders (and assassins and chaos in the Forgotten Realms), Lolth has, through deceit and domination, garnered the ears of the dark elves and eventually established herself as their foremost deity, keeping them under her thumb by creating a society in which only the strong survive and her priestesses are strongest.
Cruel and capricious, Lolth embodies the absolute evil of all Drow.
She is malicious in all her dealings with others and coldly vicious in a fight,
coveting the power of the greater gods worshiped by the surface races.
She can be kind and aids those she fancies, but she thrives on death, destruction, and torture –
including those of her own worshipers who have displeased her.
Although she can appear as a giant black widow spider with crimson eyes,
Lolth’s true form is rumored to be that of a human-sized, exquisitely beautiful female drow.
~~~Commandments of Lolth~~~
Do whatever it takes to gain and hold power.
Rely on stealth and slander in preference to outright confrontation.
Seek the death of elves at every opportunity.
****Those if you who are not familiar with the Drow, they are dark elves from Dungeons and Dragons which is what all of the skills and abilities of the build are inspired from
ALSO - This build is still great and super fun without mods by I highly recommend the following mods to supercharge the build:
Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim
Path of Sorcery - Magic Perk Overhaul
Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim
Bonus Mods that I highly recommend for the build - Human Enemies Drop Hearts and Flesh + Circlets or Masks with all Robes and Hoods
*The last two mods make human hearts and flesh more available and lets you wear a hood with a circlet. Highly recommended, but not necessary.
Disclaimer - This is an INTERPRETATION of Lolth. Not trying to have a bunch of D&D nerds fact checking my precious work. If you want a better interpretation of Lolth, make your own character build. With all that out of the way....
~~~The Build~~~
Race: Dark Elf, Vampire Lord
(It's important to keep in mind, Lolth is not a vampire but the vampire mechanics are what's important. Let your vampirism get to the highest stage and ride it for the whole playthrough. NO FEEDING)
**I debated whether or not I would use the Vampire Lord form as a pretend Black Widow form, but ultimately decided against it.
Appearance: White hair, lightest skin, red eyes, super hot
Class: Cleric of the Trickery Domain
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Stat Spread: 3 : 1 : 0, after 200 health, all into magicka
Standing Stone:
Mage - Beginning
Mage + Lover - For leveling after Athereal Crown
Lord + Ritual - End
Skills:
Restoration (key perks - Magicka Regen, Dual Casting, Respite)
Illusion (key perks - Quiet Casting, emphasis on the Calm spell)
Alteration (key perks - Magic Resistance)
Alchemy (key perks - Emphasis on poisons, and Concentrated Poison)
Pickpocket (key perks - Poisoned)
Speech (key perks - Allure, Persuasion if no mods, shout buffs if using mods)
Sneak (minimal perk investment due to Nightstalker's Footsteps and gear)
**I chose not to post my exact perks due to people having different perk mod preferences, but to give a rough outline, here is an unmodded perk list for reference:
Restoration - Novice - Master, Regeneration, Necromage, Respite, Dual Casting, Recovery x2
Illusion - Novice - Expert, Dual Casting, Animage, Kindred Mage, Quiet Casting, Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror
Alteration - Novice - Expert, Magic Resistance x 3, Stability, Mage Armor x1
Alchemy - Alchemist x 5, Physician, Benefactor, Poisoner, Concentrated Poison
Pickpocket - Light Fingers x 2, Night Theif, Poisoned
Speech - Haggling x 1, Allure, Bribery, Persuasion
Sneak - Stealth x 1 (can be fleshed out after initial completion of build, but more of an icing on the cake)
Shouts:
Become Ethereal (1 word), Bend Will (3 words), Marked for Death (3 words), Slow Time (3 words), Whirlwind Sprint (3 words)
Equipment:
Weapons - Mehrunes' Razor, Sanguine Rose, Wabbajack, Miraak's Staff, Spider Scrolls (Fire Only to emulate darkfire spiders)
Apparel - Shrouded hood + Athereal Crown, Necklace of Resist Magic or Necklace of Fortify Magic, Vampire Robes, Mystic Tuning gloves, Ring of Erudite, Shrouded shoes
**Feel free to use any dagger up until you get Mehrunes' Razor, and any ring of magicka regeneration or fortify magicka up until Ring of Erudite. I preferred using Bloodthorn and a ring of magicka regeneration.
**Mourner's clothes or black robes can be used before you can find some vampire robes or if you think of something else that looks good, go with that.
**I got Krosis and Muiri's Ring for mixing potions.
**Pickpocket the Mystic Tuning Gloves from Drevis Neloren at the College of Winterhold, but do not complete the Out of Balance quest, in fact don't even start it, you will lose the gloves upon completion. Also, they are a quest item so if you get caught from the guards with a huge bounty and choose to pay it off, you will not lose the gloves. Tested on Skyrim Special Edition, not sure about original version.
**The Circlets or Masks with all Robes and Hoods mod lets you wear the Shrouded hood and the Athereal Crown at the same time. If you decide to use this mod feel free to use a circlet of fortify magicka up until you get the Athereal Crown.
Spellbook:
Restoration - Close Wounds, Poison Rune, **Horrid Wilting, Repel Undead, Turn Greater Undead, Bane of the Undead
Alteration - Magelight, Detect Life, Ash Shell, Ebonyflesh
Illusion - **Dispel Magic, **Silence, Pacify, Rout
**Bonus spells from the Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim mod:
Horrid Wilting - Similar to the fireball spell except slower moving and deals disease damage over time, works on living and undead creatures (except for vampires which makes an alliance with them more profitable) along with dragons, but does not affect dwarven automations.
Dispel Magic - Normal spell cast time that has a huge area of effect that radiates from the caster like the Nord's Battle Cry power that dispels magic. Very useful against mages when they cast elemental cloaks, and flesh spells, although I don't remember this dispelling conjured weapons, I could be wrong. This also dispels your flesh spells so watch out for that.
Silence - A bolt of magic that prevents spell casters from casting spells for 10 seconds. Excellent when used right after Dispel Magic.
**Muffle will be used until you get Shrouded shoes, but if you need to power level to get Quiet Casting, feel free to spam the spell
**There are a wide array of spells from the Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim mod you can try, shadow spells that involve creating illusions of your enemies are ok and the spell Backlash had some use, but I settled on using the above list.
Potions and Poisons
Darkoil - Fortify Restoration + Regenerate Magicka (Salt pile + Garlic + (Abecean Longfin or Cyrodilic Spadetail or Small Antlers))
Venom - Lingering Damage Health (Imp Stool, Mora Tapinella, Orange Dartwing, Scathecraw, Slaughterfish Egg, Slaughterfish Scales)
Digestive Fluid - Damage Health + Weakness to Poison (Deathbell + Bleeding Crown + Nightshade)
Black Widow Poison - Paralysis + Damage Health + Lingering Damage Health (Imp Stool + Human Flesh + Scathecraw)
Toxic Psychosis - Weakness to Fire (Bleeding Crown, Burnt Spriggan Wood, Frost Salts, Ice Wraith Teeth, Juniper Berries, Moon Sugar, Powdered Mammoth Tusk)
**If you don't have the mod, Human Enemies Drop Hearts and Flesh, it is OK to substitute Black Widow Poison with a Paralysis + Damage Health poison instead.
Essential Quests
**Lolth wishes to quietly sink her corrupted claws deep into the hear of Skyrim. Gaining power and influence, making important allys and setting up strategic footholds are of the upmost importance.
Diplomatic Immunity ~~ Pieces of the Past ~~ The Whispering Door ~~ The Mind of Madness ~~ A Night to Remember ~~ The Book of Love ~~ The Heart of Dibella ~~ Lost to the Ages ~~ Civil War ~~ Imperial Legion ~~ Theives Guild ~~ Dark Brotherhood ~~ College of Winterhold ~~ Dawnguard - Volkihar side ~~ Dragonborn ~~ Black Book: The Shallow Regent ~~ Black Book: The Winds of Change ~~ Black Book: Untold Legends
Special Abilities
Bite - Silently inject Venom into a foe - Poisoned + Venom
Wicked Strikes - Lolth infuses her weapon with Black Widow Poison and strikes with incredible speed - Black Widow Poison + Slow Time + Mehrunes' Razor
Kiss of the Black Widow - Slowly decay a humanoid from the inside out - Darkoil + Poisoned + Digestive Fluid + Dual cast Poison Rune + Calm/Pacify
Arachnophobia - Lolth amplifies a humanoid's fear of spiders - Poisoned + Toxic Psychosis + Summon Spider (jumping) + Fear/Rout
Faerie Fire - Frighten a creature and outline them in light. Attacks against this creature do increased damage - Fear/Turn Undead + Magelight + Marked for Death
Controlled Chaos - Captivate nearby humanoids only to pit them off against eachother - Magelight + Nightingale Subterfuge
Destroy Undead - Lure the undead with light then drown them with darkfire - Magelight + Ancestor's Wrath + Become Ethereal + Bane of the Undead
Spells, Abilities and Items that are OFF LIMITS!!
Wards (Restoration)
Sun Spells (Restoration)
Guardian Circle (Restoration)
Circle of Protection (Restoration)
Frenzy Spells (Illusion) - Personal preference due to being overpowered, plus it is more fun only having Nightingale Subterfuge to cast once a day
Invisibility (Illusion) - Personal choice due to being overpowered, plus it is more fun only having Embrace of Shadows to cast once a day
Detect Dead (Alteration) - Lolth can only read the thoughts of living creatures
Equillibrium (Alteration) - Lolth would never sacrifice herself
Paralysis (Alteration) - Personal preference due to being overpowered
Restricted to use ONLY potions and poisons from the Potions and Poisons list - you can craft and sell any potion
No use of scrolls, followers or found potions
No staffs or weapons other than the ones mentioned in the Equipment section, but can use any dagger until Mehrunes' Razor
No using Calm/Pacify on animals, except for spiders. I recommend USING Calm/Pacify on spiders often and avoid killing them if you can.
**Follow these rules for a rich roleplay experience. I found that sometimes putting restrictions on your gameplay can actually make the playthrough more fun.
**One of the essential quests is The Whispering Door and powering the Ebony Blade up to its full power. This is the only exeption to the above weapon rule, but after the blade is at it's full power, you will store it as a trophy.
**During the very early levels, it is OK to use whatever poisons you can get your hands on like Frostbite Venom and whatever crafted poisons you have ingredients for, but as soon as you are able, stick to the Potions and Poisons list religiously.
Early Game Tips
- Get Vampirism, Sanguine Rose, Wabbajack, Spider Scrolls, Poison Rune, atleast one word of the Marked for Death, Become Ethereal, and Whirlwind Sprint shouts, Agent of Mara, Quiet Casting, and Poisoned (Pickpocket perk) as soon as possible. This will give you a solid foudation to start with. From there, feel free to piece together the rest of the essential pieces of the build.
- As far as leveling, Restoration, Illusion, and Alteration should level quickly with the use of Turn Undead, Flesh spells, and Muffle, but you may need to use a trainer to get your Restoration up high enough for casting Poison Rune and *Horrid Wilting. Also, don't let your Alchemy fall behind. You will definately fly through the lower levels, But I recommend against using trainers during the mid game. I found it more enjoyable to level naturally during major quest lines.
- White River Watch just east of Whiterun has a massive collection of alchemical supplies, especially Imp Stool. Highly recommend heading there in the beginning.
- You may struggle with combat early on but it will force you to think about what tools you have at your disposal and how to get past the current situation. More on that in the Combat section.
Combat - General
- You approach combat as a stealthy agent looking for opportunities to manipulate the battle field.
- Lolth prefers to travel at night, so make use of Vampire Sight.
- You can use Magelight to distract your foes if you feel like just slipping by. This works best in a more open environment, but also can be used to lead your enemies into traps.
- Make sure an cast Flesh Spells as a pre battle ritual.
- Become Ethereal is great for dodging dragon breath and mage spells.
- When you are up against living creatures, use Detect Life as a scouting tool.
- When you need to reposition, use Whirlwind Sprint but if that won't work, use Embrace of Shadows.
- Slow Time can be extremely valuable when you have a lot of enemies to micromanage.
- Faerie Fire is great for softening up your foes for Sanguine Rose, Spider Scrolls and Vampire Servant/The Ritual Stone but also fun if you want to let the whole dungeon know they have an unexpected visitor.
- I found Ash Shell to be valuable when you are up against a lot of enemies and want to remove the strongest one from combat while you clean up the weaker foes, then as an added bonus, you could also plant a Poison Rune right next the disabled foe so they start taking damage immediately after the Ash Shell expires. As a grand finale, use The Ritual Stone to raise all of their fallen comrades.
- Another use for Ash Shell is sniping Trolls on a steep hill to watch them roll all the way down, or a Falmer right next to a ledge to watch them fall off the side. I did this a few times in Arkngthamz during Lost to the Ages and was pretty satisfied with the results.
- Vampire's Servant is useful to add variety to your allies.
- Miraak's Staff is excellent for creating space and blocking choke points.
- Wabbajack is an interesting tool to spice things up. Usually you turn your opponent into a Chicken, Mudcrab or Dremora, but you can also deal heavy elemental damage too. Wabbajack used on massive creatures always does elemental damage so this is excellent for taking on Dragons and huge Dwarven Automations.
Combat - Humanoids
- Look for lone enemies to either Bite if you don't have a lot of space, or Kiss of the Black Widow, or you can simply dual-cast Poison Rune around an enemy and then Calm/Pacify and walk away or continue looting a room only to hear them perish shortly after. (In case you didn't know, you can cast Poison rune, Marked for Death, and/or *Horrid Wilting then Calm and the enemy will just stand there taking damage.)
- In addition to the scouting and picking off enemies tactic from above, another ability to add variety is Arachnophobia. Feel free to experiment and keep switching it up depending on the situation.
- Fear/Rout and Calm/Pacify are helpful when things get out of hand and want to take care of it defensively, but if you are feeling bold, go in for Wicked Strikes. (I remember being chased by 5 high level falmer, I popped Wicked Strikes and watched all of them hit the deck as Slow Time expired. So satisfying.)
- If you want to cause a bit of a ruckus, you can cast Faerie Fire to send a Bandit running away to alarm other bandits in the dungeon, then set up a dual-cast Poison Rune for the reinforcements to step into, then either Fear/Rout, Calm/Pacify, Horrid Wilting, Sanguine Rose, Spider Scrolls, Miraak's Staff, I mean there is just so much variety.
- When going up against spell casters, I like to use Sanguine Rose and Spider Scrolls, then cast Dispel Magic and Silence as an additional tactic.
- Bend Will is good for turning the tide in a fight, although I didn't use this very often.
- A grand finale type move is Controlled Chaos. Extremely satisfying when you can only cast it once per day. Feel free to dump in some Poison Runes, Horrid Wilting, or even use Sanguine Rose and/or Spider Scrolls. If you are feeling like overkill, finish it up with Wicked Strikes.
Combat - Undead
- A tactic I found enjoyable throughout the playthrough is casting Faerie Fire or simply Turn Undead on a Drauger to send them running into a trap. Nordic Tombs are full of traps, as we all know. Bleak Falls Barrow is a great example of this, sending Drauger into the swinging blades or the swinging door.
- A suppliment to the above tactic, is luring them into traps with Magelight.
- Horrid Wilting can be used for some offensive damage when you have to fight (except on vampires), along with Miraak's Staff, Sanguine Rose and Spider Scrolls.
- A technique I like to refer to as Fanning is where you continually cast Faerie Fire on the undead to have them running around slowly taking damage while looting the dungeon. (Depending on difficulty, the first word of Marked for Death can kill Skeletons and low level Drauger)
- A grand finale tactic against a wave of Drauger can be to Ash Shell the strongest foe, cast Destroy Undead to begin picking off the rest, then when Ash Shell wears off, use The Ritual Stone to raise up all of the fallen and then Embrace of Shadows to dissapear without a trace.
Combat - Automations
- The most threatening enemies since you can't use Detect Life on them and they seem to just appear without warning (unless you have all the dungeons memorized), but even then these things tend to sneak up on you.
- Sanguine Rose, Wabbajack and Spider Scrolls will help you immensly if you chose to fight.
- Slow Time and Become Ethereal will help you manuver around the battle field and Faerie Fire can help soften these things up for your Dremora even though Automations resist Fear/Rout. I always cast Faerie Fire as a package for role playing purposes.
- If you chose to be more evasive and avoid fights, Whirlwind Sprint and Embrace of Shadows come in handy.
Combat - Dragons
- Become Ethereal is great for dodging their breath attacks while Sanguine Rose and Spider Scrolls is great for taking the heat off you, literally.
- Horrid Wilting and Wabbajack do solid ranged damage.
- I like to try and hit the Dragon with Faerie Fire if it's night time, but getting the Magelight to stick on a Dragon is not easy.
- You can also try and go in for Wicked Strikes, but watch out for that dreaded kill cam.
**I am sure there are tactics and techniques that I may have missed, so feel free to experiment, and let me know if you find something juicy.
Closing Notes
I had a really fun time with this character, even after I completed the build I wanted to keep playing which is rare for me, I usually get bored with a playthrough somewhere in the mid 30's then quit. I felt so strongly about this build and had to share it so I hope it brings as much joy to you as it did for me.
Replies
This is quite a solid entry especially for your first build Mr. Turds. You’ve interpreted this infamous character quite well into skyrim.
My only suggestion is to condense your list of special and basic abilities. My tip here: list only combinations that require more than 1 skill spell perk or power to achieve a gameplay effect far greater than any single item could produce on its own.
Wow, Curse, it is an honor that you liked my build. I remember trying out the King of Worms build you did with Raidriar on TamrielVault. Extremely fun, I really enjoy that kind of playstyle, and not including quiet casting was a nice touch to keep the gameplay challenging.
I wanted to add unique names to the basic spells and abilities, but probbaly went overboard a little bit. I'll have to figure out how to edit my post.
Wow so you’ve been around the skyrim community scene for a while if you can remember that far back.
With the editing it’s best to trim the fat leaving only what is necessary for the reader to understand how this build functions. That being said a build should never be too spread out or attempt to do to many different things.
sometimes something too complex is arguably worse than something too simple.
Wow. Sweet build. The wolf spider has competition now.
Nice build dude! Might give this a try!
Very nice! I really like this concept, and I'm a sucker for necrovamp alchemists!
Aside from what other people have said, I have a couple of pointers. Firstly, a few more pictures would go a long way, and I'm sure there's plenty of spider lady artwork out there...
Secondly, and this is more of a personal thing that I might be picking up on due to the lack of pictures, it feels kind of 'list-y'... That could just be your style, but I feel like some of these lists don't need to be there, such as the powers and active effects ones.
But a really nice build nonetheless, and very well explained.
EDIT: Just did some googling for spider-lady artwork, here's what I found for a quick search of 'Lolth'...
This one's pretty badass...
Hope I don't get banned for this, spider lady art can be quite racy :D
Ha yes, she doefinately has some interesting pics online. Good advice, I added some more pictures and tried to trim some extra content. I guess it is my style to present the build more of like a here's an introduction and then here is how to build it. But yeah, it's been a lot of fun putting this together and I'm glad you like it!
I'll try and get around to making a gameplay video one of these days an upload it.
Is this based on the D&D Spider Queen?
Hey mate - beautiful Build that you've got here - and you've hit Rank:Expert!
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