HIRCINE’S HUNTRESS
BACKSTORY:
The Purge they called it. With the Aldermi Dominion seizing rule over Valenwood after the Great War, the Altmer would turn against their elven cousins, the Bosmer by eliminatiing any who were allies to the Empire. Viewed as racial inferior, the Altmer would carry out these purges in cities and villages that formerly had ties to Cyrodiil and were replaced by the Thalmor, a law enforcement unit within the Dominion. Some regions were replaced by rule of law; others by force.
Erindel had finally killed it. A wild senche-tiger that had eluded her all day was finally slain when she pinned the final shot to its forehead. Although common in Valenwood, a wild form of the senche-tiger were rare to capture because of its camouflage abilities in the dense forests of Reaper's March making it difficult to track. Its fur and remains were highly valuable to the market in Arenthia, a trade city near the borders of Cyrodiil and Elsweyr. Because of its close proximation, Arenthia was known as a multicultural settlement attracting traders from the neighboring provinces. Traders from High Rock and Hammerfell would also visit because of its accessibility from the west along the Strid River.
As it was getting dark, Erindel was arriving at her home village, Nalore. Hunting the sench-tiger all day left her exhausted so she planned on heading to Arenthia early in the morning and hoped to make a high profit from the tiger's fur and remains. However, just as she arrived, she noticed something wrong. A small group of Altmer were dragging dead Bosmer bodies and putting them into a pile. Erindel gasped at what she saw and it caught the attention of the High Elves who started to come after her. All of a sudden, her hunter instincts kicked in as she grabbed her bow, drew her arrows and fired them into the heads of her assailants. She never killed a person before, but the fear of being attacked was similar to how she dealt with various beasts in the forests. There was one left, but she was walking toward Erindel as though she wanted to negotiate.
"Listen", she said. "I am a member of the Thalmor Justiciar Committee of the Aldmeri Dominion. You killed 5 of my agents and killing me will not change the outcome today. Your crime will be death, but I order you to lay down your weapon, before you experience something much worse".
Erindel looked behind the Thalmor agent to see her fallen villagers. Along with being threatened, she was fueld with rage and decided to end this authoritarian murderer. She drew her bow and aimed for the agent's head. Just as she was about to release her arrow, she noticed the agent doing something with her hands. For a moment, Erindel thought she was going to cast a spell, but recognized the 5 Altmer she killed were now standing. She then saw her fellow villagers also standing all alike with rotting flesh and purple glow in their eyes. Erindel had never seen Necromancy in her life and the sight of it was terrifying. She didn't know how to respond as it was nothing like hunting. While stunned at the sight, the rising dead turn towards Erindel, and the only thing she could of think of was to run.
Erindel had fled across the border into Cryrodiil, but the Thalmor influence in the province caused her to worry about being caught. She even recognized the same Thalmor agent in the Chorrol region. One of the agent's accompaniments was a Bosmer, but had the same purple eyes and rotting flesh. It appear though the agent was using the wood elf to track her down. She continued north, crossing the border into Skyrim but soon realised that running and hiding was not going to help her since more Thalmor agents were also present in the northern continent. Tired of this, Erindel must find a way to fight back for revenge and will do so no matter the cost.
BUILD OVERVIEW:
HUMAN FORM
Offensive Skills:
Archery – Erindel's bow is her main arsenal. With Quick Shot & Hailstorm, she can take out enemies quickly and also stagger them with Pinning Shot. Hunt Together will grant her a wolf companion in combat and is useful in distracting enmies. Lastly, the Hawkeye power will give her time to eliminate a powerful foe in one shot.
Alchemy – Erindel specializes in poisons to weaken her foes as well as potions to enhance her abilities. By no means a master alchemist, she can still craft beneficial potions that will increase her speed in combat (Crimson Haze) and poisons that will harm foes with her bow and daggers. With Amplify Lethality, enemies' poison resistance will be reduced by 250% by 10 seconds enabling her to quickly fire her poisoned arrows into the target for lethal damage. This power also works on the undead and any enemies immune to poison.
One-handed – When fighting enemies in limited space, Erindel will use her dual daggers. She rarely uses any power attacks, but relies heavily on her attack and movement speed. By poisoning her daggers, she can land a few strikes in and let the poisons quickly deteriorate her opponents' health
Supportive Skills:
Light Armor – Not only does light armor allow Erindel to move quickly in combat, her attacks will inflict critical damage that can take out opponents quickly. Evasive Leap and Unhindered makes her more agile in combat while Wardancer and Lightning Strike will increase her damage against opponents. As a Leaf and Wild & Free will also mitigate damage when sprinting.
Smithing – Although Erindel's knowledge of smithing was limited to crafting arrows before arriving in Skyrim, she'll develop further understanding under the guidance of Eorlund Gray-Mane and become a master craftsman herself. Being able to craft dragonbone weapons and arrows provides the best advantage against opponents especially powerful ones which will please Hircine
Sneak - Erindel is no assassin, she uses her sneaking ability for scouting. When dealing with bandit/forsworn camps, she will observe from an ideal position to gain an upper hand in combat. She will take out an opponent with a sneak attack if she needs to. Her racial ability Wild Senses allows her to highlight living beings in a certain radius while sneaking. Stat distribution: 0 M/3 H/2 S
WEREWOLF FORM
With Growl installed, each race will be given an additional ability in werewolf form. As a Bosmer, Erindel will be given an extra 10% movement speed in werewolf form so she will be similar in combat but more aggressive.
Noteworthy Skills:
Bestial Strength: 1 point is only needed because the claw attacks deal an insane amount of damage.
Infinite Duress & Swipe: Combining these two abilities will be for crowd control purposes within melee range. Standing power attacks (Infinite Duress) will stun targets while power attacks of any form (Swipe) can hit multiple targets.
Lycanthropic Speed & Regeneration: These perks provides more enhancement to Erindel’s gameplay as she will have more movement speed and recover health & stamina faster in both human and werewolf form.
Improved Bloodlust: Despite an increase in health and armor rating, Erindel will still take a lot of damage as a werewolf. 2 points in Improved Bloodlust will absorb 20 points of health from her enemies while also inflicting the same amount of bleed damage.
Totem of Terror: The Howl of Terror will be Erindel's active howl as it will be useful for handling multiple enemies. While they are running in fear, Erindel can easily catch them and slay them in no time. 2 points spent in Totem of Terror will force dragons to land for 60 seconds and power attacking them with the left claw causes them to stagger.
Other features in Growl is you can ask your companions to turn into a werewolf once you’re encountered by enemies. With the Spread the Beastblood perk, new companions can also be granted Lycanthropy and you will be able to hunt down your enemies as a pack.
MODS
ESSENTIAL:
Ordinator - Overhauls the perk system. Archery and Light Armor are greatly affected and major components to Erindel’s abilities. Also used extra perk points when skills reach level 50, 75, & 100.
Growl – New Werewolf mod overhaul that adds some features for this build.
Imperious – Racial abilities. This will give Erindel a small quest to complete that will give her the ability to call any nearby animal for aid (Beast Toungue). Along with Wild Senses, she also has the Green Pact ability which will grant her extra health, magika, and stamina after eating a fallen victim.
Andromeda – Standing stones overhaul. The Lady Stone will grant a Lunar Familiar into battle.
Wintersun – Adds a religion system for deities. Of course, Erindel will be worshipping Hircine.
Alternate Start – Easier and more immersive way to begin the game. Begin with camping in the woods or (with the New Beginnings add-on) arriving at Angi’s Camp.
RECOMMENDED:
Factions: Companions – Expands upon the Companion questline making it more realistic to progress.
Bosmer Armor Pack – Armor and weapon set that fits perfectly with the character as well as a mini-quest to find the final set.
Wildcat/Ultimate Combat – For challenging combat. You could use both as long you know how to configure the settings. I basically had Wildcat combat settings with UC's turned off, but enabled UC's enemy settings.
Better Harvesting - Gather more ingredients from flora and items on animals. Really useful for levelling up alchemy.
Poisoning Extended - Able to remove poisons from weapons so you can apply a different type. Useful when having a dedicated poison for enemy types.
QUESTS
MAIN QUESTS:
Companions – the quest line that will turn Erindel from being hunted to the hunter. She will be able to hone her skills as an archer and attack rapidly when wielding her two daggers. Being granted Lycanthropy will give her additional abilities that will make her dangerous whether in human or werewolf form.
Ill met by Moonlight – While she will refuse Hircine’s command in killing Sinding, turning the hunt inside out will still please him and will grant her the Ring of Hircine. After this quest, Erindel will start worshipping Hircine and hunt down her enemies for his favor, starting with the Thalmor.
Missing in Action - Erindel overhears Fralia, Eorlund's wife, arguing with the Battle-borns about the whereabouts of her son. Unconvinced, she begs Erindel to find out more information about him. Upon discovering that her son is being held prisoner by the Thalmor at Northwatch Keep, Erindel will singlehandedly launch an assault at the fort slaying all the Thalmor guards as part of her revenge against them
The Forsworn Conspiracy – Although the Forsworn are known to worship Hircine, the Daedric Prince is displeased with them. Their ways of ambushing civilians on roads while living as scavengers in the Reach is no way of honoring the Hunt. Hircine will task Erindel to kill the King in Rags and then wipe out all of their settlements.
Main Storyline – Being granted as the Dragonborn, Erindel sees this as an opportunity of hunting down dragons as a great way of honoring Hircine including Alduin.
Dawnguard – Of course you will side with the Dawnguard and hunting down vampires as a werewolf is always enjoyable.
Side Quests:
Beast Tongue – Mini-quest where a Harrier will outline an animal nearby. Hunting it down will yield extra loot and doing so 10 times will grant the Beast Tongue ability. From the Imperious mod.
Standing Stones – Locating all standing stones will grant your current active stone a 1/per day power. For the Lady Stone, Eclipse will allow your Lunar Familiar to get a boost in armor rating and damage output. From the Andromeda Standing Stones mod
Bow of the Hunt – When arriving into Skyrim, Erindel heard about a special bow that will give her more damage against animals. Useful for hunting early in the playthrough.
Kyne’s Sacred Trials – While travelling the continent, Erindel arrives at a cabin owned by Froki who gives her a task of killing 7 spirit beasts. Completing the task will reward her Kyne’s Token which reduces damage from animals by 10% and increase her bow damage by 5%.
Totems of Hircine – Aela asks the new Harbinger to accompany her on finding ancient totems that will grant additional abilities in werewolf form. Note: With Growl, praying to any one of the totems will give you the option of becoming a Werebear. For roleplaying purposes, I stuck with werewolf.
A Return to Your Roots – While searching for an Elder Scroll, Erindel stumbles upon a unique plant in Blackreach. She also discovers an alchemist studying this plant before dying. Recovering 30 of the Crimson Nirnroot and bringing them to Avrusa Sarethi will award Erindel the Sinderloin Serendipity passive ability which will grant her a 25% chance to duplicate a potion she just brewed.
Champion of the Hunt – Requires the Bosmer Armor Pack mod. In Shadowgreen Cavern, the last remaining member of the Wild Hunt resides among living creatures wearing a powerful armor piece. Defeating him and obtaining his gear will be useful against dragons and other powerful foes.
ALCHEMY
POISONS:
Dying Bane: Damages & Ravages Health. Drains health per second (Imp Stool, Scathecraw, Skeever Tail)
Venom Infusion: Poison damage & weakness to poison (Deathbell, Skeever Tail, Bleeding Crown)
Intellect Drain: Damages magika & decreases magic regeneration (Hanging Moss, Namira’s Rot, Blue Butterfly Wing)
Warrior’s Blight: Damages health, slows target, & weaker to poison damage (Deathbell, River Betty, Pine Thrush Egg)
Prey’s Fate: Ravages health, stamina, and magika (Skeever Tail, Scathecraw, Spawn Ash).
POTIONS:
Wolf Blood: Fortify Health. Restores Health & Stamina (Bear Claws, Charred Skeever Hide, Wheat)
Wildcat Tonic: Fortify Bow and One-handed damage (Canis Root, Juniper Berries, Hanging Moss)
Hunter’s Prowess: Health regenerates faster & Fortifies bow damage (Canis Root, Juniper Berries, Namira’s Rot)
Elemental Hide: Resist Frost, Fire, & Shock damage (Hawk Beak, Snowberries, Dragon’s Tongue)
Scout’s Brew: Invisibility & Regenerate health (Vampire Dust & Luna Moth Wing)
GEAR & ENHANCEMENTS
GEAR:
Early Game – Using Alternate Start, Erindel will begin with a fur hunter set along with a hunting bow and iron or steel arrows. Daggers will be gain from killing enemies. For poisons & potions, focus on crafting lingering health poison with fortify & restore health potion, and invisibility.
Mid Game – The 1st set of Bosmer Armor can be crafted with the Elven Smithing Perk. Alternatively, you can find a set just west of Dustman’s Cairn. The Glass Smithing Perk will allow you to craft the Elder Bosmer Armor. Both armor sets have their own bow, dagger, and arrows.
Late/End Game – The Wild Hunt gear can be acquired after defeating the champion (Light armor version located near the boss chest). With the Dragonbone Smithing perk, you should have a high enough armor rating so that enemies can't one-shot you on higher difficulties but can still do quite a bit of damage if your not careful. The Dragonbone Bow and Daggers match perfectly with the set. For enchantments on the ring and necklace, I'd focus on magic resistance since they did the most amount of damage
STRATEGY
As a combat archer, you'll want to be constantly moving when engaing with enemies as well as keeping your distance. Before each fight always apply poison to your bow and daggers unless your dealing with undead enemies (except if your planning to use the Amplify Lethality power). I usually started off with Dying Bane but also used Warrior's Blight when enemies came within melee range. For potions, you'll want to use Hunter's Prowess before each fight and Wildcat Tonic if you plan on to use your daggers. Since Erindel has little magic resistance, Elemental Hide does help but you still want to avoid magic attacks. Thats where Intellect Drain comes in to siphon all magicka from mages making them useless. Scout's Brew is usefull when approaching a bandit/forsworn camp so you can use it to take out your first enemy. Outdoors you should have no issue dealing with multiple opponents thanks to your movement speed as well as the Spirit Wolf and Lunar Familiar at your side. Indoors, combat may get tricky due to limited space and you may have to use your daggers more often. However, your companions are great at distracting your enemies so you can still use your bow often. For dragons, use Elemental Hide and Hunter's Prowess at the start. Also check your surroundings to find cover to avoid its dragon breath. If your Spirit Wolf and Lunar Familiar are distracting it, apply Dying Bane to your bow and use the Amplify Lethality power to rapidly detoriorate the dragon's health
As a werewolf things are obviously more simpler. Other than taking out opponents with your claws you'll want to use the Howl of Terror when surrounding by enemies. It has no level cap and its cooldown is quite fast so you can use it again when its effects wear off. Of course investing 2 points into Totem of Terror makes the howl act like Dragonrend so fighting dragons as a werewolf puts you at an advantage. With your claws absorbing health and being able to stagger dragons while on the ground, fighting them should be not an issue.
SPECIAL MOVES
Garrote Shot – Prey’s Fate, Target low on Health, Hawkeye. With a high favor with Hircine, enemies will inflict damage double with a certain amount of health remaining. Erindel will use her special ravage poison to further reduce their health followed by the Hawkeye power for an instant kill shot.
Scale Depletion – Amplify Lethality, Dying Bane, Hailstorm. When dealing with dragons and any enemies with a high hp pool, Erindel will need to maximize her bow damage. Using the Amplify Lethality, followed by quickly firing her arrows infused with the Dying Bane poison will drastically decrease their health.
Call of the Wild – Spirit Wolf, Lunar Familiar, Beast Tongue, Animal Allegiance. With the Lady Stone active, a spirit sabre cat will emerge when encountered with enemies followed by a Spirit Wolf with the Hunt Together perk. If overwhelmed by enemies, she can use her Beast Tongue ability to call the nearest animal for aid. Same thing for the Animal Allegiance shout though I didn’t really use it.
Hircine’s Call – Mediate, Posting of the Hunt, Beast Form. While praying as a Devotee to Hircine, Erindel has the option to use the Posting of the Hunt ability. When active, living beings nearby will be inflicted with Bitter Mercy (reduce damage resistance) for a certain time. Erindel will then transform into her werewolf form and hunt down all in the vicinity.
PLAYTHROUGH
With Alternative Start, you want to start off either camping in the woods or (with the add-on) arriving at Angi’s Camp. I prefer Angi’s Camp because at this point, Erindel wants to increase her archery skills as fast as possible in case she encounters any Thalmor agents. With Wintersun installed, you can also worship Jephre/Y’ffre to get faster movement speed outside of combat. This will be useful since Erindel will be travelling by foot early on. Have the Shadow Stone active since it will grant increase movement speed in combat to fit the playstyle. Once you get Unhindered switch to the Lady Stone.
Rely on Sneak early to take out enemies since Erindel’s draw speed on her bow will be slow. Wearing light armor, enemies will inflict a lot of damage and being surrounded will result in a quick death. Once you get Quick Shot, open combat will be easier, and sneaking will only be used for scouting.
Find the Bow of the Hunt and complete Kyne’s Quest before starting the Companion questline since it will allow Erindel to feel more comfortable hunting in Skyrim. With Factions installed, you will be asked to do more side quests before the Dustman’s Cairn part. Make sure you take more quests from Aela so that she would accompany you during that mission.
When you start worshipping Hircine (during Ill Met by Moonlight), start by attacking Thalmor Agents on the road and at Northwatch keep in werewolf form. Do the same at the Thalmor headquarters during the Main Quest. Gaining favor for the Daedric Prince involves killing powerful opponents such as dragons, giants, and mammoths and in doing so will give you increase damage output when enemies are low on health.
Afterwards, it basically the Forsworn Conspiracy quest, taking out any Forsworn camps, Main Quest, then Dawnguard. Feel free to visit Solstheim and meet with the Frostmoon pack if you want any of the rings. For companions, Aela is the obvious choice since she is the only one that embraces the Beastblood.
GAMEPLAY
Decided to show a video because I figure it would be easier to see the build in action.
CLOSING NOTES
I've never actually submitted any type of build before so any kind of feedback is welcome. Creating a write up on this character including a backstory is very new to me and is probably why it took me a while to finish so apologies for those that were eager to see this build finish. Also thanks to Olegbikkja for suggesting the ravage poison (Prey's Fate) since that helped create the Garrote Shot ability. I should also give credit to Furrion since some of the potions and poisons I found on the Witch Arrow's build helped contribute to this one. I hoped all of you enjoyed reading the build and any suggestions to help improve it I'll be more than happy to hear about it.
Replies
Hey this is pretty good especially for your first build!
Thanks. Had this build for a while and made a few adjustments over time. Thought I share it since Growl was released earlier this year and thought it fit perfect with this build.
Amazing build!
Felt like playing Skyrim again and for sure this is the first build im gonna try! Keep it going.
I really like this theme a lot, and the build is well written, thoughtful and well constructed. Nice job!
If I were to offer any feedback, it would only be that the use of even two crafting skills can overpower a build, and here you use three. I also play heavily modded so I know that with the difficulty mods you installed, the game would be tough. But still- and this is just a suggestion! - I think it makes sense to post builds balanced for "normal" master difficulty since that's what most people will play. I don't know--once you start using mods in builds (and any builds I've posted are modded ones), it's hard to find the right balance. Just a thought.
Figure that I can start posting this on any builds where the author gives cool names to potions/poisons: if you install the Jaxonz' Renamer mod, you can custom name your crafted potions in game. There is a trick: you have to drop a stack of your potions onto the ground, then aim cursor at them and THEN hit the Jaxonz' hotkey. Then you can actually have "Dying Bane" in your inventory instead of "Poison of Ravage Health." HUGE difference in immersion for me!
Thanks for your feedback. Its true that my intention of this build was for difficult gameplay especially in handling boss fights in Revenge of the Enemies and dragons on nightmare in KS Dragon Overhaul. Probably because my mod setup is similar to Sinitar Gaming for gameplay the build I feel is more suitable for that setup. Although yeah it can be overpowered and with mods finding that perfect balance is really difficult. But I'll definitely consider a more balanced build in the future.
Well I hope the operative term is "more builds in the future" because you did a great job with this one ;)
Definitely giving her a try for my next playthrough ! Any way you can share the preset you used for her looks ? She looks absolutely DOPE.
Sure. I used the Wildcat preset from this: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/66729