“Apotheosis. Known also as divinitization or deification, it has long been the dream of many a reclusive Alchemist. Discovered by the legendary Alchemist Megistus, who advocated that the secret to divinity lay within the reagents of the world, and unlocked by Tiber Septim, founder of the Empire, and the god Talos. For millennia disciples of Megistus have sought the secrets to obtaining godhood, forging other creations and achievements as a result, and now the torch passes to me to succeed where thousands failed.
With the divine blood of Akatosh flowing through my veins, I can achieve that which no mere mortal has ever been able to attain. Let the Thalmor try to stop me, arrogant as they are. Let the first Dragonborn, the king of Vampires, and the World-Eater themselves try to destroy me. They too will see. They will all see the truth.
That even a mere mortal can achieve divinity.”
Greetings, sera. Blackblood here to share one of my favorite build concepts. I’m sure most of you know what IRL alchemy is (and if you don’t, then click >HERE< for a link to the wiki). A sort of philosophical science, it focused on transmutation, purification and the creation of the philosopher’s stone. Many an alchemist studied this ancient branch of natural chemistry in the hopes of obtaining spiritual perfection and immortality, an undertaking that was known as the magnum opus, or the “Great Work”. In this build, we’ll be following our own Great Work, in our efforts to transcend humanity and become a literal God. This build has “heavy” roleplay aspects, as we attempt to emulate the process the alchemists used to pursue perfection, through our perks, enchantments, and our potions and poisons, but once we become divine it will all be worth it. So without further ado, let’s get started shall we?
This Ordinator build also requires the following mods:
Summermyst - Enchantments of Skyrim
Race: Breton
Standing Stone: Mage > Lord
Major Skills: Alchemy, Enchanting
Minor Skills: Alteration, Restoration, Illusion
Main Powers: Aurification, Apotheosis
Shouts: Any
Att. Spread: 3/1/0, until you reach 150 base Health, then put the rest into Magicka.
::Major::
-Alchemy-
For obvious reasons. Alchemy gives us some useful potions and a poison, detailed below. Our aim is to create a potion powerful enough to amplify our Enchanting to huge levels. Speaking of...
-Enchanting-
Kinda the main crux besides Alchemy. We need this to create both our Blades of the Alchemical Process (detailed below), and the actual Philosopher's Stone.
-Restoration-
This skill tree has a certain perk, "The Tome of Many Pages", which gives us two spells that will enhance both our Alchemy and our Enchanting. It also has Apotheosis, which is RPly tied to this build. More on that below.
::Minor::
-Alteration-
Absolutely necessary to emulate godly resistances. Even if you were only going for immortality, this tree is still necessary. It also includes the "Philosopher's Stone" perk, which is good for RP purposes.
-Illusion-
Not completely necessary, until we become a god, so do what you can to raise it until then. The perk "Protect Your God" is very fitting thematically in this build.
“Forty two. A number I’ve come across countless times in my equations. I surmise that it is paramount to the sequence I must unlock in order to achieve godhood, but as to why, well that’s anyone’s guess....”
"I've spent years of study and research, pushing others away and immersing myself in my passion. All for the chance to discover the secrets of the alchemists of old. And by the gods, I've found it. The key to unlocking the divinity within me. Megistus watch over me, for I shall become the second mortal man to achieve apotheosis."
Alchemy in real history was focused on transmutation, immortality and spiritual perfection. It's no exaggeration to say it was less chemistry-based and more philosophical in nature. In Skyrim, however, Alchemy is more or less generalized as creating potions and poisons. That's not all that bad, but we can do more with it. Looking at various perks and enchantments from Ordinator and Summermyst respectively, I believed I could create an alchemist who used IRL European alchemy aspects and definitions to create my own variant. The aim for immortality can also be enhanced, thanks to the limitless potential of Enai mods, to become the aim for godhood. Thus, this build should strike the fancy of anyone who wants to become overpowered in a (somewhat) lore-friendly way.
But enough of the introductions - lets get down to the actual play. The first thing's first: This build has heavy RP elements to emulate the path of the alchemist, and therefore certain perks, spells and enchantments are LOCKED until you reach certain milestones:
The "Philosopher's Stone" enchant and perk and the Transmute spell are locked until you create the Philosopher's Stone, and "Vancian Magic", "Energy Shield", and the Dragonhide spell are locked until you take "Apotheosis".
The first one should be pretty obvious (can't use Philosopher's Stone things if you don't "have" it), and the second one is because they are the key to your invulnerability as a god. As you progress down the build you'll begin unlocking various perks, spells and enchantments, giving you the feeling of going from an experimental alchemist, to a master, to a god.
Now let's talk perks. Ordinator gives us some really interesting perks for roleplaying as an alchemist. Most of them are pretty self-explanatory, but I'll go over some just in case. The most important ones are the ones that improve our overall ability to create stronger enchantments in equipment. In the Alchemy tree, "Lab Skeever" is a really useful perk; with it, with 20 seconds after you've crafted a potion or poison and left the alchemy table, any beneficial potion you ingest is 25% stronger and last 15x longer. This takes Fortify Enchanting potions from 30 seconds to over 7 Minutes, giving us more time to get creative with our gear. Finally, should you survive "That Which Does Not Kill You...", you'll gain a 25% bonus to all crafted potions and poisons, as well as 3 free perk points to spend in other trees.
Enchanting has "Regalia", which boosts the enchantment strength on hoods, circlets, robes (body clothing in general), and necklaces by 30%, which is good because the Philosopher's Stone is going to be an amulet, while "Attunement" increases the enchantment strength of any weapons and armor (including clothing) by 10%. "Miracle" is the absolute key to creating the Philosopher's Stone. It lets us create a piece of enchanted equipment with up to three enchantments that are 25% stronger. Do NOT take the perk until just after you are about to create the Philosopher's Stone, because you'll only be able to do so once. Restoration has a single perk to contribute, "Tome of Many Pages". This perk gives you 18 Restoration spells, each of which fortify a single skill by 15 for about 2 minutes, but we only care about two of those: Tome of Alchemy and Tome of Enchanting.
Once you do create the Philosopher's Stone, a few skills begin to open up. The "Philosopher's Stone" perk gives you a set amount of gold based on your level. If mixed with the Philosopher's Stone enchantment, and the Transmute spell, you can get even more gold alongside your sold potions and enchanted jewelry, so money shouldn't be a problem. Once you become capable of divinity, that's were things get interesting. More over, it also unlocks "Aurification", a useful ability which lets you convert a paralyzed enemy at half or lower health into gold. Godhood is LOCKED until you've both crafted the Philosopher's Stone AND taken the "Apotheosis" perk in Restoration. To get it, you have to go up the "Warrior's Flame" path in the tree. "Warrior's Flame"periodically touches anyone in combat, either restoring stamina or magicka for you and your allies, or draining the same amount for your enemies. "Apotheosis" is an ability that causes "Warrior's Flame" to touch ALL bodies in combat.
As for your other godly abilites, the most necessary skill tree is Alteration. There is a useful combo with "Energy Shield" and "Vancian Magic". "Energy Shield" reduces physical and elemental damage by 35% while you wear robes but no armor, but takes the damage you would have taken out of your magicka instead, growing weaker as you fall below 50%. "Vancian Magic", however, changes how your magicka works. It gives you a set number of casts, and lets you cast any spell from any school for no cost up to the number of casts you have left, and at double the magnitude. The important thing to note is that while you have casts, your magicka essentially becomes infinite, negating any lost magicka due to taking damage while "Energy Shield" is active, which gives you a permanent 35% damage reduction while unarmored. In order to achieve near immortality, we combine this with a few things. Dragonhide, a Master spell, gives us 80% physical damage reduction, covering that side. Breton blood (+25% Magic resist) and the Lord Stone (+25% Magic resist), combined with "Energy Shield" exactly hit the cap for Magic resistance. Finally, the "Commanding Presence" skill line is useful for fortifying your chosen followers, leading up to the "Protect Your God" perk, which fits so well with this type of build.
“Four weapons I need. Not for protection, however. The Alchemical Process requires four tuning weapons, each of a specific material and enchanted with specific enchantments. They will have the magic focused through them in order, eventually reaching the necessary conclusion.”
The first thing you should focus on as the Alchemist is collect the necessary reagents needed to create your ultimate magnum opus: The Philosopher's Stone. It won't be easy though, since we're aiming for maxing out two crafting skills without much in the way of personal offense. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to have a follower who can protect you. A follower is also important, because we can use Courage and Healing spells on them, which helps us level Illusion and Restoration respectively. We can also enchant their equipment, which can help level Enchanting. Speaking of enchanting, we have a set of four weapons with varying materials and enchantments, based on the four stages of the magnum opus of alchemy:
1st Process: Nigredo
Ancient Nord Sword
[Soul Trap / Poison Damage]
2nd Process: Albedo
Silver Sword
[Silent Moons Enchant / Stamina Damage]
3rd Process: Citrinitas
Elven Sword
[Sun Damage / Paralysis]
4th Process: Rubedo
Glass Sword
[Fire Damage / Absorb Health]
Some of the enchantments don't look optimized (Sun Damage on the Elven Sword instead of the Silver Sword), but remember that this build has heavy RP elements. Each weapon was designed to represent each of the stages of the magnum opus: Nigredo, the blackening, represents chaos and putrefaction. Albedo, the whitening, represents purification, and is symbolized by the lunar soul. Citrinitas, the yellowing, represents transmutation of silver to gold, the conversion of the lunar spirit, to the solar spirit (I chose Paralysis since can be used with "Aurification"). Rubedo, the reddening, represents alchemical success, and the completion of the great work. One of the ways it can be symbolized is the phoenix, so I chose those enchantments to represent that, as they were both red in color.
And what would an alchemist build be without some potions and poisons? We have a few here that are based on some real life aims of alchemists of old:
- Elixir of Life -
(Fortify Health / Restore Health / Restore Stamina)
Wheat + Eye of Sabre Cat + Bear Claws
- Panacea -
(Cure Disease / Regenerate Health / Resist Poison)
Garlic + Charred Skeever Hide + Vampire Dust
- Alkahest -
(Dmg. Health / Lingering Dmg. Health / Ravage Health)
Imp Stool + Scathecraw + Skeever Tail
The Elixir of Life will keep you alive when you don't have time to heal yourself with Restoration, and can let you improve your health for extended battles. The Panacea can combat poisons used by enemies like the Falmer and such. The Alkahest, being a universal solvent, can become incredibly potent with enough points in Alchemy, burning through large chunks of health from even the most bulky foes.
“The secrets to immortality lay further ahead, and with this jewel, I will attain that which none other have been able to achieve. This beautiful red jewel will be the guide to my true magnum opus.”
So now you've finally maxed out your Alchemy and Enchanting, and mastered Restoration too. Now comes the moment you've been waiting all those hours for: The magnum opus! In this stage, you'll need a few things from various sources to maximize the value you get from Alchemy and Enchanting:
:Alchemy:
- Alchemy Mastery [+40%]
- Advanced Lab [+25%]
- Lab Skeever [+25%]
- That Which Does Not Kill You... [+25%]
:Enchanting:
- Enchanting Mastery [+40%]
- Gem Dust [+25%]
- Regalia [+30%]
- Attunement [+10%]
- Arcane Nexus [+25%]
- Miracle [+25%, +1 Enchantment] NOTE: Do NOT take the perk until you craft the stone!
:Other:
- Seeker of Sorcery [+10% Enchanting]
- Armor of Ahzidal [+10 Enchanting Skill]
- Tome of Many Pages [+15 Enchanting/Alchemy Skill]
- A great deal of Grand Soul Gems and Flawless Gems
The Flawless Gems you'll generally need are Garnet for headgear, Sapphire for the hands and Diamond for the necklace and ring. If you don't have enough Flawless Diamonds you're free to omit as many as you don't have, but you need at least ONE for the Philosopher's Stone.
- Step 01: Craft as many pieces of Fortify Alchemy gear possible.
- Step 02: Cast “Tome of Alchemy” from the perk “Tome of Many Pages”.
- Step 03: Craft a potion of Fortify Enchanting.
- Step 04: Drink the potion within 20 seconds, triggering “Lab Skeever”.
- Step 05: Equip 4 pieces of the Armor of Ahzidal, including the boots.
- Step 06: Dual cast “Tome of Enchanting”.
- Step 07: Craft as many pieces of Fortify Alchemy gear possible, destroying the necessary Flawless Gems.
- Step 08: Repeat steps 2 through 7 until you can no longer make stronger enchanted equipment.
- Step 09: Repeat steps 2 through 6.
- Step 10: Take the “Miracle” perk and destroy a Flawless Diamond on the Arcane Nexus.
- Step 11: Create the following piece of enchanted equipment:
Philosopher’s Stone
(Gold Ruby Necklace)
Amplify Alteration / Fortify Alchemy / Fortify Health
If you've made it this far then Congratulations! You've created that which many alchemists have spent their entire years trying to forge: The legendary Philosopher's Stone!! But we're not done yet, because we still have one final goal to accomplish.
“At last. My goal is within my hands. Everything I’ve done up until now has been for this moment.”
Once you have the Philosopher's Stone, you can focus on leveling your Alteration to 90 and your Restoration to 100. Your Alteration needs to be at 90 so you can take the Alteration Ritual Spell quest to obtain the Dragonhide spell. Afterwards, once you reach level 100 in Restoration, you can take the "Apotheosis" perk, and then you can take the Vancian Magic and Energy Shield perks, so make sure you have some perks left over for those two!
Once you've achieved all that, congratulations once again. You've essentially become a god. With the combination of Alteration perks and Dragonhide you are almost immortal, and with "Vancian Magic" doubling your magical magnitude, your spells are much more powerful. Another thing to keep in mind: With the Philosopher's Stone's enchantment fortifying your Alchemy even more, you can use it with your previous equipment and create even more powerful Fortify Alchemy equipment, which will in turn let you create stronger Fortify Enchanting potions, which will let you create even STRONGER enchanted gear than ever before. Powerful enchanted weapons and amazing enchanted apparel will make you even more powerful than ever before, which will let you cover... just about anything really. With all the enchants at your command there should be almost no limit to the potential you can unleash.
So now that you've achieved divinity and unlocked all that limitless potential, what is there left to do? Well, whatever the hell you feel like! You're a god now; you do whatever you want. Become the type of god you'd like to be. Here's a tip: Illusion is non-vital to this build. If you want, you can trade it out for another skill to change what type you are. Take up Conjuration and become a death god. Take some sneaky skills and become the next Rajhin. Take One/Two-Handed and become a war god. Take Smithing and put Sotha Sil to shame. With the power of your Enchanting now reaching untold heights, there are a lot of possibilities!
God Form
Dragonhide spell + Energy Shield + Lord Stone + Breton Race
"The physical form of the god is near-invulnerable. Embodying the divinity of Akatosh himself, the god boasts immense resistances to nearly all forms of damage and magic. Any potential vulnerabilities can be fleshed out with the god's incredible magical potential."
Divine Power
Vancian Magic + Wild Shrines + Amplify enchantments
"With the power of ancient magic, the god can tap into the force of Aetherius itself, allowing them to wield even the most costly spells without cost. Not only that, but his magical potency is amplified due to this connection, as well as any connections they chose to make. This power is necessary to properly reward one's own communicants that fight in the name of their god."
Bless The Apostles
Commanding Presence >>> Protect Your God + Warrior’s Flame >>> Apotheosis
"Those that follow this new god are not without boon. Those within his radius will find themselves empowered with his holy energy, with periodic bursts of strength an healing among random servants. Should the god see fit to do so, he may invoke his power to bless all allies and cripple his enemies."
:Recommended Mods:
Wear Circlets with Hoods - I HIGHLY recommend this mod, or any mod like it, as it adds a 2nd piece of apparel you can enchant with Fortify Alchemy, improving the strength of your Philosopher's Stone. Also it just makes sense. :/
Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim - Adds an amazing number of spells, many of which are just plain useful for a god character, including Control Weather, Malviser's Gauntlet and Ocato's Recital. Ocato's Recital is useful if your Dragonhide spell is one-handed.
Lost Grimoire of Skyrim - Contains many potentially useful spells for a god, such as Greater Telekinesis, Resurrection and Stop Time.
Flying Mod Overhauled and Enhanced - Because why not have a god who can fly?
I'd like to thank the guys over at the Discord for listening to me constantly talk about this build, as well as alchemy for existing in general. It really is an interesting concept. Most importantly, I'd like to that you, the reader, for making it this far. I had a blast playing through this character, and I hope you also enjoy it. Thanks for reading, and until next we meet.
“Space and time pass through my vision. I feel my mind expanding to the far reaches of Aetherius. The feeble struggles of mortalkind seem microcosmic in comparison to the machinations of existence itself. The Daedra watch me with guarded expressions, while the Aedra open their hands to me, as if accepting me into their new world.
So, this is divinity...”
Replies
Damn BB, glad to see this alchemical masterpiece up
Magnum Opus is an understatement. You’ve really outdone yourself with this build. It’s unapologetically overpowered and that’s the best part about it. You’ve masterfully sold the idea of becoming an overpowered god in Skyrim.
Being a god never looked so cool!
i like this build, i have one question: will it work with the unoffical skyrim patch?
It should. But just to be safe I’d use the patch for it that re-enables the Fortify Restoration loop.
where do i find that? on nexus mods?
Yes on the Nexus
DAMMMMMN! That's my first reaction. This build is insanely well done. You managed to perfectly balance a heavy reliance upon reolplaying with actual consequential gameplay goals. And what's more, you've managed to make an overpowered character actually appealing. Rarely have I read a build that made me want to play it immediately so much as this one. Very very well done BlackBlood. I'd have to rate this among the top 10 builds I've ever read, no joke. This is incredible.
Thanks for this fantastic build. I enjoyed a ton of hours improving my alchemist skills to create the Philosopher stone. It was very interesting and satisfactory. I even create a few books ingame ralated to the Order of Megistus to gave it a powerful lore and background to the character.
How would this work with 'Imperious - Races of Skyrim' and 'Andromeda - Unique Standing Stones of Skyrim'? Would it be correct to say that this build will still be similar more or less? :)
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