The 'classic' Dragonborn character (at least in my mind) - A Barbarian-type Nord proficient in two-handed & heavy armor, making heavy use of shouts.
Good for taking on a wide variety of content both gameplay-wise and lore-wise. Serves as a good introduction to Adamant and/or The Phoenix Flavour. Created during TPF Release 3.3.3 and Adamant 3.0.2.
This build was created with The Phoenix Flavour mod list.
The Phoenix Flavour is NOT required for this build. This build is an Adamant build at heart.
If you wish to use this build without the entirety of The Phoenix Flavour then the barebones essential mods are as follows:
- Adamant - A Perk Overhaul: Streamlined perk overhaul designed to enhance every aspect of your Skyrim experience.
- Morningstar - Minimalistic Races of Skyrim: Replaces the vanilla racial bonuses with two immersive passive bonuses per race.
- Trua - Minimalistic Faiths of Skyrim: A minimalistic religion mod that allows you to worship at shrines or pray to refresh your divine blessings.
- Reliquary of Myth - Artifact Overhaul
- Zim's Immersive Artifacts
- Unique Items Tweaks - Improved Miscellaneous Artifacts
The last 3 mods serve as an overhaul of enchantments for nearly all of Skyrim's unique weapons and armor.
- Alternate Start - Live Another Life: Provides an alternative means to start the game for those who do not wish to go through the lengthy intro sequence at Helgen.
- Mysticism - A Magic Overhaul: Comprehensive magic overhaul that adds over 200 meticulously balanced spells to the game.
The following mods serve as a combat overhaul to enhance combat and increase difficulty:
- Wildcat
- Encounter Zones Unlocked SE
- Arena - An Encounter Zone Overhaul
- Mortal Enemies SE
- Simply Stronger Dragons (SSD) SE
Whilst these mods technically aren't needed for the build to function, they are highly recommended. Other mods which serve to increase difficulty are welcome.
"Skyrim legend tells of a hero known as the Dragonborn, a warrior with the body of a mortal and soul of a dragon, whose destiny it is to destroy the evil dragon Alduin."
As prophesied by Alduin's Wall, The Dragonborn has risen to face the threat against Nirn. The Dragonborn is Chaotic Good as he believes in doing what is right, however, in the fight against Alduin he will ultimately stand alone, and therefore must make his own way. The Dragonborn will also do whatever it takes to stop Alduin and his army of dragons, regardless of the consequences. The Dragonborn holds a strong, and personal, connection to Talos, vowing to defend the people of Tamriel as stated in The Ten Commands of the Nine Divines.
In the midst of a civil war, The Dragonborn answers the summons of The Greybeards, high above Ivarstead. After discovering The Way of the Voice, The Greybeards task The Dragonborn with a final test, retrieving the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. It is upon completing this test that The Greybeards christen The Dragonborn "Ysmir," Dragon of the North. The same title held by Tiber Septim himself.
Race:
- Nord:
- Resist Frost (Nord blood gives you 50% resistance to frost)
- Perseverance (Nordic strength grants 25% chance to resist stagger from power attacks and bashes)
Standing Stone:
- Early Game
- The Warrior Stone:
- Learn all combat skills 20% faster
- The Warrior Stone:
- Mid Game / End Game:
- The Atronach Stone:
- +50 Magicka
- +50% Spell absorption
- -50% Magicka regeneration
- The Atronach Stone:
Deity:
- Talos:
- Stormlord (Shout cooldown is reduced by 20%. Pray to finish your shout cooldown instantly)
Early Game Gear:
- Blacksmith's Tribute Iron Helmet ---> Blades Helmet
- Blacksmith's Tribute Banded Iron Armor ---> Blades Armor
- Blacksmith's Tribute Iron Gauntlets ---> Blades Gauntlets
- Blacksmith's Tribute Iron Boots ---> Blades Boots
- Amulet of Talos
- Thu'um Fahdon
The Blacksmith's Tribute set is added by The Phoenix Flavour via 'aMidianBorn Content Addon' mod and can be found in the chest just outside High Hrothgar. If you only installed the essential mods then your early game set should be full steel armor.
Our early game weapon is The Greatsword of Whiterun: Thu'um Fahdon which is awarded upon becoming Thane of Whiterun. With this weapon time between shouts is reduced by 20% for 20 seconds on strike.
Once 'Alduin's Wall' is complete, swap your current set for a full set of Blades armor.
Mid Game Gear:
- Dwarven Helmet (Fine/Superior) ---> Nahkriin
- Dwarven Armor (Fine/Superior)
- Dwarven Gauntlets (Fine/Superior)
- Dwarven Boots (Fine/Superior)
- Amulet of Talos
- Dwarven Greatsword (Fine/Superior)
Once the quest 'Unfathomable Depths' has been completed the 'Ancient Knowledge' ability enables a 25% bonus to Dwarven armor (and weapons with the 'Morrowloot Miscellania' mod included in The Phoenix Flavour). Our new set should also be tempered to whatever level your smithing skill currently allows.
With just the essential mods installed it would be best to hold onto Thu'um Fahdon for a little longer.
The Nahkriin Dragon Priest mask can be obtained during the main quest at Skuldafn. With this mask and the Atronach Stone, The Dragonborn will achieve 65% spell absorption.
End Game Gear:
- Miraak (Legendary)
- Dragonplate Armor (Legendary)
- Dragonplate Gauntlets (Legendary)
- Dragonplate Boots (Legendary)
- Amulet of Talos
- Enchanted Ring (Fortify two-handed + Resist magic)
- Dragonbone Warhammer (Legendary) (Absorb health + Absorb stamina)
Items:
- The White Phial (+50% Two-Handed damage for 300 seconds)
- Black Star (Enchantments are 20% stronger / Infinite soul gem)
- Dragon Aspect: Once a day, take on the mighty aspect of a dragon, delivering colossal blows, with an armored hide, and more powerful shouts.
- Unrelenting Force: Your Voice is raw power, pushing aside anything - or anyone - who stands in your path.
- Dragonrend: Your voice lashes out at a dragon's very soul, forcing the beast to land.
- Fire breath: Inhale air, exhale flame, and behold the Thu'um as inferno.
- Frost breath: Your breath is winter, Thu'um a blizzard.
- Marked for Death: Speak, and let your Voice herald doom, as an opponent's armor and lifeforce are weakened.
- Storm Call: A Shout to the skies, a cry to the clouds, that awakens the destructive force of Skyrim's lightning.
- Become Ethereal: The Thu'um reaches out to the Void, changing your form to one that cannot harm, or be harmed.
- Soul Tear: Your Thu'um cuts through flesh and shatters soul, commanding the will of the fallen.
Attributes: 0/2/2
A Note on Smithing:
Smithing is levelled in order to craft and temper end game gear. The following perks should be taken:
- Novice Blacksmith
- Apprentice Blacksmith
- Adept Blacksmith
- Expert Blacksmith
- Master Blacksmith
- Basic Styles
- Journeyman Styles
- Intermediate Styles
- Advanced Styles
- Mythic Styles
After Miraak is defeated and all relevant gear is obtained and tempered you can use the Black Book: Waking Dreams to respec the smithing tree and distribute the 10 perk points into other trees.
Now onto our major and minor skills:
Major:
Heavy Armor:
Perks of Note:
- Immovable (You have a 50% chance to ignore incoming stagger)
- Determination (25% less damage while sprinting, power attacking)
- Constitution (25% resist magic)
Our heavy armor perks allow us to get up close and personal. Since we are constantly power attacking the Determination perk greatly aids in damage mitigation. Immovable and Constitution help protect The Dragonborn from dragon physical attacks and dragon breath attacks respectively.
Two-Handed:
Perks of Note:
- Champion’s Stance (Power attacks with two-weapons cost 25% less stamina)
- Devastating Blow (Power attacks with two-handed weapons deal 25% bonus damage and have a chance to decapitate)
- Rampage (Each subsequent power attack with a two-handed weapon against a single target deals 25% extra damage)
- Executioner (Power attacks with two-handed weapons deal 50% bonus damage if the target is below 50% health)
With our investment into stamina we will have a heavy focus on power attacks. Investment into these skills will empower these attacks so that dragons can be taken down, power attack after power attack.
Block:
Perks of Note:
- Mobile Defense (Blocking no longer slows your movement)
- Quick Reflexes (Time slows down if you are blocking during an enemy's power attack)
The main reason for investing into the block tree is damage mitigation. With block accompanying heavy armor The Dragonborn will take greatly reduced damage from physical attacks. Mobile Defense and Quick reflexes allow us to dodge enemy power attacks with relative ease.
Speech:
Perks of Note:
- Stormcrown (Damage-dealing shouts are 100% stronger)
- Dragon of the North (Shout cooldown is decreased by 20%)
The speech tree provides the primary buffs to our shouts, giving us both shout cooldown and shout damage. Our increased shout damage allows a good deal of damage dealing shouts to remain viable well into the late game.
Minor:
Enchanting:
- Twin Secrets (Place two enchantments on an item)
- Spell Strike (Weapon enchantments are 100% more powerful when delivered by a power attack)
The enchanting tree provides The Dragonborn with a safety net when it comes to difficult fights such as going up against high level dragons. With the Twin Secrets perk, The Dragonborn can enchant their Dragonbone weapon with absorb health and absorb stamina. Absorb health allows us to stay alive when taking damage during our power attacks, and absorb stamina enables us to power attack indefinitely. These effects are further enhanced by the Spell Strike perk.
Restoration:
Perks of Note:
- Pilgrim (Divine blessings are stronger and last longer / Additional blessings)
A light investment into restoration allows us to receive additional blessings, giving The Dragonborn an additonal 50% shout damage.
Since our early game sets are guaranteed and the mid game gear is easily found from Dwarven ruins, we won't be needing to spend money on buying gear and can sell essentially everything we pick up. This will help to level speech which is required for shout perks and allow us to save money to buy restoration training. Whilst restoration levels can be gained from using the healing spell here and there, buying training will be our primary means of levelling restoration as we aren't putting any points into magicka. We will also need to save money in order to level our smithing.
Remember to pray every now and then to keep your blessing active and to talk to Esbern to renew Dragonslayer's Blessing (10% increased critical hit chance vs Dragons for 5 days).
Fire breath can be used to ignite oil slicks and it is particularly useful against vampires, frost atronachs, ice wraiths, trolls, and frost trolls, who are all vulnerable to fire.
Lydia can aid in the early game or you can hire mercenaries with your extra Septims.
Swap to the Mage Stone if actively levelling enchanting. The wooden mask found at Labyrinthian also allows you to learn all skills 5% faster.
Early on it is important to play defensively by utilizing block and bash. Once you obtain the Become Ethereal shout and have a faster shout cooldown, you can avoid damage altogether. You can simply become etheral, power attack your enemy and then re-cloak and rinse and repeat.
Unrelenting Force is particularly useful early on in the playthrough. When going up against enemies that are more challenging the shout can be used to stun or knockdown your foe, allowing for some easy hits.
Soul Tear does decent damage with our buffs to shout damage. This shout can be used to soften enemies up whilst you get in range or kill enemy archers that are keeping their distance. It can also be used to soul trap enemies and fill the Black Star.
The Dragon Aspect shout will make dragon fights much easier. With this shout you will have 100% shout cooldown and a 25% damage boost to power attacks. The storm call shout can be used and then immediately followed up by another shout such as soul tear, due to the 100% cooldown.
Mighty Thu'um:
- Amulet of Talos (Time between shouts is reduced 20%)
- Miraak (Time between shouts is reduced 30%)
- Dragon of the North (Time between shouts is reduced 20%)
- Stormlord (Time between shouts is reduced 20%)
- Stormcrown (Damage-dealing shouts are 100% stronger)
- Fist of Talos (Shouts deal 50% more damage)
With these buffs, time between shouts is reduced by 90% and shout damage is boosted by 150%. Time between shouts can be reduced further when using Thu'um Fahdon (reduces time between shouts by 20% for 20 seconds on strike), as well as the Dragon Aspect shout which can be used once a day to reach 100% shout cooldown.
Immovable Object:
- Perseverance (Nordic strength grants 25% chance to resist stagger from power attacks and bashes)
- Fus Meditation (Stagger 25% less and foes stagger 25% more)
- Immovable (You have a 50% chance to ignore incoming stagger)
With these three abilites The Dragonborn will have 100% chance to resist stagger from power attacks and bashes.
Dragonslayer:
- Dragonbone Warhammer (Absorb health + absorb stamina)
- White Phial (+50% two-handed damage)
- Dragon Aspect (+25% damage to power attacks)
- Devastating Blow (+25% damage to power attacks)
- Rampage (Each subsequent power attack with a two-handed weapon against a single target deals 25% extra damage)
- Executioner (Power attacks with two-handed weapons deal 50% bonus damage if the target is below 50% health)
- Spell Strike (Weapon enchantments are 100% more powerful when delivered by a power attack)
Absorb stamina allows The Dragonborn to keep up a barrage of power attacks, with each subsequent power attack becoming more deadly. This combo can become even more deadly when paired with a debuff shout such as marked for death and a high damage shout such as storm call. Shouts can easily be chained in quick succession due to 100% shout cooldown from Dragon Aspect.
The main quest line is vital to The Dragonborns story, learning what it means to be Dragonborn, joining The Blades, honing your Thu'um and finally defeating Alduin.
- Main Qu
est:
- Dragon Rising: Unrelenting Force shout, Thu'um Fahdon
- The Way of the Voice: Second word of Unrelenting Force shout
- The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller: Final word of the Unrelenting Force shout
- Alduin's Wall: Full set of Blades Armor, Dragonslayer's Blessing
- The Throat of the World: Fire Breath shout and the ability to meditate on the Words of Power
- Alduin's Bane: Dragonrend shout
- The World-Eater's Eyrie: Word of Storm Call
- Dragonslayer: Destroy Alduin and end his threat to Tamriel
- Rebuilding the Blades & Dragon Research:
- Dragon Infusion (Dragons do 25% less melee damage)
- Civil War:
- Stormcloaks (Talos worship)
- Stormcloaks (Talos worship)
- The Book of Love:
- Agent of Mara (15% Resist magic)
- The White Phial & Repairing the Phial:
- The White Phial (+50% Two-handed damage for 300 seconds)
- Unfathomable Depths:
- Ancient Knowledge (Smithing increases 15% faster)
- Find the Word of Power:
- The Dragonborn will seek out all the words of power and master every shout.
- Black Books:
- Epistolary Acumen:
- Dragonborn Frost: Your Frost Breath shout encases foes in ice.
- Filament and Filigree:
- Secret of Strength: Power attacks do not drain stamina for 30 seconds.
- The Hidden Twilight:
- Mora's Boon: Completely replenish health, stamina and magicka.
- The Sallow Regent:
- Seeker of Might: 10% more effective combat skills, 10% improved Smithing.
- The Winds of Change:
- Companion's Insight: Your attacks, shouts, and destruction spells do no damage to followers.
- Untold Legends:
- Bardic Knowledge: A spectral drum that plays for 300 seconds replenishing stamina recovery.
- Epistolary Acumen:
In regard to the various guilds of Skyrim and daedric quests, The Dragonborn will do whatever it takes to reach words of power and use whatever tools necessary to eradicate the dragon threat:
- Dark Brotherhood:
- Word of Marked for Death
- The Companions:
- Word of Fire Breath
- Discerning the Transmundane:
- Oghma Infinium (Increases six skills by 10 points each and one attribute by 100 points, permanently)
- The Black Star:
- The Black Star (Enchantments are 20% stronger / Infinite soul gem)
The Phoenix Flavour includes hundreds of mods across forty categories, all carefully selected to fit a lore-friendly, improved but not radically changed Skyrim. The Phoenix Flavour strives to provide a solid upgrade of the vanilla experience with modern visuals and additional content. Essentially, The Phoenix Flavour is a mod set up which provides a vanilla+ experience, enhancing the existing game without attempting to turn it into something entirely different.
I highly recommend installing The Phoenix Flavour.
Replies
Nice Build! While I currently don't use Adamant or any vanilla plus mods, it's still nice to read, and I might use it if I ever switch back to V+.
The only issue I have is with the Pheonix Flavour opposed to you. I just think it would be better if it stuck with either Minimalistic EnaiRim of Full SimonRim rather than a mix. But that's not on you, so once again, amazing build, and I hope to see more!
Thank you!
:)
Well dude, nice job. For a new build, its well put together. I like how you explain the mods well, your presentation is solid, and the character transcends the basic confines of being the stereotypical Nord DB. Hope to see more from you.
Thanks a bunch dude!
I have another 2 builds in WIP so there is definitely more to come!
We need more adamant builds
Loved it