Hullo! This will be my first post here on the Skyforge, and the first build I've come up with. Please let me know down in the comments if something is awry. Now, without further ado, let me introduce you to...
"I remember playing in the fields outside our farmhouse as a child, at the young age of 8, dancing between the thistle and dragonflowers, looking out over the mountianside. Those days were the last of my innocence. I remember skipping back inside to the section of where I slept, as I watched the sunrise go down. I said goodnight to my parents, excited to sleep and play all over again in the morning. My sleep was woken up with a start to the smell of burning spruce. I sprung out of my bed, running down the hall, and there they were. I watched, horrified, and hidden behind a fallen piece of singed wood, as the vampires and their foul hounds ripped through my family and burned down the only home I had known for ten years. It was on that day that I vowed to destroy them and any other creatures of darkness that dared to walk upon Tamriel."
Years Later...
"Ever since that fateful night, after multiple years of hunting and taking down minor vampires across Skyrim in hopes of finding the clan that ruined my childhood forever. As I bashed a neck-biter with the hilt of my greatsword, he screamed out a location before he died. About somewhere called Castle Volkhair, near the capital of Solitude, shrouded by ice and mist. My plans for revenge were halted when I came across the poor souls of Darkwater Crossing and tried to help out the prisoners that the men in red cloaks with the symbol of the dragon were attacking, however, some nameless soldier struck me from behind, and it seems that I got knocked out, and now I'm here, in this blasted cart with a horse thief, and a forsaken king"
Name: Dravyn Brightsworn
Gender: Male
Stats: Go evening between Stamina and Health, until you reach 500 Stamina. Then put all your points into Health.
Appearance: Young Nord, of slender frame with long dirty blonde hair and slight stubble.
Race: Nord
Standing Stone: The Warrior, (For early-game leveling) and The Atronach, for late-game spell absorption.
Major Skills: Twohanded, Onehanded, Heavy armor, Archery, and Alteration
Minor Skills: Restoration, Smithing, and Speech
For his skills, I recommend leveling up smithing until you can improve magical weapons. You should also level up Restoration until around 70, and Speech until around the point where you can bribe guards to look the other way. So around 70 for all 3 minor skills. The major skills you should get to between 80-90. Alteration is different, simply because I only used it to stack with Atronach Stone. So for me, I leveled that up to 100, but you can change it if you wish. For the early game, put all of your perk points into heavy armor, because you'll need it desperately until about level 20. While Archery isn't usually part of the 'typical' Paladin skillset, I have it on Dravyn because for certain encounters, you'll want the heavy stopping power of the crossbow. It also means you won't be useless against dragons without Dragonrend.
For equipment, he uses a quite diverse array of weapons, the main of which is The Ice Blade of the Monarch, as his primary greatsword. His secondary weapons are Light of Day, (a sun damage-dealing silver mace that is great against the undead) and your average silver crossbow with silver bolts. The two melee weapons in his arsenal require quests to get, but you should be able to buy the crossbow from the Fletcher in Solitude, for around 300-ish GPS depending on how much you've leveled speech.
For his armor, he will use a set of Steel Spell Knight armor, and the Fists of Ranagulf, which are a unique pair of gauntlets that increase his overall melee damage, and fit the Paladin look we're going for.
While Dravyn is Dragonborn, he uses his gifts sparingly. He prefers not to show off his abilities but does use shouts such as Dragonrend, Slow Time, Ethereal Form, Whirlwind Sprint, and Cyclone. One of my favorite combos for low-level vampires is to use WS as a dash action and slam into enemies with a decapitating blow.
As he is an enemy of Vampires, you may choose to make him a werewolf. While this would fit his style, I personally chose not to, as I feel that since he serves Akatosh, he would not choose to accept the powers of a Daedric Prince, unless he felt it was truly necessary.
SPECIAL MOVES:
Hallowed Crater: "You dodge your opponent's attack, and swiftly unhook your mace, and slam it into the Vampires skull with a flash of bright light" For this move, I recommend you wait for an enemy to attack you, move out of the way, (preferably behind them), and do a power attack on their torso. Depending on how you upgrade Light of Day, it could be super effective.
Speed of Akatosh: "You breathe in deeply, and exhale the wind, using it to dash towards an enemy, and with a powerful strike, you swiftly decapitate them in an explosion of frost crystals and a slight hum" As I had stated above, in the section about shouts, this is by far one my favorite combos. It feels elegant, yet powerful when you execute it properly.
Skyfall: "As the dragon roars and glides down towards you, you shout to the heavens, and with a bright blue light, as the power of your Thu'um slams the winged beast to the ground, you unleash another shout, summoning a violent whirlwind towards the Wyrm" While it is effectively just a shout combo, it is really fun to do, especially when the dragons have humanoids around them.
The quests I recommend completing to get his equipment and to flesh him out as a character will be (Not necessarily in this order) 'Destroy the Dark Brotherhood', 'The Contest', 'The Order of the Crypt', 'Dawnguard', 'Dragonborn', and last but not least, 'Ghosts of Tribunal'. His moral alignment and justice system heavily leans towards Lawful Good, but even this holy paladin can have his darker moments. Obviously, it will depend on how you think his overall personality would be, but that's just how I played him.
Now, what if, in another timeline, instead of pledging to destroy the very vampires that destroyed his family and Homestead, he instead wanted to become as powerful as them, if not more powerful? I now present to you the alternate of Dravyn Brightsworn.....
"I remember dreaming of the fields outside our farmhouse as a child, dancing between the thistle and dragonflowers, looking out over the mountainside. Sleep was my only escape back then, as every waking moment was a nightmare of rusty iron chains and harsh, hate-filled words. I dreamed of a different life, and what could've been, had my birth not killed my mother. But this night was different. This was when it all changed. I woke up with a start to the sound of my chains being broken with a wayward icicle spell. I ran down the hall to escape, and there they were. I watched, mesmerized, hidden, as the vampires and their death hounds ripped apart the man that had kept me captive my entire life. It was on that day that I became infatuated with their abilities and vowed that I would never feel powerless again. No matter what it took."
Years later...
"Ever since that beautiful, blood-filled night, I had searched endlessly for those who had saved me, and for a way to become just like them. While searching throughout an old tomb, I find something. A map. It detailed the location ofsomewhere called Castle Volkhair, an ancient keep near the capital of Solitude, built on the skulls of mortals who dare antagonize its master. My plans for godhood were halted when I came across the scum of Darkwater Crossing. I tried to kill the men in the red cloaks. They wore the same symbol as my father did. However I let my guard down, some nameless soldier struck me from behind, and it seems that I got knocked out, and now I'm here, in this blasted cart with a horse thief, and a forsaken king."
Name: Dravyn Bloodborne
Gender: Male
Stats: Go evenly between Stamina and Health, until you reach 500 Stamina. Then put all your points into Health.
Appearance: Young Nord, of slender frame with long black hair and slight stubble.
Race: Nord Vampire Lord
Standing Stone: Warrior at the start, then Atronach.
Major Skills: Twohanded, Onehanded, Heavy armor, Archery, and Alteration.
Minor Skills: Smithing, and Speechcraft.
This variant of Dravyn will have very similar skills. You should still level up smithing until you can improve magical weapons. You should also still level Speech until around the point where you can bribe guards to look the other way. Same for the major skills, you should still get to between 80 and 90. However, while I could've kept in Restoration for Necromage, I decided against it, because for one, as Nystee kindly pointed out, (again, thank you so much), he's a vampire, and the only thing that skill tree would be used for is one perk. And secondly, while playtesting it, I found it made Dravyn a little too OP.
For his equipment, he uses a similar set to his holy counterpart, but his collection of weapons is dark and twisted. His main weapon is Umbra, the two-handed sword forged from shadow. His secondary weapons are Scourge, the mace of Malacath, and a Reinforced Ebony Crossbow with silver bolts. Unlike the Silver crossbow that Brightsworn used, the RE Crossbow requires you to complete the "Night Hunter" quest that you can start by reading the letter at Ironback Hideout.
His armor is a set of 'corrupted' Ebony Spell Knight armor that is already pre-enchanted. You can get this set of armor by completing the Order of the Crypt quest and returning the heart to the tomb without cleansing it first. As for his powers, he is a Vampire Lord, (preferably maxed out) and serves the Daedric Lord, Molag Bal.
While this variant of Dravyn is also Dragonborn, he takes a different approach toward his gifts. He does not use them sparingly, and prefers to show off his abilities, instead of hiding them.
He also uses Dragonrend and Cyclone, but the rest of his shouts are a little different. This Dravyn uses Marked for Death as I found it fitting that he would rip the soul of a creature out to make them his slave, or to just wipe out a crowd, and he also uses Fire Breath, Storm Call, and Disarm.
SPECIAL MOVES:
Soulripper: "You yell in rage towards your target, unleashing the cries of hundreds of tormented souls, weakening their lifeforce before ripping out their soul from their body in one swift strike" As the name suggests, you are quite literally ripping out the soul from someones body. This combo both looked, and felt super badass. To pull it off, you use all three words of the MfD shout, and while your opponent is still stunned, you slam Scourge into their body, in what should be a final blow.
Necrotic Smite: "You shout with such ferocity that your enemy drops thier sword, and as they do, you rush forward and impale them through the chest with a flash of purple energy and red smoke" While mechanically just as easy as SR, the timing, (for me at least) was harder to pull off. You have to disarm the opponent with all three words, and before they can react, THAT is when you attack.
Wyrmkiller: "As the dragon roars at you from far in the sky, you answer back with a roar of your own, filling the sky with lighting, striking both friend and foe. As the storm rages on, and the dragon glides down towards you, you scream again, ripping them to the ground with a thud as lighting slams into their hide" Thankfully this one isn't about timing, it is more of an endgame shout combo. As the description states, you use the Stormcall Shout, and while it's still going on, you use the Dragonrend shout. Sometimes it was a little overkill, but it really depended on the enemy level.
The quests I recommend completing to get his equipment and to flesh him out as a character will be (Not necessarily in this order) 'Destroy the Dark Brotherhood', as he would prefer to not let them get in his way, 'Vile Whispers', so he can get Umbra, and show he is stronger than the ancient evil of the sword, 'The Order of the Crypt', so he can get his main set of armor, 'The Cause', so you can grab Scourge, 'Dawnguard', to become a vampire lord, and 'Dragonborn', so he can destroy the servant of a rival daedric prince. This version of Dravyn's moral compass and judgment system is a complete 180 from his paladin counterpart. Once he has his mission he will do whatever it takes to get it done, including killing innocent civilians.
Thank you so much for reading this build, I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks you all of you who have commented on this post. It has helped me a lot, and I greatly appreciate it. Special thanks to Nystee and Saronis especially.
-Sadri Redoran
Replies
What are the stats on this build you forgot to include that part?
Oh I am so sorry! I can't believe that slipped my mind. For the stats, you put points into Stamina and Health until you get to 500 Stamina, then the rest of your points go into Health. That's for both sides of the build by the way. Again, I am so sorry!
Don't know how I missed this one (paladin/holy knights are my favorite archetypes), it's pretty good for a first build. I would suggest using a smaller font, especially with Italic.
Why did you choose to use both One-Handed and Two-Handed? I can see the use of Archery to deal with ranged foes.
Also don't you think Restoration isn't needed for the second one since he has Umbra and the drain spells from being a Vampire.
Overall, I like it. I do think you can get it more polished if you want. You can check the Build Archives to get some inspiration for a good format and presentation.
Here is a guide for character building: Character Building Guide
Thank you so much for your feedback! I removed Restoration for the second one, as you're right. With Umbra, he doesn't need health spells and definitely doesn't need them with being a Vampire and all.
I also changed the font to be a couple of sizes smaller, cleaned it up a little bit more, and added in the stats that somehow slipped my mind.
As to answer your question, I chose Twohanded as well, because when he uses Onehanded, he doesn't use a shield, and if you're not using a shield, it's really useful to have a greatsword as a backup. I also felt it would be a fun challenge to put Twohanded into a Paladin build.
I just updated the build a wee bit. I needed to fix some things.
So, I like the idea of having two versions of a character, one good and one evil, that's something I've been wanting to do for long time. Using a paladin and a death knight, essentially, works really well for that.
You have what I would say is a good draft here. But it's still missing a lot of stuff before being a proper build. First of which is a more fleshed out backstory, especially for a character that can either be a paragon of virtue or a master of evil, there has to be an important event that drives him towards either side of the Force - the choice being made by the player when he chooses which version to play. That's the idea you went for with the death of his family, maybe you could tell us more about him and his background. Dravyn reminds me a lot of Arthas Menethil, which is a well known and very, very, very well written character from Warcraft lore.
Listing skills isn't all there is to it either, you should also tell us which perks you've used and why, how they make sense with one another, how they make sense for each version of Dravyn. For instance, you've used both 1H and 2H as well as archery. When did you choose one weapon over another and why ? The easiest way to do it is by making a perk spread and then explaining a few key perks, that's how most of us do it at least.
While we're on his skillset: special moves. What makes your paladin unique, what makes your death knight unique, what combos did you discover or like to pull off ?
You describe his looks, that's fine, but how about taking a few screenshots, or even including a short gameplay video, so we can see how you shaped his face, see what he looks like rocking his massive sword and all geared up in his armor, chopping stuff down ? I get the overall look you went for because I know what the armors look like and the images you used fit the character's description, but the build could use a bit more visuals.
Again, I think you've laid the foundations of what can be a very good first build, but in my honest opinion you should take the time to improve upon them. You'll find most of us happy to help you if you need any tips or have any questions - I speak from experience, I've experienced nothing but kindness from anyone I've come across here !
I really appreciate the recommendations and ideas! I never would've thought that anyone would actually comment on the build, or that I would get different view points. I'll 100% take these into consideration and improve the build even more. Again, I appreciate it so much. I just updated the paladins backstory, and am working on a special moveset and perks list for him as well as a backstory for his evil counterpart.
I have fully updated everything! Again, please let me know your thoughts.
Heyya! I just came across your build when I was looking for paladin/death knight builds because I'm also working on one. I really like your take on the build with the two different sides and alternatives. +1
My only suggestion would be to present the estimated level and also the perks taken and maybe explain them a bit. Because you mention that he will have 500 Stamina and the distribution is evenly between Health and Stamina, so I assume that he is quite a high level character.
On the same page with nystee, I think it would be more beneficial if you choose either one-handed with board and sword play or two-handed so you could also put some points into Blocking. And unless it is intentional, I feel that the build is favored more on the death knight side because of the higher damage weapons, more durable AR equipment, and the enchanted effects.
As per Saronis says, should you need help with some SSs or a perk skills spread, feel free to message me, I would be glad to help :).
Overall, I think this is a very charming first build. Well done!