"I surprisingly have even more aspects of the game I have yet to explore." That is how this build was born. I wanted to try a race I have never tried, the Bosmer, an overlooked stone: The Tower, and also try something new to me: NO CRAFTING. Yes! What a fantastic feeling not having to spend hours of my time cranking out iron daggers, disenchanting and enchanting countless items, and brewing potions while picking the forest clean over and over.
Ben Aven's The Requisitioner was a big influence on me as his build is a flawless example of an extremely powerful character that does not craft anything, leaving you in the game at all times with 100% action. This is my take on such a build, but I took a different approach, using both humor and trickery, I think I may persuade some of you to try it! Let's take a look...
The Magician
The character concept is built around a Traveling Magician. Famous tales of magicians that would travel the world achieving extraordinary feats of magic and illusion, amazing countless of people. The Magician uses trickery, apparitions, and the bending of reality to disorient his foes while having the ability to send powerful conjurations to do his bidding. Hypnosis, invisibility, summoning ... All in a day's work!
The Magician is/is called many things:
Illusionist - Abjurer - Conjurer - Transmuter - and many others!
Using a variety of spells and abilities, The Magician is a wizard of sorts, but does not directly harm anyone. He uses misdirection, sleight of hand (prestidigitation), and illusion to confuse, track, sneak, enrage, and at times summon powerful magical allies. These abilities are so plentiful, you have multiple "outs" in any situation. Illusion to have enemies widdle themselves down and becoming invisible. Conjuration to take down enemies while you escape. Alteration to paralyze and protect. Sneak to be unseen and become a shadow. Pickpocket to steal, steal, steal! And speech to sell, sell, sell!
Build
Race: Bosmer
Stone: The Tower - Very overlooked! Great roleplay addition as you are an expert pickpocket and lockpick, so a "once a day quick open expert lock" is great to have! (The Apprentice was a first choice, changed later)
Major Skills: Illusion, Conjuration, Pickpocket
Minor Skills: Alteration, Sneak, Speech
Apparel:
- Head - Fine Hat (Jester's Hat is good too)
- Chest - Clothes or Tavern Clothes (your color choice) - I went with the yellowish tavern clothes
- Hands - Gloves (Jester's Gloves)
- Feet - Any sharp lookin' boots (Jester's Boots)
- Ring/Amulet: Ring of Recovery + Amulet of Akatosh (+125% magicka regeneration)
Weapons: The Wabbajack - I find this to not only be a hilarious choice, but a very useful staff. I use it sparingly.
Shouts: To be honest? All of them. Creating magical effects with your voice is part of a Magician's tricks.
*** Most notable: Animal Allegiance, Kyne's Peace (to use after Command Animal), Slow Time, Throw Voice, Disarm, Become Ethereal ***
Stats: Heavy, heavy magicka - I allocated around 4/1/2 for M/H/S until I had a comfy carry weight for stolen goods
Powers: The Tower, Command Animal
Skills and Perks - Level 50
Illusion: All Perks!! A truly unstoppable skill
Conjuration: Novice - Expert, Summoner 1/2, Atromancy, Elemental Potency
Pickpocket: Light Fingers 3/5, Night Thief, Cut Purse, Extra Pockets, Key Master, Misdirection
Alteration: Novice - Expert, Dual Cast, Mage Armor 2/3, Magic Resistance 2/3, Stability
Sneak: Stealth 1/5, Muffled Movement, Light Foot, Silent Roll, Silence, Shadow Warrior
Speech: Haggling 3/5, Allure, Merchant
"Ideal" Max Perks - Here
Gameplay
Roleplaying as a traveling musician is a ton of fun. Stealing everything you want, pickpocketing everyone in town and turning it around for a profit, sticking to the shadows, frenzy/calm/fear spells to confuse enemies, conjuring powerful allies ... Lots of choices!
You do not have to sneak around at all times. This is not a build where you want to play in that "no one sees you 100%" boring type. You are in no sense an assassin. You will be running more than you will be confronting in the beginning of the playthrough. Illusion really begins to pay off when Master of the Mind comes in and invisibility is available as a spell. Then you can do what all magician's strive to do: disappear!
The main point of this build is to have fun, but I quickly realized this build is extremely powerful. I was having a hard time thinking about how to do a mage build without illusion, but I instead embraced it and created this character concept. Conjuration is your dragon and boss killer. Being able to conjure allies is always useful and a magician knows how to conjure a multitude of atronachs and "minions" to aid in the heat of battle. Mage Armor is more for emergencies. I did not want to take Dragonhide this time around, as being "invincible" is not the goal of this build.
The Tower. Let's talk! Some of you may roll your eyes and say: "you are wasting opportunities on experience" or "just do the lockpicking mini game and use a better stone". I say that you are missing out. Spending a long time on lockpicking and breaking picks is quite frustrating. Being a stress free build, a free pass at Expert or lower locks is great! The stone also works great in the roleplay. Not taking lockpicking perks for this build, it aids in getting in and out of a stuck place without the pesky squeaking of the lock. It is satisfying to make use of a regularly overlooked aspect of the game...
Command Animal is a huge aspect of this build and a severely underrated power. Being able to control even the biggest and strongest creatures is so darn useful! Giants are a joke! Level 1 you can take on camp after camp of giants and then run from your woolly ex-allies. Saber cats in the wilderness are so much fun to "tame" and then let loose on Imperial brigades or bandit camps! You must try!
Playing as a tricky, sneaky mage/glass cannon has been an absolute blast and I am continuing with this build for all future DLCs ... it is that good and that fun! You can add/subtract skills to your liking. One skill I may want to add later is archery for the infamous Bound Bow. I am sure there are similar build on the site, but this is my take and I hope you appreciate the role-play.
Replies
Thanks yo. This was definitely a favorite of mine I made back in 2012 or 2013.
Kind of ... Been playing variations on my favorite character concept for a long time now. Haven't posted a build in I think a few years.
Hey Henson - beautiful build. Btw you hit Rank:Adept