I've always wanted to play a character that focused on mounted combat, but never got around to it until now. I present:
Backstory
Born somewhere on the Dragontail Mountains, the Nomad spent most of her life becoming familiar with war. Her father, the chieftain of their tribe, engaged in a decades long rivalry with another orcish stronghold in the region, and as such, raids, battles and skirmishes were common between the two groups. This changed, however, when her older brother suddenly challenged and killed their father in combat, taking over as the new chief. Her brother had grown weary and tired of the constant fighting imposed by their warlord of a father, and sought to end the war by forging peace with their long standing enemies. To seal such peace, he intended to offer his sister to the rival chief as a bride.
The Nomad would not stand for this. She had always followed the customs and traditions of the tribe, but she would not allow herself to be used as an offering to her father's lifelong enemy. She protested and urged the chief to instead end the war by organizing one final, decisive attack and claiming total victory, but her suggestion was ignored. Disgusted, she spat at her brother with the scorn of a true child of Malacath, calling him a weak and cowardly chief, and forever left her tribe, bring with her only a bow and an axe.
She traveled, never staying at the same place for too long, worried that her enemies or her brother would catch up with her. She tempered her skills, practicing with the bow and the axe, she defeated bandits, wandering knights and all manner of beasts. After claiming for herself the horse of a fallen knight, she took up riding and quickly discovered that mounted combat suited her well, as she now had no need to stop moving to shoot and her axe struck fear on the hearts of her enemies during a charge. Her journeys eventually took her to the forests of southern Skyrim, where she ended up falling for an ambush and lumped with a group of nordic rebels. The Nomad escaped execution in the chaos of a dragon attack, but the experience only solidifies her resolve. She kept moving, always with a single goal in mind: one day she must kill her intended husband and finish the war her father started, in the way he had always intended.
Overview
Race: Female Orc - this fits the story and also gives you access to Berseker Rage, one of the best powers in the game for a combat focused character.
Standing Stone: The Lord - extra armor rating and magic resistance is very nice and she has no need for something like carry capacity from the Steed stone as she is mounted most of the time. Early on, the warrior or the thief can the useful for leveling.
Stats: 0 Magicka/1 Health/1 Stamina until around 250-300 stamina, then all into health - she doesn't use any magic, so magicka is irrelevant. However, stamina is used for zooming with the bow and it also increases damage done by power attacks in Ordinator, so it is up to you to decide how much you are willing to invest into it. More health is always useful, though.
Armor: Stormcloak Officer armor, Boots and Gauntlets, Orcish Scaled Helmet - this set is mainly used for aesthetical purposes, as it fits a wild, barbaric rider. Since it is all light armor, any perks in the light armor tree can be used if you want.
Weapons: Headman's Cleaver, Orcish Bow - these weapons fit the character perfectly, the Headman's Cleaver isn't only orcish in design, but it looks incredible when used on horseback as it resembles a lance/glaive of sorts.
Jewelry: Anything you can find or buy, fortify Two-Handed, forty Archery are good enchantments to have on necklaces and rings.
Skills: Two Handed, Archery, Light Armor, Block - these skills have the priority. Skills like Smithing or Alchemy could be very useful, but Ordinator is a very perk hungry mod and investing even in a few skills can be very fulfilling.
Mods
Horsepower - Modernized Horse Riding (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/169335) - This is the only "essential" mod here (along with it's own requirements), as it turns horse riding into an actually pleasurable experience. Everything from turning, to jumping, to sprinting feels much smoother and better than in vanilla. However, I'm sure the character is also playable without it.
Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1137) - This is mostly here due to my own preferences, as this is a fairly simple character that does not use too many skills I wanted to use Ordinator as it allows each skill to have a lot of depth. But again, I'm sure the character can be played in vanilla.
True Directional Movement (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/51614?tab=description) - This one is completely optional, but it allows things like looking to any direction no matter where you are riding towards, and it also let's you use a key to lock-on to a target, making it a lot easier to do archery.
Perks and Playstyle
Skills like Block and Light Armor are very simple, I only took a few perks in each to increase her defenses, movement speed and stamina regeneration. In fact, you can't block when riding a horse, but the sad reality is that you won't always be riding anyway. When inside dungeons, you'll have to rely on your own two feet, but perks like Quick Reflexes can keep you alive. Two-Handed perks like Ferocious Strength allows your power attacks to scale with your stamina pool, Rive allows your axe to ignore a percenage of enemy armor, Execute instantly kills enemies below 30% health and Bisect deals a percentage of your target's health on power attacks, all making you very effective against tanky enemies and bosses. When mounted, Archery takes an important role, aiming on third person and on a moving horse is quite difficult, but it feels very satifsfying to run laps around enemy camps, harassing with hit and run tactics. Steady Hand lets you zoom and slow time, making your job a lot easier, Clean Kill and Snipe both increases the damage of your first shot against full health enemies and guarantee a critical strike, Quick Shot and Hailstorm increase your fire rate while Crippling Shot and Pinning Shot will slow down and stagger enemies hit.
Special Moves
Mobile Warfare: Steady Hand + Crippling Shot + Pinning Shot - The Nomad's mastery over mounted archery makes it very hard for enemies to catch up to her as she tires and eludes their grasp. When they become weak enough, she charges in with the Headman's Cleaver to finish them off. This is how most encounters in the overworld tend to go.
Martial Intent: Berseker Rage + Unrelenting Force - This is a move to be used when by foot and outnumbered. The Nomad reminds her enemies of the ferocity of an orc who trained for war since childhood. She does not back down or seek for diplomatic solutions, instead, her foes scatter and bend the knee as she marches forwards with a terrifying aura.
Roleplay Tips
- The Nomad will be disgusted by Chief Yamarz during the Cursed Tribe quest. She will see in him a reflex of her brother, a weak and cowardly chief who is always seeking for a way out of his problems instead of facing them head on. She will kill him and receive Malacath's approval, this will signify to her that she is on the right path.
- A set of Stormcloack Officer Armor can be looted from Captain Valmir at the entrance of Forelhost in the Rift, as long as you chose to escape with Ralof at the start of the game. This can be obtained early and does not require actually joining the Stormcloak Army.
- Do not travel with any followers unless required or marry anyone, do not buy property or seek to own any plots of land. She is a nomad and travels alone, aiming to one day return to the Dragontail Mountains and claim the head of her father's enemy.
- Joinining factions are not required, but the Companions and even the Dark Brotherhood might be suitable, depending on how far you see her going to seek power and experience for her revenge.
Conclusion
The Nomad is a character I created simply to fulfill my mounted combat fantasy, so she isn't a very complex build. This is also my first ever time posting a character build, so I'm still learning about all of this. I hope you enjoyed!
Replies
Haha, The first thing I thought when I saw headman's cleaver was: This would look cool on a horse riding orc character. You know what they say about great minds 😃. if you do most of your fighting outdoors, a dog, barbas and a hunter companion would add nicely to your party.
Yep, it looks really cool on a horse rider haha. I kind of picture her to be a bit of a loner and distrustful of others, but dogs and followers could still work, it would be specially cool if followers could fight mounted too.