The Forge Cleric (Skyrim Anniversary Edition Build)
To some denizens of Tamriel, the forge is sacred. Working metal is a holy calling and as such, these craftsmen can shape and enchant ore to their highest potential. Outside of the forge, these clerics can also augment the strength of their arms and armor in the middle of battle when they need it most. Forge Clerics may take up adventuring to recover powerful artifacts, seek out rare crafting materials, or to simply aid like minded artisans in their community. Patrons of the Forge Clerics can include gods of smithing like Zenithar, gods of nature like Kyne, or gods of battle like Onsi the Boneshaver.
📖Backstory📖
The Forge Cleric was born and raised in the Cyrodiilic town of Leyawiin. Her mother was an orcish woman who left her stronghold to join the Imperial Legion, where she achieved the rank of Legate at a young age. After semi-retiring, she laid down roots in Leyawiin as a respectable blacksmith. Her father was less accomplished, a young Nibenese man who was training as an apprentice at Leyawiin’s Mages Guild and was admittedly, not very good at magic. Despite the two being of very different backgrounds and cultures, they found each other and through their love, welcomed the Forge Cleric into the world.
Although an orc, the Forge Cleric grew up Imperialized, fully immersed in Leyawiin’s culture. This included her religion, as the Forge Cleric was raised worshiping the divines. Her mother didn’t like talking about her life in the stronghold and her opinion on Malacath, the chief deity to most orcs, was that “a self-respecting orc woman has nothing to gain from following a doctrine that sees her as nothing but a chieftain’s wife.” As such, she found similar yet more positive values in praying to the divine Zenithar.
Hard times would come to the family, however, as during the infamous Battle of the Red Ring, the Forge Cleric’s mother rejoined Imperial forces to take the fight back to the Aldmeri Dominion. During one of the skirmishes, the armor that was issued to her failed to repel a thrust from an Aldmeri blade, and thus the Forge Cleric’s mother died in the heat of battle. This armor was given back to the family and it’s flawed, pierced cuirass being handed to the Forge Cleric’s father was one of the Forge Cleric’s earliest memories; a memory wrought with loathing and resentment.
A child full of anger and frustration, labeled as “brutish” and “savage” by her peers, the Forge Cleric found acceptance isolated at home with her widowed father, who had since left the Mages Guild to take over his wife’s forge (another skill he was not very good at). Seeing his daughter having difficulties coping with the loss of her mother, he turned her onto religion, and to the Temple of Zenithar.
Zenithar teaches that through earnest work, you can achieve peace, and while it took a long time, the Forge Cleric began to follow this creed as she apprenticed smithing under her father. Now an adult with a steady control over her orcish rage, she decided to fully join the temple of Zenithar as a missionary, a role that saw her travel all across the provinces of Cyrodill and High Rock, and it was when the Forge Cleric was in the latter that she learned the art of metal magic from the Resolution of Z’en. She inherited her father’s incompetence for magic, so you could only imagine the amount of work she needed to put into her studies.
At 29 years of age, the Forge Cleric was tasked with escorting a caravan of great importance north to Skyrim, though she was not told what the carriage’s contents were. The Forge Cleric, along with some other priests in the Resolution, trekked through the Wrothgarian mountains and into the snowy Nordic province.
When they made it halfway through the Reach, the caravan was ambushed by bandits, The Forge Cleric tried to fight back, tapping into a rage that was buried deep inside of her, but she was eventually overpowered and left for dead. She began wandering aimlessly east along the main road and before she passed out from blood loss, she heard the hooves and wheels of a horse drawn carriage approaching her from behind…
📊Race & Stats📊
The Forge Cleric we will be playing is an Orsimer and will follow a stat ratio of 2H/2M/1S until around level 20, where we then can focus on just health and stamina. The standing stone we will be using is The Lord Stone.
⚒️Skills⚒️
Our skills are primarily about increasing armor rating and weapon damage & are chosen for flavor. This build is equal parts infuriating and rewarding as we delve into several different skill trees while avoiding many of their most useful perks. Up to level 40, the skills are the following:
Smithing is, for obvious reasons, a paramount skill tree for the Forge Cleric. Perk the right side of the tree for heavy armor.
For Heavy Armor, we are fully perking Juggernaut. Our aesthetic is going to only use three pieces of heavy armor, so the other perks are not really going to help us here.
Our main means of dealing damage will be with One-Handed maces, so attain all of the perks necessary to increase their potential. We will be entering combat usually wielding a mace in one hand and a spell in the other, so the perk choices reflect this.
Our only magic casting ability is Alteration, but we will be using it about as much as we use a one handed weapon, whether it’s giving us the extra push in armor rating or using utility spells. We are perking most of the tree.
Enchanting is just as important as smithing and because of this, we will be perking the whole tree with the exception of Frost Enchanter & Storm Enchanter.
Alternatively, you can swap out One-Handed for Two-Handed and use warhammers, if the spirit moves you. The Dawnguard Rune Hammer works very well with this build's aesthetic. If playing at a lower difficulty, you may want to sprinkle in some optional skills for flavor and utility. Optional skills include Block, Destruction, Speech, and Alchemy. Perking block will give you more front line options while destruction will give you more ranged (use fire spells, because, you know, Forge Cleric). Speech will give you that little extra gold in the beginning, also tying into the mercantile side of a Forge Cleric’s life. Alchemy can be used for increasing other skills and maximizing smithing/enchanting potential. Alchemy fits what we try to accomplish with the build very nicely, but does not necessarily align with the theme we’re going for.
💻Mods💻
This build is designed to work for vanilla Skyrim, but you may find yourself having a more enjoyable time using mods that overhaul skill trees, especially ones that allow you to perk the heavy armor tree with only 3 pieces of armor. Also look for mods that expand upon alteration spells, because more spells is always fun. If on PC, Wintersun is a great immersion mod for any build where following a diety is focal to the gameplay.
🪖Apparel🪖
The Forge Cleric wears a set of robes while also equipping heavy armor for the helmet, hands, & feet slots. While it doesn’t maximize protection, it does provide us with the coolest aesthetic. Our Forge Cleric will end up wearing the following:
Head= Golden Saint Helmet (Fortify Alteration, Fortify Magic)
Torso= Telvanni Robes
Hands= Golden Saint Gauntlets (Fortify Magic, Fortify One-Handed)
Feet= Golden Saint Boots (Fortify Stamina, Fortify Stamina Regen)
Amulet= Gold Necklace (Fortify Health, Resist Magic)
Ring= Gold Ring (Fortify Health, Resist Magic)
Also carry around a set of jewelry enchanted with Fortify Smithing when crafting items.
⚔️Weapons⚔️
Our weapon of choice will be a leveled mace, enchanted with Fire damage and Paralysis. Thanks to creation club content, we have a couple of thematically good choices for unique weapons as well:
Mace of the Crusader- being a relic of Zenithar, it seems fitting that our Forge Cleric would be the one to wield it. This is my favorite weapon to pair with this character.
Sunder- every good smith needs a good hammer. What better weapon than the most infamous hammer in Elder Scrolls history?
Light of Day- another holy mace with a great look to it.
Scourge- perhaps you’d like to roleplay her as giving into her more orcish side of things. Wielding the mace of Malacath would solidify this fall from civility.
🎆Spells🎆
We will be using pretty much as many spells from the Alteration school as we can thematically justify. Being a “metal mage” we will impose limitations on ourselves based on circumstances. Here’s a brief rundown on the spells being used and how they fit into our class:
Flesh spells- our armor comes alive as we temporarily push the strength of its metal even further.
Telekinesis- the Forge Cleric shows control over the metal in their surroundings, sending it wherever they please (limit this spell by only using it on metal objects)
Transmute- needs no extra description. This spell is thematically perfect and help with leveling crafting and enchanting as you transmute iron & craft enchantable jewelry.
Paralysis & Paralysis Rune- the armor of your enemy becomes unbearably heavy, making them unable to stand and fight (use only on enemies wearing heavy armor)
Ash Shell & Ash Rune- summon the ash & soot from your patron’s holy forge and use it to immobilize your enemy.
🗣️Shouts & Powers🗣️
The Forge Cleric’s primary shouts are all ones that affect weapons & armor and they include Battle Fury, Disarm, Dragon Aspect, Elemental Fury, and Marked for Death. Besides those, Fire Breath will be a heavily used shout due to its decent ranged damage. Powers to acquire throughout your play through are Bones of the Earth, Sun Flare, and The Fire Within.
🎮Gameplay🎮
The Forge Cleric is very adaptive to circumstances, but in general will be playing the role of a tanky dps. Before you do anything else in combat, make sure your armor rating is in its highest working order by throwing up a Flesh spell. Our surface level approach is simple: walk up, bonk in the head with a mace till dead, rinse and repeat. Ash & Paralysis spells are great crowd control options, as is the Fire Breath shout. Ash spells prove invaluable when being swarmed or controlling the threat of ranged enemies
Speaking of, ranged enemies can be quite annoying with this build, but with some creative use of the Telekinesis spell, we can get in close. Grab a large, nearby metal object, like a Dwemer plate or a fallen enemy’s shield, and block incoming projectiles as you run in for the kill. Or, you may choose to send these metal objects flying across the room to attack your enemies. Personal preference, really.
✨Special Moves✨
These special moves exemplify what it means to go through Skyrim as a holy controller of metal:
🛡️Armor of the Gods- Dragonhide + Dragon Aspect + Bones of the Earth. You perform a holy ritual to Zenithar as he helps strengthen your armor to its highest potential.
🔨Quick Temper- Paralysis + Elemental Fury + Berserker Rage + Fire Enchanted Mace. Channel the rage of Malacath as you weigh down your enemies and leave them prone to strong, quick strikes from your flaming mace.
👋Disarming Strike- Disarm + Telekinesis. You rip your enemies metal weaponry away from them, giving you the option to creatively use their arms against them.
🔥Holy Welding- Mass Paralysis + Fire Breath (The Fire Within) + Sun Flare. When surrounded on all sides, you weigh your enemies down to the soil and bombard them with holy forge fire.
🗺️Quests🗺️
With our Forge Cleric’s backstory, there can be a justification to take part in almost every quest line the game offers. When roleplaying and choosing which quests to complete, we approach from two different angles; we may walk the Path of Discipline (PoD) and follow Zenithar’s teachings of prosperity through hard work, or we may walk the Path of Rage (PoR) and follow Malacath’s teachings of perseverance & vengeance in spite of circumstance.
Main (PoD): The Forge Cleric may believe that her quest to travel to Skyrim was really a path laid before her by Zenithar so that she can unlock her true potential as the Last Dragonborn. Because of this, she will fulfill the prophecy and put an end to Alduin’s threat.
Civil War (Imperials) (PoD): The Forge Cleric may choose to join Skyrim’s civil war on the side of the Imperials. Following in her mother’s footsteps would give the Forge Cleric a sense of fulfillment and connection to her idol as she seeks to end the tensions of this province she now calls home.
Civil War (Stormcloaks) (PoR): An argument can also just as easily be made for the Forge Cleric to join the Stormcloaks. Still harboring resentment towards the Imperials by holding them responsible for her mother’s death, the Forge Cleric joins the effort to drive them out of Skyrim so that she doesn’t have to see them again.
Companions (PoD): The Forge Cleric may decide to join the Companions. The Skyforge catches her eye in Whiterun immediately and she joins the Companions firstly as a way to make honorable income early on, but secondly as a way to spend time crafting on the legendary Skyforge. She would cure herself of lycanthropy, however, for there is nothing appealing to her about having her soul belong to Hircine.
College of Winterhold (PoD): The Forge Cleric may join the College of Winterhold, and it would be an excellent fit for her. Magic is still a relatively difficult concept for the Forge Cleric to grasp and being able to freely study it would prove invaluable.
Dark Brotherhood (PoR): The Forge Cleric may fall victim to the darker side of her personality and join the Dark Brotherhood. Firstly giving into her rage and killing Grelod, she may have a crisis of faith. Astrid would be there to accept her during this dark time in her life. Of course, her play style is not suitable for an assassin, but for roleplay reasons, joining could be justified.
Thieves Guild (PoR): The Forge Cleric may join the Thieves Guild as a shortcut to get back to where she was wealth-wise before the ambush. She worked hard to gain everything she had before, so why should she start back at square one? Despite her piety, she is a brute by nature and tapping into that side of her personality while also using her metal magic for more nefarious means could make her a decent fit for the shadowy organization.
Dawnguard DLC (Dawnguard) (PoD): The Forge Cleric may join the Dawnguard in helping take down the growing vampire menace. Other holy warriors have taken up arms against them and she would fit in well. Vampires fall nicely to the Forge Cleric due to her several ways of dealing fire damage and especially the Light of Day mace, should you choose to use it.
Dawnguard DLC (Vampires) (PoR): It’s honestly a bit of a stretch for the Forge Cleric to join the Volkihar vampires. Perhaps she would join out of fear of refusing Harkon, or perhaps she was persuaded by him through vampiric seduction. If you can justify a roleplaying reason to join them, more power to you, but the vampires are not a good fit for the character in my opinion.
Dragonborn DLC (Path Undefined): The Dragonborn DLC has many items and abilities that the Forge Cleric uses as part of their core gameplay mechanics. Completing the DLC can be looked at through a lens of both Discipline and Rage.
Side Quests: Side quests that fit the vibe of the Forge Cleric include any quest that involves aiding the working class (artisans, merchants, farmers, etc.), quests that involve clearing out mines, quests that have you clear out Dwarven ruins, and befriending the orc strongholds. Peak aesthetic gear requires Creation Club content and DLC.
📚Summary📚
I hope that you have enjoyed reading through this build! Apologies for the simplistic layout of this page as it was made entirely on mobile. Roleplaying in Skyrim has always been one of my favorite pastimes and it was a rewarding experience being able to write out a build for the first time for others to use. I went through several different iterations of this character before settling on a version that I felt represented the original D&D forge cleric class the best within Skyrim’s limitations, while also creating an unconventional approach to combat to make an interesting playstyle. Feel free to alter this build and personalize it to your liking as you pass through the gates of Helgen one more time!
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