A Bard turned Vampiric in the name of musical preservation, she's travelled Tamriel in a quest to make sure no song is ever forgotten, and that journey has now brought her to Skyrim. While her combat skills are lackluster, she can still make it through most fights courtesy of her Vampirism enhancing her physical and magic abilities. This, however, proves of little worry, as there is rarely more than a wolf or bandit to be encountered along the roads of Skyrim - and furthermore, she cares little for seeking out a fight. Instead, she seeks out Skyrim's plentyful inns and taverns, where she'll perform to the locals before searching out the next tavern.
Reccomended Mods -
Better Vampires - My prefered vampire mod, and the main form of progression and leveling up this build has.
Become a Bard or Bards Reborn Student of Song Become a Bard and Bards College Expansion & Rerquirements - I used the latter for its greater depth, but BaB should work as it covers all the important bits.
Practial Pirate - Pretty much covers the aestethetic
Cloaks of Skyrim (or any other cloak mod) - I go with more of a traveller aesthetic here, and I've always felt cloaks help that kind of aesthetic.
Race - Really dosen't matter here, but I went with a Breton.
Stats - Again, Mostly irrelevant - the build dosen't level up much. However, Magika is the main combat skill and Stamina is useful for traversing Skyrim, and we do allot of that, So an even 1:0:1 should do the trick, however I would still reccomend leveling up Health on occasion.
Standing Stone - Steed. We do lots of traversing Skyrim and not much combat.
Skills - Vampirism, Speech, Destruction, One Handed - We really don't use many of Skyrim's skill trees here, and the Vampire progressing is the main form of power level progression we actually have. I'm not going to include a perk spread here as the character barely levels - though some perk overhauls have bard focused perks in the speach tree, so look out for those if you use one of those perk systems. However, Better Vampires does allow for some form of skill progression, but the choises are limited enough that you can easily enough just take everything.
Gear -(The dagger was a gift from a patron during her journying in high rock. He claimed it to be of direnni make, but she has no way of prooving that. Otherwise, i just feel this set fits the traveller aesthetic quite well. The lighter practical pirate set is also a great fit, though make sure to use a similairy coloured cloak with it.)
Gameplay -
Most of this character's gameplay is travelling around Skyrim - I reccomend survival mode, or similair. The removal of fast travel & the nessesitation of income for food and sleep are what make this character work. Additionally, I reccomend starting the playthrough with as little gold as possible - limiting carriage use. This way, you'll have to manage what little gold you earn from playing music to rent inns, and anything else you find yourself needing. On feeding, there aren't any mods that I know of that let you politely ask someone for a sip, so we'll have to roleplay that one. Take a nibble from a sleeping innkeep instead of collecting pay, or treat yourself to a morsel from any sleeping patron that seemed to particuleraly enjoy the music. However, this will often leave you thirsting for blood, so excuse yourself into the guards barracks or collect some bottles from relatively fresh corpses. In terms of what we actually do, music is the name of the game. Enter an inn, ask the innkeep for permission & perform! Patrons might throw you a coin or two, and the innkeep will be sure to pay after - in blood or gold. That'll earn you the nights rest, and then it's off to the next inn.
Backstory -
They say art lasts forever, but what of the art forgotten? Some art can only truly be preserved by memory, and mortals have a tendancy to die. It was when the bard who had mentored me passed that I first came to face this. On that day, when all his memories, and all his music was left with only me. With no other bards in the village, the only way I could find to prevent this music from dying was to escape death itself. So I made a pact. And here I am, a traveling bard with many a lifetime of practice. My condition keeps me and the music I've gathered alive, but at a cost. When possible, I try to feed from willing subjects, accepting blood as a payment for many nights of music - sometimes this isn't feasable, but a bag of coin usually persuades the prison guards to look away.
Quests -
The Bard's College: Pretty much the only official quest I'm going to reccomend here - and our character's first priority as she enters Skyrim. It'll get you the training to actually earn money on your perfomances.
A Bard's Tour: Try to 'complete' your Bard's Journal by playing in each listed tavern at least once.
A Mighty Steed: Buy a horse with the gold you've earned playing music.
A Preserver of Song: Try to collect all the songbooks.
Master of Euphonies: Reach Master level in all instruments.
Notes -
This is a very short build, and definately not for everyone - But it's one I really enjoyed, and figured I may as well upload (At least after Jazz reminded me it existed - BG3 released halfway through me working on this). It's not meant to do much, just mess around and have some fun as a bard.
The custom quests I've added are mostly meant as suggestions - Just do what you enjoy.
I also reccomend getting a follower - as some will join in on songs.
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