"Few people realise the immensity of vacancy in which the dust of the material universe swims."- H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
Note how the art seems to conceptualize these invaders as humanoids floating in space and (presumably) shooting projectiles as they descend.
All intellectual property belongs to the obvious owners. This is for fun.
Note; at it's core, this build is mostly just a run of the mill spellsword/nightblade. Pretty deceptively pacifistic sometimes due to skyrim's neat stealth functions. Sometimes it's quicker to sneak by everyone. Besides, I just like playing around with being functionally imperceptible.
The Invader:
Race: Dunmer or Altmer are aesthetically closest to a Grey-type alien.
Standing Stone: I went with Apprentice for more of a glass cannon feel. This character is supposed to feel out of their element a bit and sort of fragile, the magicka regen is nice too since you mostly rely on spells. You likely won't be in direct combat much though.
Stat Distribution: 2:1:0 (mp:hp:sp) You'll finish the Perks out at level 27, so by then adjust for more HP if you think you're getting hit too much.
Quests/Factions/Ideas
Main Quest: You crashed, your equipment vanished, and you narrowly survive execution by the local government. You easily learn languages by scanning. This dragonic language is fascinatingly elusive. Must learn more.
Dark Brotherhood: if anything, An Alien assassinating the Emperor feels like a funny conspiracy theory to act out.
Dawnguard: Aliens Vs Vampires. The ultimate clash of science and fantasy realized in your home console system. Your projectile has a strong effect on undead. It feels funny eventually reducing them to piles of ash with an explosive blob of blue plasma. Idk I'm obsessed with Elemental Bolt.
Conversely, If you're able to replicate it (I was able to on Switch), you could go the Volkihar route and eventually take advantage of glitching vampiric grip into your base form. Then you've got human-affecting telekinesis. I still prefer going the Dawnguard Route because vampirism messes up this character's look too much for me imo. But it's a fun idea for any other monster fan. I think aliens can drink people's blood right? There's probably something there. Ultimately I find balancing vampirism with survival mode too much for me to enjoy. So I didn't do this. But an Alien Vampire could be a cool roleplay? There's already a fair bit of genre mixing in skyrim as it is. (I love dawnguard so much)¿
Thieves Guild: Lots of opportunity to sneak around without having to kill people. The local Mafia won't ask any questions about you so long as you keep bringing the gold. The influence the Guild affords you doesn't go unappreciated, either.
Lost to the Ages: You want the Aetherial Crown, because it enhances your connection to the constellations. This character is naturally drawn to Dwarven ruins regardless, they consider the high technology comforting despite being repeatedly frustrated trying to decipher how it works. They're definitely going to be inclined to seek out the Aetherium Forge in general. As for what to load it with, I'd just bounce around and use different ones. I recommend Serpent for the paralysis poison (like an acid spit!), or Ritual for kind of a Dead Space Necromorph kinda vibe. The sky's the limit. Or you can be silly and forgo the crown entirely and grab the staff for summonable robots. I've done it before, and Aliens love tech. It'd fit. It's a fun move.
Dragonborn: Ol' Herma Mora aligns with this character really well, being they have a strange alien appearance and represent secrets and hidden knowledge in general.
Unearthed: Complete the quest with an exploit to grab Secret of Arcana, to exploit further. Imo, the skills this build uses aren't always easy to level up quickly, and the idea is to try and give yourself spy-like access to all of Skyrim with minimal consequence to yourself. Therefore, cheating with SoA and Telekinesis(something aliens can do) to power level your Alteration to 100 in order to access Paralysis, somewhat in line with what an alien would want to do.
Civil War: Ignore it. Or side with the Imperials to dress like Marvin the Martian. Or side with the Stormcloaks to get nice warm Bear Pelts for survival. You don't really have that much stake in the outcome regardless, you just need the victor to focus on Thalmor Justicars snooping around everywhere. Their spies make you very paranoid.
General Behavior: You aren't Evil by your race's standards. Your primary objective is securing comfort for yourself and collecting information. Experiments and what have you. Mostly avoid the College, you're afraid they'll dissect you. I'm assuming you know how to get Invisibility by other means? Otherwise go in through the "back door" and grab it from Drevis when you get illusion 70 or so.
Sub Quests: CC: Farming, Fishing, etc. I love doing all the cottage core stuff in Skyrim. I just picture a stranded alien dude with a backpack trying to eke out a new rustic lifestyle, armed only with their psychic powers and heat ray for self protection. Grab the Dwarven House, Help Calcelmo as much as possible. Hanging around Markarth and the Reach is nice bc of all the hills to duck behind, besides your natural inclination towards Dwarven remains.
Survival Mode: I generally avoid turning this on because muh fast travel, but I find that this can really sell "trapped in a harsh unforgiving land" for this character, which I think is also a fun contrast to the difficulty. An Alien who is by all accounts pretty OP from basically spamming Death Ball or abusing Mind Control in every direct fight, would tend to still have a lot of trouble adapting to and surviving well in an environment alien to them. Primary concern isn't the locals, it's everything else. Make sure to get your furs on♡ Dunmer come in handy for this with their inborn flame cloak spell.
Abilities
Spells: Elemental Flare line of spells to replicate a destructive projectile weapon.
Sparks makes a good disintegration ray, once you get the perk for that.
Flames damaged gets buffed pretty high since you're perking Illusion/Destruction.
Honestly do whatever. The perks are there for elemental damage, but the roleplay is open for this Space Elf to really do whatever in terms of weapon specialization. I like doing enchanting, so I had my alien doing that. Enchanting is still amazing even with pretty low investment!
Any Fire/Shock enchanted weapon, to act as a heat knife of some sort. Backstabbing always has a place, but more often than not this character is going to be exploring and sneaking about. I just focus burst damage in any form for those "must kill" targets scattered throughout Skyrim.
Maybe later on you can also perk into freezing, but maybe only after the character has spent time in the cold and learned more about it. They then learn how to tune their weapons to produce a freezing ray. Then I'd definitely advise perking up to the ability that freezes enemies.
Fenrik's Welcome(roleplay it as shapeshifting key hand, like Jake the Dog. You can't otherwise lockpick at all, so no Master locks for you.)
All Illusion Spells, you're telepathic.
Invisibility.
Alteration has a place here, for Paralyze. This build gets silly when you can Fury a lone character, they aggro you and you can just paralyze them and punch their HP away and it doesn't count as an assault.
Because while we're doing a nightblade spellsword thing, most of the time you're probably gonna want to sneak around with invisibility, casting Paralysis or Calm as necessary.
Shouts: Whirlwind Sprint(Warp), Unrelenting Force(PK Push), Bend Will, Fire Breath, Storm Call
Must-Have Skills:
Stealth is 1st priority, I wanted to create the ability to make people forget about you when they look away. Just the left side. Sneak attacks don't really need to be buffed, and I figure the alien wouldn't understand the local anatomy to strike correct with a dagger to the vitals.
Illusion: Invisibility is my favorite spell, but I like mixing it up with fear and calm spells every now and again. Or the odd fury spell. Just use for subturfuge mostly though. You don't wanna go too high profile. Using a frenzy on bandits in a cave is cool, using it in the middle of a city is not cool. If you grab a follower[I generally don't like followers] you can RP that you're mind controlling them to assist you. Using your powers to hype them up and whatnot. Courage, Rally, etc. Everything Illusion.
Destruction is the tertiary skill, mostly for when you get caught. Early game you can fight if you need to with the Dunmer's baked in Sparks spell, but once you get to Hob's Fall Cave, You have access to the line of spells you're probably gonna use for the rest of the build. It is very satisfying exploding your enemies into neat little piles of ash. That being said, any Fire and Sparks magic is acceptable to use. Think of it as "plasma weaponry". Plus, the damage perks have the added bonus of buffs to enchanted weapons you may craft or discover.
Alteration: For that reality bending otherworldly stealth, try pairing Illusion with Paralysis. There are tons of guides on how to level these schools quickly, so I'll spare you a lengthy description here. (Just make sure you associate with Herma Mora) Casting Fury on a solo NPC while you are hidden from them results in the NPC being the aggressor when they decide to attack you, from there you can paralyze your attacker and then "defend" yourself by punching them to 0hp. Neat way to avoid bounties in the hold and maintain your nonexistence. Also, Telekinesis was probably going to be used in one way or another.
Other: Unperked Weapon Skills have a nice place here, dealer's choice which type you go with. I like one handed and archery, and dunmer are known for wielding the three evenly. Maybe this character eventually just gives in and pretends to be a dunmer due to the resemblance? The perks in Destruction buff elemental damage nicely, so grab a Fire Enchanted Sword and call it a lightsaber. If you keep playing this build past the first part, you may as well roleplay that they give up on trying to go home and study magic schools, branching out into perked Enchanting. Which I find eventually happens to all of my characters if I stick to them long enough. The restoration loop is too tempting for me not to exploit. (I play the game I was given;u;)
☆:
With this; I'm thinking about the greys, Space Ghost, The Third Kind, the Mooninites, Lloyd in Space, Toy Story, Silents, Marvin the Martian, Space Invaders, Fire in the Sky, Mars Attacks, Destroy All Humans!, Slender Man, Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, Those Hillbilly Aliens from Futurama, War of the Worlds, any B movie, and classic Arcade Games where the enemy is a fast approaching weird looking thing that is only capable of communicating through projectile, and appearing and disappearing at will.
Below are some essential perks I liked for this. Enchanting has a place, but that's if you want diversity past the start of this. I just roleplay I'm using psionics to make crude energy weapons. Or maybe you just gradually grow to understand magic to some degree and can enchant as normal. Soul gems and all. Idk this is just for fun
Replies
Hey, I dig this! Unique and creative concept, and it seems fun too. Tho, if I'm being honest, using only Elemental spells (aside from them being OP) as the only damage-dealing method seems would make the gameplay repetitive. I will be on the lookout for the finished product. Good luck!