A core part of any RPG is the ability to create builds. Investing in certain skills and obtaining unique items is core to making characters play differently from each other, something Skyrim excels at for the most part.
Many know how strong stealth archers are, but there are many more viable builds in Skyrim that break from this mold. Veterans that have played Skyrim for hundreds of hours might not know about the strength of Illusion, Dragonborn's Spider Scrolls, or how to punch a dragon to death. Here are the wackiest builds that Skyrim veterans should try on their next playthrough.
Updated on November 26th, 2021, by Charles Burgar: Skyrim's Anniversary Edition is here, giving Xbox Series and PS5 users a chance to experience this classic RPG at 4K 120FPS. A plethora of Creation Club content is also included with this bundle, opening the floodgates to new experiences and builds. Creating a meta build can be fun, yet Skyrim has so many strange weapons and spells that making a weird build can be far more enjoyable. If you're sick of playing a stealth archer, give these ten builds a look.
10 Poisoner
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
Primary: Alchemy, Sneak, Pickpocket |
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Secondary: Restoration, Illusion, Light Armor |
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Weapons |
Daggers |
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Spells And Powers |
Poison Rune: Deals 3 poison damage per second for 30 seconds. |
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Paralysis: Paralyzes target for 10 seconds. |
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Serpent Stone: Once a day, use a ranged poison attack that deals 25 damage per second for 5 seconds. |
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Mora's Agony: Summons a field of writhing tentacles that poisons foes. |
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Viability |
Bad early-game, solid endgame |
Poisons are a unique potion type in Skyrim that afflicts targets with various debuffs. In general, poisons are meant to set up combat for stealthy characters, paralyzing targets or inflicting a ton of damage to a specific target.
Not this build. Poisoners use the power of Alchemy and stealth to eliminate their targets. You'll be focusing on the Alchemy tree to create the strongest poisons possible. From there, level Sneak and Pickpocket. Sneak will help you get behind enemies undetected, and Pickpocket's Poisoned perk will allow you to silently poison targets by placing poisons into their inventory. When combat goes south and you can't vanish, you can use Poison Runes from the Restoration tree to deal a solid chunk of damage. It's a strange way of playing a stealth character that encourages resource gathering and crafting, something most stealth builds ignore.
9 Legendary Wooden Sword
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
Primary: Smithing, Enchanting, One-Handed |
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Secondary: Heavy Armor |
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Weapons |
Wooden Sword |
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Armor |
Enchanted gear that enhances crafting and One-Handed damage |
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Viability |
Terrible before upgrading the Wooden Sword; fantastic afterward |
The Wooden Sword is the worst One-Handed sword in Skyrim, dealing two damage a swing. It is meant as a toy for kids to play with, but crafty players can turn this weapon into a one-shotting blade of death.
Being crafty is quite literal in this case since this weapon needs some serious tempering to be any good. Obtain 100 Smithing and Enchanting. Wear Fortify Smithing armor and drink a Fortify Smithing potion. The Restoration potion crafting exploit makes this even stronger.
Upgrade the blade to Legendary, then repeat this process with Enchanting. Enchant the blade with chaos damage and either absorb Health or another damage type of choice. With One-Handed perks, the Wooden Sword will now be capable of one-shotting most common enemies while downing the likes of dragons in a couple of strikes.
8 Unarmed Build
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
Heavy Armor, Enchanting |
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Weapons |
Fists |
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Armor |
Ring and glove with Fotify Unarmed |
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Viability |
Viable on everything except Legendary |
Punching enemies to death is a fun yet unorthodox build players can try in Skyrim. Players need to start the game as a Khajiit since they have increased unarmed melee damage.
From there, obtain Daedric Gloves and allocate a Skill Point into the Fists of Steel perk in the Heavy Armor tree. If you own the Anniversary Edition or the "Fearsome Fists" Creation, you can find some unarmed-themed gloves as random loot. Enchant your ring and the gloves with Fortify Unarmed. This enchantment can be found in The Ratway in Riften on the Gloves of the Pugilist or certain gloves from the "Fearsome Fists" Creation. With all of these properties combined, this build is capable of killing everything from bandits to dragons.
7 Dumb Wizard
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
All magic schools, Enchanting |
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Weapons |
Staves |
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Spells And Powers |
Scrolls and Spider Scrolls only |
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Viability |
Usable until Master difficulty |
Who needs Magicka when you can use a staff? This build focuses on two of Skyrim's most underutilized mechanics: staves and scrolls. The idea is that your character is too stupid to use spells but wants to be a wizard anyway. They get around this by using staves and scrolls.
Having one staff from every school of magic is recommended. To recharge your staves, use a Conjuration staff that casts Soul Trap. While you won't be casting spells directly, staves and scrolls scale their effectiveness based on your skill level and perks. The higher your skills are in a certain school of magic, the less energy your staves will consume. You can also craft Scrolls via the College of Winterhold's Atronach Forge. Spider Scrolls, creatures with magical effects, can also be found in Solstheim through White Ridge Barrow. Besides this strange restriction, the build plays virtually the same as any archetypical mage build.
6 Spellshield
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
Primary: Destruction, Block, Heavy Armor |
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Secondary: Restoration, Illusion, Conjuration |
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Armor |
Heavy armor and Spellbreaker |
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Spells And Powers |
Frost Cloak: For 60 seconds, opponents in melee range take 8 points of damage per second to Health and Stamina. |
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Chain Lightning: A lighting bolt inflicting 40 points of damage to Health and half as much to Magicka, then leaps to a new target. |
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Frenzy: Creatures and people up to level 14 will attack anyone nearby for 60 seconds. |
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Greater Ward: Increases armor rating by 80 points, and negates up to 80 points of spell damage or effects. |
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Viability |
Excellent on all difficulties |
You've probably heard of a Spellsword before—mages that use spells and weapons with equal mastery—but what about a Spellshield? Playing as a mage with no melee weapon gives you a surprising number of options, most of which are quite viable on higher difficulties.
Spellshields are a hybrid between a tank and a spellcaster, using heavy armor and shields to absorb a large amount of punishment. When an enemy attempts to melee you with a power attack, retaliate with a quick shield bash to slow down time, giving you a safe window to charge up a devastating spell. You can sprint into enemies to ragdoll them before casting a Frenzy spell, absorb dragon shouts using wards or the Spellbreaker shield, and become a frontline tank for your minions and companions. Just about every school of magic pairs nicely with a shield, so find spells that suit your playstyle before you start investing a ton of points into a specific tree.
5 Pacifist Rogue
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
Sneak, Light Armor, Pickpocket, Illusion |
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Weapons |
None |
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Spells And Powers |
Muffle: Move more quietly for 3 minutes. |
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Pacify: Creatures and people up to level 20 won't fight for 60 seconds. |
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Throw Voice: Distract targets from a distance. |
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Whirlwind Sprint: Fling yourself forward. |
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Viability |
Viable, although you'll need a companion to kill essential NPCs for certain quests |
Players can play most of Skyrim without killing anyone. Pacifist rogues take advantage of this by investing heavily in Sneak and Pickpocket. When combined with the Throw Voice and Whirlwind Sprint Shouts, players can hop between rooms and rooftops, stealing from foes before they have a chance to retaliate. If you enter a situation where enemies are trying to kill you, use Pacify or Calm to render the target harmless for a short time. You won't be able to [complete certain guild questlines] with this build, but few builds encourage creativity as much as a pacifist character.
4 Alteration Mage
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
Primary: Alteration, Light Armor |
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Secondary: Illusion |
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Weapons |
Your choice |
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Spells And Powers |
Paralysis: Paralyzes target for 10 seconds. |
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Telekinesis: Can pull an object from a distance. Add it to the inventory or throw it. |
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Detect spells: Shows certain enemy types through walls |
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Disarm: Shout to remove enemy weapons, staggering affected targets |
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Viability |
Surprisingly viable, albeit lackluster in tough combat encounters |
Alteration can not deal damage on its own, but it does have a wide range of powerful spells that most ignore. Paralyze, Magelight, and Detect spells are surprisingly versatile when combined with Illusion.
Similar to a pacifist rogue, Alteration mages are great at pacifist playthroughs. Magelight can be used to distract targets, while Illusion can turn the player invisible. Telekinesis can even be used to grab quest items from a far distance. It's a strange way to play through Skyrim's quests but satisfying to pull off.
3 Illusion Support
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
Primary: Illusion, Conjuration |
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Secondary: Speech, Light or Heavy Armor |
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Weapons |
None |
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Spells And Powers |
Dead Thrall: Reanimate a dead body permanently to fight for you. |
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Frost Atronach: Summons a Frost Atronach for 120 seconds. |
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Call to Arms: Targets have improved combat skills, Health, and stamina for 10 minutes. |
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The Ritual Stone: Reanimate nearby corpses to fight for you for 200 seconds. |
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Viability |
Rough early-game; solid mid to late-game |
There's a common theme that Illusion is incredibly strong at manipulating foes. Instead of making enemies calm or fight each other, however, why not make allies stronger?
Obtain any companion and gear them out with the best weapons and armor possible. Use the Call to Arms Illusion spell to significantly buff the companion. The Ritual Standing Stone is fantastic for this as well, letting players turn entire armies of corpses into minions for a short time. This build pairs beautifully with Conjuration as well. Playing a pacifist character is also viable with this build, although you'll have to find a supply of dead bodies.
2 Melee Chef
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
Alchemy, Enchanting, One-Handed |
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Weapons |
Knife and fork |
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Armor |
Enchanted gear that enhances One-Handed damage |
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Viability |
Viable until Master difficulty (excluding Enchanting exploits) |
Roleplaying as a chef is surprisingly fun in Skyrim. This build revolves around using the Fork and Knife weapons to carve through enemies, utilizing Alchemy and basic cooking recipes to enhance your combat capabilities.
Reach 100 with Alchemy and Enchanting to make these weapons halfway decent in combat, enhancing Enchanting through potions. As for other useful Alchemy crafts, Paralysis poisons are great for this build. As early as level one, you can start making Vegetable Soup that grants Stamina regen, allowing you to spam heavy attacks. Using the Ring of Namira to eat dead victims is rather fitting for this build as well from a roleplaying standpoint. If you want to ramp up the roleplaying potential of this build, become a vampire.
1 Spider Mastermind
Build Traits
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Core Skills |
Destruction, Alteration |
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Weapons |
Spiders, Scrolls |
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Spells And Powers |
Ash Rune: Create a rune that immobilizes targets when triggered. |
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Fire Rune: Creates a rune that explodes when triggered, dealing 50 fire damage. |
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Frost Rune: Creates a rune that explodes when triggered, dealing 50 frost damage. |
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Lightning Rune: Creates a rune that explodes when triggered, dealing 50 lightning damage. |
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Viability |
Solid on all difficulties, excluding Legendary |
Introduced in the Dragonborn DLC, players can find Spider Scrolls in White Ridge Barrow that act as non-Magicka runes and traps.
Spiders can do anything from exploding when targets get too close to carrying the player's items around. Since these spiders are from scrolls, investment into Magicka or schools of magic isn't necessary. That said, combining these spiders with Destruction or Alteration runes makes for a surprisingly potent build while dungeon delving.