InSkyrim, the possibilities for different builds are nearly endless, and with so many possible variations, it would take thousands of hours of game time to play them all. It is perhaps partially why the game has stood the test of time in a way others have not, and players continue to soak hundreds of hours into it. However,some builds are more fun or more powerful than others, which might make your playtime that much more enjoyable.
Classes inSkyrimalready offer several possibilities, but that is just one aspect with wide-ranging skill trees and tons of possible weapons, armor, and spells. This list will focus onbase-game and DLC-only buildsso that everyone can enjoy them without using mods. Additionally, since any build can become overly powerful and make it through the end game with the right combinations, the following builds will be a mixture of ones that are considered powerful and fun.
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7The Alchemist
Any Class, Any Time
You can get manydifferent perkswith Alchemy, and with enough points and the right potions, any class can become nearly immortal with the Alchemy skill tree. However, if you just want to have fun, you can attempt to play just as an Alchemist with nothing else, like inF.D.O.T.S.’s YouTube video. You will will belooking for HP and Skooma potions, so you will want to have a lot of Nightshade on hand.
You can see the potential glitch that can be useful for these builds inHickory Kay’s video.
There is apotential glitch with some of the armor setsinvolved to make this more unbeatable, but even without the glitch, you will want to look for extremelyhigh Alchemy, Smithing, and Enchanting skills. You abuse your way through the system between these three and defeat the game. However, this build will take a long time to see through, without the glitch at least, and while fun it works best in combination with other builds such asVampiric builds inSkyrim.
6Battle Mage
Balanced As All Things Should Be
There are a lot of different ways to do this, but you essentially want to haveequal amounts of battle prowess and mage abilities. you’re able to go a few different routes, leaning toward Necromancer or a Spellsword/Paladin. Eventually, you want a two-handed build with aone-handed weapon in one hand a magic in the other. You can see how to get started with this build in YouTuberMike - The Gaming Dad’s video.
You will want to level up afair amount of different Skills, which you can see in the table below:
Novice, Dual Casting, Impact, Augmented Shock x2
Enchanting
Enchanter x5, Fire Enchanter, Frost Enchanter, Storm Enchanter, Insightful, Corpus, Extra Effect
Conjuration
Novice, Apprentice, Summoner
There are more options from there, butleaning toward Necromancer might be the way to go. You can look for spells like Summon Frost Atronach and Flaming Familiar to get you there. While there is no named “Necromancer” class or build, there are plenty of ways to create one using this Battle Mage idea with alot of Conjuration spells.
5Illusion Assassin
Sneaky But Expensive
This one will require more Perks and Skill to get the character to the required place. This is going torequire a very high Illusion Skill, and you will want things likeExpert Illusion and Quiet Casting. You also need a very high Sneak Skill, with multiple points in Stealth and Assassin’s Blade.
The main downside of this build is theamount of investment needed into various perks andskills. However, there are ways tolevel up fast in Skyrim, so don’t be turned off by that if you think it suits you best.
Joining the Dark Brotherhood faction is another good ideato get the right gear for the job. This will make you nearly undetectable and with attack damage that multiples by a giant amount. To see more details about this build, or at least one version, seeMajorSlashAttack’s video.
4Unlimited Stamina Build
Veggie Stew
This one is one of the builds on the “fun” side, butit is no less potent and can be viable from the start of the game. It relies heavily on Vegetable Soup as a resource, so you will want to have as much of that as you can on your person. To see exactly how it works, see the short YouTube video fromSalmagros.
The Berserker build is the best for this, but all you need is theVegetable Soup. This is because it restores 1 HP and 1 Stamina every second for about 12 minutes, making it extremely long-lasting. It is also very easy to cook and requires nothing else but the abuse of Power Attacks while Vegetable Soup is active. Power Attacks can be used as long as you have 1 Stamina, and while they drain your Stamina,Vegetable Soup refills it almost instantly.
Recipe for Vegetable Soup:
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3No Fighting Mage Build
For The Lazy Player
This one is fun due to theabsurd tactics of never fighting yourself. It does not take long to gain a lot of levels in the necessary tracks for this one, which mainly includesAlteration and Illusion. This is a fun build because it does not require the player to do anything themselves. It might not beat the final boss, but at some point, does that even matter?
Instead, this build focuses on spells thatmanipulate everyone else into doing the dirty work for you. You can force them to kill each other, calm down, run away, or even become paralyzed so that you can punch them to death if necessary. You do not need a lot of gear, just a few key spells to make your enemies play while you sit back and watch. You will want theQuiet Casting perk for sure, which you can see for yourself inBest Guest’s YouTube video.
2Khajiit Claws Only
Fist-Fighting With An Advantage
The Khajiit race has the perk of being able to fight extra well unarmed due to their feisty paws. They have aracial perk of increased unarmed damage, which you can combine with the Heavy Armor skill tree to get perks like Fists of Steel. Another interesting option to add to this build is theDaedric Gloves, which you can put Fortify Unarmed enchantment on to add to your punching skills.
Put on the full Daedric Armor with somegood Fortified Armor perkson them while Smithing for best results.
This can allow you to go through theentire game fighting enemies unarmed, including thepowerful dragons inSkyrimyou will see along the way. Beyond investing heavily in the Heavy Armor tree, you will also want to invest heavily in theRestoration tree. Additionally, summoning the undead will be handy, so get on up the Conjuration Tree. There are other useful perks, as mentioned inFudgeMuppet’s YouTube video.
FudgeMuppet’s YouTube channelis a great resource for those who also want tocheck out modded versions of various buildsthat are not covered here.
1Stealth Archer
Never Seen From Again
If you want to be a god in Skyrim, one of the better builds by which to do so isthrough the Stealth Archer build. This build has many variations, but your goal is to get a bow and level up Stealth as much as possible. There are, of course, other considerations as well, such as gettingspells like Invisibility and Muffled Boots, but generally speaking, you want high Archery damage and big Sneak bonuses to combine.
This is one of the most popular and powerful builds inSkyrim, but if you want to change it up, consider relying less heavily on Stealth and go in as afull-on Battle Archer. This allows you to do a lot of the same kinds of damage but does not force you to remain hidden.
While this build will get you through most of the game unharmed and undetected,having Conjuration Skills is importantto be able to fight Dragons and other bosses. You will also likely want thespell Slow Time. To see one version of this build and exactly how to get there, check outFevvy’s YouTube video. As for weapons, check out some of thebest recommended weaponsin the table below:
