The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Hints

What's a good way to build a new character?

• 1 of 16: As I say in the Skill Practicing Tips tips, I believe that the best way to build a character is to hoard level-ups. That way, you can practice skills all the time however you want without being lock-stepped into one particular sequence, which can really mess with your fun and ruin the wide-openness of the game. You will miss out on the opportunity to buy skill training for every level-up you hoard, and will therefore be unable to quickly raise a difficult-to-practice skill (such as Heavy Armor or Destruction) early in the game. However, that's a really minor disadvantage compared to the fact that while still level 1, you can explore the world map and discover every location without being constantly bombarded with way-too-hard combats, you can practice any skill up to 100 with enough patience (especially the ones that are easy to practice, like the three crafting skills), and you can get a follower and make an atronach-summoning staff to make most combats very easy. If you're not convinced, read on for a fairly good way to build a character using the "take them as you go" level-up strategy.
• 2 of 16: One of the best ways to handle that level-up strategy is to focus at first on raising your Heavy Armor skill and magic resistance, then maxing your three crafting skills (Alchemy, Enchanting, and Smithing), putting off other things until later. This is a good idea even for mage characters, since heavy armor can help protect them in combat while they cast spells, especially if it's been improved by maxed-out smithing and enchanting. The main difference will be that mage characters will choose to increase magicka on most level-ups instead of health and/or stamina, and they'll always keep magic robes and magicka-restoring potions on hand for spellcasting emergencies.
• 3 of 16: Create a Breton character to get a starting 25% resistance to magic, then do as little skill practicing as possible while doing the first two Main Quests. While in Helgen's keep, do pick open the cage in the torturer's room that has a dead mage and other loot in it, but that's all. Let your companion do all the fighting, and sprint past the bear when you come to it instead of sneaking past. Later, when you reach the Guardian Stones, don't get any of the stones' blessings, since accelerating your skill practice will only cause you to level up too fast.
• 4 of 16: While you're in Riverwood, do the "Deliver [Faendal's or Sven's] letter to Camilla" miscellaneous quest to gain a free follower. He'll be very helpful in any upcoming combats with wolves (or whatever) that you can't avoid. You should also chop a lot of firewood and sell it to Hod to make some money for upcoming expenses. However, do not sell anything to merchants, since that'll raise your Speech skill and provoke unwanted level-ups.
• 5 of 16: After you make at least 600 gold, finish the second main quest, then do the Companions faction's first quest so you can start buying Heavy Armor training from Farkas. In order to "save" money, pickpocket back what you pay him for training after every training session. The Pickpocket skill increases that you get will cause you to level up too fast, especially at first, but it'll eliminate the endless tedium of constantly trying to scrape up enough money to buy training.
• 6 of 16: Level up after buying five points of training, then repeat the train-and-pickpocket routine to get more training and another level-up. Keep that up until your Heavy Armor skill is 51, at which point the cost of training will nearly triple, and the gold you pay for it will be impossible to pickpocket back without spending some of your perk points on the Pickpocket skill. You probably won't want to do that, especially since it wouldn't work for very many more training sessions, anyway.
• 7 of 16: Once your Heavy Armor skill is 51, use the carriage service at the Whiterun Stables to travel to Winterhold, where you'll want to join the College of Winterhold faction and finish its first quest. (Note that if Faralda insists you use a spell that you don't have enough magicka to cast, even with your novice hood on, you'll have to go buy or make some potions that fortify your magicka.) The reason you're doing this now is so you can repeat the train-and-pickpocket routine with Tolfdir and your Alteration skill. You shouldn't run out of money before your skill reaches 51, but if you do, go chop some firewood and/or sell stuff if you can do so without getting a Speech skill increase.
• 8 of 16: After that's done, bring up the skills menu and take the Alteration skill's Novice Alteration, Apprentice Alteration, and Magic Resistance (two ranks) perks to raise your magic resistance to 45%. Follow Tolfdir all the way to Saarthal to get it discovered, then return to the College and find the Atronach Forge in the Midden area. (See the Midden Activities hints.) When fighting the ice wraith, hang back and let your companion and summoned familiar do all the combat for you. When you reach the forge, make yourself a staff that summons storm atronachs. If you have enough materials, make another one for your companion.
  • Where can I find the ingredients I need to make the staffs?
• 9 of 16: Next, you'll want to make the long and hazardous trek to the Lord Stone so you can get its blessing, which will increase your armor rating by 50 and your magic resistance by 25% (for a total of 70%). See the Morthal section of the World Map Exploration Guide for a way to get to the Lord Stone. After that, do the "The Book of Love" side quest for another 15% magic resistance (for a total of 85%). While doing those two things, remember to save often and watch out for random world encounters that may be impossibly hard due to the fact that you're fairly high-level but have low combat skills and cheap junk for equipment. Thankfully, such encounters are widely scattered and fairly easy to avoid once you know where they are.
• 10 of 16: Before you do anything else, buy a house in Whiterun so you'll have a place to store items long-term. That'll require you to do the third main quest, plus a lot more money-making. While doing that quest, be sure to take along a lot of useful potions (buy some if you have to) that restore health, make you invisible for sneaking past too-tough enemies, etc. If it's still too hard, do as much as you can, then put off the rest until you have some super-maxed-out equipment. In the meantime, store items in the containers in Dragonsreach's kitchen.
• 11 of 16: Your next major goal is to max out your crafting abilities. Start by doing the "train and pickpocket until skill level 51" routine with the expert trainers for Alchemy, Enchanting, and Smithing in any order. (See the Skill Trainers List.) At some point during that, you'll get to where buying five points of training and pickpocketing the gold back won't give you enough skill increases to earn a level-up. Whenever that happens, you'll need to do some skill practice.
• 12 of 16: One of your top practicing priorities is to get your Alteration skill to 70 so you can take the final rank of the Magic Resistance perk. See the Alteration Practice Tips, and don't forget to augment your practice with the Mage Stone's blessing and a bed-rest bonus. Also remember that Tolfdir is at Saarthal if you need to buy any Alteration spells from him. Another option is to practice easy-to-raise skills like Pickpocket and Illusion. Once you get one crafting skill up to 51, you can start practicing it to both increase it and get more level-up credit. See the Alchemy Practice Tips, the Enchanting Practice Tips, and the Smithing Practice Tips.
• 13 of 16: When practicing a crafting skill from 51 to 100, you'll need to travel around between all the cities (or use the Merchant Respawn Trick a lot), buying and stealing crafting supplies, and selling items that you craft, so you can keep practicing until all three skills are 100. Most of your money will come from selling potions you make, so be sure to make expensive multiple-effect ones as often as possible. In order to help boost your practice, as well as the value of your crafted items, take the perks that increase the magnitude of your crafted items as soon as you can. See the Item-Crafting Tips for details on which perks you'll eventually need to take in order to max out your crafting potential.
• 14 of 16: After your crafting skills are all maxed, make some mega-powerful potions and vastly-improved Daedric armor. As for what enchantments to put on your armor, you have lots of good choices. (If you have a follower that you're equipping, you can use pretty much the same enchantments, with maybe a couple of minor changes.)
  • What do you recommend for armor enchantments?
• 15 of 16: The main thing that's left to do is get your Heavy Armor skill up to 100 and take all of its perks. A good way to get it up to 90 is to do all of the Companions' quests to make Farkas a follower, then take back the gold you pay him for training while exchanging items with him. After that, practice it up to 95 by letting tough NPCs and creatures pound on you while you're wearing your full Daedric armor set, then go read the five Heavy Armor Skill Books to get it up to 100.
• 16 of 16: After that, see what other skills you want to practice and/or pickpocket-train. If you finished the Companions' quests to make Farkas a follower, take advantage of the fact that several other Companions are also both trainers and followers.
  • What other skill perks are particularly useful to get?

• Show another hint
• There are no more hints.

• Up One Level