For those interested, Olivia is still around. She's light armor, heavy shield, blade, and conjuration. A little bit of bow too.

She's not quite a peasant, but she does mining and chopping. She's been smithing things and selling them. Does the occasional bounty and random Companions quest. Her morals are a little looser, so it wouldn't surprise me if she joined the Thieves guild. I don't see her being an assassin or a vampire yet, but perhaps I'll be surprised.

That is cool, Coin. I am glad Olivia is not a dud.

Mycharonna the Ice Witch was tempted to start the very beginning of Thieves guild (stealing that ring from the lizardman) after listening to a very persuasive pitch from Brynolff about how "she's never earned an honest Septiim in her life". ....but she botched the job, and wound up a hunted woman for many hours. She eventually landed in jail!

No more TG for Mycharonna, I don't think.




This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Feb 10 2013, 02:33 PM

KC, I’m glad Olivia is still with you. It sounds like she might get into some things that Aravi wouldn’t touch, which could be fun.

Here’s another idea that I’ve tried. As soon as I saw that you could give your character two blind eyes I knew I would eventually make a zombie character. Backstory inspired by Olen’s short story found here (the character would be the wife in Olen’s story), and “build” inspired by Mason’s Revenant found here.

A note because this thread is in the non-spoiler section: There are mentions of specific items and places here. If you don’t want to know for example that undead wearing a certain armor type can be found at X location or that a shield named Y exists, you should skip this. There are no quest spoilers.


Njal the Unliving

The idea: Njal the warrior is cut down on the field of battle. Sovengarde calls him home. But no! He awakens in his own tomb when draugr attack during his resurrection. Shock energy makes the necromancer’s spell go awry (Ooh, like Frankenstein). He sates his undying hunger on his dear wife’s soft flesh. She sold his armor and weapons to pay the necromancer, so he finds some gear in the tomb and shuffles out into daylight. His undeath begins.

The skills: Heavy Armor, One-handed, Block, Enchanting, Conjuration for raising dead only, some perks in Speech. A note about Speech: this one might seem odd, but it’s the opposite of the game’s description of the skill. Merchants will trade any goods with Njal just to get his terrifying corpse-breath out of their faces.

The gear: Here's a picture. Ancient Nord armor (self-enchanted with regenerate health and stamina if you like), Targe of the Blooded, Helm of Yngol, Ring of Namira. He wields the war axe Blood Feeder, self-enchanted with Absorb Health (and Absorb Stamina when his enchanting hits the top). This is important because of the following…

The challenge (or why this is not just another fighter): Njal is undead, and so potions do not work for him. Neither do Restoration spells. Njal heals in battle only by absorbing health and stamina through his weapons and by feeding on fresh corpses (Ring of Namira). I used the Lord Stone to boost his AR and magic resistance, but the Lady Stone for regeneration would also be a good fit. Also Njal has no ranged attack. Remember his cloudy, dead eyes? He can’t see well enough to shoot. I put dragons in my zombie’s game, so he has to run when he encounters one.

Imaginary mods: Of course PC users can give their zombies a good start from the first minute, but I had to do some in-game work before I dropped Njal in his tomb and “started” his RP. Getting the Ring of Namira is quick and easy. Ancient Nord armor can be looted from the first dragon cultist you kill in Forelhost. Get the quest, kill one guy for his armor, then get the heck out! Pick up some extra draugr axes while you’re there. Keep making stronger versions of Blood Feeder to keep up with the world as Njal’s Enchanting improves. Targe of the Blooded is tricky to get at low levels, but possible. (Njal is played Dead-is-Dead, so I sweated that part quite a bit.) It looks awesome with the ancient Nord armor. Plus the extra bleeding damage is what this guy is all about. He is a blood-soaked savage. The Helm of Yngol provides a tomb-robber look as well as the frost resistance that a zombie should have. On a PC I would give my zombie weakness to fire and shock (because of the shock spell that helped to animate him in the first place) along with resistance to frost, poison, and disease. On consoles we can use enchantments.

The story: Of course every zombie’s will be different, but here is the abridged version of Njal’s. He remembered the events of his life, but not the feelings. He was drawn to people but he didn’t know why, and of course they were repelled by him. He took up residence in the abandoned house in Markarth. Eola followed him for some time. She liked the way he ate people. Eventually Njal realized that he didn’t have a soul. He went to the daedric princes hoping that one would have an extra for him. No joy. But he did collect some excellent junk, some of which he gave to Eola. It’s a shame he didn’t notice how hot she looked in the Savior’s Hide. Oh well. Njal’s greatest delight was raiding bandit enclaves. He would skulk about watching how they lived together until that nameless yearning got to be too much. Then he would slaughter and eat them. Njal now has all of the daedric artifacts but still no soul. He is semi-retired hoping that a future DLC will bring hope to his dead, dried-up heart.

That's a really cool idea Grits!

Brilliant idea! He certainly looks the part too! But playing Dead is Dead with an undead character? He's dead to begin with!

I suggest playing him in Dawnguard. One of the locations you go to in the main quest is the Soul Cairn. It is where all souls that have soul trapped go to. He could find his laying around there somewhere.

I love this idea! Mason's builds on the Skyrim Blog are usually spot on. I recently tried his Alik'r build and I'm having a great time with it.

I love that picture at the top of that Alik'r page! But a Redguard using magic! I guess I am an old fuddy duddy, because I remember Redgaurds as people who don't like magic and distrust anyone who uses it as being both sinister and weaklings.

Yeah, when did that change?

Redguards have an innate distrust of Eastern magic, what they term nudri-hi. This is magic that tampers with souls (Conjuration) or tampers with the mind (Illusion). They revere what they call yoku-hi, which is Yokudan magic that closely resembles Restoration and Alteration. Why Bethesda didn’t choose to give Redguards a bonus in these two schools of magic as opposed to Alteration and Destruction escapes me.

Sorry Njal, she’s right! Game over buddy!!


Now that is genius. I have not gotten past the first assignment on the vampire side, and anyway I was not thrilled about the character who was doing it. Typical Dunmer for fire resistance with skills that would be augmented by the vampire goodies. *yawn* Njal has an actual reason to go down that path. I’ll have to do the whole going to Fort Dawnguard part out of character and just have him show up at the crypt. He wouldn’t try to kill Serana. He doesn’t eat vampires.


I agree, I always get some idea from his builds even if I don't replicate the whole thing. For example my archer/illusionist (Denelle) took some Destruction training and added cloaks and runes to her bag of tricks, plus the augmented element perks boost her enchanted bows. Idea from his Arcane Archer. I never would have thought of that myself since she doesn't cast any of the other Destruction spells.

I've also tried an unarmored Redguard swordsman inspired by the Alik’r and the old Kung Fu TV show. He used a bound sword as a stand-in for a spirit sword plus Restoration for healing. He carried no armor or weapons. Wandered the world looking for good deeds like convincing a farmer to help a jester fix his wagon wheel (lol). Combat was so incredibly fun (until he was killed by unseen sabre cat #2). Lots of sprinting and power attacks. I forgot the guy’s name, though. I was pretty sick that week. I remember it was right after Asrael (Redguard Spellsword) died.

Njall likes his meat fresh?

It sounds like Njall would be perfect doing the quest from the vamp side. Except of course you have to become a vampire to do it. But you could just pretend he was not a vamp, and never use the vampire lord form (I never found it to be much use. Helregin was far more powerful without it - she was doing over 100 damage with one hit of her hammer). The vamp powers you get might even help with your undead roleplay. OTOH, it would change his appearance, with the glowing orange eyes and sunken cheeks. But that might work for you too.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Feb 11 2013, 01:45 AM

Something For You Role Player’s
Last night I took my female Redguard warrior on "A Daedra's Best Friend Quest" with that annoying dog Barbas nipping at my heels. After slaying the vampires at Haemar's Shame and speaking to Clavicus Vile, I proceeded to head toward the next objective. Freezing from the cold snow and weary from my battle with vampires, I decided to rest at Falkreath Stormcloak camp east of Helgen. (Having already decided to join the stormcloaks but haven’t yet started the rebellion quest line) I was greeted warmly and decided to rest for the night, sleeping in a tent on a pile of hay with that mangy hound Barbas as my pillow.

The following morning I awoke to depressed and despondent Stormcloak men and woman huddled around the camp fire. I walked through the still falling snow to the tent of Thorygg Sun-Killer who told me (roleplaying) that the imperials had cut off their supply wagons and they have had little to no food or weapon supply’s reach this camp in weeks. I was my duty to feed and re-supply these miserable stormcloaks.

I proceeded toward Orphan Rock my goal in mind was to slaughter the Necromages and pilfer their resources. Mind you I only left Orphan Rock with 4 tomatoes, a handful of gold, a few lock picks and a strength potion from the Hagraven’s chest, I decided to head toward Helgen for better luck. I arrived at Helgen and was greeted by three rampaging bandits who I shield bashed in the face and cut off one of their heads than ran around the ruined shell of Helgen collecting ale, wine, pots and pans and a few wooden bowls. I headed into the castle to kill more bandits and loot their weapons and armor. I left Helgen with lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, rabbit legs, tankards, ale, wine, cheese, an arsenal of steel weaponry, three buckets (for the stormcloaks to s#^# in.) Feeling satisfied I headed back to the camp and proceeded to lay out their s#^# buckets, stuffed their barrel with food, tankards and dishes, laid out the pot and pans around the campfire stuffed with rabbit legs (one of the stormcloaks yelled at me saying “What Are ye doin”), stocked Thoygg’s chest with weaponry for the soldiers, and left 2,000 gold in the end table inside the map tent to aid their cause. Feeling satisfied I left with that filthy dog nipping at my heels.

That's a neat idea, Elderscrolls20. It would allow non-warrior types to contribute to the war effort, whichever side they chose. Also, welcome!

Thanks for the welcome.

Instead of destroying your well thought out characters through DEAD is DEAD try doing what I do.

If you die you lose 35% of your total gold. Say you have 15,000 gold one death means you lose 5,250 gold. Now you have 9,750 total gold. Die again you lose 35% of 9,750 which is 3,412 leaving you with 6,338 gold. You will value your life a lot more if your losing massive amounts of gold per death but it will also allow you to learn from your mistakes (as we do in life) and value your gaming life that much more.

If you’re an Argonian then leave your gold in a body of water. If you’re a religious Nord leave the gold at the Temple of Talos for a chance at redemption. No matter your background, char, history, race, ideals you can always find somewhere to leave your gold. Use your imagination you’ll be surprised what you can come up with on getting a second chance to learn from your mistakes and keep your character!

Also this playstyle keeps making money interesting. If you play on expert or master level like most of us do and not using potions and gimping out your characters every death will mean something and you’ll feel better about moving on than saying reload save and try again. You can even go as far to throw away your weapons armor and jewels along with the 35% of your gold if you wanna go at it a little more hardcore but without feeling bad about having to reload a save with no consequences to your death. I don’t know just my thoughts on not losing characters and losing the chance to see them grow and to have more experience with the characters you love.

I'm sure the Nords would have been happy if you had just come back with ale. LOTS of it.

This post has been edited by King Coin: Feb 14 2013, 03:42 PM

That’s an interesting idea. In Oblivion I used to play that a death meant the character was left for dead, which I did by disposing of their inventory (except for gold and quest items, sigh. Oh, and not keys) in a respawning container. It would be even better since in Skyrim the gold can be removed from inventory. That would make me more comfortable trying Expert or even Master with a beloved character. The high level ones really need to be bumped up to keep fights fun, but I’m still scarred over losing Zuuri to a scavenger so soon after I increased her difficulty. Hmm…

Also being left for dead can have a major impact on a character’s path while death just ends it. That’s how one Oblivion character started down the road that took her to the Dark Brotherhood. Your method keeps the danger and consequences but allows for greater risk and growth, which to me are the best parts. You’ve given me something to think about, thank you!!

I haven't been able to do a DiD character. Even Olivia was killed once. She was supposed to be with Farkas and she got surrounded by draugr and I haven't a clue where Farkas was. Pissed me off, and I didn't want to create a new character.

This post has been edited by King Coin: Feb 14 2013, 03:44 PM

Brilliant idea! I hope you come back with some potions of true shot to go along with those buckets!

Heh, this is interesting. As is the way you approached helping the Stormcloaks in general. You've got a lot of imagination.




The money thing is cool, thanks for sharing! ... I don't play on Expert or Master though, that just seems like asking for pwnage! In the past few months I've dumbed down my action from default to Apprentice, actually!