I got a little frustrated with my previous characters; not really playing them anymore. My Breton conjuror actually got deleted a while back, and so did my "shadowknight".
The problem I've run into with both Oblivion and Skyrim (and actually Morrowind, in a slightly different way) is that my characters tend to end up in one of two general molds - Either a "ranger", using light armor and archery and some variety or other of melee weapons, or a shadowknight/death knight variation of some sort. My mage characters never make it very far, except for the fairly generic mage I played in Oblivion and that was only because I was deployed and had limited other games available to switch to. I've found magic to be a bit of a pain in the *** in the previous games, so it was always just a supplementary thing.
In either case, I always end up using basically a stealth build that ends up either getting in close and then fighting heavy-armor style in melee, or doing the stealth archery thing and mopping up in melee.
The other thing is that my characters always end up law-abiding even when they're not supposed to be - crime just becomes something that gets guards on your ***, and so I end up avoiding it except to do the questlines where it's the point.
So, I decided to come up with something that would cater to my playstyles enough that I wouldn't get frustrated making myself play in a way that feels unnatural, but would be different enough that I'd feel like I was doing things differently.
This is what I came up with: Katherina
Race: Breton
Class: Fugitive Mage
Backstory: Katherina is an estranged younger daughter of a major noble family in Daggerfall. She exhibited the usual Breton talent for magic, especially Conjuration, but being the 6th child she was an afterthought in the family's political games and was forever shuffled off upon tutors and academies. Her family expected her to become a court wizard for her Duke father and her older sister, his heir. After a major argument, she packed her things and headed off to Skyrim, with a large pile of cash liberated from a family safe. She'd heard of a mage college there, and planned to enroll in her own right, not as a ward in a boarding school. Right after arriving and an initial outing with an instructor (Saarthal, mage's guild questline) she heard a rumor of dragons, down near Helgen! Curiosity, and the freedom of being an adult student got the better of her, and she took off to see what this was all about.
Concept: Katherina is a mage and a sneak thief, but she differs from the more traditional "Nightblade" of TESO in that she's a mage that sneaks around and steals, rather than being a thief or assassin that uses magic. She definitely isn't an assassin, nor is she much of a melee fighter. She mainly is interested in magic for it's own sake, and wealth for her own comfort and enjoyment. Her abilities and gear are intended to augment her magical powers, keep enemies at range, and keeping her from getting caught stealing.
Attributes: 4:1:0 magic/health/Stamina to 10, then 1:1:0 afterwards. Stamina is really used only for sprinting occasionally, and zoom-in with the bow. At high levels, I might throw a few points in there. She doesn't wear armor which saves a lot of weight.
Skill lines, planned to 81 (despite the freedom from this limit offered by Dragonborn DLC)
Conjuration - the leftmost line for atronachs and the rightmost. Katherina is not a necromancer; nor big on using melee weapons, thus avoiding the other 2. Dual casting as well to make the summons last longer. (11 total)
Alteration - Completely maxxed out; this is where most of her defenses come from. (14 total)
Enchanting - The middle line only, to the top, and all 5 in the bottom node. (8 total)
Destruction - Novice, Apprentice, and Rune Master. She does not use much destruction magic. (3 total)
Restoration - Apprentice, and both Recovery perks, for the magic regen. (3 total)
Illusion - Novice through Expert, and the right skill line to Quiet Casting (7 total)
Pickpocket - 4 perks in base, Night Thief, Cutpurse, Keymaster, Extra Pockets. She isn't an assassin so the poisoning one was avoided, and I find the last 2 cheesy.
Lockpicking - Everything except unbreakable, locksmith, and wax key. (9 total)
Sneak - 3 of 5 base perks, backstab, deadly aim. Katherina's direct damage comes mainly from archery, and she is a sneak even if she's not an assassin.(6 total)
Archery- Everything except Steady Hand, 4 of 5 base perks. (13 total)
Shouts - Unrelenting Force and Ice Form to prevent enemies from closing with her.
Vampirism/Lycanthropy - No.
Mundus Stone - Lord Stone, for the armor. Possibly Atronach later on, if other armor can be raised high enough (see below under mods). Mage stone early on, until the first level of the Mage Armor perk is attained.
Quests - Main, Dawnguard, and Dragonborn questlines, at a leisurely pace
Mage's College
Thieve's Guild
Bard's College
Daedric quests for Azura, Sanguine, Hermaeus Mora, and Sheogorath, others eventually.
Lost to the Ages - Aetherial crown, holy ****! Atronach and Lord stone at the same time, yes please!
Questlines for items that have armor ratings, but aren't actually considered armor for purposes of the
Mage Armorperk. The Diadem of the Savant, in particular.
Agent of Mara (for the magic resist bonus)
Blood on the Ice
Forbidden Legend
Civil War - will probably not be done. Katherina is not really interested in the issues of the civil war. If she HAD to pick, she might pick the Stormcloaks only because Winterhold and Riften are already siding with Ulfric.
Gear - Misfit Mage outfit (See below), dagger, bow. May be augmented with 1H sword if a high quality one comes up, like Chillrend. Amulet and Ring oriented on boosting Health, Magic, or Resists.
Enchants - Boosts to Sneak, Magic, and Health followed by casting cost reductions and magic regeneration, then magic resists. Archery boosts, carry weight, and water breathing are secondary; probably will be added once I have the dual enchantment perk. For weapons, paralysis is most desirable, followed by health, magic, or stamina drain effects or direct damages to these. Soul trap would also be useful.
Mods - Not at all an exhaustive list of all the mods I'm using. These are the mods most important to Katherina, particularly
Misfit Mage outfit Originally I was going to use the
Rogue Sorceress or
Field Mage but I ran across this one and liked it. It includes a rather silly "underwear and stockings" alternative to the baggy pants, but I like the pants better. It also doesn't include footwear, so I went with the footwraps shown in the picture, although the college boots from Winterhold or something like that would have worked too. I don't know why, but I just like the look of the footwraps in the picture; it seemed like it fit her casual attitude.
Another mod makes these craftable, because the nimrod that wrote this mod gave you 5 copies of each piece in a knapsack and a crate out in the wilds, but no way to make new ones... so you have to lug a hundred pounds of clothes back home, but can't make replacements for them. *facepalm*.
Destruction Rebalanced. She doesn't use a lot of destruction magic, but this helps some.
Better Bows. These bows are, frankly, a tad overpowered, but they're fun mainly because you have to put some effort into getting all the parts, especially for the better ones. Plus, they look cool.
Bandanas of Skyrim. These are a nice compliment to the footwraps, and an alternative to the jewelry circlets. This guy also does one called Facemasks of Skyrim if you want a cloth bandana-like mask for your character.
Cloaks of Skyrim and
Winter is Coming Cloaks. Add a lot of cloaks. Yes, the name of the latter is shamelessly stolen from GoT.
Wet and Cold. In addition to the various cool graphical effects it adds, this mod adds backpacks, which look really cool in addition to boosting carry weight. Katherina seems a lot more like a roaming mage and thief with a big backpack to hold her stuff and her loot. I also HIGHLY recommend Run for your Lives and When Vampires Attack by the same author, which cause noncombatant NPCs to flee indoors from dragon or vampire attacks. Combatant NPCs will still stand and fight. This helps avoid a lot of minor quest-givers getting slaughtered in these random events.
I've also got a stealth mod installed that makes the AI react in a more comprehensive way to stealth attacks and crime, but I can't find the page for it. It might have been replaced by a more updated version. I also have a few that add additional spells of various types, plus dozens of other follower, weapon, armor, and decorative mods that don't pertain to Katherina specifically.
One other mod I can't find a page for right now is an armor value adjuster. The cap in vanilla Skyrim is really low, and ridiculously easy to reach, presumably to make mage armor, light armor, and heavy armor all viable choices, but it really kind of makes heavy armor pointless aside from offering more protection early on, before you can smith up. The mod I have boosts the cap to around 1300 and completely adjusts the curve; at the maximum you get something like 95% protection instead of the 80% or so that vanilla maxes at. The upshot of this, though, is that you're stuck at a much lower level of protection if you use mage armor; even with the expert-level spell dual cast, and 3x mage armor perks you're not looking at more than about 360 armor which would be respectable in vanilla, but is barely mediocre with this adjustment. That's what makes the Lord stone pretty much mandatory, and drives the need for other items that add AV without penalizing mage armor. Still, this makes for good challenge, and it means you don't have to sink a bunch of perks into an armor tree.
So, that's it. I've only just finished the introductory parts of the main quest and the first trip into Saarthal, and I'm debating where to go next. Still, so far I like her and I feel like I'm roleplaying her as opposed to just repeating the same formula over and over.
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