Orc, Heavy Armor, One-handed, Block, Conjuration. You could swap out orc for altmer for better magic potential, or breton for some good magic defense. Dunmer is really sort of weak, the racial would be ok if you don't go down destruction at all, but really you'll get way more out of those other 3 races. I'd go orc. After you get a strong base in your 4 main abilities I'd consider going smithing and enchanting as well. Weapon choice you can either not specialize in one or pick one. I prefer not specializing so I can just use the best one available, plus I can't really decide which is best. I sort of lean towards maces tho for the extra stagger.

You know, a Breton would be a much better choice. Dunmer (Dark Elves if you did not know) hate necromancy, and Orcs generally dislike any magic. In my opinion, the Breton would be the perfect "Death Knight" in that sense.

Also, anyone that recommends a race based off skill bonuses, basically ignore them. They don't mean anything past the first few levels really. Pick either based on racials or just plain what race you like the look of best.

I would say make an Orc, and use Bound Battleaxe as your weapon with lots of Raise Zombie, Heavy Armor, and get all the Bound Weapon conjuration perks that let your axe steal souls and what not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrGS-dDO7e4

I'm actually playing this now -- an Orc "death knight" with one-handed (dual wielding) heavy armour, conjuration, enchanting, smithing, and alchemy perks.

However, I vastly prefer summoning the Dremora Lords -- not only do they pack a punch, but with Twin Souls and my own Daedric equipment, we make for quite a roving squadron of scary grimdark knights.

Dual wielding might be against the typical death knight trope, but it makes summoning in combat a cinch.

While Berserking was extremely useful early in the character's career, at level 47 I find myself wishing just a bit I'd gone Breton, if only for the magic resistance.

Thanks for all the insights guys. I was hoping that this thread would make it easier to decide, however I now realize that there are many nuances even inside this type of build. I suppose I have no choice but to pick a few and see which I like the style of more.

No one really mentioned how they would distribute between hit points, stamina and magicka. Based on a lot of the comments I would guess that most people went for enough magicka to cast the summons? Also, couldn't you enchant your armor with resistences and make Mage's a lot more manageable?

I think you should go with two-handed weapons, as this will allow you to use the Ebony Blade. If you're going to be a Death Knight, you should have an evil sword that forces you to murder your friends. You might be better off as a Breton than an Orc though, the Breton's racial abilities will ruin an enemy caster's day.

Breton does seem to make up for not having a shield, but is it not possible to put enchantments on armor that would provide magical resistance or absorption?

It's viable as dark elf if u use the following:

One handed
Conjuration
Possibly shielding
Illusion until silent casting

If you really stay to the DEATH Knight-Stuff (e.g. only summoning undead, no Atronachs, no Dremora) you will have a fairly balanced, challenging character, becoming powerfull but not easygoing-invincible (at least, as long as you don′t make the alchemy-enchantment-smithing-exploiting-stuff). Its balanced because you need to actually KILL someone by yourself before you can make use of your conjuration skill instead of just summoning two Dremora Lords and enjoy the show without any actuall handywork.
However ,you should think twice before taking the perma-undead-revival-spell into your spellarchive, it could again making everything TOO cheesy.

You should really get your facts right. Dunmer don't hate necromancy, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Ancestors_and_the_Dunmer, before the Empire forbid it...

@ PalapaDalapa - I would assume you are implying that if I were to use the thrall spells this build would pose few challenges?

Regardind the perma-revival-undead-stuff: If you try to avoid pathfinding-problems, they are in fact ruining all challenges of fights, just like one (or beware, two) Dremora Lords can.

I managed to resurrect a powerfull enemy right off the start in many dungeons and make him follow me till the end. Since their was always someone beside me when I started a battle, it quickly became the typical conjuration-cheesy-tactic of steamrolling your way through the dungeons. However, the perma-undead-revival-stuff is sill not as cheesy as summoning two atronachs or two dremora lords again and again right into the enemy′s face.

I am doing a deathknight build with 2H sword Heavy Armor Conjuration and Destruction. He is now level 28 i absolutely love this guy. He is beast however destruction is pretty useless in my opinion. it's too much of a hassle than to just use 2h weapon. i originally got it to have a ranged ability for dragons and bad guys on cliffs etc. The Cloaks could make it more useful but im not sure since i just picked one up.

Awesome! Sounds like this is going to be a fun build and I will just need to save a lot and try different combinations until I find something I really love! You guys have been awesome, thank you so much for the feedback. I'll be sure to report back with my experiences after I've spent some time messing around. Thanks again!

I threw this together for anyone thinking of doing this build. I find that Is actually VERY possible, and would in fact be quite strong indeed.

http://www.ign.com/builds/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim/create?d=000000000000000000000000000000012111111000111112121211111111000000000000000000000041111110010001111115111111150000111150111113