I recently have been thinking about playing a character who wears light armor and wields a claymore. The thought behind this is to be more mobile and be able to move quick enough to use the reach of my sword as an advantage. I am still trying to decided on a race. The birth sign will be determined by what kind of skill setup I choose.

As far as race I am kind of leaning toward the dark elf as they make decent warriors, and are nimble.

As far as skills go I am using a leveling mod that makes my attributes level up as my relevant skills increase based on the amount of experience points earned, and not based simply on number of skill level-ups

So in short I do not need to worry about getting 5X multipliers or maxing endurance right away as endurance's effect on health is retroactive. So I am simply deciding on which skills I will use the most and want to level up fastest.

So far I know I will want these skills:
Armorer-(Slow to level)
Blade
Light Armor
Restoration

I need to pick 3 more skills. I am debating on whether to use marksman or destruction as my ranged offense. I am also thinking about taking acrobatics for the ability to jump around or over my opponents, and later be able to roll. I am debating on taking block as well, but I am not sure how useful it would be seeing as it takes a bit of time to go from blocking with a claymore to striking. I would take illusion, but the spells I would want most become useless once I reach a certain level as with armor I can't get full effectiveness, and also I don't really plan on using chameleon and invisibility with this character.

The main inspiration for this character is how much I like the amber armor from the shivering isles, and how much fun I recently had with a bound claymore in bleak-flats cave. Also it reminds me more of your typical sword fighting hero who uses a 2-handed sword, and relies more on mobility than a thick hide of steel, but still wears some lightweight protection.

I welcome any advice on what skills to pick or anything else.

Some observations from playing this very viable type of character in the past.

1. Learning to 'dance' in that sweet spot where you can hit your foe but they can't hit you can range from easy to hard depending on the enemy, but is a very fun thing!
2. I would avoid absorb life as an enchantment on your claymore. I found that because I was dancing in and out of 'touch' range that it would usually 'break lock' and disappoint me, even if its duration was only for a second or two.
3. If you 'equip' a shield with a two hander, you will get no armor or block from it of course; howerver, you will get the benefit of any enchantment on the shield. An oft overlooked enchantment slot for two handers if you feel you need one.

I would pick the race the way I always do: Based purely on the looks and image you want. :tongue:
The way I pick major skills is too eclectic to be of value to many players, so I'll pass on making recommendations there. :blush:

I found that the Claymore-specialized character is much like the archer in aiming to stay out of the enemy's range, and can therefore use the same lack of armor, even to the point of doing without any. Mages and archers using ranged offense need to be closed with quickly, so no armor helps there too, but increasing Light Armor skill will increase your Speed, so that's a plus. Blade skill increases more slowly with a slow weapon of course, so I've played with using a dagger against ranged opponents to balance that out, but I'm not yet convinced one way or the other. Making it a major gives you the head start, and it shouldn't race out of control.

The choice of the other majors could be based on having easy-to-increase/control ones so you can cash in the levels in other skills when you decide to do so, or just picking ones you won't use so you don't level up your enemies too quickly. You probably have a full set of majors-to-use already.

My no-armor claymore users had Armorer as a major for the higher starting level. If you only repair a weapon, it goes slower, and you need that perk of repairing an enchanted sword as soon as you can. Repairing Light Armor may mean you don't need to do that, especially if you repair your victims' armor before selling it.

Oh, and as far as a weapon, my claymore user preferred a permabound claymore, self-enchanted. Tons of damage, no weight. Woohoo!

I probably should mention that the leveling mod I mentioned also makes it so that all of your skills factor into when you level up. It is all based on total experience points gained from all skills combined and not on how many skills level up. So due to this I can't and won't be taking any useless majors to slow my leveling down.

For majors I am mainly deciding which skills will be most useful/need an increased experience gaining rate (Ex. Armorer)

The only benefit of making a skill a major with the leveling mod I use is that you start at a higher level in that skill, and it levels up faster.

Also I want to use armor. I already have an unarmored mystic archer that uses a mod that makes your acrobatics skill give you a certain level of shield enchantment based on your acrobatics skill.

I have found that there isn't a very large speed difference between light armor and no armor, and later it becomes weightless to wear. The only disadvantage is the 95% spell efficiency.

I think I will go with acrobatics and block, and now need to decide on whether to use destruction or marksman for ranged combat as there are times you can't reach someone to melee them. Marksman means the extra weight of another weapon and arrows, but I don't need to worry about magicka. Destruction is weightless, but I can only get a maximum 95% efficiency and I also need a decent amount of magicka

So here is how it is looking so far:

Dark Elf

Mage sign

Willpower & Intelligence (Needed boosting due to my leveling mod)

Combat specialty

Acrobatics
Armorer
Blade
Block
Light Armor
Restoration

Destruction or Marksman

Marksman vs Destruction to augment your claymore? Either will work well, so I would choose which you would enjoy more.

As far as comparing the pros and cons beyond what you have mentioned:

Marksman allows you to inflict poison from a distance.
Destruction allows you to not only fight from a distance, but to augment your claymore when your foe does get closer (weakness spells to enhance your claymore's enchantment).

If you have no interest in using destruction to augment your claymore up closer, then I would go bow.

I would pick the Breton race and the following majors:

Blade
Restoration
Marksman
Destruction
Light Armor
Block (if you intend to use shields)

One more to add depending on your play style.
Note that I highly recommend not picking armorer as a major because, imo, it is slow to level.

One of the strongest NPCs in the game is Azani Darkheart, a Redguard Nightblade who wears light armor and wields a wicked claymore.

And is a good way to get Elven Armor early in the game, as he always wears a set. That is assuming you would want to wear it (not everyone likes how it looks).

I have decided on:

Dark elf

Mage

Willpower & intelligence

Combat

Acrobatics
Armorer
Blade
Block
Destruction
Light armor
Restoration

I looked into bretons but they had too little inital speed, agility, and endurance.

I will have to wait until tomorrow night to test him out though as I am tired and work tomorrow.

I will give an update later.

The Acrobatic Skill Perk at level 50, is wondrous when using a claymore. Just use it to break contact if you have more than two melee attackers.

What? Not everyone likes that?

Now Lothran got sad :sadvaultboy:

I know hard to believe, but true. It is my favorite armor in the vanilla game. Although I will admit that the boots do not do anything for me.

I almost forgot to give on update on how this character is going. He is level 4 now and has a silver claymore and a mix of leather and chainmail armor. He beat the gatekeeper in melee combat using his claymore (And the "tears" and a helper with bone arrows). He is going to go on a crazy "trip" in a tunnel full of bugs now to find some amber to get his amber armor suit made.

Thanks for the update. Leather + chain mix looks kewl. When he gets the amber, he'll look like one of those bugs. Lol. :foodndrink: