Trying to have a build where I don't branch off into unrelated skills is hard for me. I always want to do everything.

I never get to invest into the speech tree because I don't have the perks to spare (if I did I would be under-leveled and gimped most likely)

Lets say I want to do Illusion.

"oh but I should compliment it by using conjuration, never mind destruction which is pretty useless at certain levels"

"Oh and I guess I should take up alchemy because at some point everything becomes too high of a level for my spells to affect them"

"this is really starting to hurt, maybe I should take up alteration"

"maybe I need to do enchanting because all these schools of magic are costing me too much"

Or the fact that when Im a warrior I can never stick to 1h, 2h or archery for long. Its hard to stick to heavy or light armor since there are some that look so amazing.

Stuff like that. I have problems.

I think what helps me is creating characters who have definite preferences of their own. I find that when I create characters who have clear and vivid personalities it "stabilizes" me, keeps me from following my own little whims and getting side-tracked. Instead of thinking "this is cool" and "that is cool" I find I spend more time thinking, "What is appropriate for this character?"

Would anyone have any ideas to help make an almost pure restoration mage? I want to praise the sun but this limits me to killing only undead, which makes sense, but what do I do about everything else in skyrim/solestheim that wants to kill me? (holy run-on-sentence batman)

I might dabble in enchanting or alchemy for once. Alchemy would be great for fortifying my restoration spells to make them more powerful.

Honestly, I don't think you have to be so strict about your build. If you have fun trying one thing and then trying something different, that's great! Maybe this style makes it tough to beat every possible opponent, but you can find the ones that don't one-shot your PC and concentrate on them. I know I always start in the south and don't tackle baddies in the north for many, many levels. So I'd suggest that you do what you enjoy and find the right level of opponent. Pretty simple!

A pure restoration build would have to be a, in my opinion, an undead specialist. You could focus on clearing crypts and tombs and the like but not tangle with bandits. Maybe you have a follower who handles bandits etc. while your PC hangs back and heals. Doesn't sound too bad. You could gradually mature the build into a vampire hunter and do the Dawnguard storyline.

Thanks for all those tips. Ill think more about it.

Also I just remembered that technically you can get a Restoration spell called poison rune. A bit odd. Too bad there isn't a missile type poison attack, but then again this all seems out of place for restoration. Feels like I would be doing the opposite of healing.

I know what you mean about the poison rune. I had a sneaky illusionist who had to invest in restoration for that rune spell. It made sense for the build because illusion isn't so great against one opponent, or the last opponent standing, but it was tough investing in the restoration tree.

All my builds practice restoration magic to heal so they do advance the skill, but actually putting in the perk points is a different story. In the end, I really liked how it fit with the build so I recommend that you give it a try.

If you wanted go do a restoration build and fight undead Dawnbreaker might fit the character. It would add 1 handed as a skill though.

I created a pure restoration mage recently. Well, he's almost a pure restoration mage. He specialises in killing undead, but he also has illusion to fall back on when he's out in the wild, in order to calm enemies. He's an old guy and carries a stave of some sort to go with the priestly vibe. I thought about using Dawnbreaker and one-handed, but I felt it didn't really befit a guy wearing monk robes.

However, I ruined him a bit by zero-ing restoration cost, which I've realised takes the fun out of the game, but I went legendary in enchanting so I can't really fix him now unless I get enchanting back up again.

Anyway, here he is at lvl36:

M: H: S

352: 260: 167

His main skills are restoration (79 - sun spells, turn undead and healing), alteration (85 - for protection and paralysing if necessary), Illusion (58 - for calming enemies), speech (63 - this is an RP aspect - to me a priest would be very charismatic and so it makes sense to have a high speech level with perks). And I enchanted a lot of gear before going legendary obviously. I was using alchemy to make fortify restoration potions, to make sun spells more damaging - until I realised that they also make my enchantments way stronger when I use them so I stopped doing.

He was doing Dawnguard (killing undead - although how I was going to manage the falmer I don't know), College of Winterhold (rooting out evil), and clearing out the drag from every crypt he can find. It's a fun build, but I would suggest increasing your magicka + magicka regen over zero-ing the cost of restoration. There's no challenge now that I've done that.

great tips, thanks!

One of the most fun (also most OP) builds I've played is a Mage/Thief hybrid focussed on crippling the enemy and staying out of harm, with the following skills:

- Illusion

- Conjuration

- Alchemy

- Sneak

- One Handed

- Archery

- Light Armor

Crafting:

- Enchanting

- Smithing

This build requires a bit of planning for each encounter, which makes it fun to play to me. It is excellent at controlling enemies and wreaking havoc through illusion, it gives you firepower through conjuration and archery and decent survivability with enchanted and upgraded light armor. When you want someone dead quickly and silently, a poisoned dagger or arrow from sneak works like a charm.

The magic skills really enchance the thief/assassin build and makes you less vulnerable in full on combat. Your summoned minions will keep some mobs busy while you shoot at them from afar. Feeling a little bit too zerged? Just throw around a calm spell or use fury to make everyone go berserk! It's awsome fun

I had fun with a two handed barbarian (More so without Smithing or using ACE Smithing mod). The risk/Reward system with it is oh so awesome.

My druid and my vampiric anti-cleric necromancer are my two favorite builds.
But their RP does indeed help with the "fun-factor"... Especially for the vampiric anti-cleric necromancer.

Go on.

I love specialised characters, to me a character loses their identity if they're spread out too thin. My current character only uses 2 handed weapons, no archery, no one hand, not even daggers, and certainly no magic. Its nice to just sell off every potion or enchanted bit of gear that doesn't boost 2 hand. Its nice to not have to think about what to do when I enter a cave or dungeon, I know I'll be caving in skulls pure and simple, and its also nice to be super advanced in 2 hand, because I haven't been levelling other skills (besides a bit of smithing and speech), my 2 hand is on point and if I hit something it stays hit.

If I played a mage I guess I might diversify in schools of magic but I'd still specialise on either fire, frost or shock or I wouldn't feel like a defined character.

My builds thus far:

* A Dunmer battlemage, focusing on fire-related Destruction spells. Once she leveled up, she had to focus more on fighting, since Destruction is pretty dismal at high levels.

* An Imperial two-hander, who used Destruction for ranged combat. The latter was not fun, most of his distance battles were grindfests because Destruction is so weak, but Archery is a skill it took me a long time to master.

* A Khajiit illusionist/thief. Probably my most fun build. He was weak in distance combat as well, but with his stealth, he could avoid it in most instances.

* A Nord alchemist. Solidified my belief that alchemy, done right, is the best moneymaking activity in Skyrim. Later diversified into combat because I didn't know what the hell else to do with her.

* A Redguard warrior. Used sword and board tactics instead of sword/spell like most of my previous characters did. Lots of fun.

* An Altmer mage. Tried to develop Destruction into a viable fighting style. It did not go well. Deleted him in frustration.

* A Breton conjurer/archer. It was interesting to focus on skills I had long neglected.

* A Redguard dual-wielder who used archery for range-fighting. Easily my deadliest character, she chopped up the Ebony Warrior like he was a pork roast.

About the build or the RP?