Mage Killer

Nord - Werewolf - Mace - Heavy - Spellsword

Background

Mage Killers are essentially bounty hunters specialising in a particular sort of prey. They learn not only combat skills, such as might be taught to a warrior, but also magic designed to combat spellcasters.

I based the background on the Prestige class of the same name from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5E.

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Weapons

Any one handed weapon as soon as you can. Once you join the Companions you can get a Steel Mace for free from the weapon rack at the top of the stairs when leaving the living quarters in Jorrvaskr. I upgraded my Steel Mace to a Nordic Mace and crafted it at the same time as the Nordic Carved items.

The final weapon is a Nord Hero Mace, which can be made at the Skyforge from an Ancient Nord Mace,2 steel ingots and 2 leather strips, once you have completed all the main quests with the Companions. It has the same base damage as a Nordic Mace buy weighs as light as an Iron Mace. That means it does the same damage but uses less stamina for power attacks.

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Armor

Side with Ralof and get a set of Heavy Armor in the first encounter. Steel Solider Armor which you can craft once you have the Steel Smithing Perk.

The Final Gear is Ancient Nord Helmet, Nordic Carved Armor, Iron Spell Knight Boots and Gauntlets.

An Ancient Nord Helmet is found just inside Valthume. You don’t need to complete the dungeon to get it so you can go there as early as you like and return to complete it later when your character is stronger. You can get there easily by heading South East from Markarth and when you get to the Bridge with a Shrine of Dibella keep going straight on along the banks of the river towards Gloomreach. From their head South West and you will reach Valthume. I went there from Markarth before continuing my journey to Goldenhils Plantation.

It’s probably easy enough to craft some Nordic Carved Armor, Boost and Gauntlets before doing the quest to get the Iron Boots and Gauntlets. They benefit from a smithing Perk so will increase your armor rating significantly. You’ll need to have 3 Ebony Ingot, a few Quicksilver Ingots, Steel Ingots and some Leather Strips to make the boots gauntlets and armour. There’s some Quicksilver ore to the east of Whiterun and a mine full of it in Dawnstar and you can buy Ebony Ingots from vendors.

The quest to get the Iron Spell Knight gear can be started by reading the journal inside the first room on the right in the Silver-Blood Inn in Markarth.

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Spells

Restoration for heals and spell wards.

This is specifically a single school of magic build where Restoration is deemed an acceptable school of magic. Receiving training in this from Collete at the College of Winterhold and doing the First Lesson quest to learn spell wards from Tolfdir is therefore fitting with the background. Danica at the Temple of Kynareth in Whiterun as a master level Restoration trainer that is also fitting with the background as she sends you to claim Nettlebane from a filthy Hagraven.

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Standing Stones.

Use the Atronach Stone for 50% spell absorption, 50 Magicka but -50% Magicka regeneration.

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Shrines

Use a shrine of Talos for the 20% shout cooldown reduction.

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Shouts

Drain Vitality (Stamina - Magicka - Heath)

Location: Arcwind Point, Dimhollow Crypt (Dawnguard), Forgotten Vale (Dawnguard)

You only need this up to Rank 2 to drain magicka. It’s useful to drain dragons of magicka as that means no breath attacks. It also does a short stagger which is enough to 2 hit kill frost trolls with the mace while not taking any damage.

Whirlwind Sprint (Whirlwind - Fury - Tempest)

Location: Dead Men’s Respite, Volskygge, High Hrothgar (The Way of the Voice)

Use to reach otherwise inaccessible places and to quickly evade attacks or catch up with fleeing enemies.

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Character Creation

Male Nord Werewolf

Nords work well with the theme for this build due to their distain of spellcasters for anything other than the Restoration school of magic.

Female characters get a greater opportunity to do more damage from Agent of Dibella but this armour combination looks better with the male version of the Ancient Nord Helmet.

The Dawnguard need to be joined and taken to at least rescuing Serana from Dim Hollow Crypt so that you can get 2 words of the Drain Vitality Shout. The Third is not needed for the build as the first two words drain both Stamina and Magicka.

Getting all the perked skills to 100 gives 2 free perk points. I placed the first in rank 2 of juggernaut, which will make the early game easier by giving more armor rating, and the second was placed into Haggling, which increases sale prices and reduces purchase prices by 10%, which helps with septim generation in the early game to buy training.

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Attribute Distribution

Distribute attributes at a ratio of 0 / 2 / 1. At level 50 which is required for all the perks the attributes are:

Magicka	Health	Stamina
100 (265)	430 (545)	260 (375)

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Perk Point Distribution

The skill boosts for Nords are marked in bold.

Mage		Warrior		Rogue
Alteration	0	Archery	0	Alchemy	10
Conjuration	0	Block +5	0	Light Armor +5	0
Destruction	0	Heavy Armor	7	Lockpicking	0
Enchanting	9	One-handed +5	10	Pickpocket	0
Illusion	0	Smithing +5	3	Sneak	0
Restoration	9	Two-handed +10	0	Speech +5	1
Total	18	Total	20	Total	11

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Skills and Perks

Mage Skills

Warrior Skills

Rogue Skills

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Spells

Destruction

Spell	Level	Description
Flames	Novice	A gout of fire inflicting a base damage of 8 points of fire damage per second.

Every race starts with this spell but it's not needed for this build.

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Restoration

Spell	Level	Description
Healing	Novice	Heals the caster 10 points per second
Lesser Ward	Novice	Increases armor rating by 40 points and negates up to 40 points of spell damage or effects
Fast Healing	Apprentice	Heals caster by 50 points
Steadfast Ward	Apprentice	Increases armor rating by 60 points and negates up to 60 points of spell damage or effects
Close Wounds	Adept	Heals caster by 100 points
Greater Ward	Adept	Increases armor rating by 80 points and negates up to 80 points of spell damage or effects
Grand Healing	Expert	Heals everyone close to the caster 200 points. Does not affect atronachs, machines or undead

Restoration is used for emergency healing in combat and to replenish Stamina, whihc should be more common.

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Enchantments

The effects listed below are based upon 100 Enchanting skill, all the enchanting perks in the build and with a set of enchanted crafting gear. Read my guide on making crafting gear if you are not familiar with it.

Summary of combined effects

One-handed attacks do 75% more damage.
Weapon uses no charges.
Destruction spells cost no magicka to cast.
Restoration spells cost 92% less to cast.
Health, Magicka and Stamina are increased by 115 points.
Magicka regenerates 10% faster
Grants 86% resistance to fire
Resist 74% of all magical effects.

Item	Enchantment	Effect
Head	Fortify Destruction	Destruction spells cost 46% less to cast
	Fortify Restoration	Restoration spells cost 46% less to cast
Body	Fortify Destruction and Magicka Regen	Destruction spells cost 28% less to cast. Magicka regenerates 10% faster.
	Fortify Health	Increases your Health by 115 points
Feet	Fortify Stamina	Increases Stamina by 115 points
	Resist Fire	Grants 86% fire resistance
Hands	Fortify Magicka	Increases your Magicka by 115 points
	Fortify One-handed	One-handed weapons do 75% more damage
Amulet	Fortify Restoration	Restoration spells cost 46% less to cast
	Resist Magic	Grants 37% resistance to all magic
Ring	Fortify Destruction	Destruction spells cost 46% less to cast
	Resist Magic	Grants 37% resistance to all magic
Mace	Damage Magicka	Does 69 points of Magicka damage
	Absorb Magicka	Absorbs 67 point of Magicka

With the Sallowed Regent Black Book the magnitude of all enchantments can be increased. Please note that Black Books can only be used on Solstheim.

The magnitude of the enchantments can be further increased by equipping 4 pieces of Azhidal's gear.

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Alchemy

All the details for the potions and poisons are based on having all the listed alchemy perks, Alchemy at 100 and a set of crafting gear.

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Potion of Fortify Health

Ingredients	Blue Mountain Flower & Wheat
Effects	Fortify Health	Health increases by 170 points for 60 seconds
	Restore Health	266 points of health restored

You can get all the Blue Mountain Flowers you need in Whiterun. The two farms to the east of Whiterun also get you all the Wheat you need.

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Potion of Fortify Destruction

Ingredients	Glowing Mushroom, Snowberries & Steel-Blue Entoloma
Effects	Fortify Destruction	Destruction spells are 213% stronger for 60 seconds
	Resist Frost	Resist 128% of Frost Damage for 60 seconds
	Resist Shock	Resist 128% of Shock Damage for 60 seconds

All the Glowing Mushrooms are in the secret lab at the farm. Snowberries are abundant around Windhelm. Steel-Blue Entoloma are from Khajiit caravan merchants. With the build being low on Glowing Mushrroms at the start before the Green Thumbs perk is acquired I went to Shimmermist Cave to the North East of Whiterun and gathered 8 and planted them in the garden behind Tundra Homestead. You can go back there every 3 days and collect 40 of them so once should be enough.

This potion raises the Damage Magicka to 215 and the Absorb Magicka to 140 on the mace

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Poison of Damage Magicka Regen

Ingredients	Blue Mountain Flowers & Nightshade
Effects	Damage Magicka Regen	Decreases the target’s magicka regeneration by 100% for 213 seconds

Blue Mountain flowers can be found on the way from Helgen to Riverwood. Nightshade are by the Halls of the Dead in Whiterun.

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Potion of Fortify Enchanting

Ingredients	Dreugh Wax/Stoneflower Petals & Snowberries
Effects	Fortify Enchanting	85% stronger for 30 seconds

Dreugh Wax and Stoneflower Petals are only available from Khajiit caravans. Some travel between Whiterun and Markarth. Snowberries are abundant near Windhelm.

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Potion of Fortify Smithing

Ingredients	Dreugh Wax/Gold Kanet & Glowing Mushrooms
Effects	Fortify Smithing	213% stronger for 30 seconds

Dreugh Wax and Gold Kanet are only available from Khajiit caravans. Some travel between Whiterun and Markarth. Glowing Mushrooms are in Falmer caves.

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Farming

For more information on getting to and setting up your farm read my guide.

Ingredients Needed

9 x Blue Mountain Flower
7 x Glowing Mushrooms
3 x Nightshade
9 x Snowberries
11 x Steel-Blue Entoloma
5 x Wheat

Potions and Poisons Produced

42 x Potions of Forify Health
77 x Potions of Fortify Destruction
21 x Poisons of Damage Magicka Regen

Main Area (27)

Ingredient	Qty	Harvest	Green Thumbs
Snowberries (4)	9	36 + 9 = 45	72 + 9 = 81
Glowing Mushrooms (5)	7	35 + 7 = 42	70 + 7 = 77
Steel-Blue Entoloma (11)	11	33 + 11 = 44	66 + 11 = 77

Side Area (11)

Ingredient	Qty	Harvest	Green Thumbs
Blue Mountain Flowers (3)	6	18 + 6 = 24	36 + 6 = 42
Wheat (4)	5	20 + 5 = 25	40 + 5 = 45

Planters (6)

Ingredient	Qty	Harvest	Green Thumbs
Blue Mountain Flowers (3)	3	9 + 3 = 12	18 + 3 = 21
Nightshade (3)	3	9 + 3 = 12	18 + 3 = 21

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