The Tempest

Imperial - Dagger - Heavy - Dual Wield - Battlemage

Background

The Tempest is the point of calm within a whirling barrier of blades. The Tempest focuses on learning the ultimate secrets of the storm for a single purpose - the destruction of their enemies.

The build is inspired by the Tempest prestige class from Dungeons and Dragons but then changed to incorporate shock damage and the wind into the build.

Weapons

Dual Wielded Steel Daggers. If you play with the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch (USSEP) then upgrade the daggers to Skyforge Steel as this increases the damage from 261 to 270. Both daggers are enchanted with Shock Damage and for the second enchantment one has Absorb Health and the second Absorb Stamina.

Armor

Any heavy armour to start with but Zahkriisos for the head, Heavy Dawnguard Armor, Iron Plate Gauntlets and Iron Plate Boots. As soon as I got the Advanced Armors perk I made a set of Nordic Carved gear to wear while levelling.

Spells

Restoration for out of combat heals. Alteration for utility spells and Destruction for shock spells and whirlwind cloak to knock down enemies in melee range.

Standing Stones

The Lord Stone for the 50 extra armour and 25% magic resistance. Getting this early helps with mages. Then when the Atronach perk is acquired switch to the Atronach Stone.

Shrines

Shrine of Talos for faster shout cooldown.

Shouts

Character Creation

Female Imperial

Imperials get a skill boost to 5 out of the 6 skills needed for the build. They also get a nice boost to combat skills early with an increase to both Heavy Armor and One-handed. On the magic side they get a boost to Restoration, Destruction and Enchanting, which are all prominent in the build.

Pick female as the sex for your character as there are more male humanoids than females to fight in Skyrim so the 10% damage bonus against the opposite sex from Agent of Dibella gets more use. All Dwemer Automatons count as Male.

The companions must be joined to get the better versions of steel daggers, if you play with USSEP. It's not too deep into the faction quests as it's only the second quest you need to complete. The Dawnguard must also be joined to get the Armor and you need to get a few quests deep and Sorine and Gunmer must be sought before you can buy the armor from Gunmer.

Attribute Distribution

Distribute attributes at a ratio of 0 / 2 / 1. At level 64 which is required for all the perks the attributes are:

Perk Point Distribution

The skill boosts for Imperials are marked in bold.

Skills and Perks

Mage Skills

Warrior Skills

Rogue Skills

Spells

Alteration

Get training from Dravynea at Kynesgrove to get Alteration to 50 you can cast Waterbreathing when in water to level Alteration when you have enchanted gear.

Conjuration

Used to fill soul gems for enchanting.

Destruction

Unbounded Storms is purely used as a means to speed the levelling of Destruction by casting and using fast travel. It could be used when enemies are close but the dual wield attacks with the daggers do more damage. I didn't use any shock spells along the way to levelling the character as One-handed is slower to level than Destruction to level. Once I had crafted my final gear I only used Lightning Storm as the spell. You can therefore shave Destruction Dual Casting and Impact off the build if this is how you prefer to play as well.

Illusion

Courage can be used to level illusion by casting it at an NPC.

Restoration

Restoration spells are used out of combat and it can be useful to play as a spellsword in the early game with a dagger and a healing spell in the off hand.

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.

The shock damage on the daggers can be increased from 85 to 334 points by using a potion of fortify destruction. This also raises the absorb health from 55 to 217 points and absorb stamina from 69 to 269 points.

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.

Alchemy

Potion of Fortify Health

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

Potion of Fortify Destruction

All the glowing mushrooms you need are at the farm. Snowberries are from around Windhelm. Steel-Blue Entoloma are from Khajiit caravans

Potion of Fortify Enchanting

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

Potion of Fortify Smithing

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

Farming

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

Main Area (27)

Side Area (11)

Planters (6)

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