Lately I've been itching to make a magic caster, but I really didn't know the best way to go about it. I saw a video of a guy who made what he called a necromancer build, which is basically a guy who use mainly his conjured minions to do the work while he stands back and messes with them with illusion spells as well or something. Also using conjured weapons. Now, I really hate that I keep making new guys. Because I hate doing the beginning over and over. But I for some reason think this would be a interesting build to play as. Do you think it's a viable character build, or am I just going to get rolled all the time?

@Raven_Sword: That is exactly how I roll with my character I use on PC. The thing you'll want is crazy crazy fast MP regen though. The summons take a ton of MP. Also, if you go this route take note that the weapon trees DO affect bound a.k.a summoned weapons. So if you wanna roll around with a Summoned sword make SURE you upgrade the one hand path. Your character will most likely be weak health wise though so your real bane will be when you get stuck in tight quarters with no where to run. Its a fun build to mess around with though. Also, if you manage to have let say high stealth and quiet casting you can cast a summon to take out enemies without alerting them to your presence which is also pretty awesome.

If you have this on PC I would try this, but also see if there are any Necromancer mods out there. I know Oblivion had some cool ones, where you could harvest dead bodies for parts, then "build" zombies and skeletons that would follow you till they died. Hopefully someone has made something like that, as I feel you can't really play as a Necromancer unless you roll with a posse of dead things constantly.

Do you find the build boring though? That's what I was worried about since my minions are gonna do everything. Also, I have this game on Xbox.

It's doable, but -like all magic builds I have tried in Skyrim- I found it to be really boring. It took a long time for the summons to kill stuff and the side of me that want's to min/max every aspect of an RPG makes me get bored knowing that I can go with other builds and kill twice as much in half the time. But ya, if you just want to Role Play something like that you certainly can. Just have a high patience stat in real life because you will need it.

yeah its viable. it seems like almost everything is viable as you will inevitably spread your points out a bit.

a great combo for elder scrolls games is assassin/mage (illusion or conjuration or whatever) backstab dudes for X 30 damage and control crowds with magic etc.

I just bring along Eola and have her do the necromancy stuff (it's useful when you don't hae to deal with it).

@Raven_Sword: Personally? No I enjoy playing that build however if you aren't down with kiting enemies... a lot. Then you might want to try something else because there is a ton of just that. You don't have to be entirely inactive either. Destruction magic is a fun way to add to the battle at range. You are also going to have access to your shouts as well. So yes its a more passive way to play but you don't have to be sitting there twiddling your thumbs. If you bring a follower along with you as well suddenly you are rolling with your own small army. Especially after you get the ability to summon two zombies at once.

See, that sounds cool to me. Really, I'm just trying to find the build I like most. I keep making new guys. I know I like the stealth play type, always did even in oblivion because it added tact. So I thought a magic build would be a nice change. And I thought the necromancer/conjurer play type would be cool. Then again I could just make a Orc barbarian berserker, lol.

You'll probably want to invest in enchantment, too...I had 100 in enchantment, and could make enchanted armor that made destruction spells cost absolutely nothing.

In my Xbox build, I did a tonne of necromancing. I mainly put points into conjuration and archery so I'd be constantly spawning zombies (raising dead monsters that I'd killed) or summoning frost monsters or whatever and then firing off arrows from a distance while my zombies got up close.

REALLY viable and super fun!

It works fine. Just make sure you ALWAYS increase magicka for two levels, and on the third increase your health. You can get conjuration to 100 super fast by casting soul trap on your horse. This helps a lot, as it makes your minions stronger, and you can have two of them at the same time. I'd go with binding creatures from oblivion, as necromancy would require you kill someone first. Necromancy looks fucking awesome though, and I love the idea. Of course, there's only two perks in the necromancy tree, so you could do that as well.

You should also focus on alteration, so you can get some mage armor going. Restoration and destruction are also important for a viable build. You should get the restoration perks that allow you to regen magicka faster as soon as you can. Also get the perk that heals you twice as much. Your combat tactic should be like this. Cast your attronachs. Use mage armor on yourself. Switch to destruction in one hand, and healing in the other. Fight!

Have fun! It's pretty awesome, and feels super powerful.

No experience with it personally but I'd wager it's probably a slow burn. The early march will be a struggle for you, but by the end you'll likely be wiping the floor with folks.

Are you sticking to Necromancy specifically, or are you going to allow yourself general summoning powers, too? Daedra and whatnot?

Actually, general conjuration was probaly what I'm going towards. For role playing purposes I thought thinking of it as a necromancer was cool. But I think I want the build to just be a master conjurer type dude that does necromancy. However I'm A OK with summoning daedra and using stuff like destruction or whatever.

Almost any build is viable.

Here's the key: Turn the difficulty down if you need to. Ask yourself this: Is the joy of playing Skyrim the challenge of it? Cause it sure as hell is not for me. I love a challenging game, but I like those games to handle difficulty in a way other than "Give enemies ALL THE HEALTH". So just play how you want and adjust the difficulty accordingly.

Well, I'm not one of those guys that plays on master difficulty. The highest ill go is adept. Does anyone have a idea for what the baseline of this necromancer/conjurer should be? Like, how to invest points in magic and health when I level and what race ? I was considering high elf or Breton or imperial