Broken Character Builds That Are A Lot Of Fun

Key Takeaways

• Playing Skyrim in Legendary difficulty provides a challenge – find powerful builds to waltz through the game.
• Vegetable Soup Berserker build allows uninterrupted Power Attacks for 12 mins, making it game-breaking.
• Dive into Skyrim’s open-world with various builds like Breton Summoner, Daedric Princess, Punch Cat, and more.

There will come a time when there’s not much left to do in Skyrim apart from replaying the game over and over again. To add more challenge to that, playing the game in Legendary difficulty is recommended. But that mode is hard, and players will need to adjust their playstyles accordingly. Thankfully, a treasure trove of knowledge regarding Skyrim‘s most powerful builds is readily available for players who want to waltz through Legendary.

While they’re at it, Skyrim players might as well pick the most fun builds that exist in the game right now. After all, nearly everyone is a veteran of Bethesda’s decade-old game. To spice things up while also trivializing some of the game’s content (mods notwithstanding), these tried-and-tested Skyrim builds ought to make players worthy of going to the Cloud District often.

Updated November 30, 2024, by Hamza Haq: One of the biggest strengths of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim as a game is the sheer number of ways players can build their version of the Dragonborn, with different abilities, skills, equipment, and items, making every playthrough as unique and different as players want it to be. Skyrim is the ultimate roleplaying game because even after 13 years, there are still tons of fun build ideas to explore with innumerable ways to roleplay in an immersive fantasy world that lets players do what they want with no restrictions.

13 Vegetable Soup Berserker

The Vegetable Soup Berserker relies on one thing and one thing only: Vegetable Soup, an early-game food item that often goes overlooked because of its innocuous nature and ease of access. It only requires four ingredients—cabbage, potato, leeks, and tomatoes—and offers one of the most game-breaking effects in all of Skyrim for 12 whole minutes.

Upon consuming a Vegetable Soup, the player character will restore 1 health and 1 stamina for 720 seconds. At first glance, the effect seems balanced enough; an average restorative dish that allows for health and stamina recovery over time doesn’t seem too overpowered. But that is before taking into account how Power Attacks work in Skyrim.

Using a Power Attack is the most damaging move a player can do while wielding any melee weapon, but to balance it, it costs a lot of stamina. However, a curious quirk of Power Attacks is that they can be used with low stamina—they will drain the entire stamina bar when used. Typically, using Power Attacks like this is a bad idea because when stamina drains to zero, it doesn’t start recovering instantly. It takes a few seconds before the natural stamina recovery starts kicking in. Seconds during which the player cannot do anything and is extremely vulnerable. However, if a Vegetable Soup is in effect, there is no pause in stamina recovery. As soon as the green bar bottoms out, it ticks up to 1 instantly. Since Power Attacks can be used even with 1 stamina, this build allows players to swing with as much force as they can muster without pause for 12 minutes. The great thing about this build is that it takes effect basically as soon as the game starts. The ingredients for Vegetable Soup are easy to source from Whiterun’s food vendors and remain so all the way to the end game.

12 Breton Summoner

The Breton Summoner build relies almost exclusively on conjured allies and bound weapons. Investing heavily into the Conjuration School is, of course, the first priority, but investing in crafting skills can go a long way to make the journey much easier. The Breton race gets Conjure Familiar at level 1, which means players will be able to start leveling this skill as soon as they step out of Helgen.

Bretons also have an innately high magic resistance that can come in handy when facing off against enemy spellcasters. Of course, players are free to choose any of the magic-leaning races like Dunmer or Altmer, but Breton gives the best start and the later magicka regen-related issues with equipment pieces.

Conjure Flame Atronach will be the first major milestone of this build, where players will be able to start relying heavily on their familiars to do the heavy lifting. The Bound Bow is going to be crucial for providing ranged support to summons and for assassinating targets from a distance. Upon leveling up, all stat points should go to Magicka to get it to 200 as quickly as possible before increasing Health or Stamina. A base Magicka of 250 with some Magicka-increasing gear should allow players to comfortably maintain two summons at all times.

Reaching Conjuration skill level 90 is another major milestone, as this unlocks the quest Conjuration Ritual Spell at the College of Winterhold. Completing this quest will allow players to permanently summon any Atronach of their choice or a Dead Thrall.

11 Daedric Princess/Princess of Dread

The Princess of Dread from the popular Skyrim build creator Fevvy is one of the latest builds in the game that still powers through the content like a Daedric sword through melted butter. For those wondering, Daedric sword substitution was intentional because, first and foremost, this is a dual sword build.

The build mostly prefers to perform dual power attacks to kill enemies in a single move. Sometimes, it results in a kill animation and, given how janky or abrupt those are, it adds a bit of comedic value to the build.

The early part of this build is a little tedious since players will need to max out their smithing and crafting skills. This will allow them to create some busted Daedric weapons and armor. After that, it’s a matter of just cruising through most content, dual slicing heads off with the power attack. The Daedric Bow is mostly used as a ranged backup.

10 100% Spell Absorption Mage

Few builds are as fun to play in Skyrim as the 100% Spell Absorption Mage, who can stand and eat an infinite amount of enemy spells without moving an inch, becoming a mage killer who has absolutely no fear of the arcane arts. The path to reaching maximum spell absorption is surprisingly simple.

1. First, the Dragonborn must activate the Atronach Stone, found south of Windhelm. This gives the character 50% Magic absorption, among other benefits.
2. Second, players will need to level up Alteration to 100 and choose the Atronach perk at the top. This grants the user 30% Spell Absorption.
3. The final step is to defeat Miraak, the final boss of the Dragonborn DLC, and to equip his armor, called Miraak’s Robes. This gives an additional 25% Magic Absorption, bringing the total to 105%, effectively making the Dragonborn immune to all magic effects thrown at him.

Alternatively, players can choose to become a Vampire and level up Restoration up to 70 to obtain the Necromage Perk. Activating the Atronach Perk and the Atronach Stone with this setup will also let the Dragonborn become 100% spell-immune. Note that this build only works if the Necromage Perk is chosen before anything else.

9 Arcane Forgemaster

The Arcane Forgemaster build revolves around maxing out Smithing and Enchanting as quickly as possible to gain the ability to craft end-game self-crafted gear incredibly early. Skyrim’s balance is very easy to break, and the fastest way to achieve that result is by investing heavily in crafting skills to become overpowered. Smithing and Enchanting are complementary arts that, when combined on a single character, can allow him to turn just a handful of ingots and a few animal skins into legendary weapons and armor that can stand up to the likes of Vampires, Dragons, and Draugr without an issue.

Of course, the Arcane Forgemaster will need to choose a warrior skill and an armor skill to complement the end-game gear they obtain. It’s best to focus on one type of weapon to maximize the damage output. Investing in the Two-Handed Skill and specializing in warhammers lets the Dragonborn become a mauling machine, which, combined with Heavy Armor, can become especially powerful.

But first thing’s first, the early levels should be entirely focused on getting Smithing to at least Orcish Smithing (50), but preferably Ebony Smithing (80). Smithing can be leveled up quickly using the dagger crafting method. Enchanting is somewhat more difficult to level up unless players are using exploits, but it’s extremely lucrative to do so. Once both Smithing and Enchanting are at a respectable level, the Arcane Forgemaster is online and ready to rumble, using the power of OP gear to steamroll enemies.

8 Punch Cat

As many players will have guessed, Punch Cat is an unarmed Khajiit. It utilizes the Khajiit’s racial perk which increases their unarmed damage due to their paws of power and claws of calamity. The build isn’t as powerful as the more min-maxed standards such as the Stealth Archer, but punching dragons to death as a karate cat is about as broken as it gets in Skyrim.

As always, there are certain items and instructions that enable this build and make it viable at the very least. Players will need to wear either heavy armor gloves or the Gloves of the Pugilist item to make it work.

The thing about Punch Cat builds is that the fists can fall off at high levels. With this in mind, players will need to mix it up with Destruction and Illusion spells. Destruction spells are great for softening up enemies until they get close. Meanwhile, Illusion spells like Mayhem will cause a royal rumble where a Punch Cat can shine as a bar brawler. Other Illusion spells are awesome for crowd control.

7 The Immortal Alchemist

The funny thing about builds in Skyrim is that just about any of them can become immortal by dipping into the Alchemist skill tree and abusing the potion-drinking and crafting system. Using the Alchemy skill tree in tandem with the Smithing and Enchanting trees (all maxed out), players can create some busted interactions with armor and potions.

This kind of interaction involves taking advantage of a glitch, so it’s less of a build and more of a way to abuse the system. Here are some basic instructions on how to do it.

1. Have an Alchemy level of at least 40 (grab Alchemist level 3, Physician, and Benefactor).
2. High Enchanting and Smithing skills are also advised.
3. Start the quest “Ring of Pure Mixtures” from Frida in Mortar and Pestle (Dawnstar).
4. Pickpocket Frida for the Ring of Mixtures.
5. Remove the Fortify Alchemy enchantment and place it on a helmet, bracer, necklace, and ring.
6. Equip the crafted Fortify Alchemy armor set.
7. Go to an Alchemy Lab then craft Fortify Restoration.
8. Drink the potion, then unequip the Fortify Alchemy armor set while staying on the menu screen.
9. Equip the Fortify Alchemy armor set again while still on the menu.
10. Craft another Fortify Restoration potion again, then unequip the Fortify Alchemy armor set.
11. Re-equip the Fortify Alchemy armor set without closing the inventory menu.
12. Repeat steps 9 and 10 around 10 more times.
13. The glitch should take effect after that.
14. Craft a Fortify Smithing potion, it should show a smithing percentage increase of more than five million.
15. Drink the Fortify Smithing potion.
16. With the Smithing skill marked up at more than five million percent, players can now craft the best armor and weapons in the game.
17. This could also work with other Fortify potions.

Voila, now the player’s alchemist is an immortal being with the best items in the game. Players should note though that as the glitch becomes increasingly popular, Skyrim‘s developers might catch wind of it and they could fix it in a future update. Given that some Skyrim bugs and glitches have persisted for more than a decade though, this seems a little unlikely.

6 Stealth Archer

Stealth Archer is probably the most common and popular overpowered Skyrim character build. It revolves around utilizing the broken Sneak skill tree along with Archery in order to take down enemies stealthily.

Most of the time, a Dragonborn using this build can go around one-shotting unaware opponents. It does have one glaring weakness against dragons, but that’s easily fixed with Conjuration summons or companions.

Just about any of Skyrim‘s playable races will do for this build. But for a more thematic gameplay and roleplaying, a Bosmer (Wood Elf) seems apt. The playstyle is simple: crouch and shoot enemies while unseen. Aim for their heads with a bow.

For enemies that can’t be killed by a single stealth arrow, sneak up on them and stab them with a dagger. For dragons and boss fights, use Conjuration summons to tank hits. The Slow Time shout is also great as an emergency backup for combat.

5 Illusion Assassin

The Illusion Assassin works similarly to the Stealth Archer, except it’s more melee-focused and utilizes the Illusion tree more liberally. Stealth daggers tend to have a higher damage output compared to bows, after all.

The gameplay is also rather straightforward. Players just need to sneak up on enemies and stab them. It really is that easy, and, in doing so, they can make the Dark Brotherhood proud!

To be fair, any race will do, but the High Elves get an advantage thanks to their Illusion skill bonus. Moreover, High Elves also start with an Illusion spell at the ready. Players will have to wield dual daggers here while backstabbing enemies with a power attack. Since players invest heavily in Illusion, they can cast Frenzy on a whole dungeon or small area and let the enemies kill one another. This makes sneak-stabbing less tedious.

4 Fortified Sword & Board

Sword and board builds look deceptively simple, but with the right enchantments and combinations, they can be devastating while being tanky. It’s perfect for those who are tired of sneaking around.

High Elves are optimal here because they’re the tallest race, meaning their movement speed is second to none. Orcs have a devastating racial skill in Berserker Rage. Meanwhile, Bretons can be nigh-invulnerable to magic thanks to their innate magic resistance, which can be enhanced with other items.

3 Dunmer Warmage

For pure magical destruction, not many other builds can match the ferocity of a Dunmer mage. They have a racial ability that gives them a massive damage boost, perfect for Destruction spells.

As stated before, Dark Elves deal more damage if they reach a certain health threshold (50% or below). For maximum damage, players will want to keep their health at the 50% threshold so that the Dark Elf racial skill will activate. In order to offset the dangers of having such a state of health, they can fortify their health using enchantments on gear.

2 Vampire Necromancer

The Vampire Necromancer is pretty self-explanatory. Players walk around at night preying on mere mortals and enthralling their own followers to fight for them.

High Elves tend to be great at magic, and Bretons get a boost to Conjuration.

Other requirements

Players can just keep summoning and letting their temporary summons do the work for them. If they want quality summons, however, these corpses deal good damage under the effect of Dead Thrall:

• Forsworn Ravager
• Arch-Curate Vyrthur
• Master Vampire
• Bandit Marauder

1 Orc Werewolf

The Orc werewolf is all about savagery and mauling everything to death, including dragons. It gains health as it attacks and is nigh-unstoppable under the right conditions.

Orcs have a massive melee damage boost thanks to their racial skill. With Berserker Rage, they take half damage and deal double damage for a minute. Using it in conjunction with the werewolf transformation produces some brutal results.

Other requirements

Players mustn’t forget to activate Dragon Aspect and drink some damage potions before transforming into a werewolf. Also, they’ll need to activate Berserker Rage before mauling Whiterun guards and Nazeem.