Skyrim - Skills

Skills are the eighteen disciplines a character improves through use in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Every skill levels by doing rather than by spending points, so a character who never draws a bow will never raise Archery no matter how high their overall level climbs. Most skills start at 15, with each race granting a bonus to a handful of them.

The eighteen are split across three specialisations. Magic skills are governed by the Mage Stone, Combat skills by the Warrior Stone and Stealth skills by the Thief Stone, and standing at one of those stones raises the rate at which its skills improve.

Perks are what turn a skill level into an actual ability. There are 180 distinct perks across the game, 251 counting every rank of the ones that have several, and each character level grants a single perk point. Reaching Smithing 90 on its own does nothing; the Daedric Smithing perk is what unlocks the set at the forge. Spent points stay put in the base game, so the spending order matters. Making a skill Legendary is the exception: it resets a skill at 100 back to 15 and refunds every point spent in it.

The three crafting skills interact more than any others. Alchemy potions strengthen Enchanting, enchanted apparel strengthens Smithing, and better Smithing feeds equipment back into combat, which is the loop behind most high level character builds.

The Three Groups

The Magic skills are Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Restoration and Enchanting. They cover the five schools of spells and the craft of enchanting gear.

The Combat skills are One-Handed, Two-Handed, Archery, Block, Heavy Armor and Smithing. They cover weapons, armor and the forge. Archery covers both bows and crossbows.

The Stealth skills are Light Armor, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Speech and Alchemy. They cover moving unseen, getting into locked places, trading and brewing potions. Light Armor sits here rather than with Heavy Armor.

Each skill rises in its own way. Weapon skills rise with damaging hits, and armor skills rise with hits taken. Speech rises with trade, such as selling valuable goods to merchants. Crafting skills rise when items are made or improved.

Trainers and Skill Books

Trainers raise a skill for gold. Each skill has trainers at up to three levels. A common trainer teaches up to 50, an expert up to 75 and a master up to 90. The last ten points always come from using the skill, reading books or finishing quests.

Training is limited to five sessions per character level. Sessions left unused do not carry over to the next level. Each session also counts toward the next character level, so heavy training can push the character up quickly.

Skill books give one free point the first time each is read. Every skill has five of them, scattered through homes, shops and dungeons. Some quests also reward a point, and the Oghma Infinium can raise every skill of one group by five.

Changing Perks

Spent perk points normally stay where they are. The Dragonborn DLC adds a way to change them. After At the Summit of Apocrypha, the hero can spend one dragon soul to refund every perk in a single skill tree.

A Legendary skill also keeps the character growing. Once reset, the skill can be trained again from 15, and its experience counts toward character level once more. That removes the old level cap, which was reached when every skill stood at 100.

These options make early mistakes less costly. A character that took perks in a skill it no longer uses can move those points into the skills it uses now.

Werewolf and Vampire Lord

The Dawnguard DLC adds two extra perk trees for the hero's beast forms. The Werewolf tree belongs to a hero with lycanthropy. The Vampire Lord tree belongs to a hero who joins the Volkihar vampires.

These trees have their own perk progress, separate from character level. Werewolf perks are earned by feeding on the corpses of fallen enemies while in Beast Form. Vampire Lord perks are earned by fighting in Vampire Lord form, and its power bite counts toward that progress.

The perks improve the beast form itself. Werewolf perks raise damage, Health and Stamina in Beast Form and strengthen its howls. Vampire Lord perks add new powers and spells to that form.

All Skills