The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim offers some of the most build diversity that an RPG has seen. Mages, warriors, and thieves can be built with relative ease while more niche, hybrid-focused playstyles are just as easy to make.

Related: Skyrim: Paladin Build Guide

Spellswords are a great example of this, an archetype that focuses on using swords and magic to take down any foe that stands in their way. Creating such a character revolves around using One-Handed and Destruction to deal serious damage. That said, there are numerous ways of making this playstyle even stronger. Here is a complete guide to creating a Spellsword in Skyrim.

Updated November 24th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: Skyrim might not have seen many changes since we originally published this guide, yet there are a few more ways of turning your spellsword into a dragon-slaying legend we forgot to mention. We've updated this guide with much better formatting, jump links between sections, in-depth tables that showcase recommendations at a glance, and we've rewritten a few sections to make this guide as easy to follow as possible.

This guide is for the vanilla game and does not include mods.

Spellsword Playstyle

Spellswords are masters of blade and magic, charging into battle with durable armor and various magical buffs. This playstyle focuses more on using spells for utility rather than a sole means of dealing damage. Destruction spells are excellent for dealing damage from a distance, Illusion spells make crowd control a breeze, and Alteration and Restoration improve your survivability. Conjuration can also be used to summon allies or conjure ethereal Daedric weapons if your gear is lackluster.

In gameplay terms, Spellswords focus on using a one-handed weapon and a spell in their off-hand. Before a battle, Spellswords will typically apply a few buffs such as Ice Cloak or Oakflesh to give themselves an edge. During combat, Spellswords focus on closing the gap while they pelt deadly Destruction magic from a distance. Once they close the gap, a flurry of swings and deadly magic ensues to utterly annihilate any foe they come across. If things become uncontrollable, a well-timed Shout or Illusion spell can disrupt a group of enemies with little resistance.

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Spellsword Stats And Perks

Building a Spellsword is somewhat tough due to the number of skill trees you'll need to invest in. Besides One-Handed, pick two schools of magic that interest you the most. Support your build with either Light or Heavy Armor, and focus on leveling up your crafting skills—Alchemy, Enchanting, and Smithing—to create the best gear in the game for your Spellsword.

Here are the stats and skills you should focus on leveling during your playthrough. For clarity, major skills refer to skills that you should focus on leveling. Minor skills are still important but not nearly as crucial to the build.

Race

Breton

+25% magic resistance, making it easy to reach the 85% cap

High Elf

Starts with +50 Magicka

Dark Elf

Great base stats and +50% fire resistance

Imperial

Starts with 15+ points in every stat we use

We recommend the Breton if you don't have a particular race in mind. They have a solid amount of magic resistance right from the start, allowing you to hit the 85% magic resistance cap with ease. If you dislike how Bretons look but want a solid option, consider the High Elf for its high Magicka pool or the Dark Elf for its starting skill stats and huge 50% base fire resistance. The race you pick has a minor impact on gameplay, so ultimately pick any race you like.

Stats

To counter the low Stamina pool, use Vegetable Soup.

Attributes

  • Health & Magicka (equal distribution)

Major Skills

  • Alchemy
  • Enchanting
  • Smithing
  • One-Handed
  • Destruction
  • Magic school of your choice
  • Light or Heavy Armor

Minor Skills

  • Every other magic school

You're going to be casting a ton of spells in melee combat, so we'll be evenly distributing our attributes toward Health and Magicka. This will lead to a tiny Stamina pool, something we'll fix with the Respite perk from the Restoration tree. Until then, Vegetable Soup is a fantastic consumable since it gives constant Stamina regen, allowing you to spam your heavy attack at any time.

For skills, we focus on crafting, One-Handed, Destruction, Light or Heavy Armor, and any other magic schools you're interested in. Spellswords are quite flexible in terms of their magic choices, so feel free to experiment. We enjoy pairing Destruction with Conjuration, giving you access to powerful Bound Weapon spells in the early game and useful summons in the endgame. Restoration is also a viable school of magic for this build, granting powerful heals and solid damage spells against the undead.

Perks

Must-Have Perks

Armsman

(80 One-Handed)

One-Handed weapons do twice as much damage.

Impact

(40 Destruction)

Most Destruction spells will stagger an opponent when dual cast.

Augmented Flame/Frost/Shock

(60 Destruction)

Flame/Frost/Shock spells do 50% more damage.

All Crafting Perks

(100 Smithing | Alchemy | Enchanting)

Allows you to greatly enhance your base damage, armor, and enchantments.

Respite

(40 Restoration)

Healing spells also restore Stamina.

Useful Perks

Conditioning

(70 Heavy Armor)

Heavy Armor weighs nothing and doesn't slow you down when worn.

Unhindered

(50 Light Armor)

Light Armor weighs nothing and doesn't slow you down when worn.

Quiet Casting

(50 Illusion)

All spells (and Shouts) cast from any school of magic are silent to others.

All One-Handed Perks

(100 One-Handed)

Grab everything on the main tree and branch off to your favorite weapon.

Magic Resistance

(70 Alteration)

Gain +30% magic resistance.

Necromage

(70 Restoration)

All spells are 25% more effective against undead.

Our perk selection focuses on damage, survivability, and crafting above all else. Arguably the most important perks here are the crafting perks for Alchemy, Smithing, and Enchanting, as these trees allow you to craft high-damage weapons and effective armor pieces with excellent enchantments. We'll cover how to make powerful pieces of equipment toward the end of the guide.

Past that, focus on upgrading your One-Handed and schools of magic. Standouts here include Impact to stunlock enemies with Flames or other channeled Destruction spells, Respite to get a large surge of Stamina upon using a healing spell, and damage perks for your weapon and magic trees.

We want to give a quick mention to Necromage for this build, as it grants a whopping 25% buff to all enchantments and spells if you're undead. The catch is you must become a vampire for this to work. If you don't want to become a vampire, skip Necromage and use the build like normal. Those who pick up Necromage can achieve 100% spell absorption, making you immune to all spells in Skyrim. We'll cover this trick later in the guide.

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Standing Stone

The Lord

+25% magic resistance, +50 armor

The Lover

+15% XP gain from all sources

The Atronach

+50 Magicka, +50% spell absorption, -50% Magicka regen

The Lord is a great Standing Stone in general. The bonus magic resistance and armor are life-savers if you're playing on Legendary difficulty, allowing Bretons to half the damage of all incoming spells without any gear. If you don't care about magic resistance, The Lover is always a great pick for faster leveling. And if you're planning to become a vampire and take the Necromage perk, use The Atronach Standing Stone to gain a massive 50% spell absorption, making it quite easy to achieve the 100% spell absorption cap.

Miscellaneous Benefits

Buff

Effect

Source

Agent Of Mara

+10% magic resistance

"The Book of Love" quest

Ancient Knowledge

+25% armor for all non-Dwarven armor*

"Unfathomable Depths" quest

Sailor's Repose

Healing spells are 10% stronger

"Frostflow Abyss" quest

Seeker Of Sorcery

Spells cost 10% less Magicka

Complete "Black Book: The Sallow Regent"

Vampire Lord

With Necromage allocated, all spells and enchantments are 25% stronger

Obtained during the Dawnguard questline

*Ancient Knowledge is bugged and buffs non-Dwarven armor, contrary to the perk's description. The USSEP mod fixes this bug.

All of these perks are completely optional but are quite potent on a spellsword. Agent of Mara assists in hitting the 85% magic resistance cap, Ancient Knowledge grants bonus armor to all non-Dwarven armor due to a bug, and Sailor's Repose helps us heal and recover Stamina faster. Seeker of Sorcery is a nice quality-of-life buff, and becoming aVampire Lord allows Necromage to buff all of your spells, enchantments, and Standing Stone buffs. Becoming a Vampire Lord isn't mandatory for this build, but we highly recommend giving it a try—especially if you're playing on Legendary difficulty.

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Spells And Shouts

Best Spells And Shouts

Destruction

  • Frost Cloak
  • Firebolt
  • Chain Lightning
  • Ice Storm
  • Fire Storm

Illusion

  • Fear
  • Calm
  • Frenzy
  • Pacify
  • Mayhem

Restoration

  • Healing
  • Close Wounds

Alteration

  • Equilibrium,
  • Flesh Spells
  • Telekinesis (for leveling)
  • Paralyze

Conjuration

  • Conjure Frost Atronach
  • Soul Trap
  • Bound Sword (while leveling)
  • Flaming Familiar

Shouts

  • Unrelenting Force
  • Slow Time
  • Whirlwind Sprint
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Spells are the backbone of any good Spellsword build, granting powerful buffs or devastating attacks at will. Destruction spells are a must for this build, granting useful buffs like Frost Cloak while also allowing the likes of Firebolt or Chain Lightning to damage targets from a distance.

Illusion spells are best used for crowd control. Fear and Frenzy are great for large fights since they make every enemy fight each other. Calm is also useful if you accidentally anger a friendly NPC.

Restoration is an excellent backup school of magic since it provides various means of healing. With the Respite perk, you can use healing spells as a means of recovering your Stamina.

Alteration is mostly useful for the early game for its armor buffs such as Oakflesh. This school becomes much less useful late-game when your armor reaches 567 or higher—the hard cap for armor effectiveness in Skyrim. Reaching above 567 armor does nothing.

Finally, Conjuration is fantastic in the early game for drawing enemy attention away from you, although this becomes much less useful once you have good armor.

If you plan to reach 100% spell absorption (explained in the "Gearing" section), Conjuration spells will cease to function and become useless for this build.

Shouts

While not spells themselves, Shouts are also useful as a Spellsword. Use any Shout that suits your playstyle; nearly all of them are worth using. If you care about being optimal, Slow Time is arguably the most overpowered Shout in the game that can be further enhanced with the Stability perk in the Alteration tree.

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Related: Skyrim: Best Mage Builds To Try

Gearing Your Spellsword

If it wasn't clear in previous sections, Spellswords will want to craft their gear by using Smithing, Alchemy, and Enchanting. As powerful as some of Skyrim's unique items are, nearly all of them pale in comparison to what you can craft.

Armor enchantments should focus on obtaining magic resistance and Magicka cost reduction for schools of magic. Destruction is the most important school to reach 100% Magicka cost reduction. This also makes elemental damage enchantments drain no energy from your weapons, meaning you never need to recharge your weapon. For gloves and boots, Fortify One-Handed is the best option followed by increased Magicka for gloves and Stamina regeneration for boots.

Unique Gear Worth Using

For unique armor, there are a few options that are worth considering:

  1. Aetherial Crown: This allows you to align with two Standing Stones instead of one.
  2. Dragon Priest Masks: Solstheim's Dragon Priests have masks that increase the damage of certain Destruction spell elements.
    • Ahzidal buffs fire
    • Dukaan buffs ice
    • Zahkriisos buffs lightning
  3. Ring of the Erudite: Increases your base Magicka regeneration from 3% to 5% per second while also increasing your total Magicka by 100.
    • This is a multiplicative effect with other sources of Magicka regeneration.
    • Ring of the Erudite can be obtained through a Vampire Lord quest in the Dawnguard questline.

Crafting Preparation

This section covers how to create min-max items. If you don't care about optimal items, feel free to skip this step. And if you're someone who wants game-breaking items, consider the Fortify Restoration glitch.

To maximize the strength of your gear, make sure to use armor and potions that enhance the strength of Smithing, Alchemy, and Enchanting. If you lack armor that does this, purchase two unenchanted helmets, two gloves, one chest piece, a set of boots, one amulet, and one ring from a merchant. Enchant one set of boots and a helmet with Fortify Alchemy, then create a potion that increases your Enchanting skill. Drink the potion, then create a set that enhances your Alchemy once again.

Make one more Enchanting potion and drink it. You can now enchant your final pair of gloves, ring, amulet, and chest armor with Fortify Smithing, although you can repeat this process as many times as you wish to make slightly better potions each time.

Crafting Your Gear

Get your hands on some crafting gear—gloves, boots, and rings with the Fortify Smithing enchantment—equip the Fortify Alchemy items and craft a few Fortify Smithing and Fortify Enchanting potions. Go ahead and craft your armor set and weapon of choice. Once done, equip your Fortify Smithing gear, drink the Fortify Smithing potion, then reinforce your newly crafted armor set and weapon. This should allow you to easily hit the armor cap of 567 while granting your weapon over 100 extra damage.

Head to an Arcane Enchanter and prepare to enchant your items as quickly as possible. Since enchanting items happens in real-time, you are limited by your potion's duration for how much time you have to upgrade your items. A clever way around this is to use the Slow Time Shout just before crafting to drastically increase how much time you have.

Here are the recommended enchantments for your gear:

Slot

Enchantment #1

Enchantment #2

Head

Fortify Destruction

Fortify Magicka Regen

Chest

Fortify Destruction

Magicka Regen OR Fortify Health

Gloves

Fortify One-Handed

Fortify Magicka

Boots

Fortify One-Handed

Fortify Stamina Regen

Amulet

Resist Magic

Fortify Destruction

Ring

Resist Magic

Fortify Magicka OR Health

Weapon

Chaos Damage

Frost OR Fire Damage

With all of your other perks and boons active, you should be able to cast Destruction spells for free, reduce all magic damage taken by 85%, and regenerate 5% of your Magicka per second—9% if you're wearing the Ring of the Erudite. Combined with the weapon damage enchantments and tempering, most enemies will die in a single strike on Legendary difficulty and deal virtually no damage to you.

Becoming Immune To Spells

If you are a Vampire Lord, you can become immune to every spell in Skyrim. To achieve this, obtain the Necromage perk in the Restoration tree. Since you're undead, every buff in the game will be 25% stronger on you including enchantments, Standing Stones, and perks.

From there, obtain the Alteration tree's Atronach perk to gain 37.5% spell absorption. An additional 62.5% can be obtained by using the Atronach Stone. With both effects active, you will become immune to every spell in Skyrim. Unfortunately, this also means you can no longer cast Conjuration spells as they need to target you to work. The payoff is more than worth it, however, as you'll be able to stand in front of dragon attacks while taking no damage whatsoever.

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Related: Skyrim: A Guide To The Unique Forges

Leveling Guide

Leveling a Spellsword can be somewhat difficult due to the importance of both melee and mage skills. Fortunately, most of the crafting and magic skill lines can be leveled to 100 rather easily if you can stomach a bit of grinding.

A detailed leveling guide can be found below, but if you don't have time and want a quick rundown, here's what we recommend:

  • Levels 1-10: Level One-Handed, Restoration, and Destruction. Get your hands on Bound Sword and make a stockpile of Vegetable Soup.
  • Levels 11-20: Grab The Lover Stone. Spam Soul Trap on a corpse to level Conjuration. Get the Frost Atronach spell, then start the Dawnguard DLC.
    • Decide if you're going to become a vampire.
  • Levels 21-30: Start working on the Dragonborn DLC. Continue leveling your main stats + another school of magic.
  • Levels 31-40: Level your crafting skills (Alchemy, Smithing, Enchanting). Sell your stockpile of crafted gear to recoup costs. Make your endgame set of gear.
    • Vampires should also take Necromage and acquire The Atronach Standing Stone and Atronach perk (Alteration tree).
  • Levels 41+: Get the Slow Time Shout if you haven't already. Max your skill trees.

Levels 1-10

Straight out of Helgen, obtain either The Warrior or The Mage as your Standing Stone. Focus on leveling One-Handed, Restoration, and Destruction—using a blade in one hand and the Flames or Shock spell in the other. Take as many items from Riverwood as you can to help with making Vegetable Soup, a consumable item that allows you to heavy attack infinitely for a long duration. Complete the main quest "The Way of the Voice" to unlock the Unrelenting Force Shout, an excellent means of creating distance when necessary. Grab a companion along the way to help draw attention away from you.

Obtaining the Bound Sword spell should be your top priority. This spell grants an ethereal Daedric Sword that does as much damage as the real thing. It weighs nothing and simultaneously levels your One-Handed and Conjuration skill lines. Court Wizards typically have this spell for sale. If they don't, Phinis Gestor in the College of Winterhold always sells it if your Conjuration skill is at least 25. Should you have enough coin, also pick up Oakflesh to increase your armor rating.

Allocate skill points into Destruction and One-Handed while leveling.

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Levels 11-20

Grab the Lover Stone to increase the leveling speed of all skills by 15%, replacing the previous Standing Stone you had. You can grab this much earlier, but it's easier to do now that you have better equipment and a companion.

Begin to level up your Conjuration skill if you haven't already. Purchase the Soul Trap spell and find a dead body. Cast Soul Trap on the dead body repeatedly to level up the skill. You can do this until it reaches level 100 or until you get bored, whichever comes first. When you reach level 40 in Conjuration, speak to Pinis Gestor in the College of Winterhold and purchase the Conjure Frost Atronach spell. This will serve as a meat shield for most of the early to mid-game. If Restoration is high enough, purchase the Close Wounds spell from Colette Marence at the College.

Now that you have a few means of tanking damage and healing, complete "The Book of Love," "Frostflow Abyss," and "Unfathomable Depths" quests to receive some powerful passive buffs. This is also a good time to start the Dawnguard DLC. Decide if you want to become a Vampire Lord or not before starting this quest, as you'll have to choose between working with the vampires or Dawnguard rather early in the quest chain.

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Levels 21-30

After you defeat the Solstheim cultists, travel to Solstheim via a boat in the Windhelm Docks to start the Dragonborn DLC. Complete the main quest and any side quests you stumble across, granting you ample resources and the ability to mine Stahlrim. During the "Black Book: The Sallow Regent" quest, grab the Seeker of Sorcery buff to improve your spellcasting.

Purchase any new Destruction and Illusion spells you come across, as this DLC gets rather difficult at certain parts. Invest skill points into your armor skill line of choice and obtain Respite from Restoration if you haven't done so already.

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Levels 31-40

Now is the time to metagame; use your newfound resources and wealth to craft the best gear possible. Most Alchemy ingredients you have should be used to make potions to sell to merchants. Before you begin to level your crafting skills, consider completing the "Lost to the Ages" quest to obtain the Aetherial Crown. Allocate the Lover Stone and one Guardian Stone (Mage for Enchanting, Thief for Alchemy, and Warrior for Smithing).

To level Smithing, start by creating Iron Daggers until your skill reaches 30. Obtain the Dwarven Smithing perk, then craft as many Dwarven Bows as possible. Refine these bows for even more experience. Keep crafting and refining bows until you reach 100 Smithing.

Leveling Enchanting mainly involves taking those Iron Daggers and Dwarven Bows and applying the Banish enchantment to them. Enchant every item you crafted to reach 100 Enchanting. For a more in-depth guide on how to do this, consult this article.

Alchemy is the easiest to level, requiring you to make a few hundred potions. Any potion works here, but try to make valuable potions so you can sell them to merchants for massive profit.

With that out of the way, consult the "Gearing: Crafting Your Gear" section of the guide to begin making your perfect set of equipment.

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Levels 41+

Core skills should start reaching level 100 around this point. Invest perks into all of your major skills to maximize your damage and survivability. If you have perks left over, start investing in minor skills. Besides that, your character should be an unstoppable Spellsword at this point. Obtain the Slow Time Shout if you don't already have it to make your character even more overpowered.

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