Foreword

It's been a while and I hope you'll enjoy this new character guide. This one was inspired by a discussion on the Morrowind Modding Discord

These are a few role-play and mod ideas to play as a skeleton. As usual, there is a set of rules and goals to try and make the experience unique.

Have fun.

Your Character

You are Skelfree. A necromancer created you and by some weird twist of fate, you have gained awareness and renamed yourself.

You do not care for riches or fame: knowledge and power drive you.

Must-Have Mods

Duh. This lovely race mod also adds scripts to skeleton creatures who won't attack you. The only must-have mod. The race comes with a summon skeleton spell and a weak Absorb Health spell.

Alternatively, you were brought back as a zombie.

Your necromancy mod of choice

The super classic that has a few known bugs. It also offers the greatest variety of undead to create (33!). You will use black soul gems, carry corpses around, control an undead army. Warning: do NOT ask you minions their level, they'd refuse to talk to you again. (Thanks Prof for the bug report)

Getting the books you need to get started is quite a challenge but this is a very complete mod. Download version 6 instead than 6a (it has known issues). Collect books as well as notes from books to learn how to gather body parts, prepare them for a ritual, re-animate them. Much like Fliggerty's mod, Dopey was mindful to follow the Corpse Preparation books to stay lore-friendly.

The simplest of the Necromancy mod if you are weary of heavily scripted mod: find books to teach you these powerful new summoning spells. Gather the required items to learn the rituals, summon undeads that stay with you until killed.

OpenMW only! I have not tested this myself.

Currently hidden on the Nexus

Recommended Mods

A perfect fit, obviously. It's in Samarys Tomb. Make that your priority. Until then, you are a skeleton in town, a target for zealous guards.

Adds colour variations to the lich robe, complete with glowing eyes.

The only way forward for a Skeleton is to become a lich! This is a large quest mod with its own new faction.

Quest mod where you learn from the best: Sorkvild the Raven.

Go ahead and pick the Necromancer profession, it will give you a couple of summon undead spells so you are not utterly weak fresh off the boat.

Night mage will make your game a little harder but is a perfect fit for a necro skellie. During the day, you suffer a -5 debuff to all your magic skills, but benefit from a +5 buff at night. (MWSE)

Makes the vanilla Necromancer class playable. Requires Tamriel Data.

Naturally you can just as easily create your own class. Here's the vanilla Necromancer:



Get closer to death and become able to spirits.

Goals

Master Summoner

Learn all the summon undead spells and create a single spell that summons them all at once.

Even more fun with Magicka Expanded that adds a summon lich spell. Even, even more fun with the Tamriel Rebuilt addon for Magicka Expanded that adds yet more undead creaures to summon.

Become a real boy!

Install Cannibals of Morrowind and start collecting body parts to make yourself whole. You must carry those at all times.

1 brain

2 eyes

2 legs

2 ears

1 heart

1 intestine

10 Daedra skin

10 human meats

Show him who's the boss!

Kill the Necromancer that created you.

Spin the wheel to find out who's your daddy/mommy. Go kill. Ideally, use their body/soul to re-animate them as your forever slave.

Lich-hood

Complete the Illuminated Order quest line and become a lich.

Tomb Sweet Tomb

Make yourself a chilling home decorated with the bones and ashes that matter.



My go-to mods to make any place habitable: MWSE Containers and Dahrk's Super-Sized Storage (D'sSSS).

Handicaps

Very strict faction affiliation

Mages Guild and Telvanni. Illuminated Order. Other factions have nothing to offer.

Keep your hood on

Hide you skeletal nature. Wear the hooded lich robe, a hood, possibly a helmet (most vanilla helmet clip with the skeleton race so I'd stick to the hood: no clipping for RP-friendly). To most NPCs, you are a creature that needs to be killed, or locked up in a tomb.

Necromancy is illegal

Illegal Summonings is great. Even without it, be mindful to not walk in town with a horde of undead in tow. And keep your hood on!

No fireballs!

I know, they are fun but you burn easily and as an undead, draining spells make more sense.

Must feed...!

Skelfree needs energy/sustenance somehow. Ash Yam porridge won't do. He could rely on bonemeal, various body parts from Cannibals of Morrowind, captured souls, scrolls (to feed of their magics)...

choose your sustenance. have some every time you rest. (So, no bone meal, no resting for example.)

Must rest...!

You either don't need rest (that's not much of a handicap!) or can only rest in tombs.

Must heal...!

Being undead, healing potions and spell should not work, but they will.

Other (better?) ways to heal as a skeleton:

Absorb Health: think of it as sucking life force to sustain your own.

Homemade potion (tailored for the skeleton needs!)

Name your spell "Steal Lifeforce", name your potion "Dark Elixir", ... you get the idea.

Final Words

I have not played this guy yet but I am looking forward to it.

Do let me know if you have other RP ideas for a skeleton character or if I missed mods that would enhance this playthrough.

Next up, a Guar Herder guide has been suggested as well as an Ordinator guide. Feel free to let me know ideas and requests you may have.

You can find me live on Twitch Saturdays and Sundays as well as on Discord. My own discord is right here.