Racial Abilities and Perk Trees for Skyrim Revealed

Elder Scrolls games are among the elite role-playing experiences out there that actually require some preproduction work if you don’t plan on spending five hours in the character creation screen. Skyrim is no exception, but thankfully a list of the game’s perks and racial abilities has hit the internet for your preplanning pleasure. So what kind of character will you be? Although I find the idea of a suave, smooth-talking orc to be hilarious, I’m going to be rocking an Imperial as per my obligation to represent us “puny” humans in fantasy games.

Speech

  • Buying and selling price 10% better (5 ranks)
  • 10% price buying from opposite sex
  • Invest in shops and increase available gold permanently in invested stores
  • Master Trader – every merchant in world gains 1000 gold for bartering
  • Buy and sell from any merchant regardless of what they normally buy and sell
  • Intimidation attempts twice as successful
  • Persuasion attempts more likely successful

Alchemy

  • Potions 20% stronger (5 ranks)
  • Potions for restore health, magicka or stamina are 25% more powerful (maybe ranked)
  • Poisons 25% more effective (maybe ranked)
  • Poisons last for twice as many hits
  • Two ingredients are gathered from plants
  • 50% resistance to all poisons
  • All negative effects removed from potions and all positive removed from poisons
  • 2 effects of an ingredient are revealed when testing it for the first time (instead of just one)

Illusion

  • Dual casting overcharges effect for more powerful spell
  • Cast Novice spells for 50% less magicka
  • Cast Apprentice spells for 50% less magicka
  • Cast Adept, Expert, Master etc spells for 50% less magicka (more levels this time around)
  • Spells work on higher level animals
  • Spells work on higher level people
  • All spellcasting (from ANY school) is done silently
  • Spells work on undead, daedra and automatons
  • Fear spells work on higher level enemies

Conjuration

  • Novice for 50% magicka etc (up to Master)
  • Dual casting overcharges –> greater spell effect
  • Bound weapons do more damage
  • Bound weapons cast Soul Trap on target
  • Bound weapons banish certain creatures (and I think summon creature in their place, not 100% on that though, dodgy recording)
  • Reanimate undead with 100 more health
  • Summon 2 Atronachs or reanimated zombies
  • Summon Atronachs at twice the distance
  • Summoned Atronachs twice as strong

Destruction

  • More damage for each school (fire, frost and shock) – ranked
  • Novice for 50% magicka etc.
  • Shock damage chance to disintegrate targets if their health is under 10%
  • Frost damage chance to paralyse targets if health low
  • Fire damage chance to make low health enemies flee
  • Place runes 5x farther away

Restoration

  • Healing spells also restore stamina
  • Novice for 50% less magicka etc
  • Healing spells do 50% more healing
  • Recharging healing spells
  • More is recharged with each hit with healing spells (unclear)
  • Spells more effective against undead
  • Once a day chance to autocast 250HP restoration when health drops low
  • Magicka regenerates 25% faster

Alteration

  • Novice for 50% less etc
  • Alteration spells have greater duration (ranked)
  • Absorb 30% magicka that hits you

Enchanting

  • Enchants are 20% stronger (ranked)
  • Enchanted armour 25% stronger
  • “Soul gems provide extra magicka for recharging” – again, dodgy recording but that’s what I heard, even if it doesn’t make much sense
  • Death blows to creatures but not people trap souls for weapon recharge
  • Health, magicka and stamina enchants stronger
  • Extra effect on already-enchanted weapon can be applied
  • Shock, Frost and Fire enchants 25% stronger (individual perks for each element)

Heavy Armour

  • Increase armour rating 20% (5 ranks)
  • Unarmed attacks with heavy armour gauntlets – damage increased by gauntlets’ armour rating
  • Half fall damage if all in heavy armour
  • Heavy armour weighs nothing and doesn’t slow you at all
  • Additional 25% armour if in matching set
  • 25% armour bonus if all in heavy armour (not necessarily matching)
  • 50% less stagger if all in heavy armour
  • 10% damage reflected back to enemy if all in heavy armour

2-handed weapons

  • 2h weapons do 20% more damage (5 ranks)
  • Attacks with warhammers ignore 25% armour (ranked)
  • Attacks with battleaxes do extra bleeding damage (ranked)
  • Attacks with greatswords do extra critical damage (ranked)
  • Power attacks cost 25% less stamina
  • Standing power attacks do 25% bonus damage, chance to decapitate
  • Sprinting power attacks do double (critical) damage
  • Sideways power attacks hit all targets
  • Backwards power attacks have 25% chance of paralysis

Archery

  • Bows do 25% more damage
  • Zoom in
  • Zooming slows time
  • 10% crit chance
  • Move faster with drawn bow
  • Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies
  • 50% chance of paralysing for few seconds (might be 15%, can’t really hear…)
  • Draw bow 30% faster

Sneak

  • 20% harder to detect (ranked)
  • Sneak attacks do 6x damage with 1h weapons
  • Sneak attacks with bows do 3x damage
  • Sneak attacks with daggers do 15x damage (end perk on skill tree)
  • Noise from armour reduced 50%
  • No longer activate pressure plates
  • Sprinting while sneaking performs silent forward roll
  • Running does not affect detection chance
  • Crouching can make hostile enemies lose sight of you and search for a target

Racial Abilities

  • ORCS: Berserker
  • REDGUARDS: Adrenaline Rush
  • WOOD ELF: Resist poison, resist disease, command animals
  • NORD: Battlecry
  • KHAJIIT: Night-eye, claw attacks
  • IMPERIAL: Voice of the Emperor, find more coins when looting
  • HIGH ELF: Regenerate Magicka more quickly
  • DARK ELF: Ancestor’s Wrath (surround self in fire), resist fire
  • BRETON: Dragonskin (absorb spells), resist shock
  • ARGONIANS: Histskin (regenerate health quickly), resist disease, breathe underwater

Source: Destructoid