I have been playing Skyrim for years now, and every year I try finding new ways to challenge myself and make the game feel fresh again.
As someone who usually plays Breton, Bosmer, Dunmer, or even Khajiit, I’ve learned the ins and outs of those races pretty well over time.
But there was always one race I never really touched:
Argonians.
I never had much interest in them because the race just never felt like it fit me personally. But recently, my very creative (and very autistic) brain came up with a build/challenge that somehow made Argonians insanely fun to play.
So, I introduce to you:
“The Raptor Challenge.”
A survival-focused Skyrim challenge inspired by feathered raptors/dromaeosaurs — built around speed, aggression, hunting, scavenging, and pack behavior.
If you want to try it out yourself, check out the rules below!
The Raptor Challenge
A survival challenge build focused on speed, aggression, hunting behavior, and immersive roleplay inspired by feathered dromaeosaurs/raptors.
Built around vanilla Skyrim gameplay + DLCs/Anniversary Edition content.
!! Mods are completely allowed and encouraged if you want to expand the experience. !!
Recommended:
⟡ Legendary Difficulty
⟡ Survival Mode enabled
Race:
→ Argonian ONLY
Core Idea:
You are not a knight, mage, or hero.
You are a predator.
Your character relies on:
⟡ speed
⟡ stamina
⟡ ambush tactics
⟡ scavenging
⟡ hunting
⟡ pack behavior
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Combat Rules
⋆༺𓆩⚔𓆪༻⋆
Allowed:
⚔︎ One-handed swords
⚔︎ Daggers
⚔︎ Poisons
⚔︎ Sneak attacks
⚔︎ Followers
⚔︎ Pets
⚔︎ Scrolls
Not Allowed:
⚔︎ Axes
⚔︎ Maces
⚔︎ Two-handed weapons
⚔︎ Bows/Crossbows
⚔︎ Shields
⚔︎ Magic of ANY kind
Combat should feel fast and animalistic.
You are encouraged to:
⚔︎ rush enemies
⚔︎ isolate targets
⚔︎ ambush prey
⚔︎ retreat when overwhelmed
⚔︎ circle enemies instead of tanking damage
Heavy emphasis on:
⚔︎ Health
⚔︎ Stamina
⚔︎ Mobility
An Important Shout:
→ Elemental Fury is highly recommended/mandatory once unlocked.
(Attack speed fits the “raptor” fantasy perfectly.)
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Armor Rules
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ONLY Forsworn armor may be worn.
Allowed:
♱ Forsworn Armor
♱ Forsworn Boots
♱ Forsworn Gauntlets
Optional:
→ Headdress can be ignored if your Argonian already has feather/horn customization.
Jewelry, backpacks, and utility items are allowed.
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Survival Rules
⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖
NO:
⁞ Fast travel
⁞ Carriages
⁞ Horses
You must travel on foot everywhere.
(Because what kind of raptor rides a fuckin’ horse?)
Followers and pets ARE allowed because raptors are believed to be pack hunters.
Exception:
→ If you have the DLC and want to hang out in Solstheim, then the boat ride there and back is acceptable.
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Diet Rules
╰────-·-ˋˏ-༻𓌉◯𓇋༺-ˎˊ·-────╯
Primary Diet:
Carnivorous only.
Allowed foods include:
⊹ Venison
⊹ Fish
⊹ Chicken
⊹ Pheasant
⊹ Beef
⊹ Crabs
⊹ Eggs
Allowed ingredients:
⊹ Animal products
⊹ Insects
⊹ Eggs
⊹ Mountain flowers (Blue/Purple)
(and salts for cooking)
You should hunt/scavenge most of your food whenever possible.
Optional Rule:
→ If completing Namira’s Daedric quest, human flesh/cannibalism is allowed for roleplay purposes.
(Entirely optional for player comfort.)
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Alchemy & Items
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Allowed:
⊹ Crafted potions/poisons
⊹ Scavenged potions/poisons
NOT allowed:
⊹ Buying potions from merchants
Alchemy should feel survival-based and instinctual rather than magical.
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Roleplay Rules
(OPTIONAL but FUN)
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Play like a predator:
⋆ Hunt at night
⋆ Use rivers/lakes to travel or to kite enemies
⋆ Ambush isolated enemies
⋆ Avoid unnecessary towns (This one is a loose rule)
An artificial difficulty level for #Skyrim I've decided I like is basically starting the game at level 21 to artificially inflate level scaling. Instead of enemies simply taking less damage while you take more, the enemies selected are stronger variants.
By messing with level scaling, you encounter tougher enemies before you've caught up with them, but it still feels like options are on the table.
How Do
This can be done by getting Pickpocket to 100, and something else that doesn't make you stronger in combat (I chose Lockpick) to around 70, then spending perks on Pickpocket, Lockpick, and maybe some other-non-combat things.
The exact numbers to be level 21 could change depending on character race (different starting skills).
When leveling up those first twenty levels, put nothing into health.
This is pretty easy to pull off on PC with console commands, or with the cheat room mod on PC or XBox, but can sorta be done on anything if you're wiling to immediately level pickpocket and such once out of Helgen.
With the cheat room or console commands, though, you can leave Helgen with 100 health, no well-trained combat skills, and everything scaled to match a level 21 player.
Your few advantages are being a master pickpocket, plenty of stamina and/or magicka, and better loot (both from being level 21, and perks in the Lockpick tree if you took those).
Though if you REALLY wanted to, you could set Magicka and Stamina back to 100 if on PC or XBox.
Why Do
I significantly prefer this to just raising the difficulty in the menu, as I really don't think the game's balanced for that. It takes some of your offensive options and turns them into toothpicks, and it just feels like a lot of options are off the table.
By messing with level scaling, you encounter tougher enemies before you've caught up with them, but it still feels like options are on the table.
Unless, of course, you want to be an Illusionist, as those spells have level limits. Granted, if you really want to be an Illusionist, level up Illusion and put perks into THAT as part of the first twenty. Which segues nicely into...
Backstory
I also like the idea of choosing one skill tree to immediately cheat up to 100, and another to 70, in order to start Skyrim with a backstory.
It was only after I came up with this idea and tried it out some that I realized a lockpicking pickpocket with terrible sneak could very easily explain WHY my character was trying to cross the border into Skyrim.
Which got me thinking that you could do similar things with an alchemist salesperson, or a sneaky illusionist, or whatever. Less about the challenge, and more "my character has a history, thank you."
You are a scholar dedicated to becoming the first travelling library in Skyrim. This means that you seek to obtain every single book in Skyrim and Solstheim, and carry them all with you. To this end, you will delve into dangerous dungeons, make questionable alliances, join immoral factions, and even steal if you must, all to complete your collection and ensure the safety of Skyrim’s vast and bountiful knowledge.
Normal Mode: You must collect every lore book (296) and skill books (+91).
Hard Mode: You must collect all of the above and all journals (+120).
Insane Mode: You must collect all of the above, and all notes/letters (+205) and recipes (+27).
Rules:
You must carry your entire collection with you at all times (this can be split between yourself and a companion if necessary for carry weight).
You are a scholar, not a fighter. Thus, the only weapons you can carry are a dagger and/or shield — including bound weapons. However, since you must procure books from some incredibly dangerous locations, you are allowed to hire a mercenary or ask a friend to protect you (limit of one companion, excluding summons).
You cannot cast any spells that may cause damage to your books — no destruction magic at all*! You may use any staves you stumble across, but only non-destruction based ones. Shouts are fine.
At no point can you be submerged any higher than your knees in water, as submerging yourself would destroy your precious books! If it is unavoidable, you may leave your collection temporarily with a companion, who may wait for your return on dry land. Rain is fine.
You can use mods to ensure that spell tomes don't disappear after reading (if on Arch-Made Mode), but you cannot read the Oghma Infinium in this way (including via mods/glitches).
OPTIONAL: Play on survival mode (this allows use of a bow/crossbow strictly for hunting).
OPTIONAL: No fast travel! (+1 additional companion allowed via mods)
*OPTIONAL [Arch-Mage Mode]: You must collect all the books from a difficulty level of your choosing (normal/hard/insane), as well as all spell tomes (+94). If you choose this mode, you are allowed to use destruction spells, as using them is necessary to gain access to the relevant spell tomes. To ensure optimum library safety, you cannot use flame/frost/lightning cloak spells.
As long as they do not interfere with the above rules, any mods are allowed.
For reference, here is a full downloadable list of books and their locations edited for this challenge (based on this list).
