
This is pretty standard as far as designing your character’s appearance in an RPG goes, but for the sake of convenience, it’s best to choose a preset and work from there instead of working from scratch. Once you’ve chosen your race based on the above factors - stat buffs, abilities, and resistances - you’re ready to go through customization.
Wood Elf: 50% Resistance to both Poison and Disease. Dark Elf: 50% Resistance to Fire Damage. Argonian: 50% Resistance to Disease, Waterbreathing. Picking something to suit your playstyle can make a big difference. On top of unique abilities, every character also has their own innate strengths and resistances too. Wood Elf: +10 Archery, +5 Sneak, Alchemy, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Light ArmourĮach race has a unique ability so choose wisely. Redguard: +10 One-Handed, +5 Archery, Block, Smithing, Destruction, Alteration. Orc: +10 Heavy Armour, +5 Smithing, One-Handed, Block, Enchanting, Two-Handed. Nord: +10 Two-Handed, +5 Smithing, Block, Light Armour, One-Handed, Speech. Khajiit: +10 Sneak, +5 Lockpicking, Archery, Pickpocket, One-Handed, Alchemy. Imperial: +10 Restoration, +5 Enchanting, Heavy Armour, One-Handed, Block, Destruction. High Elf: +10 Illusion, +5 Destruction, Conjuration, Alteration, Restoration, Enchanting. Dark Elf: +10 Destruction, +5 Sneak, Alchemy, Light Armour, Illusion, Alteration. Breton: +10 Conjuration, +5 Speech, Alchemy, Illusion, Restoration, Alteration. Argonian: +10 Lockpicking, +5 Sneak, Light Armour, Pickpocket, Restoration, Alteration.
Here’s a full breakdown of the starting stat buffs for every race in Skyrim: There’s no point avoiding Destruction in to start with if you’re a High Elf, as your gravitation toward it will result in a far easier task at the beginning of the game. If you’ve got that initial boost, you should try to use it. However, it does make a difference early on. This doesn’t matter much in the long run, as you can always just choose to level up something else - just because Destruction is initially boosted doesn’t mean you need to refrain from using swords and shields.