Playing as a Necromancer in Skyrim

I was a bad, bad man. Or should I say, Argonian? At a recent hands-on session with Skyrim I elected to play as "that lizard race," and I wanted to be as evil as possible. Although the race is designed primarily for thieves and stealth-based characters, I was interested to see how it would fare as a Necromancer. Turns out it's a pretty good combination.

The Argonian skill-set allows them to be immune to most poisons, capable of breathing underwater, and able to cast a wicked-good healing spell known as Histkin. The races in Skyrim can be anything with a few caveats, but it wasn't until I ventured past the Guardian Stones to select my speciality between Thief, Mage, or Warrior that I could really select my specialty. For the sake of my hands-on I went with Mage which allowed me to learn magic skills 30% faster. (If I was playing the full retail version of the game, I could return to the Guardian Stones at any time to swap out my special trait -- you can only have one active trait from the Guardian Stones at a time.)

With my skill selected I continued down the trail to the town of Riverwood. After listening in on various conversations throughout the town, I entered a nearby shop and spoke to one Lucan Valeries. Soon after I accepted his quest to retrieve an item known as the Golden Claw. Turns out a group of bandits who are holed up at the nearby Bleak Falls Barren have taken the artifact. I accepted the quest but not before looking through Valeries' wares to see what he had for sale.

I spotted a few spells he had in his possession: Raise Zombie, Fury, and Oakflesh. Raise Zombie is exactly as it sounds -- it allows me to raise a recently killed enemy to fight by my side. Fury, when cast on anyone below level 6, will have them attack any and everything near them (including me). Oakflesh increases my armor by 40 points for 60 seconds.