Races to Classes combos

VladCmp

Hello everone ! I am kinda new within the ES Lore and I wanted to ask you which combo classes make sense in general lorewise and how to create toons so you have at least one class/race of each. I want at least an alt in all the factions so i can play all the stories at least once.

I have an idea of making Vlad von Carstein from Warhammer so ill probably make him a vampire necromancer. I dunno if Altmer or Breton is better for that or if Magicka builds can use melee weapons and be viable.
Dunmer sorc looks like a good idea for the Daedric Magic in general.
Altmer also for a Magplar ? They clearly look the part and considering the lore a bit seems like the best fit.
Nord DK becasue it just feels right.
And for the rest I have no idea.

Kindly await your opinions and recommendations . The community of this game seems amazing.
Feel free to leave pics with your toons for ideas and if somebody already made Vlad please leave him here .

Soarora

Any race can be any class, though depends on if you’re going for the exact lore of the class or what the aesthetic is. Magicka builds absolutely can use melee weapons, daggers for everyone is meta. Faction only matters for Cyrodiil and Imperial City, not for questing.

DK:
Akaviri (Tscaesci) magic. Imperial (due to Tscaesci x Imperial mixing during the Potentate) or self-created Tscaesci (nonplayable but possible to create using armor or creativity) makes the most sense. But the Tscaesci also invaded Morrowind, so a Dunmer scholar could have picked up the magic from there.

Warden:
Warden is weird where it’s ice theme but also Morrowind’s animals. I believe it has ties to Y’ffre, so a bosmer makes sense. Since it’s morrowind, a Dunmer cryomage/animal tamer makes sense. But anyone can worship Y’ffre and anyone can be a cryomage. Would make sense if they’ve visited Morrowind at least once though.

Templar:
Meridia’s light. Anyone can worship Meridia so I’m not sure there’s any racial connections.

Nightblade:
I’m not sure nightblades get their magic from anything in particular, anyone could be one. An Argonian Shadowscale, Dunmer Morag Tong, or any race assassin/illusion mage works well.

Sorcerer:
Also no racial connections, just conjuration: the class. Anyone can be a conjuration mage, though Dunmer Telvanni and Altmer are the most likely to be conjuration scholars.

Necromancer:
Also a class anyone could be. Unlikely to be a Redguard or a Dunmer due to cultural respect of the dead but Necromancy isn’t legal anywhere. I guess a Nord who wants to figure out why the Draugr are walking around instead of staying dead could be an interesting idea.

Dunmer works for a lot of them but I think the only one that’s really racially locked is DK, if you’re going for the exact lore. Personally, I don’t. It’s just a fire mage to me, way too specific.

ZOS_Icy

Greetings,

This thread has been moved to the Combat & Character Mechanics section, as it is better suited there.

Thank you for your understanding.

LunaFlora

all races work for all classes.

Roylund

Thematically, this is how I see classes-races matching up

Dragonknight

Most Sense

• Imperials

Some Sense

• Bretons
• Nords
• Redguards
• Everyone else

Least Sense

• Dark Elves (not likely to have been fighting for the Empire. MAYBE with some copium over them having learned from the Akaviri that passed through Morrowind)
• High Elves (not likely to have been fighting for the Empire)

Imperials make a great fit since Dragonknights use magic brought over by the Tsaesci from Akavir. The Tsaesci intermarried with Imperials and the Imperials adopted a lot of their cultural practices (shoutouts to the potentates), so Imperials being practitioners of their magic makes sense.

Nords, Redguards, and Bretons make sense insofar that they are the most numerous races in the Empire's army so it would make sense for any of these to learn the magic as part of their training. I know people like thinking of their Nord as being a Dragonborn DK but the magic used is different.

You can justify the other races as having been soldiers of the Empire and learning the magic there but the human races are easier to justify as being put in that position.

Nightblade

Most Sense

• Argonians
• Dark Elves
• Imperials
• Khajiits
• Wood Elves

Some Sense

• Everyone else

Least Sense

• High Elves (no cultural inclinations towards thievery + unlikely to be in any Brotherhood sanctuaries)

Dark Elves make a ton of sense here because of the Morag Tong. An organization of assassins would no doubt have a lot of its members be adept at illusion magic that helps them remain stealthy while they carry out their contracts.

Argonians have Shadowscales in the lore which are Argonians that hatch under the sign of The Shadow and are taken to be raised as assassins. Very RP friendly, probably one of the most thematically matching.

Wood Elves and Khajiits both have strong traditions of thievery (e.g. right of theft of the Wood Elves where you can legally get away with theft if you're successful and Rajhin from the Khajiit which is a legendary thief). A Wood Elf or Khajiit Nightblade would make a lot of sense as a thief.

Similar to Morag Tong, the Dark Brotherhood exists to carry out assassination contracts (but this one isn't sanctioned by any government). All races are welcome in the Brotherhood so you can RP any character into being a part of this but since at the time of ESO the sanctuaries in Cyrodiil are thriving so most members would probably be Imperials.


Necromancer

Most Sense

• Bretons
• Nords ***
• High Elves
• Wood Elves ****

Some Sense

• Everyone else

Least Sense

• Dark Elves (bro did you really just reanimate my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great)
• Redguards (necromancy is heresy, some of the strongest supporters of Stendarr, have a tribe that is in charge of purifying undead which is reviled by everyone else. Would require serious concessions or headcanon to make your Redguard necro make sense e.g. he was shunned for his interest so he said eff them and learned from Mannimarco blah blah)

High Elves have Mannimarco which is the poster child for Necromancy in the Elder Scrolls. High Elves often go off the deep end in their pursuit for magical knowledge and end up messing around with forbidden/taboo magic. Think of Mannimarco of course but also Carindon that gets his squad killed for the sake of capturing Selene.

Bretons make sense because Reachmen do not care about conventional morality and actively mess around with Daedra and necromancy. Regular Bretons also have magical inclinations so of the human races they'd be pretty likely to end up in over their heads with necromancy. Take a look at Glenumbra and look at all the undead crap going on.

Nords with a lot of asterisks because by the point where the game takes place Nords have lost their magical traditions. However, the most prominent god of the Nords, Shor, was a necromancer. Yep, the Nordic GOAT was running around using blood magic. Add to that Wulfharth coming back as the Ash-King again and again as well as Hoag Merkiller using "an unheard technique to swallow the earth around him and use it on his fallen soldiers, to re-invigorate them, albeit at the expense of their speed" and you've got a decent repertoir of Nordic necromancers. However, these are exceptional Nords (as is Shalidor) while you might argue that it's easier for a random High Elf or Breton to gain an interest in necromancy. You can have your Nord fit the bill here but it'll take a more creative backstory than "my guy was studying magic and wondered if draugr could be made to dance."

Wood Elves again with even more asterisks because the Camoran Usurper ended up razing a third of Tamriel with his army of Daedra and undead. Outside of this we don't get a ton of Wood Elves dabbling in necromancy. Keep in mind the Usurper comes around after ESO takes place, so maybe you could RP as a Wood Elf that's part of the Camoran family and takes an interest in necromancy which eventually leads to the Usurper prancing about the countryside.

Sorcerer

Most Sense

• Bretons
• Dark Elves
• High Elves
• Imperials

Some Sense

• Everyone else.

Least Sense

• Nords
• Orcs

Bretons are magically inclined, a lot of them start practicing magic. Gabrielle Benelle was Mages Guild rank 10 before you even knew collecting books helped progress the skill line. Next.

Dark Elves have the Telvanni. One of the easiest RPs to roll with is saying your Dark Elf joined House Telvanni because of their magical talents and boom now you have a Dark Elf mage.

High Elves are the most magically inclined race. There's so much magicka in the Summerset Isles it's rumored you need twice the amount of skooma to achieve the same high (needs verification). Also it's hard to perform basic scrying spells there compared to the mainland because of that (true story) so you get a ton of High Elves that are good at magic naturally and further develop their talents. Founder of the Mages Guild? A High Elf. Finally, go look at the Psijics (greatest or second greatest magical organization in Tamriel) and count the number of High Elves there. Yeah.

A lot of Imperials train to be battlemages and this has been a discipline that I think goes back to Reman's Empire. The Battlespire trains them and we get to talk with someone that has been there since they were very young (Lucilla Caprenia) so you have an easy path for an Imperial becoming a sorcerer. Especially one that goes around in heavy armor.

"Bu-bu-but Shaylidour was a Nord and he was a mage and he" KINDLY keep quiet muthsera that was ONE NORD compared to millions upon millions of them barely being able to read the label on their Honningbrew mead. And even then it probably looks indistinguishable to scribbles to them. By Kyne, behave yourself, I will give you a taste of my sabatons. Anyone telling you that Nords had Clever Men traditions doesn't get that they died out. What, you're going to RP as the sole Clever Man still around after ages of them dying out? Okay sure, go off, but it largely doesn't make sense for them to be mages and I'm sick of people pointing to Shalidor to justify their RP. Milkdrinkers.

Orcs pre-ESO: bonk. Orcs post-ESO: bonk. Are we supposed to believe they're insane mages during the Interregnum? Nah.

Templar

Most Sense

• Bretons
• Dark Elves
• High Elves!
• Imperials
• Orcs
• Redguards

Some Sense

• Nords
• Wood Elves

Least Sense

• Argonians

Bretons have knightly traditions that often fight in the name of Aedra.

Dark Elves can easily RP as a Buoyant Armiger that fights in the name of ALMSIVI (Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec).

High Elves probably have the strongest RP here as being followers of Auri-El and having strong traditions of Aedric worship.

Imperials can fight in the name of any of the 8 gods in their pantheon, Stendarr works really well (and was the basis for Templars in the first place).

Orcs are interesting because it wouldn't make much sense in any other era but in ESO we see a return to Trinimac worship in Wrothgar. An Orc that is going back to the "old ways" of worshipping Trinimac would be likely to fight in their name and use Aedric/light magic that fits Auri-El and Trinimac.

Redguard is also a great pick because they are strong supporters of Stendarr and absolutely loathe necromancy. You could RP as a follower of Stendarr, a Redguard that goes around purifying undead, etc.

Nords and Wood Elves would be more likely to manifest their faith in their pantheon with other kinds of combat/magic. They can kinda fit though as followers of X god in the case of the Nords or a Wood Elf that fights undead/heals in Y'ffre's name.

Argonians worship sentient trees, they have no need to pull out magic associated with Aedra.

Warden

Most Sense

• Argonians
• Bretons
• Dark Elves
• Nords
• Orcs
• Wood Elves

Some Sense

• Everyone else.

Argonians fit the nature-healing theme of Wardens quite well because of their ties to the Hist. The ice and animals are a bit harder to match but you can find a way to have it make sense. Argonians do get to interact with a lot of the animals featured in the Warden class.

Bretons have strong druidic traditions that match the nature themes of the Warden class well. We see wyresses at every other wayshrine in Glenumbra. It sucks that the animals are almost all Morrowind themed because why tf would a wyress from High Rock have cliff racers and netchers trailing her but the bear is a perfect fit. Ice magic also makes sense given the altitude at which Bretons and Reachmen live.

Dark Elves fit because of all the Morrowind animals. You can RP as an Ashlander more in tune with nature or a netch herder or whatever tickles your fancy.

Nords match the icy themes quite well. They also hunt a lot so the icy Warden with a bear by their side fits Nords.

Orcs in Wrothgar have to deal with the cold and hunt for their food. They also have shaman healers that seem to use more primal forms of magic. I think you can easily RP an Orc hunter from Wrothgar that is more in tune with nature.

Wood Elves are the best fit for the nature theme of Wardens because of their worshipping of Y'ffre and their upkeeping of the Green Pact. Spinners are also an important part of Bosmeri culture and use nature magic the same way Wardens do. Morrowind animals and ice magic are a bit harder to justify but the nature itself is such a strong connection that it shouldn't be hard to come up with a good backstory for your Wood Elf Warden.


I went way more in-depth than I thought I would writing this. I hope it helps.

Zodiarkslayer

@VladCmp While you can play whatever you fancy, there are races that are "less good".
As a beginner, I would avoid Redguards, Argonians, Wood Elfs and Nords.
Dark Elfs, High Elfs and Khajiit are good for Damage roles.
Bretons are good in "bad sustain classes", like Necromancer and generally the most awesome choice (okay, I am a little biased 😉 ).
Imperials are a good general race.
Orcs are good in any melee combat (incl. PvP) on the Stamina side of things.

Very good combinations with high synergetic effects include
Khajiit Nightblade,
Breton Necromancer,
Orc (Stamina-)Sorcerer
High Elf Templar.

Ultimately you have to decide what you want to do at the END of your ESO journey, not the beginning. Basically: What is your endgame?
Raiding? Dungeons? Housing? Fashion?
Do you want a Tank, Healer or DPS?

Lore wise everything is possible. The only restriction is your own imagination.