Your race sets your starting skill bonuses and a unique racial power. It nudges your early game but never locks you in — any race can master any skill. Here's the full list.
| Race | Racial Power | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Nord | Battle Cry (foes flee) · 50% frost resist | Warrior · Two-Handed |
| Imperial | Voice of the Emperor (calm) · extra gold | Versatile · Sword & Board |
| Breton | Dragonskin (absorb spells) · 25% magic resist | Mage · Spellsword |
| High Elf (Altmer) | Highborn (regen Magicka) · +50 Magicka | Pure Mage |
| Dark Elf (Dunmer) | Ancestor's Wrath (fire cloak) · 50% fire resist | Battlemage · Assassin |
| Wood Elf (Bosmer) | Command Animal · 50% poison/disease resist | Stealth Archer |
| Orc (Orsimer) | Berserker Rage (2× dmg, ½ taken) | Heavy Warrior · Tank |
| Redguard | Adrenaline Rush (stamina regen) · 50% poison resist | Duelist · One-Handed |
| Khajiit | Claws (unarmed) · Night Eye | Stealth · Monk |
| Argonian | Histskin (rapid heal) · waterbreathing · 50% disease resist (UESP) | Stealth · Survivalist |
Three Beginner Builds
The Warrior
Race: Nord or Orc.
Skills: Two-Handed/One-Handed, Heavy Armor, Block, Smithing. Grab the Warrior Stone early and forge your own gear.
The Mage
Race: High Elf or Breton.
Skills: Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Enchanting. Join the College of Winterhold for spells and training.
The Stealth Archer
Race: Wood Elf or Khajiit.
Skills: Archery, Sneak, Light Armor, Alchemy. The famous Skyrim power-fantasy — sneak attacks deal 3× bow damage.
What «starting skill bonuses» actually means
The table above gives each race’s power and its flavour. The mechanical part is the same shape for all ten: +10 in one skill and +5 in five others. Six skills touched, one of them twice as much as the rest.
| Race | The +10 | Where the +5s go |
|---|---|---|
| Nord | Two-Handed | Three Warrior skills, plus Light Armor and Speech (UESP) |
| Breton | Conjuration | Three Mage skills, plus Speech and Alchemy (UESP) |
| Khajiit | Sneak | Three Thief skills, plus One-Handed and Archery (UESP) |
Which is the honest way to read the intro above. A +10 head start is real for the first evening and gone by the second, so the racial power — permanent, once a day, never obsolete — is what actually differs at level 40. Pick for Berserker Rage or Dragonskin, not for the skill numbers.
One more number worth having before you commit: there are 13 Standing Stones, and a stone can be swapped whenever you find a better one — see the standing stones. Between the stone and the race, the stone is the part you can change your mind about.
Still to verify
Cross-checked on 5 September 2026 against UESP and ScreenRant — which agree exactly on all three worked examples: Nord (Two-Handed +10; Block, Light Armor, One-Handed, Smithing and Speech +5), Breton (Conjuration +10; Alteration, Illusion, Restoration, Alchemy and Speech +5) and Khajiit (Sneak +10; Archery, One-Handed, Alchemy, Lockpicking and Pickpocket +5) — six skills touched in each case, one of them twice as much as the rest. The remaining seven races follow the same shape but their individual skill lists are not reproduced above. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle — nobody here has played it.