Races ( Skyrim ) There are ten different playable races in . Each one possesses its own unique racial abilities and powers . Each race starts with + 10 in one skill and + 5 in five other skills . However , this doesn ' t mean that a race is restricted to a certain play - style , as it is possible to develop any skill over time . Unlike other " Elder Scrolls " games , " Skyrim " does not feature classes , so in character creation , the race is the only major gameplay choice that the player must make . Playable races . Tamriel is the home of all the ten main races , each occupying a different portion of the continent . The races are : Starting skills by race . The following table shows the starting skill statistics for each race . The higher the number ( over the base level of 15 ) the better . Values of 20 indicate this is a favored skill of the race . Values of 25 indicate this is a primary skill of the race . Skills can be improved to a primary group . Every race has their own unique skill which they excel at and will start at level 25 with that particular skill . For example , Bretons start at level 25 Conjuration as they are naturally skilled at it . Starting spells by race . The following table holds all of the basic spells for each race . Unique race powers . These powers can be used by the Dragonborn only once per day , unless otherwise specified . Stats affected by character size . Without console command modification , the damage output , damage resistance , jump height , run speed , weapon reach , etc . , for all races remains at a scale of 1 . 00 , with the race specific scales being purely cosmetic only . Race specific scales can be found in the brackets when the getscale command is used on the player or an NPC . This means that all stats for all races are identical , without console command modification of the saved game profile . Melee damage . Using the console command codice _ 1 to change the height of the character will increase the size of a character in addition to increasing their movement speed , jump height , and damage output . Because changing the player scale in the console increases and decreases melee damage accordingly , there is a misconception that taller races do more base melee damage . Without console modification , however , the default scale of all races in the console is 1 . 00 , regardless of physical height . Therefore , all races do the same melee damage at the time of character creation . For further explanation , see the screenshot displaying the actual player scale ( 1 . 00 ) used in calculations and the base scale . The base scale is a purely , completely cosmetic scale in which the character ' s height is adjusted accordingly . Orcs and High Elves have the highest cosmetic heights in the game , in term of playable races ; Orcs have a cosmetic scale of 1 . 045 , while High Elves stand at 1 . 08 . Dremora are even taller at 1 . 10 , however they are not playable . This means that an Orc has a cosmetic scale of 1 . 045 , a High Elf has a cosmetic scale of 1 . 08 , and a Dremora has a cosmetic scale of 1 . 10 , but all use a scale of 1 . 00 for every single calculation including Damage Output , Damage Resistance , Run Speed , and Jump Height . Changes from previous games . Character creation has been dramatically changed in . Previous games had the player choose from a list of classes that would determine the starting skills for the player ' s character and in some cases , how the player ' s character would level . The player also had the option of creating a custom class , selecting each skill individually . This system had a very large impact on player effectiveness in the beginning of the game , though " " system was able to lessen that impact . A player could spend hours working out the most effective way to build a character . In " Skyrim " , however , that system has been removed , meaning that though the player will still select a race , the player no longer has to select a class . Skill set specialization is still possible in Skyrim , but instead of permanently selecting this during character creation , this is now done using the skill perks earned by leveling up ( both skills and player level , as perks are earned by overall level while skill level is required to select any but the most basic perks ) . The birthsign system has been replaced completely with Standing Stones , which can be changed at any time by visiting and activating a new stone . The Luck attribute has also been removed and is therefore impossible to increase . Skills have been further reduced from a total of 21 to 18 . There are no acrobatics / athletics or speed attributes so it is not possible to increase your jump height or your character ' s running speed through stats . If a player maxes out all skills the character will reach level 81 , meaning there are 80 ( no perk can be chosen at level 1 ) possible perk points to choose from , out of over 250 possible places to spend them . Previously this was the effective level cap for the player character , however this changed with Patch 1 . 9 and the introduction of Legendary Skills . Legendary skills allow the player to refund all the perk points from a single maxed out skill and set its level back to 15 ( the game ' s starting point ) . Skills can be made legendary multiple times , allowing the player to level their character indefinitely . A typical player will not max out all skills to 100 , and will instead reach only around level 50 or so . A character designed around 30 perk points is a reasonable build that can be reached in - game fairly quickly and is a great starting point for those who want to design the character before playing . Snow Elves . The Snow Elves are a race of Mer that cannot be chosen during character creation . During the events of , two living Snow Elves are encountered , Knight - Paladin Gelebor and his brother Arch - Curate Vyrthur . They are , physically , very similar to High Elves , except for their white skin and hair . Elders . In Skyrim , one of the races is called Elder . It cannot be chosen during character creation . It is solely composed of human characters that appear much older than most people . Arngeir , Esbern and Septimus Signus are some of the people who are part of the Elder race .