Hello my fellow Skyrimians!

My question here.. Is which build do you guys think is better? An Assassin, or a Mage?
In addition to that, what race, talent build to go with each one?

I would just like to see your guys' awesome input on this.

Thanks!

Sneaking takes most of the difficulty out of the game entirely. Sneaking benefits an Assasin more. Damage scales infinitely better as an Assassin than a Mage. A Mage is better suited for dealing with multiple targets. Playing an Assassin takes considerably less Perk point investment, gold sink, as well as less weapon swapping with the cumbersome Favorites system. Rarely if ever will you need to swap weapons, and who is to say as an Assassin that you cannot use Magic? The Assassin route is certainly much easier to accomplish and takes less jockeying.

I'm a lvl 17 mage: so far I think that it takes a while to get a mage rolling, but once you do its good and being Archmage is pretty cool. One thing I haven't hit yet is the mage progression wall: in Skyrim you cannot create spells, so once you get the master spells, you don't scale for the rest of the game...

Previous poster is probably right: Assassin seems easier and certainly takes less perks to be good. Still, so far I like to be a mage.

Assasin for the winzzzzzzz....serilious even in master the game gets boring of soo much overpowerd they can easily become.

I find a mage to be more entertaining, as has been said an assassin can be pretty OP.

My first character was an Assassin and my current character is a mage. My assassin at 15 was more powerful than my Mage at level 15. But now that my mage is at 35, he's just as powerful as my assassin at level 41. Assassins are pretty damn OP because of the sneaking perks(WHICH IS NOT A BAD THING) but once you start getting better with your mage and getting the money to buy the right equipment and spells, the mage can be pretty damn powerful as well. The mage can summon Demora's, Paralyze people, calm crowds of enemies or frenzy them and watch them maul each other, heal companions, and the fact the high level destruction spells are pretty freaking powerful, just be sure not to have a companion if you plan to use the higher level spells as they may kill your companion.

Why not both? It's not like being an assassin takes many perks.

I would say they're equally powerful, but the assassin becomes powerful with much less investment.

With the Assassin you max out sneak and work on 1-handed (dual wielding) and archery. It's a fun build; you run around stealth killing like a ninja and you're super-fast weilding a dagger and sword. You don't take damage well, though.

With the mage you have to level up enchanting, destruction, conjuration, alteration and/or restoration. Use enchanting to make destruction and restoration free; use alteration/restoration to make yourself a formidable tank; use conjuration to have 2 powerful atronarchs or undead thralls at your side. Large investment but you're a 1-man war machine when you're done.

Just pick up the race that look the best for you and play the way you want on your first playthrough.

Why not do what I did and have a mage/assassin? The best of both worlds! I play Altmer by the way. i have had no trouble completing all the Dark Brotherhood quests. Muffle and sneak together FTW!

If you are on PC, check out the mode PISE by Pluto on Skyrim Nexus. He makes sneaking quite a bit less effective and it makes it quite a challenge especially if you are on master difficulty. Also I've never been a fan of a sneak archer, dual daggers are 10x more fun.

I like a mage build, since the mage can also be an assassin. Because, as I'm sure you know, any build can be an assassin.