I have been thinking of trying out a character who is mostly full mage because magic is fun and allows you a lot of choices in battles. However, I tend to not like being 100% full mage because the magicka usage can get too high, particularly if you use destruction magic (ie. you'll be using magicka every second in battles). I have also been reading that destruction magic gets bad at later levels since the spell damage does not scale and even the master level spells start to be weak. Because of these things, I've decided to go for a mage with archery as his primary damage dealer. The goal of the build is to have a mage who does not get touched by enemies and has a lot of creative ways to go about any fight (I don't want fighting to be the same thing every time; options keeps it fun and interesting). In essence, he may come out being something of a stealth mage.

Here are the types of things I want to be able to do:
- I obviously want to utilize archery sneak attacks. I also want to utilize the fact that archery staggers enemies (with the right perk), stopping them from getting close, and if they get close you can stagger them with a bash and run away.
- I want to make extensive usage of illusion magic. Frenzying big groups before they see you is super effective, while calming (or fear) is great especially if they have already seen you. Obviously invisibility is a big deal to prevent being hit as well.
- I want to make use of runes and possibly walls of fire/frost/storm, if I can. I think there is a real synergy here between archery and these spells. You can cast them between you and enemies and then start shooting arrows at them. Once they figure out where you are, they'll run towards you and right into the rune or wall. These will be like magic traps.
- Conjuration is also important to me. If you don't want to take damage, the best way to go about it is to have something else take the damage. Thus, I want to use summons. Also reanimating dead is just awesome.


I have a few questions about this build though:

1. Is it viable to really go for a lack of being hit as my only real defense? I don't plan to increase my health that much (although I'll do it a bit I suppose), I am going to wear robes not armor, and I do not plan to put perks into Alteration (I just don't have spare perks to use). As a result, I really will be incredibly easy to kill. Do you guys think there are enough encounters where I will not be able to avoid being hit (like maybe a boss battle where the boss is totally aggro on me) that it will be too tough? If so, what type of defense should I invest in?

2. How annoying/detrimental will it be that archery is a two handed weapon? If I am shooting arrows and want to cast any spell, I will have to unequip the bow and arrow, and so if I want to go back to the bow, my character will have to take the bow out again. This takes time, during which I might be getting hit (or at least be not doing damage). Will this be too much of an ineffective use of time?

3. I will undoubtedly get hit, and since I am so weak, I really will need some method of healing myself. I will not have the perk points to spare on doing both restoration AND alchemy, so I really should just choose one to focus on. I know I'm talking about doing a mostly full mage and alchemy is listed as a thief skill, but I still think of it as a mage skill. I am leaning towards alchemy because I won't have to unequip my bow anytime I want to heal, and because it obviously has other effects (including the use of poisons which is cool) that give me the combat options I am looking for. However, I have read/experienced that alchemy is pretty tedious in this game in terms of leveling it up. Is there any way to speed up the leveling up process of this or at least a way to have fun with it? I actually didn't mind alchemy grinding in oblivion, but skyrim seems so much slower with it.

4. I know enchantment is probably the best skill in the game in terms of pure power. However, I will not have the free perks to use on it, I don't think. Nevertheless, I can still certainly level it up a lot. I have read that you can enchant 4 items with 25% magicka cost reduction for a certain school, effectively making magic from that school free. This is intriguing to me. I could make all my summons free, or get free invisibility, or even make alteration spells free and be able to spam dragonhide whenever (mitigating my concerns about defense). Do I need to spend on perks to do that, or can I just have 100 skill and a grand soul gem?

5. Lastly, in general what perks do you guys think I should go with? I was thinking I want the entire illusion line (minus maybe animage???). The entire conjuration line minus the perks regarding bound weapons. Is it worth getting the second version of the Summoner perk? In terms of destruction: Is Wall of Fire/Frost/Storm worth it? Does it work like a trap? Because if not, I could possibly just get novice/apprentice/rune master in destruction and be done with it. Should I get the wall spells too? What perks should I get with alchemy (ie. are things like using poisons twice and getting two ingredients and not having positive effects on poisons and vice versa worth it?). What about archery perks? Is it really worth it to get Hunter's Discipline and Ranger? I know I'll be running away from stuff but idk if running faster with the weapon drawn is worth two perks. Should I only bother with 1 rank of Critical Shot or is it really powerful? How good are the slowing time perks for archery? Is it worth putting 3 perks into sneak just to get the x3 sneak attack bonus instead of x2 and have 20% sneak bonus?


Thanks for any input on this! I really want to make sure I get this build right.

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This is an interesting build, but I think it suffers from too much diversity. Remember that the more skills you go into the more water down your character will be. While it sounds good on paper to have a bit of everything you could find yourself at later levels that your main damage skill lacks punch. That being said, I would focus on the fallowing for your sneaky mage.

Archery : Since this is your main damage dealer
Destro: For the runes.
Alchemy: for potions, especially those that enhance you, or give the enemy elemental weaknesses. Like vulnerability to fire and such. You can also inflict fear or frenzy with it, or create invincibility potions, so illusion is not needed. This is a very useful skill. Only problem, is a pain to level and there is no fun way of doing it. The fastest way is to spend money with trainers and that will be expensive

Your fourth Skill tree should be something that you don't put a lot, maybe nothing above level 50. Sneak is great for this, since anything before that level will add lot to your stealth and enhance your sneak attacks.

The problem that I see here is that you will be all about range. Also I'm not sure how the alchemy/destro combo will do. Destro svcks at later levels since it doesn't scale. I mention alchemy as a form to supplement this trough the elemental weakness that some of the potions can inflict but I don't know to what degree they will enhance your casting damage.

Also sneak and archery have balance issues as well. If you level deep into either one you could end up making your game too easy. Your archery will be your main damage dealer but also the means by which you will deliver some of those poisons I mention. This purpose is defeated if you one-shoot that guard you wanted to poison with frenzy so he would turn on his buddies.

I've actually wanted to make a bound weapon character that stems from the bound bow. Unfortunately, without building your gear entirely around casting, you'll not be able to do much casting at all.

I've just rerolled to an arcane archer, because my main (lvl 26 stealth archer) was waaaay overpowered. Seriously, don't go for a stealth build as you will become a god very quickly.

I thought long and hard about which spell schools to focus on for my arcane archer. I have read that illusion is also obscenely overpowered so I will avoid that as I want a challenge this time around. Conjuration would just turn my archer into a stationary turret, just like a companion meatshield would, so that's also out. That leaves alteration and destruction. Destruction? Yes! With the impact perk, you have a stagger-on-demand, which you can use for kiting mobs together with fus ro dah. And with the archery stagger perk, you will have enough tools to keep mobs off of you. Later in the game, you will get (mass) paralysis from alteration which should help deal with tough encounters.

It'll be challenging, so hopefully fun. I'm also taking enchanting for RP reasons and to help increase my pitiful bow damage .

I experimented a lot with this in Oblivion.

In my build, I enchanted a pair of good gauntlets (perfect amber) with like +20 damage health, and enchanted a high-damage bow with an additional +50 fire or shock damage.