So I am ready to retire my 2H Nord warrior Folkvar. He has accomplished a lot in skyrim and it's time for a new character.

I have been tossing the idea for a dark elf nightblade character. The thing I like most about this character is no MQ and more RP opportunity around the DB and thieves guilds. The thing I am having trouble with is unlike a pure warrior build I feel like there is a lot to focus on skills wise. This is what I have so far: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#166171

How do other people that have "hybrid" characters narrow down skills and not focus on too much?

I love Nightblade style. I did a similar build recently.

There are many ways of doing this, I'm sure. But this is one way I can think of.

I would start by joining the Thieve's Guild right away and becoming a pickpocket. This gives you access to Tonilia, the fence, so that you can sell your stolen items. At the same time, I would buy Muffle spell. So I would go around towns doing side jobs, pickpocketing everyone and spaming muffle spell. I would also buy training in One-Handed from Amren and pickpocket his money back. Very quickly you will reach 100 in Pickpocket, 100 in Illusion and 50 in One-Handed, just a few hours of game play.

As soon as you reach 70 in Illusion, or perhaps earlier, I would head to College of Winterhold to buy Expert Level illusion spells.

Now you have Muffle, Pacify, Invisibility, Silent Casting and pretty decent skill in One-Handed. You are almost invincible at this stage, I would say. I would then head to Dungeons and Bandit camps and go on backstabbing spree to level Sneak very quickly.

So after all this you have 100 in pickpocket, 100 in illusion, 100 in sneak, and maybe 70 in one-handed.

About enchanting. Yeah, do the usual thing. One good way to hunt is to use calm spell on your prey. I shoot a calm on the deer, then soul trap spell, then calm again, then kill it however you want it.

dat powergame

yeah. is it too much?

But OP's build doesn't have any combat skill and no armor. No destruction either. With his build, life is quite scary until you get to expert level in illusion, then suddenly it's very powerful. Maybe he can do more killing with lower level illusion spells early on.

I dont want to power level too much, want to RP a bit too. I also don't want to join the thieves guild too early because those items are leveled. I think? So if I get them early on, they won't be as powerful as they can be. Right?

I'll take any hints or tips on build as well. I want to stay away from destruction but don't mind some archery.

I love you for this.


Nightblade is my default playing style. Don't forget skill trainers is my advice. You'll want both levels of augmented frost and flames, and fire and frost enchanter perks. That way you can both enchant armour with enough resistance to those two elements to handle dragons, and enchant your weapons to deal massive single-blow damage.

Additionally, go ahead and take Extra Pockets, and if you're willing to get to that level for the perks (grinding pickpocket to 100 is easy, trust me, the issue is perk level), perfect touch is good for assuring a 1hko against bosses in heavy armour, assuming you don't get caught pickpocketing. Probably not worth it for the benefit, but I always optimise for level 81.

GET SHADOW WARRIOR, FIGHTING STANCE AND CRITICAL CHARGE. Learn to use them together with stealth rolls. It's the best damage you can get in a single shot I believe. Also it makes you a ninja, who doesn't want to be a ninja.

Drop Master Illusion. The master level illusion spells aside from the rally version are all pretty much useless, since you can't dual wield them and thus hit any level cap, making them worlds weaker than the Expert- and Adept-level spells. The rally one is neat if you are playing the civil war questline, but pretty much useless for a nightblade. Thus, since you'll never be using those spells, the perk is useless.

Lastly, I'd invest a bit in alteration for paralysis, but that's a personal flavour choice. Note that whatever you do, dragons will be tough if not impossible to manage at higher levels.

EDIT: Smithing is also advisable to improve your weapons. Forgot about that. Only go up the heavy line to Daedric, and maybe get Arcane Blacksmith.

Some of the rewards are leveled, yes:
There is one exception but, as this is the GD forum, do not open unless you wish to know:

However the base armor, be it regular Guild or Guild Master, is unique and not leveled.
They'll be the same whether aquired at lvl1 or 50. That said, joining the Guild and receiving the armor has its perks.
You can then ignore the mainline TG quests and focus on establishing your fences across the province.
Just a thought

You're going to likely need either Light Armor, or Alteration. A long time ago I played a character that sneaked a lot and wore robes and leather gloves/boots, and had no alteration, and it wasn' pretty.

Critical Charge svcks. Dashing and power attacking in game is a pain to pull off well, there was a link someone posted to a video on youtube where the guy breaks down every perk in 1hand and why this is not a good perk to bother with.

archery goes very well with sneak. it is a very good choice.

there is also good synergy between illusion and destruction. there is extra fire damage bonus with aspect of fear perk. biggest problem with destruction is the magicka cost. illusion is great because whenever you run low on magicka, you can tell everyone to take a break while you recharge. You can do this by using calm/pacify, and your magicka will regenerate very quickly. You can also do this by going invisible, but it's slower.

Way to only read part of the text. Critical charge is pretty much made to be used with Stealth Roll and Shadow Warrior.

Drop into sneak in front of (or behind) an enemy, and hold down forward, sprint and the attack button. It executes a rolling stealth attack. Some examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHHvg5XgCdw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hCbK8QgzLY

One note to anyone that does use Archery in unison with stealth, don't get Bullseye. The paralysis effect hits before your arrow does, even with a Daedric arrow fired from a Daedric bow, so nine times out of ten if it happens your arrow misses, the enemy becomes hostile and everyone in the area becomes aware of your presence (because somehow it is easier to detect the attacker of a paralysed body than a dead one. Tamriel logic).

So your advice would be to join early game, grab the un leveled gear and hold off on getting the leveled stuff till later game?