Hi guys just a simple question , at the moment im playing as an orc swordsman and having fun , but im attracted to playing as a stealth archer does the scripted attacks make it fun in dungeons and other small spaced areas or just frustrating?
Cheers for any answers and views

I would like to know this as well. I'm thinking of rerolling my pure mage, and making a steath archer / thief type. That fits my playstyle more.

I haven't done too much dungeon hunting but I can tell you the dark brotherhood missions are amazing for a stealth character. The quest line is pretty long to.

Although playing as a sneaky type archer character myself, it can have it's weaknesses, and it's strong points too!

From a distance, It's fun to take others out until there's nobody left, but on the other hand, if you're no good at hiding, you'll end up getting caught. Best thing to do is keep up high and hidden to remain undetected. Another sweet thing you can do is shoot at those lanterns that fall if you find an enemy underneath, It's a good tactic if there's more than one, but it'll be fine if there's only one too. But other than that, you just want to keep away from your target and make sure they don't find you.

It's fun in dungeons, I usually attack people one at a time, they'll search around and try and see what's going on, by the time they find the dead body, I shoot them in the back.

Good luck, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

I have a friend who plays assasin/ranged type of character and says that it gets pretty easy to kill things. Though some tough mobs become run/hit. I play a hunter type so I just use range while I have a distance on a mob then I switch to illusion/axe. Caves and closed spaces I can get quite a few hits from arrows before switching to my axe so i think it works well.

Thanks for the quick reply that has really helped as i wasnt sure ( and tbh not the best gamer and hearing how to play it helps )
Cheers!

I am trying to play a sword and shield character, but I keep finding myself using stealth and bow for the first attack. It's actually a lot of fun to be honest. My next character will be focusing on these skills.

I have been very happy with the effectiveness of archery.
After adding a few perks, they are very nice to use.

i'm enjoying my archer/thief . When 2-3 people get in your face its difficult , i've had the odd beating but on the whole its been a lot of fun. It's handy to have a sword for back up , or conjuration. You can't just back pedal like in oblivion as you move very slow with a bow , but you do decent damage from stealth and thats enough for most fights so far.

Does anyone have a problem with the left mouse button to pull the bowstring back to max extension? In my game that doesn't work. I've switched two different mice, and same problem with both.

I can fire an arrow by hitting the R key (and holding the shot by keeping the R key pressed down and releasing when I want to shoot), but no left mouse button.

Once you perk sneak a bit, a stealthy archer becomes overpowered. You can simply stealth shoot someone a couple of times, then crouch away, sneak shoot a couple more times, crouch away, rinse and repeat. Makes the game too easy, but you can choose to not sneak whenever you're in the mood for sprint kiting.

It seems to me that this game was BUILT for a Thief/Archer/Mage combo-class, because being a head-strong Warrior who rushes into every corridor usually results in you getting swarmed with enemies and many near-death experiences.

Every encounter I come across requires:

1. Sneaking within Bow range to an enemy
2. Shooting them while stealthed to get a damage bonus
3. Then switching to 1-handed melee with a spell in the other hand to finish them off as they rush to you


Every single battle goes that way it seems.

?? R is the default key for sheathing / unsheathing your weapon. Did you rebind your controls? Some people have problems with rebinds.

I'm playing a vampire mage/thief/archer type. It's really fun to sneak arrow someone, and can be really powerful with a high sneak. I can shoot someone several times before they even get to me and notice that I'm there. On the other hand, though, archery simply does not compare to sneak attacks with dagger... not even close. I don't know if this is the way it's supposed to be, but this is what happened;

I leveled sneak as my primary ability and grabbed the "x15 backstab damage with daggers" perk at 50 sneak. Then, when I joined the dark brotherhood, I got some gloves that increases by backstab damage by x2... and this stacks. So, I do a x30 backstab hit with my dagger - this is downright dirty. My character is not that powerful in a straight up fight by any means. I'm level 23'ish and I can still easily get owned if I'm not careful. But, with that backstab damage, I can 1-shot, or very near 1-shot, just about anything I fight. Boss characters, like the various amount of undead I run across (named ones, wights or deathlords), I can practically walk right up on them and hit them two or three times without them even noticing I'm there - and really, it's only the bosses that can stand more than 1 backstab. Fights that I should not have been able to do normally I have easily accomplished without breaking a sweat - I mean, this is almost game breaking how powerful it is, and I was doing this at level 10. I couldn't imagine doing some of the fights I've run across any other way without expending a lot of healing potions or whatever.

So, yes, in the end, sneaky arrow users are very entertaining and I still do it for the satisfaction, but it does not even come close to daggers. I actually have to force myself not to do the dagger-thing sometimes just so I don't feel so lame breezing through some fights with it. Plus, I can see it hindering me in the later levels if I'm not leveling as many things as possible.

You're doing it wrong. You sneak shoot them a couple of times, then crouch away before they can spot you. Keep doing this until they die. Safer than backstabbing, but slower.

Uh, okay? There's nothing wrong about my tactic, because where it takes you more than a couple arrows to kill a tough opponent, I can dispatch it in one hit. Saying my way is wrong is stupid, because I can guarantee, having tried all my options, that there is no other way to kill something as easily as this.

And seriously, I have walked up right in front of someone and they haven't seen me. With vampire, I have a 25% bonus to sneak. With the dark brotherhood boots, I have even more successful sneak. And since my sneak is so high to begin with (and its only 60'ish), practically nothing but the strongest opponent can see me even if I'm standing right in front of them. Dangerous? Not even. If I fail, I just run away, hide and then come back to finish the job. It's not even remotely difficult. I can backstab someone 4 times before they even notice I'm there. And what's really funny about that is that it doesn't even take that many hits to kill something.

I was replying to this particular bit:


As I said, if you crouch away after shooting them they'll never spot you. So you can chain sneak attacks with no chance of being detected, ever. Considering some monsters can 1-2 shot you, it's safer than backstabbing.

Well with my current char your all doing it wrong , you go in there with no discrimination and chop down everyone and everything making as much noise as possible ( its very fun on the "Hail to Sithis missions ) , oh and thanks to everyone for replying when i create a new char i will try this with your guys tactics

I'm not dumb - I've done this before. Bandit Plunderers and Chiefs are some of the toughest opponents I've found, and yes, then can kill me in just a few amount of hits. I could sit back and shoot arrows at them all day - it takes about 15'ish arrows to put him down (with sneak attacks), and even with all my sneak bonuses, he can spot me if he gets reasonably close (about 10ft and facing me). Still, and like you said, there are things that can 1-2 shot me, but where it would take you quite of bit of effort to kill him with arrows (as it does me) and risk being spotted and drawing a lot more attention, I can straight-up one-hit him with my dagger, and its not even that hard to get close as long as I stay out of direct line of sight.

There is a quest to kill these 3 undead bosses for some amulet. One of them is a mage, another is a warrior and one is an archer. Mage was really easy, but the archer and warrior were really tough. Both of them could hit me twice and I would die. 3 sneak attacks is all it took to end them, and they didn't even have time to react or notice I was there. They were the hardest creatures I've fought and I made it look easy.

I play a Lizard Thief and I love my dagger but 10 on 1 I love my BOW!! more i find a dark Spot hide and snipe in till the last man is standing than i will sneak up and back stab him archery is so nice for a solo
thief work hard in steath first than the archery will come later but remimber find a dark spot up high on a rock if they cant get to you they will never find were the arrows are coming from its great.

For some math comparison so this sticks in;

Imperial Bow I use; 17 damage. With x3 sneak attack, that's 51 damage.
Dragon Priest Dagger I use; 10 damage. With x15 damage, that is 150. With x2 gloves, that is 300 damage... in one hit.

Even if these numbers are wrong (adding in armor or damage variances for whatever reason), it should be easy to see the difference between a x3 sneak attack with a bow and a x30 sneak attack with a dagger. It is also significantly faster to swing a dagger than to notch an arrow and shoot - not counting how difficult it may be to hit the target to begin with.

Im playing a stealth focused character with an enchanted bow but I also use quite a bit of magic to make it all work out. Drop a rune, shoot a few arrows, back off and finish with melee/magic. When I get a good drop I can easily one shot with my bow or a dagger and take care of business that way.

This morning I ran into a rather tough encounter that left me unable to use a lot of these skills but I had a few other tricks in my bag and worked it out. And honestly, that's how I like to play, very flexible to respond to the situation in front of me.

I play as such and have fun... except that I often happen to put a arrow through the head of talking NPCs (poor Ulf)... wich is quite frustrating.

Yes this is true. But when there are a lot more guys than you can sneak up on the X3 is a life saver. if there a perk that makes it X5 i cant remember off top of my head

I love the archery play style in Elder Scrolls games! To me it seems so much more tactical of a play style than just running in axe-a-swinging.

I have spent since release playing around with the first parts of the game deciding on the full build I am going to use for my character in my full play through. I finally decided completely today. The character I am going to be playing through Skyrim with is more of a ranger type of character: Relying heavily on Archery, Light Armor, Sneak, Alchemy, and Smithing (make armor off stuff I kill in the wild), and dabbling into one handed, lockpick.

Stealth archery is a blast to play! I would recommend anyone to try it out. It may not turn out to be your play style, but it can be a real fun diversion from time to time!

Wishing the best adventures to all of you,

~Rathmaker~