Decided to roll my second character, a thief. Looking for your recommendations and preferences for weapons and perks that you use as a thief.

I've only ever played a rush-in warrior character and need some advice and tips!

What I've got planned so far: Invest in sneak, lockpicking, speechcraft, bow, alchemy, light armour, light armour smithing,.
Not sure about: race, melee weapon (thinking dual one-handed (does onehanded include daggers/what are the advatageuos of daggers?)

Thanks!

You want to be a dagger specialist.

1. Sneak
Yes sneak is compulsory. There is a perk that gives daggers a x15 damage multiplier for sneak attacks.
But you pretty much need all the perks to be able to get close to enemies for the sneak attack in the first place.

2. Bow
Bow is needed because I still don't know how to sneak attack flying dragons. So you need it for dragons.
Use bows at the start, before your sneak reaches 50 for the x15 dagger perk.

3. Smithing
Yes smithing is nice, but not for armor. You want to smith and sharpen the best possible dagger for your sneak attacks, so that your x15 damage multiplier will 1-shot enemies.

4. Light Armor
This one is probably for dragon fights only, or the rare situations where you cannot sneak attack something. If you 1-shot your enemies, that means you won't lose a single health. So no point in having a high skill in light armor.

5. Alchemy
This one is nice for the various poisons, such as the paralyze poison. But I rarely need to use it because enemies die in 1 hit. It can be useful to make the potion that allows you to carry more loot.

Poison that damages health unfortunately does not get multiplied in a sneak attack. Enchantments also do not get multiplied/

6. Speechcraft/Lockpicking
So far the speechcraft skill just saves you money, whether it be from trading, or in situations where you can persuade someone to reveal information instead of having to pay them money.

Lockpicking may be useful to pick treasure chests in dungeons.

7. One-handed
You may want to consider the one-handed skill, at least the first perk of it. It will further increase the damage of the daggers, and that gets multiplied x15.

Pick any race you want.
For weapons, dagger is a must for sneak attacks.
Use a sword or bow for situations where you cannot sneak attack.

So far I have recommended these for combat. I can 1-shot anything that I can get close to, giants, sabretooths, bears, etc.
I assume you play a thief for combat and not to steal things from people's houses.

thanks for the info, i also want to be a thief for stealing (thought that was obvious lol) you know for the theives guild and RP as well, your character describes more of an assasin since he's not involved in thievery

Oh then you want the pickpocket skill too.

If you want to RP then you should pick whichever perks fits your character best. But otherwise I agree with Nubius. I also made a RP thief but really regret investing in pickpocket and lockpicking, the perks are just not worth it at all. You will level up pickpocket very fast and it very easy without any perks. If you want to steal equipped weapons etc perks are needed but imo it seems to be much better just to craft/enchant them yourself.

alright but i figured lockpicking would be worth it to skill up (although its fairly easy on my warrior character he has 99+ lockpicks and it's easier then oblivion)
also is their a skeleton key available?

Sneak
Alchemy
Pickpocket
Lockpicking
Light Armor
Speechcraft

These are what I would focus on as a thief. And shall be for my Khajiit Dar'mok.

I would also dabble in either Bow or One-handed as well to help boost your combat abilities.

my advice is dont get caught skyrim guards play for keeps.

Speaking of stealing equipped weapons. Can this be used to disarm a guard before engaging in combat with him?