Getting ready to purchase the game here in a few days. Looking forward to it. I wanted to start planning out my character before hand. From the many posts I've read, obviously picking up stealth and one-handed weapon skills are a must for any would-be assassin. I wanted to ask about other skills that would go well with an assassin. Some of the posts I've read suggested Alchemy and Illusion. Want to get some feedback on this from some folks that have been already playing a bit. Thanks

I just started playing as a rogue/assassin ... Did some research about viable builds. I'm planning these specialisations :

primary skills : (+-30perks investment)
- stealth
- one-handed combat
- light armor => I've read that you could also take alteration, which provides mage armor. But I guess that light armor is easier and just as good.

secondary : (+-20perks investment)
- illusion => for paralysing enemies etc...
- alchemy OR enchanting => Still not sure if enchanting would be a good choice ???? Which would be the best?
- archery => first kill some enemies from a distance, then sneak up with dual dagger

I'm not an expert, but I hope it can help a bit. Would be nice if I could also have some tips about my build.
I'm leaving out pickpocketing and lock picking and focussing on assassin style combat.

Personally, I'm probably gonna use what I did in Oblivion, unless I see something else I want. It works extremely well in there-v

Primary usage-v
Sneak
Archery
Alchemy
Light Armor

Secondary usage-v
Illusion
One-Handed
Lock Pick
Steal

Same principle as Oblivion. Create deadly poisons for all your bow shots and just sneak crit. Everything to death and what you can't kill like that, double dagger them

I've actually found 1h to not be so important for a stealthy character as sneak would be. For actual 1 on 1 or whatever brawls, I tend to use destruction magic. If I can though, I will use my dagger and sneak attack someone for big damage, and you don't need high 1h skill necessarily for that. I leveled sneak as much as I could, first and foremost, with sneak attacks from bows being the primary means until I was confident enough with my skill to sneak up on something with a dagger. Once I got the x15 multiplier with daggers, it was all over for them. It gets even better, as there are gloves that increase backstab damage by x2, so that will make the multiplier x30 (so good night whatever you hit). Sometimes I'll take out my dagger though for brawls, like if I run out of mana, but also if I feel like just hitting something normally, or if i want to finish off a kneeling opponent.

I try to raise alchemy, but it has been pretty slow going with trying to mix random potions to find out effects. I used poisons a bit when I was low level, but I don't need them anymore with my x30 dagger backstabs. I'm also focusing a lot on enchanting now that I'm strong enough to deal with my encounters.

A typical fight would normally be an opener with a dagger backstab on the toughest opponent. If I need to do it again, I run away if I got caught or just walk up on the next one. If the fight is something I can handle reasonably, I will just unload on them with spells or swing my dagger. If I'm feeling like doing bows instead, I will do that. It's really at my whim.

That's bascially what I've read. I assumed Alchemy would be good for poisons but by the time you get the x15 multiplier plus those gloves, the target dies anyways. If it doesn't, just run away and hide and do it again. I just don't want to waste time with Alchemy if it really won't be necessary.

1 dagger with a damage enchantment for silent takedowns, 1 dagger coated with strong poison if I'm spotted and forced to fight my way out. hopefully I'm on the right track with this.

Poisons would definitely be useful for an archer based character since they don't have those obscene sneak attack multipliers. But if you're going dagger, just forget about it - I really see no point in trying to raise alchemy other than making mana/health potions, which is probably what I'll end up doing in the late game. However, there are some effects that are really useful, like slow or paralyze. Straight damage poisons are a waste on daggers, though, as it is simply overkill. Only named creatures or big monsters (like giants) are capable of taking more than 1 x30 backstab, and my sneak is high enough that I can get several of them off before they even know I'm there. The downside to my character is that I really can't take hits at all (but I also force myself to wear good looking armor that may be crap in the long run). To make up for that, I started working in magic to round myself out. Between my backstabs, my archery if I'm feeling frisky, and my spells for close-encounters, I make do very well.

I guess it really depends on what you want to do.

If you want to do dagger, I recommend taking destruction and other magic. Or, I suppose you could go full 1h - the only problem is that if you keep doing backstabs, you'll hardly ever raise it, so it'll be kind of crap unless you train it. If you go archery, definitely dip into alchemy as it would help them out a lot. Enchant is definitely useful for anyone, as well. On the whole though, if you're going for an assassin type, Sneak is the first thing you need to raise.

I also never raise pickpocket - though I suppose it would be useful if you actually want to be a master thief. Technically though, with a high sneak you could steal just about anything that isn't nailed to the ground anyway. Pickpocket is obvioulsy just for stealing the small crappy amount of gold someone has or some other item, but I find it hard to imagine that there is anything good to come of it. I've actually never looked at that tree either. Lockpicking is also only there if you svck at the minigame. It takes some practice, and I can see it being kind of annoying with a controller, but once you get used to it, it's fairly easy. Only master locks give me a problem at 30-40 lockpicking, and thats because those picks are seemingly made of brittle clay or something. It's still possible to do it though, it just might take 20-30 picks. Not very efficient, but I've only ever run across 2 master locks and I'm 23-24... still, I haven't done that much exploring yet. I've been working on the Dark Brotherhood and other minor quests. Hell, I haven't even gone to the peak yet to meet the greybeards. I killed the first dragon and then wandered off.

Barter I don't really see a point in unless you want to give a merchant a lot of gold to sell stuff. But, as it is, my Imperial has 25k+ gold and I have no idea what to spend it on. I'll probably just buy mats for Smithing, which is actually pretty useful, and more so if you want dragon armor. Speech also is kind of useless. You get a lot of that just for selling to a merchant (strangely not barter, or maybe I'm just seeing that wrong...). Anyway, the above skills I noted are probably all you need to worry about as an assassin. I just don't see myself using anything else, or having any need to.

But also; the magic(s). Destruction is my filler ability for damage. I rarely use alteration, but I have it in case I want it. Illusion is fun with frenzy and fear, but its not very high for me yet. Restoration is a must for the healing spells. Conjuration is just "eh" to me - I'm not a big fan of "pets". It does, however, have Soul trap, so it may be something you look at.