As soon as I heard about the limits on the number of perks that were available I ran into a problem. My problem being that I love playing stealth characters, but I also was worried this new system would force me to fall into builds that worked exclusively in thievery or assassination. I really want to find a happy middle ground for my character so this is what i came up with allong with my rational behind my choices:

Perks 50/50

Alchemy
Alchemist - 4
Physician -1
Poisoner -1

I've always loved alchemy even in oblivion where i was limited by it's effectiveness relying on intelligence, creating poisons and potions will give me healing and extra damage.

Sneak
All - 13

Basically essential no matter which side of the stealth tree you fall on.

Light Armor
Agile Defender - 3
Custom fit - 1
Unhindered - 1
Wind Walker - 1

I wanted sufficient perks here as to be well protected, but my goal is to not be seen in the first place, and failing that deal a lot of damage at once.

Lock Picking
Novice Locks - 1
Apprentice Locks - 1
Quick Hands - 1
Adept Locks - 1
Expert Locks - 1
Locksmith - 1
Unbreakable - 1

Essential for my foray into the thieves guild. I didn't go for master locks because after unbreakable why bother. If the skeleton key is is the game I will have to rethink this part of the build.

Archery
Overdraw - 3
Eagle Eye - 1
Power Shot - 1

This part is where I could use advice. I used to exclusively use archery in Oblivion, but it the perks aren't that amazing and it sounds like using archery like I used to in Oblivion isn't an option as the arrow economy is limited and its much slower, I would love to be wrong about this.

One Handed
Armsman - 5
Dual Fury - 2
Dual Savagery - 1

I plan to use dual daggers for the most part and I am rather sad that I cant go farther into this tree, but sadly there aren't enough perks to go around.

Smithing
Steel Smithing - 1
Arcane Smithing - 1
Elven Smithing -1
Advanced Armors - 1
Glass Smithing -1

This part serves a dual purpose by making up for the lack of points in light armor and One handed by allowing me to upgrade them to keep up with the curve.

The main problem I have is the sacrifice of power for more utility. This is the most effective way I could think of making a effective build that works in both Thievery and Assassination. Any helpful criticism would be appreciated. I have a feeling that you guys are better versed in this sort of thing than I and wish to learn the finer points of class building. And hopefully one of you find this build helpful.

This class is fine - you'll have access to good loot that should (hopefully) make up for raw power. I recommend you invest in some damage-soaking companions and definitely milk that alchemy for all you can. Besides, your bow should keep you safe as long as you have arrows, provided you aren't jumped by a dragon...

But hey, that's a dragon.

You may find that once your playing the game that some of those perks may not be worth while investing in. Again, won't know till we're playing.

I'm doing a similar build, but using conjured weapons and illusion, and no smithing.

It's difficult to plan a build like this as there are so many perks that would be nice to have. Here's my line of thinking for my Build

Light Armor - If you don't plan on getting hit, as do I, you could hold off putting any perks into the Light armor Tree or keep it minimal as you have, like keep it as you have it but just do 1 agile defender and see if more are needed. If you end up dying too much, you could then revisit this.

Lockpicking- As this is a mini game, I too would only put perks in this if you find you are unable to pick the locks. I'm hoping skill alone will make lock picking viable. That could free up 7 perks right there, or just go and get the quick hands perk(which may be useful) which is only 3 perks.

Alchemy- As with lockpicking, I would maybe see how the alchemy is without any perks, and go from there.

But I added in some magic in my build, so I had to sacrifice some of the stealth skill perks to make way for them, and I went with taking them out of Alchemy and Lockpicking. I may need to readjust once I'm playing though, as I do plan on using poisons.

If you liked archery, I'd go more into it since archery is much improved in Skyrim. The arrow economy can be improved with perks and by crafting your own arrows. Also, archery is much more potent now so you won't need as many arrows. The slow time perk in archery sounds like it would be really useful for long difficult shots and even more useful against charging enemies. Add that perk and the stagger perk and you can fight even out of sneak mode without any silly backpedalling.

you could use the tower standing stone to pick up to expert level locks and invest those points elsewhere, assuming the information on that standing stone is correct. If smithing really creates superior armor, then master level lockpicking should not be necessary. Here's my rough draft preliminary build...


my first preliminary build, deciding to not use magic at all, with the exception of perhaps a couple levels of restoration magic if required.. will have to play the game a while first to sort it all out... the heavy vs light armor is my sticking point at the moment.... light armor has somewhat better perks, heavy armor has a couple useless ones required to get to good ones. Any extra points would go into perhaps some base restoration magic, or the criticals of one handed/bow... not having to take smithing and knowing that loot would provide as good of armor would free up my options a bit, more into archery, basic restoration perhaps, and one handed. As it stands...


heavy armor - all (12) OR light armor - all (10)

sneak - all except silent roll, light foot (11)

one handed - armsman (5), bladesman (1)

block - shield wall (5), deflect arrows (1), elemental protection (1)

archery - overdraw (5), critical shot (1), eagle eye (1)

smithing , depending on it's usefulness over looted armor, and which tree depends on whether I'd do light
or heavy armor.

I would use the tower standing stone to pick locks, if required.

Curious, why go that far into Smithing and not pick up Dragon Armor? They DO have a light armor version, and it should be significantly better than Glass. Putting points in Smithing without going all the way to the end seems a bit odd.

What do you mean by this? Is there a confirmed max number? Or are you doing the "49 perks by 50" build thing?

mainly because I felt that my perks were needed elsewhere and I am keeping that one in mind if I find i don't need another perk. Its really very tempting for me to go full crafting, because I really enjoy that sort of thing, but that may have to wait. I am kind of confused as to how the Advanced Armor perk works does that mean you can create a plate or scale version of every armor you have the ability to craft?

Its much more simple than that. It's really me wanting everything, but not having enough points to do so. I love crafting and I love everything stealth. In Oblivion all you had to do was level the skill and you would have access to everything available. I used to play a jack of all trades in stealth with a focus in archery and alchemy. The perks allotted don't give me enough to recreate the character I fell in love with in Oblivion. I am trying to approach the character I used to play as closely as possible. Not sure what you mean by 49 perks by 50 though. As I understand it you can only get a maximum of 50 perks right?

Smithing improvements are huge. One guy improved his orcish so much is was signifagantly better than baseline dragon armor.

In the range of 240 AR minus heavy armor perks

If you get all skills maxed to 100, you'd have around 80 perks, maybe a couple less. Of course, you probably could of potentially finished all the content in Skyrim by the time you get there, so it's kind of moot.

The way I understand it, Advanced armors is just a couple types of light armors wrapped into one perk, instead of the standard one type per perk. I'm not 100% certain, though.

Yeah as far as perks go I remember Todd saying at some point that there would be a soft level cap which limited your perks.