OK, so I know that Khajiit, Argonian, Bosmers are all "the best" thieves. However, they are also the most prejudiced races and I like to run a character who the NPCs like so I can steal from them and then convince them it's their fault

In previous ES, I'd use Imperial because they got a boost to speech, but I read that's been removed for Skyrim.

So, is it crazy to think of running a Nord thief and realistically be able to reach high levels in lockpicking, sneak, speech and bow?

The majority of the thieves guild members are Nord.

There is no reason a Nord can't pick locks or sneak.

Edit: Just saw that this was your first post.

Welcome to the forums

Well what race you are is really irrelevant in Skyrim.

My current character is doing this though. He is a Dunmer mage who happened into the thieves guild early on. No one suspects him when something goes missing. He dresses like a Vigilant of Stendarr(robes/armor, with a sword). If he goes into the castle/palace it is obviously because he is going to see the court wizard or talk to the steward about bandits who need killing, no one would ever accuse him of stealing the Jarl's jewels... no no, not him.

The best human race for a thief, imo, is definenatly Imperial. Imperial luck, more coin, and voice of the emperor when you need to calm everyone down if you screw up pickpocketing or need to make an escape.

Thanks! And thanks for the advice!

That's why I love the ES series because you can literally build anything out of anything. I just know that the racial stuff gives a sometimes significant leg up, especially in the beginning and don't want to spend 1000 extra hours. Also, I've read a couple places that lockpicking as a perk is useless. Is this true? and if so, why?

Yeah, that's usually why I used them. So they're still worth it even without the racial boost to speech?

No its not useless, people who say its useless have no idea what they are talking about. If you are roleplaying a hardcoe thief, i.e., stealing 24/7, then it is a very effecient tree, and Golden touch and Treasure hunter are one of the most OP perks in the game, it basically nets you the best gear, lots of gold, and you'll never need speech cause you will find lots of gems, gold, and jewlery and just make a living on that selling to the fences when they get more money.

Like I said, if you do lockpicking you won't need speech, golden touch and treasure hunter will net you a ton of good stuff to sell, you won't have to worry about the prices. The fences will end up with 4k gold each across Skyrim after you've stolen A LOT, which is enough to cash in your check.

Edit: if you want to be a smooth talker, then that's a different story. But yeah if you do speech and lockpicking, you'll be so ricch its ridiculous, but you wont have as many perks to put into other things like pickpocket (which is a lot of fun), archery, etc. Make sure to grab evvery single sneak perk, there all good.

Bartering/haggling isn't really my thing, I usually take speech for persuasion in convos.