Jump off a cliff?

stealth archery at long range (when permitted)
knife to the back when in close quarters
if enimy comes at me i will switch to sword/dagger sword/sword sword/spell

invisibility, chameleon, detect life, and night eye will be my support spells

fire/frost based spells, soul trap, and alchemy will be among my offensive line up.

when going out to loot, pack light and may shadow hide you

I will see what happens but I plan to experiment with daggers poison illusion.

Backstab to the face!

yo! as the point blank situations go, I feel as I have learned from oblivion and morrowind characters that ive made. with the build that I made up for skyrim (taking into factor you get 50 points to spend), I will be leveling up perks that include marksman, dual weilding perks, various warrior perks, and lots of sneak perks. I will be able to sneak around in heavy armor without getting anyones attention, and when they have their back turned (up close), ill be able to use battle cry, and get a sneak attack with my loaded up blade skill. thus introducing hella large ammounts of damage on my opponent As for a profession, ill most likely try Alchemy, Logging, and Smithing, but specialize in alchemy to poison the ends of my arrows for that little bit of 'knockdown power' that sometimes makes all the difference



Agreed wholeheartedly with this post, as I was also facing these questions. Personally, my thief/assassin Is going to be a Nord male, named Huldarr (Old norse, for 'Hidden Warrior') as for my build and playstyle just read the above post, any input is accepted/appreciated. Still not sure what i want to name this build, and even though my sneak wont be amazing in the beginning of the game, It will definitely be worth it later on .

Dual longswords or axes for the win!

Im either go spellthief or dual wield daggers for when the bow doesnt get the job done, havent really decided which yet. Either way should cover all but the most difficult upclose encounters.

One-handed blade, illusion. That is all.

I have very few stealth characters who will actually use a bow. One of my assassin characters will but then there is nothing as satisfying (in my opinion) than successfully sneaking up on someone and sticking a knife or shortsword in them when they least expect it!

My assassin style character is going to be a little spread out in skills. Or at least it feels that way for me. One Handed, Light Armor, Sneak, Lockpicking, Alchemy,Speech, Pickpocket,Archery Illusion. Despite that I think my perks will end up being fairly concentrated. Lots of Sneak and Pickpocketing definitely. How many Lockpicking perks really comes down to how hard/easy I'm finding that part of the game. I probably wont actually put many perks into Archery or Illusion though I could be underestimating how much leveling I do put I'm going to try for at least up to the silent casting perk.

Poisons and one hand mace or axe. The various poison effects combined with either bleeding or armor ignore is a great match.

My first toon will probably turn out like this. I want to be self reliant as far as what I'm wearing/using. I don't see myself getting "caught" often,
but when the situation arises, I'm going to Freeze them with a shout, then go to town on them with a pair of short-swords. If combat remains hairy, I'll Ethereal shout and get the hell out.

"Attribute" distribution
Health+2
Magicka+3
Stamina+5

Perked skills
Sneak
Marksmen
Alchemy
Smithing
Enchanting
One-hand

Un-perked skills (I will level them, but not spend my perks on them.)

Destruction
Pickpocketing
Lockpicking
Light Armor

I can tell you that you will have a much better time in Skyrim as a thief/sneak than you would have in Oblivion. Sneak attacks did piddly damage. Your only saving grace was heavy enchantments and poisons to help get around it. And once you were detected, it was pretty much game over. No matter how far you ran, it was as if you were wearing one of those glow-suits from Tron in the enemy's eyes. On top of this, you could not dual wield.

I am glad they have revamped the stealth/thief game quite a bit from Oblivion. Even with all of it's flaws in the previous game, it was still very fun. My favorite game of all time is Thief: The Dark Project. There is something very satisfying moving around undetected and listening in on conversations other noisy players would not hear otherwise.

Shadow hide you.

I actually have TWO very different stealth characters planned: a Bosmer huntress and a Breton spy.

Bosmer: what "barrage of arrows"? One arrow, one kill. If there are multiple enemies, kill one and then change position so the others will not find me. When they can't find me, eventually they will let their guard down again. Then I shoot and kill another one.

In the (hopefully) rare cases of head on confrontation, I will do one of two things.
If the opponent is bigger than me (dragons, grizzly bears, Nords), I will run away. I am faster and smarter than they are and when I hide they will not find me.
If the opponent is smaller than me (dogs, teddy bears, children), or already wounded, I will pull out my trusty hunting knife and have at it.


Breton: run away from direct confrontation, always. Also of note: she won't use a bow either. The ONLY time she will engage in anything like violence is when she absolutely can't get around someone any other way. Then it will be a knife in the back or poison dripped into their clothes. If she HAS to fight, she will call off the quest.


Bosmer: Archery, Sneak, Light Armor. That's it. She will use 1H weapons but not bother with Perks for them until at least level 40. Better to max out bow.

Breton: Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Speech. That's it. Maybe enough Alchemy to get Poisoner. Again might branch into other stuff after level 40, but I'm not planning on it especially.

I'm doing this as well. Pure thief. Will of course be leveling sneak, pickpocket and lockpicking to the max. Alchemy is a must. Archery (+poisons) will be my main way of dealing damage, allowing me to ignore some 1H and light armor perks. Might even skip 1H and light armor completely for speech and playing the smooth talking, charismatic thief.

Hopefully in close quarters at higher levels I can poison and disarm enemies to turn the fights to my advantage.

From a Perks Wise point of view;

Focusing on Sneak primarily and poisons. My aim being to beef up my back-stab multiplier and never attempt a back-stab without also using some sort of home made poison.

One-handed for the extra power and the dual wielding perks. To be able to better dispatch in one-hit.

Speech is essential if I'm going to talk my way out of jail and sell fenced goods to some stores.

Lockpicking and Pickpocket will come next. Especially the high end of pickpocket, I can't wait for that .

If I have any perks left I may put some into Light Armour. And there's always the chance that Illusion might seem appealing or even Marksman.

I am thinking about a sneaky character.
Maybe an Assasin-/Thieve-Nord with slight magic.
Something like this:

Stealth
Blade
Lockpicking and Pickpocket
Alchemy
Illusion
destruction


Not sure about what magic school I should use, but illusion and destruction seem to fit a battlethief... I don′t know much about Skyrims character creation at all, it looks kinda complex, but I′m sure, the game will explain it to me quite well.
Not sure about Marksman as well... I usually ear "never choose any ranged weapon in an RPG", but I′m sure that Bethesda balanced this perfectly in Skyrim and it might be worth it, although I prefer close combat.
I′d love to try dual daggers, and Sns as well... I guess I′ll be able to develop both without loosing too much?


Also, I′m not really sure if I actually SHOULD play a battlethief... Will I really be balanced in combat with heavy melee-orcs and mostly important, dragons?
How will I deal with them?

If I'm correct, it would get better with the latest perk of the stealth tree : you can crouch in combat and the enemy briefly loose sight of you. This could very well mean enough time to go quickly around the enemy and give another backstab opportunity !

Otherwise, massive use of poison to cripple or slow the enemy. This way, either it gives margin to go away and resume target practice, or just fight with you knife (or dual knives). With perks from light armor allowing for a chance to evade strikes + some well timed evades + poisons, on a weakened enemy, can give you a chance. And at this stage, the enemy should already be decently weakened/hurt.

The problem arises with you will face multiple enemies at once, though... Then I guess some invisibility scroll or confusion/frenzy scroll or poison can come in handy !

My character will not be exactly a thief, I'm planning something like an archer/ranger. Here is the build:

Race: Bosmer

Sneak (13 perks):
Stealth 1-5, Muffled Movement, Backstab, Deadly Aim, Light Foot, Assassins Blade, Silent Roll, Silence, Shadow Warrior.
First approuch will always be sneaking for silent kills. May cut off Assassins Blade if the one-handed sneak attacks with Backstab and Armsman 5 delivers a lot of damage.

Archery (11 perks):
Overdraw 1-5, Eagle Eye, Powershot, Hunters Discipline, Ranger, Quickshot, Bullseye.
Really in doubt about Critical Shot perks. On F3 and F:NV sneaky shots were already critical attacks, so don't know if this perk will be useful. I play FPS games a lot, so Steady Hand will not be necessary at first.

Alchemy (10 perks):
Alchemist 1-5, Physician, Poisoner, Concentrated Poison, Green Touch, Snakeblood, Purity.
Since I'm not using magic skill, will need a lot of health potions. And the poisons, of course!

One-handed (9):
Armsman 1-5, Fighting Instance, Dual Flurry 1, Dual Flurry 2, Dual Savagery.
When sneak approuch fails, dual wield two swords and start slashing.

Light Armor (6):
Agile Defender 1, Custom Fit, Unhindered, Wind Walker, Matching Set, Deft Movement.
Some backup for the moments described above. Wind Walker will be very helpfull for dual-wielders, I guess.

Total: 49 perks.

I'm planning to play at least 60 lvls, so the remaining perks will be spread in Lockpicking (if the mini-game shows to be hard to beat with 100 skill alone) and Smithing (in the case that arrows are hard to obtain I will make it myself).

What do you guys think?

That sounds like a good build — I'm debating something similar but not sure whether to use alchemy or illusion.

I put points into Sneak and archery mainly, some in light armor to increase the value of it so i can take a hit better, and some into 1h. If you have increased stealth from the first part of the sneak tree. Then what i do, stealthy style, is if more than one opponent, i sneak shoot my bow, if it's not a 1 hit kill or more than 1 person i'll back up and hide in a diff part of the room. They go lookin for source, dont see it, i go back to hidden and get my sneak bonuses back and just take them out one by one doing that. rarely ever get involved in direct combat.

I have pure Assassin/Thief Char who does not use magic. I invest mostly in 1hand, archery, stealth, and alchemy skills. Usually I don't get into situations with point blank situations with enemies (stealth attacks get them most of the time. When I do, I switch to dual wielding 1hand swords, sometime added with posion, to take them down. Make sure to have the Dual Flurry perk, it is very useful for dual wielders and will make short work of most normal enemies. For strong enemies like Frost Trolls, resort to guerilla tactics with a bow, close combat with them is suicidal at low level.

Skills I invest in:

1Hand Weapons (for close range)
Archery (For stealth kills from afar and to fight tough enemies you can't find in close quaters)
Stealth ( mandatory for stealing and getting stealth kills without alerting enemies)
Alchemy (poisons are your friend against tougher enemies)
Lock Pick (I don't use magic, so I need something to unlock door and chests)
Pickpocket (good for assassination by pocketing poisons and getting some quick coin)
Light Armor (good defense and perfect for stealth)
Smithing (really just fun hobby for my char, mining and crafting is fun)

I'm a lvl 25 thief/assassin type dark elf. I roll around in a combo of shroud and thieves' guild armor with enchanted glass sword, dwarven bow, and glass shield. Ideally you should be able to pick off at least 2 if not 3 enemies wit bows and sneak damage. i find that when it comes to melee both alternating strategies for enemies is best. Bears, sabre cats, trolls, wraiths, advanced bandits are all hard hitters meaning you really need a shield to stay alive as well as constant movement. Circling enemies and moving in and out is great. However I've found that with 3 or more regular enemies drough, bandits, wolves etc. duel wielding can tear through em easily. Right now i'll utilize glass longsword and skyforge longsword both enchanted. i have one scimitar and would like a partner so i can become Drizzt. oh and buy and loot every pick. I'm just at lvl 40 lockpicking but havine 80+ picks makes even master locks only a few minutes of trial and error.

Hello, I'm new to this too. I used to be mage. Wanted to try different role now. Going to read all advises here.

About 25 hours in with my Bosmer thief. Here's what I've learned:

Not surprisingly, sneak is your highest priority. You really need those perks to get the sneak multipliers. Without them your sneak attacks will be too weak to depend on them.

Bow: Take it or leave it. Great as a combat opener, great against dragons or any other large beastie you don't want to be close to. Great poison delivery system. Don't think your going to back peddle and keep shooting because walking backwards is VERY slow. Semi useful melee attack for CQC, but nothing you can depend on. Lots of investment to make it effective.

Destruction: For a thief, those fire / lightening / cold wards make excellent traps that you can set up before combat starts. Example, open up with your bow / balde and let the enemy chase you into the ward.

Lockpick: I've picked every lock I've come across and have not invested in this perk tree.

Pickpocket: Used it for quests but haven't really been using too much.

Alchemy: Take it or leave it. Good support skill. Fills in holes in your build. Makes money. But is going to take some investment to really get something out of it. I enjoy it though because I need to do something w/ all the crafting supplies.

That's it for now