So I thought I might try out the old Oblivion class of Witchhunter in Skyrim, and would appreciate input on playstyle for master difficulty.

The major skills for Witchhunter in Oblivion are;
Alchemy / Athletics / Conjuration / Destruction / Marksmanship / Mysticism / Security.


So with the skills and magic thats been cut Im left with;
Alchemy / Conjuration / Destruction / Marksmanship / Lockpicking


Now the thing about that is, I know lockpicking is a bit of a waste of time to perk for me as I can pick master locks with little fuss. And while conjuration is a good school of magic, Im not sure Its fitting with the playstyle I had originaly envisaged. I always play solo for the challange, so atronachs and the like I always ignore. And while bound weaponry are good early on, its outmatched by decent physical weapons. Plus Im going to use archery as my exclusive physical attack skill, so in other words no melee weapons.

And now Im stuck, because then my character is now nowhere near a true witchhunter. Its a bit of a quandry, which im hoping a few of you peeps can maybe advise me on. Well then, what do you think is the proper "style" of play a witchhunter should employ for Skyrim, as is it still the same class style as before?

Maybe Morrowind's witchhunter can give you some ideas.

Major: Conjuration, Enchant, Alchemy, Light Armor, Marksman

Minor: Unarmored, Block, Blunt Weapon, Sneak, Mysticism

Starting spells: Bound dagger, Summon ancestral ghost

Thauraver has a good suggestion. I'd translate those into Skyrim terms as follows, taking your preferred playstyle for this character into consideration:

Put perks into the Majors:

Light Armor and Archery (Marksman) - Your main defense and offense.
Alchemy - Healing and offensive poisoning. Bonus potions for Enchanting. Invis potions for sneaking. etc.
Enchant - More damage for your bows since you won't be crafting your own.
Conjuration - Substitute Destruction here, but mainly use Runes to act as a minefield if you don't kill them fast enough with your bow.

Level up the Minors but few, if any perks:

Sneak - Positioning for good shots, bonus damage. Perk this to get to Deadly Aim.
Blunt - Substitute One Handed. Emergency close quarters combat. You don't make an effort to level this, but that's going to happen when opponents get past your defenses and attack you up close.
Mysticism - Substitute Conjuration and use for ealy bound weapons, but mainly for Soul Trap to feed your Enchanting habit.
Unarmored & Block - Speech and Lockpicking. Those two will level up anyway just from the unavoidable selling of loot and picking of locks. They don't define a Witchhunter, they just happen (for everyone).

The first character I played was a Witch Hunter, and I originally had a lot of trouble with it, prompting me to make a second witch hunter.

The first I really had no clue what I was doing. I invested in blacksmithing, archery, destruction, light armor, enchanting, and later on sneak. My play style was rather weak, as I would start off originally using magic until my mana bar ran out, and I quickly switched over to a bow and tried to take out my enemies that way. It wasn't very effective and I decided to start over.

The second time around I started off with Conjuration, Archery, Destruction, Light Armor, Sneak, and Lock Picking.

As soon as I could I immediately picked up the skill book "soul trap" and went off to find a ram. I killed it, and began to cast the soul trap ability on it. Once my mana ran out, I would wait for one hour, and start up again. I kept doing this until I reached level 50 for conjuration, investing a point into novice and apprentice skills, as well as the ability that increased the damage of Conjure Weapons, and the Soul Trap ability that comes with them. With each level I also increased my base mana. After I reached level 50 for conjuration, I ran back and picked up the ability "Conjure Bow".

Generally how I would play from there is I would start off with a sneak attack, taking out as many enemies as I possibly could getting the 3x damage. Once I was discovered, I would switch over to my destruction spell, and take them out from there.

As far as stats go, I didn't invest too much more into magic. Sitting at around 140-150 I never really had to worry about running out, and when the occasion that I did I always had a supply of magic potions on me.

Lock Picking was something I just picked up because I thought it would make sense. Witch's often seclude them selves off behind locked doors, a Witch Hunter would need to know how to get beyond that door to get to their target. Light armor just made my self not have to worry so much about getting killed easily.


Also, when it came to Dragons I stuck primarily using the Conjured Bow. It generally allowed me to take them out faster then with magic. Once I hit level 30 or so, I saw magic becoming more and more ineffective against my targets, and began to play strictly with the conjured bow. I should note though that if your sneaking and you have to recast, try to be as far as possible from your target - it makes a noise which makes your target aware of your presence.

Thanks peeps youve given me some ideas on how to play this character.

What I think I might do is swap conjuration for alteration. Now I know your thinking "what?", but bear with me. Conjuration now doesnt have bound armor, which is what I would have used for a Witchhunter on Oblivion. And in Skyrim the school is really dedicated to summons, which while powerful are not my cuppa tea. So If go for alteration I can use skin spells, and resistances from the tree in effect creating "bound armor" again (though not properly).

So that means my skills will be like this;

Alchemy / Archery / Alteration / Destruction / Lockpicking*

*Made a decision to perk picking just for SnG.

Five core skills is more than enough. Playstyle will consist of potioneering for massive damage bow attacks from poisons and potion buffs, mage armor to suppliment an unperked light armor skill and destruction wall and cloak spells. No sneaking, no enchanting, and only basic smithing.

I think that should do nicely. Oh and I decided to go with a Dunmer for the class, as the ancestors wrath and fire resistance should fit well for an "anti-mage" class.

I know a guy who plays almost exactly like that... His name on youtube is Riflegaming
He is quite funny too!
The class works out well i think... summons that attack and distract, then shoot the enemy with your poisoned arrows, awesome!