Race:
Breton

One-handed:
Rank 5 Armsman, 100% extra damage with one-handed weapons

Subtotal: 5, Total: 5

Illusion:
Rank 5 Master,
Perk 1 Animage, illusion spells work on higher level animals
Perk 1 Kindred Mage, illusion spells work on higher level people.
Perk 1 Quiet casting, all spells you cast from any school of magic are silent to others.
Perk 1 Master of the Mind, illusion seplls work on undead, daedra and automotons
Perk 1 Rage Frenzy spells work on higher level opponents.

Subtotatal: 10, Total: 15


Conjuration:
Rank 5 Master,
Rank 2 Summonder, can summon atronachs or raise undead twice as far away
Perk 1 Atromancy, double duration for Atronach
Perk 1 Elemental Potency, conjured atronachs are 50% more powerful
Perk 1 Twin Souls, you can have two atronachs or reanimated zombies
Perk 1 Mystic binding, bound weapons do more damage
Perk 1 Soul Stealer, bound weapons soul trap on targets

Subtotal: 12. Total: 27


Sneak:
Rank 1 Stealth, 20% harder to detect when sneaking
Perk 1 Backstab, sneak attacks with one-handed weapons now do six times damage
Perk 1 Deadly Aim, sneak attacks with bows do three times damamge
Perk 1 Assassin's Blade, sneak attacks with daggers now do a total of fifteen times damage.
Perk 1 Shadow Warrior, crouching stops combat for a moment and forces distant oppent to search for a target

Subtotal: 5, Total: 32


Enchanting:
Rank 5 Enchanter, new enchantments are 100% stronger.
Perk 1 Insightful Enchanter, skill enchantments on armor are 25% stronger.
Perk 1 Corpus Enchanter, health, magicka, and stamina enchantments on armor are 25% stronger
Perk 1 Extra Effect, can put two enchantments on the same item.

Subtotal: 8, Total: 40


Alteration:
Rank 5 Master,
Rank 3 Magic resistance, blocks 30% of a spells effects
Rank 3 Mage Armor, protection spells like Stoneflesh are twice as strong if not wearing armor
Perk 1 Stability, Alteration spells have greater duration
Perk 1 Atronach, absorb 30% of the magicka of any spell that hit you

Subtotal: 13, Total: 53

Templar

-Two Handed: 13 (Mace)
-Heavy Armor: 11
-Restoration: 10
-Block: 8 (if the base perks that do not mention a shield also effect 2Hweapon block), if not then i'll take Enchantment (8).
-Alteration: 8

Very good durability with good damage.

I made a final revision to my build, and I was wondering what someone thought of it. I got rid of my Alteration perks to focus on Restoration, and Ward spells for defense.

49 Perks

Destruction: Novice+Apprentice+Adept+Expert+Master+Augmented Flames(2)+Augmented Frost(2)+Double Casting+Impact+Rune Master = 12

Conjuration: Novice+Apprentice+Adept+Expert+Master+Elemental Potency+Twin Souls+Dark Souls+Necromancy+Atromancy+Summoner(1) = 11

Restoration:Novice+Apprentice+Adept+Expert+Master+Recovery(2)+Ward Absorb=89

Sneak: Stealth(5)+Backstab+Deadly Aim+Assassin's Blade= 8 8

Speech: Haggling(2)+Bribery+Persuasion= 4

Illusion: Novice+Animage+Kindred Mage+Quiet Casting=44

Pickpocket: Light Fingers(2)= 2

I am going to model my build after the old TES starter class, Sorcerer; This class has always been the heavy armored variant of the mage, and is a starting option in both Morrowind and Oblivion. My character will be somewhat inspired by a well known npc Sorcerer from Morrowind known as Divayth Fyr. Here is my build...


Telvanni Sorcerer ( Health 200 / Stamina 200 / Magicka 400[~600+] ) ( 50+ Perks )
Race: Dunmer

[His low health and stamina will probably be compensated by enchanted gear. The general plan is to incinerate anything before it even gets close anyway.]

Primary Skills (50 Perks)

1) Destruction (16 Perks focusing on everything but runes; ignores rune perks since it only affects the range of placement)
2) Conjuration (11 Perks focusing on "Summoned Creatures", but not reanimated; includes all five cost reduction perks)
3) Alteration (11 Perks focusing on "Magicka Absorption", "Resistances", and "Durations"; includes all five cost reduction perks)
4) Restoration (4 Perks focusing on "Magicka Regeneraton", "Ward Absorption", and "Avoid Death" auto-spell)
5) Heavy Armor (8 Perks focusing on unrestricted movement and all five ranks of the first perk)



Minor Skills (Any extra perks go here if I max his level.)

6) Enchanting (11 Perks focusing on Armor and Apparel; my sorcerer doesn't use melee or archery)
7) Smithing (9 Perks focusing on Heavy Armor and Arcane Blacksmithing; I didn't pick heavy armor for nothing)
8) Illusion (0-9 Perks focusing on higher level enemies; perked last since my character isn't necessarily a twisted and sadistic control freak)

Hey guys,

I got 3 perks left for each of destruction and restoration.

For destruction, between Novice, Apprentince, Adept, Expert, and Master, which three should I choose? Same goes for restoration.

Thank you , much appreciated !

250 perks

only a 49 perk build thats only 19% of all perks

I hate low theory build.

Assasin-Thief-Illusionist-Poisoner - Dual Wielding with illusion spells to stay hidden and possible manipulate people, may add conjuration into the mix and only use conjured up weapons(Bow and Daggers, possibly short swords), I remember seeing a http://www.actiontrip.com/rei/scr.phtml?cat=f&platform=pc&link=theelderscrollsvskyrim&pic=theelderscrollsvskyrim32 of the conjured bow and it was this glowing purple cloudy looking thing. Which looked pretty sweet. Combined with silent casting so you could sneak up to someone, conjure up a Dagger and sneak attach them. Hard to manage all the perks though, hopefully skill level alone will still make you fairly competent in it and free up some perks.
--
Dunmer or Redguard
--
Sneak(10) - Stealth(4) - Backstab - Deadly Aim - Assassin's Blade - Muffled Movement - Light Foot - Silent Roll -Shadow Warrior

1H (4) - May Add ( Fighting stance - Critical Charge - Savage Strike ) depending on how the dual wielding pans out
-Armsman - Dual Flurry (2) - Dual Savegery

Illusionist (4)- Goal is just to get Quiet Casting, Further investment will depend on spell requirements, would like to use Invisibility to make an escape if needed. Quiet casting would be useful if I decide to go the conjurered weapon route.
-Novice - Animage - Kindred Mage - Quiet Casting

Lockpick (3)- Goal - Hopefully won't need to invest too much in this tree, if it's a matter of patience with the mini game I hope to get away with just the 3 perks.
-Novice - Apprentice - Quick Hands

Pickpocket (5) - Goal is to be fairly competent at pickpocketing, with a ability to Poison
-Light Fingers(3) - Night Thief - Poisoned

Light Armor (7) - Goal is to maybe be without armor all together, but that would mean not getting hit at all, or much, so not sure if that is feasible so will probably take most of them and go around in the Dark Brotherhood armor.
-Agile Defender(3) - Custom Fit - Unhindered - Windwalker - Deft Movement

Speech (2) - Goal is to be able to bribe guards. Would love to be able to get more, but can't seem to justify lose of other perks to do so

Alchemist (4) - Goal is to get proficient with Poisons. Would like to get additional, particularly the one to allow more identifications to be made, will have to see how the system works in game and decide if adjustment is needed
-Alchemist (1) - Physician - Poisoner - Concentrated Poison

Archery (8) - I may just opt out of archery all together, since main goal is to sneak up on people to make the kill. However Archery would open up more options when dealing with multiple foes, or beasts. This may be the perks I sacrifice in order to add additional ones above.
-Overdraw (3) Critical Shot (2) - Eagle Eye - Power Shot - Steady Hand

---------
Wishlist
---------
Smithing - Would love to dabble in smithing too. Keep ones murder dagger nice and sharp, perhaps this can still be somewhat effective without the perks. But I think the higher rated equipment needs the associated perk to be able to do anything with it.

Conjuration - Again might try to go this root instead of using real weapons.


-----

Plan to not associated any perks right away and save up a bunch. Then make a save and experiment the usefulness of some of them.

As someone mentioned it seems pretty difficult to be a a Mixed Thief type Character.

And depending on how hard it is to grind up past level 50, that will of course add in additional perks. But as the Op mentioned its not something I'm going to bank on. Everything after 50 is considered gravy.

There's a theoretical maximum of 26 more. Not that many.

This is what I have so far

Archery
- overdraw 5/5 - 5
- Eagle Eye - 1
- Steady hand 2/2 - 2
- Power Shot - 1
- Critical Shot 3/3 - 3
Total: 11

Conjuration
- Mystic Binding - 1
- Oblivion Binding - 1
- Conjuration Dual Casting - 1
- Summoner 2/2 - 2
- Atromancy - 1
- Elemental Potency - 1
Total: 8

Sneak
- Stealth 5/5 - 5
- Deadly Aim - 1
- Light Foot - 1
- Silent Roll - 1
- Silence - 1
Total: 9

Alchemy
- Alchemist 5/5 - 5
- Physician - 1
- Poisoner - 1
- Concentrated Poison - 1
- Green Thumb - 1
- Snakeblood - 1
- Purity - 1
Total: 11

Speech
- Haggling 2/5 - 2
- Allure - 1
- Persuasion - 1
- Intimidation - 1
Total: 5

Enchanting
- Enchanter 4/5 - 4
- Corpus Enchanter - 1
- Extra Effect - 1
Total: 6

Solid all-around pure mage build

Enchanting ( 8 perks total )
- Enchanter 5 ranks
- Insightful Enchanter
- Corpus Enchanter
- Extra Effect

Destruction ( 13 perks total )
- Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master
- Dual Casting
- Impact
- Intense Flames 1 rank
- Augumented Frost 1 rank
- Augumented Shock 2 ranks
- Deep Freeze
- Disintegrate

Alteration ( 10 perks total )
- Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master
- Dual Casting
- Mage Armor 3 ranks
-
- Stability

Conjuration ( 12 perks total )
- Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master
- Dual Casting
- Summoner 1 rank
- Atromancy
- Elemental Potency
- Necromancy
- Dark Souls
- Twin Souls

Restoration ( 3 perks total )
- Novice
- Recovery 2 ranks

--------------------------------------------------------------
46 perks total

I see a lot of people choosing 2handed without block, according to uesp, block increases your ability to block wether its with a weapon or shield.

These people should reconsider their build, just increasing 2handed wont give you enhanced blocking capabilities (which you will most definetly need as both your hands are occupied!)

Most people won't get to 50 probably so they don't need to worry. But for those that like to do every single thing in the game or do plan on making it to level 50.. how do you propose to stop yourself from leveling after you hit that level? As far as I know there weren't any ways to mod level caps in the previous games.

Not on the level, but there are level 100 skill caps. And you need to skill to level. Hence, level cap.

Probably by not using every skill in the game... A pure mage, for example, could forgo the use of the three weapon skills and the two armour skills, preventing themselves from going beyond a certain level.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1251222-can-you-actually-level-up-to-level-280/

Version 6.0

Heavy Armour: Juggernaut (5) + Well Fitted (1) + Tower of Strength (1) + Matching Set (1) + Reflect Blows (1) = 9

Smithing: Steel Smithing (1) + Arcane Blacksmith (1) + Dwarven Smithing (1) + Orcish Smithing (1) + Ebony Smithing (1) + Daedric Smithing (1) + Dragon Smithing (1) = 7

One Handed: Armsman (5) + Bladesman (3) = 8

Enchanting: Enchanter (5) + Insightful Enchanter (1) + Corpus Enchanter (1) + Extra Effect (1) = 8

Restoration: Novice Restoration (1) + Apprentice Restoration (1) + Adept Restoration (1) + Expert Restoration (1) + Master Restoration (1) + Respite (1) + Recovery (2) + Regeneration (1)= 9

Destruction: Novice Destruction (1) + Apprentice Destruction (1) + Adept Destruction (1) + Expert Destruction (1) + Master Destruction (1) + Augumented Shock (2) + Disintegrate (1) = 8

Overall=49

Is it confirmed that we start at level 0 and actually have 50 perks instead of 49?

You start at level 1. There is no level zero.

Oh well, that svcks, I was hoping to have an extra perk point to spend on my Imperial, *sigh* I'm happy with my current build though.

Indeed it does, they should give us a perk at level 1 then in my opinion.

Race bonus is level 1 perk.

That works too

Imperial race bonus is crap though, I would rather have the perk to do what I want with it.

Join the Altmer club for winners.

Pretty much this ^

haha, nah. I will never join the dark side of magic. You guys might be good with magic, but we Imperials are masters of diplomacy.