» Tue May 29, 2012 12:09 pm I rolled up this character and have gotten to 45 level now so I thought I would share it since it is loads of fun to play.
Critiques are welcome, but I will try to explain my choices beforehand. Hopefully someone likes the ideas and uses it for themselves.
This build requires no abusive perks, ( I know the enchant/smith/alchem perks are not exploits or whatever, and it is a single player game so feel free to add them on) however this character will succeed on its own merit and on items obtainable through the loot and quests themselves.
The build has good synergy, its perks work together to bring many attack forms to bear.
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First thing to mention is it uses silent casting perk. This perk is required, vital, and worth the three prerequisite perks even if you never plan to use a fear/calm/frenzy in your career.
Runes and Bows, your ranged attacks.
Archery perks 1-5 overdraw, nothing else. Bow damage improvements- we save a crapton of perks here, and we basically lose nothing, still deadly with a bow. The build does have free perks, so more can be added here, but they are basically fancy window dressing to bow use.
Runes - novice destruction perk - apprentince perk - rune master (this perk is awesome if the user is clever)
Runes and bows, combined with silent casting allow you to trap your positions. Simply slap a rune in front of your shooting position before you begin combat and it will punish anyone who gets too close. Bows are slow in this game however, and this build is fast, treat bows as heavy weapons, usable on far shots or in large areas with plenty of distance.
For destruction also get the 2 frost improvement perks for 50 percent more damage. This character will be focused on frost.
This has great synergy with runes (75 damage frost runes) and any frost enchantment items will do 50 percent more damage.
Frosts greatest effect is the stamina drain and slow effect it deals to enemies. Get frost on your blades, and your bows since it will be upgraded thanks to the destruction perk.
Example: chillrend does 37 frost damage instead of 25 with these perks.
Runes can be used offensively very very easily with rune master. Also a 75 damage rune is only slightly less effective than the expert level icicle spell, and is much easier to hit things with (since it has a large explosion and can be shot at the ground)
Yes, some things are immune to frost (Dwemer stuff basically), get a fire rune for that! Rume master allows you to throw them on unaware enemies and not get caught, try throwing one and then going invisible.
Invisibility + Sneak.
For sneak- Get all perks except the mastery perk (or you can get the mastery perk if you want, but it is OP currently) Only take the first perk for sneak effectiveness however, as 5 percent increasers are not worth the extra 4 perks.
Get illusion perks to expert (this is another 3 perks since you already took novice casting for silent spell) It is totally worth it to cast invisibility repeatedly in combat. Fighting with a dagger or a blade and going invisible after each kill can ensure a throatcut EVERY time with no failure as long as you can keep casting. and you can keep forcing throatcuts even in the middle of a throng of enemies by utilizing high sneak and repeat invisibilty castings.
One-handed
Get all armsman perks, get savage strike and fighting stance (skip critical charge)
and pick up one bladesman perk to unlock the critical hit chances. (don't bother with 3 though, one is enough since you will be using spells/invisibility more than straight fights)
Don't worry about dual-wield. In addition to being awkward to use (PC), you will want your hand free to slap down runes at will, or to vanish yourself after making a kill, or throw an ice bolt, or detect life/detect dead.
Alteration
No perks are needed here, but grinding to get detect life is very useful ( I know there is a shout for it, but meh) (perks can be added here to pick up resistances to magic since this build has free perks available) Get enough skill to pick up detect life and waterbreathing(RP choice-sticking it to the argonians!), your magica pool can handle these even when not optimized.
Light Armor
This is our entire passive defense. Since we will not be raising stamina on this build past 160-180, light armor and its stamina regen is perfect.
get 5/5 agile defender-custom fit- unhindered-wind walker- deft movement.
Matching set ( for light armor) can be skipped over if you want to mix and match armors, or you can take it if you will be wearing a matching set all game
(This is another thing heavy armor wearers don't realize - light armor can choose to skip matching set perk, they cannot)
Proper smithing (below) will easily get you capped armor, so nothing to worry about, and with light armor you are not a sneak-clutz for half of your game.
Smithing
Get steel smithing and arcane smithing. That is all you need to hit armor caps and legendary weapons. This way the gear you find, you can improve and make it great.
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Together these are 44 perks. And assuming you grind your illusion perks in the early teens(muffle casting), the build is easily playable the entire way. 6 free perks even before level 50.
for stat allocation take health at early levels (duh!) to about 150-180. Then take stamina and magic. Stop stamina at 160-180 since you will not need any more with wind-walker.
Then take magic/health all the way up, the more magic the more invisibility and runes you can spam during combat.
For gear: of course you will want muffle boots!
Illusion cost reducing perks will help you spam invisibility or if you want- fear/frenzy/calm (you already have 7 of the illusion perks, so this route is easy!)
Do not worry about stacking one hand enchants, one is fine, since you will want to carry a blade in combat along with daggers, but stacking too many just one shots everything.
Sneak necklaces and rings are excellent.
Grab a nice bow/blade/dagger, with frost enchants if you can. Blade of woe and chillrend are great. (using these for myself)
Remember with silent casting you can shoot off a couple icicles without getting caught if you are hidden, it is interesting to use if you are too close to be using your bow.
Yes, I know I don't have any alchemy perks, and most assassins do. You can pick those up with the free perks available in this build, but really you can cast invisibility already, you damages from the forces sneaks and runes are huge, and paralysis potions even with no skill are 5-6 seconds, so I figured meh!
Thus concludes my convoluted post about this build I had fun with. Critiques/arguments/copying are welcome. I just wanted to share it.
