alright guys, i'm a new TES player here.. i've just started the game and currently considering on how i would build my character.. my idea is to approach a battle with stealth and using bow.. after the enemies are alerted, switch to blade and magic.. so i'm thinking of developing the following skills
one-handed, archery, sneak, destruction, restoration, light armor

the emphasis is stil on the archery and sneak.. destruction is to be used occasionally and restoration only to restore health and wards..
my question is, would it be a too generalized character?? i'm afraid that it would lead to non-specialized character, and make the game difficult later in the game..

also, is it okay if i dont want to bother with smithing or enchanting?? can i only rely on the gears from looting / stealing / quest rewards???

thank you, your help would be appreciated..

well, for the first one, anything you can make work would be good, you might want to pick what your main offensive skill will be though (i would pick form blade or magic from that description) and put most of your perks into that. but iv never had more than a single offensive skill (if even that) so i might not be the best person to ask about your build.

for your second question, i never use smithing or enchanting, only on a single character, but i manage to get by just fine

I would replace destruction for illusion, if it was me. Three offensive skills seem abit much, not too mention that destruction doesn't scale well enough to use as the 3rd one. But the thing about illusion is that you have to use it alot to level and put alot perks into it.

I'm like a magey-warrior.

Here's what I'd go for:

One Handed, Sneak, Illusion, Alchemy, Light Armor, Archery

Alchemy is better for a build like yours for healing, which relies on sneaking. Poisons are also handy as well
Illusion is simply THE stealth school of magic (Invisibility and Muffle)

IIRC, Destruction spells dont benefit from sneak attacks, and Restoration will compete with the other 2 for your Magicka

Take the skills you think are cool and go for it. Believe me, you can plan out your character as hard as you can, after 10 hours in you will recognise that you somewhat digressed from your plan . And that is a good thing!

I would add conjuration. Sneak close, conjure something while hidden, then run away.

It depends on what difficulty you want to play on.

If you're playing on master then you will want to specialize in only one direct damage skill versus spreading points between several of them. If you play on the easier difficulties then it really doesn't matter what you do.

My character is a stealthy mage and it works fine, though I hear destruction is very underpowered at high levels without mods.

I personally would use magic to support stealth.

Get your sneak up fast as possible.

Cheers

Conjuration and Illusion with a Nightblade type character (a stealth mage) is incredibly powerful in this game. You can sneak in, get off a hidden bow shot, conjure a minion and then either frenzy the crowd to create chaos and kill each other off or simply invis out of a fight (or stealth again if you've got the perk) and win most fights going away. It's a very fun and active playstyle as you can either manipulate the battlefield with whatever tactic strikes your fancy or go brute force if you want a quick end to the combat.

Stealth and magic has always been one of my favorite combinations in character building. You can pretty much toss destruction away, because its damage is bad, countered only by making its magicka cost very low. It isn't the most quiet one either (Unless you pick Quiet casting from Illusion tree). If you want to rely on magic early on, get fury and calm.

Some people are just dense. Dual wielding incinerate deals out over 200 damage, that is if you got the perk, but who wouldnt get the perk?

I would add alchemy to use poison and maybe fortify skill potion or invisibility pots, especially if you want to use destruction. Damage from destruction spells are pretty low at higher lvl, but with a good poison that weaken your target to magic or the right element can do wonders.

Illusion may be better with a stealth oreinted character but this skill recquire a lot of perk point to be usefull.

If your main weapon is going to be a bow, coupled with sneaking - you won't need much of anything else. My assassin uses a bow and has a 2H as backup weapon, but very rarily uses it. And, I've not seen many situations where you'll be faced with a lot of enemies, although my level 36 is not doing all the quest lines currently, so I don't know what large-scale battles are ahead, if any. But the bow is a fantastic long-range weapon, and even in dungeons with 4-5 enemies I can usually kill them all before they're even aware of me. You get up to the 3X damage while sneaking and life is good.

I get archery up fast - you want to do as much damage as possible. Keep upgrading your bow and arrows as soon as you see equipment that has more damage. I sneak wherever I can, so I usually don't put perk points in that skill - it levels itself nicely.

I also enchant, but not power-level, to get additional damage on the bow. You can also enchant armor for more health, magicka, etc.

There are helmets/gauntlets/rings in the game that increase archery damage - make sure to wear those.

I'd suggest illusion and/or conjuration instead of destruction. Illusion is most helpful for someone sneaking around.

Also like others I'd recommend Alchemy over Restoration. Not only can you heal, but you can also restore your magicka, get serious buffs and resistances, and brew awesome poisons like paralyze.

Having 3 offensive skills isnt really a good idea; i remember one guy tried it and he did have a hard time later on.
Look, you might wanna just play the character whatever way you want to play it, don't go "ok the enemy is near me, i HAVE to use my sword now" just use what you feel like using. And even if the game gets hard later on, you can switch the difficulty anytime, there's no shame whatsoever in playing novice difficulty, no one's gonna judge you.

After 39 Levels and just using what felt right, I find that my major skills are Sneak 81, Alteration 71, Destruction 67, Conjuration 66, Enchanting 66, Restoration 60. I planned a Battlemage who would use Destruction and Archery. Archery is coming along but I rely heavily on my Destruction magic because I love the sound of the dual-cast Firebolt spell when I'm firing it off. I did join the College of Winterhold and get the Arch-Mage's robe (powerful) so I didn't have to worry about armor with the Mage's Armor perk and the Stoneflesh spell to protect me. So I guess I'm a sneaky mage now.

Just sharing what I used in case it fits in with what you like. I'm leveling slowly, almost 250 hours now and it feels right.

I just started playing my high elf thief / mage on master difficulty who primarily uses illusion and destruction and sneaks around pickpocketing. Choice of followers?
Brelyna Maryon! (best choice? well leave her behind when you go pickpocket)

End game might look like this:

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#34759

I might not have to talent anything in sneak just keep muffle up, it seems to work just fine and if anything goes wrong you can usually just cast calm or the higher level ones. Need destruction for dragons only I suppose. Life will be hard without alteration perks or light armor perks and wearing robes mostly anyway. Gonna have to control stuff and use invisibility at times Brelyna will be relied upon to create tanks. I also expect to get the avoid death perk lol!(Once a day ) Level 63 is quite high for a build in this game, go with your illusion stuff first and the other spell perks first. The thief perks are all about living large late in the game. Enchanting and smithing aren't going to do a lot but make money and maybe make your mage life easier with fortify enchants; but they should be leveled up late as well. This is the plan we'll see later if such a course if viable, archers and mages are a pain(one shotted *ouch) if you don't see them when a fight starts, but they should be calmed/pacified etc and dealt with one on one.