So my Xbox died and in the long wait to get it back, I decided to think upon my next character.

I was thinking about starting a dual wielding warrior with light armor (to mimic the looks of the npc Nords). Being a Nord, he isn't going to use magic, and I'm only going to use smithing to upgrade the gear I find. I'm also planning on using alchemy (for buffs and poisions), sneaking (to get the drop on baddies) and archery.

My goal is to sneak through areas, thin the crowd then charge in with a pair of axes.

So, knowing that I'll have no blocking and can't afford to get hit all that much, is this build usable on Master?

I am an assassin with little Light Armor rating, and sometimes I have a hard time on easy settings. Try it out first, but if it is a little too tough, just bring it down a notch.

so basically a sword rogue type

its basically what im playing atm

very viable but it depends how you level him and how you play

you may find yourself going more into thief territory than you initially intended

my inital advice would be to go straight up the light armor tree and get 20%>25%>no weight>50 stamina talents

cherry pick dual wield obviously for the speed 50% power attacks and 25% power attack cost reduction

get the 6 times backstab, 3x bow from stealth

use a follower to begin with because your stealth will be crap (i like an archer for several reasons) and start filling out from that target basis.

be very careful about where you spend points. you have a lot of ground to cover with this kind of build and it tends to be a little bit here a little bit there kinda deal rather than bang! fill up 2/3 of tree

3 points in pickpocketing for example gets you 100 carry weight and the fun you can have with sticking poisons on people anyway i digress....

nope u wont dual wielding results in extreme dmg, im lvl 32 high elf assassin and initially i was dual wielding daggers and using bows, but after i maxed out sneak i started dual wielding daedric swords rushing everything like a pure warrior type. i have 72 one handed skill with all available perks for my current skill level and not even 1 perk in light armor and i can destroy anything before taking dmg without even using sneak attacks, soo yeah u'll be ok haha and btw even with light armor u can get to the armor cap using alchemy and smithing and getting some perks into light armor so dont worry.

The game is designed so you can do anything, and warriors in light armor where called barbarians back when the game has classes, theres a class for every kind of play style.

So, basiclly an assasin =p

Assasin-style play is very viable, early on it's tricky but once you get your sneak attacks and damage up it's a breeze - and since you have a bow, potions and poisons, dragonslaying shouldn't be too hard either (Just stick to your bow and don't get into it's horrible [censored] radius!)

Good points all.

Hmm. I gues I am pretty much playing like an assassin. Wasn't exactly what I wanted. What if I do less sneaking? I don't want to be an assassin. I just want to even the odds a bit whenever I can.

Unfortunatly if you arn't gonna hide, then you're gonna need proper defences. "slow" effects from poison or abilities really isn't all that effective, so you're going to get beaten on, and if you're going to get beaten on you're going to need armour. A more useful tidbit of information is to do with armour quality and smithing. Due to the way smithing boosts equipment's rating, it IS actually quite viable to use lower end armour (ie. the nordic looking ones - steel, iron), without losing that much stats, it's not like Oblivion where fur offered as much protection as a wet paper bag, it's a bit more balanced now.

You just described my character.

Dual Wielding swords, no magic except for his shouts. Some Sneaking, Some Archery, Some Alchemy (need them health potions!), and Blacksmithing.

I'd say very viable, and a lot of fun. Game remains a challenge, and certain encounters you need to do a little planning beforehand (Forsworn mages in the mid 20s hurt). But... I'm enjoying the setup a lot.

Edit: Oh, and my playstyle? standard nord warrior. Run in and smash things til they stop trying to hit me back. Honestly my defenses are a mix of Elven and Glass armor, with whatever enchantments were on them when I found them (Usually things to help me carry more). Mages do bite. They are really really hard to run in like that, which is when the bow comes out.

Giving Lydia the Sanguine Rose also helps with mages. haha.

Sounds perfectly viable to me. I was pretty much running my Orc that way (switched to heavy armor 'cause I liked the looks of one set); alchemy makes tough fights survivable, IMO.

I would certainly recommend focusing on resist enchants going the dual wield route (or even two-hander). I understand the temptation with stuff like +carry enchants, but I personally prioritize survival over convenience. I've never really had a problem with mages on my characters, but that's because my rogue will switch to sword/board, and he carries 3 shields, each with one of the elemental resists on them, and with the perk that blocks elemental damage, he has no problem with mages at all. My two-hander heavy armor warrior type has mostly elemental enchants on his gear, and his two-hander really cuts through mages like a hot knife through butter anyways. This strategy also helps deal with the dragons more easily as well (though I never really had much trouble with them)

It's just a matter of making sure you have the right defense for any given situation. Often that's just a good offense, but sometimes you need some damage mitigation added in to give you time to execute that offense.

I've been playing almost exactly this same build - in the first 10 levels or so, I used sneak a fair bit but by the mid-teens I found just running in and chopping worked better.

Skills: 1h, Light armor, some smithing, some alchemy, a little archery for pulling, used to use sneak.
Perks: as many 1h and light armor as I could get, a few smithing (I like the look of having complete sets, so I perk it when I find a new type to make the rest of the set)

I do find that anything you can do to give yourself more stamina regen helps, with decent dual axes 2 dual-handed power attacks pretty much kills everything even on Master. The Slow Time shout works great for this. I've been playing a Redguard to give some extra regen too - Adrenaline Rush is awesome.

Good responses. I was in this dilemma too and stupidly deleted my Redguard dual wield sword light armor warrior in frustration. I was level 24 and I seemed to be taking too much damage against certain enemies like blood dragons and keveal the tongue.

I do not think I put enough points in light armor by the time I hit 24 and was pretty squishy. So here's my questions. Is it better to roll axes and put earlier points into hte light armor? Or is two hander light armor hte way to go. If it is I will re-roll a Nord light armor two hander.

Here was my spread originally:
http://skyrimcalculator.com/#13926

bump

Just a little addition. But if you are maxed out sneak and have shadow warrior - suddenly it becomes VERY viable to melee in light armour (WITH DAGGERS!). But obviously this means you'll be strongly into a ninja or assasin playstyle.

Axes - one or two handed, are probably the worst option. Their bleed effect deals damage over time, but as a guy who relies on killing quickly damage over time is a luxury you can ill afford - where the armour negation or critical strike damage of a mace or sword deal immediate damage

Thanks for the feedback! I think im gonna roll two handers to keep my block and be a barbarian...going great swords to get the extra crit too! Thanks again!