I am playing as a level 24 archer right now. I put my points into health, stamina, and magicka. I have sneak at 100 and every skill, archery at about 50 and my highest skill is the one where it slows time. I am working on restoration now and every now and then i put a point into light armor, one handed weapons (for close range) and I am going to start working on smithing and enchanting. It takes me about 8-15 shots to kill a Dragur Scourge and while sneaking about 5. I play on Adept difficulty and the lowest level dragons are fairly easy now (still takes about 15 shots). I have a bow that does 28 damage and Orcish/ Steel arrows. If you have read through all of this and can get enough information, is this a good setup?

First off, Archers need to put NOTHING into Stamina or Magicka, as you never use Stamina or Magicka. If you can't get a slow-mow snipe shot off in the time 100 Stamina runs out, you're doing it wrong.

Health is the only thing you need to increase.

You want to level up Light Armor, Sneak, Archery, and Smithing (imo) so you can craft the best bow in the game, Daedric. Nightingale bow is bad compared to the Daedric, especially if you enchant it.

Race doesn't matter at all, unless you want constant Night Eye, which is REALLY helpful.

I don't recommend using Alchemy as a main skill since snipe shots kill in one shot 90% of the time, poisons are a joke. They do nothing, as people die before it takes effect.

Also, Illusion is pointless for a true archer as things simply die before you have any need to cast a spell if you're sneaking.

I disagree, you do need stamina. How else are you going to be able to pick up any loot whatsoever? I put mine into stamina and health evenly. I don't use slow mo because I cannot stand it. I level up my sneak, archery, one handed, smithing, and enchanting. Also pickpocket, and lockpicking just for the heck of it. My character is based off of BBC's Robin Hood. I play imperial, with a hunting bow, and scimitar, "Clothes" (green with black vest), light imperial bracers(bow enchantment), theives guild boots, and ring and necklace with bow enchantments. I do perfectly fine as an archer. I mostly kill everything with my bow, if I decided to not sneak and they charge me of course I pull out my sword but who wouldn't.

Um, I'm explaining how to be a good Archer, not be a looter. Sure, once you get a "comfortable" health amount, you can throw some Stamina in. But is it needed or the Archer/Stealth gameplay? Absolutely not. It's more a melee combat thing. (Power Attacks)

Plus, 300 base encumbrance, 100 more with the Pickpocket perk. 400 seems pretty good to me.

Actually if you work your Archer properly you'll never be hit so you don't need more than 100 health. I can't remember the last time anything got close enough to hit me. I put 90% of my points into stamina simply for loot carrying or sprinting from one place to another.

For starters, who the hell wastes points in the Pickpocket tree.

Secondly, If we are talking of a hypothetical character who one-shot-snipes everything with a bow, then technically Health would also be a useless stat-up as you would never actually have to engage.

The pickpocket tree is the easiest money making skill in the game. No need to to craft for money or raid dungeons if you don't want too.

First off..is..that a joke? Pickpocketing is an amazing tree. Practical for everyone? No, but definitely useful. Your anolysis is incorrect.

Secondly, things go wrong. Having health is amazing for when you get knocked out of stealth by a surprise situation.

Plus, Casters hurt. Bad.

So no, you do not need Stamina,at all. My level 48 Khajiit Assassin has 100 Magicka, 150 Stamina, and like 480 Health. He wrecks everything with his bow while sneaking, and never needs to use Stamina.

Because, you know.

There such a high need for gold in skyrim.


For what, pickpocketing armour of the people you were going to kill from range with your bow anyway? Seriously, pickpocketing is easily one of the most useless and unnecessary skills in the game IMO, right up there with speech. (Excluding the capacity upgrade, but then thats what stamina is for.)

Obvious roll with a T is obvious.

Alchemy isn't a joke... derp

Poisons that damage 130 health and 30 seconds of paralysis?..

Just cause it's not as overpowered as your archery&sneak combo or level as fast as smithing/enchanting doesn't make it a joke

For three perks you can add 100 to your carrying capacity.

But with a high stamina you could get off five or six shots. Thus its useful.

This. Plus the whole poisoned arrow/dagger thing really ups the whole 'assassin' feel whilst RPing.


Are you kidding me? You seriously have almost no need for gold in Skyrim. My lv 40 first character is packing about 100,000 gold, and thats just from doing quests/dungeoneering naturally. In addition, I own almost every city house. There is not a large need for gold.

Explain to me any situation that has 6+ enemies that you could snipe at the same time without breaking stealth in the same area?

After 200 hours of gameplay, I can safely say that the situation does not exist in which that would be useful. 3, 4 MAX enemies, and I can get off 3 sniper shots while stealthed with just 100 Stamina.

Also, if things don't die fast enough that you could actually benefit from a poison, you are utilizing your character efficiently lol.

Even without investment in Stamina, you can easily get enough money to last your purchase of multiple houses. Pick up only the Helms and Boots, sell most of heavy potions, I barely have an use for anything but Health Potion (come to think of it, I didn't use much of Poisons as well). Once you got your Thief Guild perk, you can live off gems alone.

To get back to the OP!

As an archer you should try to get your archery skill up as fast as possible, and take the perks that add damage to your bow. Smithing is also a good idea, so you can improve your bows to do more damage. Also always buy the best arrows you can afford. Steel arrows give you 10 damage, but glass arrows, I think, give you 20. Thats 10 extra damage. Right now I am level 31. My bows do 106 base damage. With glass arrows, its 126, then throw in a paralyze potion and your are set.

As far as health I take an 80/20 health stamina ratio. Its always good for looting, sprinting and bashing with your bow. You wont use it much, but sometimes its good when you get ambushed by a cave bear and need a bow bash to give you an extra second to fire off a shot.

These are helpful tips. Whenever I plan on doing a second playthrough I was going to be a archer/thief.

as mentioned health is all that is needed. though if you want to play a true sneak set your self a ratio of 20/80 health to stam becuase it will make you easier to kill. i personally use auto level perk mod which automaticaly adjusts stats based on your skill level so certain skills give heaqlth some give stam etc etc. if you focus on being a stealthy sneak up until level 20 focusing on the stealth tree you can be one shotted by a sneaking falmer archer. very fun to play when you have to make every arrow count.

but when it comes to sneak kills you can kill an infinate number of enemies and remain hidden. you just hav eot shoot from a disance then move. wait a couple secs for the enemy to move to position and shoot again. sometimes you dont get your sneak attack bonus cos the eye opens too much but you can kill enemies without being detected.

Whatever you do, get some magic resistance potions.

When you're up against a Hagraven on Expert with 4 minor healing potions and no food, you start to wish you'd stocked up from home.

also, play without cross hair.

I don't think you even need to waste perk points on sneak. With the bow, you get a damage bonus for sneaking so you'll wind up using it to conserve arrows and kill enemies more easily.

I didn't put any perk points into sneak, but it's still my second highest skill (behind archery) from constant use. With an enchanted ebony bow (scorching) I'm one or two shot killing pretty much every non-boss enemy in the game.

Enchanting is very good, you can enchant armor to increase the damage your bow does.

Don't listen to this guy, it's fine to use magic as well. I use destro as well as bows, I start of with a sneak crit bow with a weakness to magic poison, then I drink a +destro potion. I can then proceed to kill an ancient dragon in 6-7 dual cast incinerates on master.

Alchemy is very useful, poisons can be very effective if you know what you're doing (this guy clearly doesn't).

Illusion is great for sneaky characters and pure archers, illusion gives you muffle and invisibility for sneaking, and the manipulation spells for crowd control.

Actually the nightingale bow is the strongest bow in the game, daedric can be crafted to be stronger due to the 2x daedric perk. I don't choose to take any smithing perks other than steel and arcane smithing, much better way to play IMO.

Well if you ask me stamina is a good thing for almost every archetype except wizards. As an archer you need stamina to sprint, to move, displace. Fire and shoot, rinse and repeat. Stamina is VERY useful not only as an archer. You can sprint for a lot more time, if you zoom in (arguably a good perk) you will spend stamina (not that it's needed). Stamina is your friend when you're being fired upon or when you're being chased. Or when you want to use multiple positions to shoot. It's all about tactics here. Stamina is also good for dragon encounters when you have to run a lot (you may want to use whirlwind sprint shout to get away too). The longer your stamina pool the more your survivability increases along with health (obviously).

That said i think stamina is as good as health on an archer. I balance my build equally around health and stamina. I forget magicka. For a true archer magicka is not needed, in fact forgotten.

As to the poisons, they may help you earlier in game and will certainly help you if you play in master difficulty like i am playing right now. Enchanting is a must too (you want to get + bow damage enchant later on) as well as smithing (daedric weapons are the best). Sneak is alright to have though perking it i am not sure.

This is, as i see it, the perfect build for an archer type. Have fun and never buy arrows... there are a lot!

Also, people do tend to forget that you can still bash with your bow therefore interrupting an attack. That spends stamina.

illusion and alteration magic can come in handy as an archer. health, stam and mag are all important, it really just comes down to what you notice yourself running low on most often.