Iknow this thread has been done before, but I wanted to start another, as the old one has faded away into obscurity. The basic premise of this thread is to help people with new characters find good gear to help them out early on.

For example, I just started my nightblade character today, and I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me where to find an Adept Hood.

To contribute: I'll tell you where to find an elven bow easily. In the Companions' Living Quarters, there is an elven bow in a display case (Expert lock) in Aela's Room.

If you want a high risk high reward item, there is an Ebony Bow on a Draugr Deathlord in the Lost Valkygg, but it is very difficult to obtain. I had to set the difficulty down to Novice to have any chance against him.

So basically, post your requests for items you need to find or help someone else find them.

Try the mages guild... Got my expert and apprentice hood there.

Aren't they ridiculously expensive? Like, over 3k expensive? As a low level character, I wouldn't be able to afford that.

For warriors, the Blades sword in Delphine's room is pretty good, if you follow the main quest early on. Same goes for Blades armor, if you keep doing the quest. Although, overall, I'd recommend stretching out that for awhile (a long while).

No one knows where to find an Adept Hood (or equivalent magicka boost ring or necklace) easily?

If you put perks or work on speech craft you can get the adept hoods fairly Inexpensively. I'm at level 31 and have been seeing the hoods for sell with most Mage vendors and even some general vendors, like radiant raiment.
Depending on your character, you can pickpocket, but the adept hoods won't show up until higher level.
My suggestion, is join the mages college in winter hold. You can start buying things right away and when you finish the quest there's awesome benefits and I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.

+1 blades sword, especially when you get to dual wield it later on.

this is technically a sword but it works like a dagger, and with dual wield, you can get quite a lot of blows in repeatedly and quickly potentially causing a massive amount of damage vs time.

I know all about the Archmage Robes and Savos Aren's amulet, and the like. I was hoping there was an option to get an adept hood with a much shorter time investment,but it looks like I'll just have to buy it.

As I said in the OP, this is for getting items early on, to help people who have just started new characters. Items found late in questlines, or bought cheaply after after significant leveling and perk investment hardly count as items found early on.

Bump before going to bed. Merry Christmas to all!

Not sure if it's adept but the college gives you a hood with extra magic for joining. Also there is a that secret chest in dawnstar. At the mine go to the left and crouch, look towards the ground and you'll see the search chest text. Go in there and you will find some great things. It's a merchants chest where they store all their inventory and gold from the shop. I went a looked through it once. I took a few soul gems and that is it. I like to peek and see what it has every few days. It is considered cheating in my eyes but it's still fun to look and if you want that hood that bad I'm sure you'll eventually find it there.

At the Bloated Man's Grotto you can find a powerful blade already at low levels.
Grotto can be accessed very early in the game, it's left from Brittleshin Pass.