The Assassin build is very fun when you specialize in Illusion (frenzy any mob from far which makes archery not necessary , calm/fear from distance , invisibility ) .

I have the same build except that i use alteration (dragon hide , paralysis , detect life , mage lights etc ) instead of light armor ( i wear enchanted clothes , you don't need armor when you are almost always invisible in the shadows )

i use smithing and enchanting (8 perks for double enchants ) too , 12 perks in illusion , 5/5 in one handed (it actually does affect dagger damage ) and all the dual wield perks (i use sword+dagger or axe+dagger combo ) , in sneak however i have only 1/5 and all the backstab perks , but when you have 100 in sneak and use illusion , you don't need more than that , it is clearly overkill to add more sneak perks as you are never spotted anyway thanks to illlusion (invisible and muffled ) .

This build is the most overpowered when you get the shout elemental fury which accelerates further your dual wield animation speed , this coupled with double enchanting all your clothes/weapons/jewels and smithing your weapons to very high damage thanks to fortify smithing potions and gear , your damage output is very impressive when using DB gloves that double the dmg , it is the the highest DPS build i think , then if you add to it the ability to be invisible at will , paralyze/fear/calm/frenzy anybody except dragons makes this build very OP , i still love it though because you have a lot of variety of options for dealing with the enemies and you feel like a God past level 40

I like the assassin, but I like to switch it up and go Nightblade.

sounds exactly what I did with this new character. However I went dual daggers, archery, and lets not forget pickpocket. Smithing is good to improve the thieves and brotherhood apparel and maybe make a glass dagger. Other than that I don't intend to use dragonscale.

i used one-handed, light armour, sneak, smithing and enchanting. no spells at all. it's a fun build for killing everyone up close stealthily

i wouldn't spend points on lockpicking, speech and alchemy though. never understood the usefulness of it

Pure Assassins are amazing, but switch in Archery for Illusion, you do not need that at all.

My Khajiit Assassin is:
Light Armor
Archery
One Handed
Smithing
Sneak
Enchanting

It's amazing. What I don't one shot with my bow while sneaking (i one shot 99% of mobs with my bow stealthed) I finish off with my swords up close when I'm discovered. Its awesome gameplay.

as one who favors the warrior class, I've been having lots of fun playing an assassin build. Pretty much all of my perks are going into one-handed, archery, and sneak. Those are the only three skills I have been focusing on and I'm lvl 20 now. My one-hand and archery skills are rather low actually (around 40), but my sneak is around 90 and thats all that matters. Sneak + muffled boots + 15X dagger damage + 2X backstab gloves = invincible.

My assassin is only powerful while sneaking. If I am seen and face an enemy head on it can actually take me a while to kill em. Fighting more than one enemy while seen can get me killed. I have low health since my points go into stamina, and low armor rating because I haven't invested in light armor so far and of course no smithing/enchanting. So far it's fun this way.

Assassins can be the most powerful thing out there. The only real trouble i had was against dragons, they were either too high for my blades or they always sensed me. So you'll need a little archery in that regard. The thing with assassins is you have to strategize a bit so you dont end up alerting the entire damn fortress.

It never occurred to me that Magelight could be used in the same way the Throw Voice shout is.

Love playing my Argonian Assassin, he's my favorite, he looks badass, skin color black with red warpaint

My current focused skills are:

Light Armor
Archery
Sneak
Alchemy
Enchanting
One Handed
Smithing
Pickpocket (just the first perk 5/5)

Speaking of sneaking i felt this was the perfect thread for this hilarious video on Skyrim sneaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHbF9ynGZV0

I'm considering dropping Illusion altogether and focusing on Archery instead, as Illusion seems a bit too easy. I like direct combat better, and Illusion seems to be a bit of an easy way out, and sneaking sounds overpowered enough already. That would bring me to Sneak, Archery, One-Handed, Pickpocket, Light Armour and Smithing, does that sound any good?

Edit: what I might do is make my current Archer (lv 31) an Assassin, and invest in some one-handed and pickpocket? It basically has the same skills my Assassin would have, plus Enchanting. Can I still switch, or am I going to have too much trouble leveling my one-handed from starting level?

It is a weak assassin build without magic , but yeah , if you don't like illusion and alteration , i guess use archery and light armour instead (it gets boring/repetitive quickly though as you have only 2 options to kill and none against mobs ) , it's true it's more than enough in adept difficulty .

If you play on master however , i'd advise illusion personally , but i respect your opinions

you can do mq, if you like dead towns.

Sneak characters are great fun I always seem to have some of the most fun with my thieves and assassins. I currently have a sneak character on Skyrim, where I basically try my best to avoid any full-on combat; if he kills anyone, it's in sneak mode. That's because he's pretty useless in full-on combat haha. But that's part of the fun; knowing that I have to be stealthy, or else he'll be in trouble!

It makes a nice contrast from my greatsword-wielding, charge-in-slash-hack-slash Khajiit guy

Mine is mostly 1h, with the axe perks and dual wield axes..A few sneak perks (didn't do daggers, 15x that's ridiculous!), light armor, alchemy and a few other assorted perks.

It's great, but somewhat overpowered....the way I play him is open up with sneak attack, then either unrelenting force to stun and two power attacks, or elemental fury and power attacks...kill most stuff if you land it all.

Also I did no magic whatsoever, so I never put points into magicka, lots of stamina, some hp...if you build a straight assassin like this with high stamina they are are a killing machine, though somewhat of a glass cannon early on. Seems like for a straight assassin, stamina is the big thing so you can keep chaining dual power attacks, plays about like an assassin should: kill quick with overwhelming force or you're in trouble.

Damn fun, and IMO more fun than the typical 'nightblade' etc. style assassin with illusion etc..but can be overpowered, I found anything but Master pointless, that is not the case with my warrior/illusionist where even expert or adept can be challenging.

To be honest , i have to disagree with you here : Stamina is very important for warrior , as dual wield/shield bash/2handed require a lot of stamina .

However ... with an assassin that has smithing and enchanting and use 2 daggers with x15 each ( so x30) + the Dark brother hood gloves or wraps ( x60 damage ... ) , you one shot almost anything

Even with simple Elven daggers fully smithed (smith gear , smith potion , smith perks , 1handed perks ) gives me 75 damage each : 75*2 daggers * 60 dmg of sneak = 9000 damage in ONE power sneak attack ....The highest HP enemy you'll find has like 3000 hp ... in master your damage is divided by two , but even then you can one shot anybody with dual daggers at high level ....

So to sum up , i respect your view , but really , you don't need stamina when you can one shot everybody , you need at best 160 stamina , so that you can spam 3 power attacks in a row with dual daggers (with the one handed perk that reduces stamina for power attack ) which is more than enough mos of the time , or two power attacks in a row with sword+dagger ...

Instead of wasting points in stamina , IMHO you can put them in magicka in order to master illusion , which gives you a lot of options and makes you far more powerful in the end . I mean it's more useful than being able to make 6-7 power attacks in a row (for a dual wield straight warrior redguard style , it's very useful though , but for a stealth backstabber assassin who is invisible most of the time ... maybe it can help you at the beggining when you are still weak with poor weapons and no smithing though ) when no enemies can sustain more 2 power attacks

Disagree with me all ya want. again this build is powerful enough that with no enchanting, smithing, no enchanted equip you HAVE to play on master. And the two power attacks thing applies only to non-bosses enemies, there are plenty of people at the end of dungeons that require lots more than two power attacks. Also, I played without daggers or dagger perks on purpose because they are ridiculous.

He asked about a 'pure assassin', to me that means no magic, and if you do that..obviously high stamina is something you will find useful, and you will either be putting points into that or health.

Ahh ok , you like to struggle

I thought he was looking a for a strong assassin build , ok my bad

Yeah if you find the skills overpowered , then i guess you can also just take your ragged clothes and a shiv on master , you'll have a lot of fun surely

Well, I'm looking for a strong assassin build, but I'm not really a fan of magic, and without magic I think I'll be overpowered enough as it is. As I will probably continue my Archer character, I will have plenty of stamina (around 250 to 300 I think), so I can sink the rest of my points into health. Everybody, thanks a lot for all the input and advice!

You don't need a single perk in alteration to make use of those spells though. You can get good use of detect without channeling it, just get one tick to know where enemies are. The light spells you'll cast out of combat so their cost isn't an issue. I use them with no perks just fine.

As for alchemy, I find it pointless as it just involves too much fiddling through inventory. Since an assassin can handle everything easily enough without bothering with it, I don't see the point it's just extra tedium. The game practically drowns you in health potions anyway, no need to make your own.


To me it seems like an assassin would generally have no objection to using the most effective tools for the job, magical or not. They're not exactly like the warriors who have a moral issue with magic or consider it unfair, dishonorable, etc. Assassins generally don't care about giving people a fair chance.