So my lvl 42 2H warrior is about to retire, and I am wanting to play an archer/assassin type after discovering how awesome the bow is at about level 36 with my warrior. I never really found a need to pickpocket thus far, but since I am going to be a "theify" character, was wondering if anybody found it useful or if I should skip out on it...comments?

Also, here is what I am thinking:

Race: Can't decide between Argonian or Khajit (which do you prefer? any guides on how to buiild good looking toons for these races?)

Skills: Light Armor, One handed, Archery, Speech, Smithing (Lockpicking will get really high just cause I open everything), Should I focus on any other skills?? Is Sneak worth it??

Play type: Wanting to go with a character with very questionable morals, join thieves guiild, dark brotherhood, generally be a horrible person...

I have a charachter very similar to what you want to do. I'm at level 46 right now.

Race: go with your preference. I personnally don't think it matters that much as you quickly gain skills at lower levels.

Skills: I put perks in Light Armor, Sneak, Archery, Block, Smithing, One Handed, and a few here and there (restoration and enchanting mainly). My skills are high in speech and lockpicking but I don't put any perks in those trees - I don't think it's necessary. I just use them a lot. I have a ring for lockpicking which helps for expert and master locks, that's it.

I absolutely would go Sneak if I were you, especially if you want to go Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood as I did. Sneaking during those missions is awesome. I would built it just a bit before joining those groups though. It's immensely satisfying to sneak and shoot an arrow in someone's neck and one shot them and then finish the other guards with a sword and a shield. Or just sneak everywhere unoticed and use a dagger to backstab people (look for the perk with 15 times damages with dagger sneak attack! - awesome).

I haven't found pickpocket usefull except for a few cases, but I have a ring and a necklace of extreme deft hands which gives enough bonus to help me if need be.


Hope it helps.

Bugs Bunny is a toon. You, my friend, are creating characters.

Sneak is worth it. Don't dump every perk into the tree, but definitely take the perks necessary to get Assassin's Blade. Join the Dark Brotherhood if for no other reason than to get the outfit (the gloves double your backstab - with Assassin's Blade, you're doing x30 damage on a sneak attack). The entire outfit gives you a +25 to armor. Combat situations require a different approach - if you try to just wade in like you did with your warrior... you will die. A lot.

The pick pocket tree has a perk that allows you to rpp poisons. If you have high stealth and alchemy, it's really quite fun to slip a poison into somebody's pocket and watch them slowly die. Good times for you and your character. (note: 'character' not 'toon')

If you dump perks into Pick Pocket, it will just help make you richer, faster. I find it very gratifying to steal valuables from people. I would argue that while not every perk is necessary, a few of them are really useful.

I also suggest leveling up Illusion. Level it up, like, all the way. Put every perk into the tree. Do not underestimate the power of that school. It is unbelievably useful for a thief character.

Pickpocketing has only been useful for me for the extra 100 carry weight. By the time you get to the good feats which allow you to remove equipped weapons, you can already one-shot the enemy and just take it.

Get it to 50 for Extra Pockets, then you can honestly forget about it. Maybe take that poison pickpocket perk if you want to be a "professional".

Other than roleplaying and to complete some optional Thieves Guild sidequests I don't see it as necessary.

It's useless if you want to stole good weapons or arrows.There's also a skil that increase your chary wight by 100.Now if you want to sell rings and necknacles isn't good.Because you can't sell stole items.Unless you have 100 speech.There's an Glitch that i exploit to get speech 100 easily ^.^

[Deity of choice] bless you!

My level 40 assassin/thief hasn't used it yet. There's plenty of money to be had from looting dungeons.

Sneak is a must - with the perk 3X bow damage - your damage is very nice.

Upgrade bows and arrows whenever you find better equipment. Enchant the bow for added damage, but no need to powerlevel this or smithing.

I put points in archery, light armor, a few in sneak, a few in enchanting and smithing. Other things like speech, etc., can level themselves as I play the game.

Good luck and enjoy.

Just make sure to invest on Archery and/or One Handed perks or you won't be doing any damage at all, except when you're backstabbing. Assassins are weak toe to toe, so for a weak character it makes sense to invest on pure damage while you're sneaking. I found that Archery is an excellent plan B if not for plan A.

So for this *Character, what would illusion do to help a thief? I have not even touched magic yet (that is another playthrough).

Join the Thieves Guild

Ah yes i forget that.Thanks.I have like 150.000 k only on stole items.

What about smithing? Go heavy for daedric weapons or light for the armor??? Either way I will end up with dragon armor which is the best LA

One thing everyone needs to realize in creating a character for Skyrim is that skill levels in this game are pretty much meaningless, except for two factors: 1) they determine character level, 2) they unlock perks. A character with a skill level of 100 in archery but with no perks will do less damage with a bow than someone with 20 skill and a single perk. So, it's not about "level" and it's more about where you place your perks.

Your character will want to perk archery, stealth, light armor (sort of), and sneak. There's no real advantage gained by perking pickpocket or lockpicking unless you're doing it for character developement.

You will want to level up more skills than you've listed, simply to increase character level to grant you more perks.

The best weapons belong to the right side of the tree.

Illusion is very, very useful. Muffle yourself to move silently, Invis yourself to not be seen, and Calm everything if you get spotted. Also, one of the perks lets you cast all spells silently.

I've played an archer assassin, dumping points primarily into sneak, archery, the first perk in the one-handed tree, and smithing, in that order. I maxed out the sneak tree, and took all but the last perk from the archery tree (having enemies fall over from paralysis makes them near-impossible to hit, and besides, you're one-shotting most foes anyway).

Illusion isn't necessary to make this build work.

Just wondering if you increase your magicka each time you level up or do you remain at 100.

I am playing a thief/sneaky/archer/1hander... must say I am becoming addicted to pick-pocketing. My first play through using a mage, I pretty much never pick-pocketed. Now its like a whole new world has opened up. Every person that walks by I immediately crouch and check their pockets to see what they have. Hehe... its funny how most people don't even mind!

Imagine this in real life.....

There your are standing in line at McDonald's and some stranger wearing a NASCAR jacket walks up and doesn't even speak to you, simply crouches down and has a good go in all of your pockets. He doesn't take anything. He stands up, and you look him in the eye and say something like, "I see you favor the faster cars, I'm a motor cycle man myself."

Yeah, I didn't take this into account. I am a light armor wearer atm, and realize I will need to get some perks on the other side anyway. [well, maybe not need, but I want to just the same! ]

I only bumped it a couple times to be able to cast muffle. Once you can cast that, you can level it effectively. Then you can either perk it or wear enchanted gear that reduces spell cost.

Someone else here mentioned it, but if you're using the bow, you don't need anything besides a bit of sneak and the archery tree itself. Illusion, Light Armor, and most of the Sneak perks are only necessary if you're going to go for dagger kills.

Also you can abuse it to increase the sneaking skill.It's works very well when you are spoted also.

It's best to ignore the stamina bar and increase the magika bar.You can't cast some illusion speels without high magika.Such as Calm and Flee.

Right, thanks for your input

Pickpocket may not be too useful but I find it still fun. And as someone said above, it'll help u get richer sooner.