You I used to think that playing a pure mage was hard (using only mage perks), but it actually isn't so bad in Skyrim. What is hard, is playing a pure rogue.

Seems I always want to perk the Smithing tree and of course either One-Handed or Archery or both, but technically these are all Warrior skills. I have also tended to note that most my rogues end up looking a lot like my light armored warriors.

So if I was to perk only the rogue skills, how do you do it? Weapons seem to be my biggest problem. About all I can seem to do is upgrade my weapons to Fine and then add a 7-10 point damage enchantment to them. Without perking Smithing or Enchanting that's about it. Can Alchemy really make up the difference? How wicked can poisons get?

What does a pure rogue do if he is walking along going to some town and a Saber Cat jumps him? Honestly the more I think about it the harder it seems to make a pure rogue build.

Help.

I allways thought a rogue used daggers and illusion as well as stealth.
And with perks in alchemy you can make some very wicked poisons.

I also just posted in the cheats and hints section asking advice for a rogue type character.

If you're going to use Alchemy, try fortifying Smithing to improve your gear. Also, use poisons. They're a rogue's best friend.
About the "sabrecat situation", try getting a good defense. The Lord stone is a pretty nice thing, gives you 50 armor rating plus 25% magic resistance. If you're not going to enchant anything yourself, try looking for enchanted items that improve Light Armor, One-Handed or whichever skills you're going to use.
That's about all that I've got.

It's not as tough as you think. If I remember from Oblivion, rogues had a knack for illusion spells, too, which can be made to work on both animals and humans in Skyrim. But if that's not your thing, rogues are also kind of sneaky. If you advance your sneak skill enough, no man or beast knows you're there until you're almost on top of them, and sneak attacks with one-handed weapons and bows can be made to do extra damage.

Aren't rogues mage/thief characters? I still consider archery a thief skill, so that's not too far-fetched. But if you want magic, you can say bye-bye to destruction with archery cuz I don't see the point. That being said, you could always rely on the sneak damage bonus (with DB gloves, mind you) and not worry about the 1h tree. This will free up perks elsewhere.

I guess it just depends on what kind of magic you use. I can see illusion, alteration, and maybe destruction viable with the dagger build. If you really want archery, conjuration probably couples with it best. And as for poisons, they're ridiculously helpful... especially if you neglect smithing or enchanting. If you're on console, it can be a pain to constantly apply poisons/potions but the outcome is more than desirable in my book

If you only use the Thief skills you won't be attacking anything.

Pure archery is folly, you need a backup weapon. Even Legolas had a pair of daggers.

Alchemy and illusion are your best friends!

Sabre cats- Invisibility (with muffle on your boots) recomended

If he gets his paws on you... you're done!

Remember where he is... come back 30 levels later, Trace him with chalk then kill him:)

Amature pure archery is made of win.

Rogues don't kill people.

They sneak in, do the job, and sneak out. Without being seen or heard.
Max lockpicking, speech, and pickpocket.
Put points in to stealth as you see fit...making sneaking as easy or hard as you like.

The bow and daggers are for food and for defense against animals. And bows are good for causing distractions...noise, fire, etc.

Killing people is the easy way out. Anyone can kill.
I'm a rogue/thief. Not a killer or assassin.


Try sneaking into a cave or keep, get the "fetch quest item", and sneak out without killing anyone. With only 1 point in sneak.

Just a way of playing the game differently.
That's all.

Rogues still kill people.

Not killing =/= Rogue.

I started my character as a theif build which led into a rogue build, I took armsman 1/5 and will take the faster melee, maybe take it up twice but I dont see myself progressing further in that tree, archery I only have the first perk and I may possibly take the zoom and slow motion perk by 1. I have focused more on sneak/lockpick/pickpocket/speech; alchemy not so much, only two perks in their. I won't be taking the dragonborn path with this guy. He is leading the theives guild who is secretly a nightingale but keeps in on the down low.

Okay...maybe yours does.
Mine doesn't.

I read about plenty of "rogues" in real life that don't kill people. They steal, scam, rob, pilfer, con....and they don't kill.
Neither does my Skyrim rogue.

You're using the term "Rogue" incorrectly.

Rogue has nothing to do with killing or not killing. A Rogue is not a pacifist Monk or an automatic Assassin. Being a Rogue does not immediately make the person a killer, but Rogues do often kill.

You are a Rogue because you steal, not because you don't kill.

And as soon as you kill someone you've gone beyond "rogue" status and entered the area of murderer and assassin.

I'm not just a thief...as thieves just steal.
I burgle, con, steal, exploit, scam,...etc.

Again...just a different play style.

Seems you just want to argue with me and get me to change my mind.
Not gonna happen.
My rogue doesn't kill people.
That's all.

Even Dictionary.com describes a rogue as:
1. a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel.
2. a playfully mischievous person; scamp
3. a tramp or vagabond.




So yeh...play what and how you like.

Illusion works very well with a rogue. Get to 75 Illusion (easy with muffle) and 6 perks: up to expert, hypnotic gaze and dual cast. This allows you to go invisible whenever you want and to calm any normal living thing in the game including giants. This gives a lot of freedom in how you approach things.

Easy rebuttal:

Rogue agent.

Rogue =/= Not a killer. You're using the term "Rogue" incorrectly.

Also:


Thieves just steal?

Burgle = Theft.
Con = Can lead to theft
Steal = Theft
Exploit = Can lead to theft
Scam = Can lead to theft

Never said you're playing wrong. Simply stating you're using the term "Rogue" wrong.

Look at it this way, if you were saying a pencil was an airplane, I would correct you, because a pencil isn't an airplane. This is that exact same situation.

You can play how you like but you're using terminology wrong.

Take the right perks in Illusion, Sneak, Pickpocket and Alchemy and you don't need to do any smithing or enchanting at all. I get by with dual casting, quiet casting and rage in the Illusion school. Backstab and light foot in Sneak. Poisoner in Pickpocket and concentrated poison in Alchemy.

Rogue just means you're a scum. You can do whatever you like as long as you do it in a scumy way.

And you're being unnecessarily pedantic. Plus, your anology of the pencil & airplane doesn't work here. "Pencil" and "airplane" are both very stable terms, with almost no room for misinterpretation. "Rogue" can be a noun or an adjective, and its meaning is considerably more vague.

Words have many meanings. D&D rogues kill stuff. Doesn't mean everyone described as a rogue must.

Anyway, on-topic. The OP seems to want to only perk "Thief" skills - Light Armor, Speech, Sneak, Pickpocket, Lockpick, Alchemy.

I think it's definitely doable. Even if you never perk One-handed, getting the Assassin's Blade perk makes those daggers a good way to open a fight, if not end it outright. Shadow Warrior means you can get those sneak attacks indefinitely (afaik; I haven't taken it yet). Even Archery can be used - not perked, but used in conjunction with Sneak and Alchemy it would be pretty effective I'd think.

Regardless, the style of play would be very different than any other character, as you have no direct way of dealing damage among your perked skills. An exception here could be getting the Poisoner perk and reverse-pickpocketing poisons on enemies, but I don't know how effective that is.

What I'd try to do for melee is get Shadow Warrior, get those Pickpocket perks to steal weapons and equipped items, steal everything from an enemy, and then do some crazy repeated sneak attacking.

But really, the more fun way to go most of the time would be to avoid combat as much as possible. Definitely makes for a more thiefy experience.

Hence why I said the following:

Rogue =/= Not a Killer.

You are not a Rogue because you kill people.
You are not a Rogue because you don't kill people.

You are a Rogue because your main personality traits, and career actions, are underhanded and involve some sort of theft.

Rogue is a very stable term as a noun. A Rogue steals things.

Well, as much as I would love to argue about whether or not a rogue kills, I think the first time I'm looking for work and am told to take out some bandit, some killing will be done. Regardless of how you define a rogue, in Skyrim you are going to kill something.

My biggest concerns are the early levels 1-15, where my sneaking isn't the best and I know I will be having attackers come at me. Also my poisons will (if lucky) only be doing about 9 points of damage, not much to a bandit chief.

I figured Light Armor I may try to perk completely out. Only a couple Perks in Speechcraft, maybe. Sneak I may try to Perk out. Pickpocket I have never used, so that's going to be all new to me. Lockpick I think is a total waste as locks are easy and you never need more gold in this game. I guess Alchemy will make or break me. I just need to raise it as fast as possible.

I will see how far I can go without killing, raising sneaking instead. Should be interesting.

Thanks all for the feedback.

Lingering damage health poisons do alot more damage than regular damage health it just takes longer.
Even with a very low alchemy skill you can easily make lingering damage health poison that do about 50 points of damage over 10 seconds.
Add paralyze to that and you have a very serious poison at low levels,worthy of bandit bosses all around Skyrim.