So I'm thinking about making a toon which focusses mainly on sneak+archery, conjuration, restoration. Now I've got two questions:

Should I also focus on one handed for when enemies come too close? Or just shoot em down even if they are at close range?

What armor should I wear? Light armor/ Heavy armor or No armor/no armor+alteration buffs?

Not wearing armor is really only if you focus on magic. I'd recommend light armor for your character.

Generally I'd say for ranged characters, you want to keep the enemy at arms length, but that's not always possible. Most enemies are melee, so.

Light armor.

Cheers

If so, what melee range weapon should I use? Go two handed or S&B?

Light armor really, the best gear you'll find for yourself is generally going to be considered light armor and so you can't really escape that.

You should have a melee weapon on you or have a conjurer weapon spell ready, either way there will be times when either melee range is unavoidable or that you get surprised and rather then trying to get to an advantageous position using a melee weapon is just a heck of a lot quicker.

No armor is good if you plan to max out your alteration. And/or if you plan to spend few points in stamina. The paralysis spells come in handy too.

Isn't illusion the skill for paralysis and such?

Actually, for you, I'd go for healing spell in one hand, sword in the other. But, to each their own.

I actually didn't think of that combo:P

1) I would suggest trying to use only Bows (Bound Bow with mystic Binding especially). Your skill will raise much faster that way, allowing your damage to stay ahead of the curve. You can use weapon bash to stun your enemies if they do manage to close the gap. Your summoned creatures should do most of the tanking anyway.


2) I find no problems sneaking in Heavy Armor after perking muffled movement, but you should at least have light armor.

If you're using conjuration, just let your atronachs/familiars/whatever take care of the melee combat, while you stand back and shoot the enemies down.

Sounds similar to my first char.I use light armor and have enjoyed it's balance. I'm no tank but I also don't feel too squishy either.

Kiting and zoom slow-mo have been more than adequate in terms of dealing with most close encounters. or you can just rez a zombie/summon and back up after grabbing initial aggro.The mobs always take the bait and you can ping away from safety.

If the poop hits the fan I just use a shout and lose aggro.

Also the block tree looks viable for disarms/staggers but I have yet to try that personally.

I have yet to use anything but a bow with this char and have enjoyed it immensely.No melee will not gimp you at all if that's a concern. Just kite.

Also don't forget the stagger perk in the archery tree. It triggers frequently and really helps with melee mobs charging at you.

Good luck.

Dual-wield for close-ups - you want to finish them fast if you've got little protection. Or use circle spells - flame, etc - that affect enemies in melee range (destruction).

I made a sneak + archery + conjure + illusionist who never used or needed a melee skill. Was fun. Probably too easy actually.

Ok so youll find out two things with your build:

1. You kill before enemies can touch you.

2. You get the first shot off in a fight, but find yourself finishing them off in melee.

Archery is an amazing skill in Skyrim and I suggest building around that. I would recommend sticking to killing enemies before they reach you or detect you. By doing this you can skip 1h and light armor all together and save your self some perks. Illusion is really nice for this because of Calm. Bandit leader found you and is running right at you? Cast calm to reset the fight, and continue to sneak attack with your bow.

Spread your perks out between archery, sneak, and illusion. When you can, spend some in conjuration and enchanting. Use fury/frenzy and calm heavily or when needed. Take advantage of sneak attacks with your bow always. Perk heavily into illusion at first. Calm will save you so many times. After level or 30 or so, youll start to really have options, quiet casting summons on top of ememies, using illusion on undead, invisiblity, shadow warrior, etc. Use bought blacksmith potions, or enchant gear to give +blacksmithing to make your bows stronger. Wear light armor or cloth, whatever you need for the fight at hand. Find +archery gear fast and use it as soon as possible, especially when you have to throw a few perks into illusion in the beginning. Muffle is your friend for getting Illusion skilled up.

You can also mix it up with this build due to 30x backstab coming in right after beefing up your archery sneak attack damage. If your backstab fails on a target, youll always have calm to reset the fight.

I would spend something like 3 health 1 magic and leave stamina alone. Youll need extra mana to dual cast illusion spells to make sure they stick to a target. You will only need stamina for bow zoom.

I didnt use conjuration on my archer/illusion build, but I ran into "Wood Elf" (yeah that was his name) npc who did. It svcked getting shot in the face while a storm atronarch was charging me.

Whoah, thanks for the explanation!!!! Feels like more players did this:) I actually Lolled at the wood elf story.

I had a couple of characters like this in Oblivion, and I used light armor.

Yeah my thoughts go all over the place.

I found that I could really do some damage with a bow from level 1. Once you invest in sneak and archery youll find that you can start doing ridiculous damage from a sneak attack and non sneak attacks. Enemies will struggle to find you as well. I had bandit marauders that couldnt find me next to a torch with 60 sneak and muffle in my 20s.

Once you decide to engage in melee youll find you will need magic resistance, high armor rating, adequate perks in your in 1h, unless you want to slowly shoot at enemies while they attack you unblocked. Illusion just answered all those problems for my mage/rogue. You have to invest in it, but it will allow you to use sneak attacks and damage from a distance against whatever fight you chose, whether you were attacked or started the fight yourself. When fighting dragons just make sure you have cover from breath attacks. Mileage may vary. I played on master at lvl 35 on dead is dead playthrough and stopped because I missed being in melee, if that helps.