I don't know where to start with this topic. I made it on a different forum and I got flamed for it, but the x3 damage bonus for stealth attacks with archery vs a x15 or x30 damage bonus for backstabs is really frustrating me.

I'm trying to make a stealth archery build, but it's 100% of the time more efficient and less dangerous to use backstabs instead because it's a guaranteed kill. The sad part is that my one handed skill and perks are totally neglected, but I do have the assassin perk so I can use daggers for flavour. My archery skill is much higher than one handed, and I'm pumping up all the archery damage perks whenever possible. But I'm having problems killing Falmer, they take a way too much time to kill, and it's easier to just stab them before they come find me and eat my face.

Gear for archery:

Ebony bow, orcish arrows, bracers of major archery (25% extra damage) circlet of major archery = 64 damage. Add the stealth bonus and you have 192 damage

Gear for stabbing:

Mehrunes Razor = 19 damage. Add the x15 bonus for 285 damage, x30 bonus with the easily obtainable DB gloves = 570 damage??

How on earth can backstab outdamage archery by such a huge margin if you are not even geared skilled or perked for it? The damage bonuses for sneak attacks are way out of kilter right?

To get in to do the sneak dagger kill you do have to have high sneak and many perks. I've tried on many characters and only one of them ever got the x15 damage.

Bows on the other hand are very easy to get sneak attacks in. Plus bows can do a lot more damage than your average dagger (without multipliers). Other problem I have is that seldom is the person I'm wanting to kill alone. I may go into a cave and backstab a bandit, but then the other 4 jump me and I'm standing there with a dagger fighting off guys with battleaxes.

It's all a matter of taste I suppose, but I've always liked the archer in fantasy games and Skyrim is a great place to be an archer.

Problem your having is that you have the DB gloves but as an archer you shouldnt, that lowers your damage from a sneak attack down to 285 melee, it is harder for you to get a backstab so i think its balanced vs archery.

plus if you shoot them with an arrow and wait a sec they wont know where your are right away giving you a second shot with sneak attack, but with melee if you dont kill, they will spot you right away.

it makes perfect sense. backstab is usually a overkill. which would be the point, how much would it svck if you sneak up and just scratch their ass for them and they turn around and [censored] your face in.
How many enemies do you usually see with 570 health? 2 arrows from your archery sneak attack is almost your back stab. how is that not flipping amazing???

you can easily land 3+ arrows on a enemy without being detected.

i <3 archery a think u arent considering also is that +1h skill enchants doesnt affect the daggers while on the other hand u can enchant all ur gear with +bow dmg zomg plus x3 sneak+ daedric legendary bow and 2 enchants its great!!!!!!!!!!

<3 it

gluckz cheerz

I play an archer and just got the 5/5 damage, which grants you 2x damage. That plus the 3x dmg, and my legendary elven bow of 96 dmg, 6x 96 = 576 base...add lingering dmg health, and you have something that can kill most things in sneak attack with a bow.

I kill giants in two shots, same with ice trolls, and 3-4 shots against mammoths...so I'm not sure if you've really researched it.

Plus, my legendary elven daggers with 23 dmg x 15 sneak = 345 dmg each

You also need to improve your bow with smithing. 64 damage seems like it is unimproved.

My Daedric bow improved to legendary (over 250 damage with perks and fortify) with dwarven/glass/daedric/orcish arrows one shots all but Deathlords and higher.

I only have 4/5 Overdraw, Eagle Eye and Steady Hands (2/2)

Ring/Neck are 40% archery

Make sure you are sneaking when you fire for 3x damage.

Not surprised at any of these comments, seen em all before. I'm still puzzled why it's so damn easy to reach extremely ridiculous damage with backstab with little effort and why stealthed archery feels so underpowered and crappy.

As for the DB gloves, no I dont have them but I could get them very easily for a ridiculous x15 extra damage, x15!!!

As for improving gear, yes I will smith my bow up, but it wont make much difference. My dagger is also not improved with smithing yet and I can oneshot anythign in the game with it (master difficulty) I have no perks in 1h damage at all, and my one handed skill is 38. How is that not ridiculous that someone that unfocused on daggers/stabbing can oneshot anything in the game on the hardest difficult with virtually no gear?

Just to be clear, no I dont want to oneshot everything in the game on master difficulty with my bow. But there definitely needs to be some balancing going on here with the damage bonuses obtained from perks. Bring archery up to x6 base with perks instead of x3. Bring backstab down to x10 on perks, and x20 with gloves.