So after playing as a stealthy archer to level 20 it seems like I can no longer sneak around. Not even in the dark or on enemies who are sleeping in a bed from afar, or not even ever it seems. This is a really twisted way to reward a player who has invested hours into this skill. Up until this point I felt like I was playing one of the best games ever made and now I'm just annoyed by this.

I've done some reading about this and I'm not the only one who has experienced this unlockable and unadvertised feature in the game. It's something to do with going past 100 skill which resets you back to 1 skill point, or something. Really guys? This is a workable solution to balancing the game? I wanted to play the game as a silent and deadly archer, which I was a short while ago, and now I'm being punished for it? Thank you,Bethesda, for telling me that my time actually is valueless and I really should know better than to dump dozens of hours of my life into something that will arbitrarily take away whatever I've been building towards without warning. Fun game sometimes but I guess nothing is perfect.

ANYWAYS, are there any ways to work around this? My sneak is at 74 and I haven't taken light foot or assassins blade, but almost everything under those. I wasn't planning on playing as this character for much longer, just wanted to finish up the Thieve's Guild missions and save the character sitting in jail waiting for me if I ever felt like getting back into it by escapping prison. I think it's an interesting way to keep her on a back burner while I start over as a necromancer in another game doing diffeferent missions, etc. So I don't want to just delete her.. Any help is appreciated!

I think that's Pickpocketing that rolls over and resets, but maybe Sneak does it, too.

I've got Sneak at 100 and wear 4 pieces of Fortify Sneak +40% and my Sneak does not rollover it gets better. I have had Pickpocket act weird though when I add Fortify Pickpocket gear.

I'm guessing you've already traveled to various locations and logged in and out? Have you tried removing the gear, storing it, then taking it back and reequipping it?

I have across several characters, sneak and pickpicket at 100 and I don't recall them resetting to zero. I can still pickpocket heavy/pricy items or sneak up behind people.

Thats not what he meant. If you have your skill buffed beyond a certain point past 100 the game starts to count backwards giving you less sneaking skill instead of more. It wont show up anywhere in the menu's but you will notice it since sneaking wont be effective anymore.

@OP Remove any sneaking bonuses from items and blessings and check it again.

Yeah, that's the problem with the way the game does Fortify Sneak and Fortify Pickpocketing (and a few others). It doesn't literally add more numbers to your 0-100 skill it merely makes "Sneaking...x% better.". In contrast, with Fortify Heavy Armor (and others I assume) you can look at your skill constellations and literally see your skill number over 100 and in green.

Edited for usage.