I hate these type of hypothetical scenarios. You really want to find out? Go to a bar in game, use the console commands to summon those three, and see who is the last man standing.

Well if you are so vehemently opposed to these threads why'd you support it by posting?

Okay so warrior, thief and a mage walk into a bar. After a few drinks the three of them begin arguing which is stronger. The mage insults the warrior by claiming he cannot think his way of knee deep pond and the warrior calls the mage a physical wimp. They pair off against each other quickly and begin to duke it out.

The thief in the mean time has only been pretending to drink and had actually been pick pocketing the warrior and mage, taking all their potions. He now sits on the bar stool and watches the other two duking it out. Flames and Ice bolts fly, swrods swing and the whole time the thief is watching. As the battle begins to fade a clear winner is coming out of the fight, the thief sips a potion of invisibility and steps behind the pseron that is about to win the fight. As the victor delivers the final blow he turns to the bar, "Now Thief it is your....", at this point the Thiefs dagger drives itself deep into the supposed victors back, finishing him off.

The Thief calmly picks through the bodies and takes what he wants, walking out the door.

The bar owner wins. The thief throws a knife at the mage, the mage shoots a fireball at the warrior, and the warrior throws a axe at the thief. The Bar owner takes everything the warrior, thief ,and mage had and disposes the bodies.

Touche

Assuming this is based off actual skills, perks and whatever have you from this game. I'm going to for go enchantments and alchemy in this anolysis. The warrior would win hands down every time.. All the melee damage he receives is not going to get through the heavy armor, in my case ebony, and the magic damage is so pathetic his wall of HP will barely go down, that is to say if he is a Breton warrior the mage is completely and utterly screwed. There are just too many variables if you don't assign a race for each of the three. But in the end it would still be a war of attrition and the Warrior wins that every time.

I would think the bar owner would lose. His tavern has just been trashed and possibly burned down by three idiots trying to prove which one is stronger. XD

Sticking to just that playstyle, with nothing added. (No alchemy/enchanting for the warrior, Smithing/Enchanting for the thief, or Alchemy/Smithing for the mage)

It would be a toss up between the mage and the thief. Thief will most likely Shadow Warrior Vanish and back stab the warrior, or the mage could stunlock him with his low cost spells.

The mage might have the upper hand, Minions, Wall Spells, Invisibility, Fear, Calm. Big AoE Spells.

Thief could probably shadow warrior past all that and stick him though. So who knows.

Who wins? The barman. When the last combatant standing is basking in victory, he'll sneak up behind and knock him/her out with a 2x4, and then proceed to rob all 3 blind as recompense for his ruined pub.

EDIT: dammit beaten to the punch! Ah well, great minds think alike...

Warrior keeps using block attack, but mage could also spam impact. They are evenly matched. Shadow warrior saves the thief and then he backstabs.

Thief wins.

Unless mage uses pacify repeatedly....

Don't know what happend to the poll...

But It's looking like the Thief has the most support.

This, absolutely!

With the warrior's money, since the thief pickpocketed him before (s)he left.

The mage will do nothing of the kind if a quick dagger with paralyzing poison hit him before he can charge the first spell..

depends, but i would bet most of my money on the mage. One illusion spell is all the mage needs providing he can spot the thief that is. Though its rather unfair, because a thief would most likely be utilising one handed/ archery and sneak(and maybe alchemy), the warrior using one handed/ twohanded/ block, while the mage can utilise all schools of magic. I mean, the warrior can't hold a shield and a two handed weapon and a one handed weapon at the same time yea?

The thief because s/he would hide the moment the battle started. After hiding in the rafters and enjoying the show, the thief will take out the winner with a poisoned arrow and loot the bodies. The only way it would be one of the others were if they were smart enough and fast enough to take the thief out before s/he got a chance to hide.

Mm.. I have to agree.

Consider the setting - a typical bar would be very busy, full with the working class. So it's quite a small room with far too many drunk bodies inside it. There are lanterns and candles for illumination, and the battle takes place in Skyrim. For whatever reason, the thief, warrior and mage have an argument that can only be settled when two of the others lies dead.

I'll start with the mage:

The mage only has the school of illusion at his fingertips. Because of the local attitude towards magic, he would be suicidal to use his magic, and so he instantly loses the school of destruction. The school of conjuration is also unavailable to him - summoning Daedra or raising undead would not be looked at kindly. Any spell he does cast must be very subtle, so as to kill the target without anybody else realising that he is using his magic, or else he won't leave the room alive (it's a crowded pub, so invisibility is useless.)

He could use frenzy to start a barfight and then slip off in the confusion, so long as no one realised his role, and he could use calm to prevent the fight ever happening. But the latter doesn't win him the fight. So his best bet is to start the bar fight and get out of there quick-smart.

The warrior - his heaviest weapons are unsuitable to fighting in a small room crowded with bodies that aren't interested in the fight. He probably has a knife on him and he can use his body mass besides that. However as soon as a fight starts the boozed up bar patrons are probably quite likely to join in with the fun, so that will get out of a hand quickly, and if he draws a weapon then it will be a free for all with everybody using daggers and improvised weapons. He likely doesn't have his armor on him, so he has less chance of survival than the thief (he's slower and less agile, and equally as protected without armor)

That only leaves the thief - who should be in his element in our barfight scenario. He should be able to use the crowd to his advantage, would be the most willing to fight dirtily and survive and is the one who is most likely to be able to use his knife in the confines of the bar without anybody noticing that it had happened until it was too late.

It's really anybody's game, but my preference lies with the thief. It's his environment after all.

Warrior discovers there's not enough space to swing his two hander

Thief trips over a stool trying to stab an opponent

Mage launches an area effect spells and kills everyone, including himself

...end of the brawl

Why would a thief carry a weapon? A thief is someone who steals and roam the citys, simple as that. Carrying poison and stuff seems seems like more of an assassin. If i were the thief, i would book it for the door the moment everything started, leaving the warrior to kill the mage.

This. Or Frenzy then Invisibility. After that, stunlock the winner with Incinerate or Incinerate, Calm, Incinerate, Calm, Incinerate, Calm, repeat until dead.

The tavern owner wins. After the fight, he bops the winner over the head, then loots all three.