» Mon Jul 23, 2012 4:31 am
I think if you are going to be one moreso over the other, then you structure yourself accordingly. By that I mean, if you are more mage, go to the College of Winterhold first, pick up mage skills first primarily and build up stealth skills secondarily. If you more of a thief, then do Thieves Guild and pick up stealth skills first. If you want to take a middle of the road approach, do both simultaneously and build the skills on equal footing. I think that will be the most difficult approach in terms of leveling, but it will also probably be the most satisfying.
As for playstyle, get Quiet Casting in the Illusion perk tree (right side at a skill of 50) as soon as possible. I am currently playing a build somewhat like the one you want, and bound weapons are definitely useful when it comes to getting the multipliers and they have a distinctly mage-y feel, but in all honesty, a thief is not so much about combat anyway. You could be just as successful sneaking around to steal and what have you, and then rely on magic for all your combat purposes. So I guess my overall advice would be first figure out what kind of blend of mage/thief you want to be and then test out differently play types. This is kind of hard with perks, but you can get a rough feeling for what type of style you want to use without spending any prematurely. Get a bound sword and try to see if you like using bound weapons and sneaking, and maybe try sneaking around to accomplish your thief work and see if you like using Destruction magic as your primary weapon.