OK. Obviously, the Thieves' Guild.

But that doesn't sustain me for very long. Someday I'll complete all the radiant quests, but they're quite boring; I need cooler stuff to do.

So, considering I'd like to make a thief and not an assassin, what are some good side quests, dungeons, or just general things to do?

Skyrim seems like a poor target environment for a thief... Hoping someone can prove me wrong!

I don't do a lot of pickpocketing, but others have reported that you can get rich pretty quickly that way. When I did the TG questline I got decent amounts of money from Vex's and Delvin's jobs.

You can do http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/No_Stone_Unturned_%28Skyrim%29 and you'll get http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Prowler%E2%80%99s_Profit and then you'll be ballin'.

Edited for usage.

i had the same issues you're looking at. my thief completed the guild quests and was at a loss for things to do. there aren't many thief related quests outside of the guild so unless you come up with your own ideas of what you want to steal (I stole every piece of clothing from inside every house and from most NPCs in Whiterun and every tankard and bottle of mead from windhelm just for kicks) otherwise there's not much out there. I did also complete the quest for mehrune's razor as that involved sneaking around to steal all 3 pieces without getting caught.

eventually i got bored and joined the DB and later became a vampire

I suppose I could just go into dungeons and try to sneak through them. That's good fun, actually.

Problem is, you don't exactly get pointed to a lot of dungeons unless you're looking for shouts (not thiefy), bounties (more of an assassin/bountyhunter thing), or... well, I can't think of a third example.

I guess I'm looking for a motivation for a thief character to go dungeon delving.

It's such a pain in the ass to find all of those stones.

One thing I'm doing on my current thief character is, in an attempt to get those 125 radiant quests for the Thieves Guild done, whenever I'm directed at a house/person to rob, I don't do it in half measures. I rob them completely blind and take everything in their house that's valuable and pickpocket all of their remotely valuable belongings off them and anyone else in their family. It's an itty bitty change but it's already made the typically tedious radiant quests fun. Sometimes I arrange cheap things like tankards and plates and such to spell out my character's name before I leave. Something to remember me by.

The locations are on wikis - it took me an hour or less.

QFT. Though I haven't bothered with it myself, not something I'm really interested in.

Right, the Stones of Barenziah... do you have to do the MQ to get all of those? Only thing I'm worried about is the Thalmor Embassy. With the DB, I'll just kill Astrid and get in there rather than join.

But the Stones are just so random. You can turn all the cities upside down, but so many are in random caves, etc. It's not necessarily something you can approach methodically.

Jaree-Ra, the Argonian in Solitude, gives a very thiefy quest. Scumbaggy, but thiefy.

There's some beggar-like guy in Markarth who wants you to steal a statue of Dibella. I haven't done that yet, but it might work.

I'd do the jarl's bounties, but they're just so assassin-centered that it would ruin the feeling of playing a pure thief.

Any Daedric quests that would fit? I guess Mehrunes Razor, but that's the only one I can think of.

I'm really wishing that you could hear rumors of tombs or dungeons said to be filled with treasure. I mean, I guess they all are, but that makes it seem more like a crapshoot as to which one I decide to explore.

The "Thalmor Embassy" stone is now outside the embassy itself, in Reeking Cave.

Ah, nice!

Very!

Sure it is. Just http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Stones_of_Barenziah in the southern area of The Rift and make your way north and west. It'll probably take you less than an hour if you go right to each stone - many of the dungeons might still be empty if you've already done some crawling.

there is one other sorta thiefy way to do this. most couriers carry a letter to anonymous investors from one of their lackies indicating that there's a problem at "X location" but that they are certain there is treasure inside. you are able to pickpocket these letters and it will add a location on your map if you haven't been there yet, but no official quest (kinda like when you talk to a mercenary on the road and say you'll handle a job for them). it was kinda fun to out thief them and steal the treasure before they had a chance to regroup.

only problem is that couriers can be rare and they don't always carry the letter

One of my characters (redguard priestess) is on a personal quest to explore every nordic burial ground. She feels it is her calling to calm (i.e. kill) the restless spirits that walk those halls. If she is wandering or traveling, she always stops to investigate the halls of the dead.

A thief might be interested in visiting all the Dwemer ruins (searching for valuable artifacts!) or sneaking into every giant camp to rid them of their loot, for example.

Good points, thanks!

Have you tried the Companions place yet? if you are only doing the TG Quest's then it might be fun to break into other Guild places and rob them blind

Yeah, one thing I'll definitely do is make a good sweep of the cities and rich-looking places. Other guilds are competition, so I'd want to interfere with them if possible.

To that end, I'd probably go with the "destroy the DB" option. Probably need to be pretty well kitted out to take on Astrid, though.

I find with my thiefy characters in any game, it's good to have a concrete goal or reason to steal. Most people who steal have a reason. They don't just do it for the thrill.

Instance: I received a potion recipe for cure disease and it gave me an idea...

What if I was trying to find a cure for my wife's illness? Ahhhh.... My only skills in life are my light handed nature and my sneaking ability. So, I bust out a plan to burgle what I need from alchemists to make 5 different potions.

First, I need the recipies. I want the exact right recipies. (in game these are hard to come by from reliable locations, but you can always just experiment to find the right ones). Then, I'll need the ingridients. Then, I'll need to befriend an alchemist to help me.

See where I'm going with this?

It's just an example.

Another was revenge. Pick a Jarl, any Jarl. Rob him blind. It's tricky, but can be done. Then, drop everything you stole right in front of him and see what happens.

Last thought... Once your sneak gets high enough and pickpocket gets high enough it gets a little too easy to do this, so try to stick to early levels for as long as you can and don't power game your skills.

Radiant Raiment FTW! Every time I pass it after hours I clean it out. Then as secondary revenge, until I can launder the stolen items, I store them all in the cupboard in Lydia's room since she's "...sworn to carry my burdens.".

You can also do http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:That_Was_Always_There.

Hey, every little bit helps, right?

I just pickpocket everyone in sight and steal everything that isn't nailed down

Thanks both for the good ideas!

The last one reminds me - I think that Windhelm Dunmer storekeeper directs you to the fort SW of the city as a place where adventurers have picked up some of his inventory. It basically gives the player a reason to check out that fort other than "Hey, there's a fort, I wonder what's inside."

Famous last words.

But you still need to join the College to get the one in the Arch-Mage's Quarters. Extremely lame.