I was planning on making a vampire lord illusion assassin build. my plan is to major in sneak, illusion, one handed, and archery (one handed for armsman, and archery mainly for steady hand and eagle eye). My stat ratio will be health 3, magic 2, stamina 2. my main question is this: Can I be an assassin and still enjoy playing as a vampire lord? I'm not really a pure mage type character, as I've spent most of my time playing stealth characters, but my friends seem to think they are geared more toward mages. I on the other hand, think that a stealth character could benefit from it, but I'm not entirely sure about it. if someone can confirm this it would be greatly appreciated

Don't worry it can work since vampires get innate bonuses to illusion and sneak. Plus if you are on the PC there is a mod called soy vampire lord perks that adds perks to the vampire lord that helps for warriors, enchanters, assassin and mages.

Do what i do when you gt caught a fighting your way out has you character is a option, go Vampire lord on their asses

Got That Right!!

I've been noticing that a lot of builds put only about 300-400 mana then dump the rest of their points into stamina and health so I'll probably end up doing that.

With the extra sneak bonus, and taking the left hand side of the sneak tree, I've found that a vl build is very good for assassination stuff. I actually had a stormcloak guard walk past me about a metre away in a session last night, and it was just a case of readying dagger and enjoy the throat cut clip. Once you change form though, all hell breaks loose.

yeah. Then majoring in illusion, you could really have some fun outside of vampire lord as well. I just wish the ps3 version had more updates. >.> I'm just tired of being thrown in the dark by bethesda. the first news I've heard of the ps3 was around august 8th, and all they said was that they "weren't satisfied with the dlc's performance on the ps3 version"

honeslty I think theres little point in being a vampire as a pure caster, a vampire has all the weaknesses and strenghts that a pure mage already has... so I honestly dont see the advantage over being a werewolf, wich has ALL the advantages the mage does not have, wich is, being a melee god.
obviously both transformation are a matter of preference nut there are obvious synergies that either support or complete certain builds better than others.
lets see what you get as both sides

Vampire-human form:
-bonus to sneak skill multiplier
-bonus to illusion level caps (only usefull at low lvl to non illusion perked chars tbh)
-immunity to disease/poison
-night vision
-drain life spell (useless)
-seduction power (useless except to feed, it makes you able to feed on low lvl npcs as if they were a vampire manor cattle npc)
-invisiblity power (late stage only)
-raise dead (usefull but not terribly so)
Vampire-lord form:
-fast movement speed (in caster mode)
-medium boost to stats
-short range-weaker-slower melee attacks (melee mode)
-medium armor
-teleport spell (very good to fight against dragons and ranged oponents in open ground)
-strong ranged aoe drain life spell
-grip spell (situational but fun)
-paralysis spell
-raise dead (usefull but not terribly so
-summon gargoyle (strong summon)
-general utility (like sonar ability and stuff, not very usefull at all, just cool)
NOTE: weaknesses to fire dmg are very taxing if you cannot counter them, and not being able to be at top performance during daylight also is a big con.

Werewolf:
-no changes in human form, no advantages and no disadvantages
-fast movement speed
-large boost to stats
-short range-stronger-faster melee attacks with high knockback chance
-heavy armor armor
-high hp regenration (if you kill alot or have already a few corpses to eat)
-aoe fear howl
-summon wolves howl
Note: shorter duration and only once per day, BUT with perks you can turn a single transfomration VERY long as you feed.

anolysing both, I can see that vampires get ALOT more stuff, but most of it is either useless or directly more apropriate or usefull to stealthy chars... why? well for one the fact that they naturally prefer to act in the night, makes the daylight vulnerability less bothersome, the nightvision much more welcome (other chars will use ligh spells or torches tbh as they dont need to worry about being illuminated), the stealth bonuses more welcome and the invisibility spell more welcome.
also the vampire lord form, allows them to access a totally different playstyle to what they do in human form, wich is mainly spell caster but also they are able to mlee to some extent, they wont be doing more dmg than with their dual weilding daggers/swords but they will for sure, last much longer in 1v1 against though melee oponents thanks to the faster speed to even light armor, and hp regen from bats and life drain if they need.

a warrior type can get the same benefits from vampire lord, but not really in human form, in fact both the fire vulnerability and daylight limitations afect him much more than a stealth char, a stealth char can do assassinations just fine without worrying about his stats because he avoids melee combat alltogether, a warrior doesnt.
but sure if you dont mind those downsides and cope with them, its a pretty cool choice too.

but a pure caster? theres not much vampire form does that a caster doesnt usually builds itself to do already, you are already fast, are bound to have better either/or/and summons, CC, heals, ranged nukes/aoe etc.
the human form pros are pretty useless for a caster aswell, the illusion bonus will allow you to use the lower rank spells for a while longer on low level stages, but nothing after that unless you perk illusion anyway, and if you do perk illusion the perks alone are more than enough to keep the spells effective.
standing in melee combat however, is something no pure mage can ever do, so for me, werewolf for a mage all the way, vampire for stealth chars all the way, and maybe warriors or warrior-caster/stealth hybrids.

yeah. I'd have to say I agree with you. my friends were thinking vampire lord would be for casters since they use magic. I'm just gonna put a few points of magic for vampire lord form. or would I be good with the base 200ish magic that the vampire lord form has? I wasn't sure about it at first.

Necromage. If you want to take any vampire build seriously you need necromage from restoration. Necormage + Vampirism enchances some perks by 25%. Some of them are : Atronarch, Magic Resistance, Muffle, Fists of Steel, Quick Shot, Power Shot, Dual flurry, Quick Reflexes, Wind Walker. Also it boosts effects like Agent of Mara, Agent of Dibella, not sure by Sailor's repose. Boosts up every enchant you make, and every stone power/effect. With this in mind you can easly get 81% magic resistance by being for example a Nord, and not wearing any MR gear on you.

I had heard about the effects of necromage. I'm actually going to be adjusting my build so I can fit some of restoration into it. hard part is finding ways to level restoration at the moment, aside from getting caught in traps and healing myself.

My dark elf assassin loves being a vampire lord. I started out as a pure assassin but then started to make a hybrid class. I do not use illusion, I can sneak just fine darn good enough. There is nothing else in illusion that entices me. I did however start putting points into restoration to heal myself during the day, along with stamina. I wear magicka regen chest piece so I can regen during the day. Actually conjuration + magicka regen. I started to play around with conjuration and pretty much ended up a necromancer. I can conjure dremora lord's or the new skeleton guys from the Dawnguard DLC books in Soul Cairn and use them as tanks if I need to or a distraction so I can re-position myself or escape. Then there are some times when I want to conjure up something just for fun. With my current build, I can even tote around a dead thrall if I wanted to.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am also a very viable assassin, with one-hand (though I dual wield daggers), archery, sneak, lock pick, pick pocket, smithing and enchanting. I have no need for potions however I am leveling it just so I can level and get more perks. Just about everything will die with one sneak attack hit with a Daedric dagger.

I hardly ever use my VL form anymore, but it can be very played as an assassin. Any weaknesses can be negated with the right play style.

One thing about the werewolves you did not mention (ok, two):

No rest bonus from sleeping, and acquiring a certain ring can give you unlimited transformations

This is pretty much what I do, I have sneak and marksmanship over 100 (Im on PC using Skyrim Redone) and nothing yet into either of the melee weapon trees, if I get into a close quarters fight with more than 3 enemies I pop VL form and own their sorry asses

This. I try to sneak around places without being caught but when I do. VL time.

Isn't it great? "aww you think you have me at a disadvantage, how cute"

I find more and more people are doing the "cost reduction 100%" exploit where spells cost no mana..I think this is very cheap of people to do XD