How does illusion improve the stealth experience if you already have a good sneak ability? I have never explored this part of the game.

EDIT: And how much do you need to put into illusion?

Even though sneak can replace muffle spells, invisibility is still useful, and illusion also contains other spells that are unique to it, such as fear, fury, and calm. All of which can be useful for almost any character. These last 3 spells due require more investment however.

How much do you have to perk illusion to use invisibility well?

If you want me to drop my character build here, just holla.

Generally, if you went for no-cost enchanting, you need only to max out the right functional tree of Illusion. Consider being a vampire and get necromage for the MASSIVE buff to Illusion and sneak itself (plus ALL illusion spells duration pretty much triple the original one hand cast; with master Illusion spells they can literally last 5 minutes!).

Shadow Warrior + Max functional Illusion + Invisibility + Vampires = Literally disappear infront of an enemy without having to get out of his line of sight.


With the Vampire bonus and all functional perks and 100 Illusion, you can cast Illusion spells on literally every living thing (dragon priests counted) except Dragons.

I first went into Illusion mostly for Invisibility. But then I discovered an entirely new way to manipulate the AIs. Three main aspects of Illusion: Fear, Charm and Frenzy... Tons of things, with the right build, you can do with them with imaginations and a willingness to experiment and maybe morally corrupted .

You can cast Fear and herd mammoths, giants and all sort of animals into camps and towns. Besides that, Fear can send one enemy running to alert everyone in the place; a good set up for a massive frenzy.

Frenzy do all sorts of crazy things. I once stripped the clothes of everyone possible in Solitude, cast loads of Frenzy, and watch people fist-fighting each other, while the smart ones broke into shops and come out with chopping wood axes and even fireball staffs.

Charm can be use to re-pickpocket people that you failed to (but it's rather chances, unfortunately). This way I can put combinations of poisons into enemies (Bandit Marauder Archer+ Frenzy/Health increase/Slow poison = A slow, sky-rocketed health walking tank.)


I recently no-cost Alteration and Restorations by using the loops; so I have on hands no-cost Conjuration, Illusion, Alteration and Restorations. I'm planning to use Restorations to stealth heal enemies, and Alteration for Paralyze and vegetable headshots . I haven't experiment with all of them on yet, I'm currently grinding to get to Alchemy's Purity (might be a bad thing though, considering the fun you can have putting beneficial poisons into enemies.)

LOL Illusion is awesome with stealth and Conjuration (Necromancy if you're playing evil). There were times where I would just cast Fear, Summon a Frost Atronach and just walk away like a badass.

Yeah, if you could post your build that would be great. I suppose I would have to level enchanting right away, huh?

Yeah... ASAP. The sooner you get Enchanting to 100, the more freedom you would have to use magic

This is copy-pasta, so some of the things I say here might be the same as the last post:

Stealth Mage: (I picked female High Elf for role-playing purposes)

• Enchanting: Get this to 100 ASAP. Just pick the middle tree
  
• Illusion: Pump points into the right tree, the left tree just leave it at Apprentice and wait it out for 100 Enchanting and no cost Illusion. You're gonna spam invisibility any way, so you don't have to worry about it taking to long to get to 100.
  
• Conjuration: Points into the Atronach tree (undead tree too if you feel like it), and Bound Weapon damage perk because you will rely on the bound bow after you have no-cost conjurations. Get to 100 so you can summon two atronachs or undead at the same time!
  
• Restoration: I played a vampire, so I get myself Necromage (mostly for the free no-cost slot so I can don't have to wear that ugly circlet), but also Necromage seriously increase duration of my spells (Conjured creatures and illusion spells)
  
• Archery: Level this at your own pace. Put points in this at your leisure, but pick the left tree because you don't need ranger perk (most of the time you will be shooting in the shadow and then disappear anyway)
  
• Smithing: Just get to Arcane smithing, 100 this at your leisure. Get the Blade of Woe, use it at your leisure. Usually smithing gear let you a 25% buff each, but with Necromage it gives you 29%. That's a potential 16% increase in damage. And sneak dagger perk is 15 TIMES damage increase, with brotherhood's gloves it's 30 TIMES! 16 percent damage increase in proportion to that?... I'll let you do the math
  
• Sneak: Obviously fill EVERYTHING in this tree.
  
• Pickpocket: You will have a TON of spare points by the time you reach 40ish. I usually like some points in here so I can take weapons and strip armor. It's optional. Make it one-handed with light armor if you want. But IMO it's not very fun if you intend to stab everything to death.

Forget armor and weapon skills. Role-play a bit. Pick any clothes you want(change clothes for the occasion), since armor unnecessary.

Imagine yourself the perfect predator. Turn invisible at your leisure, stalk your prey, turn them into chickens (Wabbajack ), strip their clothes and weapons and make them fist fight each other naked. Rout your enemies and make them run around to alert other enemies; it's an instant party. Rout animals and lure them into towns. Throw frenzy into camps and watch the chaos unfold. Throw 2 dremoras in the room and close the door. Shoot them with Bound bow from the distance, and when they come over, fus ro dah them off the cliff. Reset traps, put down runes.

All and all, when you get caught, just PUFF and dissapear; leaving your enemies dumbfounded before you strip him naked, set him on fire and slit his throat and have your Dremoras desecrate his corpses and murder his friends.

And that beautiful moment when you're invisible and swimming toward enemy's camp under the night in third person; a silent ripple of water.

And don't worry about dealing damage. At 70-100 Archery, 100 Enchanting, and Vampire Necromage, your Bound Bow is pretty much a Daedric Bow (on Master), and with 100 Smithing and Necromage bonus for Smithing enchantments, your Blade of Woe can take an Ancient dragon down to quarter health with one swipe stealth. The fun part of this build is to screw around with your enemies.

Never are you truly overpowered, and never are you truly underpowered. You're the master of your enemies and your environment.

Also: Maximum Sneak (All perks, 100), and Maximum functional Illusion (All right tree, 100). WIth Shadow Warrior + Invisibility synchronize, you can literally disappear in front of an enemy without having to get out of his line of sight after turning Invisible.

Vampires get a 50+ to all attributes in DG, but I usually keep my magicka at 300 while buffing the rest on health and stamina (should be 400 for each) so I could handle occasional mishaps and lack of stamina regen. Put more into magicka if you want to use some master level spells (or just no-cost it)


Essentially, you're not the cloak and dagger assassin that quickly burn through enemies (that would be boring in the long run, and lack finesses and style). You're more like... the voice in people's head.... the twin torch bug in the night (this is what I call myself when I'm hiding in a tree with my shiny vampire eyes... )... the mischievous shadow ...the walking oblivion gate... the unpredictable force of nature that destroy some and leave some alone... and the occasional arrow from nowhere.


In addition, if you're a vampire with necromage buff, 100 illusion plus all functional illusion perks and dual cast, your Illusion spells would work on literally every living thing (including dragon priests) except dragons.


So no wonder I'm still deciding on Dishonored because I'm basically playing it in Skyrim!

That sounds interesting, but I am looking for a fun build that is not too OP. That seems like there would be zero possibility I could die in any encounter. I will take some of this and put it into a build that is still challenging. Thanks!

yeah k4 has the right idea. if you don't want to be op though i wouldn't worry too much about enchanting and look for some regular mage robes/hood to boost your spell casting capabilities.

I'm still occasionally one-hit by bandits and mages and sneaky Falmers if I don't pay attention. Getting corner is also a quick way to get yourself kill because enemies draw weapons and cast spells quicker than you can.

You can just skip enchanting entirely and put perks into magic cost reductions, which IMO, is a MASSIVE waste of precious perks.

Take my build in stride and build your own character on it. But you shouldn't think like "I don't want to be OP" or "I want to be efficient" and more like "How can I make this fun for ME?",

Because let's face it; if this was real life I would wear some tough armor, turn invisible all the freakin' time and slit the throat of everyone I see. Experiment with it. Use alteration for your warrior build instead of armor, etc...

If I'm playing a character that sneaks I always take Illusion far enough to get the Quiet Casting perk. No point in sneaking up on someone and then having your cover blown if you decide you need to cast a spell for some reason.