Custom Class Help (stealther/archer W/magic)

[imahoot]

On paper, and in my mind this character seems like it would be a good one, but there's still some things about it that are leaving me a little weary.

 

Race: Breton

Birthsign: Thief

Spec: Stealth

Attributes: Agility, Intelligence

Skills: Marksman, Stealth, Security, Conjuration, Alchemy, Alteration, Restoration

 

Main function of the character is to get as much damage done as quickly as possible through poisoned sneak attacks with a bow (bound maybe?).

 

Constructive criticism is very much wanted/accepted.

 

(Got pushed to page eight zillion on the TES boards in like five seconds..)

[CaptainPuffy]

On paper, and in my mind this character seems like it would be a good one, but there's still some things about it that are leaving me a little weary.

 

Race: Breton

Birthsign: Thief

Spec: Stealth

Attributes: Agility, Intelligence

Skills: Marksman, Stealth, Security, Conjuration, Alchemy, Alteration, Restoration

 

Main function of the character is to get as much damage done as quickly as possible through poisoned sneak attacks with a bow (bound maybe?).

 

Constructive criticism is very much wanted/accepted.

 

(Got pushed to page eight zillion on the TES boards in like five seconds..)

 

My Suggestion would be to drop either the Alteration or the Security in favor for an Illusion skill. Alteration takes longer to be able to open very hard locks, but comes with other spell possibilities. Security will allow you to open harder locks quicker, but you'll be lacking in the Magic area. Illusion is a nice balance with its Paralize Silence and Chamelion magic. They would work wonders for sneak attacks with archers. Even a 25% chameleon spell would make sneaking easier, but not make it too easy. You could also possibly drop Alchemy for another skill since its really easy to raise the Alchemy skill. (My wife gathered ingredients for 1h, made potions for 20 minutes, spent another 20 minutes selling them, and went from a skill level of 40 to 75, and walked out with around 10,000 G.

 

If I was you I'd go with this setup.

Race: Breton

Birthsign: Thief

Spec: Stealth

Attributes: Agility, Intelligence

Skills: Marksman, Sneak, Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Alteration, Restoration

 

The trading of Destruction for Alchemy will alow you to do things such as hurl fireballs from great distances if the target happens to be outside the range of your arrows. (It might be my low marksman skill, but I can not hit anything with an arrow past about 30 M)

[imahoot]

I didn't even think about Illusion and Alteration having unlock spells. :ohmy:

 

Here we go again:

Race, Spec, Attributes, Birthsign: All the Same

Majors: Marksman, Sneak, Illusion, Conjuration, Mysticism, Alteration, Restoration

 

Alteration provides shields for the lack of armor, Mysitcism provides even more magic protection (stacked w/ Breton bonus), Illusion for charms/chamelion/invisibility/etc., Restoration for the drains/buffs/heals, Conjuration (bound bow/armor?), sneak for sneaking.

 

Now is using the bound bow as my permanent weapon a viable option? I mean, does it last long enough when summoned to do a lot of fighting/is it powerful enough or does it get stronger as I do? Otherwise I might ditch Conjuration for another skill.

[jdarksun]

I didn't even think about Illusion and Alteration having unlock spells. :ohmy:

 

Here we go again:

Race, Spec, Attributes, Birthsign: All the Same

Majors: Marksman, Sneak, Illusion, Conjuration, Mysticism, Alteration, Restoration

 

Alteration provides shields for the lack of armor, Mysitcism provides even more magic protection (stacked w/ Breton bonus), Illusion for charms/chamelion/invisibility/etc., Restoration for the drains/buffs/heals, Conjuration (bound bow/armor?), sneak for sneaking.

 

Now is using the bound bow as my permanent weapon a viable option? I mean, does it last long enough when summoned to do a lot of fighting/is it powerful enough or does it get stronger as I do? Otherwise I might ditch Conjuration for another skill.

This is almost identical to my second character, with a few changes. I didn't take Conjuration, nor did I take Restoration, and here's why:

 

Conjuration's Bound Bow only lasts for fifteen (15) seconds at Journeyman level (50) - which you'd only be 10 points away form if you took it as a class skill and was magic spec (but 15 seconds?). If you want to use it for anything other than a sneak attack to start off combat, it's probably not long enough. Apart from that, if you have no intent on wearing armor, and have the intent of sneaking around, Conjuration gets you almost nothing (unless you want summoned creatures to fight for you).

 

Restoration doesn't really help you with combat, and starts off at high apprentice (20) for a Breton. With a trivial amount of work, it raises to Novice.

 

There's one lacking thing in this mix, and that's what to do if you can't make stealth attacks. For this reason, I recommend Destruction to replace Restoration. It has the same primary attribute (WIS), and is a viable way of doing damage throughout the game - using a bow outside of stealth tends not to be.

 

If you accept that Conjuration isn't great for your build, I'd suggest taking Security. While it is a bit redundant with Alteration, you can use the Open spells you can cast to open most chests, and use manual Security for those chests you can't open with a spell yet. Additionally, there's a nice magic item you can pick up later that makes Novice or Journeyman Security good to have. While this argument alone may not seem worth it, if you don't take Security as a class skill, it starts out at 5-10 (ugh).

 

My build:

Alteration, Destruction, Illusion, Marksman, Mysticism, Security, Sneak.

(with the knowledge that I'll be making many potions, casting many Restoration spells, and likely need ~50 Armorer to keep my bow in repair)

 

At that point, since you have a majority of Magic skills, it seems like a better choice to specialize in Magic. Additionally, I think Sneak might raise way too fast otherwise - if you're going to stick with a Stealth spec, you probably want to drop Sneak off primary skills (and maybe take Conjuration or Restoration back).

[Daethar]

Archery characters take forever to kill something.

 

I've used 20 arrows on a humanoid before.

 

Seems that rats and mudcrabs are the only thing that an expert sniper can take out in less than 10 hits, even with sneak attacks.

 

I agree that conjuration is probably better left alone. But from my experience Restoration is nice because once they close the distance your health will drop like lead, and you need to be able to heal.

[batesmotel34]

Archery characters take forever to kill something.

 

I've used 20 arrows on a humanoid before.

 

Seems that rats and mudcrabs are the only thing that an expert sniper can take out in less than 10 hits, even with sneak attacks.

 

I agree that conjuration is probably better left alone. But from my experience Restoration is nice because once they close the distance your health will drop like lead, and you need to be able to heal.

Conjuration can be an archer's best friend. Summon a creature that will keep your target occupied and then shoot away. My first character is a Breton witch hunter which class is fairly close to the original post in the thread. I will admit that I am at times willing to just leave the fighting to the summoned critters but more often I summon the creatures as the opening act to entertain the opposition while I use archery or destruction spells on them. I agree that the bound bow spell duration seems to be too short to be really useful. I've actually used bound dagger more often when I deicde I want to walk up behind something fighting one of my summoned creatures and hack away at its back.

[jdarksun]

But from my experience Restoration is nice because once they close the distance your health will drop like lead, and you need to be able to heal.

You can heal without having Restoration as a class skill, just like you can mix potions without Alchemy being a class skill. Considering that it doesn't relate directly to combat effectiveness, and it's something that's often cast multiple times for utilitarian purposes, it's not the best of skills to be basing a "level" off of.

 

(note: this is totally a YMMV thing, so while I'm quite confident in my viewpoint, it is still just that: my viewpoint)

 

Summon a creature that will keep your target occupied and then shoot away.

While I agree that can be a very effective strategy, it's somewhat counter to the idea of a stealth/sniper.

[imahoot]

I think I'm going to end up going with this:

 

Marksman (I like bows, what can I say :P)

Sneak

Illusion (Invisibility, Chameleon, Paralyze, Charm)

Alteration (Shield, Unlock, Feather)

Mysticism (Soul Trap, Sense Life, Dispel, Reflect)

Destruction (Touch/Target damage, Debuffs)

Restoration (Heals and Buffs)

 

I'm going to switch my spec. to Magic, and my birthsign to the Mage, since for the most part after I open with a sneak attack/poisoned arrow, I'll be resorting to Destruction to finish the job.

[PeterJ]

My char is very similar to yours, because there is no short blade skill this is what i went with.

 

Breton

The lady (this for endurance (more health per lvl)

Nightmage (custom)

 

Focus magic

Will power(bonus for mage skills) and agility(bonus for steatlh skills)

 

- Marskman

- light armor

- security

- sneak

- illusion

- mysticism

- destruction

 

dont need restoration as you just get potions etc, id prefer using lockpics and security than a spell to open locks.

[thanateros]

I would deffinitely recommend keeping restoration, I'm single handedly walking through the game right now with a decently powered absorb Health spell. Restoration hosts, IMO, the most broken offensive spell in the game. If you do end up with Conjuration, which I wouldn't, Restoration magic allows you to heal others, so you can just let you monster do all the tanking for you and not worry about it dying until the spell wears off.

 

For my character I had a decision to make between mysticism and alteration, and although regretfully I went with both I would recommend Alteration over Mysticism. The spells are more useful and cheaper to cast than a really potent reflect or absorb spell. If you're playing a Breton, then you don't need the resist magika in Mysticism, you already have it at high enough level anyway.

 

The shield spells for Alteration are extremely useful, especially since you aren't using any armor, you will need a decent shield spell to be able to take on higher level melee fighters. The elemental shields are also incredibly useful, especially when considering the high amount of fire based damage creature from Oblivion use.

 

Take out the Marksman, unless you have a mod to fix how incredibly underpowered it is in this game. You're using Destruction, which is more than enough offense in this game. When I designed my character I decided the only weapon I would use was a sword, but not for attacking, just as a really useful parry weapon, so I went with Block as a major skill.

 

Here's my skill spread, a different character than yours but:

 

Alteration

Block

Hand to Hand

Illusion

Restoration

Acrobatics

Sneak

 

Illusion works well with sneak (duh). Restoration is suprisingly the school I use for offense with Absorb Health spells, then Hand to Hand for sneak attack and block using a sword (looks cooler than with a shield for a thief character). you'll need solid protection if you don't use armor, or a really high Block skill to reduce the damage you take. If you go with destruction, you won't need any other ranged offense.