Thief/Assassin

[IshTing]

After playing around with my mage I'm starting to get a little bored, so I have decided to make a stealth character and have a few questions.

 

1. Can nords make decent stealth characters? I like the human races most so would rather not play as a cat, lizard or wood elf.

 

2. Is it ok to specialise in both bow and dagger? I'd like to kill enemys from afar but assassinating an enemy up close looks sweet.

 

3. I'm guessing it would be best to max sneak, archery, one handed, lockpicking, light armour. Anything else?

 

4. What do thieves put their attribute points into?

 

Thanks

Edited December 21, 2011 by IshTing

[MaKos79]

Some points in illusion magic would be useful down the road...

 

Except if you want to go all the road without the use of magic :pinch:

[mclericp]

1. any race can make decent skills. I m a nord who uses pure magic and i still own those nords who think magic is lame and weak.

I am also an imperial who uses stealth + bow, and a khajit who uses bow + heavy armor + warhammer

As long as you train and master those skills u wanted, you will do good. I ended up with 100 destruction and 100 alteration on my Nord while my 1handed is still 27...

 

2. I m not sure, but i would just kill with the bow. Too many things to do if u use a bow and dagger. But if u use a bow and the enemy comes near u, i suggest you use destruction + impact or a 1handed sword + shield, but dagger will be fine.

 

3. u need close combat. If the enemy comes near you and swing his axe around, you cant counter with a bow easily if its a cave/small area. get a melee weapon, or even better, destruction + impact. I ended up killing the enemy from a few metres away by staggering him.

 

4. Full time thief: archery, pickpocket, stealth, dagger(or any melee, prefer 1handed or dagger), lockpicking, light armor, just like you said.

for part time thief, you can try to balance your skills but it wont work as good as fulltime thief

also, try illusion for the invisibility. BUT mind you, if u cast it while there are enemies around(even though they didnt detect you, the crosshairs will show, so its useless. I would just get some invisibility potions. If u didnt noe what ingredients to make that potion: ice wraith teeth, charus eggs, vamp dust are all i can think of.

 

Another tip, since if u wanna make invisible potions, try going alchemy. besides, you can save urself some MONEY by sneaking around and stealing ingredients and making them into potions. also, u can make great poisons to OHKO from range

Edited December 21, 2011 by mclericp

[TimF]

My thief assassin is the following: stealth (all the perks, though shadow warrior and ranking the first one aren't important), illusion(all the perks except cost reduction), smithing (light armor perks), enchantment (all perks that empower enchantment), one-handed (only the first perk, possible taking few in dual wielding and power attacks), light armor (only the first, I am rarely harmed, so my light armor simply doesn't level. Stealth is the armor.) Must be it. Oh, and I don't use bows. Illusion when I need range and elemental staves vs airborne dragons. And of course - nothing like a trusty dagger. Oh, and I pick kajit as starting race. Not very decent abilities, but nice skill distribution. And the most important - cool looks and even cooler looks with vampirism.

[spets21]

i have 2 type of stealth char a mage assassin and thief/assassin builds for thief/assassin max out perk stealth obviously /one-hand and light armor, enchanting mid perks to dual enchanting , smithing for light armors tree i also have perks in speech/pickpocket specially extra pocket for all the stolen goodies as for speech i have all the left perks to master trader good for early game IMHO but when you already have tons of money and all the houses in game it becomes useless so depends if you wanna take this perks upside you can have easy money early on and exploit crafting and enchanting

btw you can level your speech by exploiting the npc at black brior meadery if you dont know, it helps you gain level ealry in game

main weapon would be dagger sometimes bow depends if your enemy is ranged for left hand i use block but mainly for resistance attribute only dont have a single perks invested in block tree this build is your basic kill , loot everything game play and you will have a hard time early on ,killing dragons but as later you develop your archery perks it becomes really easy to land critical hits with the proper gear enchanted thats prolly my first big mistake i made in game i level`d my one-hand perks first instead of archery, now for the one hand tree i have maxed arms-man and both dual perks , savage and blade in case im feeling bored and tired of sneaking all the way. 100 magicka balanced health and stamina 1/2/2 ratio(imperial)

 

for my 2nd build the mage assassin if you want a different play style then you should play a mage stealthy assassin

 

stealth/sneak,illusion/conjuration/restoration/light armor maxed out stealth and illusion for illusion i have dual casting mid and right side tree to maxed to 100 illusion

there is an exploit to level your sneak and the rest of the magic perks by exploiting the priest during the quest from acquiring molag baal mace

and get the spells calm ect. its fun to use this spells on your enemies as for conjuration get dual casting and mid perk i dont summon or raise dead my weapon i use are bound swords they look cool :D restoration tree i have respite/regeneration maxed recovery avoid death and dual casting just roll around and back stab its fun if you get ganged cast calm/hysteria or others illusion perks is so fun try experimenting. or if really bored go to enemy stronghold cast invisibility go to the middle and start casting mayhem then run towards the door turn invisible and watch enemies kill each other lol magicka/hp/stamina 3/1/2 (breton)

[Brandy1123]

You don't need any sword skill at all. A thief archer with with slow time aiming can take out anything. Use paralasys poison on anything that gets close and dont forget to use stealth and terrain. I didn't die on a pure archer thief until I hit 37th level on default difficulty, and that was only due to 2 dragons spawning on me at the same time a band of bandits attacked me. I still got all the bandits and 1 of the dragons.

 

If you want to strike from behind, only take the skill tree up to the bonus backstab damage and the perk for extra pocket (100 weight extra)

Edited December 22, 2011 by Brandy_123

[PR4Y]

My thief assassin is the following: stealth (all the perks, though shadow warrior and ranking the first one aren't important), illusion(all the perks except cost reduction), smithing (light armor perks), enchantment (all perks that empower enchantment), one-handed (only the first perk, possible taking few in dual wielding and power attacks), light armor (only the first, I am rarely harmed, so my light armor simply doesn't level. Stealth is the armor.) Must be it. Oh, and I don't use bows. Illusion when I need range and elemental staves vs airborne dragons. And of course - nothing like a trusty dagger. Oh, and I pick kajit as starting race. Not very decent abilities, but nice skill distribution. And the most important - cool looks and even cooler looks with vampirism.

 

 

I just wanted to post to say that you are COMPLETELY WRONG in this statement. Shadow Warrior is pretty much the single most important skill if you want to play an assassin... and suggesting someone to not use it just because you don't know how / take advantage of it's strengths is simply wrong.

[Kaldhore]

1. Yes

 

2. Yes, would recommend lots in Archery. Once you get to the x15 backstab in one handed you can stop.

 

3. Sneak yea, Archery yea. one handed - doesnt need maximized, Lockpicking - absolutely not. Not one perk. Just get used to doing locks. Expect to lose a lot of lockpicks but you can get them anywhere. Eventually (I played Fallout so im very good at the locks) you will be suprised at how easy locks are. Dont waste your perks in that. On my first *Master* Lock I used about 50 picks, now at 100 skill points but no perks I use about 5.

 

4. Thieves dont put attributes in anything - THEY TAKE THEM !!

 

Ok just to sum-up and probably annoy some of the previous posters -

You dont need points in Pickpocket, Locksmithing, Illusion or Alchemy. Maybe thats not how it should be but you really dont. Locksmithing Ive already explained. Pickpocketing well its not that usefull and its easily trained to 100 and you can use enchanted jewelry and gear when the need arises also potions (you will pick them up not make). Illusion - the main thing you want from that is Invisibilty - you wont need it if your stealth is high and the few times you do need it you will have picked up plenty of potions of invis. Also the Stone (probably a spoiler so I wont say). Alchemy.....You steal and pick up so many potions....you will not need to perk this up.

 

My Views are - Sneak, Light Armour, One Hand (to the x15 bonus), Archery ( a must), Enchanting (You want you gear with 2 Enchants Baby) and Finally Smithing - cos anything less than Overkill Legendary gear is George Doubleyah.

Edited December 22, 2011 by Kaldhore

[TimF]

 

I just wanted to post to say that you are COMPLETELY WRONG in this statement. Shadow Warrior is pretty much the single most important skill if you want to play an assassin... and suggesting someone to not use it just because you don't know how / take advantage of it's strengths is simply wrong.

 

 

No arguing with that. That is, if you don't have invisibility, which I do.

[Xahstur]

Here is my Assassin.

 

The best way to lvl up/gain perks:

 

Activate Thief Stone first:

Go to High Hrothgar and train your sneak/1 hand/Archery on greybeards from the back,do not kill them!

I got Sneak 100,1 Hand 100 and Archery at 100 in about 1 h,but be vary if they start att you youre screwed.

After you got all these we can procede to next plan:

Activate Warrior Stone:

Get Smithing to 100,1 hand to 100 (if you havent got it on greybeards)

Activate mage stone:

Get Illusion to 100 (not req but saves your ass) and Restoration to 100 (training) and Enchanting to 100

 

Equipment:

Light Armor ofc

Get items that have muffle,fortify archery,HP regen/bonus,Fortify sneak and echant your items.

 

Thats the whole wisdom...

 

Btw i recomand you this mods: Tytanis,Lost Art Of the Blacksmith,Elys Uncapper.