What are some good ideas for a character who is really a treasure hunter/adventurer, but has some thief inclinations? By that, I mean a character who's profession is seeking out treasure, but only to sell to the highest bidder (so to speak), not for acquiring power. As such, any magical artifacts -- which are not immediately useful to him -- will be sold to vendors. This included items like dragon claws (always have collected them), weapons such as Dawnbreaker (though that is not likely a quest he would readily accept, reasons further on) or armor like Spellbreaker, and so on.

He would prefer to avoid combat, so sneaking and diversion tactics would be crucial. Therefore the Sneak tree and Speechcraft tree would be perked out -- SIDE RANT: I wish the Silent Roll perk were AFTER Light Foot because setting off traps is a great way to defeat your foes, and Light Foot all but eliminates this as an option, while Silent Roll is a great perk for this character, too! UGH! /SIDE RANT -- Since combat is going to be avoided, Combat skills will be nil, or at least only advanced through training, but NO PERKS! His go-to weapons, if no other options exist would be a dagger and crossbow (he would carry a longbow and some iron arrows for diversion purposes).

* To stay quick and able to run away when needed, no armor would be worn, only general clothing, and most points would be put into Stamina. This also maintains a sense of real danger. Not sure which difficulty setting to be used.

* NO CRAFTING. He'll use his spoils to purchase needed potions/poisons, scrolls, and weapons and ammo.

* Not sure if he would travel with a companion or not, though he may hire some protection if he feels the quest would dictate it. He may conjure some help via scrolls or a staff, if only as a distraction in order to claim the goal item or make a getaway.

SO, and other ideas or suggestions? Quests that would be good or quests to avoid? As noted above, he likely wouldn't take a quest that required him to kill an enemy (unless their is an indirect way to achieve that goal via traps and such). Perk or Skill ideas? Maybe even some mod suggestions?

PS: I used to have a character like this, but he was also an alchemist, which made a lot of parts very easy, what with slow and paralyze potions so easy to create. It also leveled the character way too quickly.

Also:

Suggestions on Race? Guardian Stone? How to deal with dragons when/if the time comes (eventually he may be turned into a reluctant hero of sorts, so he may have some companions by then), etc.

Thieves Guild will likely come into play, as he will have some skill in Pickpocketing. He'll need a place to sell any stolen goods.

Whew! Just had my first test!

I spoke with Amren about the dispute with his wife and he directed me to Valtheim Keep to retrieve his family's sword. I knew that was going to be tough, but doable.

I'm playing on Master difficulty, so I had to avoid several wolf "packs", one by leading them to the Stormcloak camp just south and west of VK. I went as far as halfway up the climb to the nearby giant camp to get a good view of the target. Approaching head-on is suicide, so I took a look at the rock face up river from the keep. I crossed the river and scaled the cliff. I crept along, getting closer and closer with a bird's eye view, careful to not alert the bandits to my presence.

After passing the keep, I began my descent. I must have slipped because I fell a distance, injuring myself, but not seriously. I did, however, alert the bandit chief at the top of the tower. Luckily, I was close enough to make a perilous leap to the structure, and I rolled right into the area where the boss chest was located. I cleared the chest of its contents and ran like hell! The orcish bandit cheif was right on me, I know he took a swing, because I heard the sound of metal on stone! I ran down to the bridge and saw a bandit at the center with an arrow aimed right at me. I took a leap of faith into the White River below and hit at just the right spot (I wish you could make big splashes when you jump in water from a height). I swam to shore, and I could still hear arrows plinking off the ground around me, so I kept running until I was out of stamina. I turned back to the keep, and the bandits had given up the chase!

That was exhilarating! It was nice putting one over on the bandits instead of just wiping them out. Where to next....?

I love these types of characters. Not an assassin, not even your traditional slippery thief, but an adventurer/treasure hunter, out for the gold.

I'll start with mods, since I've found a couple that I absolutely love:

Stealth Skills Rebalanced. This mod addresses the Sneak, Lockpick, and Pickpocket skills and perk trees. The changes it makes to the perk trees are subtle and reasonable, IMO, so it fits very well with an otherwise-pretty-vanilla playthrough. Overall, the mod makes those 3 skills more challenging than they are in vanilla. You'll actually need to invest perks in Stealth if you want to sneak up on someone, and armor weight is a bigger factor. Muffle enchants are also less OP; now, you'll find various gear with, say, 20% muffle effects rather than the full effect. At first I thought it made sneaking *too* hard, but I've grown to like it, since it makes those perks feel more rewarding.

Most notably, though, IMO, are the changes this mod makes to Lockpick. In vanilla, you could argue that it's pointless to invest in Lockpick perks, with the arguable exception of, say, Treasure Hunter (and RP purposes, of course). This mod makes locks quite a bit harder to pick - *and*, crucially, it decreases the amount of Lockpicks in the world. You just won't find them for sale at the vast majority of vendors, and when you do find them (say, on a bandit, or in a little cache out in the wilderness) it is a wonderful, glorious moment. As with the Sneak changes, you'll now need to invest in Lockpick perks (and the tree has been rearranged in a very nice way, with some neat perks and tweaks to some cool vanilla ones - Treasure Hunter is a bit more likely to proc with this mod, e.g.).

I haven't tried pickpocketing since I've gotten this mod, so can't vouch for that.

Other mods that really enhance the treasure hunting experience:

Realistic Nights - dark nights! Combine with the following 2 mods to make slipping into that fort a bit easier and more realistic

Enhanced Lights and FX - I love this for the dark dungeons aspect. Now you'll need to use that torch, especially with the fear of traps (see below)

Immersive NPCs in the dark - OK, now that you've got dark dungeons and nights, you want the NPCs to *act* like it's dark. This mod does that; NPCs will fumble around to light torches in the dark and have a harder time spotting you.

Traps Make Noise - sprung traps will alert nearby NPCs; I think this also makes the traps themselves more dangerous

Subliminal Traps - makes those pressure plates difficult to spot. Very tense!

Trade and Barter - very tweakable; I've got this set to significantly delay the onset of uber wealth, thus giving my character more reasons to go out and look for treasure in those dank dungeons! You can set the mod to make merchants absolutely killer, and make your Speech perks a necessity if you want to get any kind of deal off your hard-won loot. Great for a treasure-hunter, IMO.

Interesting NPCs - as a rogue character, it's nice to have more people to talk to. Also makes dungeons and cities far less predictable, since you don't know who you'll meet next.

Whew, that was a lot! Other stuff...

Race - I like Imperials. Don't be fooled by their racial ability, though... "Imperial Luck" actually does nothing, though I believe the Unofficial Patch fixes that. Bretons are also good, as they get a Speech bonus (and handy magic defense)

Stone - the Thief seems obvious. With Steal Skills Rebalanced, the Tower stone suddenly looks a lot more attractive, and would be a neat trick for a treasure hunter.

Dragons - not sure, but probably that crossbow... I planned a similar trajectory for my treasure hunter: check out the Dawnguard after vampires kill some of his city contacts, get a crossbow, and then get good at it. Never got that far, though.

Other skills - Block could be a good one. I just love the idea of a treasure hunter exploring a dark crypt with a torch in one hand and a sword or dagger in the other, ready to fend off any denizens who get too close. Quick Reflexes would be handy and in-character, I'd think.

Quests - I'd avoid 'em. Seriously, though, this is a great character to play fairly questless. Interesting NPCs adds several new rumors and hints to give your character ideas for where to go next. Bounties don't make much sense for a treasure hunter, but just getting out in the world, reading books, deciding what crumbling ruin looks ripe for plundering... You could stick around a town for a few days, investigating rumors and the nearby ruins, then move on to the next city or location.

The Aetherium quest is ideal for a treasure hunter, however.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Thats really neat, especially that immersive NPCs in dark mod, probably the coolest sounding one out of those listed imo, btw how does interesting NPCs work?

Wow, thanks for the info, Jaber!

I've got Realistic Lighting. It's one of the first mods I ever added, haha. Dungeons can be pitch black in spots, so I always carry a torch. Nights are reasonably dark when it's a completely clear night, but if it's foggy? Forget about it! You have to watch your every step because you can't see 5 feet in front of you! Makes wondering around at night actually dangerous (especially with this build).

Immersive NPCs in the Dark sounds awesome! Does the darkness effect open world detection at night?

Trade and barter sounds interesting.

I also have Interesting NPCs. It's a must-have mod.

I may look into the Sneak mods, or I might make my own, simply by re-ordering Light Feet and Silent Roll.

@Goldayo:

Interesting NPCs is a fairly large mod that adds over 100 fully voiced NPCs to the game. Most of the voices are really well done. In addition, it adds numerous new followers, some of which have their own multi-stage quest lines, some rather extensive. I highly recommend it. It's compatible with most NPC overhaul mods (I use Ultimate Followers Overhaul).