I don't know if this would work or not as I haven't gotten the game yet, but i've been lurking here forever, messing with perk calculators and everything. I also haven't found anything that would answer my questions.

Anyhow, here is my, uh, querry?

I always like being sneaky, and i don't want to be limited to one combat style. I want to go for melee and archery with light armor.

BUT, i don't understand where i'd be going on the melee section and if it'd gimp me.

I'd want to dual wield. If i went toe-to-toe, it sounds like i'd be at a disadvantage with dual daggers if that ever happened. I certinally don't want to be limited to purely striking from the shadows, even though i like that playstyle, i want to be able to hold my own if i'm not allowed to be hidden.

I could go on with this forever to specify what I want, but i'll try to shorten it up -

Would specializing in:
Archery
Dual Wielding Melee (dagger, dagger) or (dagger, sword) or (sword, sword???)
Light Armor
Sneak

Mean I had to be forever stuck in the shadows if I wanted to have a chance at fighting?
So pretty much my problem comes in the melee area. I want to be able to fight from the shadows, aswell as outside of them and not get destroyed.


Thanks.

I just carry two swords and a dagger. When I'm going to backstab someone I switch out one of the swords for a dagger, then go back to two swords if I need to go toe to toe with someone. I will admnit at lower levels I seemed to get my butt kicked beacase off the light armor, but after awhile you get used to manually dodging out of the way and using terrain and other obstacles to make the enemy come at you one at a time. Going to spoiler the next two pieces of advice:

So I wouldn't be wasting perks if I put some that'd help with backstabs/sneakattacks AND the perks directed towards swords?

One-handed weapons tree? I think. I'm aiming for something similar to you and that's where i'm starting.

I'm the exact same, assassin with daggers and archery. I got the first two archery perks, will get the slow time one when I get the right level. I have 84 sneak or so and have all the perks for that except for the last one. The only one handed perks I have is the first one, and the dual wield speed attacks, since I only use dual wield daggers, and occasionally two swords.

I'm an assassing that uses a Bow and dual wields swords. The toe to toe with daggers isn't really viable when fighting a mob. Unless you have really good daggers. But that's just me.

Alright, thanks guys.

One last thing, are you only able to sneak attack with ONLY daggers and a bow?

Assassin is incredibly powerful, that's my current build right now and outside of a couple of enemies I can pretty much go toe to toe with them if I get discovered in Sneak mode.

I don't think you can sneak attack with Spells or Staves. But don't quote me on that. You can however sneak attack with any other weapon.

I know you can sneak attack with one handed swords, not sure about two-handed weapons.

So I could infact sneak attack with a sword and recieve the 6x damage from Backstab?

I believe so, yes. Unless the perk specifically says "backstabs from daggers deal 6x more damage". Which I don't think it does.

Just a heads up dual wielding is asking to get destroyed unless you have a moderate amount of stamina that could pull atleast 3 power attacks before running out atleast in IMO, for guardian stone you should do thief, cause 1h sword goes into warrior and ur gonna be sneaking, lock picking, speech,light armr, and i think archery goes in thief too.

You can sneak attack with anything except magic (spells, staves, etc)

you would find toe-to-toe hard but not impossible if you duck in and out of range

What armor do u guys use??
im using light armor but i seem to get pushed around alot when it comes to toe - to - toe, and im 100% health atm

What would be the best placement of attribute points towards HP/Stamina?

It might also be a good idea to think about spending some time on Alchemy. The poisons and beneficial potions that you can gain from that skill set would be beneficial.
Example: You've got an enemy that you know you can't take out in one shot with a sneak-attack.
Solution: Equip a poison to the weapon (rather nice with bows) the poison should then hopefully knock down the rest of his/her/it's health.
As for Health and Stamina. I like to keep my fairly balanced as T'vash is known to go toe-to-toe with enemies that can't be taken out via stealth. The stamina will not only help you carry more and run for longer, it'll also allow you to get off more power-attacks, and while dual-wielding, this is VERY beneficial.
Happy Hunting!
- T'vash

I'd have to check the perk calculator again to see about alchemy now.

Should i put 2 points into Restoration just for the health/stam regeneration?

Also, say for exmaple I have 90 smithing. Can i make Daedric weapons, or do I have to have 90 smithing AND the perk for it?

As to the above question you need both.

As to your main question there are two things you can do.

1. Kick Rear

2. Chew Bubble Gum


To bad there isn't any gum. So just level your one handed, light armor, sneak, lock picking, smiting, archery, and alchemy. I did that on my first character and about all that could mess with me are the stupid death lords. They are worse than goblin warlords.