I'm planning on making an archer. Probably a magic-less one, I'm undecided whether I should include illusion or just drop magic completely. Both sneak and not. I want to just rely on archery, meaning no daggers or anything melee. Is this doable? I would be playing on default difficulty.

I used to be a huge Robbaz freak, and in tribute I made a Nord who only used his fists on Expert difficulty. It was surprisingly easy! I think you'd be surprised with what's possible on Skyrim in terms of builds Harry.

I'd say its possible. with every possible archery perk you could get a long way. I do believe stealth will come into play a great deal and possibly a small amount of block. You can block with a bow, toss someone back off you and stick an arrow into them heh.

I played an archer who's backup weapon was a dagger, nothing more. Got pretty far into the game. Being able to zoom in on a target, run with a bow drawn and the perks to slow down time when aiming. All were a great help.

I cant speak for all archers, but I will say that MOST archers carry at least a dagger for backup. The enemy will at some point get within close combat range. You should carry one.

Archery without any other skill except smithing (got to make arrows) is fun and I have no problems with it... until I run out of arrows so I have to run away and make more.

Believe me, it's fun! I had one, but he only used alchemy and archery. Once alchemy reached level 90 or so, I decided to add in smithing too. You'll have a wonderful time hanging around in the Rift with that build.

So this is what it'll look like, then:

Race: Nord

six: Undecided, probably a female.

Type: Marksman.

Weapon: Bow + arrows. No crossbows.

Magic: No

Melee: Dagger for backup

Trade skills: Smithing, and some alchemy

Should be a fun build. I'll do both sneak and not.

Alchemy is your friend. I'm churning out potions which deal 1000+ in damage, and haven't drawn a sword in ages.

Any archery-specific mods I should look into?

It's totally doable on default difficulty. I had one character who was a no-sneak archer, who got by fine with just kiting. Once you get the stagger perk, archery can be quite powerful and staying out of reach is not that hard. Granted, most of my archers are Khajiit, so they do have their claws as a back-up and use them sometimes in the beginning while they are working their archery skill up to get the stagger perk.

But once you have that perk, there should never be a need for a melee weapon, if you are careful not to get cornered and always have a place to run to. I don't use the slower bows that do more damage, but stick with faster bows like hunting and foresworn. With the stagger perk, it is more important to hit frequently than to do a lot of damage per hit. That, plus a little sprinting will let you fight a lot of enemies without ever having to switch to melee.

Stamina is an archers best friend, both for the bow zoom/slow time perks and also for the sprinting that you need to do on occassion to put some distance between you and your enemies. I am not a big Skyrim fan overall but I do like the way they handled archery. For added fun, turn off the crosshair and use the instinctive method of aiming your bow.

Yes it is, if you use a follower for melee purposes and have a few other perks. if you do the DB quest then you can have 2 followers for melee purposes