Hey guys
I got this idea from reading another topic about "pre-modern crude explosives". I really like stealth characters in movies like some kind of ninja or so but in Oblivion I could never realize this style of fighting. Yeah you could sneak to one person and hit him from behind with a bonus damage but if he got companions they spot you and attack you forcing you to fight eye to eye which is not what I wanted.
I'm not playing an assassin to fight like a normal warrior. So If you can't attack from the dark hide again and attack again and so on - sounds dull to me but I hope you understand - here's another solution:

Wouldn't it be cool if there is a skill like engineering which allows you to build traps and bombs (not like a modern bomb, more like greek fire or so, just watch src="http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1172685-pre-modern-crude-explosives/"]this topic[/url]). The mages got runes so why shouldn't there exist a non magic version of it to.
As a stealthy character you could observe the group of enemies - maybe a group of bandits - your up to and install the traps and plant the bombs. After your preparations you sneak to the leader of the group and hit him with a deadly strike and withdraw from the light of the campfire unleashing chaos and fear under your unsuspecting foes. The bandits will run around disoriented and activate your traps and they will burn to their ashes. Maybe a few demoralized bandits will survive but their attention is drawn to the fire and their dead comrades so you can kill them easily.
That's how it should happen if everything runs as expected. Sure you can fail depending on your skill and draw attention on you, than run for you life:D. If your skill raises your traps will be more efficiently and you get more variants.

It also works for archers as they can take position behind the traps lurking the enemies into the fire or whatever. I just want something that holds your foes on distance making a fight unique for a stealth character and not just get the first hit and then fighting like a normal warrior.
This is my opinion so now tell me yours and be a bit patient if got carried away by my idea.

EDIT:

I added a new poll because to many people focused on the bombs and not on the main idea of traps for stealth characters.

EDIT:

What about other ideas to improve stealth characters so playing as a thief/assassin would be more fun?

I don't really see why you couldn't just use a magical trap. You said they confirmed that you can lay down magical runes so why not use those?

-.- Really, I mean REALLY.. Come on Runes are for a Mage because they are magical it makes no sense for me to train my magic skills to be a good assassin.

Not really interested in any kind of explosive in Skyrim - it feels like too big a jump from earlier games. Plus if you can acquire enchanted rune traps (and I'll bet you can probably buy them, rather than have to make them yourself) then what's the point in explosives?

The fact is, magic kills off technological progress.

saddly i guess it not going to be possible, i'll really love it if they will put it on skyrim, but anolysing the actual states of the skills... it`s not viable. With this balance breakes, there is 6 skills by category, we need almost anothers two more, like ... i dont know ..mount for warrior constellation and spellmaking for the mage.

In Skyrim, according to the one Todd Howard interview that I listened to, also in theory, skills will work in tree-like systems where one option or vein that you choose to use will branch off into its own branch of perks and so on. When one unlocks a certain number of options under the Blade skill, you may specialize in Daggers. Once one has specialized in Daggers, on may follow a stealth-like vein with that and obtain a perk that would basically allow them to sneak up on someone and stab them in the back or slit their throat as a sort of one-hit-kill bit. This is all what has been talked about, though I guess it's not technically "confirmed". So, there is hope.

I think it would be pretty cool to see that, so i voted yes.

Well I don't really see a point in making a new skill just so that people can make traps when they already have magical traps. And this may just be me but in all of my assassin type characters, they had at least a decent magic ability.

That's a point but it's not confirmed that runes are items you can acquire. If that's not how runes are implemented in my opinion it would be cool to have a way for the characters which are not so skilled in magic.

It's cool to see that there are other people thinking the same way about this and I think there is hope;).

No Bombs Please

listen to this

maybe there is hope
It's not necessary to have a full skill for that due to the new skill system with perks.

My stealth characters always have illusion as a major skill (Sometimes Mysticism).

In that case we should remove charm because we have speechcraft, remove invisibility because we have sneak, remove unlock spells because we have security, and remove shield because we have armour.

You should be able to play as a pure stealth character.

@Dragonbone
That's exactly how i feel.

You didn't get the idea. I thought about a system where stealth characters could install traps, as a special trap there would be a fire based trap, maybe it's explosive. The point is to build traps not to add bombs to the world of Elder Scrolls. Please read the whole article before righting something inappropriate accidentally.

I would like to see smoke bombs to confuse and stress opponents while making yourself unable to be seen and harder to hear against the sound of others (I reckon the surrounding sound should affect how easily you are heard).

EDIT: But no engineering skill. This could be done with alchemy.

Jeesh, the guy has a fantasy in his mind, can't you all help a guy out? He wants to use his imagination to have explosives happen via an assassin-like method not by magic. Its all imagination based, so what's the harm, guys? If it's the same explosion that happens when a monster steps on your fire rune and explodes, what's the big deal if he wants that to happen because he's a ninja who planted a small vial of fire-liquid (again, potions are stealth based, so this is exactly in line with the game's direction anyway) ....

Hey man, I support your dream, man. This would be very easy for them to add, not even 10 minutes to add this since the system already supports fire runes and potions. Yours would just be compressed into some kind of a hard-shelled nut that you can throw down, cracking it, releasing the explosive fires, gases, or smoke. You'd drill a hole in some walnut shells, send in a small maggot that feeds on the walnut meat and wait about 1 week for it to devour it all. Then you stick your needle in there and svck out the maggot which would have filled the space. Once the walnut is completely empty, you inject it with the potion and seal the hole quickly with a wax layer, which you then wrap in different colored papers to indicate which kind of bomb it is.

When you throw it on the ground, the walnut cracks open, releasing the small but lethal liquid which reacts to the oxygen in the air to do one of three things 1) Explode (Fire based), 2) Release Toxic Gas (Poison Cloud) and 3) Smoke Cloud (Distraction).

The only thing I would like to see is a hardcoe mode when you are attacked, there is a small chance some of the bombs could get knocked out of your pouches in the violence of the struggle and go off accidentally. Or if someone casts lightning bolt on you, there is a small chance the bomb could go off accidentally. This would be the price you would pay for carrying dangerous bombs that are fairly fragile.

Just my 2 cents.

Seeing that implemented into alchemy would be cool for me just any way would be cool. Smoke bombs are a great idea.



Wow now that's a response and I totaly agree with most of your points.

Ok I see your point...

I voted no because of the way your poll was written. The idea expressed in the poll does not necessarily reflect the ideas you present in your post.

I'm with Skystorm though-- I like your idea, and I don't see any reason why people should shoot you down for having an imagination and wanting to roleplay a character without having to resort to magic. I will confess that I've never roleplayed a character who eschewed magic altogether, though I can see the appeal. One thing I would like to point out, though, is that it would take a bit more than 10 minutes. Sure, there is a similar system already in place, but it would take a lot of time to add in even this small change. All of these things (and more) would need to be coded into the game: What ingredients do you need to create these traps? Where do you get these ingredients? What tools do you need to create these traps (just a mortar and pestle, or things like maggots and needles, etc.)? Are traps purchasable? Who sells them? For how much? What about the required ingredients-- are they sold? And tools as well? How much for those? In addition, all of these (and more) would need artwork, rendering, and in-game realization: What does the effect (such as the new toxic gas or smoke cloud) look like? If the player is affected by them, what does that do to their "view"? What about the items themselves-- the ingredients, tools, and traps (they would all need 3d modeling and rendering)? I'm not saying it would take years, I'm just saying it would take more than 10 minutes (which I suppose was probably hyperbole).

Anyway, I like the idea, but I see no need to add a new Skill like Engineering to accommodate this idea-- I think it could fit nicely in with Alchemy. Therefore I voted no. But even if the game doesn't ship with such a feature, have no fear-- that's what mods are for!


EDIT: I actually hadn't voted yet, and thinking it over, I will vote yes because I agree with your idea, though we don't need a new Skill.

Yeah I got your point and you are right. The poll should have been like: Do you want the feature of building traps on a stealth based skill or something like that. But then I never meant the engineer skil should be an own skill it could be a perk but I never made that clear.

how does a bomb fit into stealth?

@TechnoViking169; Smoke bombs, gas bombs.... grease bomb?


Anyhow, this is a really good idea. It'd be neat if the devs put it in the game.

Yeah the Elder Scrolls universe is weird like that. I can go out into the woods in real life and tie back a green sapling with a stake driven into it, but you need magic abilities to set a trap in the game. It would be too much work for the dev team, they've got a deadline to meet.

Not sure about full-scale bombs, but spark and smoke bombs provide excellent distractions. Also, bombs are used more for traps than live combat.