I use to play only Hack'n Slash characters 'till i met a little thing called Stealth... that was love man... love hahahahah

In Morrowind it's melee and in Oblivion either stealth or magic.

my favourite specialization is magic it can really expand the horizons of the player by being able to use weapons [conjuration] or combat and stealth[alteration and mysticism] and obviously magic itself. my least faourite is stealth because i find it fun but akward to use

That would be pretty violent and gory which is why it is awesome! It would make being an assassin that much better. I consider myself a professional assassin and I see what you mean about shooting people in the head and them not dieing. However, that doesn't happen to me that much, so it doesn't really bother me. Stealth is much more fun in Oblivion than Morrrowind and I expect it to be even better in TESV.

Stealth is my favorite because it's the easiest, and I dislike combat the most because it gets annoying.

I love stealth, well because I love being sneaky and doing all that work of going into dungeons, hauling the loot out, and ect. just to get some money is way more work that just taking stuff.

Dislike magic because... well it's not magical enough in either Morrowind or Oblivion. Oblivion makes it feel like hacks, infinitely recharging health, open locked door code, "you like me now!" cheat. Doesn't feel "magical" really.

Stealth should almost be renamed "Utilitarian" as the skills compliment any class really. However, on its own, I find stealth the weakest of the 3. Stealth gameplay needs a major overhaul for a true stealth character to really shine.

Funny how most of my dozen-plus characters have been at least 50% "stealth" oriented, but only one of them was ever a "thief" or "assassin". It's definitely a "utilitarian" category, with Marksman, Speechcraft, and Mercantile at potential odds with the usual "Thief" skills. It's generally those other non-thief skills that my characters focus on, perhaps partly because the whole way that thievery works (or doesn't) in the games makes it pointless to play.

Dark Elf Assassin (stealth spec) is my favorite character. I usually mix stealth with some combat so "lore-wise" my dark elf is an excellent fighter as well though in game I am usually forced to run and shoot with my bow thanks to inferior combat skills and bad health score...

At later levels I usually pick up illusion for some chameleon and invisibility. My favorite spell is 5 second 100% chameleon which sort of lets my character shadowstep and hide in plain sight.... it makes most fights really easy yes but direct hack n slash gets boring REALLY fast atleast for me.

I really love my poisons as well.... it feels really great to "knock-out" one of my opponents with paralyze and then kill his partner in a fair 1 versus 1 fight. Or mixing a strong damage/drain agility poison works great as well to make your enemy trip everytime you hit him/her. There are many things you can do.
I just wish daggers were more useful, how hard would it have been to add a critical strike chance or atleast make daggers do more sneak damage than longswords.... it takes ages to kill somebody with a dagger even a good one.

Magic is my least used specialization because I think it svcks. If I feel like playing a mage I go play some NWN or world of warcraft (or baldurs gate 2 for old times sake) where I actually feel like one, in oblivion magic is just too limited and primitive it feels like i'm shooting different laser guns instead of casting magic. Luckily there are addons that add some really unique spells (Midas magic comes to mind). Still could use more than 8 shortcuts for different spells, should be possible with mods but i haven't found a mod that adds more shortcuts.

They're all equally fun but I like mages more for their versatilities in the school of magic. I chose stealth as my least favorite because I simply just find it obsolete other than for RP reasons and just for purely have a stealth character.

Fave: Stealth
Why? I don't know, I just find it the most fun to try being undetected.

Least fave: of the 3? Combat.
Why? Done way to much/ only choice in older games, need a change.

I love magic and combat. People who use stealth are wussies because they don't want to go through a fun and exciting battle as they just prefer to kill their opponent quickly with critical damage. Go up to your enemy or enemies' face and say, "I'll show you who is better in combat and only death awaits you!"

Nothings as satisfying as smashing in the head of a monster your afraid of.
(I HATE zombies!)

Most of my characters are stealth characters, focusing on sneaking, security, speechcraft and so on. And especially so since Oblivion cause Oblivion made sneaking fun!

The combat skills I use in my last character are blade and athletics. And the only magic skill is restoration, so I guess magic is my least favorite. I can't even remember my last character who had destruction or conjuration, I wonder if I ever used them at all.

In the TES games I pretty much just use magic for healing, to open locks and teleport. And Oblivion removed the teleport spell. Oh yeah, sense life is a nice spell now and then.

Voted

1.Stealth

2.Magic

Magic is cool and all, but oblivion's spells are a little on the svckish side.

Favorite Specialization?

Morrowind Magic for sure... Levitate? Detect Key/Enchantment? Summon Ancestral Ghost? Summon Centurion Sphere? Who can live without them?

Oblivion Combat... A mage in oblivion is just too weak, their most powerful spells leave them open for attack... Because they have no magicka left. A stealthy is doomed if he is found. And a combat guy has no fear...

If they're good assassins you're not supposed to know that they're here :ninja:

Stealth is my favorite here. And while I often use magic, every time I try to make a pure mage type character I get bored within a few levels. Pure melee is just entertaining, and a stealth build makes me feel like a bad ass. :toughninja:

I can't decide between magic or stealth as my favorite spec.
And my least favorite combat. I prefer to use magic or stealth to get a critical hit on my foe.

Magic is for people who svck at the game, by that i mean there's no challenge. I prefer the specializations that require skill like stealth with magic you can just reproduce skills with magic.

I've been having quite a bit of fun over the years playing characters who can't use any magic. I even go through and delete their spells with console commands

It makes things a bit more interesting when I can't just run backwards and cast small heal spells on me.

I do generally learn alchemy though...

Never was the stealth guy. I just love my dunmer battlemage, wielding his powerful claymore and throwing AOE destruction spells. Why would i want to sneak if I can dispose of the enemies in a few seconds...? And all at the same time! :drool:

Stealth has always been my favorite specialization, but the fact is it's also the weakest specialization in TES. Simply put, TES does a better job with magic than any other skill set.

This was especially apparent in Oblivion. Thanks to loot leveling, role playing a thief meant that you had to role play a moron. The whole point of sneaking into forbidden places and stealing stuff was to get items that you weren't supposed to have. That's what makes stealth feel rewarding. Yet in Oblivion, virtually whatever you stole was leveled to you, meaning that you simply stole a bunch of low-level, useless crap that was easily available anywhere. A thief that risks his neck to steal worthless crap is a moron. Hence, if you were a thief in Oblivion, you were a moron.

Couple this with the fact that the AI was woefully poor for stealth gameplay -- enemies were always either totally oblivious to you or totally aware of your presence, there was no middle ground, no curious or suspicious level of AI awareness where they would actually investigate their environment after hearing a sound or seeing a shadow -- and you have piss poor incentives to play as a thief or an assassin.

Mages, on the other hand, were far more fleshed out. Enchantments and spell creation allowed for more depth, and rewarded creativity more than playing as a warrior or stealthy character.

In RPGs, I generally prefer mages, however, the magic system in the Elder Scrolls system is rather boring. I mean, sure, flinging around lightning bolts and fireballs may seem fun at first, but then you realize that at higher levels, you'll be flinging THE EXACT SAME FIREBALLS. Sure, they might do more damage, but they still behave exactly the same. What happened to fun spells that you'd really look forward to being able to get? I blame it on spell customization. In order to make custom spells easy to make, Bethesda reduced spells down to a number of generic effects, while letting you customize things like power, duration, radius and such, thus sacrificing the cool varied spells that make playing a mage actually satisfying.

Nonetheless, most characters I have created have had at least some magic skills, because magic still has many uses, even if they're pretty boring ones for the most part. As to specializations, I've used all the ones available to some extent, but I never make "pure" characters of any type, it is quite a relief that the Elder Scrolls allows players to avert the usual squishy wizards or the stupid warriors who don't know how to do anything except smash your head in, I take advantage of this to its fullest.

Stealth my favorite, just becouse is the most fun of all the 3, the close combat is the last one.

Voted for Stealth as favourite. However, I'm fine with the other two as well but since I had to choose a least favourite, I chose Magic (though probably should have chosen Combat on further thought. My character wouldn't be anywhere without Alteration ~).
There's a certain charm in sneaking through an 'abandoned' ruin and sniping evil necromancers (insert any other enemy here as well) from afar.