I've been playing with the concept of a Ranger/Woodsman character. The idea is mix of warrior and stealth - so I am going with Archery and Sneak as major skills + one fighting style and armor type. I don't want to go dual-wielding, so I will be investing some perks in Block, depending whether or not to go with shield or not.

Minor skills would be Alchemy and Smithing. I might even forego magic use completely.

Now, regarding the armor type, I always went with Light Armor in my previous playthroughs because in the end game both armor types offer maximum protection but Light Armor costs one perk less and has better abilities (Stamina regeneration over stagger). More importantly, it made much more sense for me going with Light Armor because of all the swimming, sneaking and running which Ranger does. I first envisioned this guy in Fur Armor and waraxe + hide shield.

On the other hand, I'm afraid that I will get slaughtered with just Light Armor on higher difficulty, and I think Heavy Armor has better looking sets, especially with DLC content. Can it be done, from a RP sense I mean? I wouldn't go wearing Daedric or Ebony of course - perhaps Stalhrim or Nord. Which is the lightest Heavy Armor set?

And regarding the fighting style, obviously one handed works much better with Sneak, but I would have to invest more perks into Block tree then and I could just utilize Archery with Sneak. If I were to go two handed I would choose Battleaxe.

What do you think?

A bow + light armour is a typical ranger, you wont get slaughtered if you upgrade your armour with the smithing skill.

hunting bow + iron arrows.
2 iron sword, 2 iron daggers or iron sword + dagger.

hide armour, fur armour or green clothes with or without cowl.

Archery
sneak (not needed but its good for 1 shots)
light armour
one handed
smithing
alchemy
enchanting

Ah, the most annoying part about Skyrim - trying to figure out what skills you want to do.

I had the same problem with my build, I wasn't too sure on what I wanted to put my skill points into. But for a Ranger, I believe you'd want to do:

-Archery

-One Handed

-Sneak (To get those bonuses for a sneak attack)

-Enchanting (To make sure that if you don't one-hit kill something/someone, they'll die in a matter of seconds)

-Light Armor

-Smithing (Do the left side so you can increase the rating on light armor and those weapons)

-Either Alchemy or Speech (Alchemy if you want poinsons for extra damage or Speech to buy materials or buy pre-made potions and poisons)

Note that if you want to put perks into smithing, do Arcane Smithing. Trust me, the Nightingale Armor for a ranger is awesome as it is but I'm sure it is way better when you make it Legendary. However, my build is a Thief/Assassin build so I put basically the same perks as you would for a Ranger (combat wise) and I do fine. But if you have the Dawnguard DLC, get the Crossbow or the Dwarven Crossbow, they are both amazing and do lots of damage as long as you increase archery.

When I play what I envision as a classic ranger I go with archery, sneak, light armor (it's a must for a ranger), smithing (but I only use it to make arrows and improve bows, nothing else) and one handed if something goes bad and I need to engage a melee combat, or run out of arrows, and only some of them take alchemy for health or paralysis poisons and/or restoration.

Block is fine but I can't see a ranger using a shield, shield is a warrior's tool. Personally I'd take blocking perks only for blocking with one-handed.

Could always go battleaxe and bow...like a lumberjack type. I played an orc archer character who was set up like that. The blocking is nice for enemies like bears and trolls

I'm using a hunter or ranger type character similar to yours. The skills I use:

- Archery - perked everything except bullseye

- Smithing - steel and arcane and all the way up to advanced armors ( I use the advanced to make Nordic arrows, my personal fav)

- One handed - just perked to savage strike (so I can behead people with my axe ). I only put a couple of points into armsman - I consider his primary attack the bow so I didn't make him an overpowering melee fighter, but with a smithed-up axe he does decent damage.

- Block - I didn't perk any armor tree or sneak, so I pretty much needed this for defense. I know carrying a shield doesn't fit the classic mold for a ranger, but the hide one I use is a nice fit, very lightweight and natural looking. Depending on what level you are on and what combat situation you're in, you might not need to use a shield that much - many blocking perks work with one handed weapons. I used the shield early on for survival and weaned him off of it as he got stronger. Now I only equip it for particularly dangerous situations.

- Speech - This might seem a little strange for a hunter type, but turning pelts into leather armors and selling them makes him a pretty good barterer. I took the left side of the tree up to merchant

Equipment: fur armors - I use different ones depending on climate, and wear a hood (mage hood or apprentice) depending on climate/weather. For weapons I use a steel axe - a good utilitarian weapon - and the Bow of the Hunt. I just used a regular hunting bow until I got this.

I struggled with whether or not to use alchemy. My particular character is a rough looking nord and it just didn't look right for him to be using a chemistry set. I will buy poisons from merchants on occasion, though.

I didn't perk sneak at all either. I consider the right side of that tree professional assassin territory, and this guy's not really an assassin. Don't get me wrong, I sneak around quite a bit, and still benefit the 2x damage from bow sneak attacks, I just didn't perk the tree.

Have you consider the Wolf Armor from the Companions, you don't have to go all the way to becoming a werewolf to be able to buy it and it gets the steel perk. It is the lightest heavy armor I know of without DLC. The cuirass is only 20# and the boots/gloves are 4. You can were a light helmet. I like the Stormcloak Officer helmet but I add it with the console. You could take the left side of the heavy perk tree and not be penalized for no heavy helmet. Also you could use the Steed sign and use any heavy armor you like.

aela uses heavy armor, ancient nordic, it's about the strenght of iron.. I'd say she's a ranger, maybe THE ranger, and she has a shield too