ok when I started the game I wanted to be like an assassin/theif.

So I started with sneak, always crouching in dungeons. Slowed me down like hell but I finally got it to like 54.

Problem is, guys still detected me, I could never get close to use that 5x bonus damage while sneaking.

So I decided to put some perk points into one handed because my dagger damager is pathetic. Yep well that was a mistake. I hack through bandits no problem, but anything else the daggers svck. So I started using swords. A little bit better, but not much. I have fought 3 dragons so far and they all destroyed me if I got near them. Bears and frost trolls also destroy me.

So since my one handed svcks and I can't get behind I put some points into archery (found a good bow). Archery is pretty cool I just got the zoom. I got the bonus damage from the sneak tree for my bow. My damage though is still very bad against certain guys. I found this fort and like 5 guys got in my face and I had no chance with my bow out.

So basically what do I do?

My guy is a hybrid and he svcks.

Invisibility?

Try using alchemy more.

make sure you are taking the sneak perks... you should have stealth x 3 by lvl 54 that's 30% harder to detect... when you are near an enemy walk don't run... take muffled movement if you are wearing any kind of armor and you should be wearing light armor.

I don't see how you get detected as a sneak character in this game. Sneaking works nothing like fallout3/oblivion and in this game its near broken. Dark brotherhood and thieves guild has some good armor to help sneaking but if you don't like those then enchant sneak to whatever your wearing. Dragons are weak against bows, I can kill a dragon with a bow without even being hit. Try to use cover when fighting dragons because a thief isn't really cut out to fight dragons, although I have seen some one hit a dragon by sneaking up to it. When fight bears jump on rocks because they can't get up there. When fighting saber cats jump in water because cats hate water. That may sound cheap but if it was real life that's probably what you would do right?

Similar build, I use a fair bit of Illusion - Fury to turn enemies on one-another, or Backstab one and then Calm others to get them to back-off - you can then re-stealth and 1-[censored] kill again. Also gives you Muffle which makes it easier to sneak in for the kill-shots.
But yeah, as Phero said - Alchemy. The elemental resist potions are a must for dragon fights with this build.

Make sure you hold down shift (or whatever the console equivalent is) to walk while you sneak, rather than 'run'. This will dramatically decrease the chances of you being detected.

If you are using one handed blades, pick up shield, just a couple perk points for elemental resistance which reduces the damage you take from dragons fire by like 50%.

I have seen people sneak up on dragons and one shot them with backstab. I would also recommend trying conjuration a bit to get the summoned bow and summoned blade.
along with illusion magic's silent casting and even paralyze for a quick escape. If you are already way into the sneak tree, Roll is actually pretty usefull to avoid swooping dragons, soon as they come in to breath at you, just roll forward at them, if you time it right, they will overshoot you or only nick you with their fire/frost and then shoot them with the bow as they fly away.
When they land take cover, Run for cover, hide and take pot shots at them, their is no rules of honor when fighting a dragon face to face. its like 20 times your size!

yep I killed one dragon with the bow. It was around some house somewhere in the mountains and I just ran around the house shooting at it. It took forever and it was kinda lame.

should I just remake make my character or am I able to continue as a thief.

and yes I am wearing all heavy armor. It's stupid but I cannot find anything light.

Invest some time raiseing your the Illusion school of magic. Muffle and Invisablity work wonders and your Sneak still goes up. You can fairly easily get away from attackers, go around a corner cast Invis (or Muffle then Invis in that order) and slowly move away, 9 times outta 10 they either run by you or stop to look for you.

is this something I need to do though because I screwed up at the start?

Like with Elder Scrolls game I love making my own character. But this ended up being a failure hybrid. Like do assassins or thiefs in this game even go for one handed skill or magic?

So far I have heard you either invest other perks into alchemy and light armor.

you're wearing heavy armor and complain about being unable to sneak on people with average skill ?


:facepalm:

First-off... Not sure if this applies to you or not... But... DON'T LEVEL SKILLS YOU DON'T USE IN BATTLE. (No alchemy, no smithing, no two-handed, no blocking if you are never going to use it. No sewing, no hair-cutting, no shoe-polishing, no door-to-door vacuum-cleaner sales... Nothing except one-handed, archery, sneaking, and light-armor.)

Get the thief-stone thing... and you don't have to sneak all over... just around people and creatures...

Get a bow, and be sneaking when you fire it, every time... If you HIT while SNEAKING, you learn it faster. The more damage you do, while you sneak, the faster you learn. Like 10x faster if you do one power-attack with dual-swords or dual-daggers or a bow, which would be a critical hit every time, while you are undetected.

If you are up to 50%... you are essentially at "0"... Because being at 1 is like -49.

If you get detected a little... stand still... that makes you undetectable again, unless you are walking in front of them.

NO HEAVY ARMOR...

Get light armor, and find a wolf to chew you up, until you get your light armor perks up. (So light armor is more effective.) Then go smith some advancements on the armor.

If you are good enough... You don't even need armor. Go naked or wearing magic clothing. SO when you get up close and personal... whip-out your heal in one hand, and a dagger in the other... HEAL, swing, HEAL, swing, HEAL, swing...

Armor does nothing against magic spells, unless it is magic armor. Armor does little against normal attacks in the early levels. Try blocking with a two-handed weapon, like a bow or a sword, or a shield and a dagger.

Most of all... Never let them see you sweat!

K im in light armor now i think. It's leather. Is there lighter than that? Yeah I know heavy was fail but I couldn't find any leather. I had to find some crappy bandits just to get this stuff.

I am sneaking more holding down shift, I guess it helps. I have backstabbed a few guys.

DOES it matter if you hold down left and right mouse behind them, or can you just click one mouse button? Do you have to do hold anything down to do a backstab?

Uh, fur, leather, studded?

Uh, glass or dragonscale maybe. I think elfen armor might be considered light too, but it's so ugly I can't be bothered with it.

I think the thieves guild has a nice suit of light armor that comes already enchanted for free.

Not sure but I think you can get something similar from the dark brotherhood. I can't say for certain since I haven't built a murderer yet. At least not a sanctioned one, although my thief has three murders on her record.

I am the head of all the group Compaions, DB, Theives and Mages. In the DB there is a guy who uses and avocates useing Magic to make your kills. That being said most of my perks are in the schools of magic(all 5 are at 100). I have some in enchanting and smithing also but, thats just the way I roll. it is also worth mentioning that I just got my Sneak up to 100 yesterday my goal is to get a "perfect" (100 in all skills) toon befitting the title of Dragonborn. I've been avoiding doing the main quest for the most part in fact I had found a buch of words of power before I EVER killed my frist dragon to power them.

Yes, both groups have armor that is enchanted to enhance whatever skills you need to do the jobs the group needs doing. They are both sets of light armor. Since I had joined both the Theives and the DB at about roughly the same time I found myself mixing and matching the 2 sets to fit the individual needs of a quest.

is backstabbing just attacking from behind or do you have to hold a certain button.

bump

Avoid certain enemies at lower level.


just attack from behind

have you try sword in one hand, dagger in another? the dual wield power attack is amazing.

no but once I get the sneak 15x damage perk that will be useless right?

also about the power attacks.

is holding down left mouse
is holding down right mouse
is holding down both mice buttons

any different? or do they all do the same damage just a different animation?

Make sure to get perks from the sneak constellation.

Cheers

lol i am

Just get behind them and do a power attack undetected and as long you dont get detected mid swing you will do the 15x damage. Holding down both power attacks just chains them together and doesnt actually do one BIG power attack.

A few things:

Perks in 1h do not affect dagger damage, only your 1h skill affects dagger damage. Illusion helps when you just want to backstab an entire room, by using calm mainly when they find you, muffle silences your footsteps. Picking up conjuration will just require more points into magic, probably just avoid, unless you want to put points/enchant magic reduction later. Archery is your friend fighting dragons. Get your sneak up and stay muffled and you can backstab resting dragons on word walls. A few points into restoration to keep your health up when getting breath attacked helps. Just stay moving, when you first see a flying dragon, look around for cover first and run to it. Arrow shot to the head usually stops a breath attack.

Oh and a certain assassin guild might be right up your alley. Enjoy.

Honestly... I hear people saying alchemy in here.... but I gotta recommend Enchanting.

It's less useful until you max it than alchemy... BUT when you do... you can craft yourself a full set of crafting gear that is like taking 5/5 of the first rank of alchemy anyways! AND that same set of gear will let you enhance weapons like you had a perk for the appropriate type as well!

Not only that but you can enchant your combat gear with +sneak (better than what ranks 2-5 give you on the perk) bonus 1 hand damage, +stamina regen, and PERMANENT elemental resistances.

Enchanting is the most OP of the 3 crafting options because it allows you to enchant gear that is like taking numerous perks in the other crafting trees on top of it's insane customization of gear. Alchemy WILL work for you if you chose alchemy over enchanting... but with only 25-30 skill in Alchemy, and NO perks, I'm crafting potions that give me +45% destruction damage, magicka regen, and some other crap thanks to my +100% alchemy gear I enchanted.... and I'm buying up ebony weapons and improving them to Legenday using the same gear (and 100 smithing skill.... which I raised by crafting hundreds of daggers which I enchanted with petty thru lesser gems and turned around and sold at profit. Now that profit margin is HUGE)

Illusion also suits assassins well as noted. Fear, Calm, and Fury are your crowd control, Muffle and, later, Invisibility will help you get in and get those backstab bonuses. With the perk and the Dark Brotherhood gloves.. you can get x30 dagger backstab damage!

There is also a perk you can get at 100 sneak that will let you crouch in the middle of combat to become "stealthed" for 1 second.... you can use this opportunity to land yourself another backstab mid fight.


Dragons ARE gonna be harder for you. Illusion and sneak ain't gonna help you. Here is where having a big, heavy armored follower comes into play. Honestly, most of the time you should have them wait and hang back as you sneak in and wreck shop... but when there is a big fight and sneaking isn't an option... it helps to have someone that can take the hits instead of you. Again enchanting can be useful to deck them out in protective gear to pump up their resistances and HP to survive a dragon fight.


You aren't gimped... you've barely begun. You probably will want archery so you can hang back and deal damage on the harder boss fights you can't use sneak on. You'll still want the damage bonus for 1-hand to maximize backstab (and melee fighting) damage. You'll still want those sneak perks. You're fine.

You aren't even really all that hybrid really.

Oh... 1 last tip... You can grind Sneak EASILY out of combat. Get summon familiar.... map to left hand with weapon in right. Summon familiar. sneak up behind it (it summons only 3-4 steps in front of you). Backstab it. Profit$$$. Cheesy but effective.

k thx guys great info.

but about those power attacks can you answer that.