I'll start off by being blunt: Throughout practically all my playthroughs of Oblivion and Morrowind I've focused on either Combat or Magic. With Skyrim only a few months away, I thought I'd revisit it's predecessor from a new angle and try something a little different - playing as a Stealth-based character. Truth is, I always avoided stealth, deeming it 'not my style' without really giving it much insight. Hell, where's the fun in sitting back in the shadows when I could be running in swaying a blade or casting relentlessly? It wasn't until today that I realized how wrong I was.

I decided to go for a stealth/magic combination - at least that way I could still fall back on something familiar in the event that bows, arrows and daggers weren't quite working for me. I chose an Argonian male and breezed through the tutorial in no time, pausing only to practice my marksmanship on the bucket of the old well in one of the first rooms (bringing back some delightful E3 memories, but I digress!)

Anyway, sooner or later I found myself on the road to Cheydenhall (avoiding fast-travel like the plague). En route, I stumbled across Fort Nikel and decided a little adventuring couldn't hurt. (I'll play it out as I perceived it at the time). I entered through the main gates and began decending, quickly noticing a Nord guarding the entry to the main hall only a few feet away, who I took down with a surprise arrow to the back and another to the head to finish him off. I then took the path to my left and found myself behind a Breton marauder standing against a railing, looking out in to the water below. Again I ducked in to sneak mode and planted an unexpected arrow to the back of his head, resulting in a spectacular front-flip over the railing before him and a mighty splash as he landed in the water below. I never realized how satisfying archery in TES could be! I then noticed another Nord on the far side (who was obscured by the one I just killed) and gave him the same treatment, only this time taking two arrows as opposed to one.

Suddenly, the 'battle' music flares up and I think my cover has been blown, I run backwards expecting marauders to jolt around the corner at any second. Then I notice something odd - they're attacking eachother! I move forward to get a better view, and sure enough, there's a Dunmer and an Imperial battling it out on the platform below me. Going against all logic of how the AI works in Oblivion, I somehow thought "Jesus, the Dunmer thinks the Imperial killed the Nord!". Something moves to my left - Another Imperial (how the hell didn't I notice him before?!?) is climbing out of his bedroll to investigate the racket about two arm-lengths away from me! Without even thinking I plant another arrow straight in to his head (luckilly I was still crouching and got the 3x bonus), killing him instantly. I bolted down the stairs to the Dunmer and Imperial, swords drawn and swinging like there's no tomorrow. I arm my bow and point back and fourth from one to the other, not sure who to shoot (Just like out of the movies - "I'm the real X, shoot her!"). I flip a coin inside my head and release the arrow while aiming at the Imperial, at the EXACT moment he kills the Dark-Elf, resulting in two bodies splashing in to the water to join the floating Breton.

I stood there in awe. It all happened in a period of about 15 to 20 seconds, just like that. It was, without exaggeration, heart-beatingly epic. All these years of playing Oblivion and I'm STILL amazed at it's re-playability. I can't express how stupid I feel for never exploring stealth-based combat until now: Hats off to you, Bethesda! (I've learned my lesson!)

Anyone else got any epic stealth-battle tales to share?

(Oh, and just for hindsight - It wasn't until after the conflict that I realized the Dunmer was actually a bandit while the imperial was a marauder. Somehow, they just hadn't noticed each-other until I took out the rest of the bandits! Regardless, I deemed it worthy enough to come out of a state of lurking and actually sign up for an account, and that says something).

EDIT: Spelling/missing detail

Well currently, I play a Fighter/Mage Hybrid.

Thinking of making my next guy a Bandit though, so I'll make him use alot of stealth!

I′ve always been stealthy, can′t help it. I′ve sneaked my way through many games and Oblivion is not an exception. I like the idea of being silent, watching my enemies before they even know I′m there. If I can get what I want and get out without a fight, without even being detected, that′s when I feel most satisfied.

Stealth has been by far my favorite of the three. Only problem is it svcks when in Oblivion Gates, where everything is all bright, and all creatures have alot of health.

It's amazing how different a play-through is with a stealth based characters - I'm finding myself re-thinking dungeons and caverns that I knew like the back of my hand, approaching each one differently. It's a whole new world compared to fighter/mage characters, I'm even thinking of creating a stealth based character for my first play-through of Skyrim now.



Hmm, I didn't consider that! Now that you mention it, there really isn't anywhere in realms of Oblivion that specifically caters to stealth characters - You'd think there would be at least a couple of darkened areas in the halls of the Sigil towers, wouldn't you?

I also go the SpellThief way. Using a dagger or shortsword for up close, and magic for ranged (though I wish the sneak multiplayer counted when you used magic).

Its always a blast. and if I find I'm out of lockpicks, I just use an opening spell.

Nothing is more fun than having 90+ sneak and going through dungeons stabbing people in the back.

Hmm... I'm just the opposite of the OP. Virtually all of my characters are stealth or stealth/____ hybrids. Pretty much the only time I can play a character and not end up stealthy is if I give him/her a two-handed weapon, so they don't get a sneak attack bonus. Even then, they tend to sneak until they at least have an idea of their surroundings and the enemies around them, then they stand up and go to it. Pretty much the only exception to that is Hale - the warhammer-wielding Nord - who was created specifically as a character who would rush headlong into battle.

I just took Tina - Imperial, light armor, long sword, Champion of Cyrodiil - through Redguard Valley Cave to recover the Honorblade of Chorrol. The only ogre in the whole place that she didn't successfully sneak up on was the chieftain, and that's only because he turned around while she was partway down the tunnel, and I wasn't in the mood to sit and wait for him to turn back around. And I figured that she figured that taking him on head-on was the honorable thing to do anyway, and a good challenge. And with her sneak attack bonus, 89 points of blade skill and heavily enchanted glass longsword, she took all but one of the ones she successfully snuck up on down in a single hit. That honestly surprised me - even with nice and heavily enchanted equipment, I've rarely had a character who could one-shot an ogre.

Most of my favorite quests are the stealth ones too - especially Scheduled for Execution, Bad Medicine, Turning a Blind Eye and The Ultimate Heist. There are few things I love more than sneaking all the way through one of those missions successfully.

Another story on that subject - one of my all-time favorite characters, Claudia, played through the TG line. She was an incredibly talented sneaker. She actually not only made it all the way through The Ultimate Heist without being seen - and that's not only getting in, but getting back out again too - but when she successfully snuck through the guard room and the Chancellor's bedroom to get to the fireplace and get out, she decided to try to keep the Boots, so she snuck back out, back down, back around the hall to the entrance, only to discover that it was now locked and she couldn't get out that way, so she snuck back around, back up and back through the guard room and the Chancellor's bedroom to get out. So she actually snuck past all the guards and all the priests not once or even twice, but three times.

Regarding the planes of Oblivion - it's possible with enough sneak skill and enough patience to sneak up on things outside, but it's tough. It's relatively easy inside the towers though. The round parts are fairly simple - just circle and move slowly and keep track of where everything is and which way they're facing. There are a lot of places where you go up a slanted tunnel that ends in a room, and often you'll get caught coming over the top into the room. If you move slowly and use detect life though, you can time it so that you stick your head up when nothing's looking your way, and then it's just a matter of crossing the room however is best for whatever's there. It's a challenge when there are multiple enemies, but if you're patient, you can get an opportunity when neither of them are looking, then you can take out the one closest to you, then move on to the next.

And I never use chameleon. That just spoils the fun....

Many of my characters are stealth based, but I don't really have any stories. Some of the most fun I have
had though is sneaking through each and every castle and stealing all valuables without ever getting spotted.

I must say, Hale is an exceptionally appropriate name for a warhammer-wielding Nord. I wish I was creative enough to come up with simple, lore-friendly and suitable names such as that! :thumbsup:

To be truthful, he stole it from a settlement in Shivering Isles

Ah... Well... This is embarrassing!

Actually, that's not entirely true. I just pondered it and eventually came to "Hale" and thought, "Yeah.... that sounds good."
Then a little later I thought, "You know.... that seems familiar somehow....."
Then later yet I thought, "Ooo... wait a minute. Isn't that a town in SI? No. It can't be. I refuse to consider that possibility. I didn't get it from that. No sirree. I came up with it on my own. There's no way I subconsciously stole it. Nope Uh uh."

Eventually I ended up going back into the Isles with another character, and couldn't deny the truth any longer, but by then the sting had worn off.
Mostly.

Even though you came up with the name using the village subconsciously, you still have to pay royalty to Pyke

Btw I liked both Hale and Mindi. Nice characters :tops:

Now that you mention it, I did pretty much the exact same thing in regards to my Argonian character (the one mentioned in the original post). I named him 'Wide-eye', thinking it to be rather suiting for an Argonian such as himself. A few hours later it began to dawn on me that 'Wide-eye' seemed a bit too familiar.... A quick search of UESP revealed that Wide-eye was the Argonian servent of the Duke of Mania. Dammit!

No wonder so many popular songs these days sound so familiar... There's a word for this, but I can't quite remember. Right on the tip of my tongue, too...

Mindi's definitely one of my favorites. The key to her personality is to imagine her standing on a road, leaning with her weight on one leg, twirling a piece of gum and saying, "So like I was on my way to Skingrad, you know? and like there was this...."

Then she notices a wolf creeping up through the grass. Without another word, she charges off, pulls out her axe and ruthlessly and efficiently dispatches the wolf. Then she comes back, starts twirling her gum again and says, "So anyway, like I was on my way to Skingrad, you know? and like there was this...."

She was inspired by a post here. Somebody posted, asking for a really difficult character to play, and Benn responded and suggested a female Bosmer with a battle axe. I saw that and thought it was a great idea and went into the game right then and there and put her together.


Hale.... I decided it was time to finally play a Nord. That was, at that point, one of the few races I hadn't played yet. And I hadn't played a war hammer character yet either, and the two just seemed to go together. He is, as literally as possible, as dumb as a post. And his enchanted war hammer (he paid someone at the mages guild to do it for him) is named Fred. I'm reasonably sure he talks to it, and I'm also reasonably sure that it's actually smarter than he is.

My god, I would so love her irl

Interesting read on your characters. I think Lothran would do well with both of them, giving Mindi a repair hammer and Hale a Fortify Intelligence spell :biggrin:

Stealth is indeed brilliant. Quite a few of my Mages utilise stealth.

However, my favourite feeling has to be sneaking and seeing a pink glow pop up at a pretty extreme range (detect life) and firing a poisoned arrow. Seeing that glow disappear makes me smile every time.

I'm the exact opposite of the OP. I embraced stealth from the earlist stages. Only later on with my paladin character did I decide to try her without stealth. Instead, she's the swashbuckling type who never sneaks.

To the OP: for added dimension, turn the crosshairs OFF if you haevn't already done so. It sounds like you're placing too many direct hits. Landing an arrow without this aid is so much more fulfilling.

And if you get bored (or too good) with crosshairs off, try archery in 3rd person mode! It's the best! :thumbsup:

And not that hard with some practice. I shoot with a bow irl and you quite quickly learn how to aim with your arrow in order to hit your target. And yes, I shoot with a real bow, not a compound one with laser sights and scopes :goodjob:

Well....I just got tempted into making a stealth character.

>.> any tips? I'm thinking archer/poisons/illusion (I still wanna use chameleon every once in awhile)

Sneak everywhere when you're in dungeons and such. Everywhere. I hit sneak before I even open the front door and generally only come out of it long enough for melee combat and to jump over things or such, if necessary.

Move slowly and be patient.

Get night eye and detect life as quickly as you can, whether in spells, potions or enchantments. They're your best friends. You have to be able to keep track of where everything is in order to sneak up on it or past it.

The most important thing is which way things are facing. You can sneak up on most things even in broad daylight if they're facing away from you. However:

If they turn toward you, freeze. In the dark, there's a pretty good chance they won't see you if you don't move, but the more light it is, the more likely it is that they'll see you. And:

Sound matters. Even in 100% chameleon, you can get caught if you make too much noise. However, there are some odd things with noise - for instance, you're more likely to get caught after brushing up against a wall than you are if you jump down from a second story and land directly behind your opponent. Doesn't make any sense to me, but....

Often, particularly with slow-to-react opponents, you can get off a sneak hit (even with a melee weapon), then move out of their sight and freeze. When you freeze, they'll lose track of you, but they'll know that something's there somewhere and they'll keep looking for you. If you move at that point, even in sneak, they'll detect you, but if you don't move, they often won't. That will potentially give you a chance at another sneak hit.

I'll leave all the specific archer/poison/illusion advice up to Acadian and Buffy - they know far more about that than the rest of us combined.

Remember you can wear any armour, but keep your boots as light as possible for sneaking.
If you are taking illusion, always charm shopkeepers to get better prices.
Don't forget hand to hand or a weapon skill, you can't always rely on a bow.
Don't forget feather potions as well as poisons.
Always remember to pick ingredients, you can sell your alchemical products you don't use.

What race will you be, Bosmer are ideal, and Kahjiit are good for a stealthy type.

[Oh dear, my hints pale compared to gpstr's, never mind eh.]

I too started out as a "Slash n' Smash" kinda guy. I started using the bow after a while and noticed that sneak is a must if wielding a bow.

I really like to fight the stealthy way because then I'm the one who's controlling the engagement. I decide when the fight is going to start and who's getting the first strike.

But at the later levels, being a 'sniper' doesn't really pay off. The bow simply doesn't do enough damage.

Ah! Thank you for the hint! Sounds much more immersive, I'll try it right away. :biggrin:

Crosshairs off is the best move I ever made. It's hard. Very much so in fact, until you start using reference points on the screen (for example, I learnt on my mage, that when blocking with her fists, her third finger is the centre of the screen).

Did wonders for my immersion too.