So I'm getting close to the end of my first playthough where I went pretty traditional 2H beefcake warrior, now I'm thinking about my second playthrough and I'm considering either pure (no armor) mage or a full on stealth build. I'm leaning towards a stealth build but I'm worried that there are some situations that could be difficult as a stealth character so I had a few questions for those doing it (note: I'm playing/plan to play on Expert):

1) How often are you forced to go toe-to-toe as a stealth character? I've noticed quite a few scripted encounters or dungeon triggers in my current playthrough, and I don't exactly know how you'd get around those as a stealth character.

2) Is it possible (i.e. not extremely difficult) to avoid smithing and be viable? My idea of a stealth character is one that almost never takes a direct hit, don't know if this is possible with current game mechanics.

3) If you are forced to go toe-to-toe in some situations, how do you survive as a stealth character? As a warrior fully decked out in improved dragon armor I take some mega-hits at higher levels, it seems like you would just be one-shotted wearing light armor. I'm not opposed to using alteration on my playthough, just curious if it would be absolutely necessary.

Very. 100 Sneak means go stealth when toe-to-toe, switch to your uber(by then)dagger, and watch the assassination cutscene while the boss dies with 15x damage. Bows are snipers...hide, shoot, and move. You don't ever have to get toe-to-toe in the first place.

It is challenging early on before you get your stealth to a good level. I found it enjoyable trying to get those sneaks off but some might find it frustrating.

You don't have to have smithing. I roll with clothing as my armor. But it helps SO MUCH for damage, especially early on. And with stealth your 1h skill levels more slowly because you kill things with few attacks (ideally only 1 attack!). This may be a non-issue if you're not playing on Master.

Enchanting for increased stealth effectiveness and 1h damage are also extremely useful, though not absolutely necessary.

There are a few ways to avoid getting into direct confrontations, because yes you will svck at them until later.

-Shadow stone invis.

-Voice of the Emperor ability for Imperials. Free restealth vs. any humanoids (seriously amazing).

-Throw Voice shout is awesome and super low cooldown.

The good thing is maxing stealth is pretty quick compared to other combat skills, and once you have 100 stealth and stealth enchants getting those sneaks off is very consistent. Early on killing one guy might alert everyone else and you'll have to run or fight them conventionally, but later you can kill someone and stay in stealth quite easily, allowing you to chain together stealth kills in quick succession (getting a chain of throat slit kills is incredibly satisfying).

Dragons will be your main problem. They will require patience and finding the right place to fight them. Lvling bows or magic is recommended.

You can kill everything with a bow. If they spot you or you get "scripted" just run and hide and come back... Smithing and enchanting are really nice Im doing 1k hits with a bow at the moment. Dual dagger full combo would go over 10k damage with the right stuff...

A sneak sniper is remarkably powerful, although perhaps a bit slow to play.

Perhaps play as a "Demon Hunter" hm.

If you use Conjuration to get yourself the bow, dual cast will make it last long enough.
Then you use Conjuration to raise the dead, can have up to two of them. That stuff can be fun.

So if trouble, wake up some fools from the dead.


Or play with Illusion and Charm, Fear them.

Anyways, I have not tried this.. but I think perhaps adding one Magic school to a Sneak Archer could be fun!

I was actually kind of thinking somewhat along these lines... sneak shot kill someone in a group, then using silent casting raise dead from a distance and let the corpse kill his friends.

Shadow Stone power is one of my go-to's when I hit a scripted encounter (no 100 stealth yet for easy re-stealth). Invis, hide...

Stealth play is seriously fun and requires strategy, they did a good job on this in Skyrim. My only complaint is that my character war-cries when backstabbing (although no one hears). Reverse pickpocketing poison is impressively powerful. You can flat out kill people this way, right in front of a guard, who usually says "I'll find whoever did this" and starts looking around. You can freely loot the body.

Boss fights such as dragons, dragon priests... anything that you can't one or two shot... are challenging, but I like it that way.

Its insanely viable and very powerful. I personally don't have the patience for sneaking or shooting running away and returning. If you enjoy the slower lurking style its totally lethal to level sneak to an assassin grade skill.

Word of warning: it does not work like a vanish. You have to run really far away to get it to actually restealth you. It is hardly ever useful and I frankly regret using a perk on it.