Just thought it'd be a tad creative if I could possibly make an archer class that uses heavy armor.

Possibly combining Heavy Armor, Marksman, among a few other less-essential skills (Athletics, etc.) and using Illusion magic. Basically the idea is to use heavy armor (for ICly (RP) purposes mostly) and using Illusion spells such as Paralyze and Demoralize to keep enemies at range without running all over the place.

Think it'll work? Necessary modifications? Birthsign/Race? Discuss por favor.

hmm, fun idea i suppose. So i guess you don't want sneak for this? I'd recommend alchemy to power up your shots, without the 3x crit it'll be hard to kill effectively

As far as race i guess dark elf, bosmer, or breton. dunmer and bosmer get a bonus to marksman, but bretons get more magicka

It would work ok. You might want some decent strength to carry it, and heavy boots will make sneak a little harder until your sneak skill comes up some. The only caveat is using illusion mind control spells on high level baddies requires 100% spell effectiveness which can be a problem with armor. There are several ways around this:
- Don't wear armor.
- Use a mod that eliminates armor penalties.
- Cap your character at level 20 (pick some major skills to never use) so you never encounter high level baddies.
- Enchant things like command/demoralize on your bow - it don't care about armor/spell effectiveness.

Illusion for an archer can indeed eliminate the need for running or melee. My mystic archer uses illusion to immobilize her foes or control their minds. Invisibility is a fine panic button. She uses her bow for direct damage. She never touches a melee weapon and she never runs in combat. In fact, illusion can eliminate an archer's need for armor altogether.

The game is not hard. If you want your archer to wear heavy armor, go for it.

I've run a heavy armor archer before. It actually doesn't make a whole lot of difference, aside from the fact that you're carrying more weight in armor, and it means that you're a bit better protected when opponents rush into melee range. If you keep things at range, then that benefit doesn't make any difference and it's purely style. Not to say that's a bad thing.

It really doesn't make much difference with sneaking either. You're only penalized for the weight of your boots, and that only until you get to Journeyman. Then even that doesn't matter. You can wear light boots and the rest heavy and avoid that entirely, or you can just put up with it until you get your skill to 50 - the penalty doesn't seem to be much anyway, at least as long as you maintain your distance and move slowly.

Athletics would probably be a good choice for a skill to focus on. Encumbrance affects movement speed, and archers need to be as mobile as possible. Acrobatics would be valuable for essentially the same reason, except for jump height instead of movement speed. If it was me, I'd pick whichever of the two is NOT the one covered by your specialization and make that one a major. That is - if your spec is combat, make Acrobatics the major and if your spec is stealth, make athletics the major. That keeps the two of them fairly balanced.

I'd definitely make Illusion a major, just to be able to increase it fairly easily. The higher level Illusion spells are devastating. And I'd definitely focus on Alchemy, though whether to make it a major or not depends on play style. If you spam potions for profit (like I do), then you're better off leaving it a minor, but if you're careful with it, it's fine as a major.

I generally avoid making armor skills majors, just because they go up fine as minors anyway, but that's only if you're getting hit a lot. If you're not (as I assume this character won't), then it might be good to make it major, just so that the times you do get hit count for as much as possible.

For race, I'd tend to go with something with a good starting strength bonus, just to make lugging that armor around a bit easier. He's probably not going to get much for strength bonuses, so as much as possible at the beginning would be good. Nord, Orc or Redguard would be the obvious choices there. I'd also tend to take strength as one of the two preferred attributes, just to gain that much more at the start. And I might even take The Warrior as a birthsign, though that's pushing it a bit. I'd sort of tend more toward The Thief, since any of those races is going to start out with, at best, default speed and agility. And luck never hurts.

Well I'm leaning towards no armor now. After all, I think the Illusion twist would make it more than different. But one question - Is sneak absolutely necessary? I know that without the 3x sneak bonus, it's difficult. But I was hoping Illusion kiting and bow/arrow enchants would cover that gap and make a way around it, as I made a sneaky archer with light armor and no magic once already - that got old fast, most likely because I went straight for DLC that time and when I came back to Cyrodiil I was already past level 20 D:

However, if it is that much of an extreme buff, I wouldn't mind having to add sneak. Weight of boots (lol) I can take the boots off if it's that significant. And this most definitely won't be a problem if I go unarmored.

I rely heavily on sneak for my mystic archer, both to remain safe and strike much harder. I would not enjoy playing without it. An illusionist who embraces invisiblitly and chameleon does not need it however; as long as you fully account for that, I imagine it would work. I find no armor, base endurance (low hp) and no melee to add enough challenge to make things fun without foregoing sneak.

By way of disclaimer, let me say that I have never played a character that was not skilled in sneak.