Ok, starting out with Daggerfall, and I need some serious tips as to how to make my guy not svck. The farthest I have gotten out of the first dungeon is the throne, and thats because I ran past everyone. A little help please? I'm looking for either a stealth or warrior build, but if you have an effective mage one that works too. Is there some way of lowering the difficulty I missed? So far I've built 9 characters, and they're all svcking. Also, race doesn't seem to make a huge difference, am I right?

A good stealth/warrior build would be:

Archery / Stealth / Critical Strike
(Melee weapon) / Dodging / Backstabbing
Streetwise / Pickpocket / Swimming / Mercantile / Climbing / Etiquette

Advantages: Immunity to magic, rapid healing, bonus to hit undead
Disadvantages: Inability to regen spellpoints in light, Inability to regen spellpoints in dark

With this setup, you don't need Intel or Willpower at all, so you can drop those down to ten each, and stack up the stats you like to the sky. Get some strength and agility.

In the character creator you have an option to answer ten questions about your character. Choosing the options gives you a boost to whichever thing, so say you practice stealth, that you've been dodging for a long time, and especially that you have an ebony dagger. With the ebony dagger, you can slash through the enemies like they're chumps.

If you still have to run past enemies, there is a hidden door behind the bat in the large throneroom at the base of the stairs. Go in there and run straight forward, and there is a passageway that lets you get into the upper part of the dungeon near the exit. The exit door is black with gray stone and a skull, inside a room with one bat, one rat, and an imp.

I would not advise anyone, especially someone new to daggerfall, to play without magic.

Longblade, Archery, Mysticism
Shortblade, Stealth, Restoration
Dodging, jumping, climbing, swimming, running, thaumaturgy

Advantages: Immunity to magic, Immunity to fire, Immunity to Shock (Play a Nord and be resistant to frost).
Increased magery 3X Intelligence, Rapid Healing

Disadvantages: Critical Weakness to Paralysis, Poison, and Disease (Won't hurt due to magic immunity)
Lower magery in darkness and light (Will reduce magery to 2X Intelligence)
Forbidden Material: Adamantium and Silver (very small disadvantage)

Won't need Willpower (25) or much Personality (30)
Raise Speed to max (75) and Strength and Agility to 60

Must have spells:
Teleport, Levitate, Walk on and Breathe Water (Both! in same spell), Heal Health, Heal Fatigue
Cheap Open spell....1 + 1 per 2 levels (will open any outside door)
Good Open spell.....1 + 5 per 1 level (for magically locked doors)

Will need to join the Mages Guild to make above spells.
Make 5th rank and get access to the Enchanter!!

Race doesn't make any real difference at all _except_ if you choose a High Elf.

Someone new to the game probably find it a whole lot easier if they can cast Recall (skill Mysticism and a spell point advantage). Other than that, Shades' advice is very solid.

Other than what's already been mentioned, all of the pre-made stealth character classes are going to frustrate you a lot at the start of the game. The best bet is to choose a Nightblade and use a lot of invisibility. The easiest early game choices are probably a spellsword or a battlemage but they will be difficult to take to the highest levels.

On disadvantages, if you get the ebony dagger during character creation you can quite safely choose steel, silver, elven, and dwarven as restricted materials. BUT the ebony dagger is most advantageous when you have Short Blade as at least a minor skill. If short blade is a miscellaneous skill at ~3% you're better off getting a weapon you can use better.

Rock on. The thing about Battlemages and Spellswords though is that while they have trouble getting high attributes together, they have the best of everything sooner with the mages guild shops. You can buy cheap daedric armor early because it doesn't have a great enchantment, and you can boost the heck out of your attributes with magical items. Once I can shop in the mages guild, I go on a shopping tour of the bay for all the items I need.

go to youtube & look for "daggerfall character creation" vid's, esp tips by Boilerplate

next, try to restrain yourself

Why does it make a difference if you pick High Elf?

Because originally it was intended for the races to have certain bonuses and penalties to attributes (e.g. High Elves +10 Intelligence but -10 Strength) BUT the class you choose will determine the values and overwrite the modifications made to the attributes by your race. As a result two characters of the same class but different races will have the same starting attributes. So it doesn't really matter what race you choose in the beginning.

What Python meant, is probably High Elves' immunity to Paralysis, which still applies (and other races don't have) and thus makes them a slightly better choice, metagame-wise (I think that also Nords are quite resistant to Cold effects, but that is kinda useless).

Yes, it is the most used magika attack of creatures and it's really annoying to be paralyzed by a lowly scorpion. Having a racial immunity towards it instead of using a custom class advantage makes life in Daggerfall a little better...

I, for one, can't stand High Elves. Whether in Daggerfall or Morrowind. Just a matter of personal taste, I prefer Bretons if I have to choose a good magic-wielding race.

To answer the original question: most of my characters utilise magic only as a last resort, I focus mainly on fighting with melee weapons. On my current char, I have Long Blade, Dodging and Critical Strike as primary skills and as of this moment, I don't really have a problem and I handled all the creatures in Privateer's Hold easily (except the annoying Imps). I'm level 4 and I currently wield an enchanted elven longsword and doing just fine. I tend to favour strength and endurance when distributing points. I find pure melee characters the easiest to start off with, it might get messy later in the game, though.

All in all, my advice would be to start with primarily a melee character with magic only as a major/minor and get a grasp of where your style preference lies. When you get used to the mechanics and the game overall, you can start experimenting, delving into more complicated characters.

And remember to have fun.

I bought myself an unrestrainable sash.

You should have seen the look on the ghost's face when I unparalyzed myself! It was... just like all his other faces.

What about Bretons' magic resistance? Does that carry through?

Magic is one type of damage a spell can do.

So, a Breton's magic resistance will only resist spells that do magic damage

As opposed to spell resistance which will resist any spell effect, including magic and fire and poison etc.