They're helped by the hydrogen chamber they have, the same they use to spit fire.

Get your science right!

Ok, but take your reasoning, and in the times this game would be set concussions were not something anybody understood. So hitting somebody on the head, they get knocked out, nobody would have known it could be causing damage.

Just try to understand what the OP is saying. You are suppose to be sneaking around stealing items. The way game is set up you might as well just come in and kill everybody. Nothing very stealthy or about that. So why have sneak?

any named or unnamed NPCs. - i don't want to go into the details of quests because of the spoilers it'd make, but basically, if they're a member of one of the playable races i find a way around them that leaves them alive

i've just been named head of the guild (annoyingly, since it doesn't fit my character's character... and brynolf seemed like a natural choice for leader to me anyway...but that's just my opinion)




edit:
this includes the 'quest' to GET to the theives guild via the ratway... though granted i had to use an invisibility potion for that one... my sneak was only at 30 at the time

Blackjacks and such are a bad idea. The only possible thing I could see using would be some sort of sleeping draught made through alchemy.

I like the stealth approach in this game (although I think the AI is a little too stupid...at 50 sneak they need to bump into you to detect you). What really bothers me though is that the thieves guild missions all allow killing. Thievery missions (at least up until you meet Karliah) should have no combat. Or at least none with guards or the people you're trying to rob.

I think we will have to wait for modders on this one...

In Oblivion there was an EXCELLENT mod, forget what it was called, that added basically the entire arsenal from Thief 2. Blackjack, water arrows, rope arrows, etc. It made playing a Thief/Assassin so much more interesting. Hopefully someone will come out with something similar for Skyrim. It would be even better thanks to the newer archery system.

Are you saying dragons are nuclear? Now that explains a lot.

i'm sure vex once mentione about her quests "if you kill someone you're on your own" and the journal entry seemed to say if i killed someone i'd fail the mission

Lol

I've completed the entire Thieves Guild questline without having to kill a single person. Except when the quest specifically instructs you to do so.

What about choking them? Is it possible to just make them pass out? Or would lack of air cause brain damage aswell?

I remember thinking the same exact thing the whole way through the Thieves Guild Questline.
Every two seconds I was slitting someone's throat, not because I -wanted- to, but because I was forced to, the game provided no way to distinguish being a thief from being a member of the Dark Brotherhood.
Sure, if I had had a super pimped out character with super alchemy to crank out invisibility potions by the dozen and max sneak I could have possibly gone through it without killing.
But I didn't, I had a new toon that I was going through the Questline with, and I think most people will be in that same exact position, forced to kill over and over as a thief, thinking, why?

You're not forced to kill anybody in the questline. Combine your sneak/lockpick/pickpocket skills with a little bit of ingenuity and you can complete the whole line without killing.

Indeed. I would like to at least have the option to offer cake, and let there be a choice: Cake or death?

Seriously, though, once you get your sneak skill high enough, combined with spells like Muffle and good ol' Invisibility, stealth is no problem.

You could also become a vampire, they get bonuses to Illusion magic casting and sneaking. I was able to sneak past people and pick their pockets in broad daylight, at times. Cured myself, though, because of too many times fast traveling to a new location only to find myself at full vampirism and immediately slaughtered upon arrival.

Well u can avoid most of the fights as a thief, just distract the enemies and move forward. (don't forget to close doors if possible)

It might cause a medical condition known as David Carradinitis.

How stupid do you think these people are? Hit someone on the head, they die, go into a coma, or otherwise come up being unable to speak their native tongue, and nobody makes the connection?

If they don't connect head trauma with damage, then they'll think blackjacks are demons.

I'm so great at sneaking I can walk right in front of someone and they still don't notice me, and should sneaking fail there are still invisibility potions and spells. I'm confident that I can finish every TG mission without harming anyone.
It's just too bad that I enjoy a good throat slitting too much to try

I killed two people for the TG quest line.
One was forced, and the other was allowed. I could have avoided it but I wanted to take the direct path.
Other wise I never touch anyone during any of the missions, or side missions.

When the TG took me in they already knew I was the DB Listener.
They knew what kind of member they took onboard

Hail Sithis!

Step 1: Raise alchemy and pickpocketing
Step 2: Place Paralytic Poison on everyone
Step 3: ????
Step 4: profit

Well, light hasn't been invented in this game yet, and an arrow attached to a rope to pull yourself up is waaaaaaaay ahead of this time...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_(law_enforcement)
Blackjacks were real, and used exactly for that purpose; knocking people unconcious. They did stop seeing use by the police at some point because of the potential to kill a person, though. Still, there's nothing stopping a criminal from using one (especially in the game's setting), and it is certainly far less fatal than a dagger to the throat or a mace.

How about instead of blackjacks, add another perk in the sneak tree, right after the 15x backstab with a dagger.

Unarmed sneak attacks puts the victim in a choke hold rendering him unconscious for a short period of time.

The cut scene would be similar to the throat cut, instead of a blade it would be your arm wrapping around his neck.

I'd like to see something like this in a mod someday.

Wouldn't more guards come looking for that guard you knocked out? Also I've not had a problem stealing without killing.

I hate to say this in a single player game, because you should play how you want, but, uh, you're doing it wrong. I never killed anybody on my thief quests (mostly because they told me not to, i'm an assassin). You shouldn't ever have to resort to killing in the thieves guild....