I am new to the ES series and I am loving Skyrim. I wanted to start a thief character but I am a little concerned with how that class will work with all the dragons you have to kill in the game. It seems that you will no longer have the advantage of sneaking when you need to try to drag one down from the sky and slay it.

For any other thieves out there, how do you manage to deal with dragons? Just up your archery skill? Can you really backstab a dragon? Any help would be great.

Let your follower or InvinciHorse tank them while you shoot them with a bow.

My poor thief usually gets eaten if I get too close.

If you've done the main quest far enough then you use a combination of bow, Dragonrend, and a one handed sword.

It's true that unless you have max sneak perks and lots of cover, chances are you'll only be able to land one sneak attack on a dragon during the beginning of each fight. However you just need to take advantage of that one sneak attack. Get a bow, get some decent arrows, and then throw some high level poison on the bow. Then sneak up to the dragon, either from cover or if it's a stationary dragon try sneaking up above it if there are cliffs nearby, and let 'em have it.

dragons that you sneak up on while they are at their roosts can be backstabbed and killed

dragons in the sky? I have zero archery and they are a real pain

I use a bow to apply my super Damage over Time poisons I brewed and slowly bleed them to death that way

or run away

who says you have to kill dragons?

What is this invincihorse you speak of? My horse dies to a couple of wolves every other day (I reload a lot).

I think the dragon fights are what neutralize the "balance" isuses the theif may have. The thief needs help from someone, whether NPC, monsters, or followers.

You will get a horse that can only die to fall damage, during one of the faction questlines. Saying more than that would be too spoilerish for this forum :teehee:

I kill dragons with dual-wielded daggers. Even before you get the shout to force dragons to land, you can use a bow until it comes down. Sure, you may not have perks in the archery tree (although it's a good choice for a thief as a secondary combat style), you can still use bows. I did worry about this too, but it's not really an issue.

My main skills are one-handed, Sneak and Illusion and to a lesser extent archery. Both illusion and sneak are nearly useless against dragons - and yet I have never had any real trouble in taking them down - on level up just because your a thief don't think you shouldn't put any points in health. In the actual battle I shoot them with a bow while there in air (captain obvious) - make sure to dance around there flame attacks via sprint, When they land try to get them from the side with dual weilding - when your down in health retreat take cover and cast the basic healing spell you get at the start of the game (as a thief you shouldn't be spending your magick on anything else in this fight). Rinse and repeat when the dragon lands/takes off and eventually absorb dragon soul. Win! :celebration: Also at later levels you'll have a good number of dragon shouts too. Honestly don't worry about it to much, they're not that difficult.

It's not impossible. Just don't engage them on open plains, use cover as much as you can, and try and use other enemies/a follower/a horse as a tank whilst you use your marksman skills to rain death from afar.

Fire bow > Move to obstacle to dodge flames > Repeat.

ARCHERS!!! UNLEASH HELLL!!!!

And by unleash hell i mean hide behind rocks from the dragon breath and pop up and shoot.

I oneshotted a Dragon with a sneak attack using daggers. So that's one way! Usually I shoot it down with arrows though and use the terrain to take cover and get in a good position.

I killed my first dragon by shooting an arrow down its gullet as it attempted to breath on me. This is only after many failed attempts for about 3 minutes to get behind it as it slaughtered everyone else attacking him.

As assassin I'm using a sword and dagger with HP and STA drain charges, works wonders, I got about 250HP and rest is stamina. This so I can unleash a very long powerattack sequence which kills anything pretty fast + regens my HP and STA. Yeah, I have to use HP/STA and elemental resistance pots with dragons, but they die fast enough for me. Though, last two fights with dragons they chewed me up and spat me out over the cliffside

They are no problem at all once you get Archery to 70. The quick draw perk with the slow-time perk are especially useful when fighting dragons. Just don't stand in one place when they're trying to munch on your leg or roast you up.

It can be a bit tricky, especially at lower levels, but it is very much possible to do. I have found they aren't too bad if you have a follower or just something around that will take damage for you. Plus it helps to put most of your points into health - you probably won't be using magic/stamina that much as a thief anyway - and to carry around health potions for when you will need them.