I am remaking my thief for a couple different reasons, primarily being that I used a couple of the `cheats while I was getting used to the game, and I'm very disappointed that masks don't work with male characters due to beards.

Anyway, I was thinking about what my game plan would be, and then I suddenly realized I'm not too sure what to do, and I don't want to dive into the game and mess up.

-First, I'm aware at what the 'good' thief classes are, but other than starting stats, race is fairly useless, the only thing to consider is the passive. In these games I usually get a race that ISN'T very well suited for the ask, because if you're starting the game with 15 sneak/pickpocketing/lock picking, you're going to level up a lot quicker, and have more perks at your disposal. I was thinking, under this logic, the magic resist from Breton would be a great choice. Thoughts?

-Secondly, as for the thieves guild and TDBH, I'm wondering if its possible to join 'too soon'. The thieves guild I'm not worried about, I would either do it before the Golden Claw quest, or right after. However, TDBH provides some of the best armor in the game that is easily obtained. If I do the quest chain too quickly, would I be gimping myself on the opportunity to keep this armor for longer? I ASSUME the only real stat lost from doing it sooner is the armor value, and since thieves aren't SUPPOSED to get hit, I feel torn about the situation. Regardless, on my old thief I had the Guild's armor for when I wanted to steal stuffs, and when I actually quested I'd switch to TDBH.

Any advice is welcome, thanks!

bump :[

Well you seem to know what you want in a race so go with that. I picked a wood elf for the poison / disease 50% resist, I hate getting diseased. I joined the dark brotherhood right after killing the first dragon wat Whiterun because the bonuses on the armor are too good to pass up. There's actually an upgraded version of the DB armor if you get the bonus on 1 of their quests you can hold off on getting until later in levels if you want. I prefer the Nightingale over the DB armor simply because of looks even though the DB armor bonuses are much better for combat. I wouldn't worry about doing the quests too soon, though, I finished them around level 25ish and I'm up to level 41 and still using the armor. I almost never get detected so I'm not worried about the armor value and I have 2 weapons with absorb health if I ever need to fight.

Thanks for the reply. I have experimented with this concept a while back while I was bored and lost the save file, I'm pretty sure I went straight from Helgen to the stables, took the taxi to start the DBH quest, taxi'd to do the thives guild / finish the DBH quest, and I was in both organizations by level 12 without doing anything but one main quest.... Easy credit, easy early levels.

I was wondering, have you experimented any with Conjuration? I was considering taking up conjuration weaponry just for early game leveling / power, and replace it for crafted / enchanted weaponry late game.