Hey guys,

I finished my temple dunmer playthrough some time ago.
Now I am about to take a more ... "illusionistic" run through the game.

I want to avoid unprovoked killing as much as possible; I want to be as manipulative and stealthy as possible, relying on combat only as a matter of last resort.

Skillsetup should include Illusion as main source of Control, offense and defense; shortblade, acrobatics, light armor. mysticism for teleporting/telekinesis and alteration for levitation.
Is pickpocketing (sneaking!) a MUST for thieves guild/Hlaalu quests? Is Illusion (charm/frenzy) sufficient or Do i need speechcraft? Is alteration with open locks- spells so much better than taking security? I actually dont want to level alteration all the way up to "open very hard locks" if I can avoid it.

Another factor: I am not a BIG fan of imperial guilds, but thieves guild and house hlaalu are both "pro imperial" (more or less), is this right?

Is there anyhting I have to avoid while beeing stealthy/manipulative that would totally break the game for me (like 100% chameleon)?

Thx for your input!

btw, excuse my bad english.

I can think of one Thieves Guild quest (one of the first Balmora quests) that almost requires pickpocketing, but I think you can get the required item from a certain person if his disposition is high enough, which obviously you can use illusion for. I might wrong about that, though. AFAIR (bam! New abbreviation!), no Hlaalu quest requires pickpocketing.

Sneaking in general is definitely a requirement for the Thieves Guild.