Hear me out. Right fromt he UESP page: Their combination of powerful intellects with strong and agile physiques produce superior warriors and sorcerers. On the battlefield, Dunmer are noted for their skill with a balanced integration of the sword, the bow and destruction magic. In character, they are grim, aloof, and reserved, as well as distrusting and disdainful of other races."

In Skyrim, you pretty much see Dunmer as destro mages. I miss the hardened warrior Dunmer also.

So here is what I am going to do. I am going to start a new character with this description as a template. A balanced integration of sword, bow and spell. I need some help from you guys, though. First off, I should mention I am playing on PC with Better Magic, Deadly Combat, and Deadly Dragons, so that will no doubt factor into a viable character build as many traditional vanilla builds crumble with the added difficulty of these mods.

Here is where I reach my biggest point of indecision: heavy or light armor? Light armor would suit them more in many ways, but with the deadly combat mod, I would get mauled in light armor in a sword fight I think.

Next is when I fight with a sword, does that mean sword and shield? A shield seems to be the only way to survive with Deadly Combat, but does it seem fitting to a Dunmer to you guys?

What skills and perks would you recommend for a traditional Dunmer with the above description in mind?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Sorry for the highlighted text, I have no idea why it is happening.

It's because you pasted the website's format, instead past the text clean.

I play with all kinds of mods, including deadly monsters, deadly dragons, SkyRe and couple of more, anything bigger than a small mudcrab will one hit kill me, even the big mudcrabs. But no, you don't have to use light armor nor a shield, it's just going to be a lot harder that way.

When I play a dunmer, regardless of the armor type I use, I always use alteration spells that raise armor rating before the fight. Also, while I really like hunter characters, when I play a dunmer I don't use the bow but rather destruction for all my ranged needs. So it's usually a weapon in my right hand and spells in my left. If I'm fighting mages I use wards. If it can go into your RP and you decide to go for heavy+shield getting Spellbreaker will solve a lot of problems for you.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130215050229/elderscrolls/images/0/0d/Redoran_Guard.jpg

Fix your highlight by highlighting it, then click the remove format option to the left of fonts. The middle icon.

There's a Dunmer swordsman in the ranks of the Companions and Solstheim is full of Dunmer that aren't destro mages

It's very annoying trying to play a "traditional" dunmer in Skyrim with the having to equip the bow, then unequip the bow, equip the spell, unequip the spell, take out the sword, not be able to block etc. Whereas in Oblivion you can have sword, shield equipped at the same time, switch to a bow, be able to block, cast a spell, switch to another spell, cast that spell, switch back to the sword and shield (which equips automatically when you take out the sword), switch to another spell without pausing the game once. Sometimes I really dislike dual wielding.

I agree that the 'stealth' bent of the Dunmer is a little much; nothing in previous games suggests that emphasis. But, as has been said, Dragonborn features House Redoran, hard-assed Dunmer warriors.

As others mentioned House Redoran makes a return in the Dragonborn dlc.

http://images.uesp.net/3/33/DB-npc-Lleril_Morvayn.jpg

http://images.uesp.net/9/9e/DB-npc-Redoran_Guard.jpg

If you played the House Redoran questline in Morrowind. You will notice Councilor Morvayn's name to be familiar.

I agree, why did they change this?