While I've previously played characters that used dagger sneak attacks, they've all been hybrids. But I'm keen to try out a assassin that's fully specialised in dagger sneak attacks. But I'd imagine (and from what I've heard) this can easily become very overpowered and make the game too easy and not much fun. So I'd like to get some advice on how to construct this sort of character.

Some things that it might be good to get some input on:

1. Crafting skills. I'm inclined to take one crafting skill at most, but maybe even that is too much?

2. Armour --- obviously, use light armour if wearing it at all; but what about not wearing armour?

3. Tactics for dealing with randomly spawned enemies while travelling.

4. If I follow the MQ, how to deal with dragons.

5. Health:Magicka:Stamina ratios.

As for skills, obviously Sneak + One-Handed are the main ones. Not sure after that. If I use armour, then Light Armour, obviously---although, maybe I shouldn't perk it too much? Maybe Illusion, to deal with randomly spawned enemies (Calm/Fear) and to help with sneaking (Muffle/Invisibility)?

Thanks

1. Smithing and/or Alchemy
2. Lower class clothing or leather - Scaled Armour
3. Run
4. Follower could distract the Dragon while you try to attack it from behind
5. 10 level ratio- M3 : H2 : S5

I once had an Argonian thief who never once used the smithing or enchanting skill, nor did he ever wear any armor whatsoever (including robes). Only thing he ever wore (aside from guild required apparel for a certain unnamed quest) was the same filthy rags he was given in Helgen. By the and of the RP, he was still pretty powerful for what he was designed for, but definitely not overpowered. He would still easily be one shotted in close combat...hell, he probably could've been one shotted by a mudcrab. Perhaps you could use some of this for an assassin. My character was supposed to turn into one after the TG, but ultimately decided against it.

EDIT: My thief's primary only weapon was the bow and arrow. Aside from that, he relied heavily on getting in and out of places unseen...which meant lots of sneaking, and lots of alchemy.

The thing about sneak builds is that it can be only 2 things OP or UP. There is no middle ground. As a thief or assasin you are suppose to abuse the weakness of the enemy. The problem with skyrim that (not just skyrim, every bethesda game) the ai and gamemechanics are so easy to abuse that there is no sport in it. Whats the point to outsmart a person when they are dumber than a wooden plank?

Assassin

No magic requirement

Weapons: Daggers and Crossbow (bow if vampire)

Skills:

1h dual wield although 5 points in the 1st perk is good enough.

Archery

Sneak 5 points 1st perk, muffle and right hand side branch.

Smithing, steel and dwemer don't really need anymore if you decide to join the Dawnguard and use crossbows.

Alchemy, good for making gold, plus poisons can be useful.

Light Armor

Main problem with a dagger assassin build is you end up cutting the throats of your enemies too easily and too often. Although legendary difficulty may help.

But it's still a good character if you like that kind of build.

Do what I do and don't pick up any crafting perks, except alchemy if you want, don't even allow yourself to improve your weapons and armor. Adjust the difficulty accordingly along with this rule and you can keep the game challenging, sometimes very challenging.

Trust me, I do this with just about all my characters now, which are almost always variations of the assassin/thief/nightblade archetype.

Besides the ability to adjust the difficulty, this no-crafting playstyle limits your character to only be as powerful as the skills and gear you acquire or find. It makes the game more challenging as well as more interesting and rewarding, in my opinion.

The moment I can craft for myself any weapons or armor that will be better than anything I could possibly find in the game world, the game becomes a bore. For me anyways.

Yeah, the big problem is that once your sneak gets sufficiently high, you are virtually undetectable, and can one-shot most enemies (and if you don't, you can run away to hide, and repeat). That's why I've tended to play hybrids.

So that's why I'm thinking that the way to play this build is high risk, high reward. So if you can get in for the one-shot-kill, that's great. But if you mess it up, then you are very weak in open combat. So that means little to no armour, not carrying around a whole lot of healing potions, no followers (of course not, for a sneaky assassin), etc. That's also why I'm a bit wary of using Illusion, because it can be used as a "backup" to handle open combat situations. That makes the build much less risky.

You know, I've been thinking, there's no saying that you have to take any perks when you level up. If you're worried about becoming overpowered, it's very easy to ignore them altogether. I' don't think I've ever invested a single perk in the sneak skill. The skill is still pretty powerful without perks, but I will still get detected by enemies from time to time.

There you go, that to. Keep sneak more challenging by not perking it.

I've played cloth wearing assassins before.

The problem you will face is that if you can sneak up behind a mob and kill it with one hit, you will still feel over powered. If you make your character too weak then if you can't kill the mob in two hits you'll likely be dead if not using potions. An assassin is supposed to be op as long as it's not seen. The other problem about balance on an assassin build is not all mobs are made equal.

An assassin shouldn't be taking on mobs in the first place. An assassin's job is to go in quickly and quietly, get the job done, and get out quickly and quietly, not kill entire groups of people...unless that group of people are part of the job, but even then he/she wouldn't kill them all in one group. One. at. a. time.

I wasn't talking about groups of mobs

Reread your post

Didn't need to reread it.

Look up Mob in the Wikipedia then under In-computing.

Edit: If it was Eve-online you would refer to a mob as a rat. Some games do it differently, well at least that one does. But most seem to use mob.

Mob commonly refers to a crowd of people (from Latin mobile vulgus, meaning "fickle commoners)...this right at the top of the page.

If you wish to avoid any confusion in the future, perhaps a little more clarity might work in your favor then. It's generally accepted that when your refer to a mob, you are referring to a group of people.

Not trying to be a jerk, just saying a little more clarity next time might avoid things like this.

No harm done.

My guess is you don't play MMOs because if you did you wouldn't have misunderstood what I typed.

That's something to keep in mind, thanks. Although, I'll probably have to get the +20% chance of remaining undetected perk, because it's a prerequisite for the sneak attack perks.

You could always use weaker weapons and armor, or use cloth, but with cloth you really need to be able to sneak and not get caught. Although wearing cloth can be fun as an assassin.

I found it to be very fun on my thief/pickpocket. As a matter of fact, http://imageshack.us/a/img850/834/qwhe.jpg. That shot was taken about 30 or so hours into the game. Never touched the main quest on him, so I can't give any advice on how to deal with dragons, but I can say, that from an rp perspective, I don't see why an assassin would be doing the main quest.

I had a cloth assassin start the main quest and even kill a few dragons, but dragons weren't easy as your main defence is not to get hit.

The term has been around for a long time - I am surprised to see that there are computer gamers who aren't aware of what it means these days.