What class would you recommend for my wood elf? I want to be able to use all the basic kinds of spells, but I need to be able to learn archery and stealth skills.

Cue Acadian in 5, 4, 3...


On second thought, that's not enough information.

It's just that this forum is home to a long-time player who has a very well thought-out and implemented Bosmer 'mystic archer' and who can give you all the advice you might ever need on this particular topic.

Buffy we need your help in answering this persons question.

Buffy will likely need more information in order to help you out

Custom class. Spec Magic. Favored attributes Endurance, Strength (because these are low to start on a Bosmer, and important even for non-melee types)

Birthsign Atronach. Big magicka pool boost, with the plus of 50% chance of spell absorption. Make up for the loss of Magicka regen with your racial predilection to Alchemy.

Major skills:

Marksman,

Blade,

Block,

Light Armor (careful here that it doesn't level you too fast, but if you are using your bow right, they won't get to you)

Destruction (or Restoration, your preference)

Mysticism

Mercantile (or Speechcraft, your preference)

That's actually somewhat similar to the character I'm playing right now.

I definitely don't recommend following this even remotely to the letter, as it's definitely not the most efficient class. It's just to give you an idea of what a fellow player does with a similar class/concept.

Race: Imperial

Birthsign: The Lord

Attributes: Intelligence & Agility

Skills: Marksman, Conjuration, Light Armor, Alteration, Blade, Sneak, and Illusion.

Now that I think about it, I've always played hybrid characters. It's nice to have different options when handling a situation.

There's not too much to really think about with this type of character. Sneak attacks with a bow give a bonus, and you can really enhance this with poison. Home-brewed poisons work over a period of time, so it helps if you've got high agility and acrobatics, to take advantage of the terrain, and get above your enemies, where they can't hit back.

Some enemies are immune to poison. If you use Destruction in addition to your fighting skills, you can make a custom targeted spell that causes Weakness to Poison, and zap them with that just before hitting them with the poisoned arrow. You lose the sneak attack bonus that way, but the net effect can be even greater.

I play a mystic archer named Buffy. She won't touch a melee weapon, and relies on magic to support and back up her bow.

In her case, illusion is her primary magic skill. Command spells to start fights and invisibility to disappear when it takes more than sneak. She then snipes off the wounded survivor with her bow.

Although Buffy relies primarily on illusion to support/back up her bow, destruction or conjuration could work fine for a different style of mystic archer play.

She does use plenty of other effects from the other magic schools that include:

-Restoration - healing, curing and absorb health (for those rare occasions she has to fight underwater.

-Destruction - weakness to poison (to effectively kill even poison immunes with her poisoned bow).

-Alteration - just as she never touches melee weapons, she also never touches lockpicks.

-Alchemy - poisons.

Clearly, beyond macic, skill with the bow and sneak is important.

Note that I'm talking about abilities here, not major skills. There are as many ways to choose majors as there are players here so I don't recommend major skill selections. In my case I pick majors with only two considerations: 1) How fast I want to level (slow), and 2) How high i want to level (I like to 'cap' my character around level 20 by picking 4 majors that I never touch). I'm not recommending my style of picking majors, just amplifying why I don't recommend major skills to others when it comes to 'builds'.

As far as attributes, I focus on agility (bow damage), intelligence (magicka) and willpower (magicka regeneration). I find that with illusion spells, she tends to cast a potent spell, then stay out of the way and let it do its job as her magicka regenerates; therefore, a massive pool of magicka is not required like it can be for a mage who spams fireballs and lightning bolts. I intentionally ignore several attributes: Strength - does not help bow damage and money comes easy to a mage so there's no need to carry tons of loot. Speed - Illusion means never having to run.... Endurance - I actually like the concept of a glass cannon and ignoring endurance results in a small (glass) pool of hitpoints.

As far as a birthsign, I like the Mage. Simple and helpful.

Acadian & The Buffster have spoken. Just kidding.