I seem to have run out of ideas but I feel like doing another playthrough. After googling various guides, archetypes, and builds for the better half of an afternoon I've still got no inspiration.

My last successful playthrough ended with my Breton Nightingale-Assassin-Illusionist at level 40, having completed the Main, Companions, Thieves guild, College of Winterhold, Dark brotherhood, Pro-Stormcloak civil war, and many other quests... Initially she was a thief, joined the thieves guild, then eventually as I levelled up I stuck with it, she realized she was dragonborn, etc. I got a little too overpowered and I didn't find it fun any more.

Next I tried a redguard merchant/smith. She ended up joining the Imperial army and using heavy armor and 2-handed weapons, but once I got to a quest in Riften I ended up getting svcked back into the thieves guild and had to stop because I didn't want to get bored of it.

My character before the Breton was a nord that was pro-stormcloak in the civil war, and then pretty much retired (Stopped playing at level 8 after rushing through the war and getting bored...)

So now I'm trying to come up with a new character that I'll find enjoyable. Normally I like the Thieves Guild, Sneak, Archery, Light Armor and Illusion (To enhance sneaking) and dual wielding daggers in melee situations. I'm not sure where to go from here. I've considered becoming a ranger but I feel like that wouldn't give me much to do...

I'm looking for ideas for builds, characters, quests, companions, etc.

Any suggestions would be MUCH appreciated.

P.S. I roleplay, so try to keep that in mind.

Orc, try an old orc who's so good at fighting that he hasn't been able to die yet. So you'll tackle every challenge in game as a new opportunity to die fighting. Any other orc would be a neat follower, or you could try have one of those trolls in Dawnguard fight at your side. It would be a fearsome sight.

You've already done anything there is to do in the sneak department, but you could try another evil db character I was thinking about:

A psycopathic Dark elf born in flames, killed all his/her family before coming to skyrim, starting with his mom.

(dark)

The woman was suffering during birth because you wouldn't come out. Then as people where preparing to terminate the preagnancy, she starts burning from her belly and dies screaming. You're the only thing left in a pile of ash and bone.

Years later, as a child, you find yourself slowly butchering your brother's dog because you want to see how he looks as he dies in pain, as you had done with other small animals already. Your brother finds you, confronts you, and says he's gonna tell dad. As he turns to go, you swing a rock at his head, making him fall down in a bloody agony, and then you proceed to do the same thing to him that you did to his dog.

As you try to hide your brother's remains a local thug aproaches you, says he witnessed the whole thing, and invites you to work for him in the murder department. His demeanor suggests you can't silence him yourself, so you agree to his proposal, and spend the following years perfecting the art of vivisection on his behalf.

At one point, one job was too bloody, the authorities where investigating, so your boss decided it was time to get rid of you. So he sends his two best men to take care of things, but surprise surprise, you turn the tables on them with your unorthodox/sadistic fighting ways, and you make the last one tell you who sent them, before you expose his bowels.

The next part is obvious, you go underground, kill that crimelord's last men in their hideout, and proceed to finish him off. But before you give him the final blow, he stares at you, broken and beaten, and with a bloody grin tells you he knew you killed his men, so he told your father everything you did.

You kill the guy, and as you make your way back home, you stop at the entrance of your town and wander if it's really wise to go back. As you're deciding what to do, you see a man walk towards you, with the setting sun behind him, and you recognise him as your father. He sees the bloody mess on your hands and clothes and asks: "It's true isn't it?". You nod, he looks down, pulls out a hand axe and says he's gonna do what he should have done years go. The two of you fight, you end up beating him, and the blood from is last wound splatters all over your face().

he looks up from a pool of blood, and before dying he curses you by saying you would forever bear the mark of your crimes(red tatoo/bloody mess around the eyes).

Suddenly you hear the guard approaching and you run, and the decision is made for you. You leave and decide to go somewhere no one knows you, somewhere far away, perhaps north...

Oh followers,... Anyone who follows a similar ideology, like Jenassa, Ahtar, or anyone in the dark brotherhood, and that cannibal chick Eola.

Side notes-

*I don't have any DLC

*I only do female characters

*I'd prefer to stick with the things I've posted that I like, if at all possible.

Go with one of those sassy, sneaky types that steals golds and steals hearts because no man dares cross her daggers

Not really a bad idea, but I'd need more to go off of here. Companions, quests, skill set... I do kind of like where it's going.

I once roleplayed a Breton spy for the Imperials whose cover was as a bard. Her major skills were: 1-handed weapons, Illusion, Speech, and Alteration (she didn't wear armor). I started her out using Restoration, but then tried to shift over to Alchemy, since I figured she'd be adept in the use of poisons. I didn't really get her to high Alchemy levels before I quit the character, though.

I used the Become a Bard mod so that she could actually play and sing, and actually avoided the Civil War questline, since her job wasn't to openly declare her allegiances but to watch and report on the goings-on in Skyrim. I also avoided the main quest since I didn't want dragons cluttering up the sky; you could use a mod like Alternate Start--Live Another Life like I do, or just follow the MQ up through giving Farengar the Dragon Stone and then just don't do any of the rest of the questline (this gets you Breezehome, but not Lydia, which didn't bother me at all).

It was a lot of fun while it lasted. Any race (except probably orc--bad things happen to orc bards!) would do--I just happen to have a partiality to Bretons.

Jenassa seems like a good companion, perhaps you can RP that they were both once part of a secret order of master thieves that was a girls only club which disbanded for whatever reason but your character seeks to reunite the clan....maybe even join the Thieves Guild as both a means to find old members and secretly take it over then take it apart or something. I'm just brainfarting here

I should've added this earlier, sorry.

I'm on console and can't use mods.

Bummer! The Become a Bard mod, in particular, is really a help, although if you have a good enough imagination, you can roleplay anything regardless of whether or not you use mods. The spy concept (even without the bard cover story) is still viable, too.

Could you explain the spy route in a bit more detail? Like what would I actually do?

I do kind of like this but it will take a bit more thought...

Well, I played this character after I had already played many characters, so I wasn't so concerned with playing the main quest or finishing other questlines, either. I roleplayed that Marianne was a singer and musician that was roped (actually, blackmailed) into being a spy for the Imperials. The Imperials considered her an expendable dupe: they expected to get a little bit of useful information from her, but not much, and they didn't tell her much (or train her much) so that, if she was caught, they had full deniability. So they basically threw her in at the deep end! That explained her weakness in the beginning of the game.

When she first landed in Skyrim, Marianne decided to join the Companions, to beef up her self-defense skills, and the College of Winterhold, to beef up her innate Breton magical abilities and learn Illusion to control her enemies. I didn't do the whole Companion questline, just enough to get access to Skyforge steel weapons and training. Marianne wasn't a warrior, after all! I stopped the CoW questline without finishing it, either--I didn't want her to have a relatively high-profile job as the Arch-Mage, just to be an anonymous student and to have access to the amenities. Of course, I had to do the Bard's College questline, since her cover story was that she came to Skyrim to attend there.

Anyway, the Imperials gave her the name of a few contacts, including one in Markarth: Margaret, the Imperial woman killed (or almost killed) by the Forsworn when you first enter the city. So Marianne goes off to Markarth and sees her contact killed in front of her and has to sort out the mystery. That took care of the Cidhna Mine quests. I roleplayed that Marianne realized that someone--either the Thalmor or the Stormcloaks--was onto her, so she connected with another contact in Riften: Marcurio, the snarky mage hireling. He agreed that they should find the leak in the operation and so he went undercover as her musical partner (the mod I was using allows followers to play instruments, too).

Basically, it was a lot of wandering around Skyrim, fitting everything into the narrative in my head. Did Thalmor justiciars attack Marianne on the road? Clearly, the Thalmor were onto her and she had to find a way to escape their notice! Was a waitress from the Candlehearth Hall Inn in Windhelm brutally murdered? Clearly, Marianne had to find out the story behind it: was she killed for being a spy for the Imperials, or for the Stormcloaks, or the Thalmor? (Actually, it turned out she was a spy for the Imperials but was killed by one of her contacts who went rogue.)

Basically, the whole playthrough was an exuse to sandbox around in the world of Skyrim. After all, a spy has to go everywhere to gather information. It didn't really have a defined end point, but by that time, I'd played through so many different characters that I didn't feel I needed structure (I start new characters at the drop of a hat).

I'm sure the basic concept of a spy wandering around Skyrim would work regardless of the cover story. Heck, regardless of the faction you're spying for: you could even make an Altmer or Bosmer spy for the Thalmor, under such deep cover that even other Thalmor didn't know about you.

Josie, you must've put a lot of thought into that. It's a great idea, but I'm not up for sandboxing to that degree, really. It doesn't quite seem multi-faceted enough. (There only seems like a couple of major goals) but I really appreciate what you've contributed, so thanks.

Right now I'm probably leaning toward

more or less...

I'd still love any more contributions that anyone could make.

I edited my post.

O_O I guess uhh.. You're more talented than me... I don't think I could roleplay something that dark. It's really not my cup of tea.

I really don't know how lighthearted one can be when joining the dark guilds.

How do you feel about Argonians?

You could be a resentful Argonian who doesn't like the way Humans and Elves look at your people.

That kind of thing could be turned into murderous rage whenever someone talks down at you, and you'd be as much a dual weilding beast and a silent throat slitter. Good for both Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild.

You could also join Namira's sanctum, as someone like that would be willing to cannibalize man and elf out of spite.

A friend of your people, so you would have Argonian followers, as well as guild members.

I've tried and I really am not a fan of argonians... I can never quite get a look that I like (And that means quite a lot to me)

Try a pacifist thief who never engages in combat and does not kill. Makes this a little more challenging.

Ok, that's an issue I've wanted to talk about with someone else. I've tried that before, and every so often I'll get caught and someone will get hostile. What then? I don't just want to make it a game of "Reload the Checkpoint"...

Also, what do I do with hostile random encounters of bandits, skeletons, necromancers, or needing to venture through a crypt filld with draugr?

No problem. The lack of a defined endpoint probably contributed to me getting bored with the playthrough--but then I never need encouragement to drop one character and start another! The mods helped keep it fun for quite awhile, though. In fact, it was fun enough while it lasted that I might replay the concept (I lost all my saves when my last PC went down).

As for other ideas, let's see: I've played a 2-handed Nord barbarian warrior-woman who joined the Companions, romanced Aela, and completed the MQ. I've also completed the MQ with a female (I, too, tend to stick mostly with female characters) Breton Conjurer/Illusionist. I actually found it easier to go through the MQ with her than the warrior: being able to turn any enemy--including undead and automatons--to one's side and to conjure up a couple of Dremora Lords in a pinch never gets old! I also took her through the Civil War questline (and the CoW, of course) and rp'd that she had an affair with Ulfric Stormcloak (which was why she helped him). I've played a lot of mages, actually; it's my favorite class. I also played a thief/assassin character, but that one sounds a lot like the one you said you just finished playing--down to her being a Breton. I've only played a couple of warriors: the above-named Nord and a Redguard that I didn't get very far with. I did play a couple of male characters, but they didn't last very long; my last one was only started to try out a mod, Vilja in Skyrim.

I've had good luck looking at the ideas on http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/group/character-building/forum/topics/the-character-build-archive. In fact, it's where I got the skill ideas for both Marianne and a previous bard character (who wasn't a spy). I also wanted to try http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/group/character-building/forum/topics/character-build-the-witch, but never got around to it.