Hi everyone...

I love being an assassin and sneaking around... I sort of know how to do it in the game, I just need a better build I guess... so please take a look at what I got

Race: Wood Elf - best archer class and I think they make good assassins.

Birthsigns: The Thief - bonuses to Speed and Agility and luck is just nice..

Speed ang Agility - Fast and nimble is what assassins are about.

Majors: Marksman, Blade, Light Armor, Sneak, Conjuration, Armorer and Acrobatics.

I picked Armorer because I like being able to be independent (also leveling alchemy as a minor), Acrobatics because I think it's nice to be able to get to places, where the enemy can't reach you, and Conjuration because I love the skill, and it's nice as a back-up in melee battle.

I don't see any issues with the build. It might level quite quickly if you overuse armorer and acrobatics, and you might have to make a conscious effort to level your combat skills. In fact, I'd suggest removing blade so you only have one combat skill in your majors. This will allow you to level up blade as much as you like, whilst still being able to keep Marksman at a high enough level to deal with the enemies you encounter.

However, I don't build characters this way, so you might receive better advice from someone else. Might I also direct you to Zakarius Svedlin's character creation guide. It's linked in his sig. I'll go hunt for it now.

Edit: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1117992-zakarius-svedlins-guide-to-character-creation/

I'd advise you to install a few mods, specially the No Psychic Guards. IMO you cannot be a decent A without this one.

Theres another one that mods arrows to fit more the stealthy chap, but I do not remember the name....

I believe enjoying the build takes some thinking, for instance, an A is not a demi-god powerhouse of slaughter, but someone who in a specific pre-planned moment is unstoppable. Deliberately giving him some disadvantages might encourage you to place more importance in planning. My build always had only archery, as I never allowed him to have Str / End greater than minimum (30 or 40), and never carried more than 20-24 arrows.

I personally wouldn't chose Armorer as a major since it levels up pretty quickly on its own, but I really can't see anything wrong with the way you did it. Of course, I'm pretty new to all of this myself, so maybe I'm not the best person to be giving advice.

Why are you unhappy with your character? What's he lacking?

Mara

Ah, you're lucky I chanced upon this topic. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Holy Assassin. The self proclaimed expert on assassins in Oblivion. Build-wise and playstyle-wise atleast. I don't know a whole bunch of trivia though.

Anyway, first thing I'll do is show you my build, and why I like it, and how it works out well for me (and I've heard several other people around here who have appreciated my opinions in the past)

Here what I consider the best assassin build:

Race: Khajiit Vampire - Khajiits have a natural Night Eye lesser power. Something that's incredibly useful for assassins. Any race would work though, so it doesn't matter that much. Vampires have boosted Illusion and an array of benefits that would help assassins greatly. Again it is not essential, simply personal preference. I was willing to put up with the disadvantages, you might not be, but that's okay.

Birthsign: The Theif - This is pretty much the best way to go about it, but you might find others like The Steed to to useful aswell. Even The Lady could be useful.

Class: (Name it whatever you want if you choose custom, but remember; there is nothing wrong with default classes. Look through each one carefully, and see if you like a default one more)

Favored Attributes: Speed, Agility - Agility is a must, I would say, but Speed is debatable. Some might say Endurance would be more useful. I stuck to Speed though, because ofcourse assassins need that both from a practical perspective and an RP perspective.

Major Skills:

Acrobatics - Jumping up into high places as a vantage point is useful for assassins. It's also fun to have. It may be swapped with a different one though, if you wish.
Alchemy - Making good poisons is essential to getting those elusive "one hit kills". Health potions and buffs are useful if ever you come into direct combat where you will most likely sustain heavy damage. Also a very profitable skill, that can also double as a cover for your character. Alchemist by day, murderer by night.
Blade - As an effective character, you will without a doubt run into situations were using bow and arrow is simply impractical. For example if you're jumped by a bandit. A back-up combat skill is necessary.
Marksmanship - I think it's self explanatory why this is useful. Shoot down foes at a distance.
Illusion - The single most important skill for stealth-based characters (besides Sneak maybe). It boasts a wide array of incredibly useful spells, like Nighteye, Light, Frenzy etc..
Sneak - Again, self explanatory. You need to be unseen to be able to effectively "assassinate" someone. Otherwise you're just fighting them. It also offers a damage multiplier which is useful as assassins generally don't have a lot of bulk.
Light Armor - This is another skill that you may swap out if you wish. A true assassin would never actually come into a direct combat situation, but we know that Oblivion tends to thrust you into such situations, so it may serve well as a backup skill.

Skills that you may swap in:

Security - It sounds like an obvious decision to use this as a major, but the game's lockpick system is rather easy to use despite having a low skill level, and after level 10 you get the option to acquire a certain item that makes Security an obsolete skill. Up until then, you might need it though. Again, personal preference here.
Conjuration - If perhaps you need a helping hand every now and then, you might want to throw conjuration in there. You could summon creatures, weapons, and armor to aid you.

Skills that you should avoid using as Majors:

Athletics - Under no circumstances should this skill be in any Major list. Ever. It levels itself anyway no matter what character you're using. A waste of space. It's just as effective as a Minor as it is as a Major.
Mercantile - You are an assassin, not a thief. Don't confuse the two. Adding this would be waste of a slot.
Speechcraft - This one levels incredibly slow, and the speechcraft minigame is boring, and irritating for most. Besides, assassins aren't exactly known to be the most sociable of people. Some may say that it would be needed to avoid suspicion, but to avoid suspicion, one doesn't have to be an expert orator. Simply wear a smile. Infact, people might get suspicious as to why someone might want to be so friendly with everyone all the time...

Okay, I know this whole thing was a huge wall of text, but you asked for it! By no means is this the definitive way to play the game though, remember that. Im also not claiming that this is the best assassin build ever made; just my personal experiences put together. Everyone has their own playstyle and build preferences. I respect that. If however you like my ideas, and wish to know more, and be further educated in the Art of Holy Assassination, simply PM me, asking whatever you want to know and I'll fill you in! If there's any point in the above that you find dubious, or wish to discuss, don't hesitate pointing it out either.

I was actually coming here to say just what Holy Assassin said with one major exception; I'd advise 100% against Alchemy as a major skill. It's probably the single most useful skill in the game, but as a major skill it'll make you level like Chuck Norris on steroids. It's really a pain if you want to use Alchemy and keep an eye on how you're leveling. I'd replace Alchemy with just about anything else. All my characters (especially the assassins) are heavy Alchemy users, and they all get to Master level in Alchemy before they get to Master level in any of their other skills - including the major ones. Alchemy is best left as a minor skill, if you ask me.

Another thing you might want to consider is a Wood Elf or Argonian as a race. They make excellent thieves, but are not at all bad as assassins either. Wood Elves get a bonus in Speed and Agility, as well as skill bonuses in Marksman, Acrobatics, Sneak and Alchemy; all of which are just as useful for assassins as they are for thieves. Argonians make interesting assassins, and I really like the Shadowscale roleplay aspect you get with an Argonian assassin. They get bonuses on Intelligence or Speed and Agility (depending on the gender of your character), and skill bonuses in Alchemy, Illusion, Athletics, Security and Blade.

Aaaand still one more thing! Intelligence as a favored attribute. While assassins don't really require a large mana pool, most of my assassins tend to rely heavily on Illusion magic, so a larger magicka comes in handy. Also, from a roleplay point of view, assassins need to be smart to be able to efficiently plan and execute their assassinations and deal with problems that may arise during their strike. My characters usually have Agility and Intelligence as their favored attributes.

So that's about it. Your original build looks fine to me, by the way, and you could make that into a fully able assassin. If you're on PC, download a No More Psychic Guards mod, and you'll be able to be a much more efficient assassin. It tends to take the fun out of things if it's literally impossible to assassinate people in a city protected by overly job-zealous telepaths.

In the end it doesn′t really matter what race you are, what skills you have as majors etc. The thing that matters is to get your chameleon up to over 100%, then you can do all you want
So just walk around casting simple illusion spells all day and you′ll be stealing clay bowls in notime :hubbahubba:

Just my two cents worth-

Wood Elf- Yes, perfect for an assassin/archer.
Birthsign- Yes, thief is great for a pure assassin. Mage is also an option for a mystic assassin/archer build.
Class Att- Yes, but I would also consider Agility/Intelligence. I love magicka!!

When it comes to major/minors there is two ways to play the game. Take the skills you wish to use, enjoy the game, but pay the penalty at level up.
Unfortunately, by taking sneak, conjuration and armorer you will level up very fast.

If you are new to Oblivion, don't worry about it, just enjoy the game and have fun.
In the long term, you will want to try efficient leveling. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Efficient_Leveling
It is the only way to fly!!

My Dark Elf blade-mage uses skills like Speechcraft, Heavy Armor, Acrobatics, Alteration, Mysticism, Marksman, all for the purpose of slowing down the leveling.

I think I might go for a more melee-type stealth character... That way I wont get in a whole lot of trouble If I'm getting caught..

are you on the pc?can you use mods?if so then i recommend getting Deadly Reflex for the awesome one hit kills it has.A sneak up throat slitting,A sneaking jump that behaeds the victim,and a sneak kill for whan the victim is sleeping,you get on the bed then stab them like 4 times.rp'ing an assassin is fun with this.my game is heavily modded.i use a custom race elf whostarted with insane marksman skillz.shes nasty at a distance and with DR a force to be rekoned with in melee.hardly use magic except the Telekinetic Mastery mod which is loads of fun.Midas Magic is also fun but i havent focused on her magic yet.right now im on level 23 without doing any quests exceptthe DB.i just pick a victim,follow them around and set a time when they need to die.

I think a good assassin could pick pocket anything useful like potions off their target before they kill them. :ninja:

I disagree with Holy Assassin that an assassin wouldn't be good at speechcraft. A good assassin would want to learn about his mark and persuade people into telling them things about the target. An assassin kills for money, he wouldn't bribe people with his hard earned gold if he could talk people into telling him what he wants to know.

while i agree with u regarding my personal assassin build, i think it is not the only approach to a somewhat diverse type. I prefer more subtle, intelligent ways using a lot of deception and seduction, but i can perfectly accept Holy assassin's approach as equally valid.

one difference to my build, my assassin does not kill for money, although she has to earn it form operation fundings. But money is not her primary motivation.

Ah, you misunderstood (or perhaps I mis-phrased) I never said an assassin should be bad at speechcraft, just that it shouldn't be a major as you could use that slot for something infinitely more useful.

Like I said before, one doesn't have to be a good speaker, or have a great way with words in order to come off as a regular person. Not every regular person is a social butterfly. There are some people who are closed-in, that doesn't mean they are killers.

But your approach is still a good one. A charmer assassin. There isn't only one way to get the job done, that's what I love about it.

Excellent character designs all around! My personal preference is a Dunmer courtesan. I built her strictly for roleplay purposes so the decisions I made are not optimal. Her setup is:

Race: Dunmer – Because of their reputation as sixual beings.
Class: Courtesan – I just like the way it sounds for the character build
Birthsign: The Lover – Mooncalf gives the ability to paralyze a target for 10 seconds with a kiss, at the expense of 100 pts of Fatigue. A little gimped, to be sure, but I don't want her to be too powerful.
Spec: Stealth – Of Course.
Fav. Attr: Intelligence & Personality – Again, chosen because they fit the roleplay. Agility & Personality would also work.
Major Skills:
Alchemy – She relies on potions and poisons for her craft. Sure it levels fast, but I’m not overly concerned with that for the roleplay.
Illusion – The single best school of magic imho. Being able to charm, frenzy, paralyze, or command fits with who she is. Nightvision and the ability to disappear at will are nice bonuses.
Speechcraft – Because her particular brand of assassin gets great mileage out of high dispositions.
Acrobatics – Years of training gives her the ability to access rooftops when she needs to. And what client doesn’t want an acrobat in the bedroom?
Sneak – Another skill that levels incredibly fast (especially with a stealth specialization), but it just fits the roleplay.
Marksman – Because there are rare times when she needs to attack from range, and the practice of archery engages both her body, and her mind.
Blade – As a last resort, she always keeps an enchanted dagger concealed on her person.