I wanted to know a good build for a marksman type character, trying to use it for stealth as well for The Dark Brotherhood.

Thanks.

Any race and birthsign can eventually be a good marksman, but if you're looking for maximum ability at an early level...

Bosmer, Thief Birthsign, specializing in Stealth, with Agility and Luck as attributes, and Marksman (obviously) as one of your majors.

Bosmer's probably your best choice of race, for the Marksman and Sneak bonuses. However, Argonian, Khajiit or Dunmer could all be viable and you should pick the race that you think fits the character most. Of course, if its a Nord you might have some trouble at the beginning :wink_smile:

For the birthsign, I would pick wither the Thief or the Shadow. The Thief provides some Agility and Speed, which will be more noticeable in the early game than the late, but also carries Luck, one of the most painful Attributes to raise. If your character will refrain from magic, the Shadow is also a good choice. The 60 seconds can be very helpful to sneak into a good sniping position. Of course, at 10 renown there is a more viable alternative I can't mention on general.

Major skills wise, it depends entirely on how you want to play. While there are near-infinite nuances to build-making, there are three main choices for major skills:

Majors as Majors: The skills you will use most as majors. This allows for a more regular gaming experience, while the usual three-attribute skills and large spread may weaken your character over time. If you choose this approach, go for something like Marksman, Sneak, Alchemy, Light Armor, Armorer, Security, Blade.

Majors as Minors: The skills you will use most as minor skills, while controllable unused skills go as majors. This allows you to raise your power without raising your level, and still allowing you to raise yoru level as needed.

Some majors as majors, some as minors: I'm sure Acadian and Buffy, resident bowgirl and companion, will chime in here, but essentially this means using three or four of your used skills as majors, while the rest are minors to control your levelling and in the end, create a still powerful character with a relatively normal expereince.

Hope I helped!

Yeah, you helped a lot, thank you. ^^

Race. Any race can be fine after a few levels, so I would pick based purely on the looks and image you want.

Not sure what type of archer you have in mind. I don't recommend a 'pure' archer (no spells, no melee skill); the problem is dealing with getting rushed/charged. I would consider one of several paths, all of which heaviliy use stealh and poison:

1. Bow backed up with magic. Magic can allow you to avoid melee (and even armor if you want). This is the path chosen by my mystic archer.
2. Bow backed up with blade and armor. This allows you to deal with melee head on. When you get rushed, you cut up your foe. This is perhaps the most classic variant.
3. Bow backed up with blade, armor and magic. This is basically an all rounder. I don't care for them because at higher levels, I find them entirely too easy/overpowered.

Major skill selection starts with Marksman (duh!). From there it depends on such factors as:
1. What type of archer you want to play, bearing in mind my comments above.
2. How high you want to level (picking some majors to never touch can help do this).
3. How fast you want to level. Since marksman levels slowly, it may be worth considering looking at majors that also level slowly or are easy to control.
4. Attribute gains. If these are important to you, then consider the cosmic relationship between skill usage and attribute gains as you select majors.

All that said, I find restoration makes for a nice major skill to toss in the mix with marksman. It levels slowly and, by using potions, can be very controllable. If you want to use blade as a backup, the consider it as well. Since your bow is your primary weapon, it should be easy to control how fast blade levels.