So, due to a (still) ongoing case of severe restartitis, I am still thinking about many different ways to play future characters; trying to decide what might (finally) become a character that I really will keep playing. In the process of doing so, I started to wonder about something:

Let's say I'm sneaking in a room with multiple enemies. I am behind one of them. If I would stand up (aka get out of sneak-mode), others would notice me. If I now kill the one in front of me with a sneak-attack... will the others notice me, since I'm getting out of sneaking for a moment and pretty much killing someone in plain sight? Now on the other hand... what would happen if I instead would kill that bandit/whatever with reverse-pickpocketing poison(s) instead (without getting caught)?

I'm not sure where and how I could really test this; thus I'm asking the question here.

I started a thread a day or two ago asking largely the same question, but it has had 8 views and no responses and is sliding toward the bottom of the first page . . . so I'll link to it here and maybe we can attract enough attention to your thread that we get some quality answers from the expert players.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1536120-stealth-kills-and-faction-aggro/

In a nutshell, yes you can kill opponents one by one. However, they do have a chance to see you. I do not know about numbers or bonuses/hindrances. I always wondered about that because some power attacks has my character "yelling", yet not getting noticed.