I am a big fan of magic but I also love the feeling of taking out all my enemies without being noticed. Do you guys think it would be possible to combine stealth and magic gameplay? Often magic is very bright and gives away your location. The only thing I can think of is instead of magic that is like fire or lighting have magic that controlls like darkness powers. So what do you guys think, do they mix? CAN they mix? Should they mix?

Absolutly they mix. My plan for my first character will use stealth and archery as his main skills, 2 swords for melee and will specialise in illusion

other magic skills dont mix so well however

The school of Illusion is popular with sneaks. Using magic to magic to get the upper hand on the enemies.

Not as you say it.. I mean, it's quite hard to kill a person with fire without a huge flame.

But I'd like there to be bonus damage for sneak attacks while casting spells.

My first character is probably going to be a nightblade, so yeah

This is the only way I play. I always use an enchanted poisoned bow with disabling magic. They are separate things, but they can indeed be used together and it would be awesome if there were sneak attack bonuses with spells.

For some reason, I tend to keep my play-through archetypes seperate... :tongue:

They are seperate, but they can work together quite well. As others have said, illusion is a good combo with sneaking. Alteration for shields to help you character survive when he/she is not sneaking or is detected. Don't know where detect life is going (wasn't it mysticism in OB?) but it might be in alteration or illusion, don't know. Nice to know where the baddies are before you turn that corner. Conjuration might work if you want a distraction while you sneak behind for the kill. Or maybe you just want that daedric dagger (bound dagger) to use for that kill.

Destruction seems the least usefull for stealth characters unless they implement sneak damage for it. But it could be nice for weakness to poison so you get that extra umph now that alchemy is in the stealth catagory.

I plan on putting them together.

Especially at lower levels when you're not uber-sneaky already. you're usually quite happy to be able to boost your stealthiness with a camouflage spell. And if you have to get in and out fast, invisibility not only gives you peace of mind, it also means you don't have to crawl to avoid being seen. If they caught you anyway, summoning a distraction can give you the needed moment to disappear into the shadows again. Also, as far as stealth goes, walking on or breathing water allows you to come in from directions that are not expected routes of intrusion and as such maybe not as heavily guarded. Same for good old levitate....

They do indeed mix. One of my favorite characters I made in OB was a Bosmer who specialized in Marksmen and Illusion. Cast 100% chameleon, take out bow, shoot DB target without anyone noticing, walk out like a bos(mer)s B)

The character I'm playing in Oblivion at the minute is a mix between Stealth and magic, and I think that works pretty well. As long as in Skyrim they give sneak multipliers to magic attacks, and get rid of psychic guards and the lot, magic and stealth should be just as good as normal weapons and stealth in Skyrim.

bright flashy lights and trying to remain hidden? they seem more at odds with one another than anything.

Nightblades have been around since Arena, haven't they?

Illusion and stealth work very well together, though I always felt that damage on thouch spells sould sneak attack bonus, i.e. walk up behind a guy, place one hand on his mouth so he can't scream, and place the other on his fore head, cast a damage on touch ice spell and you have a frost bitten bandit!

Illusion and stealth work together, as do Alteration and the detect life spells.

Will you be able to sneak around shooting lightning and fireballs at people while summoning 10 feet tall Atronach's? No sir.

Depends on the school of magic.

Telekinesis + Arrows from the shadows. PHWOOSH! WHIZZ! CRACK! (of spine from arrow) THUD!

They wouldn't even know I was there, and it would take little to no effort. MWA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!!!

Seriously though, it would be awesome if you could manipulate objects with violent force in game. Somehow I doubt it's been done, but I can dream. Lovely, vivid dreams.

PHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!! (Sorry I just had an espresso and I am wired)

Stealth with just magic not so great for direct damage spells you could sneak around find good places to hide and summon or turn critters against each other .

Using some magic to enhance stealth works.
Using stealth to enhance magic... well, bright fireballs doesn't help when trying to stick to the shadows.

Invisibility and Chameleon work great though.

I always felt that illusion spells should have no visible effects and should only be successful when cast on a target that doesn't see you. It isn't much of an illusion if you see the guy cast the spell and you watch the green blob hit you. At the very least it should be less likely to succeed when you know it is about to hit you.

Also, yes, darkness etc. spells would be awesome. They sound much less hokey than typical flashy magic, but that is just my personal opinion.

hmmm it would be awesome if you could get a re-usable magic item that drains all light from the room kinda like dumbeldoor in the first harry potter movie ( not that im a fan of harry potter )
it would make for some awesome uses such as walking into a room killing the lights and using detect life to sneak kill people and then turn the lights back on like nothing happened .
it would be even more awesome if you could get such an item from the dark brother hood or the skyrim equivalent

Ive done a magic using thief in oblivion and it's pretty viable.

It's been done in deadspace.

I have usually played a nightblade at some point in every game. Hopefully the new magic sysem still allows for some innovative strategic spells that will aid a stealthy character.

A confusion area of effect spell would be perfect for when you're discovered.

Just blast it at the floor near your enemies to blind and deafen them (resulting in them swinging their weapon wildly, possibly killing nearby allies) like a flashbang grenade while you escape or take a few shots with your bow