My assassin doesn't use illusion or any other kind of magic. I got potions and a bow for the same effect.

I desided to play an Magic Assasin. so i picked up Ilusions and Conjugation for my Magic Sword.i also use stealth and pick locks.
I dive deep into ilusions and Conjugation and its just nice to play.

Dont use muffle, well you can. But thats the thing they did wrong. Stealth+Muffle is just redicilous.

You want to play assasain? Play it without magic.
Get the 50% noise reduction from light armor etc.
And yes, you need high stealth and you do need quite some perks in it, since otherwise you cant take your backstab bonus damage for starters.

You dont need illusion.

You need one handed or bow (or both), light armor, sneak, pickpocket, restoration and some alchemy for posions. (Although poisons is not needed if you get in a backstab, in most cases).

Dont use enchanting, dont use magic, get alchemy for poisons only. Dont raise smithing too much.
And you will have a good time.

If you go muffled later you will fall in behind the people complaining that the game is too easy.

Muffled should not have been implemented with how the sneak system works. Period. So dont use it. Using muffled on sneak skill is the same as using enchanting+smithing as a melee warrior and complaining about a too easy game.

Okay, thank you for your response.

What points would you use in resto?

Ive also played with the thought of the +30% magic resistance, and as a breton that would be 50% permanent magic resistance. Or since I will be in the shadows mostly, its not worth it?

I think I would put some points in archery as well, for picking out single targets if needed.

Indeed, legendary items with 2 enchants while guaffing imba fortify and other pots with 100 in all 3 skills and perks spent does brake the difficulty. But how could I have known beforehand xD. Though I do like to play a god. Now give me levitation so I have a reason to start upping magic skills .

. (my browser hang, so I thought the last reply didnt show >.<)

Ive never really used it with a thief, but I may give it shot with the one I just made.

My main character is a "sniper" but he's just as comfortable with one hand, so I really want my true sneak to favor stealth and trickery over combat.

i think it s a remnant from Oblivion, where illusion and alteration, were veeeery interresting and useful for thieves (frenzy unlock, calm, etc)

Yup, remember I used the unluck-spell for all doors/chests, lol. Made it really (perhaps TOO) easy.

My first/primary character, a Khajiit stealth archer, has made good use of Illusion from the start, while pretty much completely ignoring the crowd control spells until post-level-50 (when I picked them up mostly for the sake of letting me kill Imperial soldiers without technically committing murder). Muffle was helpful in early levels, before I got my Sneak skill up to the point of being able to consistently get into position undetected without magical assistance.

My main interest in Illusion, though, was the Quiet Casting perk. Fury may be a nice way of getting a tight group of bandits to thin their own numbers until I can safely pick the rest off from the shadows, but my preferred technique has instead been to silently summon an atronach in the middle of the group, then snipe away while it distracts them. I also tend to enjoy using a Bound Bow on non-boss enemies (when things get tough, my real bow hits a lot harder than the bound one) and Quiet Casting lets me conjure a new weapon at any time with very little chance of giving my position away. Some other spells can be useful as well (Oakflesh if I anticipate a real fight, Healing after being spotted, runes to defend an approach or lay a trap, etc.) and, once again, Illusion's Quiet Casting lets me use them while remaining unseen.

As for distribution of points at level-up, I tend to agree with lessthanjake. I started off expecting to want Health and Stamina, then saw that Stamina is next-to-useless for me (even when I do get stuck in melee, I rarely power attack and the bow zoom offers no real benefit other than for quick recon of an area) and I don't really need much Health because, if I'm not one- or two-shotting everything before it can engage me, then I'm doing something wrong and it's time to fall back, regroup, and come up with a better plan. So I'm investing pretty heavily in Magicka at this point. From memory, at level 53, I've got around 250 Magicka, a bit over 400 Health, and 150ish Stamina.

Thank you for your replys.

After some thought, this is a outdraw of what I'm concidering:

http://www.ign.com/builds/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim?d=000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000101000000300000000011110000000000000000000000000000000050100000213110003005111010105111015111111111111111110151111101

Heavy sneak & pickpocket and lockpicking, alot in light armor, blocks 20% of spells in alteration tree, some in one handed, not so much power attacks, since I wont be doing that so much (mostly sneak). Alchemy for poisons and snake blood, smithing for glass armors.

Comments please?

My assassin character doesn't use illusion magic, everything I might want from it I already get from alchemy

I wouldn't bother with the lockpicking perks if I was you. Picking locks is not that hard once you get the hang of it and before too long you'll have hundreds of lockpicks so you can afford to break a few anyway. You don't need the perks. I have none of them and open every lock I come across

If you want to go traditional thief/assassin it's not really that beneficial if you like wtfpwning everything with daggers. But if you're like me and enjoy melting people's faces with destruction from a corner while no one knows where the giant bolts of lightning are coming from, then illusion and destruction make for a great combination.

Sneak, destro, illusion, conj, ench, and alteration is awesome

I'm also playing as an assassin (level 23). Spent all perks so far in sneak & 1H. Initially, I also
planned to pick up illusion, but until now I haven't used it that much. Instead, I might experiment with
Conjuration and see how it turns out.

I have a mage/assassin who is entirely spec'd for illusion, sneaking, and backstabbing with enchanted daggers. Definitely the most powerful combination I have played thus far, except for dragon battles.

I play a sneaky assassin type and I use magic, alteration magic, as the detect life/dead is an absolute necessity.

The one thing I will ask about anyone who is intending to play over lvl 50 is how do you do it exactly?

In effect, you have to drop your char build say for instance a 1-handed light armor, for a 2 handed heavy armored toon. Considering that after a certain lvl, points are much harder/take longer to attain, the creatures in game have lvlled up and you are using skills that are pretty low so you aren't hitting hard with your 2 hand or getting protection from your heavy armor, how do you actually survive without dropping the difficulty lvl. The lvlling system seems rather counter-productive to me if you intend to max out your char.

Im not sure the OP asked people's opinion on whether Illusion fits in RP wise for a thief/rogue - only whether it was good. The answer is yes OP, the mindless haters are ignorable.

Okay, cheers. What I like about the lookpick perks tho, is the +100 carrying capacity, and a higher chance of finding more special treasures and more gold in chests.

What about the rest, you think that was an OK layout?

Hehe, I'm pretty sure I didn't. But I can understand their viewings also, and from what Ive learned is that it makes my character overpowered, and I think that would be boring in the length. Ive played through lvl 41 now, and I got 80 hours of gameplay (with a broken character, perk points here and there), and if I find that the game would be too easy underway, that would set my world on fire, in a negative way

Personaly, I had planned on speccing in illusion to aid my stealth like nature but I have come across something better IMO, alchemy. First of all, I was somewhat against the idea of a theif/assassin using magic, but alchemy seemed perfect because you can create deadly poisons to tip your arrows, invisibility potions, fear and anger poisons, and the ever awesome paralysis poisons. I find you get so many more benefits with alchemy due to the huge range of poisons and buffs available, including bow and one handed damage buffs, strength pots to increase carry capacity and increasing speechcraft. Crafting deadly poisons is most certainly the way of the assassin.

Im not a mindless hater. I said it is good, but I adviced not to use it, as it created a rift in the balance. Just as it does with smithing+enchanting for melee warriors in general.

Someone here posted they have illusion, enchanting and smithing.....and they are very powerful. No sheit sherlock that you are:-)

If you want to build an overpowered character, Skyrim lets you.
The reason we are advicing against this, is not that its abuse, but it simply put makes the game boring.
The only fights you will have a semi redicilous time will be vs dragons, apart from that you might as well play a game with 0 enemies cause thats how hard it gets.

Playing the game with no magic as an assasain and no enchants, alchemy etc, apart from poison making. Trust me, the game experience is hundred times better.

I have tried both roads so I know exactly what Im talking about.

Illusion is extremly good for assasains. To the point you actually dont need anything else when you are powerful in it.

Anyone telling you that Illusions isn't useful for an assassin hasn't bothered trying to play with it.

Once you hit Expert, the tree makes you a walking death-factory. Frenzy spells can whittle rooms full of enemies down to one or two weakened ones. Calm and Invisibility give you the ability to re-hide yourself for a sneak attack. Fear just gets people off your back if you have no other options.

There's also the Aura Whisper shout which functions much like the Detect Life in Oblivion (even at level 53, I have yet to see Detect Life/Undead spells in Skyrim, presumably because my Alteration skill is too low, so I can't say how it compares to them). And, yes, I make very heavy use of it.



I just play the same as I always have, pretty much. I've picked up a few new tricks here and there - Quiet Casting summon spells, dagger backstabs instead of purely sniping, etc. - which coincidentally involve new skills, but it's because they work for me, not because I'm deliberately trying to force my level higher.



You're forgetting that areas "lock-in" based on your level when you first go there. Even though I'm level 50+, when I pass through the Riverwood/Windrun area, I still run into groups of level 1 bandits led by a level 6 bandit chief. (My last pass through there, I ran into two groups of bandits, one at a camp, the other passing on a nearby road. I ambushed the road group and the camp group came running when they heard the fight. I was spinning around with my bow, one-shotting everything in sight even after getting spotted - I thought I was some kind of super-ninja or something. Then I got curious and used the console to check their stats and see just how awesome I was... I would have been happier not knowing.) Wolves are still everywhere in the wilderness, too - it seems that wildlife encounters only add new creatures as you level without taking away the old ones.

Personally, I'm not concerned with "maxing out" or further inflating my level, but I am still going up slowly because Sneak is my only main skill that's hit 100 yet - Lockpicking is 93, Archery is in the low 80s, Speech is around 70, One-Handed and Light Armor are lower than that. Still plenty of room to advance in things I've been using all along. If I wanted to "max out" and push for 81, though, there are plenty of low-level enemies running around certain parts of the world where I could just pick up a crappy iron greatsword and grind Two-Handed or drop a weight on my right mouse button, then go watch TV for an hour or two while they beat on me to level Block and Heavy Armor. (What, you think a wolf or skeever will even dent my health if I'm dressed in full Legendary Dragonplate and blocking?)

I used to be an assassin like you,but then I got my first warhammer...