starting new character

[dragonboym]

im going to make a new character because mines getting boring after beating the thieves guild and arena im going to try to make a cross between a mage and a thief can someone suggest skills that i should get? thinking of puting

destuction
blade
sneak
security
alteration
illusion
light armor

but ive never done someone like this combo

[ArotosMarkos]

The grammar...she burns!

Enough with my grammatical criticism.

It really depends on what you specifically want. A mage can be described in many ways. Do you want a destruction mage, capable of killing your enemies? Not the best for a thief. I'd reccomend...

Illusion-For chameleon and beguiling spells.
Mysticism-For telekinesis spells.
Alteration-Excellent for the lockpicking spells.
Sneak-A given.
Security-Optional, considering alteration should work, of course you will run into more difficult locks before you learn the proper spell.
Marksman-If you plan on doing Dark Brotherhood, it will be perfect for assassinating.
Light Armor-Everyone needs a little defense.

This is simply how I would play mine. You can do the game however you wish.

[dragonboym]

thanks never tried marksman for a thief but ill try it

[DbHK]

thanks never tried marksman for a thief but ill try it

I highly recommend having Marksman as one of your majors....it's such a great skill to have (in my opinion).

[Coulsonji]

I NEVER have used marksman before except for in the tutorial!
It just doesnt seem to work for me! I shoot and nothing happens to the enemies, should I try it?

[Ibrahim]

Marksman is actually pretty hard to level up.


PS- Same avatar

[Ibrahim]

I'll just change mine.

[weka]

It depends how much you use it. The way that I play, I find that Marks levels up easier than Sword.

[Bruffmeister]

Marksman is an awesome skill I think. Its really hard to level up though
And how about this for a character layout:

Specialty:Magic
Attributes:Agility, Intelligance
Skills: Marksman
Sneak
Blade
Light Armour
Destruction
Illusion
Conjuration

[Mastodon Magik]

I really love marksmen, even more so since I was doing the dark brother hood and they gave me a magic bow. This was before I even knew that sneeking while shooting with a bow does crit damage

I do find it hard to level up tho, something that needs to be trained forsure.

[DbHK]

I NEVER have used marksman before except for in the tutorial!
It just doesnt seem to work for me! I shoot and nothing happens to the enemies, should I try it?

It's really effective in sneak mode, if you "snipe" someone you'll get an attack bonus x3, really helpful when starting out...I think you should give it a shot, I was always a blade/shield type of guy, then I decided to give it a try, and I'll never be without a bow...

[Mastodon Magik]

I NEVER have used marksman before except for in the tutorial!
It just doesnt seem to work for me! I shoot and nothing happens to the enemies, should I try it?

It's really effective in sneak mode, if you "snipe" someone you'll get an attack bonus x3, really helpful when starting out...I think you should give it a shot, I was always a blade/shield type of guy, then I decided to give it a try, and I'll never be without a bow...

Funny you said that, because In almost every MMORPG or RPG type game I'd always go with either one or the other, sheild/sword or Bow never both as I hated to throw on a bunch of skills on 1 guy. In Oblivion tho I love going from Melee to Range

[DbHK]

I NEVER have used marksman before except for in the tutorial!
It just doesnt seem to work for me! I shoot and nothing happens to the enemies, should I try it?

It's really effective in sneak mode, if you "snipe" someone you'll get an attack bonus x3, really helpful when starting out...I think you should give it a shot, I was always a blade/shield type of guy, then I decided to give it a try, and I'll never be without a bow...

Funny you said that, because In almost every MMORPG or RPG type game I'd always go with either one or the other, sheild/sword or Bow never both as I hated to throw on a bunch of skills on 1 guy. In Oblivion tho I love going from Melee to Range

Agreed, nothing's cooler than wounding someone with a bow and then rushing them with a blade....I love it, probably why I've stuck with this game for so long.

[Logius]

I NEVER have used marksman before except for in the tutorial!
It just doesnt seem to work for me! I shoot and nothing happens to the enemies, should I try it?

From what I've heard Marksman works best when combined with poisons. So a good Alchemy skill would come in handy.

[Fallen]

Marksman isn't that useful to me. Running around in circles for every fight isn't as fun as it sounds.

[DragoFireheart]

Marksmen is fun and all, but I prefer my Wizard. I find Paralyzing a enemy and then shooting Weak Fireballs at them until they roll of a mountain to be more fun.

[thealtkey]

im going to make a new character because mines getting boring after beating the thieves guild and arena im going to try to make a cross between a mage and a thief can someone suggest skills that i should get? thinking of puting

destuction
blade
sneak
security
alteration
illusion
light armor

but ive never done someone like this combo

I see what you're going for there, but here's some advice: use magic to augment/assist your most important skills. Thieves need to be able to kill efficiently and hold their own in combat, but the real advantage of being a thief is that you are crafty, perceptive and nimble enough to avoid combat altogether. Therefore, you should go for spells that benefit non-combat skills.

Here's a thief-mage hybrid class I came up with:

Class: Raider
Race/Gender: Argonian / Male
Birthsign: The Shadow
Specialization: Stealth
Attributes: Intelligence, Willpower
Major Skills: Mysticism, Restoration, Mercantile, Sneak,
Athletics, Blade, Armorer
Health/Magicka/Fatigue: 60/90/155

Class Description: A fearless seeker of treasure and profit, with a keen sense of smell and a deep knowledge of cultism and the arcane arts. The Raider's profession is his truest and only friend, and he invests his money heavily in further training for the skills that have already made him rich.

A thief in the truest sense. You take whatever you think you can sell, and if you can't sell it, you fix it up, enchant it and recharge it until you can. Your best odds of defeating your enemies will be to avoid them, obviously, but creeping up behind them and jamming a dagger in their spine ought to work nicely as well, especially if you dip it in a little poison first.

Here's a skill breakdown:

Mysticism - Mainly for Soul Trap and Detect Life. Telekinesis comes in handy once in a while too.
Restoration - Don't stand and fight. If you didn't kill your enemy in a few hits, back off and heal yourself, fortify a few skills, and come back to the fight when you're ready. There are some damage-dealing Restoration spells as well, making this an all-around very useful skill.
Mercantile - You're a thief. You like money.
Sneak - Self-explanatory. Some people advise against choosing this as a major in the interest of efficient levelling, but I think it's too important to your class to leave it trailing behind.
Athletics - Same as above. And your skill increases in Athletics really slow down past about level 25.
Blade - The damage you deal when you are at Novice rank in a weapon skill is about a third of the damage you deal at Master rank.
Armorer - Being someone who deals heavily in enchanted items, you're going to want to be able to repair them yourself, and I believe (need confirmation on this) that items repaired beyond their maximum condition sell for more as well. And remember, you like gold.

Also, note my omission of the following skills:

Alchemy - You'll use it all the time, but it levels too quickly to waste it as a major skill.
Heavy/Light Armor - You won't need armor. You'll mainly either kill in a few hits, or avoid combat altogether.
Alteration - Ditto. And Feather potions are really easy to make.
Security - Once you master the mini-game, you can easily pick Master-level locks at Novce rank. Totally useless skill.
Destruction - First of all, it doesn't fit the class. Secondly, it will only distract you from your Blade and Alchemy skills. Skip it.
Illusion - All the best Illusion spells stop working around level 25, and the ones that don't are either cheap to cast, or can be used as enchantments. And if you stick with the Shadow birthsign, you'll have a 60-second Invisibility spell anyway, in case things get really hairy.
Marksman - Thieves typically steal things indoors, and if the enemy discovers you pilfering his goods, you'll be within melee range anyway. Save the bow for an assassin-type class.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Hope that at least gives you some ideas. Happy thieving!

[StrideColossus]

Marksman is great fun although as a few other posters have commented it takes time to level up.

Alchemy definitely goes hand-in-hand with it if you're planning to be a sneaky sniper. A decent bow with some nasty poisons can take down a lot of monsters before they got within melee range.

The only drawback is that you'll probably not be that good at close quarters combat. I selected conjuration to get me out of these situations - sneak shoot, summon something to occupy the baddy if it's not dead, buff yourself with potions and/or spells, then continue shooting.

[Esvedium]

Mercantile - You're a thief. You like money.
Armorer - Being someone who deals heavily in enchanted items, you're going to want to be able to repair them yourself, and I believe (need confirmation on this) that items repaired beyond their maximum condition sell for more as well. And remember, you like gold.

I'm gonna have to sort of disagree with you here. He's been having problems with his TPS reports...

If you're gonna have Restoration as a skill, or even just level it past 25, there is no need for either of these skills.

Fortify Mercantile 100 self/Fortify Personality 100 self/Charm target all for 1 second = much higher prices for your goods than mercantile skill alone. Cheap to cast.

Fortify Armorer 100 for one second spell = only ever need one hammer, and also cheap to cast.

You can get the skeleton key to give yourself a fortify security boost, which gives you access to all the other fortify skill spells at the spell making alters.

That frees up 2 more major skills, which I'd use for Destruction (everyone loves a good fireball!) and Illusion for Chameleon, Invisible, and Paralyze (I cast the spells that make the goats fall down).

Just another option for ya!

[Deandra]

Fortify Armorer 100 for one second spell = only ever need one hammer, and also cheap to cast.

The problem here is that it's very hard to get +4 or +5 on endurance if you're raising only block and perhaps heavy armor. Also, being able to repair items to 125% is nice, and once you reach that point, leveling armorer is trivial.

I would assume that your method of raising your armor skill before all repairs would pretty much prevent you from leveling it.

Then there's the issue of these short duration ultra powerful spells being kinda cheesy

[Esvedium]

Yeah, those spells are kinda cheap, but just an option. My first character hasn't used any of those and did just fine on selling stuff and armorer'ing... Took a lot of work to get it there, though.

[bas237]

I shouldn't take Mercantile and Armorer. You can just work a bit harder to earn the same amount of money and take two more cooler skills. What about this:

Custom class: Ranger
Attributes: Agility, Intelligence
Major skills: Marksman**, Alchemy*, Sneak, Blade***, Conjuration****, Mysticism*****, Restoration******
Specialization: Stealth
Race: Dark Elf Male
Birthsign: Mage/Apprentice/Atronach *******

* Alchemy levels-up quite fast, but it's a handy tool. And as a thief you need those poisons.
** An assassin/mage is mostly low on health, so close combat is quite risky. With marksman, you can just run away and hit your enemies all over again.
*** You need a high combat skill to attack enemies from behind.
**** When you're in trouble, summon a creature. The bound bow/sword spells are also very useful.
***** With the soul trap spells, you can fill your soul gems. And with filled soul gems, you can make cool Restoration/Mysticism/Conjuration spells.
****** Even the best thief gets hit sometimes. With Restoration, you can heal yourself and boost your skills.
******* I should go for the Atronach. You've got Alchemy, so you can make lots of 'Restore Magicka' potions. And those +150 Magicka points are sooo cool.

[Aradinn]

well....marksman can be very powerful...especially if u use Shardrys archery mod(sp)

[thealtkey]

I shouldn't take Mercantile and Armorer. You can just work a bit harder to earn the same amount of money and take two more cooler skills. What about this:

Custom class: Ranger
Attributes: Agility, Intelligence
Major skills: Marksman**, Alchemy*, Sneak, Blade***, Conjuration****, Mysticism*****, Restoration******
Specialization: Stealth
Race: Dark Elf Male
Birthsign: Mage/Apprentice/Atronach *******

* Alchemy levels-up quite fast, but it's a handy tool. And as a thief you need those poisons.
** An assassin/mage is mostly low on health, so close combat is quite risky. With marksman, you can just run away and hit your enemies all over again.
*** You need a high combat skill to attack enemies from behind.
**** When you're in trouble, summon a creature. The bound bow/sword spells are also very useful.
***** With the soul trap spells, you can fill your soul gems. And with filled soul gems, you can make cool Restoration/Mysticism/Conjuration spells.
****** Even the best thief gets hit sometimes. With Restoration, you can heal yourself and boost your skills.
******* I should go for the Atronach. You've got Alchemy, so you can make lots of 'Restore Magicka' potions. And those +150 Magicka points are sooo cool.

Just a word of warning: the Atronach birthsign makes it dangerous to cast "utility" spells like those under the Mysticism school, since they eat up mana needed for combat spells like Restoration or Conjuration. Keeping lots of magicka potions on-hand will be absolutely critical for this character, which may or may not be more risky than one would like.

And as a general response:

People keep recommending Marksman. I agree that it's a pretty powerful skill, but not for a thief. A thief primarily works indoors in close-quarters, so having the ability to hold your own in a fight will prove to be far more valuable than sniping out enemies you should just be sneaking past anyway. Of course, it's inevitable that you will have to fight something you'd really not have anywhere near you, but Illusion and Conjuration will keep you out of combat far more than Marksman, and Alchemy and Restoration go a long way to enhance survivability as well

Just my $0.02.

[weka]

I tend to play a sneaky theif type (well ok, the only things I nick are alch ingredients, which mostly means everyone's food. And yes, I know they have to eat, but come on, Talos Plaza district, have you seen how much food they have for one or two residents?! I'm just "rescuing it before it goes off!"), and I usually have Marks and Blade as majors. I pref Marks, but Blade is def more essential. As you say, once you get up close and personal, you def need to be able to fight. But for dungeons etc, I tend to snipe from a long distance (the further the better), before looting.

But as always, it’s all just personal pref.