Your specialisation (combat, magic, stealth) combos?

[Brynjolfr]

My current Nord character has a combat/stealth build (I call it the "Skirmisher"); alchemy, light armour, sneak, archery, block, one-handed and smithing.

What combos do you currently have? Do you have any past favourites?

[Crawldragon]

I'm one of those gamers who likes to play what no one else is playing. For RPGs that generally means a non-combat-specialist, but it's not really possible to play Skyrim that way in my opinion, especially since combat factors heavily into the main quest line. The other natural choice is a stealth specialist, but stealth is comically easy and turns your character into a super hero very quickly if you take advantage of stealth bonuses, so that as well was a no-go for me. After that I was tempted to try a spellcaster, but the thing is every time an Elder Scrolls game comes out everyone seems gravitationally drawn to spellcasting, so as I like to play against type that was again a no-go for me.

What I ended up going with was a sword-and-bow dual-specialization restricted fully in schools of magic not in the field of Restoration. Originally my characters tended to specialize in alchemy, especially in Morrowind and Oblivion where Argonians have a bonus in alchemy, but for some reason all patience for the school of alchemy just fell straight out of my head shortly after picking up Skyrim, so I decided instead that I would play my character more like a holy warrior, or like a Paladin from Dungeons & Dragons, in the sense that he's a fighter who can turn undead and heal his comrades.

[Finn Wolfshorn]

My current Nord character has a combat/stealth build (I call it the "Skirmisher"); alchemy, light armour, sneak, archery, block, one-handed and smithing.

That's basically my main Skyrim character whom I tend to restart every once in a while: sneaky Bosmeri archer using poisoned arrows and switching to dual swords in melee; replace block and smithing with lockpicking and pickpocket.

Right now I'm playing a kind of spellsword/witchblade: conjuration, destruction, alteration, light armour, one-handed (axe), alchemy. For roleplaying reasons she only wears Forsworn armour or ragged robes (hence alteration for added protection) and only uses an unimproved Forsworn axe in melee (hence alchemy for additional poison damage; also healing and magicka regen).

[BunBun299]

Currently, I'm playing a barbarian. Two-Handed, Light Armor, Archery, Block and Sneak. Oh, and putting points into Speech. She's kinda clumsy with magic. Can enchant well enough. Ok with alteration and restoration. Meh with Conjuration and Illusion. Sucks at Destruction. Though she's hoping to improve now that she's in the College of Winterhold. Wearing Dragonscale armor and packing a Dragonbone Greatsword and Bow.

May favorite playstyle, though, is Battlemage. One Handed, Heavy Armor and all magic schools. Probably going to make another Battlemage after I unlock all the Achievements again, and get to start playing with what the modders do with magic.

[legoless]

What I ended up going with was a sword-and-bow dual-specialization

Funny, I always thought this was the standard for Skyrim.

[noobishlord]

My current character (though that might change, with me playing ESO again and having a blast with my Khajiit,) is an Argonian Healer, based a bit on the old Healing class. Restoration and Alteration as the main spells, Illusion for the Courage spells, and my lone source of personal DPS being a mace.

Very different class, relies a lot on companions for damage. Rather glad I got Mjoll early, she's been a big help.

[Imbalance]

Inspired by dual-wielding, this Skyrim character was the first time I really committed to a battlemage type. I almost always end up with a Swiss army knife of a character for wanting to "try everything," though. The last time I kept my focus narrow was with a missile specialist in Morrowind that favored a blunt silver staff when enemies got too close. Can't do that in Skyrim.

[Crawldragon]

What I ended up going with was a sword-and-bow dual-specialization

Funny, I always thought this was the standard for Skyrim.

I didn't say I was very good at being different from everyone else :p The main difference is that I took heavy inspiration from classes from other RPGs, making him play more closely to a samurai or a Paladin than a traditional Elder Scrolls character. It works out a lot better in Daggerfall, which is where I came up with the character concept, but I'm having fun challenging myself to translate my character between the two games because they're so different.

[Cassandra]

The character I'm playing right now is a sneaky, kill-them-in-one-shot-before-they-see-you type of character. A Khajiit who uses enchanted bows for the majority of the time, and dual-wielded daggers very occasionally. She just steals any potions or food she needs for healing.

My original Skyrim character was, if I remember correctly, a Dunmer battlemage who used destruction for ranged attacks, and dual-wielded enchanted war axes in melee combat. Enchanted heavy armour, and restoration for healing. I quite enjoyed playing her, until I accidentally saved over her save file.

[Leckan]

My favorite:

One-Handed
Heavy Armor
Archery
Restoration
Conjuration

Although, later in-game I use Conjuration a lot less; probably because I can clear a room faster than I can summon something at that point, lol.

[Nord85]

My all-time favourite combo was (and is) archery, illusion, alchemy, light armor, sneak, one-handed. Illusion thinned out the herd nicely or got my char out of sticky situations, and combined with sneak sniping it was very entertaining. Alchemy assisted very nicely with almost everything and made a huge amount of money. That's why those got the most perk points. Some knowledge of sword-and-board fighting for close-quarter encounters was handy, too. With a few Alteration spells and lockpicking skill points added to the mix there was very little this character couldn't do. In fact, things got even too easy at some point in the whereabouts of level 30.

A Destruction mage with Illusion, Enchanting and Alteration was hugely devastating, too, after the initial hard phase. By level 30 that character was a walking machine gun.

One surprisingly viable and interesting build was Archery, Alteration, Alchemy, One-handed. I put most perk points into Alchemy and Alteration and put attribute points pretty much evenly. To my surprise, I discovered that at a level high enough, Alchemy can easily and fully substitute or even outdo many specialised skill perks, so that my character could survive very well. Without his potions, though, he was toast very quickly if the baddies got close.

In principle I prefer sneaky characters with archery. Almost all my characters have alchemy, too, for the money if nothing else (and yes, I know it's cheesy, but I just can't resist). The only problem with this is that sneaking and one-shotting everything can get rather dull after a while. Maybe I should try something else for a change.

[SeaGtGruff]

I usually focus on combat-related skills in any ES game, accompanied by Restoration, Sneaking, and Security/Lockpicking. But I also try to master all of the skills if possible by the time I complete the game-- at least in terms of raising all attributes and skills to level 100, but not necessarily "mastering" in terms of actually mastering everything about a given skill, such as using every available spell in a given line of magic.

Skyrim is the first ES game where I actually practiced enchanting as far as making my own enchanted armor and weapons, as well as the first ES game where I used archery to any great extent, because it seems like archery is the best way to kill dragons until you get powerful enough to dispatch them closeup with a weapon and not get eaten.