Source
r/skyrim•
queerissues

Any experienced assassins willing to offer some tips?

No Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild spoilers please!

I just started a new character, and I intend to make him an assassin/thief. He's a Wood Elf, so archery is the main offensive. I've been using a sword in case anyone gets too close, and I'm wearing light fur armor if it matters.

So far I've put my points into health, and one into stamina. What should I focus on for this build? I kind of want to level Illusion so I can use Invisibility.

Any other tips in general? Thanks in advance. :)

Posted Jan 25, 2012, 1:29 AM UTC

625
xandrox•

For close range combat I would recommend two daggers with a paralysis enchantment on at least one. The beauty of having it on both is that you can effectively lock one target in paralysis until death. also level up smithing and enchanting after you have a solid base in sneak, one-handed and archery. Dark Brotherhood armor is great for stealth characters early through mid game, it works late but there are better options. In terms of followers I would not recommend using one, however if you do Cicero if you keep him alive is probably your best option. eagle eye is one of the first archery perks you should get, however I would recommend getting the crit chance ones and possibly even stagger before slow time.In terms of quest lines, start the Thieves guild for a somewhat reliable income, the jobs are relatively easy to complete and don't run out. but finish the main Dark brotherhood quest line first since there is only one leveled item and it doesn't scale as well as the thieves guild leveled items.

In fights stealth is your friend pick off the people at the end of the line or hanging around the edges, dart back into the shadows and wait for the search to stop, repeat as needed, or until they find you. then either fight them or run away. invisibility spells and potions are your friend both to start fights and running away keep a couple on you when you go out adventuring/on a job/contract. If a target is isolated daggers are the way to go if you have the assassin's blade perk and Shrouded gloves they do 30x damage, with shadow warrior you can get 60x damage off really fast on an enemy if your first attack doesn't kill them.

Health should always be a priority, and since your damage is coming from bows and melee weapons, stamina is your most useful secondary attribute. However taking ten levels from stamina and putting them into magika is useful if you are going to be using alot of illusion magic.

5
SecondTalon•

Level Sneak. Take how much sneak you think you'll need and double it. That's half of what you want.

When the shit hits the fan because you goofed and did something stupid to alert everyone that someone's there, you want them to walk right up to you, look you square in the eye and say "I don't see anything" before walking off.

Don't get me wrong.. illusion's nice, fury is neat, frenzy is a hoot and a holler, and Invisibility is great as an Oh Fuck button. But Sneak is your working skill. Sneak is the faithful friend, always there when you need him, always working for you, never complains, never fails, just does his job and does it well.

Sneak.

MORE SNEAK.

4
xandrox•

so I need 200 sneak?

3
SecondTalon•

More or less. Get the perks. With no perks, you can slip through a dim room unseen. With the perks, you can bump people out of your way without them realizing you are there.

1
[deleted]•

Get ALL the sneak perks. I mean ALL of them. Both endpoints of the perk tree are amazing.

2
apetersson•

are you sure that it makes sense to take 5/5 of Stealth? My level 22 Onehanded Char manages fine even without any +Sneak items and sneak at 70

1
[deleted]•

That's the one possible exception, but sometimes that last marginal bit of sneaking ability really helps.

1
synthionflair•

For the record, this is true with nearly ANY character build...

LEVEL UP SMITHING AND ENCHANTING

You're playing an archer? Good. Get yourself a nice Daedric Bow with 2 Enchantments.

Illusion is infinitely useful, in my thief-mage character, I would cast fur/frenzy/etc. on my marks and let others kill them.

Get the Eagle Eye, and Slow Time Perks with Archery ASAP.

3
Ozy-dead•

Actually, daedric bow is arguably by far no the best in game. Since bow speed depends on weight, best bow is heroic nord bow (damage on ebony level, 2nd lightest in game). Fastets is longbow. Daedric has most base damage, but it's speed makes the dps by far inferior.

2
[deleted]•

Bound bow is quite good because you can get it at lower levels (if you go to fort amol) and you don't run out of arrows. It does like 100 damage.

1
Ozy-dead•

True, but bound bow has its disadvantages. It's slow, has an effective damage cap, and you have to invest 5 or 6 perks into conjuration for it to deliver.

Bound bow only benefits from 1 tree damage-wise - conjuration. 50 level conjuration with perks results in 63 damage on the bow.

Regular bow draws damage from smithing and archery trees. So it can effectively be pushed way beyond conjured weapon cap. 100 archery with unsmithed bow is already 70-ish damage, and it can be easily tripled with 100 smithing and perk.

1
[deleted]•

You have a point, but bound bow certainly is good for lower level players. If you invest your first 7 levels into magicka (or play as a dark elf or a breton) and then go to fort amol you can have it quite quickly. You can then kill people pretty quickly while levelling up both archery and conjuration. This makes it pretty easy to kill the daedra needed for daedric weapons. Also: don't forget that it comes with 100 bound arrows every time you conjure it.

1
dizzzycakes•

Daggers!

Swords are nice, but in the sneak tree you get a perk that does 15x backstab with daggers. Plus the special gloves you eventually get that double your backstab damage, that gives you 30x damage with one hit. And holy shit, is it nice!

3
PurpleHaysflair•

Definitely start the Dark Brotherhood questline. After a couple quests they give you some armor that is invaluable to stealth characters.

2
LyraAndBonBonMUDCRAB•

Actually there are multiple sets of Dark Brotherhood Armor that are useful. Shrouded Armor, Shrouded Robes, Ancient Shrouded Armor, Worn Shrouded Armor, and Jester's Clothes Most have useful enchantments, but the worn armor is especially good since it DOESN'T have enchantments, meaning you can customize it to you're liking.

1
[deleted]•

Conjuration. If you want to avoid breaking the game by not leveling enchanting and smithing, learn Bound Bow and get the silent casting perk from the illusion tree. Summon your bow, fire at an enemy's head, sheath it. Lather, rinse, repeat. Soon you'll have the perk that increases its damage and you don't even need any extra magicka for it. By using the conjured bow you get a quiver full of powerful arrows, you reduce your encumberance and you have always have souls for enchanting. In fact, you don't even use those souls for recharging so if you decide to start enchanting you have a ton of gems sitting around.

2
Ozy-dead•

Protip - invest into alchemy. It is the best skill for thief/assassin.And disregard people saying alchemy is hard to level. It's easy, and it becomes effective very fast. I'm level 31, have 70 alchemy, and am enjoying immense utility boost. Also, I'm level 100 alchemy fully perked on my other char, and recommend to take the eating perks. Helps a lot.

Benefits:

  • Invisibility is easy to craft, and lasts longer than spell for 0 magicka. Can invest scarce level-ups into stamina or HP instead.

  • Massive dps boost from poisons. I can craft a 51 immediate damage or 140 damage over 10 secs w/o any +alchemy gear, it's enough to kill most enemies.

  • Paralyze! No need to level alteration.

  • Mayhem, fear and other effects that make assassination missions that much more special. I'm still excited how a groom at certain wedding killed his bride, while most other guests were running around screaming.

2
jjohnson0729•

Tips on easy alchemy leveling? I'm struggling to level mine, please share your methodology sir.

1
Ozy-dead•

Hoard all ingredients. Steal everything shopkeepers have, it respawns every 48 hours. Buy out their inventory every time you pass by. Pick up all flowers and snowberries as you walk (respawn is long - 30 or so in-game days).

Make the most expensive potions you can atm. Level-ups are based on potion money value. Most valuable potions are HP regen, temporary HP, invisibility, mana regen. Also, try to combine 3 ingredients that result in 2x positive effects, it increases value/ingredient output. Another good ones and easy to make are resistance potions, as ingredients are in great abundance (blue flower and snowberries are all over the place). They don't cost much, but result in loads of exp from mere quantity.

Wear +alchemy gear, it increases potion money value. Most vendors have jewelry and gloves at most times. You can easily purchase +75% alchemy set for 6-7k gold total.

1
jjohnson0729•

I have 100 smithing and decently high enchanting so I got the +% alchemy shit down. Thanks for the tip btw. Any particular recipe besides snow berry and blue mtn flower you'd reccomend? Particularly some common 3 ingredient recipes?

1
Crymtastic•

The character that im playing now, a thief who was never seen during the dark brotherhood questline (or any other time for that matter) started out with two simple steps.

  1. Sneak Everywhere.
  2. Pick EVERYONES pockets. Take stupid things. If you dont want them, throw them out. It levels pickpocket.
2
[deleted]•

If you're going to get invisibility you should also get Mehrune's razor. You can inflict 900 damage with the right perks.

1
jjohnson0729•

elaborate please.

1
[deleted]•

Okay sorry it's about half that. I thought it did 30 damage but I think it does 14. If you get the shrouded gloves from the dark brotherhood and get the perk assassin's blade or something that does 15 times damage then you can get 30X damage on sneak attacks. Combine this with invisibility and you can kill (almost) anyone you like in one shot. Also with lots of fortify one handed apparel items you can do a lot of damage.

1
slothensteinflair•

Get a follower, give them only a bow and 1 arrow, go out and kill some animals and bandits etc, collect the arrows they shot at enemies :) Even though you only gave the follower 1 arrow they never use that one, they somehow have unlimited and you collect them so you'll never run out of your favourite arrows.

1