Skyrim Character help please

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

TonyM

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Sorry if this has been posted before. Just registered - been lurking these forums for a while and finally succumbed and have bought Skyrim. Have played a little bit of it but want to restartwith a decent characte build. Am looking to build a sneaky character and can't work out which race is best. I'm thinking either Woodelf, Chajit or Argonian. Also thinking bows look quite good fun to use. Has anyone got any character builds or suggestions?

Thanks
 
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Welcome to the forums.
I like my wood elf assassin/thief. He gets good bonus to sneak and bows. I didn't want to play a lizard or fluffy kitten so that seemed like the only choice left . I can how argonian water breathing would be good for exploring but just build alchemy up to make water breathing potions. As for bows the are almost overpowered. One hint build conjouration up and get a bound bow with the improve perk (sorry can't remember name atm). This gives you a stupidly powerful bow which will one shot most things with the bow/sneak perks as well. Oh and keep an eye out for thief guild and dark brotherhood
 
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You can find trainers for thief skill in a few of the cities.......take advantage of those and any others you find that train in skills you don't want to spend level points on. At first money is tight but as you go you will end up with more than enough to buy training. I wasted a few points early in not realizing how many trainers I would find in unexpected places.
 
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If you want an easy start with a sneaky archer, Bosmer is your best bet, but you can make a good sneaky type with pretty much any race. I've got a pretty kick ass one-hander sneaky Nord at the moment. I was playing around with an archer Argonian who was pretty fun, too.

The way skills work, it's hard to gimp yourself too badly. Just make something that looks fun and see what you end up using.
 
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The racial skill bonuses only help a tiny bit at the lower levels. Once you get up to level 10-15 or so, the race you picked doesn't matter very much, so my suggestion would be to pick any race that you will enjoy playing. And some of the races have resistances vs. fire, cold, etc., which are very helpful even at high levels.

As for build suggestions, IMO the most powerful perks in the game for stealth characters are Steady Hands (archery) and Assasin's Blade (Stealth). The one-handed perks that can apply to daggers are also important and Shadow Warrior and Silent Roll were also quite helpful.

Stealth gameplay is greatly improved in Skyrim compared with previous TES games, and it has been quite fun to enhance the stealth aspect by putting 100% of the level up points into Stamina (no health or magicka), and skipping all the armor-related perks. The result is a very powerful stealth character who can kill enemies in one shot, but there is a danger of being caught and one-shotted yourself, which heightens the stealth experience IMHO.

If you want to get into poison making and pickpocketing there are some very fun perks available for these skills.

The way lockpicking works in Skyrim has much more to do with player skill than character skill. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes easy to open Master locks without spending any perks on lockpicking at all, and you can even open them while your lockpicking skill is low.

If you will play a stealth character, I highly recommend to skip the College of Winterhold and Companions questlines. Save that content for another playthrough. It is easy to get up to 200-300 hours for a single character just doing the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood, collecting all the shouts and picking up a few daedric quests and side quests. Once you get above level 30-40 (which can take a few hundred hours), combat becomes a bit too easy IMO, so it is better to start a new character at that point, rather than run through all the remaining quest content with a god-like character.

If you want to do the Civil War or main quest with this character, I suggest to start while you are very low level. If you wait too long to start after you are above level 20, the CW and MQ missions can feel a bit too easy, even playing on Master difficulty.
 
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Along with the waterbreathing racial trait, you get the hithskin daily power that regenerates health as an argonian. Very useful for long damaging battles (think dragons). This power remains useful at all levels.
 
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I think the game is pretty viable however you decide to go after it. I tend to take an RPG focus myself.

I did go with a stealth character but more a Barbarian Ranger/Scout with dual wield. So I skipped the Thief quest line entirely as I also play a chaotic-good type of character. He is also a Nord as I also enjoy mixing up the two-handed with the dual wielding daggers.

I just reached level 40 today and got 201 hours of play. I still have half the major cities/holds still to do and only about half-way through the main story lines. I also have not done the mage quest line although I may do it since my character has some natural/guardian magic he uses (restoration mainly with a little alteration and a tiny bit of illusion for courage and clairvoyance)

Right now my main skills are stealth (100), one-handed (76), two-handed (78), restoration (68) and light armor (78). I use stealth for certain missions (ones that seem more spy or scout like) and two-handed barbarian style for outdoors and more direct melee conflict. Restoration helps keep me and my partner, Erik the Slayer, healed and I have a couple of minor buffs, wards to help out along with some undead specific items and abilities - since I hunt them wherever I find them.

Overall awesome game with lots of RPG opportunity if you enjoy a sandbox style RPG setting.

As for difficulty - it can be easier as you get higher. I balance difficulty with my play style instead of the other way around. So I adjust the difficulty slider to give me some challenge without making me frustrated. I also am strict with my characters personality so I don't abuse mechanics or skills and many of my characters "limits" make the game a lot more difficult than it might otherwise be.
 
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As for difficulty - it can be easier as you get higher. I balance difficulty with my play style instead of the other way around. So I adjust the difficulty slider to give me some challenge without making me frustrated. I also am strict with my characters personality so I don't abuse mechanics or skills and many of my characters "limits" make the game a lot more difficult than it might otherwise be.

I agree, I tend to play multiple characters but one of my favourites is my straight up Nord Barbarian. Won't use magic (apart from weapons/armour and Shouts) also won't steal even from crypts (it's disrespecful to the ancestors (unless its a quest item then the ancestors woudl want me to hae it to help save Skyrim)). I'm really enjoying this character with the "extra difficulty" I've added. Strangley I'm no where near as rich on this character and I am on my thief!
 
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What's this barbarian's position on pulling the wings off pretty little butterflies that never hurt anyone ever?
 
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What's this barbarian's position on pulling the wings off pretty little butterflies that never hurt anyone ever?

Well I don't know about Kendrik's Barbarian but mine doesn't. Weird I know - will slaughter Thalamor, bandits and storm cloaks left and right but won't hurt a butteryfly. But then people are weird anyhow - we are really good at coming up with twisted rationales for our behavior - real life or virtual :)

@Kendrik: and here I thought I was the only one who worried about looting crypts. Course I am not as stringent as you are since my guy has a small touch of avarice to his nature. I don't loot the buried corpses but will loot a draugr corpse if attacked. I will loot a generic urn but not one that is specifically a "burial" urn. Again lovely rationalizations.
 
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What's this barbarian's position on pulling the wings off pretty little butterflies that never hurt anyone ever?

Nah he's not an alchemist either that's too close to cooking for his liking ... he's also very sexist! (mayhap I am getting carried away with the roleplaying here)
 
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Nah, sounds like a great barbarian! I was going to have quite a bit of fun with your barbarian if he was chasing around after butterflies and picking pretty flowers. ;)
 
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Thankfully I'm playing about 3 character at the moment one of whom is a Thief/Assassin so I can get my robbery on without tarnish my pure barbarian. My Thief/Assassin will steal anything he can and has seemingly murdered people just to see if he can get away with it.

When recruited for the Dark Brotherhood he killed all three of the prisoners without even speaking to any of them

I'm trying to get through the game with him without ever getting any bounty at all, it seems to be going well at the minute. Of course he's so evil I can't trust him with the main quest he would abuse the power of the dragon shouts if he ever got his hands on it ..... hmm in hindsight I think I may need to get out more :biggrin:
 
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