Dealing with or avoiding multiple attackers

[Wetigos]

Invisibility potions doesnt work? how so?
You sure you keybind them and use them mid cut-throat animation?
if you let the animation play out fully it'll usually result in you getting spotted.

Best utilities for assassin imo is invis potions, paralyze potions and using arrows to misdirect the target.
Those things alone has gotten me through thieves guild, dark brotherhood, main quest, dawnguard and dragonborn and lots of other stuff on legendary difficulty.

Also, a method that i dont personally use but know can be effective, is charm, such as the imperial racial ability.
You can use that to get an additional backstab on a target, eg backstab 1 guy, the other guy comes running to you, charm him then backstab him.
Or if you're faced with a very tough opponent that takes 2 hits, stab > charm > stab.

 

[ColleenG]

Ice Form is great for taking the heat off of yourself, but for thinning the herd, nothing beats Marked for Death. With all three words, the Shout deals 3 points of health damage per second, and also deals 75 points of armor damage per second, for 60 seconds. And the recharge is only 40 seconds. By the time you've killed Bachelor #1, Bachelor #2 has not only taken some damage, but is weaker to your attacks; by the time you've killed him, Bachelor #3 will be so weakened he should only take a couple of swings to dispatch.

It goes well with Illusion spells, too. Hit a group with Marked for Death, then Calm them all, then run away and hide. By the time Calm wears off, you can snipe them with a single arrow apiece. Or send a Fury spell into the group and let them take care of themselves.

Elemental Fury is another must-have, since you're a dual wielder. It almost doubles your attack speed, so enemies will fall a lot faster. I used this as my primary melee strategy with an assassin, and I could kill basically anything, from dragons to lurkers to wispmothers, within the 15 seconds the Shout lasts. The only downfall is, it doesn't work on enchanted weapons... but honestly, the Shout itself is so powerful that I never felt I was at a disadvantage without enchantments.

This guy is also going to be not using followers unless there's a good reason to. I think in the past when I've used stealth I've always had a tank waiting around the corner so it's a question of learning and knowing not to charge in.

I have always found followers to be very bad to stealth characters—they always blow my cover! I might be able to get one sneak shot off, but as soon as the enemy's alerted, my follower will run in to attack. I like to shoot, hide, shoot, hide, lather, rinse repeat. That's impossible with a follower. I would suggest sticking to summons for the times when you need a tank—like after you've been made.

I've never used "Mark for Death" but now I want to! Thanks for the info. Also, Elemental Fury only works on unenchanted weapons. I don't even unlock it anymore, since I want to save my Dragon Souls for Waking Dreams.

 

[Gregor Moon Fang]

How about the Sanguine Rose? Have the dremora tank while you do your thing.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

How about the Sanguine Rose? Have the dremora tank while you do your thing.

Because then you have to do that stupid quest to get it. FAH! I'll just summon my own!

 

[Pete]

Ever have the trio of heavily armored bounty hunters after you? Yet you don't want to use magic or shouts? Then my friend i see these schools: potions, archery, duel wield, light armor and sneak. If the room full of enemies are immune to potions, then dodge and parry like your life depended on it.

It is possible....

 

[conchvegas]

When I was going through the Dwarven ruins of Irkngthand, pursuing Mercer there is one of those scything blades you can activate before entering a Falmer village. I turned it on and in doing so alerted the whole village it seems. The funny part was that with this whirling blade going back and forth there were 10-12 Falmer all bunched up in the entrance to their village. From where I was I easily picked them all off with my bow. I had over 400 iron arrows, so it took a while, but it was quite satisfying. As for Golden Glow, yeah the mercenaries outside were super easy. Once I got inside though, it was completely different. I did die a bunch of times, but after constant re-saving and patience, and finding that blind spot under the stairs there, I managed to stealth kill all the mercenaries. You have to have excellent timing but it is doable. The last easy 'cheat' I found was when clearing out the skeevers under Honningbrew, there were a whole bunch of them past this one door. They swarmed me the first few times, but after dying one too many times, I used my a flame antronach staff to cast one or two into the room and just stood back and let my angel of flame kill them. It was so easy it felt like cheating. A side note on Honningbrew, I remembered Hamelyn from last time as a very challenging opponent but this time around I was leveled up quite high in sneak and had the back stab perk. I simply picked off his pet skeevers with archery then snuck up behind him and with two blows from my orc dagger, finished him off.

 

[Pete]

On a side note, I've come to really respect the school of illusion. I've worked it up to the point where I can silently cast frenzy. It's great fun to watch your enemies fight each other. Especially when you run into those hordes of falmer.

 

[nightmare16]

i usually just cry in a corner . works almost 30% of time with a follower about 0.36% without a follower

 

[frostspiderman]

My character has just hit level 30 - sneak is in the 70s, most other thief skills, plus ohe-handed and archery are at around 50. Goldenglow was still a challenge - picked off the ones outside from long range and ran back to Riften guards on the main road if they decided to follow me. Inside I used a LOT of potions to get the ones who I couldn't sneak up on - paralysis is definitely my friend

Running away and drawing attackers closer to friendly guards is definitely a favored tactic.

I may at some point have to re-examine the use of magic. It seems to be too useful to not use and this character is pretty pragmatic so I can justify it. Perhaps when becoming a nightingale it may give him the reason to learn some. The shouts are also helping - I have marked for death second word, unrelenting force is great for putting some distance between me and any attackers - and Ancestor's wrath has finished off a number of people who get too close.

The hired thugs are a pain - they were sent after me by a hunter I thought I'd murdered before stealing his/her stuff (the one near the stones at the beginning) and caught me in Riverwood. I just led them into the smith's house where Hadvar took care of them whilst I cowered in a corner.

 

[Sveinbjorn]

Well first you need to be equipped to take them all on, your gonna wanna find yourself a pair of american flag parachute pants.

 

[nightmare16]

The hired thugs are a pain - they were sent after me by a hunter I thought I'd murdered before stealing his/her stuff (the one near the stones at the beginning) and caught me in Riverwood. I just led them into the smith's house where Hadvar took care of them whilst I cowered in a corner.

the cower in corner tactic works every time dont it

 

[raido KASAI]

I find that killing them all works.

 

[nightmare16]

I find that killing them all works.

if that was me id be running the other direction even tho i have god mode active na im kidding i would turn off detection and sneak kill them all lol

 

[raido KASAI]

If you kill enough of them then you no longer have multiple attackers