First Master playthrough. Tips?

[Ebonyflesh]

Decided that I wanted to do a master playthrough, and I thought I was gonna do it as a Bosmer sneak archer.

Any other tips or races and class ideas that anyone would like to give me before I create this character?

EDIT: I mocked up a class build for my main skills, so if you liked to give me ideas, also give me some ideas with perks? Skyrim Perk Calculator - Plan the perks for your Skyrim character before spending them!

 

[Eury]

You should definitely get the Shadow Warrior perk from the Sneak tree, with that, once you're discovered, you can simply press the button to sneak and attack, allowing you to deal 15× more damage with your dagger.

 

[Ebonyflesh]

You should definitely get the Shadow Warrior perk from the Sneak tree, with that, once you're discovered, you can simply press the button to sneak and attack, allowing you to deal 15× more damage with your dagger.

I've never gotten the perk, so I never really knew what it did. Thanks for telling me.

 

[Buffington Battle-Born]

Here are my tips for a Master Playthrough:

1. Don't play on Master.

2. Don't say I didn't warn you.

 

[Kichiro]

Hey there!

I have also a sneaky charracter ^^ I play ALWAYS on master difficult because I like it so much and gives me a more challenging gameplay

Some tips:
-Add alot of perks to sneak and get as fast to "Assassin's Blade" to gain the x15 sneak bonus with a dagger.

-Go to the Dark Brotherhood and retrieve the shrouded armor set. The shrouded gloves give you a double sneak bonus (so x30 sneak bonus if you have the "Assassin"s Blade" perk)

-Avoid dragons at the beginning only when you deal higher damage with your weapons you can challenge a dragon otherwise it's to strong.

 

[Psiberzerker]

You will probably need a solid melee backup. The way Master works, there's a real good chance of running out of arrows, or not being able to kill everone before they get to you. Since you do half damage, that means twice as many shots to kill the same enemies, and they have to hit you half as many times. Believe it, or not, 2H works remarcably well with Bosmer. Use Hack&Bash tactics, and keep moving. The reach really helps here. So, 2H and Block (Bash side, the shield branch is no help with 2H) and probably a Greatsword. Stay Light Armor, hunt, and Smith to stay ahead of the damage curve, and keep your level as low as possible. Get a Forsworn Bow, Alvor's Steel Ingots, and as much Leather as you can shoot. Improve all the Armor first, level up smithing, then Temper the Bow. Lost Valley Redoubt has a Tanning Rack, and Grindstone, but then you'll have to carry the armor to Serpent's Bluff. Both are doable if you're good at sneak shooting, and wait for night. Another option is Greymor, which has a full smithing suite. So does Sungard, but that's probably a suicide mission on Master, until you're trained, and kitted up. Might want to Faendal Train.

 

[Neriad13]

Never get seen! Ever! And carry lots of stamina potions for fast escapes, at least at the lower levels.

 

[SilverSorcerer]

Have you played on Expert? If not, jumping from Adept to Master can be a sobering experience.

I'd say the best build overall on master in my mind would be a sword & board warrior. Good defense, shield bash, and sword is a fast weapon. I'd go heavy armor because its better early on, and get a soul trap weapon early on to fill soul gems and fill your enchanting.

Also, make sure to use your environment, and its not running, its a tactical withdrawl! A lot of people want to stand around like they're the Hulk or Superman or something and let three people beat on them and just swing their way through a fight, when running enemies around, making them go around trees and rocks, and go up and down elevations can be a huge lifesaver.

 

[Kichiro]

Go also for 250 Stamina the rest to health.

Another thing I see your build and you can save some perk points:

Archery:
Critical shot: 1/3
Steady Hand: 1/2

One-Handed:
Armsman: 3/5 (you get shrouded gloves gives you double sneak bonus with assassin's blade and enchantments/alchemy)

Light-Armor:
Agile Defender: 1/5 (your a sneaky charracter you won't be seen)
Matching Set: 0/5 (in my opinion not needed..)

Enchanting:
Enchanter: 5/5
Insightful Enchanter: 1/1
Corpus Enchanter: 1/1
Extra Effect: 1/1

Smithing:
Go to the Dragon Smithing perk and pick Dwarven Smithing and also pick arcane blacksmith ^^

Also if you have the Dawnguard DLC I suggest to go first for the Dawnguard side get the Enhanced Dwarven Crossbow and THEN become vampire lord by talking to Serena if you finished the main quest of the DLC why then because if you become vampire lord you can't do anymore quests and so you won't recieve the crossbow.

Why vampire lord??:
Because you gain extra sneak bonuses and a cool form which is handy if you get caught you can switch to your vampire lord form and kill them

If you are vampire lord you can go also into Alchemy to make your own stamina, health potions because you won't regenerate anymore when the sun is shining.

I just advice you it's not necessary to follow this build ^^ just to give you some idea's

 

[Psiberzerker]

One-Handed:
Armsman: 3/5 (you get shrouded gloves gives you double sneak bonus with assassin's blade and enchantments/alchemy)

More damage is more damage, and on Master, that's a good thing. Max it.

 

[Kichiro]

You can max it but it's not necessary.
with enchantments on GOOD daggers and the shrouded gloves you still can one hit sneak attack almost every enemy.

 

[Psiberzerker]

You can max it but it's not necessary.
with enchantments on GOOD daggers and the shrouded gloves you still can one hit sneak attack almost every enemy.

You can, if everthing goes right, but I play Assassins all the time, still get busted ever once in a while, and I'm pretty damned good at sneaking. Those perks could make the difference between fighting your way out, or having to try again from your last save. On Master, the ones you can't 1shot are generally the ones that can 1shot you if they get a chance to turn around, and there's no guarantee they will be alone. They may not be strictly necessary, but I certainly wouldn't call them wasted perks. If you do skimp here, keep Windshear handy, or hotkey Invisibility Potions (I use Vampire Dust) Always have a fallback on Novice, this goes double for Expert, and triple for Master.

 

[Kichiro]

True it is handy but it isn't necessary like you said you can have invisibility potions so that you can go back invinsible but everyone thinks different about this

 

[Psiberzerker]

True it is handy but it isn't necessary like you said you can have invisibility potions so that you can go back invinsible but everyone thinks different about this

True enough. Me personally, I don't sacrifice damage for 2 perk points on Adept. It's not like he's just Over 50 points, and is trying to streamline it to get in under the SLC. On Master, you generally need all you can get. In fact, might I say if You play that way, you must be a pretty badass assassin?

 

[Kichiro]

not a badass assassin but an assassin hahaa xd just like it that way to play as an assassin like your quote: "Don't fight, kill"

 

[Psiberzerker]

not a badass assassin but an assassin hahaa xd just like it that way to play as an assassin like your quote: "Don't fight, kill"

I play on Adept, but Unarmed, and 2 Handed to raise the difficulty that way. Pretty much prefectly balanced for that level of Difficulty, but I recently tried it on Expert. Even adding Light Armor (no Smithing,) she got Killed. I mean slaughtered, massacred, even with Hack&Bash tactics. My playing style is Cherry Tapper, and I'd never dial back Armsman (or Barbarian for that matter) to 3 on the final build. That could only make it even more difficult.

 

[Kichiro]

Yea that's really hard ;o with no weapons lol xd

 

[Psiberzerker]

Yea that's really hard ;o with no weapons lol xd

No armor, she uses Greatswords.

 

[Kichiro]

Oops misread xD but we are going a little bit off topic now so it's anoying for all those other guys who replied on this topic so I am not going to post more on this only if it's with the topic

 

[project25012]

get muffle and inviz spells..they will be very usefull for a master playthrough

if you want to "cheat" sneak behind a guard walking into a wall til you reach 100 if you find others can see you easily..might want to get the thieve stone, complete nightingale quest early to get that extra invis (if you dont have the spell for it and dont know where to get it)

shouts or powers with which you can see people's locations in the area (like the whisper, vampire's creature detection..stuff like that)

might also want to enchant your armour with fortfiy archery or smth

edit:

also take care not to stress too much about your armour rating, its capped at 567, so nothing above that will make a difference..the most effective way for strong armour is magic damage reduction, might be useful for you, i never bothered with it tbh
i just enchanted my light armour set with -25% destruction cost to constantly spam destruction spells without using mana...