So, anyone tried a Stealth Mage?

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Seridir

New Member
I got bored, and decided to level a mage character. Then, I remembered a certain dark Brotherhood fellow who inspired me with the phrase "Too much fascination with knives and arrows these days: A good spell can kill someone just as well." Or some such. :3

And so I made an Altmer. And then I realized he came with an illusion spel, Fury...

It was then that I realized how much FUN it is to make your enemies kill eachother, rather than you. From that point, I began leveling my Illusion. T'was rather slow goings, I'll admit, until I found a wonderful little spell: Courage.

A rather simple Buff spell, it prevents the target from being feared, and increases HP and Stamina. Spamming it on Lydia, I accidentally missed and hit some random guard. I was shocked when no confrontation ensued. Then I leveled my Illusion by spamming Courage, and, later, Rally on allies in cities.

I joined the Dark Brotherhood to continue my current goal: Become, what my friends would refer to it as, a "Mage-sassin". Creative lot, they are.

Not once has my character, Illekken, picked up a blade of any sort, nor any other melee, or ranged, weapon. His Illusion is above level 90, soon to reach 100. Destruction is just over 40, and I have leveled purely magicka.

(Quick note: I'm not making a character that is "Practical", so to speak. I'm making one I'll find enjoyable, and challenging. Sneaking is actually quite difficult when you need to prevent people from seeing the light of your spells, but Quiet casting removed any other real issue.)

And so, onto the earlier posed question. Has anyone tried this build, found success, or any other neat little things related, or not entirely related, to it?
 

Divinity

Member
Out of personal curiosity, and not trying to bash, but what difficulty have you been playing this on? It seems like a good idea, but you can definitely not afford to make a mistake or miss a shot. Also how do you handle dragons?
 

Divinity

Member
I tried it briefly, but I think the only way it is truly possible is if you do a spellsword type build http://skyrimcalculator.com/#22017 or pure mage http://skyrimcalculator.com/#22015

The problem is there are no multipliers/synergy for sneak and magic, but if you mean a rogue supplemented with illusion, then that could work really well (might try that next).

I think what he is saying is, instead of attacking things himself he is either using a companion,conjured creature that is buffed to kill things, or is making them frenzy, thus never having to actually attack himself
 

Stone

Retired Moderator
Personally I haven't tried a stealth mage, and I'm not thinking of doing so. I don't think that magic and stealth would really work together well, but I'm sure people can prove me wrong.

On the subject of illusion, I have thought about creating a 'Monk'. It would basically be monk robes, (enchanted to either halve the cost of resturation spells or increase magicka regeneration), and then I would have in one hand Healing and in the other Calm or such. I would use the staff that works on undead to make them calm if I saw any, and if there's a monster that I cannot calm or whatever, I'd just have to run as no monk is going to be like "SCREW YOU! FUS-RO-DAH!" *starts obliterating creature*.
 

Divinity

Member
Personally I haven't tried a stealth mage, and I'm not thinking of doing so. I don't think that magic and stealth would really work together well, but I'm sure people can prove me wrong.

On the subject of illusion, I have thought about creating a 'Monk'. It would basically be monk robes, (enchanted to either halve the cost of resturation spells or increase magicka regeneration), and then I would have in one hand Healing and in the other Calm or such. I would use the staff that works on undead to make them calm if I saw any, and if there's a monster that I cannot calm or whatever, I'd just have to run as no monk is going to be like "SCREW YOU! FUS-RO-DAH!" *starts obliterating creature*.


How are you going to kill anything then? :/
 

Divinity

Member
pretty good video, when i get that bored with skyrim i'll try that play through
 

Stone

Retired Moderator
pretty good video, when i get that bored with skyrim i'll try that play through
I guess it'll be a fun account for a while, but I can see why it will get boring in the future. Unless your into not killing things.
 
I always make sneaky mages, but I guess you wouldn't call my character a pure mage since I use daggers. I really dont know what to call my character. I use destruction to place rune traps and use a combo of other destruction spells in combat if I've been spotted (if really desperate I'll whip out a sword). Instead of Restoration, I chose Alchemy and craft a lot of poisons, which I use on my bow. I raised my One hand early on and now only use daggers in close range to backstab and slit throats, which investing perks in Sneak has allowed me to do. I alternate between real bows and conjured bows to snipe, but I stick to real bows because I don't yet have the silent casting perk. If a foe proves to be tricky, I'll summon an atronach to get the target off of my head so I can shoot arrows from a distance. Since I do a lot of sneaking, I wear light armor. Another crafting skill besides alchemy I decided to work on was enchanting and it's proven to be very beneficial. Not really knowing what to do, I chose 1:1:1 on my Magicka/Health/Stamina and I might start increasing one more than the others soon. That's all I can really think of to describe my stealth mage's style. It's been a blast so far playing as one :)
 

brandon

Active Member
I guess it'll be a fun account for a while, but I can see why it will get boring in the future. Unless your into not killing things.
you could try the whole monk/shaolin monk thing. just fight unarmed if you had too.
 

jermays

New Member
1) max stealth
2) illusion to silent casting
3) conjuration - summon dremora lord

silently summon your minions from the shadows and let them do all the work. if you are discovered, just cast invisibility and run out real quick and/or shadow warrior your way out.
 

brandon

Active Member
1) max stealth
2) illusion to silent casting
3) conjuration - summon dremora lord

silently summon your minions from the shadows and let them do all the work. if you are discovered, just cast invisibility and run out real quick and/or shadow warrior your way out.
right now i have the ghost of luciene luchance. who doent disappear till he loses all his health. he fast travels with you and everything. im gonna do the night to remember quest tonight or tomorrow. to get the deadra lord. and i have a flame atronch as well. i think thats enough minions to clear anything.
 

modi

Member
I have really been thinking about trying this play style. I currently am using a skull crushing orc by the name of Kragorr, however I am thinking about making a Dark Elf or Argonian "Mage-sassin" as your friends would say haha. I am really leaning towards the Dark Elf though, because given their black skin and red eyes, they just look sneaky and badass. What I am really thinking about doing however would be a dagger in one hand and a ranged destruction spell in the other hand. I think it would be a really fun playstyle.
 

brandon

Active Member
with dark elf you get the 50% fire resistance. but the argonian gets the waterbreathing ive been planning to make a heavy armored argonian tank without a helm just because they look badass in this game.
 

hexperiment

The Experimentalist
I am playing as a stealth mage, sort of. I only use illusion, archery and destruction as my main skills and only raised sneak for 3x bow attack. It's really fun, like you said. Illusion is very helpful, just casting them silently from a distance and what all your enemies kill each other until only one is left standing for the grand prize... of DEATH
 

Revan42

New Member
Ive been doing something similar myself actually. it started cus i was going to do a semi pacifist merchant sort of build build where basically i smithed and enchanted and sold stuff during the day(ive also taking a liking to chopping wood, like 1k gold for "skyrim time"), and stealing stuff at night. however i ended up doing this thing, and now i have 50 murders(at least) on my hands(ive killed most of the people who live in solitude and whiterun. especially guards. i hate guards. i always shoot them in the knee after i kill them), over 20k gold, and 0 bounty(ever. ive never been seen stealing or killing anyone yet with this build). Im only around level 20 so far, but its my favorite playstyle yet so far(funny considering how much i hate stealth classes in most rpgs). However, instead of leveling illusion, ive only dabbled with it and focused more on a "spelldagger" build as i call it. its basically a stealthy version of the spellsword, in that ive put a lot of points into sneak(ive got quite a few points in pickpocket, and my main method of killing stuff is the basic assassinate with a dagger like any regular assassin or thief sort of build. however, where its different from a basic assassin build is basically just that if im seen while sneaking or something then i just pull out dual firebolt or lightning bolt or something like that to mow down my enemies. basically just assassin when possible and mage when not i guess so its not all that unique, but i still find it really fun. with enchants and stuff(my gear isnt great but ive got both thieves guild and dark brotherhood sets so its pretty easy for me to sneak around and pickpocket and stuff[speaking of thieves guild and pickpocketing, i pickpocketed like 1700 gold off of vex and denzer or whatever the hell his name is{the 2 that give you the extra jobs} alone in the thieves guild]), and some apprentice robes/hoods for when sneaking doesnt work).

TL;DR:that was way longer than i intended, sorry, i kinda got on a ramble lol. yea tghe build is great, i just prefer a "spelldagger" build as ive come to call it, sneak, pickpocket, and destro mostly, dabbling in illusion, crafting, and 1 handed for extra dagger damage
 

Twiffle

Well-Known Member
i am currently doing a stealthy mage, see my sig for details,
 

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