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Subtle

An Unexpected Ally
Lo and behold, yet another Nightblade class. But wait! This one's a little different. The Arcane Assassin is a fighter of the shadows who uses the powers of Illusion and Alteration to assassinate her opponents. Sounds an awful lot like a Nightblade, doesn't it? The main difference between the two classes is that one uses her knowledge of Destruction magic as a mode of ranged combat, and the other uses her Mystic Bow conjured from the depth of oblivion to murder her enemies.

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Race
As you know, race doesn't really matter. It's all up to you, but I really like using Wood Elves, Dark Elves, Imperials, and Bretons. But again, it's your decision

Skills
The main skills you will be using as an Arcane Assassin are most of the ones you will be using as a typical Assassin plus a few.
Sneak - The bread and butter of thief archetype characters. I would take all the perks in this tree minus shadow warrior because I consider it unnecessary, and it doesn't work with Shadowcloak of Nocturnal.
Archery - This is what distinguishes you from a Nightblade. You rely on archery to smite your foes. I would take all the perks in this skill tree, but the most important ones are the one on the left side.
One Handed - This supplements your dagger wielding. The only perks needed are all of the armsman perks.
Illusion - Illusion will be used to turn invisible, calm your opponents, and render your enemies in a state of fear and frenzy. For perks, I would get the perks from Novice to Expert, the branch going up to Quiet Casting, and maybe the Kindred Mage branch. In this skill tree you really have a lot of freedom.
Alteration - This skill is severely underrated. As an Arcane Assassin, it is imperative you know where you enemies are. Detect life and Detect dead assist you in that. For perks, I would get all the Novice - Expert perks. Those are all that are needed IMO.
Conjuration - Conjuration will be used for summoning bound weapons. For this build, the only physical weapon you need on you is a dagger. A back up sword and a bow can be summoned. The bound weapons in this game are insanely useful at low levels, and even later on if you get the Mystic Binding perk. Take the Novice - Adept perks as well as Mystic Binding.


Magic and Spells
For this class, you will be using magic as a supplement to your combat. Invisibility will be your bread an butter in Illusion as well as maybe the Calm, Hysteria, and Fear spells. Detect Life and Detect Dead are the spells you should use from Alteration, and if you want, the Paralyze spell. In Conjuration, the only things you need to worry about are Bound Sword and Bound Bow (this spell will also give you 100 Daedric level arrows).

Physical Weapons and Equipment
Really, all you need for a weapon is a dagger, favorably the Blade of Woe. As for armor, I like to use Shrouded Cowl, Boots, Gloves, and the Nightingale cuirass. Looks pretty badass XD. Also, you'll get the double backstab damage from the Shrouded gloves.


Factions
Anything you want. Seriously. This doesn't matter at all, but I would highly recommend you join the Dark Brotherhood and the College of Winterhold. The College gives you access to trainers of all the magical schools, and spell venders of each school of magic. The Dark Brotherhood will solve your monetary problems, and plus it will give you awesome light armor. The Thieves' Guild will also give you stuff that is pretty good for the Arcane Assassin class, but I say it's optional.

And thus, our Arcane Assassin class overview is complete. This class has lots of leeway to it, so feel free to make suggestions. Any thoughts?
 
You neglected Paralysis in Alteration, (Say you want to kill just one target, and leave the others alive, you can Paralyze the guards.) but other than that, what I've been saying for a while. Also, I prefer the Nightingale Cowl for the Illusion Bonus, and usually Master Robes of Illusion, so I can serially backstab with Invisibility in the other hand. That outfit looks pretty badass, too.
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The armor rating is less important when they never see you until someone dies, and then only for an instant. And finally, Frenzy makes a pretty excellent distraction so you can single out your target, or let his friends kill him. Once you get up to Master Conjuration, Dead Thrall can be pretty handy as well.
 
I was thinking something like this: Skyrim Perk Calculator - Plan the perks for your Skyrim character before spending them! as a bare minimum. That would mean being able to cast all the requisite spells (Fury, Calm, Invisibility, Frenzy, Detect Life/Undead, Paralyze) while still keeping your level as low as possible, so they'll work on most mobs. MotM would be nice, Magic Resistance, Mage Armor and the Atronach perks really wouldn't do you much good. In Archery, the Stagger, Critical, and Quick Shot perks are unneeded if the plan is to take them down with a single hit from the shadows. I will point out that Invisibilty is incompatible with Bound Bow, since casting the latter dispells the former, so it would be nice to have a solid backup, and good arrows (Glass, or better) for when your Magicka is down. I suggest the Nightingale, or Gauldur Blackbow (Leveled) Drainspell is ultralight, and also helps you recover magicka to cast your primary weapon. (It also draws and fires faster for it's damage tier.) Unfortunately, you'd have to run the College arc in addition to the other two, but you have to do at least Saarthal to unlock the vendors for your spells. (Drevis is the only one who carries Invisibility, and also the master robes.) As a shortcut, you could Destroy the Brotherhood, or just kill Astrid in the shack for the good gloves, and dagger. This means missing out on Windshear (Handy for the follower, if nothing else) and Shadowmere, but gets you your full kit a lot quicker. It also eliminates the best assassin mission in the game.
 

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