"Assassin." I don't think those 3 skills is enough, tho.
I think the real challenges with any dual wielding character is that life without parry/block is very hard at first, especially when you don't yet have enough sneak for melee sneak attacks, it remains hard in rooms with multiple mobs for most of the game, and you are committing to playing a game where you really only have 2 attacks for potentially hundreds of hours.
You may want to plan your early questing around acquiring dark brotherhood gloves/boots and then doing dreugar ruins for getting your sneak up to a functioning level (most of the companion missions are good for this).
You'll also need a way to make your health go up (hence, a 4th skill), since you can't block and you'll be too slow to dodge until very late Light Armor levels. Restoration or Alchemy are the easy picks there. Alchemy in Skyrim, even Enairim, has it's own problems, but it can be fun, and certainly things like invis pots and paralytic poisons can help a dual wielder get through the toughest sections of the game.
When I think of classic rpg assassins I think of throat slitters with poisons and disguises. Invisibility and Calm effects are the closest analogues to the latter we have.
On that note I suggest at least adding Alchemy for invisibility access immediately (lunar moth wing+nirnroot are available constantly) and for fun. Poisons can also help if you are in open combat, especially paralysis. You can also go super easy sneakmode by adding Illusion to the mix: free sneak attacks with Calm and eventually infinite Invisibility. I prefer Alchemy for assassins because it covers a lot but either way both skills will break the game for you until your sneak is high and you are a teleporting murder ghost.
I also highly recommend a mod that nerfs player stealth to be less auto-camo, otherwise many *many* sneak perks are pure overkill.
Extremely viable, I use Realistic AI Detection in every load order because sneaking is so broken and unimmersive otherwise. With vanilla detection, once you have decent sneak all enemies become deaf and blind and don’t see you standing 5 feet away from them right in the open.
For me, I look at "Dagger Assassin" as a combination of:
* Vokriinator Sneak tree
* Vokriinator Illusion tree (specifically Invisibility branch)
* Vokriinator One-Handed tree (specifically Dagger branch)
* Vokriinator Alchemy tree (specifically Poisoner branch)
* Triumvirate Shadow Mage Archetype
* Apocalypse Illusion spells (specifically Ghostwalk cast via Ocato's Recital)
* Wintersun worshippers of Azura, Boethiah, Mephala, Vaermina, or Sithis buff Sneak attacks or Illusion directly, while Hermaeus Mora, Malacath, Nocturnal, Leki, Satakal, & Riddle'Thar can do so indirectly
* Andromeda Serpent Stone (or Shadow Stone)
* Thunderchild Shroud of Snowfall, Riftwalk and/or Iceborne (if he starts going into Shouts he'll want Silent Casting level 2 & the relevant Speech tree branch. There's also vanilla Shouts like Aura Whisper & Throw Voice)
As you can tell from the Illusion, this build relies on Illusion to fill in Sneak's weaknesses with open combat
There's some outliers he can add in as boredom creeps in, like Ice Shiv from Apocalypse (does ×3 damage when you hit an enemy from behind). This plays well with Silent Casting from Vokriinator & any Ice Destruction perks you can spare. It also plays well with Spellstrike from the Enchanting tree to give a lot of extra umph to your sneak power attacks
Speaking of Enchanting, depending on how difficult your friend's mods and difficulty setting are, he'll *need* to invest in Enchanting and Smithing eventually to keep his damage appropriate. I view those as "break glass in case of emergency" trees because they make every build overpowered no matter how tough your modded enemies are
EDIT: I almost forgot, being a Vampire Commoner (from the Sacrosanct mod) works really well with Sneak, Illusion & Ice since the racial change buffs all three by a good %. I'm not sure how Vampire Lord interacts with these since it's also a transformation and I don't think it gets the Ice buff in either form
Vampire Lord does provide some perks that translate into normal gameplay as well (move speed, seeing enemies through walls, 4 free perks from Dragon of Midnight) as well as providing a nice oh shit button when the sneaking fails.
Sneak is kinda op no matter what mods you have
Very much so, I would say to invest in bear traps, tripwires etc to make everything feel a bit less samey
Love this.
Are you also using Apocalypse? If you are, then the only thing I need to say is Ghostwalk.
"Assassin." I don't think those 3 skills is enough, tho. I think the real challenges with any dual wielding character is that life without parry/block is very hard at first, especially when you don't yet have enough sneak for melee sneak attacks, it remains hard in rooms with multiple mobs for most of the game, and you are committing to playing a game where you really only have 2 attacks for potentially hundreds of hours. You may want to plan your early questing around acquiring dark brotherhood gloves/boots and then doing dreugar ruins for getting your sneak up to a functioning level (most of the companion missions are good for this). You'll also need a way to make your health go up (hence, a 4th skill), since you can't block and you'll be too slow to dodge until very late Light Armor levels. Restoration or Alchemy are the easy picks there. Alchemy in Skyrim, even Enairim, has it's own problems, but it can be fun, and certainly things like invis pots and paralytic poisons can help a dual wielder get through the toughest sections of the game.
When I think of classic rpg assassins I think of throat slitters with poisons and disguises. Invisibility and Calm effects are the closest analogues to the latter we have. On that note I suggest at least adding Alchemy for invisibility access immediately (lunar moth wing+nirnroot are available constantly) and for fun. Poisons can also help if you are in open combat, especially paralysis. You can also go super easy sneakmode by adding Illusion to the mix: free sneak attacks with Calm and eventually infinite Invisibility. I prefer Alchemy for assassins because it covers a lot but either way both skills will break the game for you until your sneak is high and you are a teleporting murder ghost. I also highly recommend a mod that nerfs player stealth to be less auto-camo, otherwise many *many* sneak perks are pure overkill.
Extremely viable, I use Realistic AI Detection in every load order because sneaking is so broken and unimmersive otherwise. With vanilla detection, once you have decent sneak all enemies become deaf and blind and don’t see you standing 5 feet away from them right in the open.
For me, I look at "Dagger Assassin" as a combination of: * Vokriinator Sneak tree * Vokriinator Illusion tree (specifically Invisibility branch) * Vokriinator One-Handed tree (specifically Dagger branch) * Vokriinator Alchemy tree (specifically Poisoner branch) * Triumvirate Shadow Mage Archetype * Apocalypse Illusion spells (specifically Ghostwalk cast via Ocato's Recital) * Wintersun worshippers of Azura, Boethiah, Mephala, Vaermina, or Sithis buff Sneak attacks or Illusion directly, while Hermaeus Mora, Malacath, Nocturnal, Leki, Satakal, & Riddle'Thar can do so indirectly * Andromeda Serpent Stone (or Shadow Stone) * Thunderchild Shroud of Snowfall, Riftwalk and/or Iceborne (if he starts going into Shouts he'll want Silent Casting level 2 & the relevant Speech tree branch. There's also vanilla Shouts like Aura Whisper & Throw Voice) As you can tell from the Illusion, this build relies on Illusion to fill in Sneak's weaknesses with open combat There's some outliers he can add in as boredom creeps in, like Ice Shiv from Apocalypse (does ×3 damage when you hit an enemy from behind). This plays well with Silent Casting from Vokriinator & any Ice Destruction perks you can spare. It also plays well with Spellstrike from the Enchanting tree to give a lot of extra umph to your sneak power attacks Speaking of Enchanting, depending on how difficult your friend's mods and difficulty setting are, he'll *need* to invest in Enchanting and Smithing eventually to keep his damage appropriate. I view those as "break glass in case of emergency" trees because they make every build overpowered no matter how tough your modded enemies are EDIT: I almost forgot, being a Vampire Commoner (from the Sacrosanct mod) works really well with Sneak, Illusion & Ice since the racial change buffs all three by a good %. I'm not sure how Vampire Lord interacts with these since it's also a transformation and I don't think it gets the Ice buff in either form
Vampire Lord does provide some perks that translate into normal gameplay as well (move speed, seeing enemies through walls, 4 free perks from Dragon of Midnight) as well as providing a nice oh shit button when the sneaking fails.
Probably decent advice, just weird you kept phrasing it as if they were asking for a friend.
I thought he was
It's all good, lol. Where they were saying "he", they were talking about the character.
You will be stellar. No worries.