After completing the main quest in Skyrim as a brawny Nord warrior, I decided to start the game over, this time as a wiry Redguard specialzing in the activities of stealth: sneaking, lockpicking, pickpocketing, speech, one-handed (dual wielding), light armor, smithing, enchanting, alchemy. I also tweaked the difficulty up a bit.
Playing Skyrim as a rogue is much harder than playing as a fighter. There are many more skills to master. I’m up to Level 20 with skill levels of 50 or more in the first six skills above. I plan to advance as far as I can in the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood (assassins) before proceeding any farther in the main quest. I’m aiming for a sort of ninja warrior. It’s incredibly difficult. I actually had to backtrack to an old save because I reached a subquest where I could neither advance nor retreat at the gameplay difficulty (Adept) I’d chosen.
I honestly don’t see how Skyrim is playable at all as a pure (or mainly) magic user.
The key to the rogue is to make archery a priority. If your sneak is good enough you can pick off targets from range and hide until they move away, then repeat.
That’s what I did, stealth and archery, light armor, 1 hand weapons and a shield.
I tried magic briefly, but didn’t really like it. I’ve heard that it’s a lot harder as a magic user because the gear doesn’t scale as well.
I’m not really playing Skyrim anymore since I got sucked into Diablo 3 this week.