In past versions of the Elder Scrolls and many other RPGs, thieves play with light armor. Is this also the case for Skyrim?
As far as I understand, both heavy and light armor affect sneaking, but as you are playing close combat, you will want to have at least some armor.
What type of armor is common for a thief, and why?
Is using spells for armor (Stoneflesh etc.) a good idea, or do they cause detection?
It is dependant on your build.
I am playing a Khajiit thief and I use light armour. Minor spoiler below:
The thief guild provides you with some nice light armour.
The benefits of light armour are:
The benefits of heavy armour are:
Using robes is also a very viable option, depending on your character set up. If you decide to go this route, I'd recommend going with Illusion + Alteration.
The benefits are:
This means you can benefit more from the magic attributes below:
Let’s just end the Skyrim assassin build armour debate once and for all. I won’t give monetary values as it is recommended that you keep all the armour pieces; getting extras if you lose any is extremely difficult especially with the advanced sets (Nightingale, Guild Master’s and Ancient Shrouded).
Okay, so first we’ll look at Shrouded Armour vs. Thieves Guild Armour (the easiest to acquire):
| Item | Armour | Weight | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shrouded Cowl | 13 | 2 | +20% bow damage |
| ″ ″ Armour | 29 | 7 | +50% poison resistance |
| ″ ″ Gloves | 8 | 2 | +100% backstab damage |
| ″ ″ Boots | 8 | 2 | Muffled movement |
| Thieves Guild Hood | 15 | 1½ | +10% better prices |
| ″ ″ Armour | 33 | 7 | +20 carry weight |
| ″ ″ Gloves | 10 | 1 | Lockpicking is 15% easier |
| ″ ″ Boots | 10 | 1½ | Pickpocket success is 15% better |
All in all, Guild Armour is better for thief-oriented classes who will use Lockpicking and Pickpocketing more, whereas Shrouded Armour is much better for assassin classes. Shrouded Gloves remain valuable even when you’re a high level (if you miss the Ancient variety).
Now a look at the Shrouded Armour’s alternate counterparts. The Dark Brotherhood offers Ancient Shrouded Armour (only if you kill Gaius Maro in a major city and use Olva’s Token when talking to Olva, then retrieve it from a secret room in a ruin) which has higher armour values and much higher enchantments. It also offers Shrouded Robes and Worn Shrouded Armour. The Robes are better for mage-assassins and the Worn variety is unenchanted, meaning you can get whatever enchantments you want on it. There is also the Jester’s clothes and Cicero’s clothes. These are excellent if you are an assassin who uses alteration spells instead of armour or are a stealthy mage looking for stealthy gear.
| Item | Armour | Weight | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shrouded Hood | 0 | ½ | 25% better sneaking |
| ″ ″ Robes | 0 | ½ | −15% Destruction spells cost |
| ″ ″ Hand Wraps | 0 | ½ | ×2 backstab damage |
| ″ ″ Shoes | 0 | ½ | Muffled movement |
| Ancient Shrouded Cowl | 19 | 1 | +35% bow damage |
| ″ ″ Armour | 41 | 5 | +100% poison resistance |
| ″ ″ Gloves | 15 | 1 | ×2 backstab damage |
| ″ ″ Boots | 15 | ½ | Muffled movement |
| Jester’s Hat | 0 | ½ | +30% to sneak |
| ″ ″ Clothes | 0 | 1 | Prices 12% better, +12% one-handed damage |
| ″ ″ Boots | 0 | ½ | Wearer is muffled and moves silently |
| ″ ″ Gloves | 0 | ½ | ×2 one-handed damage in sneak attacks |
| Cicero’s Hat | 0 | ½ | +35% to sneak |
| ″ ″ Clothes | 0 | 1 | Prices 20% better, +20% one-handed damage |
| ″ ″ Boots | 0 | ½ | Wearer is muffled and moves silently |
| ″ ″ Gloves | 0 | ½ | ×2 one-handed damage in sneak attacks |
So now we come to the most debated armour in Skyrim, the Nightingale Armour. I’ve met people who only use this because it looks good, I’ve also met people who hate it because they got it at a low level or don’t use the skills it gives you. People thought they’d get an upgraded Thieves Guild Armour, but Nightingale Armour is designed for Nightblades, stealthy mage-assassins who can hold their own in a sword fight. It is a mixture of combat, thief and mage armours. Well, here are it’s values at the highest level, 32 or above when receiving the quest ‘Trinity Restored’, not when you get the armour! The armour stats don’t change but the enchantments get stronger.
| Item | Armour | Weight | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nightingale Hood | 15 | 2 | −17% to Illusions cost |
| ″ ″ Armour | 34 | 12 | +40 stamina, +50% Frost Resistance |
| ″ ″ Gloves | 10 | 2 | +25% to Lockpicking, +25% one-handed damage |
| ″ ″ Boots | 10 | 2 | Wearer is muffled and moves silently |
Note that this is the highest level of muffle achievable without crafting your own boots. The value between level 32+ Nightingale Boots and level 19+ (second highest) is over 5000 septims, meaning that at the highest level the Boots are the most valuable thing a Nightingale wears. This also makes the Nightingale Boots one of the best boots for any stealthy character.
And finally we reach the only Thieves Guild Armour that looks different to the standard and has better enchantments. The Guild Master’s Armour, the NPC’s that wear it are senior Guild members like Vex (Master Picklock), Delvin (Master Sneaker), Brynjolf (Second-in-Command) and Mercer Frey, the Master of the Thieves Guild. This armour can only be received after completing the main Thieves Guild Quest Chain and all the Quests that restore the Thieves Guilds influence in the Major Holds, you get these quests of Delvin and Vex after completing enough odd jobs in a particular Major Hold. Linwe’s Armour is encountered during one of these quests, ‘Summerset Shadows’.
| Item | Armour | Weight | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guild Master’s Hood | 16 | 3 | Prices are 20% better |
| ″ ″ Armour | 38 | 10 | +50 to carrying capacity |
| ″ ″ Boots | 11 | 2 | Pickpocket success is 35% better |
| ″ ″ Gloves | 11 | 2 | Lockpicking is 35% easier |
| Linwe’s Hood | 16 | 2 | +15% bow damage |
| ″ ″ Armour | 31 | 6 | +15 to stamina |
| ″ ″ Gloves | 11 | 2 | +15% one-Handed damage |
| ″ ″ Boots | 11 | 2 | +15% to sneaking |
Pick whichever armour suits your character the best, or make your own. This is just to let you see the stats of all the different Thief/Assassin armours before you spend an hour getting some stuff you won’t use.
I don't use full, complete sets, but use bits from different sets. I use light armor, mostly. Heavy armor, if you're not skilled with it, it will never get you anywhere as a thief or an assassin. You don't need to worry about having a high armor rating if you're good at staying unseen.
Here is my set up:
A Shrouded Hood, which can be obtained by doing the start up quest for the Dark Brotherhood (choose either side) and while you're in the sanctuary… it's somewhere :P (it's been a while). If you do decide to join the DB, I suggest using that until you kill or save Cicero and get it then. The Shrouded Hood adds 25% better sneaking. Cicero's Hat makes you 35% better at sneaking — extremely useful.
For my boots, I stick with any of them that make you move silently. The one I use, is DB, so another use of DB for great sneaking.
For my gloves, I wear the (yet again, DB stuff saves the day) and use the DB gauntlets.
Now for the fun part of my armor.
For my chestplate… brace yourself… I use Ebony Mail. Yes, yes I know that earlier I made a point against heavy armor (such as Ebony Mail) — I strictly said it was a bad idea. But this Daedric artifact is a totally different story. It makes you pitch black while sneaking (which if you go through the coding carefully, you will find). It makes you a little better at sneaking, during the day out of shadows. But at night, or in shadows you get about 15%. In addition, unlike most heavy armor, it's almost silent. It has one more irresistible trait.
As an assassin, thief, or someone who just likes to sneak around, you will notice that with low armor ratings if you get caught in the middle of an overwhelming situation, which you can't control, cause you're not sneaking, and daggers (I will get into weapons) don't really do much if you're not hidden. But this armor, if you're being attacked, will poison all nearby hostiles.
To top all this off, I have an insanely good ring. I found it when looting some ruin, a Ring of Peerless Sneaking, which means I sneak, 40% better.
I use Mehrunes' Razor, which has about the same base stats of a Daedric Dagger. It's one hell of a weapon with its small chance to kill something in one hit. I use this with my Dragonbone Dagger (craftable with DG DLC). For skills (perks) make sure to get 5/5 of the stealth skill (do remember, this checkpoint won't be reached until you are a level 80 sneaker, which will take up many hours of your life). Make sure to get Assassins Blade perk too, and basically focuses yourself on the sneak tree in general.
Nightingale Embrace of Shadows power is spectacular. Also, I do recommend becoming a Vampire (lord is better, just because a last resort for a thief or assassin (mainly assassin) might need an extra push) if you don't like joining the vamps in DG just ask Serana after or during a certain point in the questline to bite you. (Note that a Vampire/Vampire lord doesn't suit everyone, but comes with major upsides.) As a Vampire, you gain an active effect that makes you 25% harder to notice. Also, if you haven't had blood in a while, it grants you a crazy good power that lets you be invisible (with some other stuff I can't recall at the moment) with the Shadow Stone, and the NG power I mentioned you can go completely invisible 3 times a day. For shouts, Throw Voice.
I really recommend invisibility potions. I believe it's Chaurus Eggs and Ice Wraith Teeth that you can make your own with (you can get an abundance of both these things early on at Jorrvaskr in Whiterun). It's where the companions live, just look around. Anyway that's what I do, you can literally sneak past everything with all that. Have fun.
I prefer the Blackguard's armour. It has much better thief enchantments. Lockpicking is easier along with pickpocketing and sneaking. It can be found after doing Glover Malory's quest in Solstheim.
Or you can check out ESO's video on how to cheat to get it.
What I fall back to, when in doubt, is Shrouded Armor.
You can get the Shrouded Armor from…
the Dark Brotherhood questline.
For me, I just decided to keep Nightingale, Guild Master armour and Shrouded/Ancient, and switch between the three when I feel it most suits.
I’m not too fussed about Vampire/Vampire Royal, although it’s fine if you really want, but this only really benefits Assassins. Then you can take some time getting Werewolf from the Companions questline. Werewolf can allow you, in the later stage of DB, to easily bring down a variety of enemies without getting too much punishment.
I personally use NG blade, NG bow or any weapon with a leeching ability on it. Also it is helpful to have the persuasion amulet from Thieves Guild questline. Any ring that increases sneaking by quite useful to have. However if your going for spells, then try to find rings that increase alteration/illusion.
Well, I use the Thieves Guild Armour.
There are many different kinds of thief armour, but that one is the easiest to get.
I use light armour and I can sneak fine with that. If it goes tits up then it still always does well enough. I also recommend using bows with plenty of poisons / good enchants. As for armour, I switch between Shrouded or Thieve's Guild Armour depending on my current task. This works fine as they are both quite light. Also dual Scimitars or Blades swords as further.
Use Blackguard's Armor. You can only get it in Skyrim — Special Edition but it's amazing.
Blackguard's Hood: Prices are 25% better
″ ″ Armor: Carrying Capacity increased by 50
″ ″ Gloves: Lock picking is 40% easier
″ ″ Boots: Pickpocket success is 40% better
You can get it in Solstheim from the blacksmith… (I forgot his name, but you get the point).
