Help with an Illusionist Assassin build?

[SupremeDolphin]

I'm going to make an an Assassin that uses Illusion magic but before I start.. I was wondering with race I should use? I was thinking Khajiit or Dark Elf and what my Magicka, Health, and Stamina ratio should be.

 

[Morgan]

I personally think that race is largely irrelevant in Skyrim. Almost all of the racial abilities are weak (eg Command Animal) or replicateable with spells (eg. Imperial Calm). Skill bonuses are not even worth the time to it takes to list them, since a 5 or 10 point deficit can be made up before you even finish Bleak Falls Barrow. This leaves Orcs and High Elves, really, as the only ones with actual bonuses or abilities that persist in effectiveness through all levels of play. The orc ability, for all intents and purposes, just sets your difficulty down one slot for one minute a day. If you don't like their look but want the effect, just drop the difficulty a notch and play whatever you want. The 50 point magicka bonus of high elves is largely washed out by spell cost reduction enchants in the later game. Therefore, I stand by my original statement that racial difference is entirely cosmetic, except for unarmed combat, I suppose.

So, to the other part of your question, if you are thinking about a one-shot style cutthroat, then obviously magicka and health in sort of even distribution, slightly weighted to magicka. I'll let others chime in with specific ratio thoughts, as I generally just go with what feels necessary at the time, and don't really plan stuff out as much.

 

[Katastrophe]

I'm actually working on just such a build, outlined here, although we might have different goals. I plan to focus primarily on the Assassin's Blade perk (one shot dagger assassinations) for main targets with Archery as the secondary for your average bandits and what not. Combine this with illusion magic, as you've said for a character that is never seen.

So far, I've been playing on Master and following the main quest. All I've done is Bleak Falls Barrow and the Halted Steam Camp quests. I've done them all with 0 Armor Rating (wearing regular clothing), a Hunting Bow (now an Ancient Nord Bow) and the spell Fury. Pretty much using Fury whenever it's not 1v1 to dwindle their numbers until I can just pick the last guy off and I'm finding it very effective.

Here is a sample Level 20 Build that I'm shooting for with all my levels dumped into Stamina. Ultimately, I'm thinking of going the way of a Vampire Necromage for the added bonuses as well as the fact that Vampire Assassin just has a nice ring to it.

While the concept blog I linked above isn't entirely descriptive on what to do to play a proper Assassin, it highlights what I think you shouldn't do. Or at least how to avoid becoming a warrior that starts fights with stealth and ends with sword and board.

 

[Odd Child]

Go for High Elves, 50 extra points for magic; more than enough to save your life!