Build Advice - Wood Elf Thief or Illusion Mage?

[thelostgirl74]

I'm looking to create a stealthy character with some magic or a pure mage that can hide herself with chameleon if needed.. I'm not sure how good the Sneak skill is and was looking for advice. Should I create:

1) Wood Elf Thief with the Thief birth sign. Skills: Marksman, Light Armor, Sneak, Illusion, Security. Minor: Short Blade, Acrobatics, Alteration, Restoration, Mysticism

or

2) Breton Mage with Apprentice. Skills: Destruction, Restoration, Mysticism, Illusion, Alteration. Minor: Alchemy Enchant, Unarmored, Conjuration, Speechcraft.

[Jobo]

Well, anyone could tell you that the sneak skill in Morrowind is a little... Broken. Stealth just isn't a viable option in Morrowind, in my opinion, and I'd recommend choosing another major skill, I'd swap Short blade and sneak around.

[chaosbringer42]

Sneak is pretty much worthless for combat in morrowind because of the insane number of modifiers in the game. Its something like (sneak + agi or dex + luck + dice roll) - (weight modifier + fatigue mod + armor mod + weapon mod + enemy vision cone mod + enemy agi or dex + enemy luck + enemy dice roll).

There are just too many negative modifiers for sneak to be viable (especially since enemies run toward what attacked them at range, so you end up in the cone of vision, giving them a huge boost to spotting you).

Now sneak is still useful in morrowind, just dont expect it to help after that first possible sneak attack hit (dice roll combat ftw :D). It can still help you rob people.

[WingedKagouti]

Sneak without Chameleon is not recommended for combat purposes.

[Shortylax]

Sneak + marksman work well for me everytime.

[Redguard]

Forget pickoket and backstabbing, everything else is ok if you play thief