Is lightarmor/sneak/archer build actually fun?

[Jozsefirst]

Is it legitimately worth considering this playstyle? The big reason I stopped using sneaking builds in my RPGs is that thieving almost always breaks the game's economy, is that a problem here as well?

[vine]

there are many ways to break the economy outside of thieving, so in that particular regard no. what you may want to do is exercise some restraint :D if you're not caught, you may be bale to retain good rep with the towns/guards. if not, tipping to improve it is always a choice. taking appropriate perk to manage rep helps too.

i say rep a lot because from my PoV reputation is important if you want to finish the game. you should be on the better side of people to keep access to repairs etc.

[Jouchebag]

Light Armor, no. It's nonsense. Even one on one, it's terrible. However, you can get a lot done with the bow as long as no one is hitting you. It does work to kill everyone with the bow, and you COULD engage the last guy melee, or you could just put one in his eye too.

If you're against 2+ bad guys, they will murder you in Light Armor. Sneak in clothes, put on armor if you think there's any chance of getting hit.

[Aki87]

Im playing a Lv8 Medium armor Archer/Longsword player on Hardcore+combat rebalance + no slowmo.

Its fun and strong if you pick your fights, if you just charge into 3+ enemies - you gonna die. My armor aims for less than 30 visibility / 10 noise. IMO Pure light armor for the Light Armor dodge perk isnt that good on vanilla bc dodges are a bit underpowered. Longsword is a good weapon for light armor because you have the reach advantage the other weapons.

I only did some light thieving/pickpocketing at the start of the game to raise some capital. On hardcore mode, the economy is better balanced due to increased costs and less $ for loot. For Reference, As a heavy armor character on normal mode, the economy breaks around lv 10 due to the high sales prices for looted armor.

Here is an example of a typical bandit camp raid. First go for the isolated patrols first, either hit them with arrows to pull them away and 1v1 melee or sneak stab if you got it. Then for the main camp you can use pierce arrows to shoot the plate wearers and try to melee the rest. Worst case senario, wait until nightfall and knife/strangle the plate wearers then finish with melee. I cant really handle 2-3 melee at once since my armor is too light (gambeson / some light plate).

[Olwart]

Light armor builds aren't fun because they're far less effective than they should be and, like Aki87 said, the easier dodging perk isn't very useful because of underpowered dodging mechanic.
Sneaking on the other hand is balanced and can be quite fun. If proper armor is applied, during the nighttime combat enemies quickly lose sight of you, of course taking into consideration that you perform some master assassin sprinting maneuvers. Mastering stealth is also quite useful for many missions. On the other hand, like others have already mentioned, thieving aspect of stealth build RP ultimately breaks the economy, but you can of course just avoid it by practicing self-control.
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2542376622
Now, archery. I don't know about others, but at least from what I've experienced, completely stealthy archery just isn't a thing. Archery is hard, at least at beginning. You'll always miss some shots and enemies will always spot you after about the 3rd missed arrow. You also won't be able to take out entire squads of bandits until they catch up to you and by that point your light armor won't help you. Maybe the only counter to this is shooting with higher damage arrows (headshots with them are one hit kills against any enemy), but from my experience those are far less common compared to your average 80 point damage dealing arrows. Also another style of archery – archery on a horseback, is one more way to make archery build possible and it's quite effective, but that's not exactly stealthy. Finally, there's also the possibility of abusing terrain and NPC walking paths, but that also kind of goes against the whole RP thing. I personally play in full plate and use the usual archery only against peasants and before entering full on combat, and use archery on horseback just to stack the odds in my favor whenever encountering deadly force like “Bohemian roadmen”, a.k.a. men at arms, because those are impossible to solo without some good luck.
So that's all. TLDR.: Light armor and archery – BAD, stealth – FUN.

[PafunaMT]

I switch between tank, horse archer, and stealth builds all the time, depending on situation. I always keep a stealth kit on my horse, too, just to sneak around those ambushes, or just for hunting.

Light armor builds in my own experience are only useful for mounted archery, and the armor is just there as a last resort just in case you get knocked off your horse. Melee' isn't recommended unless you absolutely have to, and then only long enough to dodge and escape.

For stealth builds, I'd also recommend carrying a poisoned weapon, gives you an edge if you have to fight off the odd roamer.

Anyway, just my 2 measly groschen.

[Jouchebag]

Originally posted by 𝕆𝕝𝕨𝕒𝕣𝕥:

Now, archery. I don't know about others, but at least from what I've experienced, completely stealthy archery just isn't a thing.

Only thing I disagree with. High stealth and Forester (I think that's the forest sneak skill) makes you basically invisible in the woods. I can kill or miss with a shot, they will meander over to where I was while I move to a new sniping point and repeat until everything is dead without them seeing me at all.

Alternately, if some folks are sleeping, I can whistle, move while they check it out, sneak into the camp behind them, slay the sleepers and either bounce out to begin the sniping or continue to work around bushes and get behind targets.

I've played a LOT of stealth action games...