Skyrim for Thieves [LE]

This is a little old-fashioned guide for Oldrim fans. Replaces/expands the entire stealth game system, making the 'thief life' much better and realistic.

Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim

Compatible with all other mods, adds a lot of new perks designed to greatly expand character building depth. Be sure to download the 'optional thief skills rebalance' to go with the new thief perks, there is an optional file available on the downloads page that modifies many game settings related to sneaking, lockpicking and pickpocketing to improve the thief experience: the effectiveness of sneaking now depends more on light level and movement and less on skill level, the pickpocket cap is 95%, and more. A full list of changes is in the Readme.
Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim[www.nexusmods.com]

Skyrim Unleashed

So, though level scaling can be good, it can also lessen the feeling of progression and risk turning your gameplay experience into an unfulfilling one that can ironically evoke feelings of video game grinding. This mod balances the level of enemies so it's not based on yours, making combat a lot more realistic (and also much more difficult). Forces you to actually use wits and stealth to get past stronger enemies.
Skyrim Unleashed[www.nexusmods.com]

Sneak Tools

This mod aims to improve stealth gameplay by adding new tools and gameplay options to give the player more control and more things to do when sneaking, instead of only being able to slowly walk around and hope noone detects you.
Sneak Tools [www.nexusmods.com]

Path of Shadows

This is a major Stealth overhaul, intended not only to balance it's effectiveness across all skill levels, but also to improve the overall gameplay and realism of it, while adding some complexity and difficulty.
You'll no longer be able to remain hidden directly in front of someone's face, or have to chase down that horse who "witnessed" your act of murder.
Stealth as a whole will require much more finesse and patience, no longer allowing you to run around like a headless chicken knocking people off with sneak attacks one after another.
Sneaking in particular is much more reliant on your actions. This forces you to be mindful of where people are looking, how fast you are moving, what kind of equipment you are using, how dark the area is, etc.
Skill and perks are still important, but they'll no longer break immersion or gameplay by allowing you to stand in plain sight of someone without being seen, even at the highest levels.
Path of Shadows [www.nexusmods.com]

SkyRealism - Capacity

Ever wonder how the Dragonborn can walk around carrying dozens of weapons, armor and hundreds of potions... but they don't seem to have a place to carry them?
I do.
This mod changes the carry weight, effectively treating it as a storage space limitation. This is based on the assumption that you can only carry what you are wearing and what fits in backpacks, purses, shoulder straps, pockets and purses.
SkyRealism - Capacity [www.nexusmods.com]

Trade and Barter

Trade in Skyrim is oversimplified and uninteresting. A particular type of merchant always has the same amount of gold and offers you the exact same prices as the same type of merchant in another part of the country. Merchants in small towns differ very little from those in the larger cities, and the only factors that affect price are your speech skill and any barter enchantments you might have. This mod aims to change that. How much it changes is up to you.
You can adjust price variables for different types of merchants to reflect where they fall within the economy and the supply chain.
Trade and Barter [www.nexusmods.com]

Scarcity

If you use weapon/armor/creature mods, you will need Scarcity. The more weapon/armor/creature mods you use, the more imbalanced Skyrim's economy becomes. Scarcity fixes Skyrim's broken economy and makes finding rare items rewarding again; reduces ALL types of loot, even mod-added loot, so there's less weapons and armor lying around. Potions and gems become scarcer and finding enchanted items won't be an easy task, they really become like treasures - as it should be. Also, it reduces loot so you don't have to keep making trips to the same cleared dungeon over and over again just to carry everything back.
Scarcity[www.nexusmods.com]

Crime Overhaul

Crime Overhaul makes changes to how criminal activities are handled by Skyrim's guards.

Paying your bounty never results in being transported to another location.
Evading crimes is now more challenging: guards who make the "Wait... I know you" comment will force the player to dialogue (violent crimes will have the "stand your ground" dialogue). Exiting this dialogue will be considered resisting arrest.
The greeting distance for all NPCs has been greatly reduced, so you almost have to physically bump into a guard to get caught.
Crimes totaling less than the "minor crimes threshold" will not put you on the radar (unless alerted).
And more.
Crime Overhaul[www.nexusmods.com]

Realistic Crime Radius

This mod reduces the crime report radius from 4000 (feet possibly?) down to 1000. People can no longer yell assault across all of Skyrim.
Realistic Crime Radius[www.nexusmods.com]

Immersive detection of NPC

It leaves the game detection much better by adding more realistic NPC behavior depending on day and night. During the dark, their field of vision is reduced. Everything related to vision is worse than during the day. They are not sensitive to you being idle, which means you can just stand in the shadow in front of them, and they won't know you're even there, but they will find you if you move no matter if its day or night.
NPCs range of sight is longer than vanilla game both during the day and the night. During the day, an NPC archer will shoot you immediately if they see you and sneak will no longer work if you are in front of them. During night time, if you stand in the range of their eye sight, NPCs will notice something is there and then they will come and check.
Also adds many more similar features, check the mod to see all of them.
Immersive detection of NPC[www.nexusmods.com]

Better Stealing

If you steal something and no one sees it, the item is now not "stolen".
Default cost is set to 500, if item costs this much or more then it will still become "stolen" since the owner may spread word and start looking for it.
Better Stealing[www.nexusmods.com]

Reduced Gold Rewards for Quests

The mod drastically reduces the amount of gold you receive from quests. Getting less gold from quests should hopefully have a couple of side effects. Firstly, other rewards such as weapons or armor should be (relatively) more useful. You might even be able to sell them for more than a cash reward.

Secondly, it should increase realism and so immersion. Who, exactly, is going to pay 700 gold for you to kill Narfi? There probably isn't that much gold in the whole of Ivarstead. Likewise, 700 gold would buy you a room in an inn for 70 days. That's a pretty high work /leisure ratio, if you think about it.

Thirdly, crime should be much more rewarding. What's the point of picking Runil's pocket and risking imprisonment if you can just accept those blasted ashes and earn ten times as much? Well, to boost your pickpocketing skill. Can you spell grind? Related to that, the punishment for crimes are much more severe, relatively speaking.

Perhaps most importantly, being nice to people and carrying out their Fed-Ex quests will not matter as much. If you want to tell Thadgeir to shove it, you aren't going to jeopardize a heap of cash by doing so. Since you don't gain experience by completing quests (this is Skyrim after all) you actually should lose very little by role-playing an antisocial jerk. And how many of us truly enjoy playing an Orc beserker who only wants to crush everyone in his way, but still has to accept a quest to carry dog meat to the Jarl?
Reduced Gold Rewards for Quests[www.nexusmods.com]

Better Stronger and More Effective

This mod increases the amount of damage poisons do, making them much more effective than their vanilla counterparts. That way, alchemy isn't completely useless.
Better Stronger and More Effective[www.nexusmods.com]

Stealth Kills for Followers

Do what the name says, your followers will be able to kill enemies silently.
Stealth Kills for Followers[www.nexusmods.com]

Weapons

Adds high quality weapons for the main figures, such as Ulfric, Maven... etc. You will really want to upgrade your perks to steal their weapons. Or just kill them.
The second and third links are for the shooters.
Royal Armory [www.nexusmods.com]
Faction Crossbows[www.nexusmods.com]
Scoped Bows[www.nexusmods.com]

Armor

Backpacks to carry items and some really cool armor mods for thieves.
Bandolier[www.nexusmods.com]
Sabre Gear Backpack[www.nexusmods.com]
Big Leather Backpack[www.nexusmods.com]
Thieves Guild Armor HD revival [www.nexusmods.com]
Rough Leather Armor[www.nexusmods.com]
Netch Armor [www.nexusmods.com]
Triss Armor[www.nexusmods.com]
Tembtra Thief Armor[www.nexusmods.com]

Homes

Thief's Hideout[www.nexusmods.com]
Thief Player Home[www.nexusmods.com]
Opulent Thieves Guild[www.nexusmods.com]

Thanks

My native language is not English, so feel free to ask anything.
If you liked the guide, please rate it :)

[SabrielAbhorsen]

Thank you!

[Sevengert]