Key perks & thresholds

• Stealth 1-5 (harder to detect while sneaking) is the backbone; take ranks whenever detection feels tight.
• Backstab (30): 6x one-handers. Deadly Aim (40): 3x bows. Assassin's Blade (50): 15x daggers. These three ARE the build.
• Muffled Movement (30) then the utility line: Light Foot (40), Silent Roll (50), Silence (70), Shadow Warrior (100).

Mechanics

Sneak XP comes from sneaking near unaware enemies and from sneak attacks, with melee sneak attacks worth 12x ranged ones. The skill reduces the noticer's effective skill rather than your own noise or visibility.

For Zaria-do

Dagger finishes on every safe target: damage now, skill XP forever. The utility line is her quality of life; Silence at 70 means armour choice stops mattering to noise at all.

Key perks & thresholds

• Overdraw 1-5: +20% per rank, the damage spine.
• Eagle Eye (zoom) then Steady Hand (25%/50% slow-time while zoomed): the aim-control pair for openers.
• Power Shot (50% stagger), Quick Shot (30% faster draw), Bullseye (15% paralysis chance) round out the tree.

Mechanics

Archery XP follows base bow damage per hit, so the heaviest bow trains fastest even when a lighter one kills faster. Sneak multipliers apply to the physical damage including tempering, not enchantments.

For Zaria-do

The bow is the opener, not the whole plan: 3x from the dark, then the room decides whether the dagger or a second arrow answers. Crossbows join at Dawnguard; the Enhanced line ignoring 50% of armour makes plate targets bow country again.

Key perks & thresholds

• Armsman 1-5 doubles one-handed damage; every rank multiplies through the sneak table.
• Dual Flurry if she ever fights openly with two blades; optional for the pure assassin.

Mechanics

Daggers have low base damage, so One-Handed levels slowly from sneak kills; that is fine, because the dagger's real job is delivering the Sneak tree's 15x-30x with the highest-base dagger she can temper (Blade of Woe).

For Zaria-do

One perfect strike over ten adequate ones. Armsman keeps pace with found perk points; the tree never outranks Sneak, Alchemy, or Illusion in priority.

Key perks & thresholds

• Quiet Casting (50): all spells from all schools silent. Non-negotiable.
• Cap raisers: Animage (20), Kindred Mage (40), plus Hypnotic Gaze / Aspect of Terror / Rage per effect, cumulative.
• Master of the Mind (90): undead, daedra, automatons.
• Dual casting overcharges effects: higher effective caps per cast.

For Zaria-do

Muffle on the road levels the school for free. Frenzy is the crowded-room answer; Calm is the walk-away-clean answer. See the Illusion concept for the full system.

Key perks & thresholds

• Alchemist ranks scale everything; Poisoner (30) +25% poisons; Concentrated Poison (60) two hits per vial.
• Physician and Benefactor serve the potion side that funds the build.

For Zaria-do

XP follows brew value, so the expensive brews train AND pay. Her bench rule: every dungeon exits with more vials than it entered.

Key perks & thresholds

• Enchanter ranks as points allow; Extra Effect (100) is the destination: Muffle + Fortify Sneak on one pair of boots.
• Flat XP per craft: batch petty-soul enchants to level, keep grand souls for the working set.

For Zaria-do

The Black Star plus a Soul Trap backup dagger keeps recharge XP flowing. Smithing stays a service skill: temper the blades and bows, skip the armour ambitions.

Key perks & thresholds

• Agile Defender 1-5 (+100% total), Custom Fit (25% with all light), Unhindered (weightless at 50), Matching Set (70), Deft Movement (100: 10% melee dodge).
• Light armour can reach the same 542/567 display caps eventually, but that is not the plan; not being hit is.

For Zaria-do

Unhindered also silences the weight-noise question permanently. Wind Walker's stamina regen is a sprint-escape perk wearing a defensive name.

On Adept, that stack one-shots almost everything that bleeds well past level 50; what survives is staggered, poisoned, and alone in the dark with her.

• First resort: Invisibility or Silent Roll to a shadow, re-enter stealth, reset the fight on her terms.
• Second: Frenzy the room from a corner and audit the survivors.
• Third: Slow Time or Become Ethereal, the crossbow, and Light Armor doing its quiet job.
• The magic-resist stack (Lord Stone 25% + Agent of Mara 15% + one enchant) matters most here: mages are what kill a caught assassin.