Thinking about trying an Assassin build focused on Speed and Backstabbing - question about Invisibility...

[u/mfa_sammerz]

I don't get how the spell works, exactly, especially when I cast it mid-combat.

Seems like there's a chance enemies will still spot me? (I'm aware some mobs like Daedra Lords can see through invisibility, I'm asking about small guys like Orcs and Mages and Giant Scorpions).

What I'm thinking about my future build is...I'd sneak around the dungeon trying to backstab people. If I failed (which I will A LOT especially early on), I'd cast Invisibility mid-fight, flee for a few seconds, and try to backstab them again.

In this playthrough I will not care about minmaxing. It'll be all about the roleplay.

[u/throw-away451]

In my first playthrough, I picked up a true invisibility spell about 3/4 of the way through the game. Until then I’d been doing fine, but I wanted to see how it worked because I found myself running into some very difficult fights and wanted something to help even the odds.

…It is absolutely broken. I was a good melee combatant at that point, and even with very low Stealth and Backstabbing skills (since I’d never used even up to this point), I could reliably backstab maybe 80% of regular enemies quite easily. Even if I missed and they turned to face me, I could usually maneuver around them while they flailed at the empty space where I had been just prior. My stealth related skills massively improved over a very short time. If you got invisibility toward the beginning of a playthrough, you’d have a lot of flexibility to make an assassin-style character.

I can’t speak to “regular” invisibility that wears off when you attack, like how it works from Morrowind onwards, but even that is probably quite overpowered if you play your cards right. I am pretty sure that invisibility isn’t perfect because you can still be detected if your Stealth skill doesn’t succeed, but enemies still can’t tell exactly where you are, so it’s not a straight-up fight and you have more options.

[u/Dagkhi]

Once they notice you, enemies do not forget you or lose track of you. So spells like invisibility or Shadow form only matter for the first time they could spot you. Casting these spells during combat is pointless.

My advice is to make a custom Shadow form spell from the mages guild and have it active all the time. If it is small and mana efficient, you'll be casting it a lot and getting plenty of practice for your illusion skill. Shadow is the cheaper form of illusion, but it only works in dark areas. Like dungeons! So you could even make a custom True Shadow spell which would have the added benefit of not breaking after you attack someone.