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Thieves are arguably the most fun class to play in Skyrim.
Without the help of mods, the game's vanilla melee combat feels outdated by today's standards. While magic itself is comparatively more fun, it can often make the dragonborn too overpowered. On the other hand, stealth feels rewardingly proportionate to the effort invested within an encounter.
This is partially because this iteration of The Elder Scrolls has the most streamlined stealth system, complete with innate sneak attack multipliers for any character. With a handful of mods, some brand-new, some old and well-known, the thievery experience in Skyrim can be improved even further.
Top 5 sneak-related Skyrim mods in 2022
1) Sneak Tools SE Edition
One of the most popular and long-standing mods in this niche, Sneak Tools SE, is the Special Edition conversion and update of the original mod for the 32-bit engine.
Sneak Tools, through its numerous modules, adds knock-out and stealth-kill mechanics, lightable and extinguishable torches and sconces, as well as fire and light arrows to interact with them.
Additionally, there are oil arrows to create puddles, noise arrows to distract opponents, and lastly, its most popular feature: rope arrows.
2) Pickpocketing 5ever
As the name suggests, the foremost function of this mod is to reverse a rather in-immersive game behavior. By default, once you successfully pickpocket a character in Skyrim, their inventory stays static throughout the rest of the game.
In other words, a character can only be pickpocketed once in Skyrim for shinies, which may serve as a roundabout balance feature. However, with this mod, the inventory resets and the character gains new items in their pockets, ripe for the picking. Optionally, this includes a poverty mode to reduce the chance of high-value items being re-introduced to the balance factor.
Moreover, this mod also allows you to customize the minimum and maximum chance of success while pickpocketing. The default maximum chance in the game is 90%, which may be too low for a thief character who has spent hours honing their pickpocketing skills to 100.
3) Skyrim Sewers 4
Any thief playthrough would be incomplete without an underground presence, and while Riften has its iconic Ratway, other cities sorely lack this designated sanctuary for rogues and outlaws.
Skyrim Sewers adds well-implemented sewer systems to all the major cities, which double as alternate passageways in and out of them. While the leveling of the sewer cells themselves is a nuisance to low-level characters, this can be fixed with 'Skyrim Sewers for Noobs'.
4) Realistic AI Detection (RAID)
RAID is the most comprehensive overhaul of the Skyrim detection parameters, making it a staple for every sneak-based playthrough. The normal sneak formula depends on various factors, including a line of sight, noise, skill level, and light level.
By default, this is skewed to be highly dependent on skill level, which is why at 100 sneak, a player can crouch right before a hostile NPC and stay concealed. RAID reworks this formula to be more dependent on light levels and line of sight, and even the weather and time of day when outdoors.
The 'lite' version of RAID reels back some of its changes for players who just want something like improved vanilla sneak values as it should have been.
5) Detection Meter
One of the newest additions to the ever-expanding mod library of Nexus, Detection Meter, is a state-of-the-art SKSE plugin that adds in directional markers inspired by Far Cry 3 to describe not only the detection state but also the direction of the actor (NPC) that is detecting the Dragonborn.
This especially comes in handy when the player is trying to get an angle for pickpocketing someone in the middle of a busy city. The mod is currently out for both the Special Edition and the Anniversary Edition, but the latter is still being tested.
Note: The article reflects the writer's own views.
