Since you guys helped me out a bit on my Ninja Archer Mage dude, my character has become incredibly overpowered. I'm now playing on maximum difficulty because most things die in one shot, and if that fails, I have some strong magic to back it up. It's definitely fun sneaking around in caves and sniping dudes, but I just ran two dungeons and I wasn't detected a single time. I was even shooting arrows as a trail to lead characters around rooms with since they were attracted to the sound!  
 
So, what do you think? Has having 100+ Sneak ruined part of Skyrim for you or made it better? I'm sort of on the fence. Here's a video I took a few minutes ago, level 31, showing you non-sneaky types what I'm talking about (and maybe what you're missing...or not missing!)
 

It's more fun since I love being a sneak, but it sort of makes the game way too easy.

I like it. I don't feel overpowered til I activate my Cloak of Nocturna ability. That basically just lets me lay waste to everything around me for 2 minutes. That is kinda brokenly overpowered, otherwise I don't feel too bad about it. I've put so much into my thieving skills that I actually have NO ability to fight straight up, so it's a fair trade in my opinion. A run of the mill bandit can probably kill me if he detects me.

Ax100

I LOVE sneaking in this game.

I like to mix it up to keep from falling into the same old invisibility --> sneak up behind dude --> slit throat routine. Right now I'm level 51, and just started rolling with a shield, getting the hang of fighting dudes straight-up. It's cool that the game gives you enough leeway to invest in multiple skill paths.

Yea, Skyrim is the only game I've ever played where I wanted to increase the difficulty.

I am doing 600 damage with my dagger, so yeah it's pretty awesome. But at level 52 it doesn't kill everyone so there is still plenty of fighting to do.

Edit: 3000 posts!!!

I buffed up my illusion magic and made spells silent. Between muffle and invisibility, there's no need for a sneak skill. That said, I'd rather just rush in and bust shit up

I like to slit throats...

...

... In Skyrim.

But seriously, I NEVER get tired of that animation.

I've almost always started out as a sneaky guy in all the Elder Scrolls series. I find it very entertaining, and it always helps make you awesome early on. The quests and guilds that favor stealth are always my favorite, too.

Of course, rushing in with a crazy OP weapon of your choice is always fun as well.

@Addfwyn said:

I like it. I don't feel overpowered til I activate my Cloak of Nocturna ability. That basically just lets me lay waste to everything around me for 2 minutes. That is kinda brokenly overpowered, otherwise I don't feel too bad about it. I've put so much into my thieving skills that I actually have NO ability to fight straight up, so it's a fair trade in my opinion. A run of the mill bandit can probably kill me if he detects me.

Yeah, high sneak does break the game (it always has broken TES games), but fuck it, by the time you hit 100 in sneak you're probably in your 40's.

The way it's worked out for me is, if I get detected and don't manage to get back into stealth, I die pretty quickly. Glass cannon could be another term for TES stealth characters.

I've been sneaking, but my skill isn't that high and I'm usually detected after firing off a shot or two.. I've also not been using magic, but what I've seen of it seems completely over powered.

Thief-mage seems to be Skyrim's version of Oblivion's battle-mage.

It's great being a thief dressed up in Nightingale armor and slitting throats.

I like being super sneaky and OP, but the games environments are so dull (so...many...tunnel...systems) that I get bored of creeping slowly around.

I'd be much happier if I got to creep through castles and mansions and stuff like that a bit more. There's only so many times I can crawl through Dwemer ruins or underground crypts before I get weary.

It's awesome when I plunder a Jarl's bedroom while they're sleeping in bed or something. Sneaking through dungeons is a lot less fun because it's dark and boring, and you can't just click it on and off like when you're stealing from people.

I love it, I can steal and pickpocket all the items/money I want and can breeze through dungeons with ease. There's still a lot of tactical thinking to it.

@MB: Watching the video and was curious does summoning a bow and using it count towards Archery? Also, is there higher level bows you can summon or is it a basic bow/arrows?

I imagine just sneaking all the time gets boring kinda fast, that's why I'm rolling as a mage. Magic!

I like playing kind of sneaky since some areas later on can be overkill when they have 5 Draugr Overlords in them. It's broken as fuck though, especially when I can OHKO a fucking Dragon. But I would also say they shouldn't do anything to it. It's a single player game after all so let people play the way they want.

It's how I play my main character.

I've been rolling with a sneaky archery guy that can whip out two daggers and murder easily when needed. I wouldn't have it any other way. The power trip of messing with dumb AI enemies is hilarious.

I'm finding it pretty easy so far but it's off-set by the fact that I have no armour skills whatsoever (spent a lot of points in magic skills) so when things go awry it gets pretty hectic. The difficulty is inconsistent but it's not a problem per se.

Dark Brotherhood Gloves + Sneak perk = x30 one hand sneak attack damage. Sneaking is awesome.

I was wondering. There are some fights where you come out of a conversation and have to fight that guy. Can you still get sneak going in those instances? Do you need to run away, do you just disappear before their eyes or are these the really hard fights for you sneaky crawlers?

I am playing a dumb brute so I am curious how that would work.

@Khadyn: It levels up your Archery and also Conjuration. It's been my main weapon for the majority of my game. Level 43 at the moment with 100 in Archery.

It's boring. The melee combat may not be the best thing in the world but I still prefer fucking up people with my weapons and getting up close.

Stopped after getting 100 sneak playing on master and one shotting everything and never dying, was boring as hell.

Well the last time I played I was in a dungeon with these skeleton guys who like to hide in their coffin waiting for you, so I just left it on auto-run against a corner and now my sneak is at like 80 or something and this was at close to the start of the game. I was able to sneak around pretty well, but I wasn't invisible quite yet I don't think. I haven't played much after that so I don't know if it will make the game less fun for me. I'm just interested in doing the quests and the story.

@Butano: Thanks! May give the Mage class a shot.

It turns some of the combat scenarios in dungeons into sort of puzzle-like encounters, which is pretty fun. You gotta figure out who you can silently kill without alerting the others. It gets crazy awesome when you have the dagger and you're just slitting everyone's throats and getting x15 damage bonuses.

The fact that you can hide in plain site when your Sneak skill is high enough is kinda crazy though. I once navigated around a bandit who was watching over a staircase by walking down said staircase right in front of her (in stealth mode) and just moving around her while illuminated entirely by a torch. Somehow she never even saw me.

Personally, I've strated on the easiest difficulty and am gradually increasing it. Currently playing on Adept. I hate the wierd difficulty spikes in Bethesda games, so I increase difficulty when the spikes get too easy. Will be switching over to Expert soon.

I'm into Archery, Light Armor, Onehanded and Smithing. Mixing up sneaky range with in-your-face melee. Planning in going into Enchanting soon. In the large scheme of things, it's the crafting specializations which are the most gamebreaking. I haven't even tried to maximize my gear yet. A basic improved set of dragonscale armor and glass weapons is already completely OP. Abusing fortifying potions and enchants - crafting will become gamebreakingly overpowered. A vendor bought 'fortify smithing' potion alone delivers staggering results.

Balancing is definitely the stand-out weak point of Bethesda's games. I still enjoy the heck out of Skyrim, but I have to take care not to break the experience by over-maximizing. Didn't cheese anything yet and I try not to take crafting too far. Oh - stealth lovers simply have to do the Thief Guild stuff. Thiefs are not killers. Don't kill anyone.

I'm all up for it. It's how I chose to play it and if putting points into sneak as opposed to something wiser for the long run is the case than so be it. It's how I played Fallout 3/New Vegas and it's how I'm playing Skyrim. Level 19 with 87 Sneak and putting my points into Archery until I'm able to unlock Shadow Warrior (100 Sneak).

It's cool being practically invisible, but it does make the game way too easy. I'm not really playing for the moment to moment combat though, so that's ok with me.

Those are Restless Draugr's common low end mobs. How does that work on Deathlords, wights, those hard blind bastards down in the deep dwarven ruins? Falmers. I don't have the maxed out sneak perk yet, so I don't know.

For me, maxed out killing skills make most fights even matched to easy. So I picked up a new weapon to level up. Still have to bust out my shield and heavy armor for groups, but really only sneak now for fun and because I can't take the group on or need to take a mage out first. I straight up hide when i see groups of mages.

Been playing on Master from the start. For a while things were real easy to kill, but now I've started going back to cleared locations and the re-spawned baddies are a lot tougher. Instead of bandits there are Bandit Marauders. Casters all have stronger spells and I rarely see the weak Frost dragons anymore. Usually Elders and fire.

I suggest level up blocking. Missionary position can get really hairy and the blocking perks definitely make you feel like your doing a lot more, since you are. You also don't have to be using a shield to fully benefit. Some perks also apply when using a two-hander or both hands for a one hander. So you can have some fun with a big scary axe.

The slow motion perk could be fun when combined with the time slow shout.

The sneaky play style gets less fun the higher my skill goes. But we approach combat differently than other players, for the stealth player it's much more like a puzzle than a fight. Even though it can be frustrating, I like being in that situation where if I mess up I could die in seconds. Trying and failing, then finally getting it my second or third try feels awesome, especially when you're out matched in a dungeon you shouldn't be in. I've never pulled a 180 and abandoned a dungeon near the end, if I make it through the first few rooms without dying, I'm gonna finish that shit no matter how many times I die.

My sneaky Khajiit is also pretty invested in the illusion school and i make ample use of the frenzy and invisibility spells, so when stealth fails i have some amusing and practical alternatives. When I'm out of magicka things turn rather ugly as i have little to no defensive skills/perks. Its a rather risky approach to combat and has proved to be pretty fun. I have been playing on expert but i soon bumped it up to master after level 10ish to up the ante (and satisfaction when I make it out alive).

I enjoy it, although I'm not quite capped in sneakiness yet. 

I think it's awesome. 15x backstabs with daggers is also awesome.
 
I also think my mage wearing full Daedric armor that can summon two Dremora Lords at once and cast Destruction spells for free is awesome. 
 
 
I haven't made a traditional melee combat dude yet, but it's probably pretty awesome too.

You have to consider that maxing out any play style in Skyrim becomes OP on most difficulty levels, not just sneaking. There are ways to simulate or forgo 100 sneak in other trees that don't require you to have crept around for countless hours that are just as broken. When you hit that point, you'd expect to be fairly powerful since you would be closing in on the level softcap anyway. Dual-casting permanent Dremora Lords, machine gun archery, heavy armor and melee with legendary upgrades, infinite-mana silent hadouken spam, they're all just as OP as sneak.

I'm at 72 Sneak and have just started rolling with the Thieves Guild; I guess those missions require a high sneak because I've been getting seen quite a bit. I've worked my way up the perk tree and have just got the "Movement doesn't affect your sneak level" perk which has made a huge difference. I've also got my archery pretty high just because I've been sneaking around sniping guys from afar, otherwise I've just put on the Thieves guild armour and am working on leveling that side up considering I've been running around with Heavy Armour to this point. Usually I'm either in to Archery or One handed with Restoration in the off-hand.

@WinterSnowblind: I was always a nightblade in TES games, so fun to play, i can either sneak kill people, or pull out fireballs and shit

My sneak isn't capped yet so it's still kind of fun making my own challenge of dungeons. I go in with the goal of not being spotted, just picking people off or backstabbing.

The funny thing is I'm 52 now and my other skills are high enough that I could just go toe-to-toe with just about anyone with no problem and dance right through most dungeons.

Other.

I hate sneaking in the Elder Scrolls games. My sneak level is at like 20 right now. I prefer to make myself a tank. I put my armor rating through the roof (I think I'm at nearly 630 right now) get a big ass weapon (I have an enchanted mace from a quest that I smithed up to 90 damage) and just beat the hell out of people. This tactic has been working so far for me.

I'm at 100 sneak and I still get detected pretty easily it seems. I didn't max out the first perk in the tree yet though, so maybe that will fix things. Also, the shadow warrior (level 100 stealth perk) doesn't seem to have an awesome rate of success for me. I have to be out of LOS and then use it otherwise the dudes just keep chasing me. A common skeleton chased me for a LONG time out in open terrain even though I was using that ability over and over. I'll see how things turn out once I go from 3/5 to 5/5 of the first sneak perk though.

And yeah I think it's fair since I am screwed if I get detected. One on one I'm fine, but other than that I will get murdered.

I tend to tank in a lot of games, but for some reason I've found sneaking in TES games (since Morrowind) can be a lot of fun. My character is so far 60-something in sneak, and some of the perks do make it awesomely lethal.

Heh, depending on the enemy I too can still get screwed if detected... and also I agree that with some of the Dwemer ruins and other tunnel systems, sneaking can get a bit tiresome. Defeating a dwarven sphere while remaining undetected is pretty thrilling though.

I kill everything in 1 hit using a DW power attack anyway. (including giants/dragons etc)
So sneaking and steakth kills are a fun diversion for me, something different to do with a cool kill animation, that's about it.