What type of armor should I use as a thief?

Question

In past versions of the elder scrolls and many other RPGs, thieves play with light armor. Is this also the case for skyrim?

As far as I understand, both heavy and light armor affects sneaking, but as you are playing close combat, you will want to have at least some armor.

What type of armor is common for a thief, and why?

Is using spells for armor(stoneflesh etc) a good idea, or do they cause detection?

Answer

It is dependant on your build.

I am playing a Khajit thief and I use light armour. Minor spoiler below:

The thief guild provides you with some nice light armour.

The benefits of light armour are:

• You are less detectable in lower levels with light armour (the perk that light armour weights nothing is at skill level 50, in heavy armour, it is 70). As a thief you don't tend to get hit often, so leveling your armour takes longer than you would expect.
• Windwalker is great for a thief, your stamina regenerates 50% faster if you are wearing all light armour. You need to be agile so stamina is pretty important for you running away, positioning etc.
• Light armour still gives a decent armour rating, so if needed you can go toe to toe without taking a huge beating.
• Fits roleplaying.

The benefits of heavy armour are:

• Higher armour rating
• Tower of strength stops you getting knocked back if you get caught off guard. (You are a bad thief if you get caught off guard ;) )
• You can still sneak effectively once you hit level 70 and get the conditioning perk.

Using robes is also a very viable option, depending on your character set up. If you decide to go this route, I'd recommend going with illusion + alteration.

The benefits are:

• Decent armour rating with alteration stone flesh skins, combined with mage armour. (Triple the effects)
• Robes give +x% magica regen and -x% spell cost on x tree.

This means you can benefit more from the magic attributes below:

• Decent magic resistance from the alteration skill tree (up to 30% magic resistance)
• Alteration grants you the detect life spell. This is awesome as a thief, totally reduces the chances you have of getting caught off guard.
• Illusion skill tree (at level 50) lets you cast spells silently. This is perfect for a stealth character.
• Illusion grants you the invisibility spell, perfect for a thief.
• Illusion gives you crowd control for when the brown stuff hits the fan. You can make a single target (or groups at higher levels) stop fighting, fight each other, or run away.

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