After seeing that crossbows are gonna be added in Dawn-guard, I've been inspired to make an Archery Character. Im not looking for perfection but something that will be fun to play. Fell free to recommend races, challenges, and skills / perks =). Also, what Ranged builds have you created?
In the 'character build group', I've seen a few 'ranger' builds, a hunter, a zen archer, various assassins, a 'stalker', a 'front-line' archer, etc.
Just try a search for archer, if you wish to examine these yourself. (Search is found at the very top and right of a page.)
Good luck with your build.
Check out this group: Character Building
Use the ranking system (novice - legendary) to locate a suitable character.
Currently I'm playing as an Arcane Archer, a buiild I'm experimenting with for myself... I'm only level 12 so obviously it's not nearly finished, but basically my intent is to make an archer with magic elements, but not a full-on archer mage.
MAJOR: Archery, Sneak, Enchanting
MINOR: Alteration, Alchemy, Illusion, Light Armor
Seeing as this is an experimental build for myself, I haven't decided where I'm allotting all of my skill points, but we shall see how this works out for me.
My favorite ranged character is probably the first character I made on Skyrim! I supplemented my archery with alchemy so I could add some sweet poison effects to my shots! =] But best advice I can give is to just do what you want! My archer isn't afraid to pull out an ax or sword, while blasting fire balls out of his hand! Have fun with it!
Oh and while I'm thinking of it, I have a pure mage character I've been using lately that uses the bound bow quite a fair amount!
I've restarted and made a new archery/arcane character. And skills are this:
MAJOR: Archery, Alteration, Sneak
MINOR: Enchanting, Illusion, Alchemy, Speech, Pickpocket
So I got rid of light armor and went with full-on mage armor, which has been working wonders for me! What a difference no armor makes. I find myself able to carry a lot more, and I'm faster! BTW bows kick so much butt in this game it's not even funny :P
But as for any suggestions, try using the Rune spells in destruction or Summon spells in Conjuration. Personally I hate conjuration (wish I didn't but I do) But that doesn't mean it sucks, it's actually pretty awesome. It's just not my style, though I plan on making a "death knight" in the future. Also since I'm focusing on enchanting I have Soul Catch on my bow so I don't have to cast any Soul Catch spell (or whatever it's called)