During character creation, you select race and gender, birthsign and class (or create your own) in addition to cosmetic appearance. No matter what I select, will I be able to play different roles ("fighter", "mage" and "thief" are the character types commonly associated with the game) efficiently, as long as I'm willing to develop role-specific skills?
Does character creation dictate the role
the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion
Related Solutions
Use dagger with a bow secondary, because they have x5 and x3 backstab damage multipliers when sneaking. (assign shortcuts for both sets)
Get some invisibility rings and robes (or enchant them) (but don't go over 90% invisibility), if your a low level get invisibility potions, this will allow you to avoid combat and sneak through dungeons.
Get night eye.
By invisibility I obviously mean chameleon invisibility.
If you get in trouble you can always drink an invisibility potion and escape.
I passed all of the guild quests and the main quest as a stealth character with a dagger.
I ended up getting some chameleon rings and robes which made me 100% invisible 
Here you can see me in a restricted area, notice how the guards ignore me.
(the sword is white because of some bugged weapon skin)
the game lost it's charm for me but it's certainly easier to play someone 100% sneaky
Other than that I suggest you get some chameleon rings and achieve around 90% invisibility which is pretty fun to play at and is significantly easier to deal with crowd's which also allows you to use the dagger stealth kill modifier (x5) which is better than the arrow one (x3). (
, the difficulty level was close to max, and the arrows were useless, so to experience one shot kills you could always reduce the difficulty)
night eye beats any torch or anything that is visible to others, although just setting the in-game brightness is very close to night eye so use that if your having trouble seeing in the dark.
one example is when I was doing a assassination mission on the countess of anvil, the game felt like a real stealth game then.
Good luck! and remember, challenge is what keeps the game fun, challenge and leveling up (and some stories)
p.s. Thieves Guild missions are the best.
Some mods I found that add requirements on factions or guilds, before allowing you to join:
Oblivion
Guild Skill Requirements
Adds skill requirements for the Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, and the Thieves Guild.
Choices and Consequences
This mod centers on the Mages and Fighters guilds, changing them so that you will need to reach a certain proficiency in skills before being allowed to advance in rank. It bases on faction reputation + skill requirements.
Higher Independent Thievery Requirements
This mod changes the Thieves' Guild quest "Independent Thievery", dramatically raising the amount you need to fence in order to get your next commission job, in comparison to vanilla Oblivion. There are two versions. The normal version (IThieveryRaise.esp) is tougher than Vanilla, but the Very Hard version (IThieveryRaiseVeryHard.esp) is absolutely ridiculous, and only for people who LOVE to steal.
Skyrim
College of Winterhold Entry Requirements
This mod adds skill requirements to join the College of Winterhold. It is fully voiced because Bethesda planned to have requirements to join the College at one point and recorded lines for being rejected. Also, when Faralda tests your magical prowess, she will test you on your highest skill instead of randomly selecting one of the schools of magic. You can still bypass the test by showing Faralda that you are Dragonborn during the main quest, or with persuasion, just like in vanilla.
The requirements are fully customizable using the MCM. You can set a skill level requirement in one school of magic, and set a requirement for a certain skill level with the other four. You can also set a Magicka and level requirement. I kept a wide range of available values to account for uncappers and 1.9's removal of the level limit.
Enhanced Skyrim Factions - The Companions Guild
Increases the number of radiant quests required to advance in the guild, and add skill, level, and time requirements for each of the guild's milestone story quests.
Minimum Skill Requirements For Guild Quests
Current Factions with min requirements:
Mages Guild: All schools of magic require the player to have their skills at level 30 or above
Thieves Guild: Sneak, Lockpicking, and Pickpocketing are all required to be at level 30 or above
Thieves Guild Requirements - No Auto Quest Start Brynjolf
In order to trigger the beginning of the Thieves Guild quest, the player must have stolen items, picked pockets, and have some skill in sneak. Otherwise, Brynjolf will not approach you and the dialogue options with him will not appear.
The requirements are as follows:
- Items Stolen >= 250
- Pockets Picked >= 25
- Sneak skill level >= 25
All three requirements must be met.
Beginning in version 1.3, the requirements can now be fully customized.
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Best Answer
PapaStan was right that Race and Birthsign can provide you with some unique bonus that you cannot get otherwise, like the bonus of the Atronach (allows building the strongest possible mage and mage killer at the same time), or that is hard to get otherwise, even though possible: for example, Thief gives you an initial boost of +10 Luck: this attribute is extremely hard to level up, because there are no skills tied to it, so the best you can get is +1 each level. And Luck is very important, determining loot you get in the dungeons and providing a bonus to all other attributes.
Class also really does provide you a boost into some attributes and skills, but the important thing is that the skills that get the inital bonus are also leveled a lot faster, especially in the cases like Restoration.
So you will be able to take any role while playing your character, but some roles can be harder or easier to fullfil depending on your build.
There are some builds based on skills from different groups that are possibly weaker at the beginning, but allow you to develop all of the attributes relatively quickly, thus making your character a stronger "generalist". I strongly suggest you to read an article on efficient leveling to understand what am I talking about.