Thanks for the answers, Mason.  I'm inclined to agree with you regarding the Morag Tong Armor appearance.  I think though that swapping out the Linwe torso for the Blackguard torso might be nice, if only to avoid dealing with that annoying invisible arms glitch.  They have similar enchantments, and the Blackguard armor offers a slightly better AR, so it shouldn't break any functionality.  Also, they look identical, and since you don't take Matching Set, there's really no downside to switching apart from a slightly smaller Stamina pool for sprinting and scoping.

As for the Ebony Blade, one option would just be to pick up a ring and amulet of Sure Grip from Raidiant Raiment in Solitude.  That would help negate the loss from One-handed's Armsman perks no longer affecting the blade.  But it still leaves the question of whether or not to pick up any of the Barbarian perks.

Dragonborn also adds the Dwarven Black Bow of Fate, which is cool looking and really powerful.  Maybe worth looking into if you do ever re-run this guy.

This is definatly  one I'm interested in, I wonder if Mason is susceptible to bribery in some form to consider a total re-playthrough... seeing this updated for all the DLC and such would be quite interesting :D

Considering the Ebony Blade has been patched, would only using the dagger for stealth kills and then using and perking the 2-Handed skill for the Ebony Blade be a viable option?

Only the armsman perks would be the taken from the One Handed tree thus leaving us perks to fill out the 2-Handed tree.

Anyone's opinion on this would be great.

EDIT: Having noticed that the only perk taken in the One Handed tree is only armsman and one other, are the armsman perks essential for dagger stealth attacks?

Haha, okay thanks for the response. Guess I'll just have to invest a few perks into the 2-Handed skill near the end gameplay as a bonus. Great build, looking forward to starting it.

I don't know whether you consider it an Exploit, but all my Nightblades level Sneak, 1H, and Illusion together with Backstab+Calm.  When you can't 1HK yet, you have to Backstab them over, and over, so your Sneak goes up pretty quick even without the Thief Stone.  (I stick with Mage to power Illusion.)  It can be done rather safely on Bandits by Backstabbing one, Immediately calming the other, then Backstabbing him, if there's 2.  3 in a row, you end up fighting eventually, but by then it's a duel, but I never have that much trouble getting to Silent Roll that way, with the Theif Stone, it wouldn't be much farther to Silence.

Just join/destroy the Dark Brotherhood, all ready.  If you cart straight to Windhelm from Whiterun, you can have your choice of Muffled Shoes, and Boots, to say nothing of doubling your Backstab damage at level 1 if you can kill Astrid.  (Use your discretion.)  Even if you want to make your own, they will last you until you find the Enchantment, and get your crafting skills up.

Can't believe I haven't liked it yet! +1

Mason, as Nelaf mentioned, the link to this build on your page doesn't work. It seems you forgot to link the image to the build 

Barbarian perks don't work for the Ebony Blade.  It's damage is enhanced by Armsman.

Not anymore, latest patch fixed that

They wrote about it 7-8 comments above.