So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[Treesh]

However, fighting the ice troll AND a dragon took the poor girl out and I had to reload. =(

You might want to think about some illusion. My former snipers in Tes3&4 found solace in both chameleon, and/or brief invisibility to sneak away and find new cover. I guess in Tes5 that would be using muffle, until you can get to the expert level spell invisibility. The ingredients for invisibility potions are on the higher level side, so not really an option for daily consumption.

For tough critters, I'd snipe, then cast invisibility and sneak until they settled back down.

Morrowind I did. Oblivion I didn't because it was just too easy to sneak anyway. Besides, she's got the muffle perk now and two points into shoot, the bottom sneaking perk. The one that makes it more difficult to detect you and most of the time they don't see me unless they run right into me now. It's just annoying trying to fight an ice troll and have a dragon add in. I could get away from the troll easily enough though. Just sprint around a corner and crouch down. No need for fancy potions. =)