I just can't see someone actually surviving too long as the jack. I tried once in Fallout:NV, but that definitely did not work.
Who is trying to be decent at everything, but great at nothing?
If not, how many (and what) skills do you plan on mastering?
I plan on going the barbaric route (one hand, light armor, restoration, smithing, and maybe block)

Jack of all trades is pretty boring IMO.

No. I'm certainly going to take skills from other "classes". But being a full Jack of all Trades is too lame.
I like to actually be good at something. Instead of adequate in a lot of things.

I'm gonna specialize Destruction, Illusion, Conjuration, and Alchemy. With some extra perks in Block, Speech, One-handed, and Sneak.

I'll max out certain skills, or get them near max, then bring my weaker ones up eventually. No way I'm bothering being a Jack of All Trades early on, that's no fun.

Well... I think not, but if I try, it will be after maxing out base skills (one-handed/block/heavy armor(...) in case of a OH Warrior ), just then I'll try maxing out the others (if I can... )

I eventually will master everything, just like Oblivion, just like Morrowind. I focus on parts, master it, move on. Don't like limits much. Granted, the perk system will probably annoy me in this respect. Oblivion allowed you to basically get every perk in the game, the different stats of skills granting a new "perk" each time you leveled it to a certain number.

Same here. Limiting myself to one aspect of gameplay isn't appealing at all, and since my character is a typical "Chosen One" archtype, I intend to make him unfairly uber.

Well I want to mix archery, swords play, and lock picking in my first play so I guess I'll have to say yes.^_^

Well, if it's like the other games I'll get their eventually. I start off building the skills I want.. when those are built to max then I might as well continue with other skills. I noticed in the achievements that one of them is "read 50 skill books." I'm thinking that it probably won't be that difficult to max out most skills in a long playthrough. I'll be concentrating on the main thieving skills to begin with..

I will use the skills that I like and fit with my character, and nothing more.

Nah, I won't go that route. My characters have specific strengths and weaknesses.

Gotta remember the entire song

jack of all trades, master of none
always better than a master of one

jack == level 1.
Later on it becomes gamebreaking GodMode

My omigod-i-bought-a-new-game Rush Character is often a jack. Usually gimps out before I learn how the game works. Then after a few pure-this, pure-that chars, I end up playing a hybrid again, and it turns Awesome.

He already has Dragon shouts. That isn't enough?

I'll just play.... maybe I will be maybe I won't. That's the beauty of it.

gonna make a nightblade, destruction conjuration illusion sneak and blade. So i guess i'll make a jack

If your going the jack of all trades route, you'll need to ration the 70 out of 280 attainable perks evenly, leaving most of your skills underpowered compared to someone who specializes. I won't bash JOAT's because that's how they play the game. I'll just strictly specialize.

Actually, the phrase originally started out as just "jack of all trades," and was considered a great compliment. It was only around the 1600s that it began taking a negative connotation. The "master of none" part was added after that, only to make it even more insulting. "Always better than a master of one" only came around later on to restore the phrase to its original positive connotation.

That said, I always did everything with my characters in Morrowind and Oblivion. It was fun being able to shoot a couple arrows, then some fireballs, and then switch to a sword to finish off a goblin warlord or whatever. I imagine it'll be the same in Skyrim. Is the perk system going to make that less practical? Yeah. But I'm still going to. Maybe I'll spread the perks around. Or maybe I'll just use skills with few/no perks in them. But I don't necessarily want to start a whole separate character before I let myself use a bow.

PS. I also did all of the quests in Oblivion in one playthrough. And loved it. If I roleplay, I roleplay someone who wants to see as much of the game as possible.

Meeeeee!!! Well I'm gonna try anyway. Did it in Oblivion after a few characters. And actually she was my most effective build. Then again, the perk system seems to want to reward players who are a bit more focused, which I think is probably a good thing, so we'll see. If nothing else I'd like to focus on a combo of stealth archery and dual wielding a spell and a one hander when I get caught.

I never play jack of all trades. I have three or four characters I will play.

Breton (or Altmer) StormMage, Nord Knight, Imperial Spy and a Vampire Hunter. Each character specializes (e.g. follows the guild quests, explore, make a name for myself, take on and complete quests that my character might do). Eventially I will take one of the characters and finish the MQ. Then comes the Mods.

Storm

Iv always gone for the swords-man/woman rout. After I finish the game i will dabble with all the skills and see how things go and work, then make a 2nd char and do what ever I found more fun

Which was lame as hell. It eliminates the importance of roles by making them more obsolete the longer you play the game.

Well since I don;t think 50 perks is enough to fill out a fairly basic concept yeah chances are I will Jack of all Trades it in order to get enough perks. I will think it is lame that I am power leveling two handed weapons just so I can get 5 more perks in alchemy, but oh well.

Someone said we'd have to ration our perks. I forgot about that. Nevertheless, I can still see a Jack turning out pretty strong. Fifty perks would be about 1 weapontype, 1 armor, one or two magics, and stealth. That's probably enough to flesh out another perk tree.

Difficult, yes. Possibly varied and still practical, sure


Ah, awesome. I didn't know that. I always thought it just came to mean practical handymen are cooler than helpless bookworms. Or something silly.

I'm hoping that a "jack-of-all-trades" character will be exceedingly difficult or impossible to play. Because, in my opinion, role play games should involve choices that matter. If you can't make a choice on your character, you should have a very, very difficult time. Again, in my opinion.

Eventually, we get bored and do that. I know I did with Oblivion and MW in first playthrough before I actually started rping.