I hate that smithing levels me, I go up against monsters beyond my meager 40 one handed and 36 block, along with the laughable 30 heavy armor skill.

I made conan, gave him a sword and shield and heavy armor. At level 11 Im doing OK, but when I see there health hardly moving because Im using basic weapons, its depressing.

Do you HAVE to smith to be a good warrior? If so why?

I would like to "Roleplay" being just and adventuring warrior, not some smith/enchanter/archmage/warrior/thane whatever.

if you do have to smith to get good weapons, what level should you start to have it have the least impact level wise.

I don't know if you have to, but improving the gear really helps...much better values. If you don't smith. You'd have to rely on finding or buying better things.

It's not imperative to smith to be a good warrior but it helps a good bit. It impacts things a little later mostly, just try to have the best weapons in your level range and that should hold you.

Smithing will allow you to improve earlier sets of armor so that you can still wear them and be effective if you prefer their look over the later set's.

I wouldn't say you HAVE to smith, but putting a few points in, and snagging a few perks (upgrade beyond "stock" helps...) will go a long way.

Finding a decent weapon before I was level 20 didn't happen (found on in a random cave I dropped in... maybe because I had just leveled?).

I dunno - I'm a dual wielder, so my damage output is decent.



The thing to remember with smithing, is that it's not just weapons, but armor as well - which also helps out in the long run.

I stayed away from smithing until I was level 18. I made sure 90% of my levels came from combat skills until that time (HA, Block and One-Hand). The other 10% came from Speech and Archery. When I finally leveld smihing it went from 22 to 52 in 10 minutes. Im now level 22 and it hasnt hampered my combat effectiveness. So, you could just try staying away from it until later.

depends on your meaning of "effective"

no, u do not need smithing to complete every quest, dungeon and fort. u do not need it to kill every enemy. it will, however, make it much easier. crafted gear is better than most gear u'll find in the world. warriors do not have the luxury of having an all-encompassing awesome item like archmages robes for mages.

Ok so maybe Ill wait till level 20 and then smith. I guess I like the idea of it saying "Legendary" after my sword or armor, but hate all those levels it gives!

if you play master difficulty, yes.

if you want to roleplay, any half decent famous warrior knew how to smith, at least enought to repair his own gear,
and that s quite a bit of knowledge. that mean he understand how his armor work.

only warrior in roman legions or other armies can afford to go adventuring without smithing.
i.e. if your best pal is a smith you re safe, but that s not availlable in skyrim

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Do you HAVE to smith to be a good warrior? If so why?
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because you will svck big time
a warrior is only as good as his gear.
smithing allow you to custom fit armor and sharpen weapons, making them way stronger than what drop

of course if a dremora lord drop his daedric gear near you on day one, forget what I said
but even that gear can be enhanced

On my third play-through of the main quest, I just used the same suit of Iron Armour (with improvements) all the way through, Steel 2H sword, and Imperial bow, both improved up to Legendary, on Master Difficulty. Didn't have much trouble.

Yes, Smithing works well for Warriors, I'm not too keen on the later armour sets, Daedric looks too demonic, Ebony looks like something out of Morrowind so I rarely go higher than steel for my Warrior characters.

To be effective? No.
To be the most efficient? Yes.

It comes down to that really. Do you want to min / max, play at the very low levels of gear or something inbetween.
You can play master without smithing, as you can without any single skill, it just makes the experince a bit easier (also allows as mentioned wearing lower tiered armour and still having the same benefit as the top tiers).

As others have said, it's useful not vital. I found it most useful for getting the next grade of armour early, or in the case of dragon and daedric, at all. One day I may try playing without it, but I find it helps. Levels too fast though.