It doesn't take much play time to figure out how to become overpowered (OP). If you are a seasoned player, you can probably manage it in as few as seven to ten levels. So, it seems to me, the trick is avoiding becoming OP so you can enjoy the game longer. To me, walking around as an untouchable god gets old fast.

My current swordspell PC is playing on Master difficulty, is limited to light armor, no shield, only steel or Skyforge steel weapons, no archery, no backstabbing, and hard limits on crafting, enchanting, and alchemy. Surprisingly, I still hit 100 with enchanting, alchemy and smithing relatively quickly. I'm toying with the idea of dropping both alchemy and enchanting the next time around. Ultimately, I may even play without potions, though not yet.

I know there's the Dead Is Dead approach, but that's not what I'm talking about. If you limit your PC, please share your approach.

Dont over-improve weapons.
Dont make overpowered enchantments.
Dont go over 500 health.

Easiest way is to avoid doing Alchemy, Enchanting, and Smithing together. Try to do only one of these, or two. All three is just asking to be OP.

That's my advice as well.

I tend to focus only on one style of crafting per character. Not only does it keep you from getting OP but it also makes sense from an RP perspective.

Why the hell would my brute of a warrior run around the plains picking flowers?

The vanilla game worked fine for me, just by not improving the weapons past Legendary. I feel that the weapons should have been capped there. Ar and Destruction is capped. I'm not convinced the devs intended for weapons to be improved past Legendary in the first place.

I'm level 61 as of this loading screen.

I have 500 Health and 200 for both Magicka and Stamina.

Bingo, Problem solved. If you need to ask that question, than just avoid the source of the problem.

So if you don't improve your weapons and armor, do you still upgrade the type (kind of the same thing, really).

I tried limiting the weapon and armor type but a steel sword that does something like a base damage of 10 points is useless at Master difficulty (remember, no archery for my PC). Even with lots of perks, that base number is just too low. The concession was to start improving. At level 67 (with Armsman 5/5 and Bladesman 3/3) the weapon is just effective enough to keep melee fun. Also invested in blocking.

There definitely should be some type of limit to improving equipment. After all, we're no Daedra forge masters so we really can't make divine, super powerful things unless they make some kind of quest or obtainable ability in a future game to receive this kind of holy/unholy training in the crafting arts. I'd love to have a Daedra teach me how to make this type of stuff though, it would add to the story and put a lot more depth into smithing overall. Same with alchemy and enchanting.

As long as your weapon(s) do not EXCEED 100 damage, you should be good.

While the Crafting system needs some work, to limit players that want to become OP is not the answer either. Not everyone relishes combat in this game. For a large number of players, combat is an obstacle or a diversion or something that just gets in the way of exploring. Being OP handles that.

I have OP characters, I have weak characters and I have balanced characters. They are all fun, just for different reasons.

If I'm playing a character that avoids smithing, then that means not upgrading weapons/armor past the 'Fine' quality.

This makes the game more challenging

Well of course you should dial back the difficulty if your not going to use powerful weapons. And, even my weak characters won't use a weapon that only deals 10 points of damage except at low levels.

Right, I'm only interested in people's strategies. I don't believe in hard coding the limits. Heck, I have an overpowered PC and sometimes it's a blast to go into Liar's Retreat and see how fast he can wade through the baddies. There's a time and a place for everything.

See - are we really 'limiting' when we ratchet up something to compensate for limiting something else? I know you have to do what's fun but there's an interesting balance between telling yourself one thing even while simultaneously doing the exact opposite. Kind of a 'Diet coke and fuge brownie' diet.

While I agree, I did mention ways that one could surpass the norm for what mortals are capable of when it comes to crafting. Being trained by someone, or something, would be an interesting way of learning how to surpass other blacksmiths, potion masters, and enchanters.

Yuck, diet Coke? Diet sodas are awful; if you want diet soda, you might as well just drink water instead, it's far healthier. But yes, I guess the whole idea of raising the difficulty level is to compensate for the ability of being godlike in this game. However, one could argue it's for the people who aren't over powered and just find the game too easy and relish the challenge of showing off their tactical brilliance.

I don't grind crafting, I don't take all the Perks that are available to me, I don't power level.

In fact, if you just play the game and follow the stories and do not focus on developing your character, you will have a challenging game at the Adept (or what ever the default is, level) That is how my first character got to 30 and I was wondering what all the fuss was about being so over powered. It was not happening in my game. Then I started using Crafting, and then it leveled my character, so I needed to buff up my weapons, defense and recovery skills, so that made me even stronger. It was a viscous cycle.

Now, except for my OP Demi God, my characters just play the game and do the quests and explore. I never stop to swing the sword as it were to practice or train. I don't use any weapon materials until I start finding them in the game. So, no getting some Ebony at level 3. These characters get killed on a regular basis if I am not paying attention.

This

I don't like long combat situations but i also don't like short ones either. I find at higher levels a weapons with a good 220-240 damage evens it out on adept and expert.

Self Restraint is not easy, it's rewarding.

I love long battles. I use a 312 damage nordic sword on legendary at level 102 and it takes about 10-20 minutes to kill a dragon.

I don't like taking massive amounts of damage from every hit, just not enjoyable for me. When you're up in the 60+ about 240 damage is perfect on adept and expert. Fights with Bandit Marauder/Chiefs, Draugr Scourge/Deathlords and higher ends mages and what not will last long enough. I can't stand not having buffed armor and health though because when i don't have them all the Ancient Dragons decide to attack me in quick succession.

Challenge yourself. If you would normally do something to make you powerful, do the opposite. Raise the difficulty, don't use any standing stones, don't enchant or smith.

I think what I'm searching for is the lower limit -what's the least amount of stuff (magic/enchantments/crafted items/potions/shouts) you need to 'win' while still having fun. As enjoyable as the scripted portions of the game are, I think this is the real fun of playing Skyrim.

No crafting makes for an interesting play through also rules such as not using potions when in combat adds to the spice.