There are some perks with more than one rank so ... 50 perks don't acually get you very far if there is 200+ different perks with an average rank of 1.5 to 2.

You will be able to master maybe two skill tree at most by this calculation.

Mastering a skill tree and mastering a perk tree might be different. The most powerful perks or most desirable perks to you might not have anything to do with the others. Ten skills with 5 perks in each could be an interesting choice if the five perks build on each other so you get one high level perk in each skill.

That being said, I doubt I'll get to level 50 with my first character and I tend to specialize and stay at low levels.

I lean towards thief characters, but if they do some really cool stuff with some of the perks from other archetypes I think I'll try those skills out and have a mix to figure out what I like best.

One handed 10
Block 10
Speechcraft 10

Smithing 6
Restoration 6

Heavy armour 4
Lockpick 4

Maybe something like that.
Need to see the list with certain skills covering lots of abilitys I'm struggling to think of 10 lock pick perks for example so it's difficult to see how extensive areas need to be.

I think this cover it.

THE Generalist


One handed 2
Two handed 2
Heavy armour 2
Block 4
Marksman 3
Smithing 4

Restoration 3
Cunguration 3
Illusion 2
Destruction 3
Alteration 2
Enchanting 4

Sneak 2
Speechcraft 3
Secrurity 2
Light armour 3
Merchantile 2
Alchemy 4

In Fallout 3, giving you lots of perks did not make you much stronger just a character who could use lots of skills. Yes this let you use more weapon types who helped in some situations however the main effect was all the health you got then leveling up made you almost impossible to kill.
Having filled the skilltree for both one and two hand weapons would not make you much stronger as you can only use one weapon.
Now we don’t know how perks will work, unless awesome master perks require using lots of levels on filling out filler perks to qualify I guess we get enough perks.
Yes will probably use a mod who let you add perks after level 50 just to make it feel better to level up.

Well my first character will be a Nord Spellsword - got to keep the TES tradition running right? - So I'll be focusing on Destruction, Alteration, One handed, heavy armor, and a little smithing thrown in there - while trying to master the skills alteration and one handed by getting all the perks for those.

Question: if the "soft" cap is 50, and the "hard" cap is around 70, why can't we earn perks past 50?
Also, I'll probably focus on marksman, dual wielding, and a mix of illusion and destruction.

What with Todd having confirmed that they plan to do fewer but bigger DLCs, I expect that we will get a Broken Steel like DLC in which the level cap is raised and new perks are introduced.

50 is good enough for me, since I might get to them all eventually with various characters.
But that doesnt matter much, since I will just play a character type and see what comes my way, not thinking about any particular perks.
My first playthrough will be a pure thief, avoiding hostile encounters when I can.

Well Todd said there is no theoretical level cap, only that perks stop being received at level 50, you could raise a character to level 75 if you wanted.

I agree that there will likely be more perks introduced with dlc, it just seems logical.

You must have a least one point for a filter perk to advance to the next perk. That is the definition of a Skill/Perk "Tree". Otherwise you will just call it a List.

Hrmmmmm... My first character's skills...

Probably have the majority of the perks in the Destrucion and Alteration skills; and then spread the rest out amongst whatever looks useful in Conjuration, Enchantment, and Restoration. If there's any perk at all in 1-handed or 2-handed that'll be mage-relevant I may give it a look.

First play through I will probably go with the straight warrior perks