you can sneak up on things with a sneak skill of 15...i did that without any issues

I've restarted essentially the same character (an Altmer mage) several times now. Once because I wasn't satisfied with her face. Once because when I first started I wanted to see how smithing worked--and playing a mage you need to be pretty careful not to have fun with extraneous skills. Once because I felt I was too slow to begin practicing skills other than destruction and restoration. I've thought about shelving this character, partly because of issues with mages (long cast times on defensive spells leaving me with overly limited options when I can't prepare ahead for a fight, lack of sytem feedback on things like when a spell is ready to be released and when buffs are due to expire, an insufficient mana pool/mana regen adequately to support both offensive and defensive spells unless I can cast my armor and summons in advance and have time to regen before a fight starts, concerns that my destruction spells aren't going to scale adequately) and partly concern that an altmer may not be the best race with which to explore Skyrim's issues. I wouldn't delete her, but I think she might be more fun after some fixes are made to how magic works--either by Bethesda or by a modder.

I do the same as the OP in every game that lets you create new characters. I think it's the thrill and the challenge of starting with nothing but rags and a rusty sword, which wears off when you start amassing tons of gold, weapons and potions and start to feel invincible. I've solved it in Skyrim by creating a Nord archer/explorer/adventurer with light armour, bow and sword for backup. I don't sneak and the bow is the primary weapon. The sword is a backup weapon and I don't use a shield because it would be fairly awkward to switch between so many different implements of battle. That creates a challenge. Fire a few shots with the bow and retreat to gain distance before firing some more. If that's not possible you have to go to the backup weapon and hope for the best. Having a shield with it just makes it way too easy. If I'm going to give myself the best of both worlds like that I may as well just say why not use heavy armour instead of light and also max out magic skills too and be a sheer walking tank with no weaknesses in combat whatsoever.

Second of all, the collecting of loot. I refrain from picking up everything. I don't take armour from dead foes and I only take their weapons if they're enchanted or otherwise exceptional in some way and worth a hell of a lot of money. I restrict loot to gold, gems, items of jewellery and some potions that I will use. Also I collect books. Everything else gets left behind. Most of the gems I collect I keep in my home, on display or hidden away. In this way you never end up having tons of money. Also don't fast travel, and sleep at night, and eat and drink too, makes it all feel more realistic.

For me this makes me feel like I'm not invincible because I have weaknesses in combat as opposed to some characters who are great at everything and have no weakness, and I never have tons of money so I don't feel like I can just afford to buy absolutely anything that exists in the world - and it makes me want to keep playing rather than start again once a day, or 10 times a day.

As far as role-playing games are concerned, particularly those of the Elder Scrolls saga, I almost without exception orbit around three skills: stealth, archery and one handed swords/daggers. Perhaps it is because I feel Morrorwind and Oblivion -and I think it's safe to add Skyrim to the list- reward this kind of approach. Moreover, I gain a unique sort of satisfaction by thwarting the enemy's plans and frustrating them as opposed to dashing in on them bare chested and bashing their face in with a war-hammer. This isn't to say, however, that I will not later create an alt for that purpose, but my primal instinct is to shoot, back stab and hunt my way to the end-game.
'Alt obsession' is therefore somewhat of a foreign concept to me, though I'd like to ask those of you who suffer from the condition, do you have trouble committing to an idea or project in real life? Since we are all just a bunch of key-strokes to each other I think that such a question can be asked and answered without maiming your RL reputation

I never seem to have any urge to create a new character, the first one I made is the one i've stuck with and I want to see the game out through her adventures.

As tempted as I am, with my now 30 mage and a gazillion quests complete, to start over new now that I have a better handle on the mechanics of the game, I have sworn myself to complete this first playthrough with this character, the only one I have created so far. I restarted like 5 times in morrowind before finishing. I did over 10 restarts in Oblivion, and never did 'finish'...

However, once 'Fallout 3', and the FO3NV came out, I have forced myself to stick with the first toon I make and finish the game, however it ends, with that toon. The amount of playtime I have put in with my current mage just would be wasted if I decided to alt it up with a new roll.

Once I decide to finally advance the MQ and finish things off, then I'll consider rerolling. Until then, I'm having too much of a good time playing the mage.

I have this a lot as well

Lol well....
I have these characters on ps3

1. Sotha Aryen - a dark elf assassin for the dark brotherhood, he enjoys a bow over a blade anyday

2. Bronmir - nord dovahkiin for main quest.....pretty much sums it up...he is my "meehhh" character

3. Amlanh - high elf battlemage, had some service with the thalmor but now seeks knowledge at the college of winterhold...ancano brings up old wounds..wish he would leave..

4. Dar'Zhirr - khajiit thief, a former vampire from the cyrodil region, left to gain spoils in the turmoil of skyrims civil war, but discovered the broken down thieves guild instead, believes he can restore it to glory...

5. Grommok - orc smith, in service for the imperials but has roots with the southern orc strongholds...he doesnt like to fight but he likes to help, prefers a two handed battle axe over anything else...

Wow, ADHD kids.


Me, I had my first character cheese a lot of the game as fast I could to push and prod the entire mechanics system. Poked some quests around to see how stuff worked. Then, I deleted that character because I had accumulated about 8 perk "errors", 3 major character development / immersion / quest errors, and about 50 errors with skillups.

That's fine. My first character was a throwaway to test out a ton of specific stuff and see how the game behaves in a dozen ways.


So, now my new character is played much more 'legit', with specific immersion rules/guidelines I've set for myself, and it's a blast. The difficulty is just about right, although maybe it's too easy and I'm not really supposed to kill a Draugr Dreadlord and lichdude at my level, even though it's a super rough fight.

Shrug. It was still fun, so I won't sweat the details.


Sure, I still have a major passion for at least 3-4 more character designs that tempt me to roll another character RIGHT NOW, but I set that aside and will let that simmer while I play through with my "first" character. This is called discipline.

I normally reroll often and am a severe altoholic. After one false start with a mage type character I've found my groove now as an archer and can't imagine giving up on her just yet. The story and game world are too compelling, I want to know what's going to happen next, what I'll find over the next hill.

I am thinking about what I'll play next once this character is done, since I don't like doing everything with one character for RP reasons. I want to make a summoner mage and do the mage's Guild, an Imperial with heavy armor, blunt, shield and restoration for the Imperial Legion storyline and a Khajiit thief for doing the Thieves guild. They'll all go exploring and do sidequests while they are at it, so that should keep me occupied for the next few years :happy:

I just made my 7th trip up those damn 7000 stairs last night. I then decided to delete all but two of my characters saves. So for now im keeping 2

lvl 27 Nord Paladin
lvl 5 High Elf Destruction Mage

Gone are
lvl 14 conjurer
lvl 19 hunter
lvl 20 2-handed warrior.
lvl 10 thief
lvl 17 jack of all trades

Now that my save list is cleaned up I will probably create more alts. :banghead: