I'm really enjoying Skyrim although I find myself constantly creating a new character at a point in time because I get the feeling that a different character would be the way to play through. So overall I get to about level 12-20 and think of a new character, make it and repeat. It is slowly starting to aggravate me as I feel no character I make has the versatility or difficulty I want. I do not want an overpowered character, which has happened with a warrior, more on that subject any mages I've tried to make are too difficult on med+ difficulty and too easy any lower than that.

I just want the versatility to deal with a wide variety of enemies, but at the same time difficulty while dealing with them. I enjoy the sneaking archery aspect of it all but magic just attracts me for many reasons, although with destruction as it is to use magic as a viable support would require use of all the schools rather than just destruction.

I really enjoyed a spellsword but I always felt I wasn't getting the mage experience I wanted with a battleaxe tied in..

Any suggestions on a build that you all have found fun, challenging, and rewarding (but not overpowered)?

EDIT: I did the same thing with Oblivion, although I eventually calmed down and stuck with a battlemage and too many other characters to count..

Well, I am playing two characters at once, an Orc and an Imperial. I think the Imperial might be up your alley. I am playing a "Paladin." So, I am focused on sword-and-board and heavy armor but I also am focusing on Speech and Restoration. It's fun to role play as a Paladin, if that is something you are interested in doing. It is still a bit of a spell sword, with a focus on healing rather than destruction magic.

I do this all the time and in every single TES game.

It's pretty annoying.

How about a Knight-Necromancer? Conjuration, heavy armor, one handed, block. That way, your conjured undead give you versatility, and your weapons let you take on your foes directly.

what i like so far is a light armored stealth/fighter using dualwield and light armor....it is more challenging if you cannot sneak up on someone cause youre going down fast so you need to dance around enemies much more which makes fighting 2+ enemies really difficult, especially if one has shooty stuff or ice magic - this freakin ice spear spell is FREAKIN ME OUT

Other extreme for me. I make my initial character, and that's it for the entire game. Faults & all.

^
This time i ended up as a khajiit mage... Had a bosmer thief then nightblade, and a nord warrior before it. Then i was back at the thief at some point but i returned to the mage...

Not as bad as me.
I've had 5 different Nord Warriors...

Im just a ranger of sorts ( Like Aragorn).

Im mostly a sword and shield guy but I switch to bow when against trolls and dragons and then switch to sword and shield when they get close/land and finish them off. Im only level 9 at the mo so im still dying so I don't see it as over powered. Im an imperial by the way.

Also I annoy myself if I make more characters because I feel like im just repeating myself and it causes the game to get boring so I have 1 character at the mo.

are they performing YMCA together?

I'm the worst altaholic, i've got to whiterun on about 10 characters and started a new one hahaha

Ha! I knew I wasn't the only one!


I might just do that but I think I'll confine myself to only conjuring undead and ignore atronachs entirely, and throw in restoration and enchanting later on. The reason I want to avoid atronachs is that I feel they take the place of a comrade you can employ, and since they are spellcasters I've also had experiences where my atronach drops an enemy before I even get there.

I wish...

no issue....i have done the same...in fact just about to start again over with my hopefuly final character...never got over lvl 15 (and thats just after the first dragon) with anyone...

I started a mage and played for eight hours or so, then the save disappeared, I still don't know why. I started an assassin type next and have played him for thirty two hours. Normally restartitis is a real problem with a new RPG for me, this time I'm enjoying it too much to go back to the start.

I create new characters way too often in all games but I usually change my mind quickly after the first 10 minutes. Nothing new.

What really bothers me is the lack of chance to edit your character after the initial screen. I'll see my guy in the world and realize he is too jacked for my liking or his hair doesn't look like what it did in the selection...etc...basically wanting to make one change... and now I have to go back and completely try to recreate him not make 1 edit.

Initially I had rerolled 3 times but I've stayed constant with this one for 4 days now so I think it's a keeper.

Wanting to create new characters all the time is probably a symptom of a larger problem of game design.

If my character isn't satisfying, I might think it's the character and start again fresh. In reality, it's possibly the underlying mechanics being poorly designed that are sabotaging the fun.

I also am playing two (well THREE!) characters, as I have a similiar problem.

I am playing a Khajitt Archer/Sneak guy. Main skills are Archery, Sneak, Enchanting and Conjuration. RP Note. This character hates undead so does not summon zombies etc. However, this character does worship Deadra. So he is focused on Deadra lore, artifacts and will summon Atronachs. Current lvl 22.

My second character is a Nord Heavy Weapon/Hvy Armor guy. As a subset he also uses Restoration. He is supposed to be a Captain/Leader and as such I use restoration on my companions when they need aid. I don't really like this guy anymore. I stopped goofing with him around lvl 13. He got married.

Dunmer Mage. My first character. Abandoned. I was trying to play Skyrim with my style of Oblivion play and it just did not work for me. Abandoned at lvl 14.

This morning before I left for work, I made a new character. Which is funny, as I went to bed last night, after an epic battle thinking how much I like the Khajitt Archer!.

I most likely will keep playing this Khajitt until I am done with the MQ and everything else. I am enjoying the toon and my story with her.


P.S, I am glad it is not just me!

i do it in every game :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
i always try new class/race, and if i finally got it, its the hair/name/face that i dont like and change it :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

I have been playing as a sort of jack of all trades character. This is partly because my wife and I are playing on the same save file, so it kind of ends up in the middle when you're sharing control with someone. but I ended up really liking our character. he's kind of in the middle, and it makes it so that I don't feel inept at any one form of combat, but I'm not totally blowing the crap out of stuff in one go. Not even sure what you would call my "class".
I use a good bit of archery, because bows are much better than they were in OB, and I have a few perks sunk into archery.
I use one-handed quite often, but have no perks invested, I just rely on making cooler weapons through enchanting/smithing without worrying about a little bit of critical damage. might put in a point or two on the first one-handed perk later on. I feel like I don't need a damage boost yet, my enchanted glass mace swings above my weight class anyways.
I also have a good bit of perk points invested in "basic" magic. meaning destruction and restoration. those two skills have the most perk points so far. enhanced ice magic with dual casting frostbite is wonderful (I haven't made it to level 40+ yet, so I am not seeing the weak magic issues that people have been groaning about. I may see it later, we'll see).

I feel like skyrim makes it much easier to be a jack of all trades than Oblivion did. as long as you're more casual like me, and don't care about hitting 100 in multiple skills early on and making sure you have the best specific kit for the job at hand. I'm happy with putting a few perks here and there. the only skill I am really trying to get to 100 for the highest perk is smithing. might get the 100-level perk for archery at some point, might not.

Thief / Assassin is the way to go for sure, you can dish out some serious damage, but, you are a glass cannon.. going toe to toe will almost always end badly vs powerful opponents... so you need to think outside the box.

This is by far and away the most interesting way to play imo, you can utilize almost any perk tree this way and it brings the best out of alchemy. Combonations of poisons, runes and illusion always make fighting more interesting

Not to mention there are two guilds that suite your playstyle.

You may have a point there, I do feel that the previous TES games have taught us to be strict about the way we play, or we will end up with a jack of all trades, good at everything but great at nothing. Skyrim from Oblivion just screws with this concept even more than from Morrowind to Oblivion. Most of my characters do begin with a skill set and concept I'm really interested in, then something happens like I'll see the assassin character on the loading screen dual wielding daggers and want to try that one on for size. Then see the mage.. and so on. I've repeated the intro quest to the DB roughly 6 times so far, but my current character is a stealthy-archer using mainly alchemy as a crutch.

One problem is I get the character build going and realize I put a perk in a skill I may never use, as happened with my mage using a 1H weapon. Or I come onto the forums here and see people stating certain things are nerfed and never work as they should and get bent out of shape.

Except one thing I'm positive of is that, if I were to take all the opinions on here seriously, any character you could possibly make is consider broken by the standards here on these fourms.

Edit: An example of my above statement is that, Destruction apparently doesn't scale and therefore won't be strong enough for end game damage, archery does not allow for long long range shots. One thing I could say to counter that (with the game as it is now) would be that you need to support destruction with alteration, illusion, conjuration, and enchanting. And use sneak to get closer to your targets to make it a challenge.

Same thing with me. Looking for a challenge so I started an Assassin on master mode. Once sneak hits 50 I'm going to use dual daggers, only using a bow for distractions really. Also I'll only be leveling alchemy, I find it's too easy to exploit the game using all 3 craft skills.

I enjoy the game much more when I have to work for stuff rather than 1 shotting everything early on. I'm really enjoying this character so far so I think I'll stick with it.

OH YES to this - its especially annyoing because characters you build tend to look really differently in game you suddenly see stuff you dont like that you didnt before - such as the huge ass of my orc