Say I'm making a character obsessed with Dwarven things, would ya'll consider it cheating, if I used the console to get the items at level one? I know it isn't hard to get to level six, but is it 'cheating' or 'ub3ring' to you?

I'd say it's cheating but then it's a single-player game so it doesn't really matter. Do what makes the game fun and if that involves giving you certain starting items I don't see anything wrong with that.

Disclaimer: You can't cheat a single player game - the victim is pixels. I will take your question as asking if such a proposal would be something I would consider in my game.

It depends on the motivation.

I think an excellent exercise is to ask your character who is obsessed with dwarven things this question: If you use dwarven things at level one in favor of iron and steel, will you still be using dwarven things when marauders walk Nirn clad and armed with daedric things?

If the character's background and roleplay scream that they should start the game with some unusual, perhaps inherited item, it may work just fine.

My characters have on occasion purchased an item on the black market. I will not allow the requirement for an item to overly drive questing. A good example is a character who will never do the main quest, but for an exhorbitant price, may be able to buy the odd sigil stone on the black market. This is accomplished via the PC command console by deleting gold and adding the item in question of course.

Another consideration for some players is the 'lure' of the command console. Some folks get 'addicted' to easy ways of doing things. If this applies, consider carefully. I am not such a person and my character curses how I use the command console to make her life harder via taxing her gold away and all kinds of limitations she has to deal with.

Just think things through and decide overall, what will allow you to most enjoy your game.

Never thought of it like that, thank you

It sounds to me that the idea behind having Dwemer gear at level 1 instead of 6 is a good one, so I wouldn't call it cheating. It merely makes limitations go away, to allow for a better Roleplay experience.

Absolutely not. While personally I don't use the console (aside from COCing for testing purposes) I have used mods to start my character with special items, which is the same thing.

If the console can aid you in roleplay then it is perfectly appropriate to use the console. If the console even just makes the game more fun for you, then you should use the console. The only time you should not use the console is if you are not having fun doing it.

I roleplay that using the console is a unique form of Conjuration that only my character is experienced enough to do Or a unique expression of Mysticism when I use the 'coc' command to teleport.

If you can use the CS, an alternative is to build yourself a mod with multiple levels of Dwarven gear, so you can have the look of Dwarven, but the stats of iron, steel, etc. on different grades of visually similar items. The SI expansion does that with the Amber and Madness items, which exist at multiple levels from Impure to Perfect. They all look the same, but the stats available (and price) match the player's level.

You're not cheating, you're modding. Whether it's a good mod or not is strictly your decision. Having full dwarven at lvl 1 isn't that big an advantage anyway. In fact the added weight offsets the minimal protection gain you get. Minimal because it's only one notch up from steel, most of which is available at lvl 1, and since your character's armor skill is pretty low he may not even get additional protection from it until close to the time it'd be dropping. Certainly there's better weapons available at lvl 1 if you know where to look, so do what makes you happy.

Mara

This was also my thought. There's little advantage to the character, so it can hardly be regarded as cheating, even if one were inclined to regard console use that way (which I don't.)

If I want to "give" an item to a character, I'll usually place it in the world using the CS. I have a couple of empty chests in place for that (both in somewhat dangerous places, which means that the character has to "work for it.")

I did this when I played a Mazken. I made leveled versions of their armor and weapons with stats that matched iron, steel, etc... Then I put them all in leveled lists, created a container, and added the lists to it. I checked back every few levels to see if the upgraded version was available, and swapped out my gear when it was. That way I got to use the Dark Seducer armor and weapons from 1st level to 27th, and it was always balanced with the rest of the game.

As I said in the OP, I'm doing it for RP purposes.
I like ghastley's idea of multiple 'levels' of ger. Unforetunately I don't have the CS.

If its just Dwarven stuff then no its not cheating but if its Daedric stuff on the other hand well then that would be cheating.

If its not available to you without a console command , its cheating.

If you don't like it make your own game.

Personally I say it's cheating. But the thing is, I've already beaten Oblivion, Knights of the Nine, and Shivering Isles. So since I've done most of what there is to do in the game, I don't care about cheating. That's just how I feel about.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_utilities.htm, it is free. And be sure to bookmark the http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Main_Page.