Hey there, I was just curious if anyone really does this? I've ran through Skyrim many, many, many times now exploring new builds and characters to play with but one part that always dragged me down was the monotnous level up phase.

So, I was curious, if I created my character and then once I got out in the world I boosted myself to say level 15 via console commands, would I really miss out anything? I play the game on legendary difficulty, from character creation to completion, and since enemies level with your character the only thing I can see it doing is removing the tediousness of grinding that level. Don't get me wrong, I do like leveling sometimes, but its a little.. annoying when say you build this new character only to discover that by level 18 it really doesn't pan out the way you wanted it, and you end up either deleting it/restarting/editing the stats via console commands anyway.

So, yea, does anyone else do this or have tried it? I don't want to be max level right out of the gates, just a jump start to keep from having to run through Mines and Bandits for the millionth time.

Do it.

Not every character should have preset skills, that would get pretty boring.

*Update*

Actually, for better wording, every character should have a preset skill set or level, just not necessarily the one from Bethesda.

I always tend to have the most fun while leveling up my characters and searching for the perfect equipment for them to wear or use.

Me too, but it really doesn't get interesting to me until around level 15. The equipment and the enemies start to become more entertaining for me around that level. I get what you mean though, I actually just realized that it may be difficult to calculate what skills I would have at 15 anyway.. Perks are easy, there's plenty calculators for that, but specific skills like twohanded, block, etc. I have yet to find a calculator for.

I don't know if there are any quests that are level ranged (in that you can only get them during certain levels not just unlocked at certain level), but there are items that you can only get at certain levels.

You would have to be careful about how you did this as while the game levels with you, will your equipment support the character level you have? Then you have to also consider Character Levels and Skill Levels, those are not the same, facing level 15 enemies with level 1 skills will not be fun. Also, Perks can be an issue, and adding in Perks before you earn them can cause issues with not getting Perks at the next level up, but that might be mostly for Perk points and not the Perks themselves.

The other issue is, what starting skills are you going to give your character? You said that the character progression may not come out the way you like, but how is that different than picking the wrong or right skills during your console tweaking? Are you just going to create a character who has equal skill progression in all skills or just some skills? You also want to be careful about the commands you use, as the setav command sometimes makes the skill just what you set it, where the modav command adds (or subtracts) points from what you currently have, but lets the game adjust things normally. Not all setav's cause lockage, but it can bork on you.

It might be easier to just drop the Legendary down to Adept for the first 10 levels, then crank it up as you gain levels above that.

I hear you.

I've often started the game and then used the console commands to improve my character a little to suit the background I had in mind.

For example I had an orc smith character who came to Skyrim to join the orcs of Dushnikh Yal as the chief there had bought her for one of his sons. She was a smith and an excellent one. Seemed rather silly to me that she couldn't even craft steel armor. So using the console I gave her perks up to smithing orc armor.

Or a sellsword coming to Skyrim to take advantage of the civil unrest by making a lot of coin selling her blade to those in "need" Why should she then have NO skills in the blade what so ever? Hello console commands.. increase one or two handed weapon skills to desire level.

Same with an assassin of mine that came from Morrowind to Skyrim looking to join the Dark Brotherhood. Couldn't even sneak up on a blind deaf man. So I raised her skills in sneak.

Cheating? not at all.