In the so called "Efficient leveling" one is supposed to improve one major skill 10 times and two minor skills governing different attributes each 10 times as well. Thus, a +5 addition to three attributes with each level increase is possible. So with 30 skill increases you get an additional total of 15 attribute points.

However, I advocate that you merely increase one major skill 10 times and two minor skills governing different attributes only 1 time each. Thus one gets a +5 addition to one attribute and a +2 increase to two other attributes with each level increase. So with 12 skill increases you get an additional total of 9 attribute points. By comparison, that's 40% of the work for 60% of the benefit.

Better yet, if one were to pay for 5 of the skill increases above, that would be 25 skill increases for efficient leveling and only 7 for what I propose, or 28% of the work for 60% of the benefit. I doubt if even a leveling mod would do better than this for you.

Of course, the whole point of accruing attribute points is that you get more magicka points for intelligence or health for endurance or cause more damage with strength. However, two of the attributes have dubious importance. The difference between a luck of 50 (where no effect is given) and one of 100, is that skills gain a chance to succeed as if they were 20 levels higher. Unfortunately, none of the perks are gained by this. Also, skills have a max level of 100, so if you have mastered the skills that you use most often, then a luck of 100 is of no use whatsoever. Similarly, unlike strength or intelligence, personality is of use only when you are haggling or talking to an NPC. A spell to fortify personality for two seconds or a potion can give you max personality for this. Better still, fame points basically function to increase your personality effect. The end result is that you don't need to max out personality to gain max benefit from it.

So that leaves six attributes that will need to increase a total of 360 points to max all of them out. With 9 points per level up, your character will get that after 40 levels, attainable by every class that I know. Also, you'll get to level 41 in less time than it would take you "efficiently" to get to level 13. Whether you grind out the 7 skill increases per level or just play the game for them, this should let you level well with less of the work. Good luck!

　

　

　

Or we could forget numbers and have fun roleplaying a character.

Yes, I'm sure that some of you will still find it an incredible inconvenience to accumulate a whopping 7 skill increases per level. The very idea of roleplaying and leveling well is just too much to imagine.

"The very idea of roleplaying?" You and I have diametrically opposite notions of what roleplaying is. As far as I'm concerned accumulating "a whopping 7 skill increases per level" has nothing to do with roleplaying.

Roleplaying to me is creating a character and telling that character's story. It is storytelling, not number-crunching. To me, roleplaying is not about stats, levels, gaining experience points or accumulating "a whopping 7 skill increases per level." It is about inhabiting a character's life for awhile and telling that character's story.

I will not argue with you. You have your idea of what roleplaying is and I have mine. They have nothing in common. I want nothing to do with the play the way you play. It's not roleplaying to me. I would stop playing video games for the rest of my life rather than play the way you play.

So it's best that we just not have anything to do with each other from now on. You have fun playing the way you want to play. And I will have fun playing the way I want to play. I bow out. This topic is noxious to me.

I've never and I do mean never since I started playing Daggerfall in 1997, paid any attention to maxing numbers I received at level-up.

Awesome post! Great points.

So you never level your characters, ever?

Agreed, with everything, never pay attention to stats in any game, number-crunching just sounds like a chore and I will not have anything to do with it!

You're not getting this at all, are you?

People's characters level up as they play the game. You get to assign stats when you level up.

The roleplayers who are taking exception to your playing style are leveling their characters, but they are not chasing stats. They are not "working."

You don't have to work for stats in this game. Skills increase when you use them.

Just play, don't work.

Or go ahead and work if you feel like it. Just don't expect others to share your enthusiasm for it.

+1 from me Pseron.

Golden Sinner is more like a Diablo-styled RPer. Way less RPing than you do, and he is more focused on challenge, levelling and efficency. Two almost entirely different playstyles.

My characters are growing in a RP-style. So my Khajiit has been selling a lot of items? Time to put a few points in speechcraft. Or has he been making a lot of potions? I'll put some points in Intelligence. Every thing has to fit with the character.
I also prefer weak characters. That's where I find a challenge. A weak character has to use tactics to win. No need to use the simplistic difficulty slider.

Sorry Golden Sinner. I tried that way of playing so many times for other RPGs. I'd rather grind some levels and purchase skills I like, instead of just picking the strongest ones. That's why Titan Quest, Zenonia and Torchlight took me more time than the average person. But thinking of numbers and efficency like that ruined the fun for me. Even though it's simple math, no way I'm going to keep thinking about efficiency in a game. It isn't a physics project. It's a game. Still, I respect your playstyle. But that stlye is nothing for me.

Golden Sinner, some advice: Try to play without effiency. Reset that difficulty slider and play for RP only. You'll most likely love it. Instead of preparing numbers, prepare a background story for your next character. And a build that fits the RP. Maybe it will suite you. You'll never know without trying right?

Sometimes I want to max a character and others I just play them.

Recently I found a mod "realistic leveling" and tbh I barely know how it works. I'm just playing and seeing how it goes because I have become a bit tired of keeping an eye on earning enough endurance points to keep my characters health from being way to low at later levels.

Not that I don't agree with some of those points, but unless I'm misinterpreting what they're getting at maybe you kinda sorta missed the point Golden Sinner was trying to make with their second statement? Also, I'm sure a character that's obsessed with being all they could be isn't too out there. Sorta like a diligent bodybuilder.

Anyways, this looks like a decent compromise between RP and number-crunching, and to be honest I've considered something similar to this system in the past before turning to mods like OOO and MOO.