Is it hard to level up fluidly in Skyrim without being completely pwnd in early levels? I tend to play ranged attackers (blasters or archers) or non direct type casters.

Sorry, what is 'pwnd'?

In general, it is very easy to level up quickly in the early game. Sneaking, Speech, Archery, Smithing, Alchemy - all these skills are at 10 or 15 so they bump up very quickly. If you concentrate all your attribute additions in health (as an example) you can quickly double from 100 to 200. If you concentrate your perks in just a few skills (smithing, archery, sneak) you can put together a devastating ranged attack. Of course, it depends on what level difficulty you are playing (the default is Adept, but don't be afraid to try something more challenging like Master) as well. You can change the difficulty setting any time to find the sweet spot.

Good luck!

Pwned is a slang expression that is a stronger version of owned. It is possible I spread my points out a bit thin in my last play through. Can you recommend a balanced approach to alchemy?

I'm not sure you can take an 'unbalanced' approach to a particular skill - the real imbalance happens when players perk and practice all the crafting skills simultaneously and become completely over-powered. If you limit yourself to one perked craft, you should be fine. When you limit yourself to one perked craft, you may want to max it out as quickly as possible though I prefer not to grind. My current playthrough has been concentrating perks into Alchemy, Sneak, Speech, a little Pickpocket.

Good tips for alchemists in-game (meaning you're not doing research on the internet):

* Eat everything to learn effects

* Plant gardens in Hearthfire houses to build up your supplies

* Experiment, experiment, experiment! You can generally discover many effects before getting all the Experimenter perks (the final one unlocks at 90!).

Think you could still get broken with just alchemy, but it is harder to do it without trying.

Just to give you an idea, my current build is level 32 or 33, has alchemy at 84 with almost all the Alchemy perks taken (I think Experimenter 3/3 unlocks at 90 and Purity at 100).

She's got the Krosis mask which improves alchemy 20% and a pair of gauntlets that improve alchemy another 15% (I think, maybe 17%?).

She's got a helmet that improves archery 20%.

She can brew a potion of damage health that does around 90 points of damage, a potion of lingering health damage that does 170 points total over 10 seconds.

She can also brew a fortify marksman potion that adds 74% (ish) damage.

She has the Deadly Aim perk (three times damage while hidden) from the Sneak tree, and the first Overdraw perk (bows do 20% more damage) from the Archery tree.

She's using either iron or steel arrows (hasn't perked smithing so can't make really good arrows) with an Elven bow of Superior quality that does 45 points of damage.

I'm playing on Legendary difficulty and she can only one-shot wolves and the weakest bandits. And that's while hidden to get the Deadly Aim multiplier. If they see her, it's time to hit them with a paralyze poison and run away. Anything more powerful (like a sabre cat, bandit highwayman or chief), requires many, many, potions and shots. I think it took an entire in-game day and night to snipe the bandit chief at Valtheim Tower to death (though I wasn't using the fortify marksman potions for him).

What I'm trying to say is that even though Alchemy is very strong, smithing and enchanting are not a factor so the game isn't out of balance.

Fair enough. Maybe just not enchanting the fortify alchemy gear might be enough to make a difference. Cause in the broken part I had used potions to influence alchemy gear.

Is it a part of the game or a glitch that different ingredients give different results?

Definitely part of the game! I think that's the fun or challenge of alchemy - figuring all that out. You can find lots of information on the internet or you can figure it out on your own. I've done both (because I usually forget the information after a while) and each is fun in its own way. There are approximately 99 alchemical ingredients if you have all the DLCs installed. Each one has 4 effects - you can see how there are hundreds and hundreds of possible combinations.

Yeah, if you don't do enchanting and alchemy, the potions will be more balanced.

What happens often, with some players, is that they see the "ease" that crafting levels up and go for it thinking to get all the nice perks and such. What happens, though, is that each level increase increases your character's overall level, which the game uses to spawn new creatures and set dungeon levels, if needed.

So while you may be level 15 or 20 thanks to smithing (the old iron dagger glitch), or alchemy, or enchanting, your combat skills svck. You are facing level 15 or 20 opponents with a level 2 or 3 skill set in combat skills.

If playing a caster, early on, you'll be svcking down Magicka Regen potions left and right. You need magicka for protection, for summoning, for controlling, and attacking. There just is not enough in the pool until mid levels when equipment starts to help out along with near constant Magicka increases at level ups. Using weapons is MUCH easier, especially ranged ones.

Hope that helps a little

Even without power leveling on crafting skills it is easy to let combat skills fall behind. I've already asked about this and know about some mods (delay start etc); but have had the experience of both dawn guard and dragonborn attacks happening at the same time. And vampire attacks have left whiterun empty. It does hurt a bit being drug to jail because either I killed someone or someone died and it got pinned on me. Firing into melee isn't the easiest thing even with a way to slow time (perk or shout).

I want to inject my 2 cents... Everyone plays a bit different, but none of the crafting tree's are broken, the only thing's wrong with them are how people use them. I have had spellsword or battlemage type characters use all three craft's and not be one bit OP. They will use Smithing to make and temper their gear to a decent lvl, then usually use mage armor in tough battles. Alchemy to make their own health and resist potions... enchanting to enchant their gear... what I don't do is "spam" or "grind" to lvl up the crafts.

Take my favorite spellsword Derrik... he used all three... smithing perks included "steel", Eleven, Advanced arms and Arcane... that's it.. He topped out in Blades/ DG heavy armor I did not need to take any more perks. In Alchemy he had like 3 perks.. base, Physician & Benifactor.. he needed no more. Enchanting he took all the way to 100, but only took the 4 up the the middle plus 2 extra on the base. The rest of his perks went to the skills he needed to survive to lvl 49, mostly 1h, alteration & destruction...with a couple in heavy armor & conjuration. That is spread thin enough.

Even my 2h, light, archery and smithing...characters.. don't go crazy with the smithing, even if that IS their 1st perk

I don't know if anyone suggested these, but if you are having vampire and/ or dragon problems... http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/23906/? & http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28235/?... I don't play without them.. I also like, http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/66126/?, they can either be toggled essential or not, but they will attack both vampires and dragons, plus having more people around is always nice. Now this might seem kinda counter productive, but it's not really...http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3829/? has a toggle to make important NPC's essential, also to make towns "safe" zones ( walled towns that is) , their is a "slider" for how often and how random dragons attack... http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9048/? will allow for dragons in your game, but you won't collect souls and you aren't even the ADD focus of the dragons when they do spawn. and yes, their IS a mod that allows you to adjust when all the quest-lines will start, I don't use it and atm can't remember the name.

I'm putting together a list of mods to down load and two of those will certainly be there. There is a video on youtube 10 things I hate about skyrim and one of the things this guy comments on is how brave horses are "attacking anything with a health bar". I laughed at the video but seeing the bar maid trying to duke it out with the master vampire was too much. I think with the run away mods I'll wait before installing the delay quest one.

And the point about just using restraint with crafting skills is well taken.

LOL... it's very true... I use http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/14950/?, which has settings where you can make the horse a "coward" and it will run away , leave the horse vanilla attacking everything, but set to Essential . Their is a "follow" toggle... and various other things like speed, follow distance... equipment... followers horses...etc. I set my horse to follow, coward, and not essential. It's a great mod to have if you like your character to ride horses and you want to use a follower.. must have... cause they will ride also. Nothing like getting their quickly to wait on your follower to show up.

And to me this is a must have mod... http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35008/? not just for the variety... but for some of the other features. Though I know it would not be important to everyone.