So I installed Requiem today and spent a few hours with it.

I created a Breton, and put the 3 perks that the mod gives you at the start into Archery (2) and Sneak (1). Since I'm also using Alternate Start - Live Another Life, I played around with different starting positions. For my first go-round, I ended up having been 'left for dead' outside Darkwater Crossing, so I was able to earn some cash mining and get some fairly easy fetch quests leading me to Windhelm. I avoided fights, since I'd heard about the difficulty, and was able to buy some gear before heading out to do some hunting near Kynesgrove.

Well, it's doable I guess, but good God....

Wolves I can fairly reliably kill in 1 or 2 arrows, but elks and deer seem to be wearing kevlar vests.

The most frustrating thing is the draw speed for bows - a hunting bow in Requiem seems to draw slower than a Daedric bow in vanilla.

I imagine some of these frustrations will be resolved by advancing in level, but I'm not sure if skill level by itself has anything to do with the bow draw speed, or if I need to wait until my Archery skill gets up to 50 or so to take that quick draw perk. But given how slow skills seem to advance, that would likely take a very long time. My character was still at level 1 when I left him, and un-ticked the Requiem esps in my Data Files list. (The nice font that comes with the mod is still active, which is good.... I guess I'll see what else is still kicking around, but hopefully it won't come to a complete manual uninstall. I'm hoping to be able to re-tick Requiem once I take a little break to catch my breath.)

It's also unclear to me how race factors into the mod. The config menu mentions racial skill boni, but doesn't say exactly how these work... so did I just start off on the wrong foot by choosing a race (Breton) that doesn't fit with the playstyle (sneak archery)?

The moral of this story is that I'd like to love Requiem. The manual had me sold - the features seem great; I love the fact that you can pick your starting spells; the new spells and magic features seem awesome; I like the idea of combat being fast and deadly.

But how long is the grind before I can feel fairly capable? My vanilla Skyrim characters rarely make it past level 20 or 30 before I start to get interested in making a new character... I don't want to spend 10 or 15 levels just getting halfway decent.

I'd love to hear from those who are enjoying Requiem. Tell me to svck it up, tell me it gets better, tell me this is *the* best, most immersive, rewarding overhaul mod out there... and then tell me how to get where you are!