Unless you count "more potions". I've got steel and silver weapons and a full suit of steel plate armour, am level five, and weapon and armour stores are still selling mostly iron, leather, fur, and a bit of steel. On the upside, there's plenty of potions and scrolls.

Am I levelling too fast for the store restocker script to keep up? Or are stores mostly places to dump loot? Or am I doing something wrong somehow? As far as I know, none of my mods should change store inventory.

Don't get me wrong; I'm having quite a bit of fun. But monsters are getting harder to fight, out of proportion to my ability to keep up. Even the couple of silver weapons I have were requisitioned from the fighter's guild boxes after I joined.

Never mind; the store inventories just cycled.

Inexperience with Oblivion showing, I guess.

Merchant inventory respawns every 72 hours. Lower level armor and weapons show up in Merchant inventory a few levels later than you find them in loot (Chainmail and Dwarven at level 10, Mithril and Orcish at level 15). Aside from a few unique items they do not sell higher-level gear. You have to find the higher-level gear through adventuring.

At lower levels the only things I spend gold on are spells, training, and repair hammers. I save up my gold to buy a good horse, and then later a house. By level 10 or so, the loot profile changes significantly and the money starts rolling in.

I use the weapons and armor I find while adventuring. Same with potions and scrolls. No real reason to buy much from the stores at all. They do have a few useful unique items, but they tend to cost too much for my low level characters.

The stores don't start stocking the next higher category of weapons and armor until several levels after you start finding them as loot, so adventuring is usually the best way to equip yourself. There are also a few quests that give you access to some types of armor and weapons sooner than you would otherwise find them.

When it comes to unique weapons, iirc there are actually some pretty sixy stuff being sold at a fairly low level. For example, I think I vaguely remember a very decent enchanted akaviri katana being sold by those 3 brothers in imperial city that works wonders for a low level character.

Yeah, there's stuff like that...Starting at a few thousand more than I have right now.

And good point on saving my cash; the incremental effectiveness of new stuff didn't look that good, but I tend to upgrade equipment first, worry about perishables later. Partly because I tend to forget about perishables once actually fighting.

Don't forget to save some cash for repairs and recharging your favorite arms and armors. That's my septim sink.

Yeah; I never spend all my cash. Too many games where area Y would be much easier with item X, only I couldn't afford item X, because I'd bought Z, which I didn't really need...

Depending on how you are roleplaying, you might want to diversify. For instance self-made poisons can add to the killing power of your weapon. They can be made from found ingredients and free apparatus if you are a member of the Mages guild. They may seem weak at first but they can be applied after each strike and the effect on your opponent accumulates. Two or three weak poisons added together can be devastating. Once you reach apprentice level in Alchemy, you can make shield potions to augment your armor.

Melee combat is a bit like a dance. It has a rhythm and a tempo. moving forward to attack, moving back to avoid attack, block. strike, and more importantly knowing your enemy. Most have weaknesses and strengths. As best I recall, scamps for example, are resistant to fire spells, while zombies and skeletons are vulnerable to fire but resist poison. Trolls regenerate health, etc.

If you can conjure up even the weakest summon (ghost I think) it can take a lot of the heat off. If your conjuration skills are too low for a summon spell you can practice by conjuring daggers or gauntlets.

At higher levels, It will get tougher and the same things that work at the low levels will still work if they have been boosted by improved skills but it takes more than an awesome sword. A master Alchemist can create potions that provide maximum armor shielding, and simultaneously restore magicka and health. It's something to consider.

He's got an Int and Per in the high 20s. And yeah, I'm RP'ing.

He does use light and healing spells, but only because it lets him be better at hitting things.