When choosing your class might I suggest basing it off of the perks alone and not the stats. My reasoning being that the higher the starting stats... the less you can level that skill which means it will not help you level as much. Instead, take a look at the perks and aesthetics of the race and choose using those.

My example. My main damage skill will be Destruction. Many would suggest I choose a Dunmer as they come with +10. I disagree. If I go this route i'll only be able to level it up 75 times to max rather than 85 had I chosen most other classes. Less levels to max in your main skill means less skill ups to help you level up.

Discuss.

Edit: Guess i'll add that this is more for those that will want to eventually max all skills. I think this will help those people by giving you more skill ups with the skills you want and less with skills you dont.

I agree completely.

is there really a big difference between 75 and 85 and will you have any challenging things left to do by then? I would rather pick based on stats to give me an edge early on when i am actually doing quests. Either way pick whatever race you want for whatever reason you want.

And going from 99 to 100 might take 3 times as long as going from 15 to 25 ... the higher the skill the more it counts toward leveling up ... the lower it is the LESS. Choosing a race for anything other then roleplaying or cosmetic reasons is going to be pointless in the long run.

Might not be a huge difference for 1 perk... but I'm almost to the point of choosing a race with almost not stat bonuses in the skills I want. That can be 35 more skill ups using the main skills I want to use.

I agree people should choose based off of whatever they want. I was just giving my perspective/help.

Don't worry, I didn't.

I wish I could get some official stats on the first part... as in what % difference towards leveling but I'm assuming people won't know those numbers for awhile.
I agree with the 2nd statement.

yeah I chose my race on what I felt like playing ;P

I'm in the Do What Ever The [censored] You Want Group as well.

Hell, I'm going to make an Argonian Paladin at some point. How Bass Ackwards is that?

Well considering that the official game guide will have 650 pages ... one would hope that the actually would implement some nice explanations of gameplay mechanics .. but I wouldn′t bet on it. ^^

Well then it's a good thing Khajiit's increased Stats do not comply to anything i'm gonna be using
but of course in my opinion it's "Choose which race you like and do what ever the hell you want"
which compliments the fact that i'm gonna be a Khajiit that uses Two-Handed Swords and Frost Destruction, nothing in the Stealth category.

I find nothing wrong with that, just as weird as me being a Khajiit Druid thingy

in fact that it's uncommon it would be a good race for a Paladin, not something the people would expect and is often bashed on by all the Dunmer but still does good deeds

i would make an Odd race for my Paladin but i'm pretty much making a previous character i make in a few games that's a Paladin and i don't recall any other games where i could be Half Man and Half Kitty/Lizard

Have you done the math at all? Every race starts out with a +10 skill and the same amount of +5 skills, so all races will level the same in the end. My suggestion is just the opposite of yours, choose a race that best fits your skills or don't but who actually will increase every skill to 100? That's crazy and who actually builds their character to max out all of the skills? Come on let's get realistic here.

It's just like the old system, you get benefits and possible tradeoffs.

Even if you don't max everything out and only get your main skills to 100... this will still most likely grant you a few extra levels.

Also, calling me out on my lack of doing math like that is childish.

Realistically speaking, There are some poor shumcks who only make ONE Character and try to do Everything with ONE character.

Not only do I think them to be filthy savages, but also believe that they are very unprepared for Skyrim.

I will only be playing one character. I am prepared for Skyrim.

I've made the same argument. Now it only really matters if you plan to just stick to X skills, if you are getting them all to 100 you will end up in the same place. But if you are playing a pure mage or a pure fighter going counter to your race might net you a level or 3 which is a perk or 3 more in the bank. So oddly a nord would make a better pure mage than a breton since he will end up with more perks in his magic tree. If you dip into one handed and marksman with your bound weapons though it will probably balance out fairly well.

You are an exception, because you clearly will know what you're doing.

But then again,

WHY?

If you're going to max out every single skill then that's the way to play. But if you're going to role-play, then you take the skills and the lore into account and try to make characters that fit the skills. In Oblivion I did the power play thang and it kind of made it too spreadsheety ( I mad e a graph and all that). this time around I will make a bunch of different characters that don't do everything, but are based on racial skills and special abilities. I am excited about not having attributes, because that was a pain in the abdomen (you have to max endurance first).

Don't worry for us. We'll be moding as we please.

I think you can choose whatever perks you want, not just in what skill caused you to level up. If you reach 100 in destruction, you can keep getting perks in it every level. It doesn't matter if it's already at 100. Know what i mean?

I actually just finished modifying my build to fit some of the Khajiit's innate bonuses. Sure my character will still be a beast when it comes to magic(no pun intended), but this time he'll be so good at stealth he may as well be Batman.

I do not worry about the leveling mechanics but rather the "class" and/or race I want to play.

I've only got to hit 50 to get the perks I "need", everything else is gravy.