I decided what would be fun for me would be two-handed weapons, alteration, light armor, and restoration for combat.

This works just fine for everything i've done so far, until I met my first random dragon.

Mind you i'm only level 10, so perhaps that in of itself is the answer to the following:

I am not looking forward to killing dragons after this first encounter. The elder scrolls credo (as I understand it) is 'play your way', however a lack of ranged attack really seems to put a tremendous cramp in that idea.

it leaves me to wonder how the heck i'm going to pull it off. massive amounts of potions? wait until i'm rocking the uber sword of explosive lizard death?

Is anyone else taking a similar playstyle to mine and having success? all thoughts welcome, especially comforting ones

thank you

Similar but im heavy armor, and 2 handers. No magic except a little healing. Was only able to kill a dragon because of Storm Call from a really tough dungeon where i had 2 NPC's with me and i had to let them do everything

Im also on expert

I'm perked into Archery, and it's basically useless vs. Dragons. They take a lot of hits to take down. I depend entirely on my companion and NPCs when fighting dragons, as I don't have much in the way of defense or melee skill.

companions.....poor lydia, she perished while slaying thalmor trash.

Having a ranged option is a must for fighting dragons, and the slow time shout is useful since it make it easier to aim at the dragon.

I have learned that it is not necessary to 'spec' into a viable ranged option to defeat dragons.

Find an object you can hide behind when they land. Induce them to use their breath weapon on you and take cover. When the breath weapon is finished use unrelenting force to stagger them. manuever around the head and start chopping at the wing. This goes on for a bit until you clip their wings. Once this happens you may fire upon them with a random ranged weapon or repeat the above process until they are felled.

So while technically I do use a ranged weapon in this manner (although perhaps not needing to) I spend nothing in archery perk-wise, as well as nothing in destruction.