I have dumped hundreds of hours into Skyrim over numerous characters. Lately I have been playing Dead is Dead on Master with no fast travel (other than carriage). Staying alive till level 25ish (I believe that's when you can get over the hump to the point of the game being much less difficult) can be extremely difficult to because of the random encounters in the wilderness by Bandits, Bears and Sabre cats. So my question is this, how much safer is it to travel pathways? Is it worth the extra travel time to stay on the pathways as opposed to short cutting? I understand some short cuts are much more dangerous. Opinions?

Do you mean the roads? Still lots of random encounters on the roads if thats what you mean.

I have been attacked more along the road than I ever have going across country.

If you want to call them roads, then yes. I have been encountered several times too, although, I definitely wouldn't say "more". But thinking back it seems like mostly thalmor or bandits attack on "roads". Do bears, wolfs and sabre cats seem to stay a little further away from them? I've never really tested this theory out, just thought about it while at work and thought i'd throw it out there.

I think so. But quite often wildlife will spawn near roads, near enough to detect and attack you certainly.

Sometimes the road is less travelled for a reason my friend.

I would try the whole "dead is dead" concept if I didn't have to sit through the long intro sequence. Also, I encounter plenty of sabres, bears, spiders, etc. on roads/paths.

Snap.

I have found in the past that random encounters only happen when traveling on the main roads as far as I can tell. But like a poster said, most wildlife will still spawn near the road itself.