For me cheating is like giving up, but from where iam at the game right now i can see trouble arising for me already. I love to try out many things and be a versatile fighter. I change from shield and one handed to dual wield as my mood decides. And i love crafting and such. But i will never get enough perks to beat the game on hardest difficulty and try out many skills. I mean, i feel like i have to work on my weapon armor and health skills to survive the game. But that leaves me with little perks left to spend on other interesting things. I think the perks are too much of a game breaking decision. I know already, that i will have to restart at some point simply for spending my perks on the wrong skills...

Maybe those perks should be getable by learning from masters of the art, like teachers, trainers, master smiths and so on. finding them all would be a nice challenge too.

I feel the same way. I didn't understand the new leveling system at first until I realized that all my stats pretty much started at the same level and I hadn't been focusing on anything in particular. Now I'm level 13 and have no skills above a 40...

I would urge you all not to stress it. The game doesn't level like Oblivion did so you will eventually out level your enemies and should still be able to stay fairly versatile.

This game really encourages the exploration so that you can get as many as you can man..

Just remember that you don't need to unlock ALL the perks for each skill; don't get the dual wielding perks if you're suing a shield, for example.

Also, you can still level up skills without putting any perks into them. Skills like lockpick and sneak, which I use, but don't put perks into, I kind of think of as being the equivalent of minor skills.