Do skill points do anything beyond allowing you to take high skill lvl required perks? I have a 48 in lock picking, but used no perks from that tree, and picks seem just as easy/hard as when I first started.

Does higher skill in one handed do anything if you haven't taken any of the perks?

Never thought about this until I took a good look at the lock picking skill tree. "open (insert lock lvl here) locks much easier" Seems like something that should come with raising your skill lvl, not something you waste a perk into. The way I'm understanding this is a person with 25 lock picking that took the "unlock novice locks easier" perk has an easier time picking said locks than a person with 100 lock picking that never used the perks.

I find myself wondering this for a lot of different skill trees, honestly.

nevermind, I read the question wrong.

same concern here. weapon or armor skills virtually are pointless unless you invest perks...I don't know if theres some kind of ingame mechanic where higher weapon skill negates portion of enemy's armor or higher armor lowers your staggering...but up until now these skills alone seem uselss.

now mage skills lower magicka cost of respective schools so they r ok i guess. sneak decreases the chance of detection, alchemy without perks increases little your potion strength(I noticed after like some 6~7 increase in my alchemy skill with no perks my basic restore fatigue potion improved from 22 to 23. yay)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvdf5n-zI14

I am pretty sure it does for sneak.

As I level up sneak I can tell the significant change of rate the enemy detect me whether I select any perks or not.

I am not sure for other skills.

just checked block. it increases your bash damage.

a guy died with 9 bash when i had 54 block skill.

same guy died with 7 bash when I changed my block to 100 with console

So do you actually get stronger when you lvl up or does damage rely solely on item stats and perks?

I know mages are pretty much stuck with the base damage for their spells plus whatever perk they can get, are warriors the same?

I was wondering this too... I feel like, with the removal of spellmaking, they need to make spells scale with their school. I love flames/spark/frostbite but I do wish they'd deal more damage aside from me dumping points into the perk and getting a measly +2 dmg/sec.

Depending on the skill, damage goes up. I know one-handed and two-handers increase the damage done when you level them. Not sure about the others.

...kinda makes me wish they wouldn't have eliminated all the numbers from the game. Oh well, new school, I guess.

For all magic skills level affects how much magicka it costs to cast. Some of my lower level spells cost less magicka per second than I regen, which means infinite unending stream of fire forever and ever.