I know this is the thousandth discussion topic about balance.

I was just wondering: does anyone else think stealth is a bit OP? With the DB hand armor my sneak attack is doubled. Couple that with a x15 bonus on daggers and I can essentially kill anything with one hit of a dagger doing x30 damage. If I hit with a dagger that does 20 damage it is suddenly doing 600 damage. Since my Sneak skill is nearly maxed out and I have plenty of sneak bonus armor pieces I can essentially roll right up to someone and kill them in one hit.

Sneak has always been OP in Elder Scrolls games. A fully enchanted set of armor will have around 130% bonus to sneak. Even at level 25 Sneak you can pretty much remain undetected to everyone.

Absolutely. I love it. =)

Although I'm currently a stealth ranger type hybrid. In fact I have the DB armor, but don't use it. I have sneak maxed, archery at 87, and I wear heavy armor, yet I'm rarely if ever detected, and one-shot all but the "boss" mobs, who still aren't really a problem if I'm doing my job right. =)

I don't think it really matters if something is "overpowered", though. It's not like you're playing against anyone. I'm having fun with this character, but still look forward to my heavy armored melee fighters, my casters, etc.

I'm still having fun. Just a bit odd how easy it can be. Guess it doesn't really matter though. Seems like there is just an imbalance for enchantments on items in general.

It's really OP if you use it in combination with Invisibility. Makes Dragon fights a joke =P

Yeah, I hate getting backstabbed by other players in PVP.

"Elder scrolls games" means Oblivion right

It was pretty terrible in morrowind and it wasn't too fantastic in daggerfall either because of the simplistic AI. As my mage in skyrim I often find myself reverting to stealth, as backstabbing somebody for x15 dagger damage is a lot easier than attempting to fight them with conjuration and destruction... so perhaps a bit OP, yes, at least in comparison to other things.

And... this is a bad thing? I love how Bethesda handles stealth and I use it all the time (even in Fallout 3). The sneak and lockpick perk trees are just sweet! I'll admit that the 15x damage with a dagger is brutal.

The x15 itself isn't too terrible but when it becomes x30 through armor it is pretty ridiculous. I have always enjoyed stealth in Beth games to a degree but it is just a little too strong in Skyrim. From what I gather the consensus is that enchantments in general are a bit unbalanced and smithing is broken.

I think the term balance is used in a misguided fashion with regards to this game. Each play style has its own set of "over-powered" abilities, it all depends on the player, that determines how they choose to use them. There shouldn't be any real balance, because every archetype utilizes different skills (each with pro's and con's).

What makes it "broken" exactly? Are these perks not designed to benefit the player who chooses to use them? It seems to me that they are doing exactly what they were intended to do, provide an advantage to a player who chooses to spend their points within them.

Broken in the sense that the leveling system cannot keep up to present challenges