I have always had an extremely strong case of restartitis. Ever since Morrowind. But now that Skyrim is out, the case becomes coupled with a new symptom for me. no matter what character I make, I ALWAYS want them to get to level 81. I have no idea why. I know that it's not that realistic, but i always set long term goals for all of my characters that end up getting tossed 15 hours in.

I am a huge role player in this game. Realism is what I strive for (but not to extremes like bathing every day or changing for bed etc...) I make back stories, and end game gear goals. I even try dead is dead play throughs, but they just don't work for me BECAUSE i always want my characters to get to level 81, and I think dead is dead sounds like the most fun thing to do for how i role play and everything.

And to make things a little worse, I don't want to be "too powerful" during the journey either. I have deleted countless toons in the low 30's because they were too powerful already. Or even because i got a piece of their endgame gear too early (In tearms of leveled gear)


Do any of you suffer the same fate as I?

No, I loathe jack-of-all-trades characters. Speaking of yours, how do you RP they are skilled in everything anyway?

yeah you say you're a huge roleplayer and always have to have backstories. Well how can you justifiably make a character higher then level 60? I mean ive never even got a guy past level 49 because i have to start using skills that makes no sense for my character. For example, my thief is level 49 with 100 one handed, 100 archery, 100 sneak. The only way for me to level up is to let guys attack me for hours to get my light armor up, or start using skills like 2 handed or magic skills that i never use. (thats not good roleplaying, because my thief has a nack for survival and wouldnt let himself get hit by monsters for hours on end, and also he doesnt use magic skills or 2 handed weapons)

In my mind i cant roleplay a person past level 50. Hell mages i cant get past level 40, because by that point i got 3 magic skills at 100 and it takes me forever using useless spells just to level up. And i hate playing rpgs after i get to a point where i cant level (like fallouts level cap, once i hit it, that character retires even if i havent finished the MQ.) because after that point its not an RPG, its just banjo kazooie.

But yeah i get a lot of characters that i retire around level 35-45 because they cant level up anymore without me roleplaying some [censored] up warrior that decides to use magic for no reason other then to keep playing that character. not to mention i get bored with a playstyle around that point in the game as well and want to start a new guy.

I dont see the skills i use as my means of character definition and RP, it's the perks that does it for me. I RP off of the perks.

i guess what you could say is that i strive to make characters who are "Masters of their field" I will level up every skill if it means putting the perks into the slots that make my character and his occupational specialty more definitive.

I base my characters around classes if this gives more detail into things. I don't really "play as i go" and use the skills that suit me the most. I always have classes i base my characters off of.

Nope. Even though I tend towards multi-skilled, jack-of-many-trades characters, I've never had any major care about level in TES games. It's actually very rare for me to get any skill to 100, let alone all of them. (Over hundreds of hours, and dozens of characters, I think my highest one in Oblivion was in the mid-high 20's. My highest in Skyrim was 56, and she only had one skill at 100. Perks spread widely in about 10 skills, only about 5 or 6 in any skill.)

Similarly


I don't care about level caps that way either. If there's still interesting things to do with the character, whether or not they're still gaining levels means nothing. My original Fallout 3 character hit level 20 (doing sidequests) before I'd even followed the main quest to GNR Radio. Maybe 13 hours in. Finally finished the MQ at 25 hours.... then reloaded my save from just before and continued adventuring in the wastes for another ~50 hours. Characters still have plenty of things they can do in their "role" (helping people, exploring, killing all , whatever) even if they're not gaining levels - xp and levels are kind of an artificial "outside the game" meta thing, they have little to do with the characters role or roleplaying.

I understand what you mean, however, I think what most other class players do is have fun within given parameters, and can readily start a new character without any sense of losing out on anything. We Jack of Traders want it all! We want the ability, within one playthrough, to say," I'm tired of being a Mage, let's try a Stealthy game play, or even a Combat role"....at the flip of a dime!!
In Oblivion, one had a whole lot more options to do this, however, in Skyrim, it's been so dumbed down( especially in Magic ) that one has to really have a game plan, or set class style going into it. We JoTers strive for options, at least in a RPG, otherwise we feel like we're just playing an Adventure game.
What it boils down to, are you having fun? At a minimun, does the game still interest you?

Hmm. For me, jack-of-many-trades is more a case of choosing playstyles (or "classes", though I rarely think of them that way) with a wider array of skills, rather than one focused on, say, 4 skills. And yeah - feeling free to dabble in other skills when needed or when it seems appropriate. But when I want to switch to an entirely different playstyle (like a real mage, rather than a melee, or even a melee with some spells), I make a new character.

(I'm more into the full phrase.... jack of all trades, master of none. )

Of course, this was reinforced in Oblivion, due to the whole "efficient leveling" thing, where one played the game off minor skills, and only used the major/class skills when you needed to force a level gain. So I'm really used to just ignoring classes and major skills.

I create lots of characters, but I don't even keep track of leveling, I devote myself to "leveling" their personalities, trying to make them interesting and fun to play.

The game barely comes out of my Xbox lol. I love it and it never gets boring. I'm just upset with myself with why i keep doing this. I need a TES councilor

never replayed even of the Elder Scrolls games.

I find it much more enthralling to just focus in on one specific character. but that's just a personal preference.

The highest I've got is the early 40s, usually stopped in the 30s. Too powerful + more equipment than I'll ever use = boring to me. Early levels are the best as you're weak, but even the skyrim is seriously lacking in the 'struggle for survival' dynamic. Mods can help though.

There are a lot of people out there in the real world who are quite skilled at any number of things, I don't find the "Jack of all Trades" archetype in video games to be that far fetched when you add in everything else. I've met bodybuilders who do complex mathematics for fun, dance, yoga, and spend a lot of time carefully creating intricate miniatures for tabletop games or hobby ships. Also, anyone with military training will tell you that walking stealthily is an acquirable skill regardless of your size.

Figuring a burly warrior can't walk softly, pick locks, and have enough book smarts to figure out the intricacies of magic just seems like a fallacy when you compare it to some living, breathing examples in reality. Okay, maybe we don't have wizards.

I can agree with this.
On my highest-level character (27, I think), I store all unneeded gear in her home, and bring only two, maximally three different weapons of choice, one armor set, clothing, and a few extra needed things. She doesn't like the feeling of carrying a small fortune while adventuring around in the wild.
And she uses equipment based on personal preference, not ever-knowledge of the damage/protection the items do, she has many things in her house that are much better than her preferred gear.