For me it depends upon the DLC. I made a new character for Dawnguard, but that's because of all the new gear that is easily available early on; I wanted to see how much of an impact it made playing differently. For Dragonborn, I'll use one of the (many) existing characters I have.

It's been my experience that magic is quite effective at low levels, well balanced at mid levels and rather weak at high levels. It doesn't scale well.

Generally, my characters tend to be more effective with their weapons at higher levels. Maybe weapons are overpowered.

All armor can go over the armor cap. So just wear what you think looks best, not what has the best starting armor stats.

well try to play on a harder difficulty as a pure mage (which means no potions, except for restore magicka ones, and no using any weapons at all) then do come say that again if youll be able to beat the main quest that way without breaking the mage purity along the way

Why no health potions ( just curious)?

With the right perks/methods everything in this game could be considered overpowered in some way. Warriors, archers, stealth dudes can make weapons that could one hit kill the ebony warrior even ( dont get your blow reflected though), whilst mage has free spells with stun-lock.

To me, that's not a Pure Mage, that's Pure Stupidity?. To my way of thinking, a pure mage is one who primarily relies upon magic to deal with the world, which little use of weaponry or stealth. Not using health potions if you have them is just ridiculous. If you can brew them, use them.

Personally, I find magic a bit too weak. A warrior can make normal attacks for hours without ever using any stamina, and an archer can fire arrow after arrow for days at a time without ever using stamina, but unless you've made a lot of specific gear, any spell you cast will cost mana. (Sorry, but I generally refuse to type out the word magicka. It's an unnecessary complication). That can cause problems. On PC, I use a mod that causes destruction magic to level up with the skill, which helps a bit, but running low/out of mana is still a serious issue. It never seems to affect the enemy, though.

i did for DG and DB not for HF

if you use weapons youre not a pure mage, huh? or thats what i believe at last
edit: ohh and that was the point i was trying to prove to the OP first of all is that when you stick with magic ONLY, yoou will find it is NOT overpowered as they claim.. ohh and as for not using healing potions - theres restoration for that, eh?

For me it depends on the DLC and what it is bringing to the table. Both Dawnguard and Dragonborn offer up new dynamics for characters and how you tell their story. Once I learn a little about what to expect for an upcoming DLC, if I feel it meets what I mentioned, I'll work on a new character concept and then start it prior to the DLC comes out to get some basic things in order (if necessary).

For example:
Dawnguard - Sure, I had played a vampire already but the mechanics bothered me* enough to not want play a character whose main aspect was being a vampire. When it was made known that that the 'everyone hostile' thing was being removed, I decided to play a Necromancer who would turn to vampirism as a means to increase his strength (more to it than that but it's the general gist).

Dragonborn - I created two characters, a Nord and a Dunmer. I hadn't had a Nord character for ages and I felt like playing a Nordic Dragonborn, so I made him. The Dunmer is my Nerevarine from Morrowind, which with the Dunmer inhabited Solstheim, it was as good a time as any to make him in Skyrim.

*The hostility isn't inherently a problem persay, the issue for me was that helms that cover your face should conceal your identity.

I like to start new characters for DLC. For Dragonborn, I created a dual-wielding Argonian. Ventured to Solsteim at about level 16 or so, playing on Master. It would have been a lot more difficult if dual-wielding + elemental fury + vegetable soup weren't such an overpowered combination.

My next character will be a Khajit illusion mage/vampire for running through the vampire side of Dawnguard.

Like some, I tend to lose interest in characters once they get to level 40 or so, so DLC is a good excuse to start afresh.

I never make new characters specifically for DLC. To me, it's all meant to be taken in as one, like a big jambalaya.

My preferred way to play DLC, new quest mods, etc. (especially for an open world game) is to install a bunch of new content and then start a brand new character, playing through the game naturally without knowing how to start the quests. Maybe I encounter the new content and maybe I don't, but it makes the game world a bit deeper, and provides for a few more fun playthroughs.


That's a great anology. (And tasty!)

I'm not into the whole pretend role playing thing but I do make a new character if I'm going to have more fun typically with a different build, stat or play style for the heck of it. But I'd make another new character if they have dialog and quest say with Snow Elves or something.