So I just recently restarted the game. Still haven't finished the mq. Last two characters got so horribly bogged down with bugged quests. Noticed though how much better the beginning of the game is than the end in terms of quality and care put into the level design and story scripting. Look at the opening, from making friends in river wood to the wonder that is bleak falls barrow. Go back right now and revisit that place. I think it's one of the best dungeons in the game. If you walk from helgen with rolof he talks to you the whole way and then has a scripted conversation with his sister when he gets there. It reminds me of the escape from the ic sewers in oblivion. So much better than the dungeons that show up later on.

There's also the added challenge of playing a level one character after playing a level 65 who is perpetually flanked by two dremora lords. Not much challenge there. But yeah the game is kind of like cigarettes. Awesome at the beginning but kind of a drag as time goes on. Pun intended.

You're not missing anything.

I actually haven't been to bleak falls burrow On my current character(level 17) I did travel to riverwood with Hadvar and had a nice conversation along the road while I was coming up with a plan to destroy the empire lalalalalastablalalalaala

I find playing low level characters much more fun than high level ones. Once they get too strong I "retire" them. Unless I start feeling exceptionally attached to them. Then I stick to them until they get quite overpowered, and force myself to finally make an ending for them. In the meantime I dedicate myself to roleplaying and developing the characters.

I play dead is dead, so as I am playing on master level it means I restart frequently. No finishing the mq anytime soon for me either. Actually I am thinking of not bothering with it at all with my next char.

I'm not going to retire this character. I've invested too much time and thought into his creation to just throw him away. And his character development is ongoing. Because I'm now playing Skyrim as more of an RPG rather than simply as a video game, once I've done everything in the game that my character is able to achieve, especially in a seemingly open-ended game like Skyrim, I'll get into modding new exploits and adventures for Chadric.

Level 1 character on master difficulty is easier than at lv 20. Just look at the stats (100 magicka, health and stamina). A wolf has 22 health, a bandit 35 h, etc. Novice mages have 50 hp but they compensate this by fluid movement so they are the most dangerous at this level.

I agree! I love Bleak Falls Barrow every time! And new characters are the most fun. I don't think the game or the dungeons get worse as the game goes on. I just think the character gets old.

Yes, this exactly. It's not even so much that the challenge is gone because I COULD bump up to Master. It's just that I get into a routine of using the same skills/methods over and over with an "old" character. Once I hit level 40, I need a new one!

At level 35+ things get easy on master level.

Same here.

How I get around the "challenge" aspect is I'll be playing it as a story of the character, not merely as a personal challenge to do this or do that in a game. It'll be as if my character is in a movie, and characters in movies don't just give up because they've become superheroes. Clark Kent didn't just give up once he became Superman. Nope, the comic writers found villains who could challenge him. Like I said, I'll be finding new challenges and upping the ante for my character once he's achieved his main destiny and defeated Alduin.

Ive got like 20 characters in skyrim, and i only got 4 past level 40, and i got one at level 49. I havent had the willpower to stick to a character to level 50. Not only is the game too easy, but by around level 35-40 ive usually got 2 or more skills at level 100. And if you're a warrior and your 2 skills at 100 are onehanded and block, then you dont get experience for killing guys. The only way for that character to level up is by letting myself get hit forever for armor skill, smithing, or using skills out of that archetyoe (picking up magic skills on your level 40 warrior, just for the sake of leveling).
So pretty much my characters come to a stand still level wise around level 35-45, and for me, i HATE playing RPGs once you get to the point of not leveling anymore, then its not an rpg, its banjo kazooie. (like fallout 3 and new vegas, theres no point in playing anymore when you level cap)
It would have been nice if they made skills go past 100, but they get exponentially harder to level up for every level after 100. Then id be able to play my characters longer.

Most of my characters are not exactly "heroes", nor are they Dragonborn. But even after "retirement" they're still around, doing their usual business. They don't disappear, I just decide not to play them anymore and then try to imagine and maybe write down the rest of their life.

I don't retire my characters but sometimes I'll lose all my gear and have to use found loot- scavenge an iron sword and boot from some animals cave. There are a few quests where you get captured but they don't even take the time to put your loot in a conveniently labelled loot chest.
It would be nice if the next dlc brought in some high level baddies that I want to run away from like they did with fallout. Super trolls or the mighty dragon of asskickery.

That's the thing though, I started out with a pretty well developed idea of who my character was and his whole psychology from the very start. I also played him as if he was going to be an unwitting superhero saviour of Skyrim. He starts out small at the beginning, a simple merc wanting to help out in a civil war, but then finds a bigger purpose. Being a long term fan of the movie Excalibur, I had that scenario in mind from the start, a guy who stumbles over his destiny by pure accident, and goes from being a nobody peasant to being a big hero. With King Arthur his destiny was to pull the Sword in the Stone, with Chadric it's to defeat Alduin. But like Arthur, that's just the beginning of the story....

woa, what?
Every quest that takes all of your gear, gives it back at some point. If you get arrested, you have to grab your [censored] from the evidence chest on the way out of jail (if your breaking out) otherwise they just give it all back.
Either you hit some glitch, or you missed grabbing your stuff.
But bethesda purposefully made this game idiot proof for things like that. For example; you cant get trapped in a dungeon anywhere, they always make a way out of every pit in every dungeon, or you cant drop quest items, or kill quest givers.

The thread of prophecy has been broken...



...reload or continue in this doomed world!