Hello community,

I'm playing Skyrim right now and I am about to reach level 2. I'm absolutely loving the game so far, but I have a situation I can't seem to figure out. It's about the attributes and skills system that skyrim uses. I understand what perks are and how the starsign trees work, and I have been reading several wiki and web-pages about this, but I am a litttle confused about the following:

1) From what I gather, using a skill (such as Lockpicking) will yield experience in that skill, leading to a level up of that skill after x amount of uses. How exactly does that affect your character's level? Does he just gain some experience each time you gain exp/a lvl for a certain skill?

2) Are there no longer attribute points to distribute when you level up? I read so many things on this that I'm just utterly confused now.

3) Attributes are things such as strength and intelligence etc, are items the only source for them?

4) In reading, I found http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Attributes article. The part where it explains "Level up attribute modifiers" and then "Strategy" makes absolutely no sense to me. Is this outdated or can someone explain it to me please?


Any additional info much appreciated, I'd like to clear this up

The article in the link is from Elder Scrolls IV (ie. Oblivion) .
Lots has changed for Skyrim so the article is no longer applicable.

You are correct in attributes being removed, they have been condensed into the three: health, magicka, and stamina. You pick which of the three you want to increase each level, and you get one perk point per level up to 50. The customization and character defining comes from how you choose to distribute perks. 50 isn't nearly enough to master them all, you have to specialize.

You get experience towards your total level by increasing any skill, I'm assuming that higher skills yield higher exp bonus.

Thanks guys that helped me loads!

You are correct in that assumption. The higher the level of the skill you're using, the more experience your character receives.

Thanks Baleroc.

Everything makes sense now. Apart from this other thing I just discovered. Guardian Stones! I just found my first set of them, and I don't quite understand how it works exactly.

From what I gather, it basically enhances the class's skills depending on which one you chose. I have http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Skill_%28Skyrim%29 available in the Stone set that I found.

My question is, does this limit you to these trees? From what I understand it boosts the progression of these skills, correct? Is this permanent? Can I activate 1 stone from each of the Guardian Stone sets that I find? The reason I'm asking is just because I'm curious whether the Thief class will lock me from crafting weapons for example, since that skill is sitting with the Warrior class. If someone could clarify this for me that'd be great

EDIT: I have another question regarding the Skills that you level up as you use them. Since they give you Experience as you level them up, can I essentially lock my character from being able to develop further? Say for example I use nothing but archery and stealing, and get these up high quite fast. Could that lock me from being able to rank another skill to 100 points when I reach a certain point?