I should have started this discussion a long time ago. Never really bothered with it.

I will list below some really cool features that have helped me. Feel free to add your own as well.

Instead of making a bunch of messages, I'm just going to edit this one and add them as they come along.

1. Tactical Leveling

- Perfect for those of you who play on Master Difficulty, like myself.

- All you have to do is hold off when it's time for a new level, and use it as an extra
health/magicka/stamina boost when in the midst of battle.

- Of course you can only use this one time, until you gain an additional level.

2. Crouching Assassin, Hidden Companion

- All you have to do is add the muffle enchantment to your companion's boots.

- Doing so will allow you and your companion to sneak without being detected by sound.

3. Mage Assassins

- Take advantage of the "Rune Master" perk in Destruction if you are a mage or a stealth-based mage.

- Using runes alongside with arrows to distract your enemies allow you to make your own traps.

4. Mind Your Surroundings

- If you are fighting or sneaking, know what your environment has to offer before you become aggressive with the enemy.

- There are traps, mounted weapons, and pitfalls that you can use to gain advantage over your enemies.

5. Work Comes First Before Play

- While grinding skills such as artisan or recreational skills may get you a handful of levels early on, be sure to keep your main combat skills higher than any of them, whether it be destruction, one or two handed weapons, or your bow.

- You can train your main combat skills outside of combat if you wish, but you have to find something to strike.

6. Facing Dragons

- There is always some kind of wall or large piece of ruin around when you are fighting a dragon. Even a tree is useful in these situations.

- Be sure to take cover behind something. Dragons in most cases will burn you to death if you aren't hiding.

7. Use Your Shouts!

- Shouting was made for you to use, not to collect.

- If you are having trouble with a powerful character, use Unrelenting Force or Marked for Death to make your fight easier.

- Animal Allegiance is good to get your hands on early in the game. It will allow you to avoid death in a fight with an ambushing Sabre Tooth Cat or turn the Mammoths attention towards the Giants.

- Become Ethereal is one of my personal favorites. It will give you time to heal yourself in the middle of battle, or survive VERY large drops. Just be sure to use it before you jump off the cliff.

8. Mage Tips

- If you're using robes only, be sure to have your highest shield spell constantly going.

- Always be prepared to summon your best creature (depending on the battle) before entering a fight.

- Use Frost against warriors, animals, beasts and fire dragons.

- Use Fire against anything except fire mages or flame atronachs.

- Use Lightning against other mages.

- Just in case, always keep a bow and pick up arrows when you can. When you run out of magicka, the bow and arrow may just save your life. This is especially for races other than the high elf.

9. Stealth Tips

- Stay in the dark. Line of sight is the best way for enemies to detect you.

- Use your arrows to direct the enemy's attention elsewhere, also maybe drawing them out of a nearby crowd.

- If you're a khajiit, take advantage of Night-Eye. Night-Eye allows you to see in the dark without shining any light on your location.

- Disenchant muffled boots and make your own pair. Doing this will save you a bunch of perk points.

- Use traps to your advantage.

10. Combat Tips

- In perks, Heavy Armor is more effective than Light Armor.

- One-Handed in general is a better strategy than Two-Handed. You have the option of using a shield or dual-wielding two weapons.

- The bow is a decent weapon by itself. However, registering perks will make it even more deadly.

- If you're choosing to become a Warrior or an Thief/Assassin, be sure to have almost as much stamina as you do health.

- Pure melee Warriors do not last very long in a battle with a dragon. Be sure to have some kind of ranged weapon/spell/shout in your arsenal.

Are you saying that Heavy Armor is better than Light armor for an assassin?

Using shock against other mages is pointless. Even if they are constantly casting, it will be one in an hundred times you reduce their magic to 0 before they die or you run out of magic. Shock seems to be there more to inconvenience the PC when attacked by large groups of mages with it.

Dragonrend lets melee warriors fight dragons hassle-free.

In my experience, regardless of class, you should have more stamina than health or even magic, It is easily the most important attribute for many reasons.

Yes. Maybe not for roleplaying, but with spells/enchantments and the steed stone and later the conditioning perk, you can make it weightless, completely silent and of course it has higher armour rating than light armour. The only benefit light armour has over heavy is Wind Walker, which combined with the Lady stone or certain foods and enchantments makes stamina regenerate at an impressive rate.

Actually, yes. Khajiit can take up Heavy Armor if they use a muffle enchantment.

As far as the weight goes, just use the perk "Conditioning" to counter-balance the weight and movement issue. Want to save a bunch of perk points without going through "Fists of Steel" and "Cushioned?" Just find and use "The Steed Stone" which acts almost exactly like the Conditioning perk.

Either way, if you have muffle on your boots, you also won't need the "Muffled Movement" and "Silence" perks in the Sneak tree.

In my experience with mages, shock has always worked against a mage, making them almost useless to attack. The only time you will have a problem with it is when a mage spots you and constantly uses wards. It works great if you get a pre-emptive strike on them. Even so, if you are facing the mage one-on-one, you can just approach them when their wards are up and force them to pull out a dagger, then you can kill them with ease.

The only problem with Dragonrend is you don't get it until you are almost completely finished with the main storyline. The tips are for newer players who are looking for some good tips to use while playing.

Rewards may be more than what they initially appear to be.
-If you aren't running a thief/stealth character, and try not stealing items. After doing a quest look around the person's quarters for items that may have been marked as owned, now open for you to take. These items respawn as well. Nice source for extra potions, ingredients, soul gems, whatever.

Wow...these are actually really good tips. Although I don't play on Master, I applaud you for the time you put into this.

You should still always use it. Mages often use restoration spells, and in conjunction with a ward, you may be able to deplete and at the same time force them to use up all their magic. Definitely worth it.

Thanks. I'll add some more. I promise.

Always take out the weakest enemies first if you can. It's better to fight one strong healthy warrior than two weak warriors and a badly injured strong one. In real-life tactics there are exceptions, but the factors include morale, chain-of-command, situational convenience, etc., and only morale is applicable to Skyrim, and even then it's almost never in a point of leverage, unless you use illusion and... you know what? Just kill the weak ones.

With perks and without the restoration potion exploit, shields are the single most powerful piece of equipment in the game. They have a guaranteed stagger on enemies, block a large amount of damage, nullify arrows, cause enemies to lose morale and become more likely to flee each time you bash with them, deal large amounts of damage with the relevant perks and block half of incoming magic. They can also boost your time alive greatly when under pressure from many enemies, giving a follower time to save you. A lot of people underestimate them I think because they're pretty whatever in the beginning and were absolute [censored] in past games, so you may want to include a bit about that.

Ironic that they waited until introducing dual wielding to make a shield actually worth having.

In Riften, don't drop anything unless you want everyone dead. Fights will break loose.

Yeah. Shields rock. I'm a big fan of them myself.

Haha oh my god. I am so going to try that.

...I'll be right back.

EDIT: GLAWRIOUS.

Don't feed the Chaurus, that is all.

Everyone loves the Riften insanity mode for some reason... Huh.

Trolls are overrated. Chaurus are way more provocative!

Turn off the compass, don't fast travel, don't call yourself a hero and still loot every body and urn you see. If you're playing as a Nord, don't disturb the dead. If you're playing as a Khajiit, don't stay in the snow. Make sure you eat and sleep every day. Don't drink random potions you find on the ground - who knows what they'll do?

...RP'ing =/= power play.

And if you're an Argonian live among the fish. Act like the fish. Become the fish.

If you're a Bosmer... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8LBpMuSTrQ
Or act weird either way.

Actually, I spend only one or two perks in armor, anymore. Those are only in Juggernaut, for my warriors. I spend none in Light armor. Especially for any assassin builds.

My assassins seldom get hit and my warriors have a bazillion HPs. I found no need for the armor trees.

Thanks for the laugh, TS.