I've always been a pure Mage or a sneaky archer. I'm going to try my first sword and shield warrior. He's doing the main quest and the companions quests. Tips?

Shield bash will become your best friend. Utilize it and swrod & board can be one of the easiest builds to run in the game.

Use light armor, a shield, and a a one-handed weapon. Be berserk, like a Viking.

Basically, be a Stormcloak. It feels better like that.

I've always used light armor. I wanted to try heavy armor. Both can hit the armor cap though so I guess I might as well go with the lightest.

Heavy's only useful if you either prefer the looks over light or you want to build for fists.

Make heavy use of your shield, or go two handed and use sword in both hands to dish out massive damage. Also you need to constantly move and attack, also if you are outclassed run.

Alchemy is also anybody's friend make heavy use of it for health and stamina as you will need to keep your health up so you do not die, and you will need to keep your stamina up for power attacks and running if you need to do so.

Never sneak (unless the quest asks you to), use the heaviest and best armor you can find. Run and charge head on into battle. Use 2 handed for less block power, slower speed, but HEAVY CRAZY amount of damage, go 1h with shield for faster attacks, shield blocks, but not as much damage (You can still block with 2h by the way). The rest is up to you.

With the perks thay boost your speed with using two weapons you greatly increase speed and few can stand toe to toe with you with later level gear.

If you're playing on Adept or lower, just go with what looks cool.

If you're on expert or master, really spec out your shield and health, especially early in game. You need to be able to take a lot of blows while blocking, and avoid one-hit KO (Execution trigger) if your shield is down.

As a front line attacker, your biggest, little known enemy will be Falmer. Mages and Archers are irritating, but have shieldspec counters, or you can just dodge. Falmer, when you're in Melee range will hit you a lot. And even if you block, the little bugger's poisons go through shields. This is even worse with the Chaurus and the Reapers, which can swarm and overpoison you, resulting in a poison-induced death even before your HP bar can fully fade in to tell you you're dying.

And if you're in a pinch or fighting something that outlevels you (Early Ancient Dragons, for example), Beef stew will save you a lot of grief.

Hmmm. Now I want to go 2-handed. But I want the perk that stops arrows.. And also Do you guys have any trouble against mages as a 2-hander?

Also I plan on maxing out smithing. I want to make most of my own gear

Any fighter will have issues with mages they can one shot kill you. The shield has a perk thay negates spell damage that would be something to consider. Enchanting would be something else to consider for reducing spell damage if nothing else. If you get the speed perks for duel wielding and you get the elemental fury shout and you use them in conjunction you can unleash a violent flurry of death hardly anything can stand against that. It's something I randomly tried out and its.something I only use for my strongest figures roleplaying wise.

Play how you want.. lol. If you want to roll a warrior then don't use magic or stealth. Maybe you'll realize you like some spell... use them lol.

Figure out if you want to be a sword and shield, or a two handed fighter right away. Both have advantages and disadvantages, with the sword and shield you natural get a much more powerful defence that is able to absorb a lot more damage and gives you time to think about your next move. It also blocks arrows and a shield you can get later allows you to even reflect spells back at the caster! With the two handed weapons you have more reach and alpha striking power, but no defence against arrows and will always suffer damage when blocking.

Smithing and enchanting are natural allies of the melee class, plan to invest gold and time in fostering these skills and you won't be disappointed by the time you reach level 20. In Fact, the real advantage of a melee class over the overs comes when you combine smithing with your gear.

Nord warriors are the brainchildren of Bethesda this time around so you really have to try to mess up.

That's all the advice you need.