I'm playing a full Mage, destruction and restoration are my main. Illusion and conjuration for distractions ect.

I only really make potions to sell, and I've noticed that even a few extra points in alchemy make potions visably more powerful.

Is it worth putting perks into it?

And as for an enchanting, everything I've ever made is rubbish, or it's overpowered?
Not to mention tedious.

With no perks in Enchanting, no wonder your enchantments are no good. The difference you saw in the potion strengths and values is the same kind of increase you see in Enchanting.

So, yes, if you are going to use these skills, they need to be Perked, at least to some extent. If you are not going to use them, or just duff around with them, then focus on Alchemy as it can get the most use. Simply because you don't enchant as often as you brew.

I've found I can make potions of pretty high value using quite common ingredients, so Ill probably leave Alchemy, I might add some perks later.

I'll give Enchanting another go.

Thanks

I would say yes to Alchemy, the profit from that skill alone is insane. If perked all the way you can brew some devestating poisons and some of the best potions.

I have the same style mage now, Illusion/Conjuration. For enchanting I put 3 points into the bottom perk and then went up the middle to the top. I didn't need either side of the tree and the main goal was to get dual enchants so I could have magicka use reduction for both illusion and conjuration. I only put 3 points into the bottom because I didn't want my enchants to be overpowered.

Alchemy would be more useful for a Destruction mage and especially for a Thief/Assassin type. I don't feel a need for it on my illusion/conjuration mage because the illusion spells already include some of the most useful potion effects. Most of the time I'm making enemies kill themselves or my Dremora Lords do it. I conjure a bow pretty often and I do use the poisons I find on it but not enough to justify alchemy. The points are better spent elsewhere.

My playstyle makes putting points into those skills not really worth it. I just use enchanting to make a breathe underwater ring or necklace and use alchemy as a money maker while making weak healing potions, as well. I might put a point or two into alchemy just so my potions are stronger, though.

I'm Gonna dabble in both, for the fortify magicka potions, and regen rate ect for enchanting.
Thanks guys

maybe yes, maybe no

it all depends on you

personally id say yes to enchanting

idk why but i was only ever into alchemy back on morrowind

Well, you can exploit enchanting and alchemy to buff your character to a ridiculous degree.

I don't want to OP my character, so I'm not gonna put many perks in

Got both Alchemy and Enchanting at the top, while Pickpocketing and Lockpicking saw little attention. Just depends on what you want to do. (I'm a lvl 71 Mage, playing on Master diff) I've enchanted a helm, ring, and necklace, each with a 25% Alchemy boost that i'll toss on just before whipping stuff up. I do need potions--I do not need Pickpocketing.

Most potions are worth $1400 on avg. My latest batches of Paralyze potion freezes 'em up for 26 seconds--long enough to beat the stuffing out of them. I make Health, Magicka, Invisibility for myself --(and health potions for my wife, who seems to use quite a few during battle). Damage Health and Paralyze is for the unfriendly--everything else is made to sell.

Didn't take long to get to $350,000 with Alchemy. So, one has to ask, "do I want to make a $1000 off a single potion, or spend years collecting $8-$10 at a time from burial urns?

You can completely break the game with alchemy/enchanting, and I really do mean "break". I created a fortify enchanting potion with a 8541186% bonus for 30 seconds and it crashed to desktop when I went to enchant with it. I could have gone even higher. The potion is worth 84,655,432 and that's not my record.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5856/screenshot8fh.jpg

I even toned it way down and created a ring with only 508% to alchemy and smithing, and it's still overpowered. I improved my gear and now every battle is trivial. I improved my bandit chief dead thrall's gear and he's like a god.

I'm going to find out the max % bonus you can get for fortify alchemy without using foritfy restoration potions and use that instead, so that potions and eventually the enchanting I do aren't so overpowered.

You don't need perks to do this, and I do recommend you don't do this because suddenly the game is no fun.

Most of my characters are pretty alchemy heavy, & I can vouch for the fact that a particularly powerful poison, or potion can save your life. Plus, alchemy can make you obscenely rich in minutes. The only perks in that tree I don't particularly care for are experimenter.

As for enchanting, I only use armor enchants. So I only put perks up the middle line.
But the armor enchants are helpful, & I do love double enchantment.

It really depends upon your playstyle. Just remember one major point - perk whatever skills you use, and use whatever skills you've perked. If you just want to dabble in alchemy or enchanting, one point in either is all you need. That 20% bonus for the first point is a huge improvement. The one thing to remember is that it is very very very easy to level yourself up with either of those skills, and if you don't use what you've made with them, you can find the enemies are tougher than you can handle with your primary magic skills.

Enchanting: Soul trapping is quite easy, and improves your conjuration skill rapidly if you use it every encounter (you don't even have to have a soul gem to use soul trap). The hard part is just having enough soul gems to use. Enchanted items sell very well, and if you sell to the court mage, you can buy all his soul gems, sell your enchanted stuff and still make a tidy profit. (Edit: Dwarven ruins are some of the best places to go hunting soul gems - not to mention Blackreach!!)

Alchemy: If you're a packrat, alchemy may be more your style. The main drawback of alchemy is all the different ingredients you have to gather, and then find what combinations work for you (looking stuff up online makes that process simple though). Potions tend to have the best value to weight ratio as far as carrying stuff around goes.

All told, if you never use enchanting or alchemy, you're really not missing much. I'm a packrat IRL, so all of my characters before now have been serious alchemists. To get away from that, my current character never drinks ANY potions, and I only gather ingredients for quests. At first I had a few problems, but I adjusted my play style (and perked my skills appropriately) and I am now level 48 or so and having a blast. (As a matter of fact, I am playing a destruction/atronach mage who also uses restoration heavily, so I'm not too dissimilar from you). This is only the second character that I've perked the enchanting tree with, and I can tell you that while it does make things easier, you don't need it either.

Me, I'd rather be dependent on my spellcasting skills and combat tactics than on enchanted gear and potions.

I take one line of enchanting perks all the way up to double enchantment. Then I break out the Daedric Armor, Daedric two-handed sword and Grand soul gems.

Depends on your play style OP. I would say play around a lot, have a save to go back to or make a new character. Now what you like then make that strong. Then switch it all up and play different another time.

My current character is kind of Paladin/Templar. I can go 2 hander which is my main, or switch to one hander and sheild in a tough spot. Secondary is restoration, which means I rare need potions beyond those I find, so alchemy is not so much a use. This is the first time I have utilised enchanting and it is quite OP at the top end, so you must also be aware of what you want limited in terms of difficulty. I personally love walking into a Forsworn camp taking them all down barely taking a scratch, but this can become boring without a challenge.

if your not gonna be wearing armor then i wouldn't worry about your character getting OP, but make sure to put a lot of points to your health and magicka, but you dont wanna be to slow in case you gotta make a quick getaway

My understanding is that any crafting skill has the potential to make your character very OP.

So I tend to place restrictions on my characters which fit with the RP i have adopted.

So right now I have Knight of Arkay who wears only steal plate armour (nothing else would make sense) and a few perks in enchanting to decrease restoration costs (won't make it cost nothing). Prevents my character from becoming OP and ruining the game. He also refrains from looting the dead (quest requirements are an exception) as this shows a lack of respect for the dead.

I tend to do this with all my builds, making your character god like then moaning about the lack of challenge in the game is kinda confusing to me. Also the restrictions prevent me from having hundreds of thousand of I septims have more than a few thousand.

I got 100 skill level in alchemy, enchanting, and smithing. It took a lot of repetitive work except for alchemy. I also got 5/5 in enchanting and alchemy perks. I did not make overly powerful potions for enchanting and smithing. I only made basic potions for those. Even so, this has made melee combat a little too easy. Also I don't care about the special weapons and armor from dungeons anymore, since I can make better weapons and armor. However I still get killed easily from fire attacks by dragons because I haven't made any apparel to protect me from fire.

My advice is DON'T put a lot of extra effort, time, and perks into upgrading your enchanting, alchemy, and smithing as fast as possible. It kind of spoils the game.
Just play normally and let these things build up at a normal and natural rate of progression.

I recommend you just make yourself powerful enough to the point where you just don't get your ass kicked too easily and be humiliated frequently in battles. You want the game to still be challenging.

Ive decided to do only the middle line of Enchanting.
A couple in alchemy.
They're my main money makers ??
I'm focusing on Destruction, alteration (Magic resistances)
Restoration for the recovery perks (extra magic regen.)

I use smithing to make jewellery from gold ingots (I use transmute) for enchanting.

It works, Im only doing what suits my character, as I'm hoping to enchant some armor soon

Yep I had that problem. I reached level 40 without spending any points in any trees except smithing, enchanting and alchemy, and combat was quite difficult at times. My level was way higher than my actual combat skill. I used conjuring to help me defeat the tougher enemies and so that also reached 100.

However, once I reached 100 in all three and finally smithed, improved and enchanted my gear, combat became laughably easy. With my dead thralls, their upgraded gear and my follower there's nothing I can't do. I can wipe out entire towns without doing anything. Literally. I can stand there and my thralls and follower kill everything in sight.


Exactly. If you aren't careful it can spoil the game. You have to actually plan how much of a bonus you want so that the game doesn't become too easy, and even then a lot of the "magic" is gone. You won't care when you find a particularly nice weapon or armor because it will pale in comparison to what you can make. You won't care about encountering a tough boss because nothing is tough. Dragons become a serious nuisance because they pose no challenge and lose all sense of epicness. Pair that with 100 conjuring like I did and the entire game becomes a cakewalk. It's like playing with god mode on.

I'm using alchemy for poisons and resor. Potions, and others (unless they say, fortify archery) I sell.
But I don't make crazy powerful potions, I make what I need

Having RP restrictions helps, I only carry about 10 poisons, and the same for health/stamina ??

I've invested in alchemy, though only the potion perks. I don't plan on picking up snakeblood or purity.

My warrior/ranger relies on alchemy potions for healing, and selling the potions is his main source of income. When adventuring, I'll pick up every alchemy ingredient that I come across, and buy from the alchemy shops. Then, when I get back to town, I make potions and sell everything that isn't a restore health/stamina potion.

If you don't spend any perks into alchemy, your potions/poisons won't be of much use, as they are very weak without them. With perks, you can double their strength.