After only needing to max out Mage skills to get to level 81, I went to the College of Winterhold and started power leveling my character.

I've noticed that most if not all the Mage skills can be maxed out in a short space of time without ever engaging in combat.

Example

Conjuration & Destruction

Repeat Cast Conjure Storm Attonarch & kill it with Ice Spear.

Restoration

Repeat Cast Circle of Protection

Illusion

Repeat Cast Courage on NPC's around College

Alteration

Repeat Cast Magelight

With the exception of Conjuration & Alteration which I ended up power leveing the last 25 levels by standing on top of a rock outside the range of a live troll in Crystaldrift Cave, and repeatedly casting Bound Sword & Iron Flesh, I managed to power level my self to 100 without even going out of College of Winterhold.

As a result I believe warrior combst skills should do something similar in game by allowing a progressive leveling, while practicing on certain dummies or shooting at a target in training grounds.

I think training dummies should count for something.

When playing Oblivion I often wished I could level combat skills on the targets in the Fighters' Guild houses, however at the same time I recognized that being able to do so would have been a bit 'cheap', as you really should need to be in combat to level combat skills. That said, I wouldn't object to being able to do so in Skyrim, since 1) low-level combat is pretty rough and 2) to reach level 81 you have to level skills you aren't actually going to use on that character.

I'm going to be increasing the number of training sessions per level instead once the CK comes out, so that I actually have a use for all the money I amass, but unfortunately those on console don't have that option, so it'd be nice if Bethesda 'activated' the training dummies so they'd have a way to do this too.

I'd like to make training dummies actual hostile creatures with 10000 hitpoints. Sure, they can't move or fight back, but that would make them viable targets for everything, including archery and destruction magic, too. You'd have to give them a custom faction so only the player would want to beat them up and so no one would try to join in or stop you. Hilariously, the fight music would crank up every time the player walked by one of them, and you wouldn't be able to fast travel while standing near one, but that's a small price to pay, IMO.

-Loth

Edit: I'd probably mod in a hidden custom perk for "killing" at least ten dummies... call it "Practice Makes Perfect" that gives you a permanent +5% experience gain or something.

you can power level your warrior skills...its called fighting.

allow yourself to be hit by low level draugr .. armor goes up.

use 2handed weapon...2handed weapon goes up.

etc.

I'd rather they closed the loopholes that make levelling mages so easy rather than add more for other skills.

what loophole? You cast a courage spell on a guy, your illusion goes up. cast telekinesis, your alteration goes up. How is it a loophole?

that is very true at lower levels.

everytime i cast oakskin i level up in alteration

everytime i cast bound sword ilevel up in conjuration

Works if you like to "play" the game that way. I have a lot more fun just leveling as I go.

Leveling mages really isnt as easy as it sounds at the beginning of the game as one cant afford the gear to regen their magicka fast or potions to restore it so they are stuck waiting for it to restore on its own. End game was a different story as I had the gear to regen my magicka at 400% and could afford the spells that allowed me to power level each individual skill.

I wasnt really able to max out my mage schools until i could afford to freely enchant gear with 25% cost reduction modifiers. For some reason, toldfir sold me a mass paralysis scroll even though my skill was only 25 at the time. needless to say, i was able to max out that school in less than 15 minutes.

in the end it didnt add anything to my enjoyment as i was already level 60 when i started power leveling skills and enemies stopped scaling at ~50.

And the thieves can play hide and seek with the kids.