So I've been doing mostly side quests, trying to cut down on the miscellaneous. Well, needless to say, because my char is an archer-sneak-based guy, and I've levelled bow to 100, everything dies and no enemy is too powerful anymore.

I think it's frustrating that if you stick to what your character is supposed to be, that at level 41, you can max out that proficiency and be so powerful. Is my character not supposed to wear items that increase his specific talent? Am I not supposed to make the highest quality bow for him? I mean, realistically, this is what an archer would do. He'd try to get the best bow, right?

What am I supposed to do now? Expand into other skills my char is not supposed to be good at? I've practically stopped playing because I just breeze through quests that seem more tedious than challenging.

Make a new character and do something else.

Try ice hockey. Rewarding sport

In this game they developed it so a close range skill and long range skill are used, so try one handed and daggers. That will add a little more. But Im sure they will increase the skill level with expansions cuz my smithng skill and destruction skill say "next level, 101"

Yes! I think the game gets boring over level 30. Do something completely different.

Realistically, an archer would either be happy that is he can now do missions at little or no personal risk, or be bored and quit the business. Fortunately, you get to decide if "quitting the business" means retiring to a wealthy life (stop playing Skyrim) or picking up a new profession (levelling other skills).

Personally, I think someone that trained so hard as to be the best archer possible would have the drive to succeed, and wouldn't be happy retired. So they would pick up a new skill. That's what my character has done. After bow, he went to alchemy/enchanting, then to one-handed, then to magic, then to two-handed. I have done about 15% of the main quest, and plan to get to it someday.

Are you playing on master difficulty? If not, turn the difficulty up.

Are you playing on pc? If so, there are plenty of mods available that make the game more challenging.

Interesting. So what you're saying is: Do not bother trying to do everything this game has to offer, because your char will become too good, and just throw away the hundreds of game hours to start a new character, and have the same thing happen on that one. Got it.

In a way yes. that's what we call REPLAY-ABILITY. Being able to make a new character, try different things and play styles, and do other quests. Why make a mage that is the Archmage, the Dragonborn, the Listener for the Dark Brotherhood, the leader of the Thieve's Guild, and the leader of the companions? Why not spread the game out a little bit and try new play styles?

This isn't some MMO where you are supposed to grind to the end game and just go after 100% completion. This is an RPG, it's about the journey not the destination.

If you are on Master then you probably have Enchanting and Smithing maxed. Couldn't you see this coming?

If you are on Master just using an ordinary bow and everything is too easy and you are bored, then you are too uber and should go play Dark Souls or Modern Warfare or whatever.

Look, I see what you guys are saying. But the problem remains that apparently I'm not supposed to do any side quests without fear that I'll max my specialization before the main.

Starting a new character just to gimp his abilities, and proceed along one narrow path seems foolish.

It IS an RPG, therefore, should my archer only be using a hunting bow and throwing away the ebony bows? The arguements to start a new character, throw away the hundreds of hours, and not use more than one specialty seems completely ridiculous.

Okay, he's a stealth character, so he should not be able to pick locks AND sneak, right?
He's an archer, so he should not use the better bow he finds, and use alchemy to poison arrows, right?
He's a melee character, so he should not be able to use block and single handed weapons, right?
If he's a mage, he should not be able to pick locks, therefore be unable to progress in dungeons through doors requiring lockpicking.

You do see how this seems ridiculous, right?

I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I'm just trying to point out, how silly the suggestion is to narrow one's focus to limit their gameplay experience.
If he's a thief/assassin, he should avoid everything, but the dark brotherhood and thieves guild questline.

The game was designed to go up to L50. That doesn't mean you will have a challenge until that level, it just means they playtested it until than and all beyond could lead to crazy stuff.

Of course one character isnt the other and the manner on hwo you reach L30+ is different for each. My Dunmer who had both dual-wielding, destruction magic as well as sneak abilities had a challenging time until he was L45. I actually had to decrease difficulty from L30 to L40.

So if you want the challenge back than increase difficulty. Or accept that this game is about becomming powerful and that the only way that is rewarding is that at some point you actually are powerful. Usually this means you won the game, there is no real ending so just stop playing. Restart or do something else for a while.

No, play however you want. If you want to be a mage that uses sneak or lockpicking or a Ranger who uses Enchanting, Smithing, and Alchemy, do it. The game was only designed to scale up to level 50 so once you get close to that or above it it will no longer be a challenge.

But I speak from experience that trying to do everything with one character is not nearly as fun as doing different parts of the game with different characters. But that's just my opinion.

Just finish the MQ and trade it in dude. We get one of these "I'm uber and I'm bored" topics every other day.

Maybe it is ridiculous but the game doesn't seem to be scaled for a do-everything character and you have to work around that.
In your example, it doesn't necessarily mean avoiding everything but DB and thieves but it may mean keeping yourself from developing any skills that are not absolutely needed to do what you want.

play dead is dead without adding any points to health on master difficulty.

You can play however you want, but for most people the only combination that will really bland the game out is smithing plus enchanting. As you level these skills, you can see what is coming.

If you don't have either, but it is too easy, then there is nothing much to say but try a different game.

what it means is that you now have first hand experience on how to make a godlike character. it's frustrating for you and so you asked for help on what to do next.

my answer is to use that gained experience to make a character that is not godlike, since, you don't like to be a god in this game. many do, including, me at times.
be more realistic in your roleplaying character.

what i now do is give myself 2-3 majors (can max) with 2-4 minors (50ish only) and strict rping, self-imposed guidelines. one offensive only for major, the proper use of enchant/smith/alchemy, proper use of perks, etc.

edit- like said, try DiD on master. serious fun.

If you specifically set out to create the most powerful archer the game allows, then it's a bit silly to complain that he's too powerful once you get him. Impose some role-playing based restrictions on your character and you'll find the game more challenging and the overall experience more immersive.
For example, I thought my mage character was too powerful so I decided to start playing him naked. It works from a role-playing perspective because my character is very concieted and confident, and now pretty much everything in the game one-shots me and I have to strategically choose what spells to use my mana on since it doesn't recover anywhere near as quickly.

What is silly is starting a new thread, asking for peoples suggestions on how to proceed then twisting everyone's responses and finish it off by telling us how silly our suggestions are.

Actually, I've found that the less skills you use, the more powerful you are. Because, since you focus so tightly on just a few of them, they gain power quickly (and get more perks in them).

My first character used a bunch of skills.... Sneak, Lockpick, Light Armor, 1-handed, Restoration, Smithing, Alchemy, Speech, Block. My first skill only hit 100 at level 48. (And yeah - I did alot of exploring and sidequests. Only did Civil War in the high 40's / low 50's, and the second half of the MQ in the low 50's.)

But I love leaving stuff undone on one character - gives me new things to do when I try another style of play. That first character, who I played to lv56? Didn't even end up visiting all the "major" cities. Only guild they did was Companions. Which is great - more stuff I can try on my next character.

Bradyz, no need to post this. Everyone is aware of this. The advice you get will be stupid. Until the CK comes out with mods to let you increase the difficulty and allow progression to continue, so you do not have to impose artificial nerd rules to your character and intentionally gimp yourself there isn't anything you can do. Your options are to be unsatisfied and continue the game, reroll, or quite playing. You don't like any of those options I know, I am in the same boat. However, not playing or playing in small sittings, is definitely easier to stomach than repeating the same crap or continuing on ez-mode.

Sort of. This is why I warn people to not make a character that beats the main quest, and becomes head of the fighter, mages, theives guild and dark brotherhood in one play through. It's better to plan out one type of character and stick to those attributes that way you can play the game several time through, in different ways, through different guilds, and have different experiences.

I am still on my first character, a Nord warrior. The only guild I joined was the fighters guild and I do not use magic or alchemy. I am saving that for a different character altogether.

What do you mean "throw away the hundreds of hours"? Wasn't you rewarded with cool gaming time, more than most competitors? I'm on my forth character, and I have completed a single quest line (thieves guild). The rest is pretty much untouched, although I inadvertently pushed the main quest a little too far with my first character. When my characters get boring, typically from getting over powered, I create a new one with a new set of abilities and disabilities. And I get rewarded with new "hundreds of hours", and unless you try to "play it all with a single one", there are several quests you may choose not to take because it doesn't suit your character. Today, I even played tag - never saw that one on my previous characters. Or, no other characters may join the thieves guild.

I agree there could be more challenge as you progress above 40'ish, but that also depends on how you progress. Watch Nagidal146's channel on youtube for inspiration on how to play the game, and not get upset by doing anything wrong.

I see all of your points. I appreciate the response.

Kiralynn said it best, that even if you limit yourself to 2 or 3 main perks, you can become overpowered which is what I've done.

If being a mage was similar to ES4, with spell crafting, then a playthrough as that would be more enjoyable.

Having my archer be at 100 in bow, 80+ in sneak, and 80+ in alchemy, with others being small has not worked at lvl 45. That's all I was saying.