i played the game for a fairly long time now but i never finished the main quest and a couple of the factions. my highest char is lvl 47. after searching tons of dungeons and lootin baddies, chests and doin the deadric shrines, the gear u find either weapons, rings, armour.....nothing has got me excited like morrowind did. does any1 even use the gear they find or does every1 jus smith/enchant.

I have a character that I have not played in this game yet that does not interact with NPCs. Which means no bartering or quests for money so they have to use only what they find.

The downside is nothing you will find is improved so that combat skills and perks become very important. Even then, combat will be a greater challenge, which is good or bad depending on how you look at it.

Nothing's ever really made me feel excited (Apart from my first few hours, obviously ) but I've never bought anything in game, it's all been found. The only thing I have smithed (Not counting the 100+ daggers for leveling) is a full set of daedric armor.

I use arcane smith only, so yes i do wind up using what i find. It is more interesting to me, and gives a thrill to loot.

My thief doesn't make anything. He only uses what he is given (or takes). He recently had to actually BUY arrows. He was not amused.

I haven't made anything or enchanted anything.

I beat the main storyline using only Dragonbane and Chillrend, unaltered.

I wear a mix of Nightingale Armor and a couple extra pieces I found.


That's it. I never even BOUGHT anything off merchants.


Everything I use I either stole, got out of chests or off of corpses.

i've had a few characters that only used the armor they found. one could smith it up, since, smithing was one of his primary skills, while, the another could not because it wasn't in his skill set.

my characters that don't use magic sell enchanted items after they're depleted.

there are many other similar rules like that i use.

for my DiD plays they all have strict rp rules.

For me, smithing and enchanting took the fun out of finding things. So this time, I am only using what i find.

I always make the best I can Smithing as soon as I get to Riverwood, and then I upgrade it also.

just remember, this game is about perks to flesh out your character. one can use the 3 trades to gain those perks and levelups WITHOUT actually using them in the game.

and, since, a huge fault of skyrim is that you don't have long to play your pre-planned character until waaay later in the game, this exploit can be used very effectively to play the type of character you want just a few hours into the game.

the vast majority of my equipment is found. I buy a few things here and there, sometimes smith something, but never much. I rarely even upgrade equipment.

My last character, a level 46 warrior, only equipped what he found through looting. He didn't craft any thing and he didn't buy anything from a merchant.

I don't take this approach with every character, but I do think it adds a lot of interest to exploring. It becomes vitally important to explore when your character's survival depends on it. And, as a bonus, you don't have to worry about gold. Not having to think about needing gold feels liberating to me.

Even if you only wear what you find, you can still improve it with the appropriate smithing perk, correct? If so, smithing could still be useful even if you never make anything from scratch.

I do it, but i wish that you couldn't improve weapons and armor with smithing. Basically if u wanted to play on the higher difficulties the crafting skills are a requirement for a warrior class.

My first character used only found equipment. My current character has lots of modded stuff, all gotten via console.

not sure i understand? i play on master without using the trade skills often.

They are not. I have played two melee Warriors into the 40s and 50s without Smithing. And also without Alchemy or Enchanting either. I did not encounter a problem.

I like smithing and enchanting a lot. It's true that they get really OP after you get them to 100, but I really enjoy making and improving gear.

Things that I discovered recently: Forsworn swords and bows are really good, as good as dwarven weapons, but only need steel perk bonus. Orcish armors are much better than steel armor, and weigh the same as steel. Wolf armor have the same rating same as steel, but much lighter.

when my khajitti thief/assassin runs out of arrows he goes to the imperial/stormcloak camps and pays them a lil........visit......of the poison tipped kind did you know that everyone of them carry up to 10 steel arrows

Everyone one of my characters only uses gear I find. I play on Master and this helps make it a challenge. On my Warrior I am not using any potions or enchanted gear at all. The only problem with this character is not the difficulty but the amount of time it takes to kill a simple enemy. I have such low damage that I have to take a while to kill something.

I've never tried Smithing, Enchanting or Alchemy yet. Maybe I will on my Paladin that I make later.

I just wish loot was more unique looking and ability wise. Because it's not the most rewarding game for loot that you find. There are a couple of items that I found that were cool but they didn't look unique and they're enchantments weren't very unique either.

I've been having a hard time enjoying Skyrim recently, so here Is what I'm doing.

I am playing my characters now all without smithing or enchanting. I only use the gear I find in dungeons or steal from people. So I will be dungeon exploring a lot more. Before hand you can just travel between towns and end up with Daedric armor with
Uber enchantments. I am also trying not to fast travel, but the lack of being able to increase movement speed is annoying.

My main/first character used a lot of "found" gear. Yeah, she had Smithing, but didn't really do enchanting. So any magic stuff I found was far better than what I could make. 50% frost resist boots, 50% fire resist shield, 20-30% bonus damage bracers, etc. (Heck, I was using Hide bracers, just for the enchantment, well into the 30's on that character.)

Smithing was used primarily to improve stuff, and to craft things for armor slots that I didn't have good found items for. Worked quite nicely. (This is Smithing not powerleveled - only hit 100 at level 48; and not using any superboosting methods. I had a +smith amulet and pair of gloves, and found a handful of potions during play, but that's the only bonuses I used. My best weapon at lv50, a found Daedric sword, did ~110 damage.)

I use the Treasure Hunter perk and I don't craft anything. I can confirm that dragonplate and daedric armor/weapons do show up in chests. So it's awesome when I find something to upgrade.

I've got 7 or 8 characters at varying stages of progression - one has abused smithing and enchanting to the hilt, a couple have not used any crafting and the others are somehere in between - they were/are all loads of fun - I love variety...

My current bloke is a sneak/thief pu55y cat and he hasn't bought anything except soul gems, lockpicks and some potions. He uses smithing to improve armour and weapons where possible, but is not investing any points in it. He makes jewelry for profit and will happily make use of the Arcane Blacksmith perk if he ever gets it but he's not holding his breath...

He does not use Enchanting at all except for recharging weapons using found or bought soul gems - he has a soul capture dwarven dagger that he uses to fill the odd gem from time to time - he backstabbed a Mammoth with it once to prove he could do it, but thought it was all just too much effort and prefers paying the wizards - much less hassle...

He is using Alchemy when he feels like it but can take it or leave it - Angeline and Arcadia usually have better potions than he can brew - see above re: hassle...

The only magic he uses is Healing - he uses flames when he has to - to burn a flag, or some beehives etc. - you know the drill, and sometimes he can't resist a nice big pool of oil with a dozen skeletons standing in it...