ok i am. thinking about starting again as my char got a bit too much "jack of all trade"

how many skills should i focus on to be able to get the most of the char?

for examlpe

could i do:
heavy armor (or light armor and shield)
one handed
restoration
smithing
bow.
speechcraft.

In other word how many is too many? i am not talking min maxing i just want a bit more easy time with it.

I usualg pick 5 or 6 depending on what character ill play. My new guy will focus on 7. I have never really gotten very far but if you need to level every skill in order to cap at lvl 81 then what you have wont be too much.

I tend to say no more than seven - that's the amount of major skills you're allowed to choose in Oblivion, and any more than that in Skyrim will mean you can't put the maximum perks into each tree.

I think it all depends on what feels right for you. If you think your last character got too much "jack of all trades", then try to use less. Yeah, kind of vague and possibly not all that useful. Sorry.

(Me, I have a hard time limiting myself to a few. Even in pen-and-paper and class-based RPGs, I still tend to make characters with more varied abilities, rather than a couple powerful ones. Ends up being a problem in games that really require that level of strong focus, like D&D Online.)

aa ok and one other thing the guy i have now is using heavy armor i find it so that when i use that heavy armor (orc) + weapon it takes 210 of the weights and i have 310 left after this leaving me forced to choose the loot to keep (i tend to be a hoarder) what do you guys do to get that problem out of the way if you use heavy armor.

There's more than 81 perks in those skills, so you would still have to focus on particular branches of the skill trees. Dropping dual wield perks and specialising in axes would save a few perks

yep i am going to specialise in one branch this time.

Side comment..... see, I don't look at the skills like this at all. My first character (played up into the 50's) didn't have any skills except Smithing run up to the top perk. Most skills only had 4-6 perks in them - the upper ones just didn't seem all that interesting. And I didn't go 5/5 on the "add % more" perks either.

The whole "plan a character to max out N skills" thing is just foreign to my thinking.

I limit my skills. I usually go 4 per character.

Whatever armor, the weapon type of preference. (Block if one handed) Archery. And one more of your choice.

That is how I perk them. That doesn't mean I don't level other skills. I only perk 4 though.

I'm almost to level 60 now... I've dabbled about in everything...I already had to move difficulty from adept to expert to keep things interesting and I may have to move it to master. Right now my toon is at 100 in 1-hand, sneak, smithing, enchanting, light and heavy armor both. I'm in the 70's in blocking, archery, speechcraft and alchemy and working on those. Not much of a magic-user but trying to train illusiion also. Because it was my first run-through I saved my perks because I wasn't sure what they all did or how to spec. I now have like 17 unused ones and I am still overpowered and figure I could throw them away and it wouldn't matter. Probably you would need to use more of them for a more magic-oriented character... but even so I have NOT maxed out the smithing or the enchanting trees, I have NOT used any exploits. I can whup anything I run into with either dragonscale or ebony armor improved using potions I can buy in the shops.

My conclusions... this game is pretty easy. I need to try it on master but for standard settings there is no need to min/max stats...just persist in building up your character. Just do what is fun and don't be afraid to experiment.

My character is a hoarder and early in the game I threw a lot of points into Stamina increases to carry more stuff. At this point I can pass along these tips for hoarding:

1) Explore and clear the dungeon before looting stuff (unless you are a thief-type and don't plan to kill them).
2) After the enemies are dead you can do a loot sweep of the dungeon at a walk, with torches/magelight so you don't miss any goodies.
3) Gear and potions that boost your ability to carry weight are your friend.
4) Use the steed stone... 100 boost to carrying and weightless armor. Also the perks that make armor weightless are worth getting.
5) Dressers and wardrobes and coffins, if you can find them, are safer places to store things than chests.
6) Chest-type storage is safer than barrels... things will stay there for several days or even weeks.
7) Get a follower to help carry your stuff. Even if you want to sneak, you can park them somewhere until you are ready to gather loot.
8) Get a horse...then you can clear the whole dungeon and carry it back to town on your back.
9) Get a house to put your hoard.

I don't really do what most other people do, as in picking a set amount of skills. I just create a backstory and play from there if destruction fits my character I will use destruction, same with the other skills. At the moment I am playing my character with a war axe and shield, so obviously I use one handed, block and light armour. I may add more skills later in the playthrough. (If she makes it that far, DID.)

I'd say focus on no more than 8. 8 stretches it pretty thin, but you can still have a decent character. My current character is focusing on 6 - Enchanting, Smithing, Heavy Armor, Block, One-Handed, and Two-Handed.

thanks i will do this also but one questions if i buy a house will the loot go away if i put it in chest then? (i tend to keep all the dragon bone untill i can craft dragon armor and they are a bit heavy)

When I used to read about people starting several games and having several types of character I thought it was a bit odd, but my character is, like the OP, a Jack of All Trades, Master of None type. It's because he takes after me and has a short attention-span! So I'm now thinking of starting again, first with a male Warrior who's not going to use Magic, and then with a female Mage, who might occasionally use a Dagger, but will be predominently Magicka-based.

(It's just the thought of starting all over again...)

When you mention "starting all over again" the only thing you need to do again is Helgen, after that you can go wherever you like.

You need to attack, defend, restore and interact. So, one primary and one secondary weapon/attack skill, one armor skill, one way to recover (magic or alchemy) and then your interacting skills. To me these are the Lockpicking, Speech and Sneak skills. You can roll all three or one or none of these. Crafting skills are optional and can make the game easy or hard depending on your approach.

So, really all you need are 3 to 5 skills to be successful in this game. Each additional skill makes it easier or gives you more choices in how you approach things.

From my experience with 2 mature characters, it seems your level won't get past the 50s if you have a focused character. If you're after all the perk points you can get, you will have to go the "jack of all trades" route and level up all the available skills. The focused approach will leave you with very tough choices when you go assign those scarce perk points, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Player-owned houses are safe... everything you store in them will stay where it is. So are certain other locations.

Most dungeons respawn a lot of their loot and random creatures if you don't visit them for a while. And if you put loot in a chest that respawns, it will poof when that happens. Some types of containers never respawn though and that includes the dressers, wardrobes and coffins.


You can find details on the wiki at http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Containers#Safe_Containers

Go with 4 to 6 and you can specialize nicely.

If your character is really focused, you won't need to get all the perk points available. My current character is at 40 currently, and I have 5 perk points in reserve at the moment. Assuming I'll get to at least 50, that's 15 perks yet to be assigned. Right now, there is only 5 points I actually want to use, so that's 10 in reserve for whatever, since my character is extremely focused. I feel like I'm going to end up playing a few focused characters instead of just one jack of all trades.

Just perk the skills your character would use.

I'm currently playing a nord who wears heavy armor and wield a greatsword. He doesn't care about sneaking, being persuasive, crafting, magic, ... I only perk heavy armor and two handed (specialized in swords.) The other skills get leveled but only sporadically and they get no perks.

I hate how you are forced to use lockpick. I want to be able to bash open a chest or use magic to do so!! Lockpicking is a skill every character is forced to have.

I usually don't level up past level 30, because my character most likely won't live that long (dead is dead). But when I do, I usually focus on 5-8 skills. More than that and you're going to be weak, but less than that and you'll have extra perks that you can't put on anything.