I play to have fun. Making the game too hard just stresses me out.

Two days ago, I just killed everything with one hit, so I said "Screw this, I'm switching up to expert" (even though I usually avoid playing on higher difficulties. Now, Dragons are slightly more challenging (although I avoid them because a bug prevents them from giving me their soul) and so is everyone else, so I have to use tactics again, but I still feel like the greatest warrior alive.


Fits me perfectly

I'm mostly playing on Expert. And only using Iron armor and Steel Battleaxe as weapon. Even I'm curently level 72 in one of my character.
And when playing as mage, I'm only use clothing that have 50% magicka regen. Even curently at level 32. It's really fun when run out of magicka in the middle of battles, and I have to running around until I'm recorver my magicka.
In every of my characters I always died in 2-4 hits. So I have to tactical everytime.
I don't like being "God-Warrior".

When my character becomes high enough to make things easy I stop using all the best armor and weapons and go to whatever I want to use most. So right now I have a level 48 Bosmer wearing hide armor, and though I have the Daedric and Dragon perks I'm using an Ebony bow, and glass arrows because they look pretty cool. Also, a Stormcloak officer helmet and Gilded gloves suit the outfit but aren't the highest level. So I could have over 400 defence and instead I have less than 200. I could be doing 300 damage and I'm doing 2/3 that.

I use the gear that I like the look of, not the best stats wise, those high level ones usually look quite ugly. And I don't abuse any glitches or loopholes etc. And if it gets too easy I just up the difficulty level. Also I have a mod that increases dragon hp and damage.

It's not necessary for the mods I mentioned. I am just using the vanilla Skyrim launcher, haven't needed to install any mod utility or sorting programs yet.

Mods....Mods...and more Mods.

Well i tried out different mods, like some War MOD who adds a bunch of random events and stuff.. Didnt like it, so i run a clean copy of Skyrim with just a mod who gives me alternative to buy a tent for RP purpose.. Here is what i do to make the game harder..

* No crafting skills (Includes Enchanting)
* No magical weapons or armor (unless you are a mage then you can wear whatever robes and stuff you loot or get in reward)
* No magic using unless a mage character (includes healing spells)

Just you, your steel plate armor, a sword and a shield.. Happy hunting

I don't use Smithing, Enchanting or Alchemy or walk around with 50 Ultimate Healing Potions.

Dead is dead doesn't really make the game more challenging, just a lot slower paced. I could still be playing the same dead is dead character from launch if I abused Enchanting and Smithing.

All right. I guess I need to look into it a little further. From your posts, here and in other forums / threads, I assume you are just running with the Worhshop? I have been using NMM exclusively.

I like the larger selection and freedom to open a mod and just pull the elements I want to implement and simply making a Zip file from the desktop to use in NMM. That I can do but I read where it is highly suggested you create a bach file in Wrye to ensure it functions well with Phendrix.

It just seems so fitting for a mage NPC to have direct assess to all the spells you do. Especially spells implemented by mods, like "Slow Time". Hell..how many Mages have hit you with Paralyze, in the vanilla game?

This would truly raise the respect and fear that my warriors already hold for the Spellcasters of the game.

EDIT : Oh! I meant to ask...Do you have to be playing in 'online" mode to activate the mods from the Workshop? Or do they download to a folder on your machine?

I haven't used NMM yet, but I would imagine it should work fine with ASIS as well, no need to switch to the Workshop if you are more comfortable with NMM. Wrye Bash is not needed unless you have two different mods that change the same leveled list. I'd suggest to ask about compatibility with Phendrix in the http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1387123-wiprel-asis-thread-6/

As for downloading mods from Steam Workshop, you click "subscribe" to the ones you want, then they begin downloading the next time you start the Skyrim launcher. They download directly to your Skyrim/Data folder.

Last night, I wanted to fill a grand soul gem, so I went to a giant's camp, took my sneak stance, and fired off a deadric arrow with my new fire and ice bow against a mammoth. One shot killed it. This wouldn't have been that bad, if I were further in the game, but I haven't even discovered the Elder Scroll yet. I'm at level 52. Given how much more I have to go to the game, I felt too over-powered to really enjoy the game and realized I'd just be going through the motions to complete it.

I have no one to blame but myself, and I know it. Sure, Bethesda makes it easy given how the game's designed, but the ultimate choices were mine and I made them stupidly.

OpaAndy plays a Level 1 game, and I love the idea. So much so, I'm taking a cue from it and am currently working on a new game. Yes, I'm on my third game and I've yet to beat it once.

Based on my reading, Level 10 is the minimum I'll need to unlock the game's quests. So, here's what I'm working on to enhance my game play:
-Up to level 10, I may apply magicka, health, and stamina as I see fit. After level 10, these attributes are forbidden to modify.

-Perks are forbidden.

-Enchanted items are forbidden. I am not allowed to buy, sell, or create enchanted items. Enchanted items given to me as gifts may be kept for keepsakes only and can not be used.

-I may carry no more than 250 gold (traveling), but may save gold for larger purchases. Gold must be saved in my primary home of residence only (or the barrel in front of Warmaiden's until a home is purchased - it's game safe). I am forbidden to remove gold from temples and caves unless residents are living (non-animal). I am forbidden to take gold from dead dragons. I am forbidden to take gold from chests, urns, and other storage areas (exclusion: coin purses in the open). All gold must be earned through realistic means.

-I may sell ingredients to alchemy shops, but not potions.

-I may sell ores, ingots, and hides to weapon shops, but not weapons and armor. I may sell weapons and armor to traders, as well as other miscellaneous items.

-I am forbidden to carry weapons and armor I am not using. I am not to exceed 100 carry weight at any time.

-I am forbidden to carry more than 10 potions at any time.

-I am only allowed to carry the following weapons: 1 bow and 2 daggers. I may exchange the two daggers for 1 sword. I am still working out a maximum arrow carry based on game mechanics and quiver size, but let's face it: 100s of arrows is unrealistic.

-Fast travel and carriages (FT in disguise) are forbidden.

-I must sleep no less than 4 hours per day. I am forbidden to wait more than 2 hours.

-I must eat twice a day. This one's gonna be hard to remember, admittedly.

-I am not allowed to scale mountains with my horse.

-I am only allowed one residence at any time. This means if I take up residence in Riften, I am forbidden to use the house in Whiterun. All personal items must be removed from the non-resident home and considered "rented out".

-I am forbidden to craft my own weapons and armor, but am allowed to hone them. (level prevention)

-I am forbidden to use alchemy unless I've purchased a recipe. (level prevention)

-I am forbidden to take advantage of any game glitch in my favor (not that I did this anyway).


Well, that's about all I have worked out so far. I'm hoping this will keep the game balanced out much better. I know some creatures are stronger "out of the box", but that's to be expected. I shouldn't be able to fire off one arrow to take out a troll or saber cat, so I'm rather excited for this.

I'm not ready to slide the difficulty bar just yet, so I'll be playing adept for the time being. With the level cap at 10, and dungeons following suit, here's to hoping for a more realistic game play.

Feel free to add to the list, if you'd like. I'm open to new ideas.

Thanks for reading.

You must only eat food that you hunt and cook recipies. Eating raw bunny legs and buying food is prohibited

My Nord barbarian has to heal only by eating, no restoration, no potions. Feeling hungry, hes gotta hunt with a bow (this is hard since all animals are fast). No killing elks with an axe

I just don't level any of the crafting skills. Smithing/Alchemy/Enchanting. Unless RP says otherwise.

As a player, I shouldn't have to do odd or strange things to make the game more difficult.

"Use only 1 piece of armor and a bow with no arrows, there's your challenge!"

Um no. The player shouldn't have to do such outrageous things.

I play the game on master setting and it's still so easy my follower can kill things for me while I drink a cup of nightshade tea in the background. They really need to add additional difficulty levels to this game.

Yeah, I did go into alch/blacksm/enchant but why should that be reason for imbalance? Shouldn't the game have been play tested so this couldn't have been so OP? It's not like I cheated somehow, I just played the game and leveled this stuff legitimately.

Yeah but we won't get any additional difficulties or a hardcoe mode and thats why many of us feel the need to restrict ourselves to make additional playthroughs fun and not repetitive. Its also for the role playing aspect of the game.

Instead of gimping myself beyond all recognition to engineer a challenge out of Skyrim i use mods to increase the difficulty.

Unlevelled mods, Monster mod, Monsters wars mod, Various other mods that change the NPC AI & enable them to use perks & more spells etc etc, I have no problem in choosing all the perks i want as this is a single player game & there is no cheating in any of it.
Instead of having to continually limit yourself the game should at least meet you in the middle to offer a challenge, Bethesda implemented the smithing/enchanting tree & should have ensured that this was balanced rather than the players impose questionable limits on themselves.

Play as a pacifist. Only use calm spells.

Play as healer.. Let your follower do the battles and you stand back with heals

Just simple things that add up.

Consequences of rp choices mostly.

I choose gear primarily for looks... the best armour in the world will be sold if it's ugly to my eyes.
Same with weapons, I nearly always keep using certain weapons long after they are starting to become outclassed by both my level and the enemies levels.
I favour hoods and clothes over helmets and armour so am always short the equivalent AR of one or the other or both and subsequently don't have enough reason to bother with any of the "matching set" style perks either.
But I'm also not using any form of magical protection, so often I'm only protected by boots, gauntlets and my weapon (always one 1h sword, use it to block and bash also).

I also can't stand inventory diving during combat, I tolerate favourites because I think of them as being "on the belt" but if all the potions in my faves are used up I will flee rather than open my inventory.

Also I switch outfits a lot depending on what I'm doing, and I observe the no change rule... no changing outfits once combat has begun (red dots/battle music kicks in).
I have fought an elder dragon in only a blacksmith apron and ragged cap (not "naked", had boots on lol), the post battle gathering of townsfolk to view the carcass felt much more satisfying when I felt like one of them.

But yeah, all that keeps combat on a nice level for me... not crazy tough, but you can't get complacent either... playing on expert btw.

I'm on the fence about no/minimal UI, I never have markers on and turn the whole thing off quite a lot... but it's quite a steep curve to be alert enough to avoid death (heartbeat warning only kicks in when you're really getting low) consistently and have the patience and diligence to manually search for quest "spots" (like some random npcs house you need to rob or w/e).

This makes exploration quite challenging (and takes a lot of time... which is a plus for my style of play), directions need to be known by checking the sun/moon/stars, landmarks need to be remembered, I don't do it all the time but at some point I'll be so fluent in navigating the world I can just leave it off permanently (archery sans crosshair is another issue... need moar practice).

...and that's how I play TES games on my summer vacation.

That was brilliant ! i might steal that "rule" for myself if you dont mind

And i might actually add a limit of potions, like 10 healing and nothing else.. Cause i wonder how one could fit 100+ flasks in a backpack (that is not even visual) Along with all the other junk one collect

classes. They all preform more or less the same, all are "warriors." I think I will do the Khajiit and Algonian Races next to see if they act differently as some posts have said.

I don't know what happened to the first half of the above post--must have accidently deleted it. It was rambling anyway.
I am guilty of trying to carry a weapon for each situation I anticipate. One problem I have (other than excessive weight)is weapons that say they do this or that to characters of or up to a certain level. How do I know the characters' levels? It is not going to do me any good (and will probably do me much bad) if I am using a weapon (or staff) that inflicts damage on characters up to level 8 if all opponnets in the vicinity are level 13!

I agree. the challenge should be built into the game mechanics. I really wish the devs would learn from the modders. The modders actually change the way the NPC's react in combat. The combat is much more strategic. The devs idea of making the game more challenging is just adding health to the NPC's. That really doesn't have anything to with making combat more difficult.

I decided to make a batman character, ebony armor, only unarmed attacks, max out speech, smithing, enchanting and alchemy but not use any of them except improved unarmed attacks but with weak level enchanting, that way I get the levels from the crafting but not the advantages they give