After finishing up a few of my "backlogged" games, I finally made way way to Skyrim. I figured I'd finish off the 15-30 hour games before devleing into what looks like is going to be a 200-400+ hour game... =p

I'm more or less just starting out after the intro, I made my way to Riverwood and did the Golden Claw quest later finding out it was part of the MQ when I followed up with the Jarl's quest in Whiterun. So I made my way to the 7000 steps on the way to the Graybeards and basically got owned by a Frost Troll, prompting me to reload my last save, regroup and prepare for a tough fight.

So I sold off everything I had stashed and spent some time improving my gear, upgraded my Imperial Heavy set to Superior and my Ancient Nord Sword to Exquisite. Went back, still got owned. Dialed the difficulty to the easiest level, still got owned. It looks like my damage is not overcoming the Troll's regeneration.

That's not so much a bother for me since my plan is to train Smithing to 100 and spend a few perks, probably on the Heavy Armor side of the Smithing tree (for the cooler-looking weapons) but I will ultimately specialize in dragon scale light armor. So basically I've been travelling between Riverwood and whiterun, buying off raw materials to train my smithing skill on Iron Daggers. So far I got my smithing past 50 and I figure I should just train on iron daggers until I get some enchantments set up and I start crafting profitable gear from my smithing.

I was looking to expand into different towns so instead of having to wait 2 days for the Riverwood and Whiterun's stock to replenish. So I took a carriage to Winterhold and a Dragon showed up around the same time to harass the town (it felt like a scripted event). I felt pretty useless because all I could do was shoot arrows at it as it circled the sky and it was far enough away that I wasn't even sure if they were hitting it or not but somehow it went down, probably due to the Town guards also shooting arrows at it. I looted the dragon and wound up absorbing the dragon's soul.

So now I'm afraid to explore any more towns because I don't really want to deal with dragons, at least until I finish my crafting/training runs and have good enough gear and stats to get past the Frost Troll (or whatever it's called) and advance the main quest to the point where I know what the heck is going on with the dragons and I'm strong enough to take one down on my own and I'm basically actively hunting them down instead of tiptoeing around them.

So my main questions are:

• Should I avoid exploring new towns if I'm trying to avoid scripted town dragon battles or was the Winterhold Dragon attack a random event?
  
• Is there a point in the MQ were dragons are "triggered" so I can reload a save and avoid triggering them altogether so I can establish my "trade" and fast travel routes and have all my "base" skills that I want to train all trained up before I tackle the MQ and the dragons?
  
• Is there a house that I can purchase that does not involve me crossing over the MQ just in case I want to restart my current playthrough?

Anyway, thanks in advance for any insight thrown my way.

Dragons are random encounters after completing the first dragon battle outside of Whiterun (Dragon Rising, I believe).

You can buy the house in Whiterun because you've completed that quest.

Advancing the story a little further will disable dragon encounters until you continue the main quest.

Based on your feedback I will stick with my current playthough then and probably just save before I travel to a new town. Thanks for the quick reply.

1. Here is how you handle the dragons and towns. If you are going to Fast Travel to a town or Settlement, then just save first. Note, the Autosave once you arrive is too late for this. Go to the town, if you get a dragon (which can take a few minutes real time) then reload and Fast Travel to somewhere else and deal with the dragon. I travel to another place in the same Hold. Once the dragon is defeated, Save, then fast travel to the town. Note, you might have to go to a couple of places, or run some, then travel back to a place. But, when the game wants to throw a dragon at you, it will and now you can pick the place for it to happen.

2. There is a point in the MQ where the dragon attacks are triggered. Basically stay away from the Jarl in Whiterun. In fact, don't do the first quest for the MQ in Riverwood. The downside is you get no shouts until the MQ is in the first act.

3. You can purchase most houses without touching the MQ. Only one is not available to you, Solitude. The house in Whiterun may be a bit tricky to get while avoiding the Jarl, but it can be done.

Enemies are scaled to your level (within certain limits). If you concentrate on Smithing right away, you'll level up very fast and enemies will get stronger while your combat skills are still low. You need to find balance between your combat and non-combat skills. I don't know what level your character is now, but if you're only about 20 hours in you probably haven't had time to properly level up your weapon skill. With Smithing already over 50, I think you should lay it off for a while and focus on training one/two-handed.

You should also consider taking a follower with you, especially a mage. A Destruction expert with fire spells will be great against trolls might be good to shoot flying dragons too, but I don't know if they start off with any long-distance spells.

That information will definitely come in handy. If I start another play through I'll avoid the Whiterun quest until I'm ready for the random dragon encounters.

It's good to know that the majority of the house quests are not tied to the MQ so I can grab them as soon as they can be afforded. Thank you for the tips.

I think that is exactly what is happening. I really like the smithing mechanic in the game and when I saw how easy it was to mass produce iron daggers I was hooked but I haven't taken time to grind any of my combat skills yet because I'm not quite sure I know what to specialize in.

I'm not sure if I want to specialize in one-handed or archery. Sword and board was my preferred play style in Oblivion and I want to lean in that direction in Skyrim, but the dragons have me worried, if they are going to fly about and not get into melee range then I'm going to need eagle eye and steady hand to at least get thier attention. I'm also thinking of dual wielding, especially if there are more of those Trolls around a couple of swords with elemental enchantments should do the trick.

As for companions, so far I only have Lydia. So far she's a solid companion, but she didn't last very long either against the Troll. I want to enchant more as well but I haven't found a Soul Trap weapon that I can afford for disenchantment.

Trolls are very hard, especially at the beginning. When I was climbing High Hrothgar I ended up just sprinting past

Don't worry about dragons, if you don't use fast travel you'll barely ever see them (speaking from experience ). Just don't visit the Word Walls, they're always there.
Dragons will eventually land, but to fight them you'll need elemental resistances. There are some good shields that can help. Which standing stone are you using? I'd check out Atronach (for 50 pts. magic absorption) or Lord (for 50 armor and 25 magic resistance). Steed is usually recommended for a warrior, but you might find resistances more useful.

Shields are pretty powerful in Skyrim, both in defense and offense (bashing!). There's a Block perk that reduces fire, frost and shock damage by 50%. It might be just enough to change the stone to Steed so that you don't need to take Conditioning in Heavy Armor, freeing some points to put in Archery. I'd stick with sword&board as main and Archery as backup.

As for followers, the truth is any will do (lots of people keep Lydia for most of the game and are quite happy with that). But to maximize efficiency, you should probably find someone who has different skills than yours. Are you going to do the Companions questline? There's a great archer available as a follower as you progress.

Yeah, I was considering just sprinting past too. I guess we'll see. =p

I haven't gotten to the sanding stones yet. Right now I only have the Warrior stone activated to help train smithing.

You sure about that? On one of my characters I own 2 houses, Riften and Solitude... And I haven't even done the Bleak Fall Barrow quest.

You should also visit the http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Guardian_Stones and choose the one that suits you. The Warrior, Thief and Mage Stones are just a bit west of Riverwood, past the Embershard Mine. This will help level up your preferred skills.

I wouldn't worry about visiting other places. Skyrim, just like all TES games, beckons to be explored! Sure, if you want no random dragon attacks, follow the advice given here, don't talk to the Jarl of Whiterun. My current character reached level 40, before she started the Main Quest, because I missed the dragons LOL

Also, remember to use FIRE against Trolls. This will slow down their health regeneration. Make sure you have an enchanted fire weapon or a staff that does fire damage. A companion will come in handy as well, as suggested.

Oh and as for smithing, that's one of the first skills I also level up. Just make sure you go out and fight some bandits in between your Iron Dagger making bouts I usually stop over in Riverwood to help out around the forge and make some new gear. Then just go explore, do a few side quests, kick some bandit butt to level light armor and one handed and sneak, then go smith some more.

Just have fun! The world is your playground!

Edit: Solitude House: Yea, that has nothing to do with the MQ. This is all about Potema and helping people and doing Elisif a favor...

you might want to work on some distance battle skills, Archery, or Magic preferably, because when you start fighting Ancient Dragons and the like, trying to get within Mele Range (which is possible) is a terrible Idea. They can One Hit you by grabbing you between there Jaws and tossing you're lifeless body across the sky ;x.

Other lesser dragon's can usually be dispatched quite easily with Mele if you have the proper gear/fire resistance....but elder dragons and named dragons you might only wanna hit once or twice with Mele cuz it's too much of a risk. A few Elder Dragons have made me regret my decision of approaching for a killing blow while they had an invisible amount of health left lol

If you go assassin/sneak-thief you'll learn to solo. Tanks make noise. NOTE: you can run into dragons during travels if you happen on a dragon roost. So stick to the roads and don't do too much off road exploring like some folks here do...... notably this poster. But where's the sense of adventure? Come on! Enjoy yourself! I mean what's the worst that can happen? Death? There are worse things.

Frost trolls can be handled by fire..... remember that. Burn them. Then slice and dice.

Oh and there are worse things than frost trolls.... like Briarhearts -- think mage warriors on meth.

I was worried about that troll on my second character as a Khjit sneak-archer. I found a rock to jump up on and was able to snipe the troll a couple of times while my companion fought it. I had to take care not to hit the companion. I used a bow with fire damage and conjured something to help my follower. That troll is tough at low levels. They are around level 22 if the guide is correct.

OMG yes, Briarhearts! You ain't lying! LOL I always have several paralysis potions on me, when I enter a Forsworn camp, just because of that guy! I rather tangle with a Draugr Deathlord than with a Briarheart, seriously! LOL

And I agree, my assassin/shadow warrior only goes solo. Followers are too distracting and trip traps (hahahaha that sounds funny, trip traps lol)

Thanks for all the tips! I'm only 15 hours into my first playthrough, so I'll be starting a new one, just to put the Whiterun/Jarl MQ aside until I've gotten my training out of the way.

One thing I've discovered is that you get a free bed and some storage if you join the College of Winterhold, which is perfect because there's also mage vendor and a general store in the area to offload loot.

Can anyone suggest non-quest related areas that I can clean out for loot and attack skill grinding? I've been reading that if you start the wrong place too early it could potentially glitch some of the quests later on and would hate to train my skills all the way only to learn that I have to reload a save to avoid an area that I cleaned out entirely and completely redo what ever skills I may have been training. O.o

What race is your character? You may have a racial ability that could help you in a situation like this. Orc Berserk or Nord Battle Cry, for instance.

Trolls are susceptible to fire, if you can get a fire-enchanted weapon.

They also will usually dance around a bit before they approach to attack. Use the time wisely to pelt them with arrows or spells.

If all else fails, run.

If you picked a Redguard, just do what I did. Run. Then use Adrenaline Rush and Run some more. Be warned, it will keep up fairly well. Just spin around while waiting for stamina to regenerate and hit it with Unrelenting Force to stagger it, and buy an extra couple of seconds. If it follows you into High Hrothgar, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYCMTjkk_XE will happen.

This^

It doesn't matter if you have a 10,000 in smithing if you never wear the armor and swing the weapons you've made at an enemy' you're as feeble as the day you escaped Helgen. I'd encourage a start-over. But if not then make a ton of money and use trainers. Then go out and fight a bunch of skeevers and other similarly strengthed animals. But even then those animals are going to be levelled to you.

You can't smith a Draugr Deathlord to death. I dunno... maybe you could offer to build him a nice set of armor. He might appreciate that and let you go.

This is exactly what I did.

Don't worry about it. He doesn't follow you for very long.

You can avoid that troll by heading left just before the cleft he's in. A little climb around the hill, and you come back out on the path far enough past him that he doesn't aggro.

Well....If the troll keeps owning you do something different, the easiest way to kill big enemies is to take advantage of the area...or have about 100 health potions.