Ok, I am so perplexed as how to rectify this. I have had skyrim since launch, and i have made 2 lvl 40+ characters, and like 4 lvl 30+ characters. I want to have a character 50+ but I get so confused later on as to what i did right and wrong. I know I should just play the game, adept and expert are getting easy for me, and master is still too hard. Now when i start a new character on adept, i keep thinking why didnt i do master, like alot of people. I know it sounds stupid, but I just want one character i can be happy with and lvl until 50 or 60. I have only seen about 80% of skyrim, and I still haven't gotten half of the daedric quests. What can i do to get into my next character??? I also go from vanilla, to modded, back to vanilla, then to modded. I keep thinking i am cheating with mods, but they add alot. i dunno. I am losing my mind. Someone calm me down and tell me i am normal with rolling all these characters, lmao. I really just want to find one character to bond with. I keep rushing through quests to get shouts, rushing my crafting to get better gear. I am defeating the purpose of a game like this. Should i delete all my previous characters and make this one my one i stick with? I know you guys are probably gonna flame me, but if anyone could give me some advice other than "just play slower", or "explore". I have done that stuff.

Deep and meaningful background story helps (write it down, don't just imagine it). Well, that's what cured my restartitis. You can read my current character's story linked in my sig for ideas. Notice how I wrote an RP excuse to use a long bow for the whole game, so I wouldn't be one-shotting everything later on.

Well, i've done a lot of restarting myself. My restarting comes mainly from

a.) Racial skill bonuses don't quite match my envisioned character.
b.) I like to do a little of this, and a little of that. A fully specilized skill set makes me bored.
c.) had to find the playstyle that best suites me.


So what i ended up doing was making a batch file to change the racial bonus stats to my envisioned character (after entering the keep after escaping the dragon at the start of the game), but doing so, with enough self restraint to keep the skill bonses on par for what the game normally gives out. For example, I made a nord with + 10 shield, +5 heavy armor, one handed, smithing, archery, and speech. I included archery because I like to use bows, but not at the exclusion of all else like a sneaky archer type. (This site helps with pek planning: http://skyrimcalculator.com/ ) That brings up play style. I've found that for myself, I prefer a shield warrior, with some archery. Shield use, feels more tactical, more involved. It feels the least like a one trick pony.

As mods go, my thought is to only change what annoys. Small mods that address specific things, and leave everything else alone. Low foot print. As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I have restartitus too but when 1.4 is released, Im gonna play through the end.

Mmm, I can relate... to an extent... and have some advice from personal experience with this and other RPGs. Follow these steps!

1) Backup and then delete all your current saves. Lump them all into one zip file and store it somewhere out-of-the-way. Skyrim is now new and fresh.
2) STOP PLAYING. Go at least one day without Skyrim. Spend some of that day thinking about your new character. Who is s/he? What is s/he? What was s/he doing when s/he got arrested by the Imperials and put on that cart with Ulfric?
3) Start your new character, and roleplay it. Don't think "next I need to go there to get that quest", but instead think "what would I [as the new character] do next?" and do that.

Have fun!

i was like that, now i just do 2 or 3 quests per day, i set some rulles not to rush on to the game

first i set down what i liked the most about my first gameplays if iwas going to be a archer or a 1h or a 2h or whatever then i seted up a back ground for my toon, most rewarding for me was mitigating fast travel no fast travel at all no mather what i was loosing a ton of content fast traveling everywhere this helped me alot seeing the game with another eyes

LOL, our experiences with Skyrim are very similar, it's comforting to know I am not the only one. I have had a few 40+ characters that I end up deleting with the intent of really immersing myself in the game with the next character, but each time I get so svcked up in the character development that I forget that I had wanted to enjoy the ride. I have finally resigned myself to play three characters with completely different, and specific, skill concepts and differing moral schemas for the nerd RP'r in me. The hope is that between the three characters I will experience the entirity of the game, rather than trying to demolish the game content with one character. I also planned each character's skills around an end goal of level 44 or so, so I won't feel obligated to continue with a character past the content I wish to experience with that character.

Not much in the way of advice, but this is my plan to get over my particular restartitis.

I made a new character with the intent of just roaming the land . I don't concern myself with what perks I will put where , like I did with my others characters just to make them more powerful . I am taking the minimalistic approach with this play through .I don't concern myself with the right way or wrong way to build this character , I try to find a good balance using what perk points I have and not just dump them all in one tree . For the most part its enjoyable , all though being a mortal svcks at timesthe thrill of being killable provides me with a better experience this time . I to use mods to raise the difficulty , add pretties and such but it adds to my immersion during the journey , I don't cheat with console commands however ... though to be honest I want to when I get owned or am forced to flee . But it the experience while maddening at times is alot better .

Imo finding a character personality you enjoy is far more important to sticking with a character than anything else. I played around with a few lowbies to get a feel for the different playstyles, but it took a girly-girl orc to tickle my funnybone and make it stick. I didn't make her utterly ridiculous...I still have that "Omg, I'm so cool" moment from time to time...but I get my fair share of giggles watching her clomp around in a dress and lipgloss, too.

I'd advise against going completely on the good or evil scale. A character with nuances is far more fun than a Mary Sue or a "MUST KILL EVERYONE FOR NO REASON" type. Maybe it's an assassin with a moral code, or a megalomaniac with a soft spot for animals, or a paladin with a drinking problem, or a coward who avoids combat at all costs.

Whatever it takes to keep you entertained on that level. You should know by now what suits you from a mechanics point of view.


Edited because I forgot a word. :B

One thing i forgot to mention, and it really works for me. Try not using fast travel, and don't go through your quest journal methodically. What i mean is, what i would normally do is go, "OK. Have to go to X to do Y". So, if i had already found the palce, id just fast travel to it, do the dungeon, then fast travel back to hand in the quest, then start a new quest. There are a lot of quests. If I hadn't found the place, id just take a horse or run there straight and ignore everything else along the way thinking, "ill get to it later".

Instead of that, try not fast traveling. Go there on foot. Forget the horse, their annoying anyway. Don't travel to your quest with a single minded purpose. Instead. Allow yourself to wander. If you find, or see something along the way, explore it instead of thinking, "i'll get to it later". If you uncover a new quest, then allow youself to get sidetracked, but keeping your original goal in mind. Then, eventually, meander your way back on foot. What i find, is that if i can stick to that, my journey to a quest starts to feel more like some epic story from greek or norse literature.

I have this of the worst caliber as well. I only restart because I think of different classes and builds to use that seem fun to roleplay.

Restarting new characters is really fun. I have a hard time contiuing to play my higher level characters. I wish I could slow down the early level levelling so all the early stuff lasted longer.

yea I can't wait I been stuck on a quest for so long and Patch 1.4 going to fix so happy but I may make another xharacter after the patch I don't know yet.

I have one character at a lvl 66 and am waiting on the 1.4 patch to continue. I made a new character ( currently at a lvl 33) and even though I'm following my same "blueprint" for my character, I'm taking a different path doing different quests and answering the questions from the NPC's differently leading me in a whole new direction. The game has taken on a whole new feel and I'm loving it. This is my first Elder Scrolls but I've watched my kids and even my wife play Obilvion for years. Can't wait for the DLC and hope it's some of the III and IV quests and maps.

I restart characters when i realize i totally screwed up their perks, or they don't look right. The CC is really misleading i think, characters look better when your creating them then when you actually play them, i've started probably 20 different characters just because i couldn't get them to look the way i wanted... ughhh Dark elves are the worst, i'm thinking about restarting my lvl 37 just because he looks like to much of an A**hole.

thanks for all the input!! What about difficulty? i feel like i am being apansy on adept because everyone brags about master being easy. etc/. i keep wanting to restart and play master, but is it fun??

Yeah, I gotta suggest more than that. I'd say go about a week without playing. I hate to suggest that somebody not play a game when the suggestion comes on that game's official forums, but you're obsessing a bit. I'm not being sarcastic when I say this, but perhaps you've got a touch of mild OCD, depending upon why you have "restartitis". Are you thinking that you've done something wrong with the character by level 40 - as in, "this isn't how I wanted the characer to turn out"? That seems a little neat-freak-ish to me; nothing in life is perfect, including an RPG character. There might be the odd wasted or mistaken perk choice here or there, but so what? Don't let that bother you.

On the other hand, perhaps you're just getting tired of any given character by level 40, and you're feeling the itch to try something different. That's perfectly normal, and frankly I think it would be odd if you didn't. I really don't believe in trying to do all or even most of the game with a single character. Finish the main quest with each, sure, but not all characters would do all quests. My current character is a level 43 Nord Warrior-type. One-handed, block, heavy armor and smithing are all being concentrated on, with a couple perks in archery and a single perk in Restoration just to make my healing more effective. So, a warrior with a little practical knowledge of the magic he's most likely to need - healing. I'm gonna finish the Companions quests, then probably head into completing the main quest. Haven't touched the Civil War with this guy, not doing any Daedric quests, and of course no Dark Brotherhood or Thieves' Guild. Was doing a quest about a wizard's amulet (won't give any spoilers) until I found out to finish it I'd have to go do a quest that my character would never do.

So while he's explored all the major and minor cities, I've probably done most of the quests that I wanna do with this character.

Next up is gonna be a sort of warrior-necromancer-fire mage-magic item-making dude. Sauron Jr., I keep calling him. One-handed, heavy armor, smithing, enchanting, Destruction (fire only) and Necromantic Summoning. I think the term I've heard is "Death Knight", although I think maybe that originated with Warcraft 3. Possibly a little more spread out than the first Viking, but no archery, sneaking, other magic schools or anything else to dilute the concept any. Oh, and Daedric armor as soon as I can. As some have said, Daedric looks like it belongs on a heavy metal album cover, or possibly the cover of Heavy Metal magazine, circa the late seventies, and it would make no sense for my Viking, who's rocking the Steel Plate armor and an Ancient Nord Helmet, but it'll be perfect for ol' Sauron Jr. (I really gotta think of a real name.)

And after the second character, I'll probably play some sort of stealth-oriented character, possibly an illusionist-thief, since I have yet to play that sort of character in an RPG, but I don't have any idea about him beyond that.

So try that: Don't work to stick with a given character for too much of the game. You want to experience all of the game, but you don't need to experience it all in one playthrough, and playing part of the game with one character, and part of the game with another will keep it fresh.

I think Master level only ends up being easy if you work the enchanting-smithing-alchemy loop to create uber-weapons.

I'm even worse, no character I've had has gone past level 25.
In my a bit less than 100 hours I have 7 characters.

Who cares what other people are doing with their single-player game? If you find you're not being challenged, up the difficulty. If you still feel like foes present a challenge, why bump it up?

You could try stuff like turning off your HUD and not using the map or fast traveling; Try to navigate your way around by the sun and landmarks. Or just wait for mods and DLCs - An OOO type overhaul has the potential to totally change the game.

Roleplaying will really help the OP out. If you hit the right character and backstory it plays out beautifully.

OCD is exactly what causes my restartitis.

I always have restartitis for very OCD'ish reasons. My reasons in Skyrim:

My favorite race is a Breton.
My favorite build is Conjuration, Illusion, Dual Wielding, Heavy Armor, Enchanting, and Smithing, with some dabbling in Alteration and Restoration.

You'd think it's as easy as playing a Breton with that build, right?

Wrong.

Not for me and my OCD.

See, I'm basing my race and build off of a character of my own fiction - a character where the Illusion doesn't really fit. The concept of sneaking around in shadows, using Illusion spells to essentially mind control enemies, that doesn't fit my character.

It -does- fit another character of mine, however, a character that would be a Wood Elf.

So just play the Wood Elf, right?

But I like the Bretons best. To the point that I'm not really interested in playing anything else.

So that's where my OCD kills me. Play my Breton, even though the build isn't totally "in character" to what I'm basing the character on, or create another character that fits "the build" better, but means I'm playing a race (and thus, an RP) that I don't want to play?

And my OCD won't let me just compromise, and just play a Breton that's -not- based on my fictional creation.

I have a rather severe case of restartitis myself, as I spend way too much time testing various specs and taking notes for later use in mods. I haven't started any in a while, though, mostly because I've been extensively playing my second long-term character, but also because I've been waiting for the CK to come out so that I can make said mods before making any more characters.

As far as difficulty goes, i play on expert now and find it still challenging. But i also limit myself so i don't get too powerful. LIke i when i equiped a ring and amulet and gloves all enchanted to my one hand ability, i found myself able to one or two hit and kill just about everything. So i got new gauntlets with a different enchantment, and wear a amulet of Talos instead. So while i'm still a powerful warrior, i'm not feeling way too powerful.