I wanted to try this playstyle out and wanted advice for; perks, skills, quests, shouts, weapons, enchantments, and armor. Anything and everything is welcome advice.

My suggestion is that your Sword and Board Nord use a Nord Sword

I'd say health is more important than stamina, I'd raise health 2:1 compared to stamina, because you're using 1hand. Smith iron daggers and get some smithing perks, at least up to Advanced armors, and of course, get the 1 hand perks that raise damage and add chances for critical hits. Then buff up your armor and weapons of choice

Shouts are a personal preference, but Ice Form is good for tying up enemies while you concentrate on one at a time, for a little while at least. Unrelenting Force is useful and satisfying, as your foes go flying about

enchantments...I;m messing with the Fear enchantment for weapons and its good and bad. I'd go with a small amount of absorb health instead, if I were you- 5 or 10 points. It adds up while you're landing blows, and the charge cost per hit is low

I was thinking going heavy armor any input?

A sword and board Nord would likely benefit from increased defense of the standing stone Lord. Against wizards it's hard to beat Spellbreaker's ward, and a stamina absorbing weapon will bring great reward when taking on a horde.

Stamina absorb with a Nord sword as a great reward with a sword and board Nord, in other words.

I'm sort of unhappy I made that rhyming connection but it was irresistable

Oh, lord, you must be bored.

Select race nord on character creation, use sword and shield.

Of course! Why didn't I think of that?!

I see what you did there. Haha.

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#23849 should provide you with a solid perk base.

Tips:

• Don't invest in the Heavy Armor tree if you'll be using a Shield all game. You'll easily hit the armor cap of 567 (displayed) by Smithing your own armor.
  
• Shield Charge is really buggy. Stay away from it.
  
• Don't use Fortify Blocking enchants. Block % is capped at 85%. Hide Shields have a base Blocking % of 50 which increases for Shields of higher quality material. Hide Shield + 1/5 Shield Wall brings you up to 70% Blocking mitigation; you'll easily reach the cap simply by improving your gear as you level, so any further +Blocking % ends up being a waste.

And the best food ingredient to collect?

A gourd.

Free sweetrolls for the Sergeant!

How do people feel about the damage output of a sword & board character? I tried one briefly after playing a 2-hand user, and it didn't feel anywhere near as powerful. That kind of makes sense, but it put me right off the character.

I messed with it but doesn't suit me. It isn't as strong. I prefer dual wielding and/or two handed weapons. The shield perks are great but I'm no fan of damage reduction.

If you perk all three crafting trees correctly for godlike armor and weapons, it's possible to 3-shot Alduin with a Daedric War Axe + Shield. You can be as powerful as you want to make yourself.

I guess it just takes a little while to show. Same thing with the 2-handers defenses.

How much of that damage is done by shield bashing? I was never very clear on how I should be spending my stamina, especially considering that actively blocking attacks drains it.

Well, sure. But the journey to that point is wrought with lackluster damage output.

At least from this nord's point of view.

From a pure DPS perspective, whether you should be Bashing or Power Attacking depends on the quality of your One Hander. Shield Bash scales poorly, so assuming your gear is of decent quality, Power Attacking should take precedence.

Vegetable Soup or a Drain Stamina (1) enchant on your One Hander should solve all your Stamina problems in combat. You only need 1 Stamina to perform a Power Attack.

True. Shield < 2h < DW for damage output. I was merely pointing out that one can easily achieve virtually any combination of mitigation and damage output (up to the caps) with a Shield, 2h, or DW, and given how easy it is to level up the crafting professions, one should generally chose the mode of combat one finds most entertaining or aesthetically pleasing.

I believe you have your inequalities in reverse.

Thanks for the input. For some reason I was under the impression that your power attack would be weaker with only 1 point of stamina. That must be holdover thinking from the old games.

Given the Bash scaling, would the Power and Deadly Bash perks actually be worth it by the time you get to them?

I would still take those perks, but they're not strictly necessary. Shield Bash offers utility beyond its damage; it staggers the opponent, thereby interrupting enemy Power Attacks, spell, etc. You'll still be bashing frequently; you just shouldn't be prioritizing it over standing Power Attack.

Started a sword and board nord a couple days ago... no joke, he's awesome. I wasn't sure I'd like shield bash as much as I do but it's a sure fire way to stagger pretty much anything, comes in quite handy against giants. The power bash is pretty much a solid 'drop the enemy to their knees' hit though I don't use it all that often. The quick reflexes perk is also pretty fun since time slows down when the enemy power attacks, makes it easy to bash to interrupt them.

I decided I'm not gonna do smithing since I want to have some kind of a challenge, I'll just use whatever I find. As of now I'm wearing elven armor with a dwarven sword and and elven shield, loving it so far just hit lvl 23

My last sword and board character was insanely strong once you get some blocking perks.

Slow time while blocking power attacks is required. Combine that with the perk that lets you move faster while blocking. Now you can sidestep at regular speed while blocking. You'll punk giants with this skill. Get the reduced elemental damage perk and the basic shield bash for stagger/interrupt.

Pick up spellbreaker and toss on some resist boots and you'll be sitting in elder dragon breath attacks and yawning at dragon priests.

I used dawnbreaker because I liked the sword, but you can do whatever you want. If you have extra perks you can pick up the damage increase for shield bash but I wouldn't rely on its damage.

When anything starts to wind up some big hurt just shield bash, slash, slash, block and repeat.

When you have to catch a dragon priest or high level Mage block up with spell breaker and run them down while blocking and full speed. Shield bash to interrupt and lay into them.

I would recommend you avoid crafting personally, but its your call, It tends to trivialize everything. At around level 30-35 I think I stopped playing him due to my character ADHD, but he was very powerful and fun to play. I never had another character who can run down a dragon priest casting fireballs like no tomorrow and kick his teeth in without breaking a sweat.