Wondering if anyone has tried this. I feel like until I get certain perks and spells, the combat is very boring. At least with a high level character, you get some novelty out of more interesting spells and perks. Leveling skills also just isn't fun for me, and the combat is lackluster enough that I wouldn't particularly care if I overpowered myself. It also would allow me to not worry about the level scaling.

I'm on PC so I could use the console to do this. Kind of tempting now that I think about it, anyone tried it?

No way! The whole fun is getting strong enough to get the perks. If you start out with everything , whats the sense of playing?

The game indeed does get better when you get to a high level. I waited until I was able to make a full set of Glass Armor before I started doing anything. Then in Bleak Falls Barrow, I met a Draugr Scourgelord in the last room. Much harder than a Draugr Overlord.

The only reason I would do that is to get the leveled quest items at the best possible level.

Why on earth would you think that? Combat on low levels tends to be more fun in fact. That's due to the fact that you can (or rather have to) use all your abilities and you can get closer to enemies. I find that on higher levels I can't get any enemy near me unless their health is already very low, but that's probably just my character, since I've created a light armoured dps.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I can't find a way to make the combat enjoyable until I'm fairly high level and can mess around with more powerful spells and perks. And getting high level magic skills is trivial anyway, just tedious. Problem is, other skills level much slower or involve a painful grind, so you have to kind of manage your progress along the way...it all just ends up a micro managing process that feels pointless since the combat is a joke regardless.

I play an archer/mage sort of character, can't stand the game's melee at all.

Well you could always use Placyer.IncPCS if you're on the PC to get the skills to the point you want them to be at.
But I don't see the fun in that, I like to see the progress of my character, and starting out that high is just boring, nothing to look forward to.
Hell I ended my wood elf character cause she reached 100 in the skills she used and had the best possible gear she could craft.

Experiencing the actual game would be something to look forward to, rather than worrying about leveling skills up. Skill progress isn't very even, at least the way I play, so I often have to power level some to keep up with others. Plus, certain magic skills I only take for certain high level spells, and they're not worth much until I hit certain levels in them(conjuration for bound bow, for example, since I don't smith).

I'd just use advskill # though, levels them naturally so you gain perks.

Perhaps if there was a way to create a lvl 80 char and from the beginning. Soon as you escape helgen you could have 80 lvls worth of unspent class and perk points. Then you could template your new char from the start. But after doing that you would no longer be able to lvl up any other skills. You would be done, so if you didnt invest any points in lockpick in your template, it will be stuck at the starting value and never raise no matter how many locks you pick.

I think this would kill any challenge from the start though unless all the mobs lvls and attributes were rescaled. If not a lvl 80 walking out of helgen would be unstoppable and you would probably stop playing after an hour.